Cultivating Dua with Mufti Abdul Wahab Waheed | Session 4

Cultivating Du'a — Session 4: Du'as for Specific Occasions

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Hopefully insha'Allah everyone is doing well and enjoying and benefiting from the last few nights of the month of Ramadan — insha'Allah you guys are safe, happy at home with your families.

Opening Remarks & Program Updates

How have your last few sessions been? Alhamdulillah, I see some familiar names — good to see you all. I hope you guys are able to come on consistently. I was looking at the survey before the class and masha'Allah a lot of you are able to join fairly consistently and you guys have been able to take part in most of the sessions — that's awesome masha'Allah.

Really this whole immersion program — the idea behind it once again was to give everyone a chance to learn different sciences that they normally would have to travel for, to have to reach these scholars from different parts of the world.

The Purpose of Du'a — A Brief Reflection

I'm going to get into my actual subject, which is my du'a class. I've learned so much preparing for this class and teaching this class. I hope you all have also learned a little bit and benefited to a certain extent, because people always consider or think of du'a in a manner that it's for the pious people — du'as are for people that are close to Allah and their du'as are accepted. But as you really go through these du'as, you realize that this is for every single person. Every single person not only needs these du'as, they have instant benefit from these du'as. It's just the matter of us saying the words.

Sometimes we think, "Oh, what's the point of me just saying it?" — just saying it is enough. Me saying, you know, Allahumma inni as'aluka al-huda wa al-tuqa wa al-'afafa wa al-ghina — that's me asking for guidance and knowledge. That's all that Allah needs from us. Allah needs us to speak to Him.

As long as we speak to Allah, Allah responds to us in ways that are beyond our capacity of understanding. That response doesn't come in the form of words — that response comes in the form of barakah, comes in the form of help, comes in the form of love, comes in the form of happiness in the house. The du'as are not always made just to get a response in that du'a being accepted. Du'a is made because it's enjoyable to speak to Allah, and that's how our elders — our salaf us-salihun — would make du'a. They would make du'a to enjoy that conversation with Allah. They would enjoy talking to Allah alone when no one was around.

All the du'as that we're going through are du'as that are prophetic — du'as that the Prophet ﷺ taught his Companions and he himself would make. And it's not that hard to learn them. Alhamdulillah we have this interactive PDF where you can actually hear them.

Before I get into the actual du'as we're covering today, I want to talk about this: it's important for us to understand that making du'a is not always for the source — it's for the objective. A lot of times when we make du'a for a specific thing, I would say always make du'a for the objective. Make du'a for the specific thing as well — I want a car, I want this — but make du'a for the objective: "Ya Allah, I want ease from this. Ya Allah, I want happiness from this."

And that's what Musa ﷺ did when he made du'a:

"O Allah, whatever You send my way, I am in need of it." It was for the objective. And Allah gave him three things: Allah gave him a house to live in with Shu'ayb ﷺ, He got him married to his daughter, and He gave him a job. All three things came from one du'a.

So learn how to — these are prophetic du'as that can become routine in our life — but the purpose of making these du'as and learning these du'as is to allow us to go beyond them. Not just stick to these, but go beyond them and allow us to open up in front of Allah.

Ibn al-Qayyim says one more thing: he says one of the reasons why we learn these du'as is also to learn the power of Allah, the qudra of Allah. Why are we constantly asking Allah? Because Allah is all-Qadir, Allah is all-Muqtadir, Allah is All-Powerful, Allah does as He wills. So asking these things from Allah is a sign that Allah is the one that does everything for us — that's why we're asking Him. So it also creates more yaqeen in Allah for us. The more we make du'a, he says, the more yaqeen enters into our heart.

Review: A Du'a We Didn't Cover Last Week

Last week — the first week we went through du'as from the Qur'an, the second week we went through du'as of mu'awwidhat — du'as of seeking refuge from things. Last week we went through du'as of "O Allah I ask you," and hopefully you remember we went through a few du'as: one of them was As'aluka al-huda wa al-tuqa wa al-'afafa wa al-ghina — Guidance, Taqwa, Chastity, and Self-Sufficiency — and then we went through "O Allah I ask for your love and for those that love you," and we went through different ways of earning the love of Allah.

