Fajr Khatirah | Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | 10/07/23

May Allah grant all of us inshaaAllah, and whatever khair and good we hear, we ask Him to give us the ability to put it into practice and to propagate it to others as well, with our actions and with our speech. Since we are here discussing the different aspects of the Prophet ﷺ's life and how he is a perfect example for every single one of us, no matter what the situation may be — from amongst those thousands of things that a person can speak about, one of the things that we can also consider important this morning to address as a reminder — nothing is brand new, everything is there, we have to put it into practice — is the fact that Rasulullah ﷺ, how he showed his dependence upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in all his affairs.

And the reliance he showed upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and the consistent du'a and consistent supplication that he made throughout the day, throughout the night, at every occasion, towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, whereby he expressed the fact that as human beings and as the creation of Allah, we are utterly dependent upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in every moment. And the best way forward is for a person to acknowledge that — to acknowledge that and ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for goodness and khair wherever the situation may be.

The Power of Du'a

Every single thing is destined by Allah. Everything is muqaddar, everything is destined by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. However, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, along with that destiny, has placed upon us the responsibility of making an effort. And along with that effort, part of that effort is du'a as well. Part of that effort is we supplicate to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. There is a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ in which he said:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 2139)

That if there is anything that could avert destiny, it would have been supplication. If there is anything that has the power to avert destiny, to change destiny, it is du'a. That is the power Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has kept in a sincere plea to Him. When you sincerely speak to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and ask Him for help, Allah azza wa jal is willing to listen. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is willing to change whatever a person is requiring to change.

And Nabi ﷺ showed us that even in the most difficult of circumstances, he was never fazed by what he was met with. Instead, he resorted to du'a. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Qur'an, in various places, how the prophets in the past also did the same. Allah says, in Surah Ghafir (Mu'min):

"I assign all my affairs to Allah. In all my affairs, I turn them over — all my affairs, I turn the file over to Allah." إِنَّ اللَّهَ بَصِيرٌ بِالْعِبَادِ — Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is all-watchful over His servants.

No matter what the situation may be — if you're against an entire army, and you're alone and just yourself, which was the case with all the prophets. They didn't come with armies. They didn't come with a group of people even of this sort. They came alone. One man versus an entire nation, or nations, or communities. And they had to invite them towards Allah and try to avert or change the course of their life — of the whole community who was living with shirk, living with kufr. And to explain to them that this lifestyle is unacceptable; you have to come on this other side.

It's so hard to change one individual who has got a bad habit. Imagine you're trying to change the flow of the direction of the entire masses. Completely — not just the road. It's easy even to change the streets; you put up blockades and people stop, they'll respect that, they'll stop. Say "detour, go the other way." But you're telling people to change their whole lifestyle, their purpose and their maqsad of life. Very, very challenging.

But a nabi — how did a nabi do that? The nabi did that with lots of effort and lots of du'a. And so when we reflect on the Quranic du'as of the prophets, and when we reflect on the du'a of the Prophet ﷺ, we will gain so much guidance. This topic is very lengthy. By no means am I addressing it from all its angles. A few things that come to my heart, I'll share with you. Otherwise, you have attended many workshops and duroos on it. This is meant to be simply a reminder for myself and all of us here.

The Prophet ﷺ's du'as, along with the du'as of the Qur'an, are a huge treasure trove for all of us. One is to read through those du'as, and one is to reflect and ponder on the meanings of each one. And two, supplicate to Allah with the proper passion that is required. Then we will see, subhanAllah, the benefits of it in our life. So the Rabbanas are there. Each Rabbana — it is the words of Allah in the Qur'an. Very powerful.

The Du'a for Steadfastness of the Heart

One of the du'as of the Prophet ﷺ that he used to make very often was:

"O Allah, do not allow our hearts to become crooked after You have given them guidance. And grant us a special mercy from Your end." إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْوَهَّابُ — "Indeed, You are the One who is the best of those who give gifts."

This is from Surah Āl 'Imrān. This is a gift from Allah. What's the gift? Hidayah. Guidance. The ability to recognize right from wrong. The ability to practice on the right and neglect and leave and shun falsehood. This is guidance from Allah.

It's a nur that Allah places in the heart of a believer. Either you have it or you don't. Once that nur is there, then all of a sudden you will be able to differentiate between right and wrong.

