Mohammed and Islam

MUHAMMED, the founder of Islam, lived in Arabia during the late 6th and early 7th centuries.

A. During Muhammad's lifetime, Arabia was populated, for the most part, by desert nomads separated into hundreds of warring tribes.

B. Some permanent settlements existed near oases. These settlements included the caravan towns of Medina and Mecca.

C. Although the Arabs were predominantly pagan, worshipping many gods (including one known as Allah), some Christians and Jews lived in Arabia.

II. During his lifetime, Muhammad brought monotheism to a predominantly pagan region and, thereby, united various Arab tribes in a single comnunity of monotheistic faith.

A. Muhammad was born between 570 and 580. He was a merchant from Mecca and lived comfortably, in part because of his marriage to his favorite wife, a wealthy widow.

B. Circa 610, Muhammad began to experience visions. After agonizing soul searching, he decided that these visions were religious revelations given to him by God. After Muhammad's death, his followers recorded the revelations in a written book, the Koran.

C. Muhammad shared his revelations with the inhabitants of Mecca, where the town's wealthier citizens grew hostile to him.

D. In 622, Muhammad left Mecca to take up residence in Medina, where he became the town's leader. This is the year from which the Muslim calendar is reckoned.

The Qaaba, containting the black stone, a muslim relic venerated as part of the Mecca Pilgrimage. Probably a meteroric rock, much damaged and repaired throughout Muslim history. Traditions include: (1) it was dropped by an angel; (2) dates from the time of Adam and Eve; (3) has the power of absorbing sin; (4) veneration by kising is "not idolatry".

E. In 630, he and his followers captured Mecca itself Muhammad died only two years later, in 632.

F. At his death, Muhammad left behind an Arabia substantially united by its newfound belief in Islam, - the Umma, "believers" - a monotheist religion maintaining that Allah was the only true God, similarities to Judaism and Christianity suggest some context with both religions.

G. Muhammad taught that Islam (meaning "submission"—submission to God) was NOT SO MUCH NEW RELIGION as the ultimate fulfillment of Judaism and Christianity.

1. Through Abraham and Jesus of Nazareth, God had revealed himself to mankind, but those earlier revelations had been partial and incomplete.

2. Muhammad also taught that Abraham had been the first Muslim and that Jesus of Nazareth was a great prophet but not a divine being—rather, Jesus was wholly human.

3. Muhammad claimed to be the last and greatest of God's prophets.

III. Upon the death of Muhammad, Arabs attacked their neighbors and created a vast empire, the House of Islam, reaching from Spain to India. Their speed was astonishing.

A. By 651, the Arabs had conquered the Persian Empire and, by the 690s, rnuch of the Byzantine Empire. They failed, however, to capture Constantinople itself. (unsuccessfully besieged in 674 and 717)

B. Arab success was a result of the exhaustion of their rivals, the Arabs' ability to operate in the desert, and the tremendous confidence and enthusiasm that Muhammad had given to the Arabs, whom Allah had chosen to be the recipients of his final revelation.

Byzantine Empire suffering population-devastation from outbreak of bubonic plague

Element of surprise - No one expected divided Arab tribes to challenge empires the size of Persia or Byzantium

Arabs able to function in hostile environment: attacked from desert where no fortifications were found

Expansion tends to stop when encounter environments radically different from Arabia (i.e. Northern France)

Most important factor was religious zeal overcoming long-standing myth of inferiority. During the conquest of the Persian Empire, Ambassador remarked:

Now the Arab tribes have confidence that God intends them to accomplish great things.

C. During the 8th and 9th centuries, Arab scholars developed the concept of JIHAD to explain and justify the Arab conquests that had taken place following Muhammad's death.

Term originally meant "striving" [against military enemies or temptations] occurs in Quran only four times - does not always refer to military action in early texts.

Theory developed when it appeared that Islam would conquer whole world:

1. According to the 8th- and 9th-century definitions of jihad, it was necessary for the House of Islam to bring Islamic law throughout the entire world, imposing it upon the dar-al-Harb, or House of War (i.e., non-Islamic lands). Muslims must strive to bring the entire world into a single Islamic state [by absorbing the House of War] into a unity that would mirror the perfect unity of the monotheist God.

2. Jihad, therefore, aimed at a political and legal unification, but not at [complete] religious unification. Other monotheists could practice Judaism and Christianity (with certain restrictions) within the House of Islam (must not prosyletize). Christians and Jews (unlike pagans) should not be converted forcibly. Pagans are to be given the choice of conversion or death.

