Ramadan 2025 | The Power of Prophetic Prayers | Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | 3/1

Opening Supplications

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

O Allah, open my heart and ease my affairs. Open my tongue so that my speech can be understood. You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

O Allah, teach us those things that benefit us. Benefit us with what You have taught us. Increase us in knowledge and action.

O Allah, enlighten our hearts with Your knowledge. Use our bodies for Your obedience. Guide us to what You love and are pleased with — in my speech, my deeds, my actions, my intentions, and my guidance. You have power over everything.

After this, Allah Almighty said:

"And when My servants ask You about Me, I am near. I respond to the supplication of the supplicant when he calls upon Me. So let them respond to Me and believe in Me, that they may be guided." Allah Almighty has spoken the truth.

Welcome to Ramadan — Count the Days

Alhamdulillah. Beloved respected elders and brothers, mothers and sisters and dear listeners. Alhamdulillah, how blessed all of us are to be witnessing the first day of Ramadan.

And just like this month came so quickly back, and this year flew by, we need to realize that this month also, naturally, will also pass by real quick. As we are gathering here on the first day of Ramadan, with such outstanding attendance and amazing excitement, everyone is, alhamdulillah, enjoying the blessings of just welcoming the first day. We need to also realize that just as we are welcoming it, very soon this beloved guest that has been sent to us from Allah will be leaving us as well.

So we should have the sense of countdown from right now. Every day we should start counting how many days are left. Don't focus on only what we have, but also consider that if we don't value it, how quickly this is going to diminish. And before we know it, Allah forbid, it will be gone.

So a person, just like we are supposed to constantly be thinking about our death in order to make the most use of our life, similarly we should also be constantly thinking about the end of Ramadan in order to make the most of the Ramadan that we have. The purpose of this is for a person not to waste a minute or second, but rather to keep himself occupied all the time in something that will be of benefit to him in making the most of this blessed month.

The Series: Prophetic Prayers with Their Stories

This series that we have after Asr, this year, as was mentioned, is to discuss a selection of du'as from the Prophet ﷺ — supplications of the Prophet — that have a story along with them. And obviously there are too many of them. Just like after Salatul Taraweeh, Mufti Ibn Hajar is discussing certain verses of the Quran that have a story with them — what we call Asbab al-Nuzul — so this year the brothers thought it would be a beautiful idea to have a discussion on those du'as that also have similarly a background to them. And when you know that story, it just becomes more powerful. It becomes easy for us to implement, easy for us to hopefully remember.

So today, we'll be speaking about the background of du'a's acceptance itself.

The Hadith: Allah is Pure and Accepts Only the Pure

The Prophet ﷺ has mentioned a hadith related by Imam Tirmidhi on the authority of Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him), as well as Imam Muslim. The Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 12, Hadith 65 / Hadith 1015; also recorded by Imam al-Tirmidhi)

"O people, Allah is pure. Allah does not accept anything but that which is pure."

Since Allah is pure, He expects that whatever we give Him should be of high quality. Think about it — if someone comes and gives us food that is rotting, or a gift box that is torn apart, half the perfume emptied and looking beyond used, and says, "This is your Ramadan gift," don't you feel, brothers, that you would rather not receive a gift than a gift like this? You'd say, if you didn't give me anything, I'd be happy. Now you bring this to me, which is nothing but a sign of disrespect.

And that's why Allah says in the Quran:

"You will never be able to attain true piety until you give from that which you love."

You cannot give leftovers. You cannot give things that you don't want or don't like. I will also mention the saying: لِكُلِّ سَاقِطَةٍ لَاقِطَةٌ — for everything that has fallen, there is someone who is going to pick it up. It's true. There's a whole industry that runs on recycled products. There's a whole economy in certain parts of the world of disadvantaged people, many times homeless people, whose entire livelihood depends on collecting aluminum cans and selling them for five or ten cents each. You just threw that can away in the garbage or on the street, but for someone, that is their sustenance.

So this is something true. That doesn't mean you say, "Not only am I not benefiting from this, so no other person should benefit from it either." As crazy as this sounds, some people actually have a mentality like this — that not only am I not benefiting from it, no other person should benefit from it. Astaghfirullah. A very, I think, evil type of mentality. We should have the attitude that whatever we can take, we benefit from, and then after that we share with others.