When you're walking — imagine hiking in a forest. Imagine hiking, and it's nighttime, it's after Maghrib. If you do not have a flashlight, imagine how dangerous the whole situation is. You don't know where you're gonna fall. You don't know where you're gonna falter. You don't know if there are snakes there, if there are predatory animals nearby. No idea — you're just walking in the dark. It's very dangerous. But if a person has a flashlight, a cell phone light, all of a sudden it becomes very clear what is beneficial and what is harmful. What is a stick and what is a snake — a stick that you can use to help walk, and a snake that will bite a person.

That nur is required. Similarly, the nur of iman — if we have it, things will make sense. And if we don't have it, we won't be able to understand what's happening. Today when we read and see the lives of the disbelievers, and those who have left the deen, Muslims who are far away from the deen, subhanAllah, we don't see happiness. We see emptiness, hollowness, problems upon problems upon problems. And leading a life that is not worthy even for an animal to live.

Many times you'll see that — involved in so many sins. But shaytan and their nafs have deceived them into thinking: as long as you are happy, as long as you are satisfied, this is a good life. No matter how despicable, no matter how lowly this is — but as long as you think it's fine, that's what counts. And so this is a society and a group of people who are worshipping themselves. The ultimate arbitrator of truth and falsehood is their own self — the nafs. The nafs decides: this seems to be good, let me take it. This seems to be bad, let me neglect it. And so, this is scary.

Seeking Refuge from the Era of Fitna

This is where Nabi ﷺ sought refuge in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala from a time where the knowledgeable persons will never be followed, and no one will have shame from the forbearing person. You know, you have someone who is patient, and you feel bad — I keep on bothering him, I should stop. But people at that time, they will not follow people of knowledge. And they will not have any shame from the people who have hilm.

They will not have any shame from the people who have any forbearance. Nabi ﷺ sought refuge from that era. And every person will follow his own nafs — he says, if I think it's right, it's gotta be right. That's the worst time. Because there's no more truth anymore. Truth has become subjective. Whatever you think is right is going to be regarded as right. And we are living in that era as we speak — not fully; of course it's going to get more challenging. We're still at a time when people are still... there are still some groups of people who are willing to listen.

But moreover, we are seeing within our own homes that people tend to be happy with what they see. Even a child — what he sees as right, he says, this is what I think. I don't need to listen to anyone else. So this is the loss of hidayah. The loss of hidayah is when now the nafs becomes the full judge.

Mashwara and Istikhara

That's why we have mashwara. That's why we have istikhara. This is a part of our sunnah — the Prophet's ﷺ sunnah. Whenever you need to decide something, consult Allah. Seek khair from Allah. And consult the people whose opinion you value — people of experience, people of knowledge, people who love you, people who care for you. Take their opinion into consideration. And you will see inshaaAllah — the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Al-Mu'jam al-Awsat, al-Tabarāni, Hadith 6627)

That whoever does istikhara and whoever does mashwara will never be a loser and will never be remorseful. You will not be remorseful, and you will not be a loser if we make mashwara.

No matter how smart we may be, how experienced we may be — if we start making decisions on our own without consultation, based on how I think I need to make a decision, beloved friends, this is going to lead to lots of harm. Because none of us can be free from our nafs. None of us can be free from our shaytan.

That was only Rasulullah ﷺ who said, فَأَسْلَمَ — his qareen from the jinn, his partner, the shaytan that is attached with all of us, he said فَأَسْلَمَ — "he became a Muslim," or فَأُسْلِمَ — "I have been saved from him." But all of us sitting here — that's not our scenario. That's not our situation. We all have a qareen that is constantly with us. And then we have our horrible nafs that is getting stronger by the day. And that nafs makes us do horrible things.

Mistakes must happen, will happen, are happening — in husband-wife relationships, in parents-children relationships, in sibling relationships, in administrations of various non-for-profits, administrations within the for-profits. Anywhere you go, mistakes are always happening. And a big chunk of that is when people begin to follow their own decisions. They don't consult with anyone. They don't make mashwara. Then you can pretty much guarantee that problems will arise.

