The Power of Dua in an Age of Heedlessness

The Power of Du'a in an Age of Heedlessness

أَمَّا بَعْدُ، فَيَقُولُ اللهُ تَبَارَكَ وَتَعَالَى بَعْدَ أَنْ أَقُولَ أَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ، بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3479)

I begin in the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. I send my humble salutations upon the Chosen One, Muhammad, his companions, his family members, and those who follow their footsteps until the Day of Resurrection. Respected brothers and sisters,

The Blessing We Forget

Allah has blessed this believer with many great things in his or her life. Sometimes the negativity that we see around us, and the conditions and problems that we see within us, makes us forget the blessings that we are surrounded with — makes us forget what we are in. And this is a moment of ghaflah — heedlessness — a person completely forgets what he is in, and his focus is only on the negative aspects of things, which becomes very difficult, not just for him, but his survival and the people that are around him.

Allah gave a very special power to His great people. When Allah decided to send the Anbiya' عليهم السلام into this world and gave them the task to go and deliver the message of Allah to people, these prophets of Allah were all surrounded with certain situations and conditions from the beginning. Prophet Nuh had his challenges during his time. Shu'ayb, Ya'qub, Prophet Salih, Prophet Musa — every prophet had a very difficult situation that they had to deal with.

This takes us to the understanding that today, what we see in this world — which makes a person wonder and makes him think: is he living in the worst time, or what time is he residing in currently? What is the situation today of the world? People are going through different types of situations and conditions. And those people who are secure in their lives, their wealth, and their properties — they have other issues. Contentment, peace, tranquility, happiness — all of these things have become words that make you happy to hear, but the reality is very difficult to find.

As the world is progressing, everybody is kind of hooking themselves on to certain things to develop and try to get ahead of the next person. And in that race, in that competition, we try to forget what we are leaving behind. We completely ignore the fact that there is so much that we are leaving behind, just trying to compete with other people in the matters of this world.

The Example of Prophet Musa

If you look at the life of these prophets — the cream of the crop, the best of humanity, the best of all creations — out of all the creations of Allah, He has selected His Anbiya' to be the best of humans. So when Musa عليه السلام is telling Allah: "I have fear that Fir'awn is going to deny me, and there is a situation that occurred which made me leave the city. I have a fear that they will catch me for that. So when I am surrounded with all of these difficulties of the world, what will be your suggestion, O Allah? What shall I do?"

Allah said to Prophet Musa and Harun:

He said: "Do not fear. إِنَّنِي مَعَكُمَا — I am with you both. أَسْمَعُ — I listen and hear everything. وَأَرَىٰ — and I see everything."

So whenever Musa عليه السلام encountered a condition in his journey, he immediately connected himself to Allah. As the Quran mentions:

In every hurdle, every situation — he is leaving his town, and he says: "O Allah, save me from these people who are oppressors." He gets to a town, he has no place, and he says: رَبِّ إِنِّي لِمَا أَنزَلْتَ إِلَيَّ مِنْ خَيْرٍ فَقِيرٌ — "O my Lord, indeed I am in need of whatever good You would send down to me."

In every step, in every hurdle, in every difficulty, in every condition — these Anbiya' عليهم الصلاة والسلام supplicated to Allah. And through their stories in the Quran, again and again, Allah is reminding you and I that: O believers, du'a — supplication — it is your weapon.

Du'a: The Weapon of the Believer

(Mustadrak al-Hakim, Vol. 1, Hadith 1812)

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said: "Supplication is the weapon of a believer." The weapon gives you two things: a peace of mind, and a tool to defend yourself.

Peace of mind and a tool to defend yourself. When you're walking or when you're driving at night, and the neighborhood does not look very good, you have this peace of mind that you have something to defend yourself — you have that peace of mind. That's the purpose of a weapon, as long as you use it right — because we have all sorts of people using it wrong, and may Allah protect us all from them. And the second thing is: it is there to help you, it is there to assist you — as long as you've trained yourself how to use it.

And the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم is giving the resemblance of the supplication of a believer with a weapon — that this is your power.

