Maryam Amir – The Power of Duaa
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AI: Transcript ©
He was
happy he as everyone who
has tuned in, we give you and we start with assalamu, Alaikum.
Warahmatullahi wa Barakatuh Alhamdulillah. Today, we are
blessed and privileged that we are joined with Shaykh MADI and Amir
from the USA, who inshallah will be covering the
important topic titled The Power of DUA and implementing dua in our
daily lives. Of course, in a session which is one hour, which
would consist of a presentation and a Q, A, we will naturally be
limited, but Inshallah, she will try to cover as much and as much
as possible, and inshallah. For those who have questions, you can
ask your questions
on the chat section on YouTube, inshallah which and we will try
our best inshallah to cover as many questions towards the end.
For sure, we cannot promise that we will answer each and every
question, but we will envisage, Inshallah, to try to answer as
many questions. Alhamdulillah, Sheik Ahmadiyya Ahmed is based in
the USA, in California. She Alhamdulillah has a Bachelors and
a Masters, and then further on, she went to study a BA in Sharia,
in Islamic Studies at the prestigious Al Azhar University in
Egypt. Alhamdulillah, she is also a half of the Quran, someone who
has memorized the book of Allah, subhanho wa Taala from the
beginning to the end, which we ask Allah to preserve her inshaAllah
with this great nyama that Allah has blessed her. And
Alhamdulillah, she is also black belt in Taekwondo, so something
Alhamdulillah, diverse skills and so forth. So really, without any
further delay, I don't want to take any more time. I'll pass it
on to shayham, Madam Amir Inshallah, shukran, nakam,
Abu Asmaa, rajim, Rahim, alhamdulillahi until even Mubarak
in fee wa Salatu was Alamo Allah rasulallah, when I was so blessed
to go for Haj al hamdilla. I was sitting in the Rolla. Excuse me. I
was sitting waiting to get into into the Rolla. Any of you who
have been blessed to go to Medina know that it's really difficult
when you're a woman to go into the area where there's green carpet in
the Rolla. There were 4 million people who made Hajj that year. It
was insanely crowded. And in addition to the fact that women
have very specific timings when we are able to enter the Rolla, the
area is very small, so we're sitting there as a group, I was so
blessed to go with my mom and my aunt and my husband, and it was
just my mom and my aunt with this group of women from our hedge
group, just waiting to see when we're going to get into the Roda,
and as we're just waiting, I decided that I'm going to make dua
and drink zems Water because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa salam
taught us that zemzem is what you drink it for. So if you make a DUA
and you drink ZEM with that dua, that is what that dua is,
inshallah going to be answered because of the way you drink ZEM
with it. So I sat, I drank some zemzon water, I made dua, and I
asked Allah to open the way for myself and my mom and my aunt to
please go into the Rolla, and not just any part of the Rolla, but to
be able to pray on the green carpet of the Rolla, which,
considering how many people were there and how many hours upon
hours people were waiting to get in, seemed like an impossibility.
I made this I walked back to where my mom and aunt were sitting with
a group of women, and within moments, somebody came and said
that it is our turn to go into the area to send our Salawat on the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And of course, you can
send your Salawat to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi waslam from
anywhere in the world. Allah Nabi no habina Muhammad,
as we get up to start walking, a different woman comes up to me
specifically. We are hundreds of women all over. I'm standing with
other woman closely. This woman singles me out, and she comes up
to me and she says, Excuse me. Are you part of this Hajj group? There
is a woman who is outside on a wheelchair, and her son is asking
if somebody can take her into the Rolla.
When she asked this, I have to be honest and ask for forgiveness
from Allah. Because there was a moment where I was thinking,
subhanAllah, we just stood up, and I was supposed to go into the
Rolla right now, but now I'm not going to be going. I'm going to be
going out so that I can, Inshallah, support my sister. And
it Washam, just a moment that I felt that.
