Ramadan 2025 | The Power of Prophetic Prayers | Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | 03/09

The Power of Prophetic Prayers

The supplication of a Muslim man for his absent brother is answered. The supplication of a Muslim man for his absent brother is answered.

At his head side, there is a guardian angel, who has been sent to be with him. He says to his brother, whenever he asks Allah to give his brother good, the angel says, Ameen. And then the angel says, And may you have the same. He makes du'a for him, and then the angel says, May you have the same.

Afterwards, I met Abu Darda, in the marketplace. He told me the exact same thing. And he's narrating it from the Prophet. He's not saying it from his own end. He's saying, I heard the Prophet say this.

In another narration, it is reported that a man said, "O Allah, bless me, forgive me, and forgive and bless Muhammad ﷺ alone. Just us two. Don't forgive anyone else." The Prophet said — that's one narration. Another narration is: "You have veiled this du'a for many people, by saying, 'O Allah, just forgive me and Muhammad ﷺ.'"

In another narration he said, "You have made something which is so expansive and so wide — which is Allah's mercy — you have constricted it unnecessarily. There's no reason. Something is huge. You have a big sheet that everyone can sit on. Why would you fold it up and say, 'Okay, I'm gonna sit on this and no one else.' You have space for everyone. By you spreading it out, you're not harming yourself. You have your own spot on the sheet, and everyone else can also enjoy the benefits. What benefit did you get by depriving other people?"

So when you're making du'a only for yourself, you're depriving others — with no added benefit to yourself. Yet another narration: Abdullah ibn 'Amr reported that the Prophet ﷺ said:

The swiftest supplication to be answered is the supplication of someone for another person who is not present.
(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 1535; also reported in Jami' al-Tirmidhi)

The Most Powerful Way to Get Your Du'as Accepted

Beloved friends, from these ahadith that we've shared, we understand that the most powerful way to get our own du'as accepted and to help others is to make du'a for others. Someone may say, "I raise my hands and after a few minutes I go blank. I don't know what else to ask." It happens to many people. But if you start thinking about the people right around you — let's just say your neighbor, Muslim or non-Muslim — how many of us, honestly ask yourself, it's been eight days in Ramadan, how many of us made du'a for hidayah for our neighbor? How many of us made du'a for our children's teachers at school, public school? Or our doctor? Or anyone else that we have interacted with for years? What percentage of us have made du'a for hidayah for them?

Now if you start just with that — how many other non-Muslims have you interacted with in the past 40–50 years of your life? Many of them had a huge share in where you are today. Many of them have done a lot of good for us. Shouldn't we be making du'a for them?

So you start off with one thing, and you're like, "Man, it's true, there's so much." Then you think about your roommate, your classmate, your colleague at work, your nephews, your nieces, your cousins. My friends, just our own relatives are so many. If you finish taking a name, Maghrib will always start. If you just start thinking — my brother, this son, this son, this son — and then he's married, and then those sons' wives and their kids. By the time you do your quick family tree, you need half an hour, most of us. We have, mashallah, such huge families.

Now if you just make this general du'a for guidance for all of them, make general du'a for forgiveness, make general du'a for afiyah — that is just getting started. But then you just remember: one of them is having marital problems, one of them can't get married, another one is married but they don't have any kids and they've been trying for so long. And then another one graduated two years ago from college and still can't find a job. Another one hurt himself, he's waiting for a surgery. And then you start remembering your sister said something about her kids, and your brother said something about his kids.

How can we say we ran out of things to ask from Allah? There is no limit. If we start from now, you go to Fajr also, you won't have finished. Because we're not thinking. That's the issue. Our mind — we have made our mindset so small and constricted. What are the things I can speak to Allah about? Ya Allah, forgive me. Ya Allah, give me Jannah. Ya Allah, protect me from Jahannam. Ya Allah, give me death with Iman. These are very big things, no doubt. I'm not saying otherwise. These are huge things.

