02: Importance of Dua - Shaykh Zakaullah Saleem
By Shaykh Zakaullah Saleem | 2026-07-06T18:51:41.224041+00:00 | Topic: Worship
Khutbah Opening
أَمَّا بَعْد — Dear respected brothers in Islam, last week, in the last khutbah, I mentioned some of the du'as and some of the ahadith and the ayat of the Quran with regards to the importance of du'a. And I mentioned that for the next couple of weeks, inshallah, we will be going through the etiquettes of the du'a and the manners of making du'a to Allah Dhul Jalal wal Ikram. So in today's khutbah, I would like to highlight four of the most important etiquettes of du'a.
The Four Key Etiquettes of Du'a
First Etiquette: Certainty (Yaqeen) That Allah Will Answer
When you make du'a to Allah Dhul Jalal wal Ikram, you need to bear in mind these etiquettes. The first one of them is that whenever you make du'a to Allah Dhul Jalal wal Ikram, you must have certainty and yaqeen within your heart that Allah is going to answer your du'a. This is one of the basic etiquettes of du'a.
Rasulullah ﷺ has said in a hadith reported by Imam at-Tirmidhi, rahimahullah:
Make du'a to Allah while you have yaqeen and certainty within your heart that Allah is going to answer your du'a. (Jami' at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3479)
If you raise your hands for du'a and Shaytan keeps whispering in your mind that your du'a might not be accepted or answered by Allah Dhul Jalal wal Ikram, then there is less chance for your du'a to be answered by Allah Dhul Jalal wal Ikram. So you must have yaqeen and certainty within your heart. And this is one of the lessons that we learn from the du'as of the prophets, alayhimus-salatu was-salam, that Allah Dhul Jalal wal Ikram has mentioned in the Quran.
Allah said:
There are many lessons for those who have intellect in the stories and in the lives of the prophets. And one of the major lessons — the main lesson — that we learn from the stories of many prophets is how to make du'a to Allah Dhul Jalal wal Ikram. And if we ponder and reflect on the story of Zakariya alayhis-salatu was-salam and Ibrahim alayhis-salatu was-salam, we come to know that these prophets continued making du'a to Allah Dhul Jalal wal Ikram with certainty and yaqeen, and they never lost hope. They were never hopeless of the mercy of Allah Dhul Jalal wal Ikram.
To the extent that Zakariya alayhis-salatu was-salam turned very, very old, and he kept asking Allah for a child, but he never ever gave up. And Allah truly loved his attitude and his certainty and yaqeen in the mercy of Allah, such that Allah Dhul Jalal wal Ikram made mention of this aspect of the life and the seerah of Zakariya alayhis-salatu was-salam at the beginning of Surah Maryam, when He said:
Remember the mercy of your Lord upon His servant Zakariya, when he called upon Him with a secret voice. And when he said: "O my Lord! My bones have turned weak and my hair has turned grey — yet I have never been unblessed in my du'a to You, O my Lord!"
To the extent that Allah sent an angel to Zakariya alayhis-salatu was-salam and gave him the glad tidings of having a child. And he himself was surprised — but he never gave up making du'a to Allah Dhul Jalal wal Ikram. Likewise, Sayyiduna Ibrahim alayhis-salatu was-salam turned very old — as some of the mufassirun have noted, he was 80 or 90 years old — and he was still asking Allah for a child. He never gave up. He had yaqeen and certainty within his heart.
So this is one of the basic etiquettes of du'a — ادْعُوا اللَّهَ وَأَنْتُمْ مُوقِنُونَ بِالْإِجَابَةِ. And I also mentioned another hadith last week — the hadith Qudsi in which the Prophet ﷺ said that Allah says:
I treat My slave according to his thoughts about Me. And I am with him as long as he continues remembering Me. And I continue answering his du'as as long as he continues making du'a to Me. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 7405; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2675)
So Allah treats you according to your thoughts about your Lord. If you are making du'a and you do not have yaqeen and certainty in the mercy of Allah, and you do not truly and strongly believe that Allah is able to provide you whatever you are asking for, then your du'a is not going to be answered. So you have to have this yaqeen and certainty within your heart. This is one of the most important etiquettes of du'a.
Second Etiquette: The Presence of an Attentive Heart
The second etiquette is the presence of an attentive heart. When you make du'a, your mind and your heart must be present. Rasulullah ﷺ said:
Allah does not answer the du'a from a person whose heart is not attentive. (Jami' at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3479)
Allah does not answer the du'a of a person whose heart is not present. And this is one of the reasons that the scholars have said: when you make du'a in congregation, especially at the funeral — as this has become a common custom particularly amongst Asian communities — when you sit together, a person comes in the gathering, says "raise your hands," and everyone raises their hands, yet no one has their mind present, they are raising hands and making du'a — what type of du'a is this? Rasulullah ﷺ said: لَا يَقْبَلُ اللَّهُ دُعَاءً مِنْ قَلْبٍ لَاهٍ — your heart, your mind must be present.
Likewise, many people approach the imam asking for specific du'as. You have a problem in your business, your job, or in your family with regards to your children, and you approach the imam saying: "Is there any specific du'a that I can make?" When they approach the imam and ask for a du'a, the imam refers to some text — an Arabic text or a du'a of the Prophet ﷺ — so that they can read it, and Allah can answer the du'a. But the point is, my dear brothers in Islam, that even if the imam gives you a du'a — ask yourself: is there going to be any benefit of making du'a, or of simply reading the Arabic text, while you do not understand the meaning of those words?
