Ramadan 2025 | The Power of Prophetic Prayers | Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | 03/04

The Power of Prophetic Prayers

In the name of Allah, the most Merciful, the most Compassionate. O Allah, send blessings and peace upon our Master Muhammad and upon the family of our Master Muhammad. Blessings and peace be upon you.

The Prophet ﷺ said that relationship is in its place — the reason why you're being given this gift is because of how حُسْنِ ثَنَائِكَ عَلَى اللَّهِ — because of how beautifully you have praised Allah. So going on with that theme about the power of praising Allah, today we cover a hadith related by Abdullah ibn Abbas رضي الله عنه and mentioned by Imam Abu Dawud.

(Sahih Muslim, Book 48, Hadith 90 — also recorded in Sunan Abi Dawud)

Alhamdulillah, this is also one of the du'as that we're blessed to be reading here every morning — in the morning and evening du'as. And if you do not have that, then please pick it up on the way out. The book is outside there in the lobby.

Jawami'ul Kalim — The Gift of Comprehensive Speech

So this is a du'a to be read every morning. The Prophet ﷺ, as we know, has been gifted Jawami'ul Kalim — he was gifted such words that are super comprehensive: small words, fewer words, but a lot of meaning.

And this is one of the mu'jizat and the miracles of the Prophet ﷺ. He said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 2977; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 523)

"I have been given the gift of Jawami'ul Kalim" — Jawami', plural of Jami'; Kalim, plural of Kalima. Such words that are super comprehensive. As they say, you put an ocean into a cup — an ocean of knowledge into a few words.

And so the Prophet ﷺ — that is why the du'a and the dhikr that he teaches is so deep and so comprehensive. An hour of making du'a versus one du'a of Rasulullah ﷺ — it will definitely be more weighty, because of the comprehensive nature of all the things he's asking.

Now, for us when we read the translation, our mind is not going towards all of that. But those words are so deep that they include ten things. Like for example, Aafiyah — we should definitely have a session on just that du'a. Aafiyah is just one word. Some people have the name Aafiyah as well. It's one word. But when the Prophet ﷺ, when he's asked to make du'a, he says: make du'a for Aafiyah. Well, it means well-being. But well-being is so comprehensive in nature — Aafiyah fi'd-dini wa'd-dunya wa'l-akhira. In my deen, my dunya, and my akhira, I'm asking for well-being. Well-being in that every single possible goodness connected to that, I want it. And every single evil that possibly exists in that, I'm asking for protection from it. That's all part of Aafiyah.

You simply have a problem-less life. You don't have difficulties. And if there are any difficulties, they're actually there for a good reason. Sometimes — imagine, Allah forbid, you're hearing a sound from the car, and you get out of the car to see what it is. And that actually becomes a blessing, because it avoided, say, the car getting hit, and you barely missed it. If you were sitting in the car, you would have gotten hit. So the difficulty — "the sound is coming from the car, I have to get out of the car in the cold" — in reality, it became a blessing. Sometimes you go through difficulty, but the purpose of that difficulty is to save you from a much larger difficulty. So that's also Aafiyah.

The Hadith of Juwayriya — Breaking Down the Dhikr

So in this hadith, the Prophet ﷺ is showing us the virtue of a type of dhikr. Ummul Mu'mineen, Juwayriya bint al-Harith رضي الله عنها says: the Prophet ﷺ خَرَجَ مِنْ عِنْدِهَا بُكْرَةً — he left her home early in the morning after performing Fajr. وَكَانَتْ فِي مُصَلَّاهَا — she was sitting in her masjid. Her masjid was the place of her salah in her home. So she stayed in the same place that she prayed Fajr, sitting there, worshiping Allah, remembering Allah.

The Prophet ﷺ came back after Ishraq time — بَعْدَ أَن أَضْحَى — an hour and a half, two hours later, or actually more than that. Duha would be the time halfway between Fajr and Zuhr. So he found her sitting in exactly the same spot, and she was continuously doing tasbih and remembering Allah.

So the Prophet ﷺ asked her: "Did you continue to stay here after I left you?" She said yes. The Prophet ﷺ then said to her: "I said something — after I left the home, I said four words, four sentences, three times. And in the scale, they are far more weighty than every single thing that you have said in the past hours." She was sitting from Fajr all the way till, say, 10 o'clock, halfway, in the same spot. What are those words?