The five ways of earning Allah's love that we covered: recitation of the Qur'an, loving people for the sake of Allah, counting Allah's blessings, continuous dhikr, and teaching people about Allah.

There was one du'a that we didn't cover, which is this:

(Reported by al-Hakim in al-Mustadrak, and cited by Ibn al-Qayyim in al-Wabil al-Sayyib)

Allahu Akbar — what a powerful du'a. "O Allah, I ask You for all of those things that create Your mercy — give me all of those means and resources that create Your mercy in my life. Everything that can bring Your mercy in my life, O Allah give me that. I want that. Whatever it may be — as long as it can bring Your mercy, I am in need of it and I require it. If it's Qur'an, if it's dhikr, if it's tahajjud, if it's crying, if it's spending time with my parents — as'aluka mujibati rahmatik, whatever brings Your mercy, put that into my life and put the love of that amal into my heart."

Wa 'aza'ima maghfiratik — and anything that can be a means of Your forgiveness. Rahmah and maghfirah are often used together — maghfirah is Allah forgiving us, rahmah is the mercy of Allah which is available. Rahmah is more so the mercy which Allah has available, and maghfirah is that mercy being manifested in my life. "O Allah, I ask for all those things that can give me access towards Your mercy, and I ask You for all those means that can allow that mercy to fall upon me."

Wa al-salamata min kulli ithm — "O Allah, I ask You to grant me safety, to grant me refuge from all sins." This doesn't mean that we won't commit sins. What this means is: O Allah, I ask You to protect me from liking sins. I ask You to protect me from enjoying the sin. I ask You to protect me from being engulfed in a sin, unapologetically being involved in a sin. We all sin:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2499; Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 4251)

But the best of sinners are the ones that learn how to seek repentance. Wa al-salamata min kulli ithm means: O Allah, keep me, protect me from any forms of sins that lead towards more sins. It can also mean: O Allah, don't allow me to enjoy sins — if I commit a sin, allow me to identify that as a sin instantly. It can also mean: protect me from all those things that make me want to sin — if that's bad company, a bad environment, a bad friend — whatever it may be, O Allah protect me from those people and those environments that can entice that craving of a sin in my life.

And this is why Imam al-Shafi'i rahimahullah says that worse than a sin is the regret of not doing a sin. Wa al-salamata min kulli ithm means: O Allah keep me away from wanting to do sins. This is when you know the enjoyment for people close to Allah comes in good deeds, and the enjoyment of those that are sinners comes in sins. In the tafseer of the ayah from Surah Fatir:

There are three categories of people: Zalimun li nafsihi — those who oppress themselves. Imam al-Qurtubi rahimahullah says because they worship Allah out of fear. Wa minhum muqtasid — they worship Allah out of hope for Jannah. Wa minhum sabiqun bil khairati bi idhnillah — they worship Allah out of Allah's pleasure, they enjoy it so much that's why they worship Allah.

Wa al-ghanimate min kulli birr — "Give me the benefit of all the good that I do." Ghanima is literally the spoils of war — the benefit of a battle. What we're saying here is: O Allah, give me the benefit of my a'mal. Don't just give me the reward in the hereafter — also bless me with the benefit of it. The benefit of reciting Qur'an is that my heart opens up and softens. The benefit of making du'a is that Allah allows me to learn how to communicate with Him. The benefit of praying Salat is that my 24/7 life also has a God-conscious feel within it. Every good deed has a reward allocated for it in the eyes of Allah that we don't know right now, but it also has a benefit — the fawa'id, the benefit of it. O Allah give me the benefit of the good that I do, allow me to see that benefit.

Whosoever does good deeds in this life, We will give them the benefit of the good life in this world — that's what ghanima is. Wa al-fawza bil jannah — give me success through Jannah. Wa al-najata min al-nar — and give me protection and deliverance from the fire of Jahannam. This is a very comprehensive du'a — asking for Allah's mercy, asking protection from sins, asking for the ability to see the benefit of good deeds (because when you see that benefit, you're motivated to do more), and at the end, give me Jannah and free me from Jahannam.