This was a religious duty on all Muslim rulers who were forbidden to live in peace with non-Muslim nations. Truces could be signed for periods of only ten years, following which war must be undertaken.

Those who die fighting on behalf of this goal were[/are] regarded as martyrs.

Special tax - Jiziah - is collected from Jews and Christians; in many regions conversion to Islam by Christians and Jews was discouraged to maintain tax revenue.

3. Ironically, the theory of jihad developed as actual Arab expansion subsided. With slowing of expansion treaties extended beyond ten years, and after early eighth century became "dead letter" but could be revived when necessary, as during Crusades.

4. Islam's early acceptance and Christianity's late acceptance of holy war can best be explained in terms of the historical context in which those two religions emerged.

IV. The expansion of the House of Islam had important consequences for Europe itself.

A. Between 711 and 716, Arabs and North Africans conquered most of Visigothic Spain, leaving only a few small Christian kingdoms in the mountanous and relatively poor north.

B. For a brief period in the early 8thi century, Arabs conquered parts of southern Francia. However, Franks, under the leadership of Charles Martel, a member of the Carolingian family, defeated an Arab army at the Baffle of Poitiers in 732, checking Arab expansion north of the Pyrenees.

C. Arabs conquered Sicily and much of southern Italy in the Wh century. They were finally driven from southern Italy in 915 by an army of Byzantine, papal, and Italian forces.

ISLAM (i.e. ‘submission’, usually understood as submission to the will of God), the religion preached by Muhammad (prob. c.570–632), the adherent of which is called a Muslim. Islam is the religion of the majority of the population of the northern half of Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Papua-New Guinea. There are substantial Muslim minorities in several European countries, Russia and the successor states of the former USSR in the Caucasus and Central Asia, India, and China.

Muslim doctrine is derived from the interpretation of the Koran (or Qur˒ān) and the ‘Sunna’, i.e. ‘established practice’, a body of tradition which records the actions and sayings of the Prophet and the first four ‘Rightly Guided’ caliphs. Muslim law or ‘Sharia’ derives from the reform by early jurists of existing legal practice in line with the Koran and Sunna. Islam contains Arabian, Jewish, Christian, Gnostic, and other elements, and the extent to which these were incorporated during the lifetime of the Prophet in Arabia or during the subsequent three centuries in the lands of the Arab conquests is a matter of scholarly debate. The central dogmas of Islam are the absolute unity of God (Allah) and the prophethood of Muhammad.

The chief Islamic practices are

[1] confession of the unity of God and the mission of Muhammad,

[2] ritual prayer practised five times a day,

[3] alms-giving,

[4] fasting during the month of Ramadan, and

[5] pilgrimage to Mecca.

Among a wide variety of sects, two main branches stand out. Both the Sunnites and the Shiites accept the authority of the Sunna,

but the Sunnites also recognize the possibility of appeal to the ‘Ijma’ (i.e. the consensus of believers) and an interpretative tradition which is regarded as having been closed since the 9th cent. and can no longer be added to. The Ijma is represented and interpreted by the ‘Ulama’ or religious scholars.

The Shiites originally comprised those who recognized the sole right to the caliphate of Ali, the nephew and son-in-law of Muhammad (Shiite from Ar. ‘Shia Ali’, the party of Ali), and they came to believe that the Sunna was not sufficient but must be constantly reinterpreted by an authoritative spokesman of divine will, i.e. Ali and his descendants, the true ‘Imam,’ or by his representatives or ‘Mujtahids’. The number of Imams may be reckoned as seven or twelve according to the sect, and some, including the followers of the Aga Khan, hold that the succession of Imams is perpetual and still operative today.

Mysticism plays a large part in Islam, and the ‘Sufis’ aim, by spiritual and bodily ascesis, at achieving direct apprehension of God and ultimately total submerging of self in the Divine. Since the demise of the Abbasid caliphate in 1258, the Ulama and the Sufis have constituted the main sources of religious authority in Islam.

