An Advice about Requesting Prayers

Hazrat Musleh Mau’ud (may Allah be pleased with him) once pointed out an erroneous tradition regarding prayer requests. He said: “People in our Jama’at have adapted a habit that when they meet they casually request each other for prayers and move forward. Neither, the one who is requesting prayers has firm faith in his heart that the other will definitely pray for him nor does it catches the listener’s attention. It has become just like a ritual or a tradition; as when people see each other and ask about their well-being, similarly these people, like any other tradition, request each other for prayers.

Now, if we continue it just like a tradition then gradually the grandeur of the prayer will diminish. Always request only such people for prayers who you believe will definitely pray, and do not request for prayers to those who you believe will not pray, so that the grandeur of prayer may not decrease in the hearts of people. And the one who has been requested for prayers, it is incumbent upon him to pray, whatever way one can, either by name or collectively for all those who have requested them for prayers. One cannot remember everything; especially, those who are being requested for prayers by hundreds, they cannot remember everyone’s name. For them there is a way that whenever one is asked to pray, he should pray then and there. (Friday sermon, Nov. 3, 1945)