The last one we already covered in the mu'awwidhat — O Allah I ask You to give me beneficial knowledge, vast rizq that is enough for me, wa qalban khashi'a — a heart which is afraid of You and has God-consciousness, wa amalan mutaqabbala — accepted deeds. Don't make me a person that does deeds but they're not accepted. The du'a of Ibrahim ﷺ after building the Ka'bah:

He didn't say, "O Allah I did it, I told You I'd do it." No — as soon as he finished building the most sacred place in the world, he said, "O Allah, please accept it from us." The people of the past would make more effort on making sure that the deed was accepted than they did in performing the deed. So we have to make sure that our Ramadan is accepted — by making sure we don't wash it away right after the month finishes, but rather we hold on to some of those habits post-Ramadan.

Wa shifa'an min kulli da' — O Allah, ask for cure from all ailments and all diseases. Again, a very comprehensive du'a — a du'a that we should be learning and teaching our children.

Today's Topic: Du'as for Specific Occasions

Today we're going to jump into du'as for specific occasions — du'as that we make in specific times of our life, specifically morning, evening, and entering and leaving the house. This is something that every single one of us does. All of us alhamdulillah woke up in the morning, and all of us will enter into the evening. All of us will either leave our home or enter back into our home.

There's a du'a for every moment of the Prophet's ﷺ life — when he entered the house, when he left the house, when he sat on his camel, when he entered the masjid, when he met his Companions — there's a du'a for everything. And that's the beauty of it. What does it mean to always have the remembrance of Allah in our heart? It doesn't mean that we're not doing other things — that's impossible. We're supposed to be doing other things: taking care of our family, making sure we're working, studying properly. But if we include these du'as within it, all of that indulgence will be a source of reward for us.

Spirituality is when whatever I'm doing — it doesn't have to be ibadah — I'm doing it in accordance with Allah's commandments and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, and that allows me to do my worship better, that allows me to become a better worshipper of Allah. If I'm going to work in a permissible field, and I'm doing it while reading my du'a — "Allah, give me enough rizq that is enough for me and my family" — then that work will actually be a form of spirituality for us. Deen is beautiful — it gives us du'as for every occasion.

Du'a #1: Upon Entering the Home

The first du'a I will begin with is the du'a while entering into the home. This du'a can also be used for leaving the house — some scholars say it's used for both, so I would keep it open-ended for both options.

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 5096)

"O Allah, I ask You to make my entering of the house the best of entrances — make my entering the house a form of barakah for the house. As I'm entering the house, everything that I had in my mind, whatever rubbish or difficulty I went through throughout the day — I leave it at the door. I walk inside. Allah, make this entering of mine a means of barakah for me in my life, a means of happiness for me and my family."

This is what the Prophet ﷺ was a master of — emotional intelligence. What that means is you're able to switch on and off at different times based upon where you are, so your work does not affect your ability of being kind to your children. The Prophet ﷺ would deal with the difficulties of the world on a daily basis, but when he would enter the home, he would help out inside the house and make his presence felt with his family and his grandchildren.

This is that du'a — "O Allah, I ask You to make my entering the house a form of barakah for me and my family. Don't make it that when I'm entering the house, the first thing I want to do is yell at someone or say something bad or demand something from someone. No — I enter the house — khayrul mawlaj — make this entering of mine the best place I can be right now." Wa khayrul makhraj — and when I leave, make this the best leaving for me, that I'm leaving for the sake of benefiting my family.

Bismillahi walajna, wa bismillahi kharajna — in the name of Allah we enter, in the name of Allah we leave. Wa 'ala Allahi rabbina tawakkalna — as we enter and as we leave, we don't abandon the trust that we have in Allah, because it is indeed only Allah that can bring me back safely, take me wherever I'm going, and allow me to come back with more iman, more rizq, more blessings.

