The Holy Prophet (God’s greetings be upon him and his household) says, “Allah the Almighty said, ‘Oh son of Adam, all of you will go astray except for those whom I guide and all of you will be needy except for those whom I render free of needs and wants and all of you will be ruined except for those whom I save. Therefore, call on me so that I satiate your needs and guide you into the path of guidance.’” [from a hadith by Imam Ridha (greetings be upon him)]*
“All of you will go astray except for those whom I guide”
The long, honorable, gilded and enlightened chain of the narrators of this hadith reaches the point where Allah the Exalted addresses the likes of us, saying that if there is no divine guidance and divine assistance and if it does not attract our hearts and our minds towards the truth, all of us will go astray.
God says to His Messenger, “And He found you wandering, and He gave you guidance” [The Holy Quran, 93: 7]. There is a dua which says, «Oh God, it was Your light which guided me towards You. Therefore, praise be to our Lord” [Misbah al-Tahajjud, Vol.1, page 366]. If it were not for divine light, divine guidance and the instructions of God Almighty, we would be wandering in the land of awe and darkness. So, what should we do? We should ask Allah the Exalted to guide us. This is one of the most important prayers.
It is the month of Rajab now and after that, the months of Sha’ban and Ramadan will arrive. These are the months of praying. One of the prayers that you and I should recite is asking God for His guidance. If divine guidance is taken away from us for one moment, then we might set foot in the wrong path and deviate from the straight path. We might even change 180 degrees. As you can see, there are such instances. Therefore, divine guidance prevents such deviations.
“And all of you will be needy except for those whom I render free of needs and wants”
All of you are needy except for those whom I enrich. Prosperity should be sought through Allah the Exalted as well. One should not knock on the door of this and that in order to achieve prosperity. We should learn not to run after this and that for the sake of prosperity. Sometimes, people follow others hoping to achieve prosperity, but they neither obtain their kindness nor achieve prosperity. Moreover, they will lose the light of towhid that Allah the Exalted has placed in the hearts of humans. This is another point.
“And all of you will be ruined except for those whom I save”
If I do not save you, all of you will fall into the abyss of destruction.
“Therefore, call on me so that I satiate your needs and guide you into the path of guidance”
The conclusion is that we should ask God for things and pray to Him. This is an invitation to prayer. We should not downplay the importance of prayer. We should not underestimate the significance of making requests to Allah the Exalted. And you should do your best to say prayers and to make requests to God in an environment where there is a good feeling and where the ground is prepared for supplication.
There is a dua which says, “There is no salvation on Your part unless if we supplicate before You.” We should be able to supplicate. Supplication before Allah the Exalted is very precious. If you supplicate before Allah the Exalted, you will be able to raise your head before false powers and the false manifestations of power and refuse to supplicate before them. If we do not supplicate before God, then we will feel weak before false powers and we will feel that we should be asking them for help.
God says that He can protect us against the calamities that might come our way. He says that we should refer to Him so that He can guide us. This is an invitation to prayer. In the Holy Quran as well, we have been invited to pray and to make requests to God. This has been mentioned in numerous prayers as well. This narration also speaks about the same matter.
* Al-Amali. Tusi, Muhammad bin Hasan, p. 166, Qom, Dar al-Thaqafa, 1414 AH.