By saying this, he said, I've gotten more ajr and more reward than what you have basically done dhikr for the past three, four hours, depending on when Fajr is. Now let's look at it:

1. SubhanAllah

سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ — This is praising Allah, the tasbih of Allah, and freeing Him from any and all deficiencies. Allah is free from all faults, all deficiencies.

2. Wa Bihamdihi

وَبِحَمْدِهِ — And now we praise Allah. All praises belong to Allah. But how much?

3. 'Adada Khalqih

عَدَدَ خَلْقِهِ — Equivalent to the number of creations of Allah. So every single one-celled organism that exists inside the flowing lava of a volcano, two dinosaurs, everything is included here. How many trillions upon trillions of Allah's creations exist — existed in the past, exist today, and will exist in the future — all included. O Allah, all praise belongs to You, equivalent to the number of creations that You have.

4. Wa Rida Nafsih

وَرِضَا نَفْسِهِ — O Allah, all praise belongs to You, equivalent to the amount of praise that would bring Your happiness. Whatever it takes to make You happy and pleased, equivalent to that.

5. Wa Zinata 'Arshih

وَزِنَةَ عَرْشِهِ — O Allah, I praise You equivalent to the weight of Your throne. Who's going to know that? The weight of Allah's throne.

The hadith mentions: this first heaven that we see seems endless, so huge — but when compared to the second heaven, the Prophet ﷺ said it is like كَالْخَاتَمِ فِي فَلَاةٍ — like a ring thrown in a big open field. One ring — how hard, almost next to impossible to find it there. That's the comparison between the first heaven and the second heaven. And between the second and the third, the same thing — a ring in a massive, never-ending open field. Second to third, third to fourth, fourth to fifth, fifth to sixth, sixth to seventh. I just said it like that. But the reality of what I just said, no one fully understands.

Where are we going with this? All of this, each one, the comparison to the one above it is like a ring to an open field — a ring to an open field — till you get to the seventh heaven. Then above the seventh heaven is Allah's kursi. And above Allah's kursi is Allah's arsh. So which creation of Allah — even Jibril عليه السلام — could probably not comprehend this. How massive is this arsh?

That is why it is mentioned in the hadith of Mi'raj — that when it came to going from one heaven to the other, even Jibril عليه السلام, the greatest and most powerful angel of Allah, reached a spot and said: "O Rasulullah, I cannot go above this. If I were to go above this, I will get burnt." And the biggest, greatest, and most powerful of angels, when coming into the presence of Allah, is like a little tiny bird. So what must be the weight and the mightiness of this throne? No one knows besides Allah.

So I say: O Allah, I am praising You, equivalent to the weight of Your throne. I can sit from here till Isha, till Tahajjud, praising Allah. How can we be equivalent? How can we praise Allah and thank Allah equivalent to the weight of His throne? You see how comprehensive this is? You can't beat this.

6. Wa Midada Kalimatih

وَمِدَادَ كَلِمَاتِهِ — And O Allah, that ink that is used to write Your words, to write Your speech, to write Your words of praise — equivalent to the amount of ink required for that, I am praising You. Midaad is something which you use to write something. Allah says in Surah Al-Kahf:

"Say: if the oceans were to turn into ink — the oceans will come to an end, every single last drop of water in the oceans will come to an end — before the praises of my Lord can come to an end. Even if we were to bring extra reinforcements and replenish the oceans with another set."

Similarly, you can find in Surah Luqman:

If all the trees on the earth were made into pens, and all seven oceans were turned into ink — the pens will dry out, the wood will become worn out, the replenishment will also all dry up — but the words of Allah will never finish.

So now midaad is that ink used to write those endless praises that we just spoke about from these two verses. Now you're saying: Ya Allah, I praise You, equivalent to the amount of drops in that ink pot through which Your praises are written. How big must that ink pot be? How many thousands of oceans put together cannot equal that ink pot?

He said: I read this three times. What do you learn from here? That this is a gift that the Prophet ﷺ gave to the ummah. He knows we've got work, he knows we've got school, we have children and spouse and kids and all sorts of other things, and so we are short on time. So he gives us these quick life hacks. If you do this, you can quickly get lots of ajr in a little bit of time. How sad it is for us not to be using this.