Look at the stories of the prophets. Allah has mentioned and documented the du'a of every prophet that Allah has taken the name of in His Kalam. This is the du'a of Ibrahim. This is the du'a of Nuh. This is the du'a of Musa. This is the du'a of Ayyub. Allah has mentioned every place in the Quran the supplications of these great prophets. And Allah has mentioned the supplication of Muhammad Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم, and the supplication of the believers.

Allah says — when these people, the Sahabah, they were frightened, and it was told to them that people are going to come and attack you — Allah says their iman increases, and they say: "Allah is sufficient for us, and He is the best of caretakers."

The Condition of an Accepted Du'a: Yaqeen

We understand from this ayah the greatest condition for a du'a of a believer to be accepted — believing in his supplication, his iman in that supplication. Today I am making du'a, but I am not believing in my du'a. I am doing it as a formality, or something that I have learned.

We learned the du'a when we were growing up — at the time of going to bed, waking up in the morning, entering the toilet, coming out of the toilet, going out of the house, getting into the car, entering the masjid, exiting the masjid. These are all du'as that we've learned throughout our day and night from childhood. And eventually it was fed into our system, so now we say it and we recite it. But do we actually believe in it?

When I am entering the house of Allah, do I see the doors of rahmah opening up for me? I recite it every day:

But what is my yaqeen on my supplication? My yaqeen is the one that is going to make my supplication beneficial. So the first thing we have to do is understand the power of supplication — how powerful a thing Allah has given us in this du'a.

If you look at the life of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, his entire day is filled with du'a — the morning du'as, the evening du'as, the night du'as, before going to bed, waking up in the morning, in the market, at the store, at work. There are du'as everywhere. And each of these supplications brings so many benefits in the life of a believer that he cannot imagine.

But the condition — again I said — the first condition of your du'a being accepted is you have to believe in your du'a. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3479)

"Supplicate to Allah with the certainty that Allah is going to accept your prayers."

Availing the Blessed Times of Du'a

Of course, you know this chapter is a very long one — what makes the du'a accepted, what makes the du'a rejected, which areas du'as become accepted, which times du'as are being accepted. Like the day of Jumu'ah — this is this current time of ours. It is a time where Allah is accepting our du'a. Allah is saying right now: "Supplicate to Me in your heart and I will accept your supplication."

How many times do we avail these great opportunities in our lives? How many times do we do that? Why? Because we take du'a as a very light and insignificant thing in our lives. Whereas this was the power that was given to the Anbiya' عليهم السلام — at any hurdle or difficulty of life, they would supplicate to Allah.

Du'a and Closing Supplication

And we ask Allah to give us the ability to supplicate to Him, and give us the ability to supplicate the way Allah wants us to supplicate.

We ask Allah for those people who are going through hard and difficult times around the globe — Allah, make it easy for them, Allah remove their conditions, Allah remove their problems, Allah grant them prosperity and happiness. We ask Allah to help them and assist them.

From our family and loved ones who have left from this world — we ask Allah to grant them Jannatul Firdaus. We ask Allah to elevate their status in Jannah and make their grave a garden of paradise.

From those who are sick, we ask Allah to grant everyone shifa'. Those who are looking for jobs, we ask Allah to give them a halal means of income. We ask Allah — whoever has whatever type of condition and problem — Allah make it easy for them, relieve them from their pain, and grant them success.

And we ask Allah to accept our khutbah, we ask Allah to accept our ibadah. Ameen, ya Rabbal 'alameen.

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ وَلِسَائِرِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

Second Khutbah

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ، نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ، وَنَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا، مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ، وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ سَيِّدَنَا وَمَوْلَانَا مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ، صَلَوَاتُ اللهِ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَبَارَكَ وَسَلَّمَ تَسْلِيمًا كَثِيرًا، أَمَّا بَعْدُ

اذْكُرُوا اللهَ الْعَلِيَّ الْعَظِيمَ يَذْكُرْكُمْ، وَادْعُوهُ يَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْ، وَلَذِكْرُ اللهِ تَعَالَى أَعْلَى وَأَعَزُّ وَأَجَلُّ وَأَهَمُّ وَأَكْبَرُ، وَاللهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ

أَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