The Shaykh’s return to explaining the hadith of Anas and clarifying the great benefit of supplication and that it is among the greatest acts of worship.

The Shaykh: But this is countered by authentic divine hadiths, some of which are in "the two Sahihs" and some in the Sunan. Our hadith for this evening belongs to this category; it is narrated by Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: .
This hadith encourages the Muslim to always hold a good opinion of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), hoping that He will treat him with His favor rather than with His justice (Blessed and Exalted is He). However, there is a point here that says: We should pause at this point and dwell on it for a little while. We must know that the Muslim’s turning to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in supplication, in a state of humility and awe before Him, is among the greatest acts of worship that Islam brought, as our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) said in the Qur'an: . The scholars of tafsir, based on this authentic hadith, said: meaning: from my supplication; this is because a person’s disdain for supplicating to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is arrogance toward Him and self-sufficiency from His mercy and forgiveness, and only the most disbelieving of disbelievers do this.
Therefore, he (peace and blessings be upon him) cited this verse as evidence for his statement when he said: , and he recited this verse: to its end. It is not correct that this hadith is in the well-known wording on people’s tongues: "Supplication is the marrow of worship"; this is not correct. Rather, the correct, established wording from the Messenger (peace be upon him) is the first wording: . This is more eloquent than the weak, incorrect wording, contrary to what some people think; because his (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: is on the same scale as, or similar to, his saying: ; meaning, as if all worship is supplication, and as if all Hajj is standing at 'Arafah; so this is a great exaggeration in estimating the weight of supplication in terms of it being worship, and the weight of Hajj in terms of standing at 'Arafah being a fundamental pillar of Hajj. It is not so with the weak hadith "Supplication is the marrow of worship," for it divides worship into two parts: marrow and husk. And this has been a calamity for many people today in this era when you draw their attention to some important matters; whether it is something Allah or His Messenger commanded or forbade; they say to you: My brother, leave us alone with these husks! Something that the Lord of the Worlds brought and His noble Messenger spoke of is described as a husk first!! And based on this false description, it is said: let us leave it alone second!! This is a serious deviation from Islam.
Therefore, we do not accept that there is a husk and a core in Islam, even though we know that the rulings of Islam are not all of the same status; this is without doubt, because we know, for example, that in what a person does to draw near to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), there is what is obligatory and what is voluntary. If one falls short in the obligatory, he will be punished on the Day of Resurrection to the extent of his shortcoming. And in contrast to this obligatory is the voluntary; if one does not do any of the voluntary, he will not be held accountable for it. Similarly, there are forbidden things and there are disliked things; there is this difference. But it is not correct to call the least desirable Islamic ruling a husk; because this term contains an insult to this legal ruling, no matter how slight its ruling is. How can it be, when I have mentioned to you repeatedly his (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: . In another hadith from Abu Hurayrah: .
So this voluntary act, if there is a ruling in the Shari'ah that it is permissible for a Muslim to call a husk, it is this voluntary act; because if you leave it, you have no responsibility for it on the Day of Resurrection. But first, this terminology did not come, and second, you have seen the value of this voluntary act which some people today may call a husk without any exaggeration. Its value is that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) completes the deficiency in the obligatory act in which the Muslim, who is obligated, has fallen short, either in quantity (i.e., in terms of performance); he may have missed many of the obligatory acts, or in quality (i.e., in terms of the form of performance); he may hasten in his prayer; he may tap it out like a crow; he may not be humble in it except a little, and so on; so all these deficiencies are made up for by the voluntary acts. So there is nothing in Islam that it is correct to call a husk.
However, I say to such people who have deviated in their understanding of Islam far away and made it two parts, a core and a husk; we say: it is not possible to preserve the core except by the safety of the husk; so this husk is necessary, if it can be called that. And we feel this reality in material matters; so Islam can be said to have a fence that surrounds the person and protects him. And this is what is indicated in the hadith of al-Nu'man ibn Bashir, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: . Meaning: these ambiguous matters that are confusing to some people, so it is not clear to him whether they are from the forbidden or from the permissible, so he must avoid them; because whoever goes around the protected area is likely to fall into it.
So Supplication here is worship, as you heard in the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). So the Muslim must always be turning with his heart and his body to his Lord (Mighty and Majestic), supplicating to Him to forgive him.