Spiritual Life Hacks — The Tragedy of Not Using What We Have

I was discussing with a good friend of mine — we always talk about airline points. For those of you who don't know: almost everyone uses a credit card, and every time you're using these credit cards, you're collecting points for every dollar you spend. Those points are going into your credit card account, but you have to go access them, you have to see them. And you can use them for many things — one of the best and highest redemptions is for flights.

Flights have become very expensive now — especially short distances. One hour, one-and-a-half-hour flights can go up to four or five hundred dollars easily, even if you buy three weeks in advance. And during spring break, winter break, even more expensive. So the way to go is to use points. Because many of these points, it doesn't matter what time of the year, what season, or how late you're buying the ticket — they have a standard price. Ten thousand points from A to Z, regardless of when you buy it or what the season is. If there is availability, you can get it for basically a hundred dollars.

Recently, a round-trip ticket to one of the places I visited was $650. A revert brother was coming, and we wanted to help him out — we were able to get him a ticket through points for about $120. Look at the percentage. That same seat for $120 with points. Many times we look at people and say, SubhanAllah — honestly, why would you not use this when you're actually sitting on it? Why are you paying cash? It makes no sense. And it's frustrating when people have something and don't use it.

So my mind — yesterday I was thinking — imagine our hasra and our sadness and our remorse on the Day of Judgment. When we will know that all of these life hacks existed to get quickly into the high levels of Jannah. Short period of time, read the dhikr, and you will beat the line. You will be able to get in front. All of these, Rasulullah ﷺ shared with us. The fact that we have it and we don't use it — we're not feeling the pain right now. We're going to really feel this pain. Where? On the Day of Judgment.

And that's why the Day of Judgment is called Yawmul Hasra — the day of remorse. How quickly will a person realize:

• If I had just performed Salatul Ishraq, I would have gotten the reward of an accepted Hajj and 'Umrah.
• If I had prayed my Fajr in jama'ah every single day of my life, every day I would have gotten the reward of worshipping Allah the entire night.
• If I had prayed 'Isha every single night with jama'ah, I would have gotten the reward of performing half of the night's ibadah.
• If I had prayed two extra rak'ats after the sunnah of 'Isha, I would have gotten the reward of making ibadah on Laylatul Qadr.
• If I had prayed four rak'ats before Salatul Asr, I would have gotten the reward of Rasulullah ﷺ making du'a for mercy for me — "May Allah have mercy on that man who prays four rak'ats before Asr."

And if I were to read — let's read together:

That's it. What we just read now — with certainty — someone sitting for four hours, we got more ajr than that, just by reading this. So this is where — who is going to go find these life hacks? The one who actually believes in them. When our ulama share them, if there's no pain, we don't feel anything of not doing it. But the one who has yaqeen — conviction — when he hears it, he does it.

The one who recites لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ، لَهُ الْمُلْكُ وَلَهُ الْحَمْدُ، يُحْيِي وَيُمِيتُ، وَهُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ ten times — he is getting the reward of freeing ten Arabian slaves, and so many more things that the hadith mentions. But then what's the next thing to top it all off? It says: no one will have more reward than you except someone who recited this more than you. So why should we not then do that?

It requires yaqeen. When a person has conviction that these adhkar and these du'as are real — then he will try to gather all of these. You don't need to do research, by the way. There are already many books written on this. There is Mufti Taqi al-Uthmani's book — Easy Good Deeds. We have it in the bookstore here. One of many books like this. Life hacks. You just read this a few times, do this one good deed, and you'll get so much ajr.

The Story of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq and Yaqeen in Action

People sometimes get allergic from this kind of talk. They say, "Come on, man, I just want to be a general Muslim." Yes, we are all general Muslims. We're all very weak. That's the reason we're doing this — because we are very sinful. We don't have enough actions to get ahead. So we're trying to use a cheat sheet. If we had studied well and done things well, we wouldn't need that. The reason we need these cheat sheets is because we don't know our material — because we don't study, because we are unfortunately very weak. This is the reason why we care about these small good deeds.

One day, the Prophet ﷺ mentioned the rewards a person will get. He said there is great reward for the person who goes to visit the sick. And there is great reward for the person who goes to the graveyard. And there is great reward for the person who fasts. And there is great reward for someone who frees a slave. The Nabi ﷺ was just mentioning great rewards for all these things. Then he asked: "Whoever did this — who did this this morning?" He asked.

