Du'a: The Believer's Path To Mercy And A Unique Outlook

The Power of Du'a: Building a Relationship with Allah

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. We praise Him and send blessings upon His Noble Messenger. Allah, the Exalted, has said in His Noble Book, after we seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan, In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

And your Lord said: "Call upon Me, and I will respond to you. Indeed, those who are arrogant about My worship will enter Hell, humbled."

Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said that Allah, the Exalted, said:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3540)

"O son of Adam! As long as you call upon Me and hope for Me, I forgave you for whatever was in you, and I did not care. O son of Adam! If your sins had reached the heavens, then you sought My forgiveness, I forgave you, and I did not care."

The Unparalleled Outlook of a Muslim

Towards life in general, we see that it's completely unparalleled — that no other type of religion, no other person can compare to the outlook of a Muslim. And we see that any situation that comes upon a Muslim, that situation will be beneficial for that person, whether it's prosperity, whether it's adversity, whether it's times that are good, whether it's times that are bad. Rasulullah ﷺ mentioned in a hadith in Sahih Muslim, where he states:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2999)

Rasulullah ﷺ is describing the state of a Muslim, the outlook of a Muslim — that how strange is the matter of a believer, that whatever happens to him in life, it is good for him. If something good happens to him, he is going through times of prosperity, and then this Muslim will thank Allah and he will be rewarded for that time, even when he is going through his pleasures in life, even when he is going through times of prosperity. And that same Muslim, when he is going through times of difficulty, whether it's physical anguish, or mental anguish, whatever pain he is going through, the Muslim exercises sabr, he turns towards Allah, and he is rewarded for that pain and that difficulty he is put through. Any situation a person is going through, whether bad or good, for a Muslim, he has an outlook, he has an outlook through which he can channel whatever he is going through, and turn towards Allah.

Allah says in the Qur'an:

Allah is addressing us directly, and He is saying: "O My slaves who have transgressed upon themselves — do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins." Those who have done a mountain of wrong deeds, whatever you are going through, He is attentive towards you.

Allah is directly saying to us: "Turn towards Me, I will answer you." And when we see that Allah is so readily attentive towards us, so readily attentive towards His slaves, then why do we find so much difficulty in making du'a to Allah? Why do I find so much difficulty when Allah is saying countless times throughout the Qur'an: call towards Me, I will answer you. No matter how high your sins reach, if you turn towards Me, I will forgive you. When Allah is so merciful towards us, why is it so difficult for us to make du'a to Allah? Why is it that after a few minutes I run out of things to say in my du'a?

The reason for this is because our perspective on du'a has become completely skewed, and the purpose of du'a is not before our eyes. Then du'a, or for that matter any other ibadah that is there, becomes difficult. It becomes burdensome. If our outlook on du'a is that when I'm going through some type of dire difficulty then I'll turn to Allah, then we have completely misunderstood what the power of du'a is, what the value of du'a is.

The Du'as of the Prophets

To truly understand what is du'a, what does it mean to raise my hands to Allah, let's look in the Qur'an at the du'a of the anbiya. How did the Prophets of Allah, those that were the most closest to Allah — how was their du'a? They were able to make du'a for countless hours, without hesitation raising their hands to Allah and praying to Allah. What was the content of their du'a that made them so close to Allah?

We see in the beginning of Surah Maryam:

Where Zakariyya is calling out to Allah, he says: "O Allah! My bones have become enfeebled within me, and my hair has become completely white and grey. And I have never been ungrateful in calling out to You."

We see in this portion of du'a that Zakariyya is making, he is not asking for anything yet. In this beginning of the du'a, he's just opening his heart out to Allah. He's describing his current state — that I'm feeling weak, I have become old. He has not even asked for anything yet from Allah.

We see the du'a of Ayyub:

Ayyub is calling out to Allah, he says: "Some harm has afflicted me, and You are the most merciful out of those who are merciful." Once again we see in the du'a of Ayyub, that he is not asking anything yet from Allah. He's just saying, some harm has afflicted me, and You are the most merciful out of those who are merciful.

We see when Yunus was swallowed in the belly of the whale, Allah again mentions:

Darkness upon darkness, Yunus cannot see a single thing. He's in the belly of the fish. He's saying: "There is no god except You, Glory be to You. Indeed, I am from those who have done wrong."

And we can mention countless examples of every single du'a of the anbiya, but we see a constant pattern. Even the du'as of Nabi ﷺ — we know Nabi ﷺ in one of the most traumatic parts of his life in Ta'if, when he was stoned, and he escaped from the people of Ta'if, and when he reached the valley and he raised his hands up to shoulder level, and he made du'a to Allah. He said:

(Reported by al-Tabarani in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir and others)

Nabi ﷺ was saying in this du'a: "O Allah, I complain to You about my own weakness, my own difficulty, my own lack of strength. O Allah, who have You left me in the hands of?" And the du'a is quite lengthy. And again we see Rasulullah ﷺ at this point in the du'a, he has not asked for a single thing. Rather, like the other anbiya, he's simply pouring his heart out to Allah.