You're not going to give an empty can as a gift to anyone. We're speaking about giving as a gift. Similarly, old worn-out clothes — you're not going to give those as a gift, but if someone is looking for charity, then fine.

Reflections on Charity — From Jordan to Malawi

When I was in Jordan visiting the Palestinian refugee camp, I saw that when I looked at the kids in the refugee camps, the clothes they were wearing were all clothes that we wear here — American brand clothes. And I thought, oh wow, when they do these clothes collections, this is where it's going. It's actually going somewhere. You're thinking, "I already wore this shirt or pants seven, eight times, there's a new style now, throw this away." And then some others wash it, fold it, and donate it. That which you and I are thinking nobody will benefit from, there is actually someone who really needs it, who doesn't even have a shirt.

If you remember, I was sharing my reflections from Malawi. I was saying that my colleague, Mawlana, who was there with me — a friend — he was talking about his childhood. He said his dad used to have two shirts. That's it. And he said he himself had no shirts. You cannot go to school without a shirt. So he said, "I used to borrow my dad's shirt, which used to be double my chest size, and with this huge loose shirt, I used to go to school. And then as soon as I came home, I would take it off and give it back to my dad." Wallahi, he told me this on that trip.

So think about someone who is so close to me, a great classmate and friend of mine — this was his own childhood. And there are thousands — I would say millions — of people who are still living like that. What is the value of one shirt in our eyes? What's the value of one pair of pants, one shawl, one jacket, one pair of gloves? So these things are really valuable. Even if you've used it, give it away in charity. It's not a gift per se, it's sadaqah. As long as it's nice and clean and folded up or presented in a nice manner. But there are people overseas, and maybe even in this country, who would do anything to have something like that.

The Spiritual Quality of Food — Tayyib Beyond Halal

Now Allah, He is the most pure of beings, the most sublime of beings. And we are going to give Allah a gift. That gift has to be of high quality. That's what the hadith is saying.

"And Allah has ordered the believers with that which He ordered the Messengers." Meaning, the expectation Allah has from the prophets, that is the very same expectation Allah has from the believers. That's the status of a believer. Hence Allah has said in the Quran:

"O Messengers, eat from those things which are pure, and do righteous deeds. Indeed I am All-Aware of what you do."

Not just halal. But along with halal, the food should be of high quality. Not saying expensive — I'm saying it should be as natural as possible.

I was wanting to highlight that many of the reasons why we do not feel like doing our ibadah, do not feel like making du'a, and feel a lot of laziness — people say, "I can't stand up for 10 or 8 rakats, this is too much, I'll do 4." That same person will be standing behind a counter for 8, not 8 rakats, but 8 hours. And 9 hours. His wife asks, "Did you eat lunch?" — "Oh my god, I completely forgot. Forget about Dhuhr and Asr, I haven't even eaten lunch." This is the normal American life, of people hustling and working, and they forget about sleep, they forget about food.

But on the other hand, a person comes and says, after 6 rakats, "I'm too tired." After 8 rakats, "I'm too tired." "Oh my god, that 15th rakat was so long." "Sheikh sahib, today you ended Taraweeh 3 minutes later." "Today you ended Taraweeh 7 minutes later." All of this chit-chat that happens in masajid — it just tells us we are spiritually very weak.

The one who is spiritually strong will wish that the adhan, the salah, continues — and that he can continue to enjoy the recitation of the Quran. And the reason you enjoy the recitation of the Quran is not only because the qari has a very beautiful voice. Instead, the main reason you're going to enjoy it is because you know it's Allah's speech directed towards you. That's why you love it. That's why you like it. It's shifa. You're listening and saying, "Ya Allah, purify all my spiritual and physical diseases as I listen to this Taraweeh. Ya Allah, allow the nur of each verse to penetrate into my body." And then if the qari has a good voice, that's نُورٌ عَلَى نُور — that's great. Otherwise it becomes what we call entertainment for the ears, and that is not what the Quran has been revealed for — for us to simply enjoy someone's melodious tone. It needs to be recited with conviction. We need to hear it with conviction. That is the book of Allah.

The Story of the Imam and the Blessed Food

So you wonder why we feel lazy at times standing up in prayer, making du'a, doing extra rakats of tahajjud. One big reason, my friends, is not because you're physically weak — many of us are, mashallah, very physically strong. The reason is that which we feed our body with. The food that is going into our body — it might either be haram, or if it is halal, it is not tayyib. And when it's not tayyib, it will not produce the results that you would want. Because food is like the fuel for the body — not only physically, but spiritually as well. The higher the quality of food — and by higher quality I mean the further it is from anything doubtful — the greater the outcome is going to be.

