Conversations with Allah | Session 5

Conversations with Allah | Session 5: Du'as from the Qur'an, Prophets, and Companions

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

How is everyone doing? In shaa Allah everyone is enjoying themselves and hopefully taking in these last moments of the month of Ramadan. Today is our final session of the Ramadan immersion program.

We of course normally everyone has four sessions but since I promised that we'll have one more I wanted to live up to that promise and in shaa Allah we'll have this one last session where we can go over some more du'as and also get some feedback from you in the last 15–20 minutes and in shaa Allah motivate you all to join our summer program so you can continue to bless us with your presence and follow up with your journey of knowledge.

I would also like to take a moment to make du'a for all of the victims that had passed away — 97, I believe — in the plane crash that was going from Lahore to Karachi. People that were going to visit their families for the day of Eid, but in shaa Allah they'll be having a better Eid with their angels and Allah. It's a very, very tragic accident that took place. A plane crash took place in Karachi — the plane was landing and there was no space on the landing strip so it went around and it lost its engine. Wallahu a'lam, only Allah knows exactly what happened, but may Allah bless the families, give them patience and forbearance, and forgive the sins of those that have passed away.

This is one of the du'as that we actually learned in our class — اللهم يعوذ بكم انتهاول نعمتك — we ask you to protect us from a sudden difficulty. And that's exactly what it refers to — sudden difficulty, it comes from nowhere. So we pray for them, in shaa Allah Allah makes it easy for them and their families. Very tragic news.

Alhamdulillah. Eid, most probably, is on Sunday — that's what it's looking like and that's what I think it will be, Sunday will be Eid in shaa Allah. So we have one more day. Tomorrow you guys can join our night session, we'll be talking about some of the upcoming programs.

Truthfully, our Ramadan here at Muftah was made pleasant because of all of you that continue to join our programs, bless us with your presence, and continue to engage with us. There are so many programs happening online and mashaAllah all of you joined us. Numbers is not the goal — people that love each other for the sake of Allah is the goal, and I think that's what we came out to achieve in the month of Ramadan. And hopefully we are nearing towards that objective and we would not have much to do if it wasn't for all of you. So jazakAllah khair for joining our programs, especially the Ramadan immersion. I think the Ramadan immersion was one of my highlights of this month — I joined most of them myself, just to make sure everything's going okay, at the same time benefiting from the lectures of different scholars. The diverse panel that we had — Yaqeen Institute also helped us to be a part of it. All of this was only planned, if I recall correctly, a week or two before Ramadan — that's when we started reaching out to scholars like Ubaidullah Edvin, Imam Khalid Latif. It just came together through Allah's help, not through any of us. We just made a small effort. So jazakAllah khair for coming on, the response was amazing and I can't wait to do this again next Ramadan.

Recap of the Du'a Series

So, just a recap — I think just going through where we started, in shaa Allah this will be sent to everyone as an Eid gift, because we added some things in here. Du'as from the Qur'an — I only kept five du'as:

The first was لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا أَنتَ سُبْحَانَكَ إِنِّي كُنتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ, which was from Yunus (peace be upon him). The second was رَبِّي أَنِّي مَسَّنِيَ الضُّرُّ وَأَنتَ أَرْحَمُ الرَّاحِمِينَ, which was from Ayyub (peace be upon him). And there is a du'a that I didn't go through but added later, so I'll talk about it for a few seconds — which is a du'a of Musa (peace be upon him).

The Du'a of Musa (Peace Be Upon Him)

This is the du'a of Musa (peace be upon him) when he fled from Misr, because the people were looking for him and searching for him to kill him because of the mistake that he made when he struck the man — in what is known as qabdatul qadhiya — and it killed him. Obviously that was not his intent, it just happened. So he ran towards Madyan. This long trip that he went for, he finally reached Madyan, and as he reached Madyan, he saw these people filling up water from a well. And amongst them were two sisters, and they were at the back of the line.

So he said to them, why don't you fill up the water as well? And they replied by saying that we have to wait till everyone else leaves, because we can't fill it up while they're still here — it's very hard to get in with all these men around. And then they said, our father is very old, so don't ask us why our father isn't with us — he's very old, he couldn't come with us.