Du'a as a Relationship

We see a very similar parallel when we look at any of our relationships with the ones we love — whether it's our spouses, whether it's our parents, whether it's our siblings, whether it's our friends. When we're having a conversation with them, it's not limited to one minute, two minutes, three minutes. Rather, when we are talking to the ones we love, we can go on talking for hours — whether it's half an hour, one hour, two hours, three hours. We continue to talk and talk and talk, and we don't know where the time goes.

When any type of difficulty a person is going through — a husband comes back home from work, mentally tired from whatever happened at work — when he talks to his spouse, all that worry that was gnawing away at him begins to wash away. We see a wife where she might have been going through a lot of difficulty throughout the day; whatever it was, when she sees her husband and she starts pouring her heart out, then immediately all that difficulty and that pain she's going through begins to wash away. When we talk to our friends, our loved ones, similarly, any type of difficulty that's burdening us, just by opening our heart out to someone, by talking to someone, we are able to channel that difficulty and get rid of it, and we see that burden coming off of our shoulders.

When we go through some type of difficulty, we don't turn towards some random stranger on the street. Rather we turn towards those who are close to us. We turn towards those who we love — our parents, our spouses, our friends, our siblings, whoever that may be. We don't turn towards someone who we have no relationship with. If a person is only able to muster a few minutes to talk to someone, and they run out of things to say after that, that itself is a sign that there is no real relationship there. He doesn't have a strong connection with that person.

So then, if we, when we're making du'a to Allah, are at most able to make du'a for two or three minutes, and then we run out of things to say — that shows that our relationship with Allah is no more than that with a stranger. That when we're going through difficulty, and we find that we don't turn towards du'a, that we don't have a habit of making du'a, that we cannot make du'a for more than five minutes — that shows that there is no real relationship with Allah.

So, when we see that the true understanding of du'a is that we pour our hearts out to Allah — yes, we ask from Allah, but it's more than that. It's not limited to that. How can we make our du'a like the du'a of the Prophet ﷺ? How can we bring our du'a up to a level where we are able to talk to Allah for hours on end?

Ramadan and the Imam's Du'a

Right now we're in the month of Rajab, just a few days are left. And then, in a few days, the month of Sha'ban will start. And before we know it, the month of Ramadan will be upon us. And we see that in Ramadan, when the Khatm al-Qur'an rolls around, and we see the Imam make a half-hour du'a, one-hour du'a — and we're so impressed. We're so impressed with the Imam's du'a, that how can he make du'a for so long? What a beautiful du'a. But are we not capable of holding a similar length conversation with the ones we love? Are we not able to talk to our spouses, our friends for hours on end — longer than that? So we can make our relationship with Allah exactly like that.

How to Improve Our Du'a

How can we improve in our du'a? Number one, we change our perception of du'a. Du'a is not simply something I do when I'm in dire need of something. Rather, any type of difficulty I go through, whether it may be small, whether it may be big, I will first turn to Allah. We may have to force ourselves for 10, 20, 30 years — we're not used to doing this. But we start making a habit from today, that any difficulty I go through, I'll turn towards Allah.

The sahabah themselves, who reached the pinnacle of Iman, who are the closest to Allah — they would make du'as for simple things, for a shoelace, for salt. Imagine, it doesn't even come to our minds when we need salt, when we need a shoelace, when we need something simple, that we just go to the store and get it. It doesn't even cross our minds to make du'a for something like that. But we see the reliance of the sahabah upon Allah — that whatever it was, whether it was the smallest of the smallest things or the biggest of the biggest things, they would turn towards Allah first and foremost. And we see what effect that had on their lives. The Iman of the sahabah, who were ready to lay down their lives for Allah, who were ready to lay down their lives for Rasulullah ﷺ — it's because they nurtured and built this relationship.

Structure Your Du'a

So when we are working on our du'as, we need to first provide a structure. Understand how a du'a works. A du'a isn't simply: I raise my hands and say, "Allah, I want this, I want this, I want X, Y, Z," and then ameen, and then we walk away. Rather, a du'a has a structure. We start by praising Allah. If we don't know how to do that, then we can prepare for it. Take some time out for Allah, take some time out for our Lord — we write down on a piece of paper what we will say in praise of Allah. Think of things to say. If we don't know what to say in our du'a, then we should prepare for it.

We think of different ways to praise Allah. The same things that we open up about, the same things that we say to our spouses, our friends, our parents — we say the same things to Allah. My work — I went through this type of difficulty. At school — I went through that type of difficulty. These are the things on my mind. We open ourselves to Allah.

