The invocation (du ‘â), different from the prayer (Salât) is at the heart of worship in Islam. On the one hand, there are many verses which magnify the invocation such as 186 of sura 2 where, after the regulation of the fast, the Creator and Master of the worlds says how close He is to us and ready to grant our invocations. He sets simple conditions of reciprocity: to respond to His call, which cannot be other than listening and obedience in total trust in Him. On the other hand, the hadith goes so far as to tell us that invocation is adoration itself (ad-du ‘â huwal ‘ibâdah). From this eminent place of invocation in Muslim worship comes that the Koran is full of expressions of “rabbanâ” and “rabbi” which refer to “tawhîdur rubûbiya” – God is the unique Creator and Master of the worlds).
In this context, we can mention these invocations which give the shivers namely, those of Adam and his wife after having eaten something from the forbidden tree, of Noah for the believers who went up with him in the ark , of Ibrahim with his son Ishmael by his side after the construction of the Kaaba, of Moses, in the desert, after helping two young shepherdesses, of Pharaoh’s wife who asks for God’s protection against him and a house in paradise, of Jacob deeply concerned about the fate of his son Joseph, of Zacharie very worried about the future of the mosque in Jerusalem. As for the seal of the prophets and last message of God, Muhammad (SAWS), he lived only to glorify God, to adore Him and to invoke Him.
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Invocation is a way for the invoker (male or female) to “arouse” God’s concern for him, because he recognizes Him to be the one and only Creator and Master of the worlds, Who provides for the needs of His creatures. . This attitude of the invoker which consists in humbly assuming his need for God makes the disbeliever who is in sufficiency and recklessness as well as the hypocrite who has chosen duplicity do not want to invoke God. Even Satan could not do without an insincere and opportunistic invocation to be alive until the day of resurrection!
It is known, the verses and hadiths teach us that there are times, places, positions and situations or states which are particularly conducive to our invocations being granted. But here, to share our understanding of what binds supplication to fasting, we will limit ourselves to looking at a few cases mentioned in the hadiths where it is said that the supplication will not be rejected. In these cases it is a question of what we call a summoner “who is…”: the summoner who is ruling in righteousness; the summoner who is suffering the harm of his oppressor; the summoner who is traveling and the summoner who is fasting.
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The ruler who governs in justice when he has the power to do the opposite certainly makes a very commendable effort on himself to achieve it and it is this which is rewarded, it seems, by an unrejected invocation. (the mighty King David fasted every other day, the hadith tells us). The summoner who is in the process of suffering the wrongs of all kinds brought to him by his oppressor is in such a state that his suffering is compensated by an invocation which will not be rejected. The summoner who is traveling becomes what the Koran calls “ibnus sabîl”, at the mercy of the dangers and vagaries of the journey. It is this vulnerability (he could be rich and respected in his place of origin), which is apparently compensated by an unrejected invocation (he is moreover allowed to reduce and/or group the prayers ).
We now come to the case of the summoner who is fasting. The hadiths indicate that during the day of fasting and at the time of breaking, his invocation is not rejected. Roughly speaking, the analogy with the previous cases leads one to say that he is deploying an incredible effort against his passions and desires in order to get closer to God through Taqwa. This struggle against the call of the nafs causes the faster to be in such a spiritual state that he is rewarded with an unrejected invocation. Indeed, God hears the muttaqîn (God-fearing) and here the faster is learning to mold himself in the cardinal virtue of Taqwa.
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Added to this is that the prophetic expression “their invocation will not be rejected – da ‘watun lâ turadd” should challenge us. Indeed, it is another way of saying that their invitation will be granted. But then what could we understand from this expression “will not be”? We see it as a way of saying that in this state, God obliges Himself to grant the summoner’s invocation. Allahu a ‘lam (God knows best). This understanding seems to us to be in phase with the hadith where the fast, as an intercessor, says: “O Rabbi, it is I who have prevented him from eating, drinking and following his passions.”
O Allah, what can we expect if You reject our supplications! Accept them from us who recognize You as the only one worthy of being invoked, the only one whom we invoke and the only one from Whom we hope that He answers our invocations. Aamiin.
Imam Makhtar Kante