The way to bring goodness into our homes, our masajid, our institutions is to have these two things: mashwara and istikhara. This is a teaching of Rasulullah ﷺ — that you consult and have a group of people you consult with; and number two, seek istikhara from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then say: Ya Allah, what should I do?

The Fear of Losing Hidayah

So going back to this prophetic du'a — O Allah, do not allow our hearts to become crooked after You have given us guidance. Why are we being taught to ask this? Because this will happen. People will be given guidance and then the guidance will be taken back. Don't think that if you've been given something, Allah cannot snatch it back from you. Wealth gets snatched away. Health gets snatched away. Position and power get snatched away. And hidayah is the same.

I think most of us don't think like that. People who are wealthy, many times they're afraid that they're going to lose their wealth. People who have managerial positions — even high-end, in corporate C-suite positions — they're scared, because it happens. You're told: next week you have to leave the company. You're leaving at the end of the business day. A person has a corner suite and he's also being told to leave. So people of the dunya — in their wealth, in their position, in the presidency, in the governorship — everyone is afraid of losing the kursi, the power. Because we live in a dunya where the chair comes and goes. Wealth comes and goes.

How come the people of hidayah — how come we're not afraid of losing hidayah? When was the last time we thought: Oh my God, what's going to happen if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala snatches away deen from me, and I roam around aimlessly like so many other people? A whole week goes by that I never visit the house of Allah. A whole week goes by that I don't open the mushaf and read. A whole week goes by that I don't take the name of Allah and do dhikr. Can this happen? Of course it can happen. When can it happen? It can happen today.

But there has to be a certain level of fear. Ask yourself — are we afraid of this? How many of us sitting here — those who come for Fajr regularly, those who are in the retreat — how many of us have actually thought about it: what if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala takes away the nur of iman from us? And then when someone says, "The Qur'an says..." — I don't care. "Hadith says it" — so what? It means nothing to me.

My beloved friends, it doesn't even take — I promise you, Wallahi — it doesn't take a second. For you to lose your bank balance, it might take a few minutes. For you to lose your prominence, it might take a minute. But for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to simply switch off the light of iman in our heart, it doesn't even take a second. One second it's there, one second it's gone. Because everything is belief in the unseen. And if the belief in the unseen is taken away, then this whole talk is nonsense. The hadith talk at 10 o'clock is nonsense. Everything makes no sense — like, what for what? Why should I do this? Why should I sit here? Why should I listen?

And when you see people who are going through this phase, may Allah protect us — it's very scary. Because there were people who were with you last night, and by morning they're like that. There were people with you in the morning, attending Fajr salah. But by that evening and afternoon, you speak to them, they're different people: "I don't believe in that anymore."

The Growing Trend of Leaving Religion

I was just reading an article two days ago about how right now the number of people — the "nones," they call it. Not N-U-N, but N-O-N-E. The "nones" are people who say they're no longer following any religion. And this sector by far is the largest, fastest-growing sector of the country. From 1991 till now, organized religion — Christian, Judaism, Islam — have lost 100 million followers. In 1991, about 6% identified themselves as the "nones," people who are not part of any faith group. And now we're at over 30%. Over 30%. 100 million people since 1991 have given up faith. Many of course become agnostic, atheist. Others say they have become "spiritual" — "We're not going to follow organized religion. We just feel like we don't want to do that. We want to worship God, or whoever we think is the supreme being, in a manner that works with our schedule." And basically — that's nafs. All of this is nafs.

So that's the fastest growing sector — and from the Muslim community as well. The number of people attending the masajid, the number of people attending programs — we have a problem in that we many times improperly assess our progress. When we have a bunch of people in one place showing up, we say, mashaAllah, this is great. Not knowing that for every person who's sitting here, how many people there are within our families — how our families in 30 years have expanded, and within those families, kids, grandkids, and so forth.

Let's just look — each person, look within their own family. Your siblings and their kids. Your own children. Your sister's husband's family. Your brother's wife's family. And start seeing from all those people how many are connected with the house of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. How many of those people pray at least one salah in the masjid, know their fara'id, have their aqeedah correct, are learning and trying their best to follow the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, and are raising their children in that proper manner. Then we start getting a better idea of what's happening.

So this du'a is of extreme importance: O Allah, do not allow our hearts to become crooked after You have given us guidance.