There's a very famous incident involving Imam Shafi'i and Imam Ahmad. The host's children were shocked — they knew that true scholars, true imams, true believers, they are not gluttons, they don't overeat, they don't live to eat, they eat as much as they need to. Yet this sheikh kept on eating. And the host had put water for wudu outside of his room, so that he could make wudu for tahajjud and Fajr. When they went for Fajr, they saw that the jug of water had not been used. The thought came: SubhanAllah, he ate so much and also never got up for tahajjud? What kind of sheikh is this?

Afterwards, when questioned, he responded — and don't you all start using this story as an excuse, because unless you are someone at the level of Imam Shafi'i, Imam Ahmad, Imam Hanifa, Imam Malik, and the elders of the past, this does not apply to you — he said: "When I sat to eat, I saw there was so much nur emanating from that food. I was not eating with a focus on carbs and proteins. I was eating because I really wanted that nur to come into me. As for me not using the water, I was so spiritually uplifted from the food that I didn't sleep the entire night. And in that one night, sitting in your house, alhamdulillah, Allah opened up my mind and I was able to deduce 200 new solutions to problems from the Quran — 200 new masail."

My point is: absolutely pure food has its own powerful spiritual effect. That's not found in restaurant food. You could have the most amazingly hand-slaughtered food, but if there's music playing in the restaurant, if there are people cooking who are not in a state of tahara, it's going to go down a notch compared to a person who is constantly doing dhikr.

Cooking with Dhikr — Stories from Mumbai

I remember I went to one home and I said, "I already ate, JazakAllah, this is really not necessary." Then the husband said, "Brother, listen, you don't know my wife. My wife, when she prepares food, she is in the state of wudu, and from the very beginning until the time the food is served, the entire time she is in the state of dhikr. This food is not some restaurant food. This is food that's not only cooked with love, but it's cooked with the dhikr of Allah." I said, okay, I can't say no to this.

Another brother — I went to his house in Mumbai, mashallah. He insisted I eat. Then he named to me every scholar you can imagine from the Indo-Pak subcontinent who ever flew through Mumbai. He said, "This small platform right here that you're sitting on — all these ulama have sat here. From the last meal that Mufti Syed Palanpuri (rahimahullah) had before he went to the hospital, to Mufti Taqi Uthmani from Pakistan, and Mawlana Zulfiqar sahib, and my teachers from South Africa — they all sat here." I said, "Okay brother, bring it on. I'll sit here."

And then after I finished, subhanAllah — he said, "This is my wife, my daughter-in-law, my sister, my daughter — together they sit and cook for all these ulama." He went through the list from Mawlana Ali Miyan Nadwi to Qari Tayyib, leaving no one out. I thought, it's an honor for me to be sitting here.

He said, "They know with what ikhlas and sincerity the women of this house cook." It's a third-floor apartment with no elevator — you have to climb all the way up. The house is probably a thousand square feet. The area we're actually eating in, maybe 150 square feet maximum. It's a small, tight place. But then you wonder: what did the ulama see in this house? What did they see in this little dining room that has no tables, nothing fancy about it? What did they see in the cooking of this lady and the sincerity of her husband, that they would climb three flights of stairs to come eat here — even when they were unwell?

These are things that you and I are so weak, we can't sense them. When someone says, "Brother, your face, mashallah, it's got a lot of noor on it" — don't fall for this. You're going to say, "What, you have a noor sensor? This is Vaseline, brother, this is Nivea cream." But when people say they see noor, you have to have something to be able to see noor on someone's face. A lot of times when someone says, "I want to get married to so-and-so because I see so much noor on her face" — that's not noor, that's called a waswasa given in the form of noor. We shouldn't fall for these types of things.

So subhanAllah, going back to the brother who hosted us in Mumbai — he said, "Every scholar who comes to my house, after they finish eating, they have to pay for it." I said, "What do you mean, pay?" He said, "We have this thick parda — a screen — between the kitchen and the sitting area. Every scholar comes and sits, and then they give some advice and du'a to my family." Look at how people think. Imagine — these are people who've been cooking for the most senior ulama for the past 30 years. He said, "There's no chit-chat by the way — no salamu alaykum Mawlana, how are you, so nice of you to come, none of that. You do not hear the voice of the women at all. They sit behind the screen, and we let the scholar know they're sitting — please come and give nasiha." So whatever Allah put in my heart at that time, I shared.

