‘Ubaadah ibn As-Saamit, may Allah be pleased with him, reported that he heard the Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, say: “Whenever a Muslim supplicates to Allah, He accepts his supplication, or averts any affliction from him, or saves its equivalent in reward for him until the Day of Account – as long as he does not supplicate for something that is sinful or something that may break the ties of kinship.” [At-Tirmithi]
Jaabir, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “Some of the residents of Koofah complained to (the Caliph) ‘Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, about (his governor of Iraq) Sa’d, may Allah be pleased with him, claiming that he did not know how to lead his people in prayer properly. In response to this, Sa’d, may Allah be pleased with him, said: ‘I pray in the exact manner I saw the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, pray. I make the first two Rak’ahs longer than the last two in the ‘Ishaa’ prayer’. Upon hearing this, ‘Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, said: ‘This is what I thought your practice would be.’ After that ‘Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, sent some people to Koofah to inquire about the situation. Whenever they entered a mosque and asked the congregation there, they would praise Sa’d, may Allah be pleased with him. When they reached a mosque where the tribe of Banu ‘Abs lived, one man said: ‘As you have asked us about Sa’d, we will tell you the truth: he is unfair when judging between people and does not justly distribute (war booty) and never participates in battles.’ Upon hearing this, Sa’d, may Allah be pleased with him, supplicated to Allah saying: ‘O Allah! If this man is lying, make him go blind, make him live to an old age and expose him to temptations.’
Some Muslims later narrated that: ‘Indeed we saw this man running after young girls in the streets, harassing them. He would say: ‘Indeed the supplication of Sa’d against me has been realised.’”
Ibn al-Munkadir, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “Once, I was sitting in the mosque next to the pulpit supplicating in the middle of the night. There was a man standing next to one of the pillars of the mosque covering his face with a mask.
I overheard him saying whilst supplicating: ‘O my Lord! Drought has severely affected Your slaves, and I adjure You to bring down rain upon us!’ It was not but a short while that a cloud came with rain.”
Ibn al-Munkadir was keen to know all the righteous people and thus decided to try to find out who this man was. He said: “I said to myself: ‘There is a pious man in the city who I do not know’, so when he concluded his prayer, I followed him until he reached the house of Anas, and entered it. I went back, and after I prayed the Fajr prayer I went to his house and knocked his door. When he opened the door, I asked him: ‘I overheard you last night supplicating and I saw what resulted from your supplication. Would you allow me to provide your sustenance so that you can concentrate on your worship?’ He replied: ‘No, but I have a favour to ask of you. Please do not mention what you saw to anyone until I die, and do not come back again, because people would notice and my matter would become publicly known’ I said to him: ‘But where can I meet you?’
He replied: ‘In the mosque’” Ibn al-Munkadir, may Allah be pleased with him, never mentioned what he saw to anyone until the man died.
Ibn Wahb, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “I was told that the man moved out of the house he was living in to another location which no one knew about, so the owners of the house from whom he was renting the house said: ‘May Allah forgive Ibn al-Munkadir who forced this righteous man to leave our house.’”
Article source: http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/