The Example of Musa and Speaking with Allah

But we have to remember Musa alayhi salam — how did he enjoy speaking with Allah? By adding things. Allah told him:

"What do you have in your hand, O Musa?" And the scholars of Tafsir say he could have simply said:

"It is my staff." But he didn't just say that. He said:

"It is my staff. I lean on it. And when I am walking with my flock of sheep, I use my stick to bring down the leaves from the trees. And I have many other benefits from my staff." Doesn't Allah know that? Of course He does. But Musa alayhi salam is talking with his Lord — and he doesn't want to stop. He's not going to just say what's in his hand; he's going to say all the things he does with it. Again, there's no du'a in here. This is pure conversation. This is Musa alayhi salam looking for opportunities to keep speaking to Allah.

A Lesson on Unnecessary Speech and Guarding Interactions

People always talk about navigating mixed-gender workspaces and mixed-gender classrooms, and I tell people: it's not that you don't have to interact ever. You will have to interact. But the interactions have to be limited. Only speak what is needed, and that's it. Of course you're going to speak in a public place — you won't have private long meetings behind closed doors, none of that. But even when you do speak, you don't have to constantly say, "Mashallah, what beautiful weather we got today." There's no need for that. That small talk, we can do with our kids, we can do with our spouse, we can do with everyone else. But with someone of the opposite gender in the office or at school, there's no reason for that comment.

"Man, I'm fasting and the days are so long, I feel so hungry." Nope, don't say that. There's no reason for that. Tell us one benefit you got out of that. No benefit. So just like Shaytan comes and tells us, "Just start up a conversation, just talk — you're not doing anything wrong, you're talking about Ramadan, you're talking about Allah's qudrah, the weather" — that's all pure deception of Shaytan to get you into something you shouldn't be in. SubhanAllah.

And yet, the flip side of it: Shaytan is making us, when we're supposed to talk to Allah, say, "Oh, we don't know what to talk about." Speak like Musa alayhi salam. Just speak about your issues.

Du'a Buddies — Making Du'a for One Another

So what we're learning today is that we can actually start spending time making du'a for each other. My beloved brothers, not only is the du'a you're making for someone else going to get accepted — wallahi — you have an angel, not Maulana Sahib, not Qari Sahib, not Imam Sahib, not dada, daddy, nana, nanny — you have a nurani angel sitting right next to you and saying, "May Allah give you whatever you just asked for." So if we were to just spend half an hour making du'a for other people's affairs, you can be guaranteed that you have an angel sitting next to you making all of those same du'as right back for you. This is how we can expand our du'a list.

Sometimes when you go for umrah or hajj, people ask for a du'a list. I'll tell you my own experience. When I went for umrah, people put their du'as in a Google Doc. I'm not doing a favor to anyone — wallahi, I'm doing a favor to myself. When I sit there and look through this list and I'm making du'a, I don't even know sometimes who the person is — anonymous. The du'as that sometimes people share with me — I tell you I'm baffled. The depth and the beauty of these du'as, they're just so amazing. I literally am crying over other people's du'as more than my own, because I'm like, "How did this person think of such a du'a? Such deep things you're asking from Allah."

If I were to pull up my Google Doc from previous years, I could read to you — you'd be shocked. You'd be like, "Who is this person?" They're not ulama. Just general community people. Students or non-students, whoever they may be. But mashallah, we have hidden gems. We're not doing a favor to them by taking their du'a list. As we read their du'as, subhanallah, our hearts soften up. We begin to cry reading other people's du'as. And all these amazing things they thought about for themselves — that I could never have thought of — I have an angel making all those amazing things for me too.

So sometimes a person may think, "Oh, I don't have time to make du'a for others." Now this is foolishness. If you make du'a for other people, your needs will definitely get fulfilled. Whatever issue you say — "I'm struggling, my mother is sick, my father has this issue" — okay, why don't you start making du'a for other people's mothers? Why don't you start making du'a for other people's fathers? Start making du'a for other people's children. Which father is not worried about his children's tarbiyah, their physical needs, educational needs, spiritual needs?