And then Musa (peace be upon him) goes and he lifts the well's lid — which normally would take ten people to lift — and he fills up the water for them, he fills up their buckets, and off they go. He doesn't say to them, hey, I'm pretty much homeless, I have nowhere to go right now, I'm in a way a fugitive, being accused of something that I didn't do on purpose — can you help me out? If it was us, if you help someone out, we look for validation immediately. You fill up someone's tire and you want something in return. We feel like we're entitled to some form of validation.

Yes, naturally we should thank people — مَن لَم يَشكُرِ النَّاسَ لَم يَشكُرِ اللهَ — whosoever doesn't thank people cannot thank Allah. So yes, we should give credit where it's due. That's something that the Prophet ﷺ also taught, and that's certainly what Allah does — إِنَّ غَفُورٌ شَكُورٌ — Allah is very appreciative towards what we do. Hence, He speaks about us in the gatherings of angels, because He appreciates what we do. When we speak about Him, He speaks about us. When we sit in His gatherings, He thinks about us. But we shouldn't always demand it, neither should we always expect it. We're doing it for Allah. If we get it, we get it. If we don't get it, it doesn't derail us from our objective.

So he doesn't say anything to them. He fills the water up and he goes and sits under a tree — ثُمَّ تَوَلَّىٰ إِلَى الظِّلِّ — then he goes and sits under a tree. He could have asked them for something, but he didn't. And he makes a du'a to Allah. And this is before he was a prophet. He makes a beautiful supplication to Allah, where he says:

O my Lord, I am truly in need of whatever good You send down to me. I want to go a little further into the translation: I am a poor person. I am grateful for whatever good You send down to me. I'm not asking You for a house, I'm not asking You to get me married, I'm not asking You for a job, I'm not asking You for something specific. I'm saying, O Allah, in this situation of mine, in this state of mine, whatever You send down to me, I'll accept it and I'll be grateful for it. I don't want something specific — whatever good You send down, I am a faqeer for whatever You give me.

And that's the reality of life:

O people, we are all collectively fuqaraa — poor — in the eyes of Allah. We're poor. Allah is rich. So he says, O Allah, I am poor, I am in need of whatever You give me. If You send me anything, I'll take it and I'll be happy for it. I'm not going to be picky about it.

This beautiful du'a was made, and a short while later, one of the daughters of Shu'ayb (peace be upon him) — the majority opinion identifies him as Shu'ayb (peace be upon him) — he sends his daughter and says, call him to me. She comes and says, my father wants to reward you. And he is taken to the father. And subhanAllah, the three things that pretty much everyone needs in life — without which we cannot survive — beyond a certain age, what are the three things that we need generally, outside of health and iman?

The physical things that you need in life — to enjoy life, to survive in life — are: number one, you need a shelter, you need a house. If you have nowhere to live, how can you survive? You need to feel a sense of belonging in your house, with your parents, with your siblings, with your children, with your spouses. That's what shelter is all about — where you feel a sense of belonging, where you feel a sense of peace. So the first thing he was given was a home, because Shu'ayb (peace be upon him) said, you're living here.

The second thing he was given was a spouse. This is why, if anyone is looking to get married, this is a du'a that you should recite — رَبِّ إِنِّي لِمَا أَنزَلْتَ إِلَيَّ مِنْ خَيْرٍ فَقِيرٌ. He was given a spouse, and not an ordinary spouse — he was blessed with the daughter of a prophet, subhanAllah.

The third thing he was given was a job. You can only survive for so long without a job. The Prophet ﷺ says:

(Reported in various collections; attributed to the Prophet ﷺ — see Shu'ab al-Iman of al-Bayhaqi, Hadith 6612)

Sometimes poverty leads towards kufr, because you have nothing to survive with — no food, no shelter, no water, no clothes. So Allah gave him a job. Number one, a wife — he said, I want you to marry one of my daughters. Number two, a job for eight to ten years. And number three, a place to live for eight to ten years — he lived with his in-laws. And after this he was given the greatest thing, which was prophethood.