Islam is seen as the aboriginal religion, from which both Judaism and Christianity are deviations. At several periods of history God has sent prophets, the first of whom was Adam, and the last Muhammad: Abraham, Moses and Jesus are all recognized. God made a covenant with Abraham, awarding his descendants through Hagar’s son Ishmael (i.e. the Arabs) the status of a chosen people. Muhammad’s mission was to lead the Arabs and, perhaps, all mankind, back to the aboriginal ‘religion of Abraham’. In Muslim belief, Jesus, though born of a virgin, is created and not begotten; his crucifixion was only apparent (cf. Docetism). In the E., Christian writers, e.g. St John of Damascus, reacted promptly to the rise of Islam with anti-Muslim polemic, but others were conciliatory, e.g. Timothy I (780–823), Patriarch of the Church of the East, author of so-called Parable of the Pearl, a Syriac apology for Christianity in the form of a debate with the Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi (775–85). W. scholars first took an interest in Islam and Arabic learning in 10th-cent. Spain, e.g. Gerbert of Aurillac (Sylvester II), and in 11th- to 13th-cent. Spain and S. Italy, mathematical, astronomical, and medical texts were translated from Arabic. But it was not until the Crusades that W. scholars took an interest in Islam itself. The translations of Islamic texts, sponsored by Peter the Venerable and others, and the commentaries that they provoked constituted the principal source of informed knowledge of Islam. From the 12th cent., Islamic logic and metaphysics, e.g. the writings of Avempace, Averroes, and Avicenna, exercised a profound influence on W. philosophers and theologians, e.g. R. Bacon and St Thomas Aquinas, and the universities of Bologna, Oxford, Paris, Rome, and Salamanca all had chairs of Arabic. During the Renaissance, with the rise of the Ottoman empire and its expansion into Europe, this peaceable interest waned.

The Arab conquests of the 7th–8th cent. subjected large communities of Christians (and Jews) to Muslim rule. Unlike pagans, they were recognized as ‘people of the book’ and incorporated into the Muslim State as ‘dhimmis’, who in return for payment of the ‘jizya’, part tribute and part penal tax, were awarded protected status and permitted to retain their own religion and laws. The dhimmis have usually suffered a varying degree of fiscal, legal, and social oppression, and more rarely violent persecution. The survival of the E. Churches under Muslim rule attests to the success of this regime, and contrasts with the failure of medieval Christian Spain and Sicily to incorporate their subject communities of Muslims. Modern Arab states have usually treated Christian minorities with a tolerance predicated on the equality of all religions, but this is threatened by the recent upsurge of revivalist Islam and the return of sharia law, e.g. in Iran and Sudan.

Christian missions have never had a significant impact upon Islam. In the 13th cent., the Mendicant Orders organized missions to Islam, and St Francis preached to the Ayyubid sultan al-Kamil in 1219. In modern times missionary activity has been resumed by both Protestant and RC bodies.

M. G. S. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam (3 vols., Chicago and London [1974]); P. M. Holt and others (eds.), The Cambridge History of Islam (2 vols, Cambridge, 1970); A. Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples (1991); I. M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies (Cambridge, 1988). The Encyclopaedia of Islam (ed. M. T. Houtsma and others, 4 vols and suppl., Leiden, 1913–38; 2nd edn., ed. H. A. R. Gibb and others, 1960 ff.). R. Roolvink, Historical Atlas of the Muslim Peoples (Amsterdam, 1957); H. [N.] Kennedy, An Historical Atlas of Islam (Leiden, 2002). M. Ruthven, Islam in the World (Harmondsworth, 1984); F. Rahman, Islam (1966; 2nd edn., Chicago, 1979). I. Goldziher, Muhammedanische Studien (2 vols., 1889–90; Eng. tr., 1967–71); J. Schacht, An Introduction to Islamic Law (Oxford, 1964); J. van Ess, Theologie und Gesellschaft im 2. und 3. Jahrhundert Hidschra: Eine Geschichte des religiösen Denkens im frühen Islam (6 vols., 1991–7). A. Schimmel, The Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill, NC, 1975); G.-C. Anawati and L. Gardet, Mystique musulmane (Études musulmanes, 8; 1961); J. S. Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam (Oxford, 1971). M. [A.] Cook, Muhammad (Past Masters; Oxford, 1983); W. M. Watt, Muhammad, Prophet and Statesman (1961). M. [A.] Cook, The Koran: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2000). The Patr. Timothy’s ‘Parable of the Pearl’ is pr. (facsimile of the Syriac text), with Eng. tr. and introd., by A. Mingana and J. R. Harris in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 12 (1928), pp. 137–298. H. Busse, Die theologischen Beziehungen des Islams zu Judentum und Christentum: Grundlagen des Dialogs im Koran und die gegenwärtige Situation (Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Grundzüge, 72; Darmstadt [1988]; Eng. tr., Islam, Judaism, and Christianity: Theological and Historical Affiliations, Princeton, NJ [1998]). R. Bell, The Origin of Islam in its Christian Environment (1926); H. Speyer, Die biblischen Erzählungen im Qoran (Gräfenhainichen, 1931; repr. Hildesheim, 1961). N. Daniel, Islam and the West: The Making of an Image (Edinburgh, 1960); id., The Arabs and Mediaeval Europe (1975; 2nd edn., 1979); R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, Mass., 1962). B. Z. Kedar, Crusade and Mission: European Approaches toward the Muslims (Princeton, NJ [1984]); A. Hourani, Islam in European Thought (Cambridge, 1991). B. Braude and B. Lewis (eds.), Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire: The Functioning of a Plural Society (2 vols., New York and London, 1982).