If you say, "My son is not listening to me, my daughter is not listening to me, I'm heartbroken" — how about we start raising our hands and say: "Ya Allah, all those moms and dads whose children are disobedient to them, Ya Allah, make them obedient. Ya Allah, all those parents who are crying because of their children, the way they're mistreating them, Ya Allah, put muhabba of the parents into the children's hearts. Ya Allah, all those children who have run away from their parents' homes, Ya Allah, bring them back." Now you spend ten minutes making du'a like this — all those du'as, mashallah, will be coming right back towards your own self and your kids.

So this is what we want to focus on today — the fact that these days and nights of Ramadan are here. Just as hajj and umrah are times for the acceptance of du'a, similarly Ramadan is. My beloved brothers and sisters, I encourage you and I to start making du'a every day at suhoor and iftar for each other.

The Last Minute Before Iftar

And someone was sharing something on WhatsApp — as long as it's authentic, it's good. But this is a statement of Shaykh Zakariyya al-Kandahlawi rahimahullah, the author of Fada'il al-A'mal and Awjaz al-Masalik and tens of other works, and the shaykh of hundreds of ulama. He says: "I have experienced many, many times that exactly thirty seconds to a minute right before iftar, whatever du'a I have made — that has been the quickest in acceptance." Right before we break our fast. That one minute leading up to iftar is so crucial. As Shaykh Zakariyya rahimahullah says, "My experience has shown that whatever du'as I made at that time, they are accepted."

So let us begin to do that. Let us use this moment to request people. Your du'a list — we usually send it for umrah and hajj. How about now? How about we write a list of ten or fifteen things that we really need, and share it with ten people and say, "It would mean a whole lot if you can make this du'a for me whenever you remember me." And number two, ask them — whatever things they need, let me know. You can message me too. We start making du'a for each other. Subhanallah. We become du'a buddies. Du'a partners.

Think about how much du'a our husbands should be making for their wives, and wives making for their husbands, sons and daughters for their parents, parents for their kids. Do not just make du'a of basic things — "Allah keep them healthy, get them good grades, this and that." These are very superficial things. We should make very large intentions, big intentions, great intentions.

Planning Early — The Man Whose Son Was Just Born

I remember one day I told you that a person called me and said, "Imagine you have no budget — as much budget as needed — and you could educate your son in the best place and give him every single thing he needs. Where would you send him? What would you do with him? When would you start? At what age?" So I was giving him some advice. I said, "It's an interesting question — no budget, you want to do all this." He said, "Yeah, I want my son to become not just a reviver of the ummah but a mujaddid of the era." I said, "Wow, mashallah, that's a huge ask. May I ask how old is your son?" He said, "Oh, he's still in the hospital." "Is everything okay?" He said, "No, he was just born." Subhanallah.

Look at the planning. He's still in the hospital and he's calling and saying, "I want to start early. What are the things I need to do?" The work gets done like this when we start making these plans. Plans — and not just plans, but plans along with du'as — should not be made at the last minute when it's already too late. We think about these things when the tree has already bent the other way, when the tree has grown in the wrong direction, and then we start thinking, "Man, I think we need to make du'a to straighten the tree." No brother, I can't help you with this one. You should have thought about this ten years ago. Now the tree is already crooked. The only way to fix a crooked tree is to cut it. So sometimes that's what happens — mistakes are made, and then subhanallah, we wake up ten, fifteen, twenty years later. We don't want to do it like that.

Never Give Up on Du'a — Even Late in Life

Now some parent might be listening and saying, "What am I supposed to do? I woke up in my fifties and sixties, when my kids were already..." And I've had to deal with very sad cases of a parent whose all three children left Islam — all of them in their mid-twenties and thirties. And the parent says, "I can't forgive myself, because when the kids were growing up, I was absolutely irreligious. Did everything under the sun." And now, when they hit midlife, they repented, they made tawbah. But it was too late. It's really sad to see cases like this, where the parents got hidayah but they got it very late. And by that time the children had unfortunately already gone — the cat is out of the bag, as they say. They had already left Islam. So now to get them back is not an easy thing. May Allah guide all these people back to the deen. May Allah accept the du'as of the parents on behalf of the children.

