What is munājāt?

The word munājāt (sin. مناجاة pl. مناجات) is the verbal noun of the Form III transitive verb nājā نَاجَى, to confer with, to speak privately with. As one of the type-names of devotion – the rest listed by Constance Padwick in her study of Islamic prayer manuals are ‘ibāda عابدة, ṣalāt صلاة, sujūd سجود, du‘ā’ دعاء, dhikr ذكر, wird ورد, waẓīfa وظیفة, ḥizb حزب, and ḥirz حرز – munājāt alludes to verse 19:52 in the Qurʾān, where God uses its cognate najiyy نَجِيّ to describe how Moses was summoned from the right-hand side of the Mount as a confidant. Therefore, munājāt is also reasonably interpreted as the ideal state of ritual worship, a mode of praying that emphasizes the private exchange between God and the believer.

In addition, the word munājāt has also been historically defined by texts that announce themselves as munājāt. This body of texts is fascinating for straddling established binaries such as ṣalāt vs. du‘ā’, liturgical vs. spontaneous, or even prayer vs. poetry. They often resort to authority through attribution to saintly figures – amīr al-muʾminīn (d.661), Zayn al-ʻĀbidīn (d.713), al-Shāfiʿī (d.820), Ḥamza ibn ‘Alī (d.1021), Anṣārī (d.1039), sulṭān al-ʻārifīn (d.1166), al-Shādhilī (d.1258), etc. – or patterned invocation (Ilāhī, yā rabb, ḥasbī Allahu, Allāhumma) and oath-taking (by the truth of Qurʾānic teachings, by pre-Islamic prophets, by the prophet Muḥammad, by the Fourteen Infallibles). They also allow for formal and linguistic creativity, stitching poetry and prayer in takhmīs, qaṣīdah, masnavi and in Arabic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish, Chaghatay, Urdu, Uyghur, Indonesian etc.