How to Perform the Five Obligatory Prayers

Praise be to God the Creator of the world, the One Who exists without beginning, without end, without location, without a “how” and Who does not depend on time. Nothing resembles Him in anyway and He hears and sees everything without organs. Whatever you imagine, God is different from that. May the elevation in degree and preservation of his community of what he fears for it, be granted to our master Muhammad Al-‘Amin, the Honest One, who called for following Islam, the religion of truth, the religion of all the Prophets: of the First, Adam, to the last Muhammad.

There are five prayers which must be performed by the Muslims and are called obligatory prayers. They are Dhuhr (Noon) prayer, `Asr (afternoon) prayer, Maghrib (sunset) prayer, `Ishaa’ (Nightfall) prayer and Fajr (Dawn) prayer. It is a great sin to neglect performing any of these obligatory prayers. Among the merits of performing the obligatory prayers is that one’s small sins, which may be committed between prayers, are forgiven. The Prophet, may Allâh raise his rank, said what means:

« من توضأ فأحسن وضوءه خرجت منه خطاياه حتى تخرج من تحت أضافره »

which means: « Whoever makes a complete wudu’, his sins will depart his body, until they leave from under his nails. » [Muslim]

How to Perform the Dhuhr (Noon) Prayer

1. Facing the Qiblah: It is obligatory to stand directing your chest to the honorable Qiblah. The Qiblah is the Ka`bah in Makkah.

2. Intention: It is obligatory to intend in your heart performing the obligatory Dhuhr prayer. Do that while saying Allâhu akbar (God is great).
An example is to say in your heart « I intend to pray the obligatory Dhuhr prayer. »

3. The Opening Takbir: It is obligatory to say Allâhu akbar at least as loud as you can hear yourself, while raising your hands next to your ears. Raising your hands is a recommended part.

4. Standing: It is obligatory to stand in the obligatory prayer when able. It is recommended to hold the wrist of the left hand with the right hand, placing both above the navel.

5. Reciting the Fātiḥah: It is obligatory to recite the Fātiḥah (the first chapter of the Qur’ân) at least as loud as you can hear yourself. It is an obligation to recite the Fātiḥah properly, that is, to pronounce all the letters correctly. Learn the recitation of the Fātiḥah from a qualified teacher.

Whoever cannot recite the Fātiḥah correctly must recite other parts of the Qur’ân, the number of letters of which should be at least equal to that of the Fātiḥah (156 letters). If one knows one or more ayahs of the Fātiḥah, one may repeat them as many times as would render minimally the same number of letters in the Fātiḥah. If one cannot recite any ayah of the Fātiḥah, one recites other ayahs of the Qur’ân the letters of which add up to at least the same number of letters of the Fātiḥah. If one cannot recite any part of the Qur’ân, one must recite certain words of dhikr, such as subḥânallâh, al-ḥamdulillâh, lâ 'ilâha illallâh, and Allâhu akbar (I declare that Allâh is clear of all imperfections, praise and thanks to Allâh, no one is God but Allâh, and Allâh is the Greatest) as many times as would render minimally the same number of letters in the Fātiḥah (Ibn Hibban an-Nawawiyy):

For example, reciting Allâhu akbar twenty times is sufficient. In the unusual case of someone being unable to recite the Fātiḥah, other parts of the Qur’ân, or dhikr statements one stands as long as reciting the Fātiḥah with moderate speed takes.

