One of the greatest acts of devotion that a believer can perform during the blessed month of Ramadan—and indeed at any time of the year—is supplication (duʿāʾ). The Prophet ﷺ said, “Supplication is the essence of worship.” Every act of worship contains either an explicit supplication, such as in formal prayer, or an implicit supplication through which we ask Allah to accept the good deeds we perform.

The most virtuous supplications are those taken directly from the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Some are concise yet immensely powerful, while others are especially suited to particular circumstances. On one occasion, the Prophet ﷺ passed by his wife Juwayrīyah رضي الله عنها, who had been engaged in supplication from the time of Fajr until after sunrise. He ﷺ said to her, “I have said four phrases, three times each, after leaving you. If they were weighed against all that you have said since this morning, they would outweigh them: Glory be to Allah and His praise, by the number of His creation, by His pleasure, by the weight of His Throne, and by the vastness of His words.”

Believers should strive to memorize these prophetic supplications and incorporate them regularly into their daily lives. If memorization is difficult, understanding their meanings and using their translations is also beneficial. The words of the Prophet ﷺ carry a unique effect upon the heart, due to the depth of their original Arabic expression and the divine wisdom embedded within them. Alongside this, we must endeavor to purify our hearts from arrogance, base desires, and other spiritual shortcomings in order to fully benefit from the power of duʿāʾ. Indeed, supplication itself serves as a means of spiritual purification and growth.