But May Allah forgive me for that. And sometimes in those moments
where we think that our dua is being answered and we're standing
up to go into the Rolla, Allah directs us to a different place. I
turned the opposite direction. I walked out of the doors of the
masjid, and I was so honored to meet this auntie, this beautiful,
incredible auntie, who is here to make Hajj with her son despite any
of the difficulty. And so I had the immense honor of wheeling her
into the area where we're supposed to go. And then as I get closer,
there is a special section, a specific section, just for people
who are coming in with wheelchairs. And so I'm taking
this beloved auntie and we're going through this section. And
instead of the area where there are hundreds and then outside,
1000s of women who are in this space together, who are all
unfortunately fighting for space to just pray and make dua. There
is so much chaos sometimes in the Rolla, and there's so many reasons
for that, but in this place, with this place of wheelchairs, there
are six people standing in a line, or excuse me, sitting in a line
and standing and waiting for their turn to just peacefully be rolled
into their special spot and to just sit or pray and make dua. I
prayed to rakaz after to rakaz after Tul rakaz in the peace in
the in the quiet of this special place of the Rolla with this
beloved auntie. And I want to clarify that there are so many
people in our Ummah who are so honored and blessed, and we are so
honored and blessed to have members of our Ummah with
different types of special needs, different types of disability,
some of them are hidden and some of them are visible. And in the
time of the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa sallam, some of the
companions have disabilities, including Abdullah ibn umaqtom
RadiAllahu, anhu, who was one of the muads of the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And so we are so blessed and so
honored that even in the leadership of the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he chose to teach all of us as an
ummah, that people with all types of different abilities are so
needed in our ummah. And I had the honor of being somewhat in
somewhat of a service to this sister, but in a in reality, this
Auntie honored me, because it was through her that my dua of being
able to pray in the Rolla was answered. And when I went out with
this auntie, And Alhamdulillah, I'm so grateful that we became
very close friends during that trip, my mom and my aunt came out,
and I asked them, Did you also get to pray in the Rolla? And they
both had huge smiles on their faces, and Alhamdulillah, yes,
they had also been honored to pray in the green area where the carpet
is green, and it sat a sign that, Inshallah, that's one of the
places as if you're praying in paradise, but the reality of being
able to pray in that special place wasn't really high because of the
amount of people until that moment of making dua. I didn't know if it
would happen, but with that dua, Allah subhanho wa Taala not only
facilitated a way for us to enter and pray, but in a much better way
than I would have even thought of doing and in a way where I got to
be blessed with the companionship of a new friend
when we make dua, sometimes we are hopeful, but other times we're
making it from a place of pain. There are people who are going
into because they so badly need it, and there are other people who
are making dua casually, all of us, sometimes, we are going to a
loss of hanhuata Ada with a need so great that our hearts are
breaking, and the hope that he could just open this door because
of his power is there. But sometimes we lose sight of why
we're making it in the first place. We lose hope. After years
of making dua, we wonder whether or not he's going to facilitate
for us these doors of opening Salah into the Rolla,
and what we need to do is take that pain that we feel, and
instead of allowing that pain to cripple and paralyze us in our
hope, we need to take that pain and pull it all, pour It our pour
it all into the power of dua today, Inshallah, we're going to
talk about what pain looks like when instead of allowing it to
pull you down, you use it to lift you up into
the P for pain stands for pain.
Power and protection. We're going to look at how we can make dua a
place of protection, a place where we feel powered, empowered, a
place where we feel it is a safe space.
How do you look at dua as your safe space, as your refuge, as
your place of protection.
Listen to Maryam alaihi salam's mother as she makes dua in the
Quran and a very famous dua, she is quoted to say,
if all a
team like a mafia Muhammara,
me in the
semi she says to Allah subhanho wa taala, talking about who is in her
womb that she she, she gives This baby to Allah subhanho wa taala,
muharra Rah fat, accept it from me in Nakia, anti Semir
a semi the All Hearing, Allah alim, the one who is always
knowledgeable, the one who was well aware. Why is the mother of
Maryam making this dua? It is because, after so much excitement
and hope and longing to have a baby and the celebration for which
she is pregnant, she's so excited about this pregnancy with her
husband. Her husband passes away. Amran ALA, his Salam passes away,
and so now she went from being an excited potential first new mother
to the fear of having a child on her own and being a single mom
she's facing the rest of her life now, raising a daughter on her own
or a son. She didn't know it was a daughter at that time. She, in
fact, thought it was a son, and she's making dua by two of Allah's
names, a Samir and Al alim.