It is recommended to say ءامين Amin (0 Allâh, fulfill my request) after finishing the Fātiḥah, and to recite at least one verse from another chapter of the Qur’ân in the first and second rak`ah.

It is also recommended before reciting the Fātiḥah in the first cycle to say the Tawajjuh supplication and then the isti adhah (asking for Allâh’s protection from the cursed devil).

6. The Bowing (Ruku`): It is obligatory to bend at the waist until your palms can reach your knees and stay still in this position for at least the time it takes to say
سبحان الله subḥânallâh.

It is recommended upon bending to raise your hands next to your ears and say Allâhu akbar. Also it is recommended while in ruku`, to say three times: سُبحانَ رَبِّيَ العظيم subḥâna Rabbiya l- `Adhim (Praise be to my Great Lord).

7. The Straightening up (I`tidal): It is obligatory to straighten your back and stay still in this position for at least the time it takes to say subHânallâh. It is recommended while raising your trunk to raise your hands next to your ears and to say:

which means: « Allâh hears who praises Him. » While your back is straight up it is recommended to say:

8. The Prostration (Sujiud): It is obligatory to go down to the floor and prostrate by pressing your bare forehead, and putting your palms, knees, and pads of the toes on the floor. Both feet are kept vertical with the heels up and the toepads down touching the floor. Stay still in this position for at least the time it takes to say subḥânallâh.

It is recommended upon going down to the floor to raise your hands next to your ears and to say Allâhu akbar.

Also it is recommended while in sujud to say three times subḥâna Rabbiya l-'a`la (Praise be to my Supreme Lord).

It is also recommended while in sujud to place your hands next to your shoulders, having your fingers together directed towards the Qiblah.

It is recommended for the male to keep his elbows away from his sides in his sujud and in his ruku`, and to keep his abdomen lifted away from his thighs in his sujud. However, the female keeps her elbows pulled in to her sides in her sujud and ruku` and keeps her trunk close to her thighs in her sujud.

9. The Sitting between the two Sujuds: It is obligatory to raise your trunk from prostration and sit, staying still in this position for at least the time it takes to say subḥânallâh.

It is recommended to say Allâhu akbar while coming to sitting. Also, it is recommended while sitting to say:

اللهمَّ اغفِرلي وارحمني واهْدِني وعَافِني وارْزُقْني

This means: « 0 my Lord, forgive me, have mercy on me, guide me, protect me from sickness and provide for me. »

It is also recommended to do the sitting with the left foot tucked under the buttocks while the right foot is kept vertical as in sujud.

An alternate recommended way of sitting is to rest the buttocks on the heels of both feet which are kept as in sujud.

It is recommended that the hands be placed on the thighs at the knees with the fingers extended and spread slightly towards the Qiblah.

10. It is obligatory to perform a second sujud from your sitting position. This sujud is similar to the first sujud.

After the second sujud is fulfilled you have completed the first rak`ah (cycle) of the prayer.

11. It is obligatory to stand up for the second rak`ah. It is recommended while doing so to say Allâhu akbar. Repeat steps 5 to 10. This ends your second rak`ah.

12. It is recommended at this time to sit up from sujud, recite the Tashahhud, and say Allâhumma ṣalli `alâ Muḥammad at least as loud as you can hear yourself.

It is recommended to sit with the feet as in step 9. An alternate way of sitting is to rest the buttocks on both crossed feet. It is also recommended to keep both hands on your thighs. The fingertips of your left hand should be spread towards your knee. In this sitting, the fingers of the right hand are lightly fisted except for the index finger which is extended slightly down. The index finger is lifted slightly at saying إلاّ الله illallâh (in the Tashahhud) and is kept as such until the end of this sitting.

13. It is obligatory to stand up and do two more rak`ahs in the same way that you did from steps 5 to 11. It is recommended while rising for the third rak`ah to raise your hands next to your ears and say Allâhu akbar. However, raising the hands is not recommended while rising for the fourth rak`ah .

14. Upon completion of the second sujud of the last rak`ah, it is obligatory to sit up, recite the Tashahhud, and say Allâhumma Salli `alâ Muḥammad.

It is recommended to keep the hands as in step 12. However, after the index finger is lifted slightly at saying illallâh it is kept as such until the end of the prayer.