Just this du'a in itself will make us feel so mubarak — so blessed — so special. And the best way to teach these du'as to our children is not to teach it to them directly, but to say it out loud in front of them, so they can see that my parents are often found saying this. That means there must be an importance behind it, and they will start saying it.

We don't want our house to be a place of constraint for us. We don't want our families to be a place of hardship. Rather:

"O Allah, make my home, my family, my children, my spouse — make them a source of coolness to my eyes. When I come home, make it feel good for me." That's this du'a right here. O Allah, make me feel the best I've felt throughout the day inside of my house, not outside of it. We feel better outside of the house sometimes than inside — this is not to say that we have a bad heart, it's perhaps just that we don't have the right perspective. And perspective is a choice. So if we can choose this perspective — Allah, make this the best place for me outside of the masjid — that's this du'a for us.

Du'a #2: Upon Leaving the Home

This du'a is to recite when leaving the house — du'a ul-khuruj min al-bayt. You and I do not want to be a source of evil for the world. We don't want to be a source of oppression, of ignorance, of making others slip and fall. Rather we want to be someone that, when we leave the house and enter our workplace, our masjid, our school — people know they can be at ease around us and they can benefit from us. We also want to be protected from their harm.

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 5094; Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3427; Sunan al-Nasa'i, Hadith 5486; Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 3884)

Every single time we leave our house and every single morning that we wake up, the Prophet ﷺ says that every single person, when they wake up and leave their home, they are either selling themselves to Allah, or selling themselves towards Shaytan. When they leave the house, now the challenge of protecting my eyes is there, now the challenge of protecting my ears is there, now the challenge of protecting my tongue is there. In the house there's not much that I could look at which was haram, but now when I leave — now the challenge comes to me.

A-adilla — "O Allah, I seek refuge that I stray away," that I somehow lose my path. Aw udilla — or that I am led astray by others. Aw azilla — or that I slip. Zalla means to slip — and this is why in the Qur'an Allah says:

Zalzala — when the word doubles up on each other, rather than meaning to slip, it actually means an earthquake, which makes everyone slip. So: "O Allah, I seek refuge that I slip — that I somehow commit a sin. Allah, don't make me amongst those that slip while leaving this home." Not slip physically — though that too can be included — but more so: "O Allah, don't allow me to slip unintentionally or intentionally." Aw uzalla — don't allow others to make me slip. Make me a means of thabat — of solidness — make me a source of being upright, but also make me a source of giving that to people, and protect me from being crooked and allowing others to make me crooked.

Aw adhlima — "O Allah, I seek refuge that I oppress anyone." The way I speak to my fellow colleagues at work, to my fellow classmates at school, to my inferiors if I am a superior. We don't want to be people that have oppression written on our shoulders. Oppression is something which is even haram upon Allah Himself — in the hadith Qudsi:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2577)

"O son of Adam, I have made dhulm haram and impermissible for Myself — and Allah never oppresses anyone —

Allah says: if I don't oppress anyone, then it is impermissible for you to oppress anyone. And dhulm doesn't just mean that I oppress someone because I say something wrong to them. Dhulm can mean the way I look at them, the way I treat them, my lack of communication with them. Sometimes we say that not speaking is the best thing to do — yes — but not speaking at the time that you're supposed to be speaking is also something wrong. When you meet someone you're supposed to say salam, and if you don't do it, that is also incorrect.

The definition of dhulm — one of the most popular definitions given by our scholars, across the board, from Ibn al-Qayyim to Imam al-Nawawi rahimahumAllah — is:

Putting something where it doesn't belong — that's what dhulm is. Me parking my car where it doesn't belong is a form of dhulm. Me double-parking is a form of dhulm. Me not putting the cart back from the grocery store where it belongs is a form of dhulm. If someone gave me money to borrow, giving that money back is a must for me — if I don't, it's a form of dhulm on me. Honking at someone without the need of honking at them — that's dhulm. Making facial expressions to make people feel belittled — that's dhulm. It doesn't belong there.