This takes me towards understanding the actual motive of du'a. The motive of du'a for us is not to always ask for specific things, but rather to ask for the objective. Say, O Allah, I'm open to anything you give me. Whatever you give me, I'll be happy for it. He asked for the objective, and Allah gave him all the sources. Sometimes we get so caught up in the sources that we forget asking for the objective. The objective is: O Allah, I'm open and I'm ready for anything You give me — I'll be happy, because I want happiness. And You know what I need to reach that level. You know that I need this job, You know that I need to get into this school, whatever it may be. Asking for the objective allows us to feel more content with the response that Allah gives us. That's something that we take from this du'a of رَبِّ إِنِّي لِمَا أَنزَلْتَ إِلَيَّ مِنْ خَيْرٍ فَقِيرٌ.

The Du'a of Zakariyya (Peace Be Upon Him)

Another du'a that I added recently is the du'a of Zakariyya (peace be upon him):

He says, O Allah, don't leave me alone. Don't allow me to leave this world without a child. And You are the best of inheritors. Give me a child. And Allah blessed him with Yahya (peace be upon him) — يَرِثُنِي وَيَرِثُ مِنْ آلِ يَعْقُوبَ — O Allah, give me someone that can inherit my legacy. So anyone that is struggling to have children, this is a very powerful du'a that you should be reciting. Some scholars say seven times a day, or seven times a night before you go to sleep.

Of course, we know that children are a blessing of Allah — يَهَبُ لِمَن يَشَاءُ إِنَاثًا وَيَهَبُ لِمَن يَشَاءُ الذُّكُورَ — but this is a du'a that we can be reciting. This du'a comes in the Qur'an in Surah al-Anbiya', on the same page where Allah discusses the du'a of Ayyub (peace be upon him) and the du'a of Yunus (peace be upon him). So I literally call it the page of accepted supplications, because after each of these du'as Allah says فَاسْتَجَبْنَا, فَاسْتَجَبْنَا, فَاسْتَجَبْنَا — we accepted their prayer, we accepted their prayer. فَاسْتَجَبْنَا لَهُ وَوَهَبْنَا لَهُ يَحْيَىٰ — Allah says after this du'a that we accepted this prayer and we blessed him, we gifted him with a son in Yahya (peace be upon him).

So these are the two du'as that were added, and hopefully when you go through the du'a e-book, you can keep them in mind and try to memorize them and use them at the right times.

Du'as from the Companions

The last category that we are going through today is du'as from the companions. I only have three du'as in here. In shaa Allah we'll finish them in about 15–20 minutes and we'll have some time for Q&A.

1. The Du'a of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him)

The first du'a is the du'a of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, who was a Faqih, who was a Mufassir of this Ummah — one of the Mufassiroon of the Ummah. The Prophet ﷺ said: whosoever wants to learn and understand the Qur'an, ask Ibn Mas'ud.

Ibn Mas'ud is among the three companions that the Prophet ﷺ — as is documented — asked to recite Qur'an for him. When the Prophet ﷺ came to him he said, O Ibn Mas'ud, اقرأ علي — recite Qur'an to me. And he said, no, Ya Rasulallah, how can I recite Qur'an to you when it was revealed upon you? And the Prophet ﷺ said, I want to hear it from somebody else. And he recited Surah an-Nisa.

The second is Ubayy ibn Ka'ab, the Qari of the Ummah. And the third, in some narrations, is Abu Musa al-Ash'ari (may Allah be pleased with him). The narration about Abu Musa al-Ash'ari is that one day the Prophet ﷺ entered the masjid and Abu Musa al-Ash'ari was engaged in his salat, and he did not notice the Prophet ﷺ entering into the masjid. He was reciting the Qur'an. The Prophet ﷺ enjoyed his recitation to such an extent that he stayed there the entire night to hear his Qur'an. He was just soaking it all in. The next morning at Fajr, the Prophet ﷺ went to Abu Musa al-Ash'ari and said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 5048; Sahih Muslim, Book 6, Hadith 1847)

You have been given the voice of Dawud (peace be upon him) — the children of Dawud — your voice is very beautiful. And Abu Musa said, Ya Rasulallah, last night when you were listening, I was standing there just listening to you recite Qur'an. Imagine a Prophet just taking pride over your voice. And then Abu Musa said, Ya Rasulallah, Wallahi, if I knew you were listening to me, I would have really beautified my voice.

