46.15 Supplication of a thankful servant, dutiful child and caring parent
This Quranic supplication is among those with which His noble prophets once turned to the Lord of the worlds. His prophet Sulayman (peace be upon him) called upon the Almighty with this supplication.
“My Lord!” said this king and prophet, endowed not only with wisdom but also with wealth and power, which did not spoil him in the least or lessen his fear of God.
In this supplication addressed to the Almighty Maker, the noble prophet asked at once for several blessings, very important and desirable for any believer. Sulayman (peace be upon him) knew how to value as they deserved the many favours with which the Lord had blessed him. And of course he knew how much gratitude means and how much benefit it brings to a believer. So he began his supplication with a request for gratitude. For gratitude is the path to the pleasure of Allah and to Paradise, whereas whoever does not thank the Lord for the favours He bestows, on the contrary, brings His anger upon himself.
So this supplication teaches us to thank the Almighty for the favours He bestows on us every day and every hour, for the favours we see and those we do not notice, for favours great and small, for those without which we could not exist and for those that make our life good in both worlds. And the chief of all favours is faith.
We know the importance of gratitude from the Quran and the Sunnah. And the Lord has promised us that if we give thanks for what we are given, He in His mercy will give us still more. Such is the law and promise of the Almighty.
But there are other lessons we can draw from this beautiful supplication, with which one of His chosen ones and one of the best representatives of the human race turned to the Lord. We see that Sulayman (peace be upon him) asked to be inspired with gratitude, which is a source of great good, not only for the favours granted to him personally, but also for those granted to his parents. For, given the closeness of parents and children, they share many blessings, and what is given to the parents benefits the children, and vice versa.
So, in asking for blessings and favours for himself, he did not forget his parents. And how often do we mention our parents in the supplications with which we call upon the Lord? Those who were the cause of our coming into the world, who raised us, brought us up and cared for us… For respect for parents is mentioned in the Quran right after monotheism, which shows its importance and the very high place it is given in our religion, and this is confirmed by many ayahs and hadiths.
Alas, many Muslims rarely turn to the Lord in supplication even for themselves, although this is an easy form of worship that brings a Muslim a great reward and enormous good. And they ask for good for their ancestors and descendants still more rarely. And this although the Lord Himself has commanded us in His Book: “Call upon Me, I will respond to you.” (Surah 40 «Al-Ghaafir», Ayah 60)
The next thing the wise and righteous Sulayman (peace be upon him) asked of the Lord was help in doing good deeds. Not those that merely seem good to us, but truly good ones, that is, pleasing to the Almighty, done in the proper way and accepted by Him. For only such deeds can benefit a believer. It is important for each of us to ask the Almighty for help in doing good deeds, for good deeds accepted by Him are the road to His pleasure. And is not the pleasure of the Lord the goal and cherished wish of everyone who has faith?
That the prophet asked for help in doing exactly such good deeds reminds us of the importance of a sincere intention and of the conformity of actions with the Sunnah, because a deed is accepted by the Almighty only if it meets these two conditions.
The last thing Sulayman (peace be upon him) asked for in this supplication was the righteousness of his descendants. And this is not surprising. Every believer understands what an enormous blessing righteous children and grandchildren are. For a person sincerely devoted to the Lord, God-fearing and pious, carries light and good wherever his foot may tread, and the greatest share of this light and good usually goes to those close to him, that is, to the members of his family and, of course, to his parents. Righteous children are a source of joy to their parents. That is why it is so important to ask Allah for righteousness for one’s descendants.