When Rasulullah ﷺ was asked, "Ya Rasulullah, why do you make this du'a so often?" he responded by saying that indeed the hearts of Banu Adam are between the fingers of Allah — He may turn them in any direction that He wishes. "I'm afraid. My heart is in the hands of Allah. He may turn it in any direction." That is why he made this du'a most often.

Seeking Refuge from Doubt After Conviction

Then there is a du'a that the Prophet ﷺ used to make very often, found in Al-Hizb al-A'zam and similar books of hadith:

O Allah, I seek refuge in You from having doubt after having been gifted with conviction. It's as simple as that. You have faith in Allah and the unseen, and Allah forbid if it gets tested and the iman is taken away, a person doesn't believe.

Beloved friends, we are seeing all around us — people who have been gifted knowledge, people who have memorized the Qur'an, large portions of it — they are suffering from this loss of conviction. And that loss of conviction is what makes them not want to show up to the program. Like a father asked me yesterday — and every day I get this question — "How do I bring my son to the masjid? How do I bring my daughter to the programs? They're never interested. Everything else is fine. As soon as I'm talking about this — 'Oh please, no, no, no, forget it, you go.'"

The issue is, the masjid and the programs of the masjid don't mean much. It is a very boring, long, unnecessary exercise that is futile for the person who doesn't fully believe in what we are doing — doesn't believe fully in the power of salah, in the power of dhikr, in the power of du'a. And so instead of focusing on the symptoms, we have to focus on the root cause. And the root cause is the weakening of faith. The weakening of the faith is the reason why you have a bunch of symptoms. So we need to address that issue.

The Importance of Hadith Education

Yes, we're going to make lots of du'a for our children. But then we have to see how we can strengthen their iman — by having discussions of the unseen, by answering their questions, by having academic discussions. Today we're going to have an amazing workshop on hadith. You know how many youth and young adults and elders think hadith is completely fake — that there's no proper method by which it was preserved — and "let's just follow the Qur'an." This is what some Middle Eastern politicians have figured out as well: if you want to destroy the ummah and poke holes in Islam, the biggest obstacle to that is hadith. So we've got to get rid of hadith, say we're going to revise it, all of this stuff is not authentic, all of this stuff is fake, we've got to focus only on the Qur'an and maybe a few hundred hadith.

What is that? It's not that they care about the preservation of Islam. It's about the introduction of a new type of Islam which has nothing to do with the deen that Rasulullah ﷺ left behind. But what do you have? You have hadith blocking that. Because hadith will give you the interpretation of the Qur'an — not based on how you wanted to interpret it, but the way how Allah wanted it to be interpreted.

"Indeed, We revealed the Reminder and indeed We are its Protectors." How is Allah protecting the Qur'an? Through the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. So now our youth and young adults are going through lots of confusion about hadith. And because of that, they become disenfranchised from Islam entirely. You tell them, "Beta, this is hadith. Come on, let's do this. This is sunnah." And they say, "Who said so?" They'll just raise random objections.

Now as a father, as a mother, we don't know how to deal with this. Because he's read something online and now he's coming and telling us. How are we going to answer this? Well, this is where these types of programs are so beneficial — where you have a panel of actual scholars, academics who are speaking on topics they have studied for years and teach every day. That's what they do every day — they teach hadith. And say: okay, you don't know, I don't know how to answer you — you sit in front of the scholar and you listen. And then you can ask every objection that you have.

But then, after that — if you don't attend the program, then you have no right to come and object to me. Because I gave you an opportunity. I gave you a window to come and learn. And you say, "No, I don't want to learn." Well, then that's a problem. The problem is your nafs. It's not that you're confused or you don't know — it's that you don't want to know. You don't want to obey. Because knowing forces you to go against your nafs. They say ignorance is bliss — which is wrong. But people like to use it that way. "No, I don't know, I want to deny it. I don't know about it."

The Spiritual Dimension

Bring people to this program — for the hadith workshop. Number two — it's not just knowledge. A big chunk of why we're suffering what we're suffering, honestly, is because of the spiritual — the lack of spirituality, the lack of ruhaniyat. That also you're going to get in the house of Allah. That is also you're going to get in the various other talks, through dhikr, and through du'a.