Abu Bakr al-Siddiq رضي الله عنه raised his hand and said: "Ya Rasulullah, I did all of them. I have done all of these." There is a reason why Abu Bakr al-Siddiq رضي الله عنه is like this — because of the fact that every single thing counts. This requires yaqeen and conviction. If you have conviction, then you will do it.

SubhanAllah — I was with one person in Madinatul Munawwara, and he heard this hadith with me, right in front of me. And we happened to be at that time in Jannatul Baqi'. So he heard this hadith and said: "Oh wow, this is amazing. Okay, I'm going to start fasting today. I'm just going to fast." And then after that he said: "I'm going to go find someone who is sick." And he literally — walking back — we saw a man who was sick, lying on the floor. He woke him up, he said: "How can I help you? Can I give you some medicine?" — he was a doctor, the brother who was with me.

But the idea was: what amazed me was the fact that as soon as he heard it, he said, "I've got to do it. I've got to do these things right now. I'm going to start fasting right now. I'm going to go visit a sick person right now. I'm going to give sadaqa right now." SubhanAllah. Who does this? The one who has yaqeen, who has conviction. Then it becomes easy for him. As soon as he hears something — سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا — we hear and we obey and we do it.

Maximising Ramadan — Khatm, Taraweeh, and Daily Sadaqa

In the month of Ramadan, investing in different things — every single day, whenever you have an opportunity. Every day, just giving a dollar. You don't know what day is going to be accepted. Whichever place you go to pray salah, there is a donation box. Taking some money and putting it in that box. We do not know when, where, or how that sadaqa will count. Let's not allow these opportunities — every single day that are coming in front of us — to be wasted away. Who will not waste it? The one who has yaqeen.

Let me say something about the seven-day khatm and the three-day khatm. The sahabah and the salaf — Uthman رضي الله عنه would read one khatm every night in the first rak'at of Witr — one rak'at, he would read the entire Qur'an — not just in Ramadan, generally speaking. So the Qur'an we're reading is too little. What is the issue?

Yes, in taraweeh your feet are hurting, you're getting upset — then go to the 29-day one. The reason why the 7-day, 3-day, and 5-day khatms are good comes down to two points. One: it's good for people who want to do multiple khatms in taraweeh. If you have the passion and desire and want to do three or four hours of taraweeh every night, you're not going to be able to do multiple khatms if you're only reading one juz. You have himmah — you want to do more. So that addresses that problem.

And then on the flip side — that other person who, due to work schedule or lack of himmah, or maybe a genuine hardship like a graveyard shift because he has four mouths to feed and can't find daytime work — has never been able to listen to the entire Qur'an in taraweeh. By doing a 7-day or 3-day or 5-day khatm, it gives those people the opportunity to, at least once in their lifetime, be able to listen to the entire Qur'an in taraweeh. Which is what we need to be doing.

Recently, some professionals told me they're joining the 7-day taraweeh. Alhamdulillah, here it's not too long — Isha starts at 7:30, they end around 10:00, 10:30. About two and a half, two hours and forty-five minutes. That's less than any of us stand at work.

The 7-day khatm, insha'Allah, will be on Thursday — the night of Jumu'ah. Beautiful day. The night of Jumu'ah, du'as are accepted. Alhamdulillah. You can join us in the gymnasium, around 10:15 or 10:30. One of the professionals said to me: "I'm joining here because I'm 45 years old and I have never heard the entire Qur'an in taraweeh in my life. I leave after 8 rak'ats, 6 rak'ats, I get tired. Now I'm recruiting some friends, and it's going to be my first time listening to the entire Qur'an in taraweeh." Alhamdulillah. I said, okay — now I see the point of this.

So these are things that are very beneficial. My point is: we need to figure out how we can get more and more a'mal done in Ramadan and outside of Ramadan. Ask Allah to grant us tawfiq, and ask Allah to grant us yaqeen on a'mal — instead of just saying, "Oh, we heard it," to say: "No, I'm going to sit down and do this right now. You just told me the ajr for this — I'm going to do it right now." This requires some serious conviction. May Allah grant us that conviction. Ameen, ya Rabb al-'Alamin.

Closing Du'a