--- title: "An Introduction" event: "The Art of Supplication" session_number: 1 published_at: "2025-03-29" canonical_url: "https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/an-introduction" event_url: "https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-art-of-supplication" type: "event-session" scripture_reference: "Quran, Surah Al-Fatihah (The Opener), Chapter 1, Verse 5" --- # An Introduction *Session 1 of [The Art of Supplication](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-art-of-supplication) — 29 March 2025* The manual we are about to open was never meant to teach you a single prayer. Every believer owns a copy of Sahifa al-Sajjadiyyah or Mafatih al-Jinan — books full of supplications, du'a, ready to recite. This series draws instead on a different kind of book: Uddat al-Da'i wa Najah al-Sa'i, the Provision of the Supplicant, by the fifteenth-century jurist Ibn Fahd al-Hilli. It teaches nothing to recite. It teaches how to supplicate at all — the etiquette, the conditions, the reasons a prayer seems to go unheard. The premise is a single verse: God says, "Call upon Me, I will answer you", and warns that those too proud to do so are humiliated. Not "ask Me" — "call Me". An open line, day or night, with no fixed hour or form. This session sets out why that distinction matters: that supplication is not a transaction reserved for crisis, but the ordinary language of a lover speaking to the Beloved, as constant and involuntary as dhikr, remembrance, itself. It closes with a promise about the shape of the whole series to come — the conditions for a prayer's acceptance, the states of the one who supplicates, the etiquette of asking, and eventually the great supplications themselves: Kumayl, al-Iftitah, Abu Hamza al-Thumali, and more. What does it mean to call on someone who never once refuses to listen? What the evening covers The source text. Uddat al-Da'i, Ibn Fahd al-Hilli's six-part manual on the ethics and rulings of supplication — not a prayer book, but a guide to praying. The opening verse. "Call upon Me, I will answer you", and what it means that God says "call", not "ask". Supplication as love. Why dua is described as a dialogue between lover and Beloved, not a request list. The roadmap ahead. The six sections of the book the series will work through, from definitions to etiquette to the great supplications of the Ahl al-Bayt. ## Scripture > إِيَّاكَ نَعۡبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسۡتَعِينُ > > It is You we worship and You we ask for help — *Quran, Surah Al-Fatihah (The Opener), Chapter 1, Verse 5* ## Programme - [Watch the full session](https://youtu.be/xhNk3U_lYmQ) - [Sermon: An Introduction](https://youtu.be/xhNk3U_lYmQ) ## Other sessions in this event - [Session 23 — The Heart of the Matter — Part 3: The Fuel for the Heart](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-heart-of-the-matter-part-3-the-fuel-for-the-heart) — 15 November 2025 - [Session 22 — The Heart of the Matter — Part 2: The Axis of Supplication](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-heart-of-the-matter-part-2-the-axis-of-supplication) — 8 November 2025 - [Session 21 — The Heart of the Matter — Part 1: The Prerequisite of Purity](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-heart-of-the-matter-part-1-the-prerequisite-of-purity) — 1 November 2025 - [Session 20 — The Hearth, The Hub, and The Horizon](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-hearth-the-hub-and-the-horizon) — 25 October 2025 - [Session 19 — The Prison, The Portal, and The Presence](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-prison-the-portal-and-the-presence) — 18 October 2025 - [Session 18 — The Sanctuary, The Saint, and The Sacrifice](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-sanctuary-the-saint-and-the-sacrifice) — 11 October 2025 - [Session 17 — The Crucible, The Criterion, and The Citadel](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-crucible-the-criterion-and-the-citadel) — 4 October 2025 - [Session 16 — Where Earth Meets Heaven](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/where-earth-meets-heaven) — 27 September 2025 - [Session 15 — The Completion of Mercy](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-completion-of-mercy) — 20 September 2025 - [Session 14 — The Arc of Loyalty](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-arc-of-loyalty) — 13 September 2025 - [Session 13 — The Days of Wilayah](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-days-of-wilayah) — 6 September 2025 - [Session 12 — The Yearly Rhythm of Mercy](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-yearly-rhythm-of-mercy) — 30 August 2025 --- _Read this session on the web: https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/an-introduction_