But I want you to understand that this is what is called tayyib food. This is what we should serve people. This is what we should look for. That we cook our food with dhikr. We cook with wudu. We cook and serve with sincerity and love. And then a person who simply eats that food — he will change.

A Lesson for Those in the Food Business

For all those in the restaurant business — when someone was told, "Mawlana, I'm going to open up a restaurant in Medina. What do you say?" He replied, "Good, you'll make money, this and that, fine. But just make one intention: that I am making and cooking food and opening up this restaurant to be able to serve the guests of Rasulullah ﷺ in Medina." You can still make money, but your intention is: I am making high quality, good food, and I want to be able to give people something that will satiate them and taste good — and I'm doing this with extra love because they are the guests of Rasulullah ﷺ. That will just add so much more barakah in your business.

So we need to similarly keep these things in mind — whether we have guests at our home or we go somewhere else — that the fuel for action is food. The quality of the food. The more dhikr and du'a, the better.

The Quranic Command: Eat Pure and Do Good

What did Allah say? Ya ayyuhar rusul — O Prophets, Allah is ordering us to follow what the prophets have been ordered to:

"O you who believe, eat from the good things that We have provided for you."

Don't eat garbage. So dear youngsters and children, please do not eat useless, unhealthy snacks whose ingredients we cannot pronounce, cannot spell, and have absolutely no idea what they are made out of. Unbelievable, disgusting things they're using. Someone once offered me very expensive coffee. I asked what it was, and then I found out — some of you know what I'm talking about — there's a type of high-end coffee whose process involves a specific cat somewhere in the world that ingests the coffee bean and it comes out the other way, and then they collect that and process it. How is this tayyib?

So this artificial junk — these so-called snacks — we need to cut it out. In Ramadan, let's all make this niyyah. If you can't pronounce it, you don't know what it means, and it's got 60 items listed in the ingredients — don't eat it. All those processed foods. We need to divorce ourselves from processed foods. You want to eat something sweet? Make it at home with 4 ingredients instead of 40 ingredients. That food that's been in the freezer for 6 months — there's nothing good in that. That's not tayyib. We have no idea what we're eating. And that is probably one of the very big reasons, besides the excessive amount of diseases and sicknesses we're suffering from, that there is such a decay in spirituality — because of what we're eating.

The Traveler Whose Du'a Was Rejected

Then the Prophet ﷺ continued and mentioned a man:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 12, Hadith 65 / Hadith 1015)

يُطِيلُ السَّفَرَ — He makes a very long journey. When you travel long, you are in a vulnerable state. You're alone, no one is hosting you, alone in the desert or the jungle. أَشْعَثَ أَغْبَرَ — his hair is disheveled, he has dust all over his body. Someone looks at him and says, "Come, let me call you and give you a shower, give you clothes, give you some food." They feel sympathy. Similarly, this man looks in such a state that you would feel bad for him.

Then what happens? يَمُدُّ يَدَيْهِ إِلَى السَّمَاء — He extends his hands towards the sky and says, Ya Rabb, Ya Rabb, please, Ya Allah. Another human being, if they were to look at him, would sympathize with him, would have empathy for him. And there is no one who has more sympathy and empathy than Allah. Allah looks at this person — this man saying Ya Rabbi, Ya Rabbi.

But then the Prophet ﷺ said: وَمَطْعَمُهُ حَرَامٌ — what he eats is haram. وَمَشْرَبُهُ حَرَامٌ — what he drinks is haram. وَمَلْبَسُهُ حَرَامٌ — what he wears is from haram income, or his clothing is inappropriate — see-through, tight, not covering his satr. وَغُذِيَ بِالْحَرَامِ — his body has been nourished with haram. Then the Prophet ﷺ said: فَأَنَّى يُسْتَجَابُ لِذَلِكَ — "How will that du'a ever be accepted?" That du'a is never going to be accepted. Because from top to bottom, it is haram.

This is the story that the Prophet ﷺ mentioned. This is the reason why I mentioned it today. This is our introductory discussion. Our food, our eating and drinking, our income — all of it needs to be halal if we want our du'as to be accepted.