So du'a of the moms and dads goes a long way. Continue to make du'a for our children who are slowly leaving the deen. And don't give up. Every single day make du'a for them. Don't give up. Every single day, spend 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 minutes — as much as you care about your children — spend time making du'a for their hidayah. Spend time making du'a for their hidayah at tahajjud time, at every salah.

And then find a way you can break the ice and bring them to deeni gatherings. You could say: "Come for just half an hour, we'll have tea together, we'll go out to eat, we'll have some fun — but just come for half an hour, sit in the gathering and leave." And a big portion of this is building friendships — allowing your children to build trustworthy, good friendships with people of knowledge. When they see a human element of a scholar or of an imam, or a well-learned individual of the community, that they can connect with and have access to by asking questions — this will inshaaAllah be very beneficial.

Many fathers will say, "I didn't know how — what am I supposed to do with my son?" I said, just bring them and you hand them over to us. Just let them know: "That's my son." But you have to bring him here. Then inshaaAllah our students and ourselves will take it from there. But you have to bring them into the environment. If you sit there and try to say "Go, go" — grab his hand, speak to him — it's not going to work. Let it become organic. Allow them to come into an environment like this. And with the will of Allah, if you sit there and make du'a, they will have a meaningful conversation that will turn into a meaningful relationship.

Just a few days ago back in Chicago, I saw at Asr time two boys come in, and they were just sitting on their phones — they didn't pray. Maghrib time came, they were still around, and they came and sat down again on their phones. Salah was going on and they weren't praying. So I heard one uncle go to one of them and say, "Beta, are you not praying? What are you doing?" And he loudly said, "I don't know how to pray." That uncle left because the salah had already begun. But I overheard this. So I asked one of the students, I said: "Go say salam to these boys." And that day we had food downstairs for the students — nice home-cooked food during exam week. I said, "Why don't you take these boys downstairs? Make their ikram, speak to them, get to know them, get their phone numbers."

So alhamdulillah, that's exactly what happened. They came downstairs — all organic. "Hey, you want to come eat? Come downstairs." "Oh, nice, why not? Why should we not eat?" Great food. And they started conversing. This person — a local Muslim, born Muslim — it was his first time coming to the masjid. He goes to a local public high school, in our area which is packed with masajid and whatnot. He had never been to a masjid. Honestly, he just said, "I don't even know how to pray." Alhamdulillah, they exchanged phone numbers, and the student said: "Listen, we have basketball tournaments here, we have other programs here. It would be nice to have you come." And I told the student: just keep up with salam and du'a for him. Give it some time. You can't all of a sudden push someone into the deen. But keep connected. Invite him to some tournament, some other fun event. And then, alhamdulillah, use that opportunity to springboard your discussion about deen.

How many subhanAllah, born Muslims are there out there who are going through the same scenario? But we have to be smart about how we get them back into the deen. But if we make lots of du'a and we plan — inshaaAllah ta'ala it can work.

The Comprehensive Prophetic Du'a

So the one du'a from the Qur'an I shared with you. And I want to share with you one du'a from the Rasulullah's ﷺ hadith. Every single gathering, the Prophet ﷺ would not leave without making this du'a:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2720)

Number one: اللَّهُمَّ أَصْلِحْ لَنَا دِينَنَا — O Allah, rectify our deen, our religion. Rectify our religion الَّذِي هُوَ عِصْمَةُ أَمْرِنَا — which is the crux of all of our affairs. Everything is about our deen. O Allah, please take care of our deen. Because we depend on that.

Number two: وَأَصْلِحْ لَنَا دُنْيَانَا الَّتِي فِيهَا مَعَاشُنَا — And O Allah, please take care of our dunya, in which we have to live.

Number three: وَأَصْلِحْ لَنَا آخِرَتَنَا الَّتِي فِيهَا مَعَادُنَا — And take care of our hereafter, in which we have to return to Allah.

Deen, dunya, akhirah.

وَاجْعَلِ الْحَيَاةَ زِيَادَةً لَنَا فِي كُلِّ خَيْرٍ — O Allah, make our life, in every day that we live, a source of increasing our blessings. Meaning: as you grow older, as I grow older — we all grow older — it shouldn't be that we'll lose out on our blessings. But instead, every single day that we grow older, it should be an increase in blessings. Until we reach the last day of our life. And the last day of our life should be the pinnacle of the blessings.

