Ali (RA) Never Forgot This—It Was His Strength In Every Trial

Ali ibn Abi Talib's Unbreakable Habit

Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) was sitting towards the end of his life, just before his death, and he is teaching his students. The Prophet ﷺ taught me: before you sleep, don't forget to say SubhanAllah 33 times, Alhamdulillah 33 times, Allahu Akbar 34 times.

And then Ali ibn Abi Talib says something even more remarkable than this.

"I never forgot to say this from that day till today." Decades have passed, wars have passed, deaths have happened in my family — and I never forgot to say this before I sleep.

One of his students asked him: "What about the Battle of Siffin?"

The Battle of Siffin — The Worst Day of His Life

The Battle of Siffin was a war that was fought between the Sahaba. It was the worst day in the life of Ali ibn Abi Talib.

You can do your adhkar before sleep on a nice day — on a nice, shiny, sunny day. But what about the day in which the Prophet's companions were fighting each other? The student asks him: "O Ali, surely you forgot to say your adhkar on that day."

He says: "Even that night I did not forget them."

Why? Because this statement — SubhanAllah, Alhamdulillah, Allahu Akbar — became the companion of Ali ibn Abi Talib. It became his best friend. He took it with him everywhere he went. Whether he was in the market, whether it was a hot day or a cold day, a hard day or an easy day — never could he rest. He could not find sleep without saying this remembrance of Allah.

The Century of Forgetfulness

And really, this is the state we are in. This world today is riddled with anxiety, with depression, with so many disorders and so many malfunctions in the human mind. And a lot of this comes down to this one thing:

"And do not be like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves."

If we forget Allah, we will start to forget ourselves. We will lose our sense of who we are. This is the century we live in — the century of the self. The century of the forgetfulness of Allah.

Today everything around you is a distraction. You have Netflix, you have Amazon Prime, you have TV, you have movies, you have cartoons. From the smartphone to the television, everything in this world is there to distract you from Allah.

And so the greatest person in this world is the one who, despite this whirlwind — this storm around him pulling you in all directions away from Allah — every time he sleeps, raises his hands and says:

"O Allah, You are the First and there is none before You. You are the Last and there is none after You."

You are the only one my mind is upon, and You are the only one whose pleasure I seek. In my trials, I call out to You. In my distress, I beseech You. In my pain, I seek Your healing. In my loneliness, I seek Your company. All have abandoned me — but You.