The Door of Tawbah is Open

Now if we're listening to this right now and we say, "Brother, I have ingested haram food. I have drunk haram things. My clothes are not appropriate. My income is not halal." Well, guess what? You make tawbah. Repent. Seek forgiveness from Allah. And through the barakah of that repentance, Allah will accept our future du'as as well.

Closing Du'a

We ask Allah to make it easy for myself and all of us here to become people of taqwa when it comes to everything — but especially what we eat, what we drink, and what we wear. We ask Allah to protect us all from doubtful wealth and doubtful food. We ask Allah to make it easy for us to stay away from all sorts of processed and artificial foods, and allow us to stick to that which is tayyib — that which is halal and healthy and wholesome. We ask Allah to make us amongst those who are blessed to eat from that food which is cooked with dhikr and with du'a. And allow us to bring this etiquette within our own homes — that we also cook and serve with love as well as the remembrance of Allah.

All those mothers, fathers, young children and adults who are preparing for iftar in their homes all across the world — you have to be in the kitchen an hour before Maghrib or half an hour before. Please use this time to listen to something beneficial and do dhikr as you're doing it. Do salawat. If you're not a hafiz, you may not be able to recite Quran from memory, but you can read Surah Yasin or something similar. Keep your tongue busy while you're preparing the food, and lots of barakah will come, inshallah.

Oh Allah, allow our hearts and our eyes and our ears and our hands and our feet and every limb of our body to fast from that which is disliked and that which is prohibited in Deen. Oh Allah, make it easy for all of us to cultivate ruhaniyyah and spirituality through the barakah of this month. Oh Allah, make it easy for all of us to bring a transformation within our lives. Oh Allah, we ask You to make it easy for all of us to identify — or to be able to get help in identifying — what our own individual flaws and faults are. And Oh Allah, allow every single one of us to be humble enough to work on implementing such things that will help us get rid of those flaws.

Oh Allah, we ask You to grant all of us cure from any physical, spiritual, or emotional diseases that affect our well-being. Oh Allah, we ask You to have mercy upon all those across the world who are going through any type of difficulty — all those suffering famine, civil war, external enemies, non-curable diseases, the absence of a home, the absence of food. Oh Allah, we ask You to have mercy on all these huge sections of the ummah.

Oh Allah, allow us to feel empathy and sympathy towards these brothers and sisters of ours across the globe who are not as fortunate as we are. Oh Allah, allow us to continue to be engaged in Your shukr and gratitude throughout every single day of our life. Oh Allah, we ask You to unite the ummah wherever they may be. Unite our hearts. Oh Allah, allow us to be focused on the way forward. Oh Allah, allow us to be focused on helping one another. Oh Allah, allow Islam to rise all across the globe and allow people to see the beauty of this deen in this era of fitnah.

Oh Allah, allow people to see value in the deen. Oh Allah, allow our children and our youth as well as our adults to reaffirm their conviction in Your book. Oh Allah, allow our conviction in the book of Allah to grow stronger. Oh Allah, reward our parents, our spouses, our children, our siblings, and all those who became a means of us reaching here. Oh Allah, anyone who has assisted us in any way throughout life — we ask You to reward them in full for their efforts.

Oh Allah, for those of us who have lost our parents and grandparents and our elders — fill their graves with noor and be pleased with them. And Ya Allah, those whose parents are alive — allow us to serve them and earn our Jannah by serving them. Oh Allah, whoever has any type of need, who is sitting here, who is listening here, or listening from wherever — Oh Allah, fulfill all of our spiritual needs, all of our physical needs, all of our emotional needs, all of our financial needs. Oh Allah, grant us complete shifa from the sicknesses that we are suffering from.

Oh Allah, by the end of this month, allow all of us to be able to transform ourselves into that amazing being that You want us to be. Oh Allah, we ask You to make all of us dedicated in our Taraweeh, in our Qiyamul Layl, in our Tahajjud, in our daily dhikr and du'a, and in the recitation of the Quran.

Du'as at the Breaking of the Fast

"The thirst has gone, the veins have been quenched, and the reward has been established, if Allah wills."
(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 2357)

"O Allah, for You I have fasted, and upon Your provision I have broken my fast."
(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 2358)

"All praise is for Allah who helped me fast and provided for me to break my fast."

"O Allah, for You we have fasted, and upon Your provision we have broken our fast. Accept from us — indeed You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing."