Three Conditions for Acceptance of Prayer — Essence of Islam Vol. 2

14 Sep, 2026 Essence of Islam 0

Essence of Islam Book Cover by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (AS)

Introduction

In this discourse from Essence of Islam (Volume 2), Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (AS), the Promised Messiah and Mahdi, expounds upon Three Conditions for Acceptance of Prayer, presenting profound spiritual insights and scriptural verities.

Book Series: Essence of Islam (Volume 2)
Author: Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian (AS)
Section: Part 5: Prayer
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So far as God Almighty has bestowed upon me the knowledge of prayer I conceive that there are three conditions for the acceptance of prayer. First, a supplicant should be perfectly righteous, for only that one is acceptable to God Almighty who makes righteousness his habit and adheres firmly to all the paths of righteousness and who is trustworthy and pious and true in his promises and is filled with the personal love of God. Secondly, his resolve and attention should be so firm and strong that he should be ready to lay down his own life for the revival of another and should be ready to enter himself into the grave to pull another out of it. His accepted servants are dearer to God Almighty than an only child, who is also handsome, is dear to its mother. When God, the Merciful and Benevolent, sees that one who is accepted of Him and is true to Him has, for the sake of saving the life of another, subjected himself to spiritual labours and disciplines to a degree that his own life is in danger, He finds it disagreeable that He should let him perish in that condition. Then for his sake He forgives the sin in respect of which the other person had been seized. If he is afflicted with a fatal disease or is in the grip of some other calamity, then by His power He creates means for his deliverance. Very often it happens that He is determined to ruin or destroy a person, but through the latter’s good luck someone who has a good standing before God intervenes with his earnest supplications so that the record that had been prepared and completed for his chastisement has to be destroyed, for the matter now is transferred from being concerned with a stranger to being concerned with a friend. It cannot happen that God would put His friend to trouble. Thirdly, there is a condition which is more difficult to comply with than all other conditions, inasmuch as compliance with it is not in the hands of those who are accepted of God, but is in the hands of the person who desires to have a supplication made on his behalf. That condition is that he should be desirous of supplication being made for him with the utmost sincerity and in perfect trust and certainty and perfect goodwill and submission. He should decide in his heart that even if the supplication is not accepted this would not affect his trust and goodwill. His request for supplication should not be as a trial but should be made in full trust. He should fall most humbly at the door of the person from whom he is seeking supplication and, so far as it is possible for him, he should establish a close relationship with him by spending his money and rendering service and every obedience whereby he should enter his heart. Along with all this he should think well of him and should regard him as possessing righteousness of the highest degree and should regard it as disbelief to entertain a single thought inconsistent with his holy estate. He should prove his full belief in him through every kind of sacrifice. He should not regard any other in the world as his equal and should be devoted to him so much as to be ready to lay down his life and his property and his honour for him and should neither utter nor let his heart entertain anything derogatory of him from any point of view. He should establish it to his satisfaction that he believes fully in him and is his follower. With all this, he should wait with patience and even if he should be frustrated fifty times in achieving his objective, he should not let his belief and goodwill be affected in any manner. Such people have very delicate sensibilities and they can conclude from a person’s countenance the degree of his sincerity. They are tender-hearted, yet they are selfsufficient. They have no regard for any arrogant, selfish and hypocritical person. Only those people can derive any benefit from them who obey them to a degree where they are ready to lay down their lives for them. A person who thinks ill of them at every step and entertains objections in his heart and lacks full love and goodwill derives no benefit from them and only ruins himself.
[Brahin-e-Ahmadiyya, Part V, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 21, pp. 226-228]
[Essence of Islam, Vol. 2, p. 214]

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Introduction