"And when My servants ask you concerning Me, then surely I am very near; I answer the prayer of the suppliant when he calls on Me." - Quran 2:186
"Your Lord has said: `Call upon Me, I will answer you." - Quran 40:60
" God loves nothing better than that His servants ask from Him." - Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (a.s)
"There is no doubt that Allah the Almighty has made His remembrance the polish of the hearts. By means of it, the deaf begin to hear, the blind begin to see and the arrogant become submissive." - Imam Ali (a.s)
"O Allah, I did not worship You for the greed of your paradise nor for the fear of hell, but because You are worthy of all praise." - Imam Ali (a.s.)
Supplicating, or calling upon God, is to address Him with one's praise, thanksgiving, hopes, and needs. It is `prayer' in the personal sense commonly understood from the term by contemporary Christians. The private devotional lives of the great saints of religion often become public, since they act as models for other human beings. The `Sunna' (life) of the Prophet is precisely the practices of the highest exemplification of human goodness made into an ideal which everyone should emulate, and the supplications which the Prophet used to make are part of his sunna.
When he recited them aloud, his Companions would remember and memorize them. They also used to come to him and ask him for supplications which they could recite on various occasions and for different purposes.
One of the oldest collection of prayers in Islamic sources is Al-Sahifat Al-Sajjadiyya, which is one of the most seminal works of Islamic spirituality of the early period. It was composed by the Prophet's great grandson, Imam Ali ibn al-Husain, known as Zayn al-'Abidin (`the adornment of the worshippers').
Adopted from: http://al-islam.org/sahifa/intro.html
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