Salman al-Farisi (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that when I first became Muslim, I thought that Abdullah ibn Mas'ud was actually from the family of the Prophet ﷺ, because he was always in and out of the house of the Prophet ﷺ. I thought this man must be from the family, because it's impossible that a normal person can have that much access to the Prophet ﷺ. But that was Abdullah ibn Mas'ud. He was the Faqih of the Ummah — a polymath in the sense that he was a muhaddith, a mufassir, and a faqih.

So he would make this beautiful du'a, and when you understand who he was, and then he made this du'a, you realize the importance of us making this du'a — because we're nowhere at that level.

He would say:

O Allah, I ask you for iman that I never deviate from. I ask you for firmness in my faith, that I never turn away from. Ila irtidad means — ma'adha billah — to leave the fold of Islam, to turn back. O Allah, I seek refuge from iman that ever goes away, that turns back, that I become deviant.

O Allah, do not take us off the path of guidance after You have blessed us with guidance. Because the worst individuals are those — ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ آمَنُوا ثُمَّ كَفَرُوا فَطُبِعَ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ — those that believed but then turned away from their belief, and kufr fell inside their heart.

O Allah, we ask You for refuge from that. We hear stories about people who lost faith. There are different reasons why they lost faith, but any of us can be amongst those people. Just because we pray salat today, just because we are fasting, or just because we enjoy reciting the Qur'an — that doesn't save us from that. Or else, why would this great companion of the Prophet seek refuge from this? Because it can happen to anyone.

O Allah, please protect us from losing the greatest blessing of life, which is the blessing of iman. Because without iman, life would not be enjoyable to live. Because as Allama Iqbal would say, the most enjoyable moment in my life should be the moment that my head touches the ground in sajdah. Because I know at that moment, Allah is close to me.

When you love someone, the closer you get to them, the more your heart starts beating faster. The more enjoyable that journey becomes. I'm getting closer to the Prophet ﷺ. I'm getting closer to my husband, my spouse. I'm getting closer to my mother. You know, I was in a boarding school for about 12–13 years, and every time we would get closer to home — me, my mom, my dad, my brothers — you just start getting so excited. You're still five hours away, but just the thought of meeting your mother again. And the mother gets excited knowing that her children are coming home. This is love. Because there is nearness that is falling upon those people.

For those that have gone to Madinah Munawwara, subhanAllah, I don't think any words can explain the heartbeat of those that go to Madinah Munawwara. The closer they get to Madinah Munawwara, it just feels like they're floating in the air. Where the poet Professor Iqbal says that we just get lost in the city of Madinah. Because we're getting closer, so our heart starts beating faster. The closest that we are to Allah is in sajdah. And that's what brings me happiness.

If we had no iman, we would not have salat. O Allah, iman is what saves me in the Akhirah. How many people make so much effort in this world, but it will have nothing to show for them in the Akhirah. O Allah, I seek protection from ever losing the greatest quality of my life, which is iman.

The second part of the du'a: O Allah, I ask You that You don't remove any of my blessings. Bless me in a way that the blessings don't go away. O Allah, You've given me health — don't take my health away. O Allah, You've given me children — don't allow me to bury my children in this lifetime of mine. O Allah, protect me from that. O Allah, You blessed me with parents — allow that blessing to be with me as long as it possibly can be.

I'm not sure if you've watched the video of Ustadh Bilal As'ad. He is a scholar from Australia. And he lost his brother and his son at the same exact moment. Not because they were sick, but rather because they went to visit their parents. Ustadh Bilal and his brother went to visit their parents in Lebanon. And he took his son with him. The son was on a snowmobile in the mountains where their father used to live. And he took one round on the snowmobile. The cousin said that you can only go on the snowmobile if you have an elder with you — either your dad or your uncle. The son was 12–13 years old. He said, okay, my uncle can come with me. His uncle's name was Muhammad, the son's name was Ibrahim.