Sometimes we think it's just the words that we say that harm people — it's not just the words, it's how we say the words. It's also the facial expressions that we have. Allah says in Surah al-Humazah:

The deepest valley in Jahannam — Wayl — is for those that are humzatun lumaza. Humzatun lumaza refers to people that belittle others by their facial expressions — the way they move their eyebrows, the way they squint their eyes, the way they change their face, the way they turn away — all of that is humzatun lumaza. And lumaza is the way we belittle people through our hands and gestures. That's dhulm. Yes, the highest form of dhulm is the oppression we see all across the world, but we are asking Allah to protect us from even committing this type of dhulm.

Aw udhlama — "O Allah, I seek refuge that I am also oppressed." Don't make me someone who is oppressed. Aw ajhala — don't allow me to be someone that acts with ignorance in public. "O Allah, make me someone that can walk with reverence and respect, with self-dignity and self-honor." Ajhala means: don't make me someone whose ignorance is exposed — because we're all ignorant in the eyes of Allah. Allah is 'Alim, we are juhala in the eyes of Allah. But whatever knowledge that we have, we ask Allah: don't allow my ignorance to stem out in front of people. Aw yujhala 'alayhi — and don't make me a person that is treated in a manner of ignorance and disrespect. Allow me to be respectful to people, and allow people to be respectful to me.

All of these du'as are made for oneself, and they're also made to protect others from us, and to protect ourselves from others. When I leave the house I say: "O Allah, I seek refuge that I don't go astray and I don't lead others to go astray. That I don't slip — i.e. I don't sin — neither do I allow others to sin because of me. That I don't oppress, neither am I oppressed while I leave the house. That I don't act in a foolish manner, neither am I treated in a foolish manner." There's only four things: misguidance, sins, oppression, and ignorance. O Allah, I ask that You protect me from it, and I ask that You protect others from me doing it to them.

Du'a #3: A Shorter Du'a for Entering and Exiting the Home

This is also for entering and exiting the house — an easy one that a lot of you perhaps already know. If the two du'as above are hard for you to learn for now, then just suffice with this one:

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 5095; Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3426)

"I begin in the name of Allah. I put all my trust in Allah. There is no power and no might except with Allah." When I leave the house — of course I may be scared — and for mothers and fathers, recite this du'a and blow it on your children: "O Allah, this child is going to school, this child is going abroad for studies — O Allah, You protect them. Tawakkaltu 'ala Allah — we put our trust in You."

Like when Musa ﷺ was taken from his beloved mother, and Allah told his mother:

"Put him inside the box in the river, and don't be sad, and don't grieve — because We will bring him back to you." Tawakkaltu 'ala Allah.

The Prophet ﷺ says — in a beautiful narration — that whosoever recites this du'a when they enter or leave their home, that no sharr from that day can touch them, no evil from that day can come to them, because they recited the du'a that denotes that all might and power comes from Allah. And how can Allah harm me when He loves me? Tawakkaltu 'ala Allah — O Allah, I put all my trust in You, and You have the power to benefit and to harm. O Allah, You protect me from harm and give me Your benefit.

No one else can harm me — as the Prophet ﷺ told Ibn Abbas in teaching him the foundational elements of true faith:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2516)

"If everyone was to get together to benefit you in something, they could not benefit you if Allah had not written it for you. And if everyone gets together to harm you, they cannot harm you unless Allah has written it for you." And Allah says:

When Allah opens up goodness for someone, there is no one that can take it back. And when Allah wants harm for someone, no one can stop it — but at the same time, no one can give it if Allah doesn't want it. Bismillahi tawakkaltu 'ala Allah is a very easy du'a. When we recite this du'a even once or twice in a day while entering and exiting — all the sharr, we want to be people that are protected from the evil of people, the evil eye, jealousy, arrogance, and all manner of difficulty — this du'a covers us. And all the goodness that comes to us in our day, we will reflect that goodness back to this du'a, and that's how we create more confidence in our ability of making du'a.