But we cannot give up. We cannot give up. Even if it means fifteen years, ten years, that someone's son or daughter has left Islam — we don't give up. We have to keep on making du'a.

A Story of How Harshness Can Drive People Away

I was at Jumu'ah this past Friday — I was in Texas. And something I am very accustomed to speaking about is people leaving Islam. So I made an ishara, I was talking about something, and I said, "You all know that, right? Sometimes people leave Islam." It was a packed masjid. And the whole crowd looks at me and says, "No, we never heard of people leaving Islam." I'm like, subhanAllah. I don't know — how do we amplify this aspect of a wake-up call for people to realize to what degree people are leaving the deen? You regulars here, alhamdulillah, you always hear from me. But we need to continue speaking about this outside, because people are just completely oblivious.

A story of a person I met somewhere. He said, "My brother — you know, he was connected to the deen. He used to practice. Went to a madrasa for a little bit. Went in jamaat a little bit too." Mashallah, everything. And then — I'm going to be honest and frank — from high school he started having same-gender attraction. So his mom, a hardcore lady, she said, "Oh my God, you've been possessed by some devil. You've become the devil yourself." And started saying all kinds of things to him. He got upset and left the home. And now, even in the month of Ramadan, he's living in a situation far from the deen. And the brother was telling me: if you ask him why, he blames it on his mother. He says, "The harshness with which she spoke to me, using the deen to condemn me — it's just something too hurtful, too upsetting. So I'm done with it."

So someone who had seen the deen, sat in a madrasa, went out for khuruj, did everything — now look at the miskeen where he is right now. There are hundreds of cases like this. Some of them have been pushed out because of their parents not properly dealing with them, not properly giving them tarbiyah. But nonetheless, there are too many of these types of cases. Too many.

The Reality of the Muslim Population

The amount of people coming in — I was speaking at a program today after Dhuhr, and I was saying: if you think about what we've been hearing about the Muslim population in Chicago since I've been here — how many Muslims are in Chicago? The number told is half a million, right? I've been hearing it since 1990, or since I understood numbers. That was 30-plus years ago. So I cannot imagine we're still at half a million. Someone then just told me the figure is 250,000. I don't know what stat he was sharing, but it's 250,000.

Now look at where Eid namaz is being prayed — the ISOC releases all the Eid slots at the end of the month. Take that list. There's probably another 30–40 masjids and musallahs not included in there. Google Map each one of those locations and figure out how many people can fit. Most masjids are going to have 200, 300, 400. The ones that can accommodate over 1,000, you can count them on your hand. The masjids that can accommodate 2,000 — maybe two or three. Not that many.

If you now do the math on Eid al-Fitr, if all of these locations are filled to capacity, are we at 500,000? Are we at 100,000? Absolutely not. And the crowd that used to gather at places like McCormick is now spread out over many venues. So even on Eid day, we are seeing that a very small percentage of the so-called Muslim population of America is actually performing Eid. Have you thought about that before?

If a person doesn't show up for Eid, what's left? An entire Ramadan went by and never showed up. On Eid day, for 30 minutes — eat and go have some doughnuts on the way out. If a person couldn't show up for that, then when it comes to the practical application of a Muslim identity, where is that? So that's what we're dealing with. People don't realize to what degree people have shifted away from the deen. And the number of masjid-going Muslims is slowly diminishing.

"Oh, but we have so many more masjids." Yes, the population is growing through immigration and through marriage and having kids. But when I was in Australia, the person who had the census data told me the same thing. He said, "We get so misinformed, and we walk away with wrong conclusions about Muslim populations." We see: "Oh mashallah, we're number one community, etc." But he said it's because of two reasons — in Australia as well — immigration and large families. And already immigration, we all know what's happening in this country. SubhanAllah. It's being cut, especially from Muslim countries. And number two, generally people don't want to get married. And those who are married, they don't want to have kids. "Mashallah, I'm married for five years. Yeah, I just want to travel a little bit, see the world a little bit, enjoy life a little bit." This is not the talk of people from 50 years ago and beyond. This is this generation talking — that they want to delay getting married, and after getting married, also delay having children. And when they do, they'll have one or two.

So the ummah that used to be growing because of immigration and marriage — both of those avenues are now slowing down. And that is why I went into this tangent here: to highlight the importance of making du'a for the ummah. Du'a for the hidayah of the ummah. Du'a for people to not leave Islam. Du'a for people to remain steadfast.

Gaza, Palestine, and the Suffering Ummah

Additionally, I want to mention that we haven't spoken about Gaza for a while. But things in Palestine are going very difficult right now. They're really trying as much as possible to not allow people to enter even Masjid al-Aqsa for salah. So we know, alhamdulillah, from our community people are going and people have gone — may Allah take them all safely, bring them back safely, and allow them to get their niyyah fulfilled: the intention of being able to pray in Masjid al-Aqsa and make du'a there.

And also for Gaza specifically — the news of the past few hours is that they've cut electricity completely. Whatever electricity that was there, they cut it ahead of some negotiation talks. This is how they want to negotiate. So our brothers and sisters are already going through so much difficulty. And subhanAllah — they're fasting. They fasted before Ramadan, and now they're fasting in Ramadan as well, because they have nothing to eat. So even in Ramadan, subhanAllah, they still have their suhoor and iftar in whatever way they can. Please let's not forget them.

Let's not forget our brothers and sisters in Sudan. Muslims against Muslims — a war, a genocide, being fueled by external forces. Many of them who come from Muslim countries are using the worst possible tactics to intimidate the other factions. Civil war is happening. And within Syria as well, lots of fitna is happening now. These are places, subhanAllah, where we have to make lots of du'a. And when we start making du'a for the safety and security of all these places, we're also making du'a for the safety and security of our own country and our own selves.

A Personal Story — A Brother With a Tumor

One brother just met me after Dhuhr today — subhanAllah — he comes here for salah as well. And it just hurt me. Three beautiful little small kids, like my own. And he told me that he's just found a tumor in one of his organs — I think he said in the liver, if I remember correctly — and they think it's cancerous. So he said, "Please just make du'a." I said, subhanAllah, look — a person of my age, going through the same thing. Imagine if I were to go through that. So now my heart feels it. I want to make du'a for him.

Similarly, when we share with each other our needs, this is a very simple, smart, quick hack. Whatever needs you have — one, two, three, whatever it may be — share it with one another and say, "Please just keep me in your prayers during these blessed hours and occasions that we have." You notice that if someone tells you, "Brother, I need you to make this du'a for me" — you'll forget to make du'a for yourself, but you'll make du'a for him. And then what do you think happens? That angel is making du'a for you.

Du'a

Oh Allah, most powerful, most forgiving, most loving — we ask you, O Allah, to accept our ninth day of Ramadan. Oh Allah, we ask you to accept this fast. Oh Allah, one third of Ramadan has already gone by. Oh Allah, we beg you — do not allow these days to run past us without us fully benefiting from every moment and every beautiful hidden treasure that lies within these days and nights. O Allah, grant us the true value of Ramadan — the value of its nights, the value of its days, its weekends, its weekdays, the time of suhoor, the time of iftar. Oh Allah, allow us to value every single one of these moments.

Oh Allah, allow us to do such actions that will become of greatest benefit to us in this world, in the grave, and in the hereafter. Ya Allah, allow us to spend every single day of our Ramadan as though it may be our last day. Oh Allah, allow us to spend every single night of Ramadan as though it may be our last night of Ramadan. Oh Allah, we beg your refuge from wasting our time, from squandering our time, from doing things that are useless, from doing things that have no benefit for us in this world or the next.

Oh Allah, whatever time has been wasted in these nine days — we ask you, O Allah, to grant us forgiveness for it. We ask you, O Allah, to not hold us accountable for it. We ask you to still give us the barakah of Ramadan even though we have not taken full benefit from it. Oh Allah, for the remaining days that we have, Ya Allah, allow us to truly, truly maximize our istifadah and benefit from it.

Oh Allah, allow our fast not to be just a fast from food and drink. Allow it to become a means of our eyes fasting, our ears fasting, our hands and feet fasting, our minds fasting. Oh Allah, we ask you to grant us the full spiritual benefits of every fast. Oh Allah, allow us to get the full spiritual benefits of tahajjud, of qiyam al-layl, of tarawih.

Oh Allah, make us amongst those who make special du'a for each other. Oh Allah, make us amongst those who remember each other in our du'as. Oh Allah, we ask you to guide the ummah. Guide and wake up the sleeping ummah. Oh Allah, wake up the sleeping ummah. Guide our non-Muslim neighbors, our non-Muslim colleagues and non-Muslim friends. Oh Allah, guide them and allow them to see the beauty of Islam. Oh Allah, just as so many people are accepting Islam today, Oh Allah, accept our colleagues and our neighbors — non-Muslims at work, at school, and on the street. Oh Allah, allow them to wake up to see the beauty of Islam. Oh Allah, allow us to become a means of their hidayah.

Oh Allah, any non-Muslim who has ever had any share in our education, in our tarbiyah, or in our success of any sort — Oh Allah, if they are alive, we ask you to open up the doors of guidance for them.

Oh Allah, all those Muslim men and women and youth who are not practicing the deen, even in the month of Ramadan, who are busy with their own other lives — we ask you, Allah, to awaken them. Allow the beauty of deen to enter their hearts. Allow them to fall in love with Islam. We ask you, Allah — all those who are being misled by Shaytan and by their nafs and by culture in making Ramadan a month of just festivities, of enjoyment, of fun, without focusing on the real purpose of it — Oh Allah, we ask you to guide them as well.

Oh Allah, we ask you to grant us protection from the evil insinuations of our nafs and the evil insinuations of our Shaytan. Oh Allah, allow us to recognize when these attacks happen. And allow us to be protected from them through your grace, Oh Allah.

Oh Allah, we ask you to grant our parents shifa from any and all sicknesses and grant them long life and health. And Oh Allah, those whose parents have passed away — we ask you to fill their graves with noor, become pleased with them, and allow us to be a sadaqah jariyah for them.

Oh Allah, we ask you to grant muhabba and love between the spouses, between parents and children. Guide them all towards that which is pleasing to you.

Oh Allah, have mercy on our brothers and sisters in Masjid al-Aqsa, in Palestine, in Gaza, and in Bilad al-Sham generally speaking. Oh Allah, and in Sudan, and in other parts of the globe wherever the ummah is going through immense difficulty — we ask you, through the barakah of everyone's du'a and fast in this blessed month of Ramadan, that you alleviate from the ummah the suffering they are going through. Oh Allah, liberate Masjid al-Aqsa. Oh Allah, liberate the Haramayn al-Sharifayn and keep them safe and protected from any and all fitna.

Oh Allah, and for all those who are here and listening and making du'a — we ask you, Allah, to grant every single one of them qubul and acceptance for their du'as. Oh Allah, whatever du'a we are making for one another, we ask you to accept those du'as as well. Oh Allah, whatever du'a we should have been making for others but did not — we ask you, Allah, to grant them that as well.

Oh Allah, we ask you to grant us the ability to be accepted in your court the way you accepted the Sahabah and Rasulullah ﷺ.

Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of Glory, the Most High. And peace be upon the messengers. And praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. Ameen.