Verses of supplication in the Quran, with the commentaries
The Quran on calling upon God — "Call upon Me, I will respond", "give us good in this world", "in humility and privately", "who answers the desperate", and Moses' "expand my breast" — read in al-Tafsir al-Muyassar, al-Safi and al-Mizan.
The word rabbana, "our Lord", occurs 106 times in the Quran, in 93 verses across 37 surahs. This article gathers the main verses on supplication by what they say and, at each one, gives the Sunni reading of al-Tafsir al-Muyassar first, then the Shia readings of al-Safi (al-Fayd al-Kashani) and al-Mizan (al-Tabataba'i).
Quotations from the three commentaries are my renderings of the Arabic.
"Call upon Me; I will respond"
And your Lord says, "Call upon Me; I will respond to you." Indeed, those who disdain My worship will enter Hell [rendered] contemptible.
Al-Muyassar: call upon Me alone and devote your worship to Me alone, and I will answer you; those too proud to worship Me alone will enter Hell humbled. Al-Safi glosses "My worship" as calling upon Me, and relays from al-Baqir: it is supplication, and the best worship is supplication. Asked why the desperate call and are not answered, al-Sadiq replies in al-Safi: no one calls on Him but He answers; the wrongdoer's prayer is held back until he repents; the one in the right, when he calls, is answered — by trouble turned away from him without his knowing, or a great reward stored up for the day he needs it; and if what he asked for would not be good for him, it is withheld. Al-Mizan: the verse puts "worship" in place of "supplication", which shows that supplication is worship.
Where they agree
All three agree that supplication is worship, and that the one too proud for it is threatened with Hell.
Where they differ
Al-Muyassar reads the command as "call upon Me alone" and joins it to worshipping God alone. Al-Safi adds a report on why answers seem delayed: the prayer is answered by harm averted or reward stored up, when what was asked would not be good for the servant.
"Give us good in this world"
But among them is he who says, "Our Lord, give us in this world [that which is] good and in the Hereafter [that which is] good and protect us from the punishment of the Fire."
Al-Muyassar: give us in this world wellbeing, provision, useful knowledge and good deeds, and in the hereafter the Garden; this is among the most comprehensive prayers, and it was the one the Prophet made most often. Al-Safi: good in this world, such as health, safety, sufficiency and success in doing good; in the hereafter, such as mercy and nearness, and relays from al-Sadiq: God's pleasure and the Garden in the hereafter, and ample living and good character in this world. Al-Kashani then adds: all of these are examples of what is meant, and they do not conflict. Al-Mizan: the one who seeks what is with God sees both this world and the next divided into good and bad, and asks his Lord only for the good.
All three agree that the prayer gathers the good of both worlds. Al-Muyassar and al-Safi list examples, which al-Kashani says do not conflict; al-Mizan dwells on why this world is qualified as "good".
"In humility and privately"
Call upon your Lord in humility and privately; indeed, He does not like transgressors.
Al-Muyassar: call upon your Lord humbly, in secret, with reverence and far from showing off; God does not love those who overstep the limits of His law. Al-Safi: humbly and privately, for privacy is nearer to sincerity; the transgressors are those who go beyond what they were commanded, in supplication and elsewhere. Al-Mizan: humility is abasement, from weakness and lowliness; privacy is concealment, and may well be a way of stressing the humility, for one who is abased almost hides himself; and it may be that humility and privacy here mean aloud and in secret — humility stands in for "aloud" because calling aloud is out of keeping with servanthood unless humility goes with it.
All three agree that supplication is made humbly and privately, and that privacy is nearer to sincerity and good manners. Al-Muyassar and al-Safi read "transgressors" as those who go beyond the set limits; al-Mizan allows that the pair may mean "aloud and in secret".
"Who answers the desperate"
Is He [not best] who responds to the desperate one when he calls upon Him and removes evil and makes you inheritors of the earth? Is there a deity with Allah? Little do you remember.
Al-Muyassar: is the worship of what you associate with God better, or He who answers the distressed when he calls and removes the harm that has come down on him? Al-Safi: the desperate is the one whose hardship drives him to take refuge in God. Al-Mizan: the verse names the desperate so that the prayer is truly a prayer: as long as a person is not cornered, his asking is not pure; and "when he calls upon Him" shows that the one called must be God, which happens only when the caller is cut off from every outward means and his heart hangs on his Lord alone.
All three agree that the verse makes answering the desperate a sign that God alone is to be worshipped. Al-Mizan adds that being desperate is what makes a prayer real, and that the true caller is the one whose heart has left every other means.
"Expand for me my breast"
[Moses] said, "My Lord, expand for me my breast [with assurance]
And ease for me my task
And untie the knot from my tongue
That they may understand my speech.
(Ta-Ha 20:25, Ta-Ha 20:26, Ta-Ha 20:27, Ta-Ha 20:28)
Al-Muyassar: my Lord, widen my breast, ease my task, and free my tongue with clear speech so they understand me. Al-Safi: when God gave him a great charge, he asked Him to open his breast and his heart, to bear its weight and endure its hardships; on "the knot", it is said there was a stammer in his tongue from an ember he had put in his mouth. Al-Mizan: the knot is indefinite to mark a kind — the one the next words point to: a knot that keeps them from understanding what I say.
Where they agree
All three agree that Moses asked for an open breast, an easy task and a free tongue, so that his people would understand him.
Where they differ
They differ on "the knot": a request for clear speech, for al-Muyassar; a stammer from an ember, as al-Safi relays with "it is said"; for al-Mizan, the form of the word marks a particular knot, one that stops understanding.
What the verses do not say
- They do not set a time for the answer.
- They do not require supplication to be in Arabic.
- They do not say what caused the knot in Moses' tongue.
Counted on the mushaf
- Rabbana, "our Lord": 106 times in 93 verses across 37 surahs.
- al-mudtarr, "the desperate": once in the whole Quran.
- "Call upon Me; I will respond to you": once.
- "In humility and privately": twice — here and Al-An'am 63.
Sources
- al-Tafsir al-Muyassar — King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Quran.
- Tafsir al-Safi — al-Fayd al-Kashani.
- al-Mizan fi Tafsir al-Quran — al-Sayyid Muhammad Husayn al-Tabataba'i.
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