" And when my slaves ask you concerning Me, then (answer them), I am indeed near (to them by my Knowledge). I responds to the invocations of the supplicant when he calls on Me (without any mediator or intercessor). So let them obey Me and beleive in Me, so that they may be led aright"
I still recall from one of the tafseer series lecture by Ustaz Kariman that in the context of Surah 2-18, there is no "Kul" word which refers to the word "say" or "tell" following the ayat that starts with "when my slaves ask you concerning Me.." According to Ustaz Kariman, the word "kul" was intended to be dropped to convey the seriousness of Allah in telling His slaves that that they can interact directly to Him for help without using a third person. The continuation of that ayat also says that "I responds to the invocations of the supplicant when he calls on Me" which also means that Allah will answer the prayer of His slave if he prays to Him. However, the last portion of the Ayat clearly says that "So let them obey Me and believe in Me, so that they may be led aright", which indicates that, for a doa to be accepted, one must first believe in Allah and obey all His commands.
As I am not a scholar in Al-Quran, my shallow understanding of this Ayat is briefly described as following.
1. As a Muslim, we can actually pray or make DOA directly to Allah without having a third person to do that for us. This is because, Allah is always near to His slave and always listen to all his doa and predicament.
2. For a doa to be accepted by Allah, we must first believe in Him and obey all his commands which essentially can be summarised in two: Do's and Don't.
Ayat 2-18 is a definitive way described in Al-Quran of how we as Muslim can always ask anything to Allah directly. This ayat also tells us that if we are a believer and an obedient Muslim, our doa will be accepted by Allah. Indirectly, our dependency on others for help can also be lessened if not eliminated if we really understand this ayat and put it into practice. Wallahhua'lam...
