As time goes on, leaders and practitioners of different religions feel the necessity and need for tolerance and friendly relations among themselves more and more. One very effective way to achieve such ideal state is by stressing on commonalities and using them as bases for constructive dialogue and fruitful friendships. Some unifying factors are external to religions, like the secular humanistic ones, that can be bases for dialogue between the religious and the non-religious. However, there are some commonalities among religious people in particular. One of the widest of such bases, which includes theistic and non-theistic religions and traditions, is the connection to the Divine.
Like most of other religions, followers of Islam see connection to their God through supplication and prayer as one of the main parts of their religious consciousness. Whether a personal request, a formal glorification and ritualistic act of worship, or a simple and spontaneous expression of gratitude and gratefulness to God; various types of prayer seem to be corresponding to different mental and emotional modes of man. However, as there are always at least two sides in every connection and prayer is believed to be a kind of connection, a general theme repeats itself in different types of prayer, that there is a need for proper relevance in the both sides, for a real and effective connection to take place. By analyzing some prayer and supplication texts in Shia Islam, the present study aims at bringing into light this general theme in Islamic prayer, that is, the prayer’s relevance to man as one side of the connection, and its relation to the Divine, as the second side of the connection.
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