According to a Hadith report, dua or supplication to God, is the essence of worship. In fact, dua in reality is worship. This point is expressed in different ways in the Quran, the Hadith and the Bible.

It is natural for dua to be a genuine form of worship, because when Man discovers God through his absolute attributes, he also discovers that, in comparison to God, he has no significance at all. He realises, "God is the Master, I am His slave. God is the Giver, I am the recipient. God is All-Powerful, I am helpless and totally dependent."

When someone realizes this, it makes him immediately turn to God in supplication. Dua is the strongest relationship that connects human beings with their Lord. Dua is a means to reach out to God. Through dua, we get whatever we seek. The aim of all our actions should be to make us turn always to God in supplication and then receive from Him. The Quran says:

When My servants ask you about Me, say that, I am near. I respond to the call of one who calls, whenever he calls to Me: let them, then, respond to Me, and believe in Me, so that they may be rightly guided. (THE QURAN, 2:186)

Jesus says the same thing in the following words:

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew: 7-8)

Dua is not a mere utterance of some words. Rather, it is the greatest action. Real dua is never without its results. When someone beseeches God in genuine dua, it is as if he were making his issue into God’s issue. And when something becomes God’s concern, then there is no one who can stop it from being fulfilled.

Source: Spirit of Islam, December 2013