Hyderabad, July 1 -- COMMUNICATING SILENTLY VERSUS COMMUNICATING LOUDLY:It is in this context that Allah says in the Qur'an that supplications should be made humbly, silently and not loudly: "Invoke your Lord with humility and in secret" (al-A'raf, 55). About Prophet Zakariyya (Zechariah), Allah says: "When he called to his Lord a call in secret" (Maryam, 3).

The Prophet (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) also admonished some people who raised their voices while supplicating: "Be merciful to yourselves (i.e., don't raise your voices), for you are not calling a deaf or an absent one, but One Who is All-Hearer, All-Seer. The One Whom you call is closer to one of you than the neck of his animal" [Sahih al-Bukhari].

It follows that if a person f...