The Relationship May Feel Artificial at First

This relationship that we are trying to build with Allah, at first may seem very artificial. It may be very difficult. When we have a normal conversation, we hear that person talking back to us. But we can't hear Allah. But Allah has said:

When you call towards Me, I will answer you. It may be that when we call towards Allah, we don't physically hear something. But that difficulty that was gnawing away at our hearts — Allah can remove that difficulty and put sakinah, put contentment, into our hearts. Allah does not have to give us a verbal response to respond to us. Allah is ready to answer us; we just have to put in that effort to turn towards Him.

We see these relationships that we have towards the ones that are close to us — whether it's our parents, our families, our friends, our spouses. We've now reached a level where we are very close to them. But at one point, we didn't know these people. At one point, we met our spouse for the first time. At one point, we met these friends for the first time. And we were no more than strangers. But day by day, week by week, year by year, we nurtured and built our relationship until it blossomed to what it is today. If we were able to do that with people who were no more than strangers, we can do the same thing with Allah.

Day by day, we take it day by day. On the first day I make du'a, I may only be able to make du'a for one minute, and I run out of things to say. That's fine. The next day, I aim for two minutes. The next day, three minutes. The next day, four minutes. Every single day, we try to increase upon that du'a. This relationship may be artificial, it may seem strange in the beginning, but day after day working on it, week after week working on it — then that will blossom into a real relationship.

If we're making du'a and we're running out of things to say, we can say that in our du'a:

"O Allah, I don't know what to say in my du'a. O Allah, I don't know what more to say, but I want to keep talking to You. I want to build a relationship with You. O Allah, allow me to create a ta'alluq with You. Allow me to create a relationship with You." When we ask Allah, when we beg Allah, then that relationship Allah will facilitate for us. Allah will make it easy for us.

Allah is Always Listening

Allah is that Being who is always listening. Whatever difficulty we may be going through, when we call to Allah, He is attentive towards us. He is ready to listen to us at any time. Even in the dead of the night where everyone is sleeping, Allah is ready to listen to us. When everyone has turned their back towards us, Allah is turning towards us. No matter how egregious of a sin we have committed — a sin we can't even utter in front of the ones we love, we can't tell anyone about — Allah is not only ready to listen; Allah is ready to forgive it.

Rasulullah ﷺ mentioned in a hadith qudsi that Allah says:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3540)

"O son of Adam! If you have called upon Me and hoped for Me, I am ready to forgive you for anything you have done — and I do not care what you have done. O son of Adam! If your sins reach until the heights of the skies," — none of us have sins that high — "and you seek forgiveness from Me, I am ready to forgive you. I will readily forgive you, and I do not care what you have done."

We see that Allah is readily attentive towards us. No matter what we have done, no matter what pain we are going through, no matter what is weighing heavy upon our shoulders, Allah is ready to accept us, ready to listen to us. We just have to make that effort — that small step towards turning towards Allah — and turn towards Him in proper du'a.

Closing Du'a

So we ask Allah to grant us the ability to gain the haqiqah of du'a — the true reality of du'a. We ask Allah to enable us to make du'a to Him day in day out, week by week, year by year, and to create a relationship with Him like the relationship of the anbiya, like the relationship of the sahabah, may Allah be pleased with them all.

وَآخِرُ دَعْوَانَا أَنِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

Announcements

Please pass the donation boxes. Sadaqah wards off calamities and draws the mercy of Allah. Nabi ﷺ mentioned in a narration that charity given on the day of Jumu'ah is greater in reward than any other day. This was reported in Musannaf 'Abd al-Razzaq.

As for our weekly programs:

• Please join us every Monday night for a podcast-style conversation with Mufti Azimuddin, alongside a co-host. The community will have a chance to ask questions and engage in an open interactive discussion after Isha Salah.
• On Tuesday, dive deeper into Tafsir and uncover its timeless wisdoms at our Tafsir: Reflect and Connect with Mufti Minhajuddin Ahmed.
• Our Thursday night Urdu program covers Imam Tirmidhi's Al-Shama'il al-Muhammadiyyah with Imam Abdul Basit.
• Join us for our weekly Saturday Team Fajr. Currently we are covering the lives of the sahabah, may Allah be pleased with them.
• Next Saturday, January 24th and 25th, we will be having our annual No-Tech Retreat with Sheikh Hashim Ahmed.
• The Tafheem weekend adult classes will be starting this January 17th through June 2026, inshallah. There are multiple options: online, on-site, and sisters-only classes taught by female scholars. Classes will be held on Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00am to 1:15pm. On Saturday: Fiqh of Purification, Islamic Etiquette, and Aqeedah Part 2. On Sunday: Fiqh of Salah Part 2, Seerah of the Makkan Period, and Seerah of the Madani Period.

And please make du'a for Nuzha Fatima and pray for her health, inshallah.