Ustadh Bilal says, if my son had said my name, I would have jumped on the snowmobile. But he wanted his uncle to go with him — he had an attachment to his uncle. So his uncle jumped on the snowmobile. And Ustadh Bilal says, the moment I saw them leave, I just felt that something was going to happen. And lo and behold, a few minutes later, as they were driving the snowmobile, the ignition key got stuck and they were unable to slow down, unable to stop. If they jump off, they're going to die. And they were swerving in the snowmobile, trying to find a way to slow it down or turn it, find a way to do something to save their lives. But they were unable to do so. As they were trying to get off the snowmobile, they hit a brick wall. And both of them passed away within one hour. Rahimanallah.

O Allah, if You bless me, allow those blessings to stay with us. The video is online and you can watch it. O Allah, we seek blessings that don't go away. Continue to bless us and allow those blessings to remain with us in this life.

Please — value your children, value your parents, value your siblings. This world is a temporary life that no one stays in for too long. Value the people around you that you love. Sometimes we can express love to those that we don't spend time with, because we just want to tell them, I'm close to you. But the ones that we truly love, we take for granted.

The Prophet ﷺ says: enjoy five things before you lose them — your youth before you become old, your health before you become sick, your wealth before you ever become poor, your free time before you become busy, and your life before death comes upon you.

(Reported by al-Hakim in al-Mustadrak, Hadith 7846; attributed to the Prophet ﷺ)

O Allah, we ask You for blessings that don't finish, that don't end. Continue to bless us — Your treasures are full.

The third part of the du'a: O Allah, I ask You for the companionship of our Prophet ﷺ in Jannah. The students of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud say that there was not a single day that went by that they did not hear him making this du'a. He loved the Prophet while he was alive, and when the Prophet ﷺ passed away, this du'a was always moist on his tongue, was always consistent on his tongue. O Allah, I ask You for the companionship of the Prophet ﷺ in Jannah. Don't take that away from me.

There was a Sahaba that came to the Prophet ﷺ while he was speaking about Jannah, and he started to become sad and weep. And the Prophet ﷺ said, I'm speaking about Jannah and you're getting sad? That doesn't make sense — you should be happy. And he says, Ya Rasulallah, when I think about Jannah, I get really excited. Jannah is beautiful, it has this and it has that —

What no eye has seen, what no ear has ever heard, what no mind or heart could ever perceive or conceive. But O Prophet of Allah, I think of Jannah and I realize that it's based upon levels. And you'll be at the highest level, and we'll be at a lower level. O Prophet of Allah, what is Jannah without your companionship? What is Jannah without your companionship? Jannah is only enjoyable if we can be around you and see you and be in your company.

People want to be in the company of celebrities. They want to be in a meeting with them, get an autograph of theirs — and that's a stamp on their life, a stamp of achievement. Meet the president, meet this person. Imagine being with the Prophet ﷺ in Jannah. That gathering of Abu Bakr, Umar, the Prophet, the Sahabas — and we're also amongst that gathering. That's مُرَافَقَةُ مُحَمَّدٍ ﷺ. O Allah, we want that companionship in Jannah.

And when the Sahaba came and said this to the Prophet ﷺ, the Prophet ﷺ smiled and said, O my companion:

You will be with those whom you love in this world. The people that we act like, the people that we mimic, the people that we want to become like, the people that we push to our children — if we are also making sure that the people we are showing them are individuals that have the love of the Prophet ﷺ in their life, and if you want to become like a physician, become like that physician because he or she has the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ in their life — that allows us to have the companionship of the Prophet ﷺ in Jannah. Having our parents around us in Jannah is beautiful. But having the Prophet ﷺ with us allows us to know that we really made it. To drink from his hands at the Hawd al-Kawthar on the Day of Judgment — that's a victory.