Likewise, when we make du'a in our salah, from the beginning until the end — اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لِي, رَبِّ اغْفِرْ لِي, رَبِّ ارْحَمْنِي, اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لِي خَطِيئَتِي, رَبِّ اغْفِرْ لِي ذُنُوبِي كُلَّهَا دِقَّهَا وَجِلَّهَا — all these du'as. Now ask yourself: what is the point of reading these words if you do not understand their meaning?
I am not saying that you should not read these du'as. You must try your best to memorize as many du'as — as many prophetic du'as — as you can. But the point is that there is no benefit in reading Arabic text without understanding the meaning. Because if you do so, it is a clear sign that your heart is not present. So ask yourself: if you are reading Arabic text and you do not understand its meaning, is your heart going to be attentive and present?
So isn't it better, in that case, that you make du'a in your own words? Other than in salah — obviously in salah you have to read the prophetic du'as and you should try your best to learn their meaning. But other than that, there is more blessing and power in the wordings of the Prophet ﷺ, which is why it is very important to understand the ahadith of the Prophet ﷺ and the du'as of the Prophet ﷺ, and to memorize and learn them with their meanings. But if you do not know the meaning and you are not yet trying, yet you are in need of making du'a to Allah, then make du'a in your own words, in your own language. Because Allah understands all languages — rather, He is the Creator of all languages. Make du'a in your own words and your own language so that your heart is attentive and present, and so that you know what you are asking Allah for.
Third Etiquette: Beseeching Allah with Humbleness (Tadharru')
Thirdly, my dear brothers in Islam, the third etiquette of du'a is that whenever you make du'a to Allah, you must beseech your Lord. You must cry out to Him, Dhul Jalali wal Ikram. As Allah said in the Quran:
Call upon your Lord with humbleness. Beseech Him, Dhul Jalal wal Ikram. Beg Him the way a beggar asks for money or something else — with tadharru', with humbleness. This is also one of the etiquettes of du'a.
Fourth Etiquette: Making Du'a in Secrecy (Khufyah)
And lastly, my dear brothers in Islam, another etiquette of du'a that you also learn from this very ayah — ادْعُوا رَبَّكُمْ تَضَرُّعًا وَخُفْيَةً — khufyah means secretly. Make du'a to Allah in your privacy and in your secrecy.
If you look at the seerah of Rasulullah ﷺ, you will come to know that there is something regarding the etiquettes of du'a that is very clear in his seerah — and that is that he alayhis-salatu was-salam used to make du'a in his privacy. Most of the du'as of Rasulullah ﷺ that we find in the books of hadith and in the books of du'a are either du'as he recommended to some of his companions, or du'as that he himself used to make in his privacy and secrecy at night — during his night prayer, during his night worship. So this is also another etiquette of making du'a to Allah.
And unfortunately nowadays, we believe and think that making du'a in congregation is probably more acceptable, and that du'a is going to be accepted by Allah more quickly if we make it in congregation. Or that du'a will be answered immediately if we pray behind the imam — particularly in Ramadan, as it has become a norm that people make du'a and even request the imam to make du'a. And the imam raises his voice and screams and shouts and cries, and the people behind him raise their voices saying "Ameen, Ameen." This is not the way of making du'a.
Rasulullah ﷺ once saw his companions raising their voices while making du'a to Allah, and he ﷺ said: "O people, take it easy on yourselves. Verily, you are not calling upon someone who is deaf or someone who is not present. You are calling upon the One who is Ever-Hearing and the One who is close to you. You are calling upon the One who is near."
So there is no point, there is no need to raise your voice.
We ask Allah that He gives us tawfiq and ability to make du'a to Him Dhul Jalal wal Ikram at all times, and we ask Allah that He answers all of our du'as. Verily, He is All-Hearing, All-Seeing.
Second Part of the Khutbah
Verily, all praise is due to Allah. We praise Him and ask His help and ask His forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and from the evils of our deeds. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger.
My dear brothers in Islam, as I mentioned, du'a is the actual worship of Allah Dhul Jalal wal Ikram. As Rasulullah ﷺ said:
Du'a is worship. (Jami' at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2969; Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 1479)
And we should know that du'a is something that every one of us needs. We need to make du'a to Allah every single day. And we should not be making du'a to Allah only when we are trapped in difficulties and hardships. Rather, we should be making du'a to Allah in times of ease and prosperity even more than in times of hardships and difficulties.
Rasulullah ﷺ said:
Whoever wishes that Allah answers his du'as in times of hardships and difficulties, let him increase his du'a in times of ease. (Jami' at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3382)
So if you are not making du'a, if it is not part of your daily routine, then you must change your routine and spare some time for making du'a to Allah on a regular basis. And as I also previously mentioned, making du'a to Allah only in times of hardships and difficulties is a sign of weak iman. And on the contrary, making du'a to Allah on a regular basis — constantly and frequently — is a sign of strong iman.
We ask Allah that He gives us tawfiq and ability to continuously make du'a to Him, and that Allah accepts all of our du'as.
Inshallah, this topic will continue next week as well. We will mention some of the manners of making du'a — the actual manners when we raise our hands for du'a: what are the manners and what are the etiquettes that we need to keep in mind while making du'a.
May Allah give us tawfiq and ability to understand His religion and to act upon the sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ.