O Allah, I ask You for guidance, piety, chastity, and contentment.
“O Allah, I ask You for guidance, piety, chastity, and contentment.”
Among the supplications of the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) was: "O Allah, I ask You for guidance", i.e., the straight path of knowing the truth and acting upon it, "piety", i.e., adhering to commands and avoiding prohibitions, "chastity", i.e., refraining from what is unlawful or unsuitable of words or deeds, "and self-sufficiency", i.e., being free from want of others, and needing none but one's Lord, the Almighty.
The plain meaning, from HadeethEnc
عَنْ عَبْدِ اللهِ بْنِ مَسْعُودٍ رَضيَ اللهُ عنهُ عَنِ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ أَنَّهُ كَانَ يَقُولُ: «اللهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ الْهُدَى وَالتُّقَى، وَالْعَفَافَ وَالْغِنَى».
‘Abdullah ibn Mas‘ūd (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) used to say: "Allāhumma inni as’aluka al-huda wa at-tuqa wa al-‘afāf wa al-ghina (O Allah, I ask You for guidance, piety, chastity, and self-sufficiency)."
What does Sahih Muslim 2721 mean?
Narrated by Ibn Mas‘ud and recorded by Muslim. Four words, and the commentators take them in order: guidance is knowing the truth and acting on it, piety is keeping the commands and leaving the prohibitions, chastity is refusing what is not lawful, and the last — often rendered contentment — is ghina, needing no one but one’s Lord.
Written from HadeethEnc