For this sitting it is also recommended to pass the left foot past the right leg and place the buttocks on the floor, keeping the right foot as in sujud.

Afterwards, it is recommended to say the Ibrâhîmiyyah. Then it is recommended to say a supplication such as:

(Rabbanâ ‘Atinâ fî d-dunyâ ḥaçanah, wa fi l-‘âkhirati ḥaçanah, wa qinâ `adhâba n-nâr)

which means: « 0 our Lord, grant us in this life and in the Hereafter good things, and protect us from the torture of the Hellfire. »

15. The Ending Salam: It is obligatory to say السلامُ عليكُم as-salamu `alaykum at least as loud as you can hear yourself. It is recommended to say

as-salamu `alaykum wa Raḥmatullâh first to one’s right and then to one’s left.

How to Perform the `Asr (Mid-afternoon) and `Isha’ (Nightfall) Prayers

The `Asr and `Isha’ prayers are performed exactly as the Dhuhr prayer. However, in step 2 you intend the obligatory `Asr prayer for the `Asr prayer and the obligatory `Isha’ prayer for the `Isha’ prayer.

Moreover, it is recommended to recite the Qur’ân in a louder manner in the first two rak`ahs of the `Isha’ prayer.

How to Perform the Maghrib (Sunset) Prayer

The three rak`ahs of the Maghrib prayer are performed exactly as the first three rak`ahs of `Isha’. After the second sujud of the third rak`ah it is obligatory to sit up and do steps 14 and 15.

How to Perform the Subh or Fajr (Dawn) Prayer

The two rak`ahs of the Fajr (or Subh) prayer are performed exactly like the first two rak`ahs of the `Isha’ prayer, but with the intention of performing the obligatory Fajr (or Subh) prayer.

After the second sujud of the second rak`a, do steps 14 and 15. Also after saying Rabbana laka l-Hamd in the I`tidal (step 7) of the second rak`ah`, it is recommended to say the Qunut supplication at least as loud as you can hear yourself.

Du`a l-qunūt

«اللَّهُمَّ اهْدِنِي فِيمَنْ هَدَيْتَ، وَعَافِنِي فِيمَنْ عَافَيْتَ، وَتَوَلَّنِي فِيمَنْ تَوَلَّيْتَ، وَبَارِكْ لِي فِيمَا أَعْطَيْتَ، وَقِنِي شَرَّ مَا قَضَيْتَ، فَإِنَّكَ تَقْضِي وَلا يُقْضَى عَلَيْكَ، وَإِنَّهُ لا يَذِلُّ مَنْ وَالَيْتَ، وَلا يَعِزُّ مَنْ عَادَيْتَ، تَبَارَكْتَ رَبَّنَا وَتَعَالَيْتَ ، فَلَكَ الحَمْدُ عَلَى مَا قَضَيْتَ ، أسْتَغِرُكَ اللهُمَّ وَأتُوبُ إلَيْكَ، وَصَلَّى اللَّهُ علَى مُحَمَّدٍ وعلَى ءالهِ وصَحْبِه وَسَلَّمَ»

(Allâhummahdinî fiman hadayt, wa `âfinî fîman `âfayt, wa tawallanî fiman tawallayt, wa bârik lî fîmâ a`ṭayt. Wa qinî sharra mâ qaḍayt, fa 'innaka taqḍî wa lâ yuqḍâ `alayk. Wa 'innahu lâ yadhillu maw wâlayt, wa lâ ya`izzu man `adayt. Tabârakta Rabbanâ wa ta`alayt . Fa laka l-ḥamdu `alâ mâ qaḍayt. Astagfiruka wa atûbu ilayk. Wa ṣallallâhu `alâ Muḥammad wa `alâ âlihi wa ṣaḥbihi wa sallam)

The Meaning of the Qunūt Supplication

O Allâh, guide me among those whom You guided, relieve me from sickness among those whom You relieved, support me among those whom You supported, bless for me what You gave me. Protect me against the evil of what You created, for You are the One Who orders (ordains) and not the One Who is ordered (ordained for). Whomever You support is not weakened and ignored, and whomever You oppose is not dignified. O our Lord, may Your givings increase. You are the Supreme One Whose status is high and great and You are clear of any imperfection. Praise is due for what You ordained. I ask You for forgiveness and I repent to You. May Allâh raise the rank of Muḥammad, and his Al and Companions. May Allâh protect the Prophet’s Nation from what he feared for it.

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