It comes in one du'a:

O Allah, make the best days of my life the day I will come to meet You. That should be the best. How beautiful would that be. That's why those elders and pious righteous ones — you hear them passing away on Jumu'ah. Dying a death of a shaheed, dying in Madinah al-Munawwarah. This is what you call dying the best death — when they had reached the pinnacle. Right after Hajj in Mina, right after Umrah, going to Madinah and passing away in Jannat al-Baqi', and buried there. So many amazing stories that we hear. This is an example of their du'a being accepted.

Just yesterday, subhanAllah, I received notice of a scholar. I had an opportunity to go visit London this summer for a little bit — London and England — I went with one of my teachers. The purpose of my visit was to spend some time with one of my teachers and then go visit all the ulama that he was going to be visiting. So alhamdulillah I got a chance to meet tens and tens of scholars. Alhamdulillah. So after my teacher left back to South Africa, and I had a day in London, I went around — London is unbelievable, the traffic, subhanAllah, it's a very interesting place. But my job was not to go see Big Ben; my job was to go see the big ulama.

So everywhere I went, I said: "Give me the list, please, and get me somewhere." And I thank Allah subhanAllah for that opportunity. It was a very tight schedule because just to get to the airport takes about two hours. But there was one scholar someone had told me to go visit — a senior scholar. So a brother took me and said, "I'll just wait outside, there's no parking, you go inside." And I went to go visit him in his room. I sat with him, spoke to him, took advice from him, received his du'as. And in the process of that I ended up getting quite late for my flight, had to jump on a train last minute — it was interesting, interesting. But alhamdulillah, I made it. Mawlana Ismail Ghani.

I was so happy that I had met him. That was just like two months ago. And yesterday, after Salat al-Asr, on the day of Jumu'ah, he passed away. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un. He wasn't that old — he was in his seventies. I would never have imagined he was just two months away. But we ask Allah subhanAllah to forgive him, to elevate his status, to fill his grave with nur, and to accept all the khair and good that he has done, and give sabr jameel to all his descendants and his children. And the du'a we should recite:

O Allah, do not deprive us of his reward and blessing, and do not test us after his demise. Because pious people like this are a protection from fitna. So when did Allah subhanAllah take him away? Friday, after Salat al-Asr. Probably spending time sending salawat upon the Prophet ﷺ, in the state of wudu. That's what our du'a should be — Ya Allah, the day we leave this world should be the pinnacle of our spirituality, the pinnacle of our relationship with You.

And then the last portion of this du'a: وَاجْعَلِ الْمَوْتَ رَاحَةً لَنَا مِنْ كُلِّ شَرٍّ — And O Allah, make our death a means of protection for us from every evil. Meaning: if I were to live one extra day, it would be downhill. If I were to live an extra 12 hours, my deen would start going down, my relationship with my Lord would start weakening.

Can we all think about times in our life when we had a spiritual high? Maybe it was when you were 14, maybe when you were 24, maybe when you were 44, maybe some incident happened. Think about that right now, go back. That's what we're talking about — now you might not be in that state. Or right now you might be at the state of your highest spirituality. Basically, we want it to keep on going, going, going, until we reach the pinnacle. And then, Allah, You in Your infinite knowledge know that after this pinnacle there is no up and down — from here it's only downhill. There are no ups after this. Then we don't want to live anymore. Because we want to end it at the highest point.

You know, when should you sell your stocks? At the highest, right? But if you know it's high and then it's going to go down and then go up high again, then you hold on. But Allah knows how the stock is going to go. So this stock is our own actions. Once you know that from now onwards it's only going to go downhill — Ya Allah, take me away. So this is a du'a that Rasulullah ﷺ has taught us to make on every occasion.

The Time of Fitna Demands Du'a

To summarize from this discussion we had this morning: Rasulullah ﷺ through his actions has taught us that a believer needs to spend time supplicating to Allah — no matter how easy or challenging the situation may be. Let's not say "I've got it." No, you don't. I don't have it, you don't have it. Allah has got it. Do our mashwara, do our istikhara, but make sure we do lots and lots of du'a for every single affair of ours.