Allama Iqbal says, if we love the Prophet ﷺ, then the world will fall at our feet. Shaykh al-Shinawi, one of the teachers who taught during the Ramadan immersion, has a viral clip on the internet where he explains that there was a professor — a Muslim — at NYU, and he left the fold of Islam and became murtad. And he came across this poem of Allama Iqbal, which is talking about the Prophet ﷺ, and he came back to Islam. And when they asked him why he came back to Islam, he said that Allama Iqbal says: if you don't want to believe in the miracle of Allah because you can't see it, it's impossible for you to deny the greatness of the Prophet ﷺ. Because that's something tangible — it was real, it was something that people saw, they experienced, they spent time with. You can't deny the Prophet ﷺ. And he said, when I understood that, I said, if this man who was a real person was so great, how great is the creator of this person? And he came back to Islam.

We want the companionship of the Prophet ﷺ in Jannah. We were never blessed with it in this world, but in shaa Allah we can be blessed with this companionship in the life of the hereafter, which never ends. Imagine waking up and saying, I want to go see the Prophet today. Not my teacher, not my father — I want to see the Prophet today. And you go sit in the Prophet's ﷺ gathering. That's beautiful.

There was a young Sahaba whom the Prophet ﷺ one day asked:

Ask me anything and I will give it to you. The Sahaba said, give me some time — let me think about it. He wasn't like us — we're so quick. He came back the next day and said, Ya Rasulallah, I want something, but it's not from the dunya, it's from the Akhira — can you still give it to me? Yes, in shaa Allah, I can ask Allah to give it to you. Ya Rasulallah, I want to be next to you in Jannah. That's all I want. And the Prophet ﷺ smiled and said:

You've been given it — you'll be with me in Jannah. We are with those whom we love in the hereafter.

2. The Du'a of Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him)

O Allah, make the best part of my life the ending of it. Because —

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6607)

The a'mal are based upon the endings. O Allah, make the best time of my life the ending. That I'm close to You, I'm doing Your worship, I'm avoiding sins. And this is Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) — his entire life was a highlight reel — yet he's saying: وَخَيْرَ عَمَلِي خَوَاتِيمَهُ — make the best action of mine the last action.

It's all about the follow-through. It's all about the ending. O Allah, give me a good ending. How many people live their life in a righteous way but at the end they slip and fall off? And some people live lives of sins but at the end Allah gives them a chance of repentance. So we make this du'a: وَخَيْرَ عَمَلِي خَوَاتِيمَهُ. Make the best action of mine the ending of it. It's not about how you start the race, it's about how you end it.

Allah when speaking about the people of the past says: فَانظُرْ كَيْفَ كَانَ عَاقِبَةُ أَمْرِهِمْ — don't look at their lives, don't look at how they lived, look at how they ended. How did they leave the world? And truly these people left the world leaving nothing behind except a legacy of guidance — a legacy of beautiful stories and tales that we can use for the sake of our iman and motivation.

وَاجْعَلْ خَيْرَ أَيَّامِي يَوْمَ أَلْقَاكَ — O Allah, make the best day of my life the day I meet You. SubhanAllah. Decorate me and garnish me in the best of actions on that day. So when I meet You, I have all those deeds with me. When a bride or a groom gets married, they decorate and beautify themselves — they dress up, they present themselves to each other, and perhaps for many of them that's the best day of their life. O Allah, make the best day of my life the day that I meet You, and decorate me with actions.

How many of us have that fear that we sin — and what if the last thing we do is a sin? That's scary. I always tell youngsters and my students: listening to whatever is permissible is perfectly fine, but I would always tell people — don't listen to things that are haram while you're driving and while you're sleeping. Because what if we don't wake up from our sleep and the last thing we listened to was vulgarity and cursed words? What if that was the last thing that we listened to?

So he made this du'a: O Allah, I'm not sure what will happen in life, but one thing I do want — the day that I pass away should be the best day of my life. Imagine the people that passed away in the airplane crash in Pakistan — they passed away while fasting, while traveling, in the month of Ramadan, in the last few nights of the month of Ramadan. That's خَيْرُ أَيَّامِي يَوْمَ أَلْقَاكَ.