Du'a #4: A Morning & Evening Du'a

This is a similar du'a that we're supposed to recite every single morning — and of course it can be recited in the morning, evening, entering the house, exiting the house. They can all be used interchangeably. This du'a is also very powerful:

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 5088; Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3388; Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 3869)

Imagine waking up every single morning and reciting:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6312)

"O Allah, all praises to You for giving me life after giving me death" — i.e., I'm awake, I'm alive — because when we sleep, our soul is taken away from our body for a temporary time period and is returned when we wake up. So when we're waking up, we're literally waking up from a small death. And our soul is taken up to the heavens — this is where we recognize and understand that when we see good dreams, it's because our soul was taken to 'Illiyyun, a place where all the pious people are. Next to Allah's 'arsh there's a place where the 'Illiyyun are — the pious souls — when they pass away they go to this place. So when we sleep, it is indeed a small death.

So I say: "O Allah, when I wake up in the morning, You're giving me life again." And after making that du'a, imagine saying: Bismillahi alladhi la yadhurru ma'a ismihi shay'un fil ardi wa la fis-sama' — "O Allah, I begin my name with that Being whose name cannot be harmed by anything in the world, in the heavens or the skies. I begin my day with Allah, who cannot be touched or harmed or afflicted by anything in the skies or the earth." The only One who cannot be harmed, and the only One who is the cause of ease, is Allah. I begin my day with that.

You know how we say "I woke up on the wrong side of the bed"? From now on, that's because we didn't recite this du'a. If we recite this du'a, that means we woke up on the right side of the bed — because we were able to wake up with the du'a that protects us from the harm of the heavens and the earth, from the harm of jinn — that's why we recite the mu'awwidhatayn. Bismillahi la yadhurru ma'a ismihi shay'un fil ardi wa la fis-sama' — O Allah, I seek refuge, for there is nothing in the world that can harm the name of Allah. And if I have that name of Allah with me in the morning or the evening, I am free from harm.

We make du'a with conviction that it is going to work. Imagine driving and just missing an accident — if you read this du'a in the morning, you'll say: "Wallahi, that du'a saved me." And it is the du'a that saved us — we believe that. By reciting this du'a, Allah puts angels to protect us, because no one can harm us anymore.

Abu al-Darda was praying Salat in the masjid, and someone came to him and said: "Your house is burning." He said, "No, it's not." The man said, "Abu al-Darda, it's burning!" He said, "I'm telling you it's not burning." The man went back to check, and he came back and said, "Abu al-Darda, you're right — all the houses around you are burning, but your house isn't burning." That's the power of these du'as. We don't recite them because we're challenging the du'a — we recite them because we know it's going to work. Allah says in the hadith Qudsi: "I am with My slave as his assumptions are about Me — if he knows I can do good, then it's going to happen."

Du'a #5: A Du'a of Gratitude for Morning and Evening

Another du'a that we should recite comes in the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ — that whoever recites this du'a will feel content and fulfilled:

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 1529; Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3389)

"We are pleased with Allah being our Lord. We are pleased with Islam being our religion. And we are pleased with the Prophet ﷺ being our messenger." This is a du'a of shukr. A lot of the du'as we went through so far are more so du'as of seeking protection. But this is a du'a of gratitude — where we're saying: "O Allah, I am happy with, I am more than pleased with You being my Lord, because You look after me." Wa bil islami dina — "I am more than content with Islam being my religion." Wa bi muhammadin nabiyya — "And I am more than content with the Prophet ﷺ being my messenger, because there is no one in the world that is a better person, there is no prophet in the world that can come close to our Habib ﷺ."

He said ﷺ: ana sayyidu waladi Adam yawmal qiyamati wa la fakhr — "I am the greatest prophet and there is no pride in that, because Allah gave it to me." Allah is my Lord — indahu khaza'inu al-samawati wal-ard. Allah says in the hadith Qudsi: "O son of Adam, never be afraid of any tyrant or any king or ruler as long as I am around — and know that My kingdom will never end. O son of Adam, don't ever feel the tightness of rizq if you know that I am around and I have My treasures, and My treasures never go away. Turn towards Me, and I will give you from My treasures."