There are times of acceptance — tahajjud time, after Fajr salah. Right now is the time of Ishraq. We're going to pray Ishraq in a few minutes — the two rakat Salat al-Ishraq. And Allah will take care of the needs of your day. Those who sit after Fajr doing dhikr, after sunrise — when the sun is up 10–15 minutes after sunrise — and then perform Salat al-Ishraq, Allah fulfills their needs of the day. In another narration, Allah will give them the honorary reward of an accepted Hajj and Umrah. So this is the time for du'a — after Jumu'ah, after Fajr salah. Du'a for deen, dunya, and akhirah, for all situations.

And since we are living in an era of fitna — what I mean by fitna: people are leaving the deen left and right. All the situations that happen overseas — all the civil wars, drone attacks — those people, subhanAllah, those Muslims who are dying, bi-idhni-llahi ta'ala, as painful as it is — of course it hurts — may Allah bring aafiyah.

I just read before Salat al-Fajr what is happening in Palestine. For those who didn't hear — there was a huge attack from Gaza. And now they're saying it's not a battle anymore, it's a war. It's very scary to see how things will unfold. They didn't expect this. This is being called the largest intelligence failure of Israel in the past 20–30 years. Over 540 Israelis were injured and some were killed. They feel very angry. And this is of course an ongoing situation that has been going on for decades and decades. But we ask Allah for aafiyah and protection and for khair and goodness. And inshaaAllah I have this faith — and so do you — that every single person there who passes away, inshaaAllah will die as a shaheed.

But can the same be said about every single child who dies in a car accident, a drug overdose, or suicide over here? That's the question. So it's not the ones over there who are the only ones suffering. We are the ones who are actually suffering — because we are losing our deen. This is the era of fitna.

And so in an era of fitna, we depend on du'a. That's why one of the statements of a sahabi — I believe it was Hudhayfah or Ibn Mas'ud — he said:

A time of fitna will come that the only one who will be saved from that tribulation will be the one who will beg Allah the way a drowning man begs Allah. The way a drowning man — it's over, I'm drowning in the midst of the ocean, of the lake. There's no one besides Allah. You cannot see a boat in sight. He said: similarly, a time will come when the only people who will be saved are the ones who beg Allah with this level of sincerity and conviction.

So the time has come for us to make lots of du'a. I ask Allah to inspire you and I to make the best, most powerful du'as every day. May Allah allow you and I to spend 15–20 minutes every single day in seclusion. May Allah allow all the fathers and mothers to teach their children to spend 15–20 minutes a day in du'a, and allow the children to follow the footsteps of their parents in making du'a for 15–20 minutes every single day. The more, the merrier. But create a habit — not 1 minute, not 30 seconds — start with 5 minutes, build up to 7 minutes, 5 minutes after every salah. But there should be daily a time where we say: it's just me — no phone, no anyone else — I'm going to sit there in the corner of my bedroom, or in my car, or in the masjid, and this is du'a time. This is my downtime with Allah.

Recommended Books of Du'a

InshaaAllah, hopefully there will be a book stall today after Dhuhr. One of the books I would highly recommend is called Al-Hizb al-A'zam. You can grab a copy of that if the bookstore has it. If it's not available, buy it online. Al-Hizb al-A'zam or Munajat Maqbool. These are beautiful books I would recommend — at least one of these you should have. Munajat Maqbool (Accepted Whispers) or Al-Hizb al-A'zam (The Greatest Litany). These contain about 200 du'as from the Qur'an and Hadith, divided up by the days of the week. So you just read one section every single day. In seven days you will have completed about 200 du'as from Qur'an and Hadith.

And you don't just read it. You place it in front of you and focus and read. The translation is available in the books — buy a book with the translation. You can get it in Urdu, you can get it in English. If you cannot read the Arabic and you don't understand it, no problem — read the Urdu or the English or the language that you understand. But put your heart and focus into it as you go through it. This is the amal and this is what we have been taught by our teachers — that you read a section of this every single day. And inshaaAllah this is the way we comprehensively go through the Quranic and hadith du'as, along with our own individual du'as.

In the meantime, we can do our Tasbeeh if you have not completed your morning Tasbeeh: SubhanAllah 33 times, Alhamdulillah 33 times, Allahu Akbar 34 times, Ayat al-Kursi, Istighfar 100 times, and Salawat (Durood Sharif) 100 times.