Call upon Me, and I Will Answer

Ghafir supplies what later Islamic theology treats as the central scriptural command underwriting the practice of supplication: 'call upon Me, I will respond to you; indeed, those who are too arrogant to worship Me will enter Hell in humiliation' (40:60). Classical commentary reads the verse as equating supplication itself with worship, so that refusing to ask God for anything is treated not as neutral self-sufficiency but as a form of the same arrogance the surah elsewhere condemns in Pharaoh's court, linking a verse of comfort directly to the surah's wider argument about pride and humility before God.

The verse became a foundational reference point in later works specifically devoted to the theology and etiquette of dua, supplication, cited to argue that God's responsiveness is assured in principle even where the specific outcome a person requests is not granted in the form or timing expected, a distinction classical scholars drew to reconcile the verse's unconditional promise to respond with the everyday experience of prayers that appear, at least immediately, unanswered. Devotional manuals compiled across the centuries frequently open their sections on supplication with this verse as their scriptural warrant.