The quickest way of earning from the treasures of Allah is praying our fardh Salat on time, punctually, with consistency — this opens up Allah's treasures for us. Radhitu billahi rabba — O Allah, You are my Lord. What does Rabb mean? Rabb means four things:

Number one: Allah is our murabbi — sometimes you own something but you don't take care of it. Allah owns us and Allah takes care of us. Number two: Sometimes you own something but you don't have full access towards it — you own your house, your car, but you can't just add a new room without getting permits and zoning. Allah is Rabb, meaning He owns us, He takes care of us, and He has full access towards us. Number three: He has access towards us at all times. Number four: He is mun'im — He is always blessing us with more and more. He always gives us more. So Rabb is not a scary thing — Rabb is a blessing.

Wa bil islami dina — and in order for us to earn that pleasure of Allah:

Read this du'a and be grateful that Allah is our Lord — Allah will be happy with us as well.

The religion of Allah is Islam. Wa bi muhammadin nabiyyan — really this is a small sentence of only three phrases, but it is very powerful. "O Allah, I am happy — You are my Lord, that's all I need. I'm happy I have Islam, and I'm happy the Prophet ﷺ is my messenger, because I know he will take care of me on the Day of Judgment." So this du'a should also be recited. Note that it can also be recited after the Adhan.

Du'a #6: Morning and Evening — Entering and Exiting the Day

This is a du'a that many of you may have heard. There are two versions: Amsayna wa amsal mulku lillahi rabbil 'alamin for the evening, and Asbahna wa asbahal mulku lillahi rabbil 'alamin for the morning. I'll make sure both are added for you in the PowerPoint.

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 5079)

Every single person enters the morning — or the evening — with the permission of Allah. They don't do it on their own. "O Allah, I ask You for the good of this morning, I ask You for the ease of this morning, I ask You for the good of this night, I ask You for the ease of this night, and the barakah of this night, and the guidance from this day or this night. And I ask You to protect me from any hardship that comes from this day or night."

Du'a #7: The Du'a of Complete Gratitude (Morning & Evening)

The last du'a I have — du'a number 22 — and I wanted to end with this one:

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 5073; also cited as a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ in other collections)

Allah says that whosoever makes this du'a in the morning — or the evening — they have correctly thanked Allah. Of course we can never thank Allah to its true extent, but from this du'a we are reaching that level of shukr and hamd that Allah requires from us.

"O Allah, there is not a single blessing that has been received by me — or by any of Your creation — except that it came from You alone. I just woke up, I had my children, I had my parents, I have a shelter over my head, I have a job, I have school. Ma asbaha bi min ni'matin — O Allah, there is not a single blessing that I woke up with, or if any of Your creation woke up with, except that it came directly from You. There is no one that can be a partner of Yours. Wa laka al-hamdu wa laka al-shukr — all praise is due to You O Allah, and all of my gratitude is for You."

Anyone that recites this, the Prophet ﷺ says, has upheld the right of praising Allah by its true definition. So it's a very simple du'a — and all these du'as will again be emailed to you, with a button you can click to hear them recited.

Closing Advice: Take Instant Action

One of the core characteristics of the Companions that made them who they were is that they were people of instant action. When they would hear something new, they wouldn't wait to implement it — they would implement it right away. So I would say: these are all du'as for the morning and the evenings that protect us and make us grateful for whatever we have during the day. These du'as are ones you can learn today — literally today — and start reciting them from today if you haven't already.

And some of you may have already known these du'as — well, if you knew them and were not reciting them, myself included, this is a wake-up call for us. We should start reciting them insha'Allah ta'ala.

JazakAllah khair for everyone. Hopefully you benefited from the fourth session of du'as, and insha'Allah you enjoyed it. JazakAllah khair for joining, Allah bless you all. And we truly enjoy teaching — so honestly, the gratitude and thanks should come from us, not from you. Thank you for being here so we can have someone to teach and benefit ourselves from, because truthfully we learn more when we prepare for classes than perhaps you do from sitting in them. JazakAllah khair.