The Essence of Islam – Volume II — Page 215
Prayer 215 the matter now is transferred from being concerned with a stranger to being concerned with a friend. It cannot happen that God would put His friend to trouble. . Thirdly, there is a condition which is more difficult to comply with than all other conditions, inasmuch as compliance with it is not in the hands of those who are accepted of God, but is in the hands of the person who desires to have a supplication made on his behalf. That condition is that he should be desirous of supplication being made for him with the utmost sincerity and in perfect trust and certainty and perfect goodwill and submission. He should decide in his heart that even if the supplication is not accepted this would not affect his trust and goodwill. His request for supplication should not be as a trial but should be made in full trust. He should fall most humbly at the door of the person from whom he is seeking supplication and, so far as it is possible for him, he should establish a close relationship with him by spending his money and rendering service and every obedience whereby he should enter his heart. Along with all this he should think well of him and should regard him as possessing righteousness of the highest degree and should regard it as disbelief to entertain a single thought inconsistent with his holy estate. He should prove his full belief in him through every kind of sacrifice. He should not regard any other in the world as his equal and should be devoted to him so much as to be ready to lay down his life and his property and his honour for him and should neither utter nor let his heart entertain anything derogatory of him from any point of view. He should establish it to his satisfaction that he believes fully in him and is his follower. With all this, he should wait with patience and even if he should be