Supplication Is the Bond That Cannot Be Allowed to Break

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 14 September 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

At the end of Sūrat al-Furqān there is a verse that, whenever I pass over it, shakes my standing in prayer: ﴿قُلْ مَا يَعْبَأُ بِكُمْ رَبِّي لَوْلَا دُعَاؤُكُمْ فَقَدْ كَذَّبْتُمْ﴾ ("Say, 'My Lord would not care for you were it not for your supplication. But you have denied'")^[1]. And in reflecting on this meaning you see that Allah, Blessed and Exalted, warns in very strong terms. Imagine what He warns you of! He warns you that He will lift His care from you, and then you have no refuge but to rely upon Him, Glorified is He. So imagine that my Lord, Glorified is He, is speaking to me with His words: «لولا دعاؤكم» ("were it not for your supplication").

The Bond That Remains

The close tie that remains connecting the servant and Allah is the continuation of supplication. It is as though my Lord, Glorified is He, is telling me that the possibility of corruption, error, transgression, giving way or negligence are all matters that are possible. In the same context is His saying, Exalted is He: ﴿وَمَن يَفْعَلْ ذَٰلِكَ يَلْقَ أَثَامًا﴾ ("and whoever does that will meet a penalty"), meaning that there is a possibility that there are people who call upon another god along with Allah, and kill the soul which Allah has forbidden except by right, and commit unlawful sexual intercourse. These are possibilities. But the thing that is not possible is that the connection of supplication with the Lord of the worlds, Glorified and Exalted, be severed.

Why? Because supplication is the remaining bond that ties the heart, in the origin of its natural disposition, to the response of the Lord of the worlds to you at different levels. So He, Glorified and Exalted, says: «قل» ("Say"), that is, in a direct conveyance of what is meant to reach the people: ﴿قُلْ مَا يَعْبَأُ بِكُمْ رَبِّي لَوْلَا دُعَاؤُكُمْ فَقَدْ كَذَّبْتُمْ﴾ ("Say, 'My Lord would not care for you were it not for your supplication. But you have denied'").

The System of Ethics and the Thing That Is Not Possible

And before this verse is the system of ethics that we know and always speak about, a system that spoke of people who fear Allah, Blessed and Exalted, and fear the Hereafter and are wary of the outcome, and who pass among people aware of the dimensions of what they do and its effects, and who wish for themselves and their offspring a sound future of faith. And in the system of ethics there are possibilities of error, as we mentioned, but the thing that is not possible is that the tongue be cut off from supplicating the Lord of the worlds.

It is as though Allah, Blessed and Exalted, Glorified, High in His majesty, spreads out for you of provision what moves you to thank Him and to supplicate more, and spreads out for you of trial what moves you to patience and to supplicate more. So supplication is what is required in all circumstances.

A Prophet Whose Every Situation Contains Supplication

And so you see that for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ there is no situation in his life but that he is supplicating Allah, Blessed and Exalted, in it, even when he begins eating by saying «بسم الله» ("In the name of Allah"), which is a kind of supplication. He leaves his house, he enters his house, he is with his family, even in the lavatory. So the continuity of the tongue in the constancy of remembrance with the Lord of the worlds, Glorified and Exalted, is the path to the permanence of the connection from Allah to you.

I ask Allah not to cut our tongues off from His remembrance, and not to cut our hearts off from connection with Him. O Allah, amen.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Furqān, verse 77. The remainder of the verse is: ﴿فَسَوْفَ يَكُونُ لِزَامًا﴾ [al-Furqān: 77], and the speaker did not pronounce the whole of the remainder in the transcription. The phrase after it, "ومن يفعل ذلك يلق أثامًا", is from verse 68 of the same surah.