O Allah, take my life in a way that I prayed my salat that day, I fasted that day, I gave charity that day, I smiled at someone that day, I spoke highly of You in front of people that day, I did not complain about my life that day, I took care of my parents that day. O Allah, make that the day that You take my life. Because any other day that You take my life, I'm not sure if I'll make it. Make it the day that I do everything properly — one day, ya Allah. O Allah, take our soul only in a manner that You are pleased with. If You're not pleased with us, allow us to live until You are pleased, then take our soul. Qooloo ameen.

3. The Du'a of Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him)

The last du'a is the du'a of Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him). This is the du'a that he made when he became Khalifa — when he stepped on the minbar and walked to the pulpit, he made this du'a:

O Allah, I am rough — make me soft. I am weak — make me strong. I am miserly — make me generous.

If you look at this du'a, Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), yes, he was rough and tough, but he wasn't weak — not by any definition. He was one of the strongest of the sahabas. He wasn't miserly by any definition — he gave half of his wealth in Tabuk. How could he be stingy? But these are the qualities that he wants more of. O Allah, I am severe, I am harsh — make me soft towards believers. And the sahabas say that after he became Khalifa, he was so soft to them. So soft in the way he dealt with them, the way he spoke to them. There was nothing — they had respect for him but never fear.

وَإِنِّي ضَعِيفٌ — O Allah, I am weak. Not that I am weak in physical strength — I am weak in the willpower of Your obedience. How is it so that some of our grandmothers who are 80–90 years old are still able to pray Tahajjud, and are able to fast, and are able to pray 20 raka'at of Tarawih? Because they realize their time is getting closer, and they have more willpower of doing good deeds. That's why.

وَإِنِّي ضَعِيفٌ — O Allah, I am weak. Give me strength. Give me strength to worship You. How many of us have said: I'm too tired. It's too hard. Waking up for Tahajjud is too hard. It's too hard for me to give money. It's too hard for me to say nice words to someone that I don't like. It's hard. It's not because we're physically weak — we may be lifting 50, 100 pounds — but because internally we've lost the willpower, the tawfiq of it. They've only slept two hours, but they still wake up to pray two raka'at of Tahajjud, because Allah has given them internal strength.

وَإِنِّي ضَعِيفٌ فَقَوِّنِي — give me strength to continue doing good deeds. Don't allow my deeds to slow down, but rather allow them to increase. One of the signs of Allah loving us is that Allah blesses us with the ability of doing good deeds. That's فَقَوِّنِي. Give me strength. Each good deed that we do gives us more strength to do more good deeds.

Scholars speak about the signs of acceptance of a deed. They say that one of the signs of a deed being accepted is that Allah allows that good deed to fuel and propel you towards doing more good deeds. I fasted in the month of Ramadan — now I actually want to fast on Mondays on a weekly basis, or at least once a month, or at least I want to pray two raka'at of Nafl during the day or at night. I want to do something more. That's a sign my Ramadan was accepted. فَقَوِّنِي — give me strength.

How would the Prophet ﷺ pray all night? Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman (may Allah be pleased with him) says that one day he walked inside of the Masjid and saw the Prophet ﷺ praying, and he stood behind him and joined him in that prayer. And as the Prophet was praying, he was reciting Surah al-Baqarah — the entire surah. And after Surah al-Baqarah finished —

He said, okay, the Prophet is going to go into ruku' now. But he started Surah Ali Imran. Then he started Surah an-Nisa. The three largest surahs of the Qur'an in one raka'at. One raka'at. And he said that there were many times in that salah that he thought of breaking his prayer. And he's a Sahaba praying with the Prophet ﷺ. And the Prophet is just praying:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 4, Hadith 1812)

His ruku' was like his qiyam — very long. They were not short.

Where did that strength come from? Did it come from nutrients and food and vitamins? Of course, he was a very healthy person physically as well. Did it come from a lot of food — biryani, samosas, maqluba? No. It came from the love that he had for Allah and his a'mal. That's where the strength came from.