With What Intention Should One Supplicate

Question

Everything is from Allah. So [may] one supplicate merely with this intention: what will happen is only what Allah Most High wills, but we have been commanded to ask, so let us ask; His giving is His grace; if we do not receive, then in that is sheer joy, and if we receive, we should give thanks. How is such a view?

Answer

Although this thought is correct in itself, there is a kind of self-sufficiency (istighna’) in it. Therefore one should supplicate in this way: “The need is great, Master — You alone fulfil the need,” and also keep in one’s heart: if there is wisdom (maslaha) in not giving, then I am content with that too, and, Allah the Pure, my heart is at rest in that very thing.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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