And these are the same two names that in Surah Yusuf, when Yusuf
alaihi salam is asking ALLAH to protect him, he's already been
thrown in a well. He's been sold the manipulation of his brothers,
he hasn't he separated from his father. He's gone through so many
things, and now the woman who was basically kind of like a kind of
like she adopted him into her household as a child, now she's
trying to seduce him, and also brings in all these other women to
do so. And so he is making dua to Allah and asking him, saying that
it's better to be thrown in prison than to be dealing with this. And
what does Allah say?
Besta?
And okay, the one in in Nahua, Sammy on Ali, the same exact names
of Allah, Subhanahu wa that mariam's Mother alayha Salam
called to him with Allah is using those same names in the distress
of Yusuf alaihi salam when he's calling out, when he's in this
position as a slave in this household of a privileged person
of power, he has no control and no idea where he can find refuge with
except with Allah. Allah answers him and says a semiar and ALA.
Why? Because a therapist told me that one of the most healing parts
of your process in going through pain is being able to call out,
make dua and know that you're going to be heard uninterrupted.
Psychologically, it is validating for you to simply be able to speak
without anyone stopping you and saying that's not what happened,
or stop you and saying, Get over it, or stop you and saying, that's
not a big deal. Get into comparison to what everyone else
is going through. Think about all the people who are going through
those things. Think about all the people who are going through those
you're not over that yet. You're still not over that. Why are you
still crying over that? All of those voices that you hear when
you're trying to just express how much pain you're
in, and you can do that without obstruction.
Allah subhanho wa Taala is not only constantly listening. He is
not only hearing everything that you're going through. He is also
Allah alim. He knows it very personally. He knows very
intimately why you're asking for what you're asking. He was
witnessing what happened to you. He saw the trauma that you
experienced, and he saw the joy that you hoped for. He knows all
of it and so in this safe place of.
Dua, in this protection of dua, in this powerful moment when you call
out in dua, he hears you. He already knows exactly what you're
going through. And that is why it is so powerful when you call out
to Him, that you call out by these names so panhuta Allah, that he
knows exactly what you're going through.
Dr Jinan Yusuf wrote an incredible book which alburu Press, may Allah
bless all of you. They published recently. It's called reflecting
on the names of Allah, and in it, she talks about a very powerful
point. She says that the very first ayah of the Quran that was
revealed from Angel Jibreel alaihi salam to the Prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam came at a time in which the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is constantly going into the cave of
Hira and he is searching he has lost babies in infancy. He himself
was orphaned. He never knew his dad. He lost his mother at such a
young age, the grandfather who took him in was already deceased.
He was raised in poverty. He has gone through so much pain as an
individual, and now he's looking for meaning and purpose, looking
out over the Kaaba from this mountain, and in this isolation,
in this cave, which was a safe physical space for him, An angel
appears and says, What
bismero bikin levy ha Bismillahi, Rob,
Allah subhanho wa Taala uses the name Rob. Why
a ROB is often translated as your Lord. But who is Rob?
Allah subhanho wa Taala is
the Nourisher, the Sustainer. He is the one who is the master, the
one who the rub. Is the one who ensures that you have a
ceiling over your your head. He is the one who ensures that you have
a shelter. He is the one who ensures that you are nurtured and
nourished. A RAB is comforting to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam, because he has consistently lost people who were
supposed to be
caretakers for him. He has consistently had to depart with
people who have comforted and nurtured him. And so Allah
subhanahu wa reveals himself through angel Gabriel to the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, in the midst of this face
of isolation with the name Rab, the one who takes care of him, the
one who is there as someone who is going to nurture and nourish him,
the one who is his master and will guide him, sallAllahu, alayhi wa
sallam. And so when you are in these places, when you are in
school or at work or in the middle of quarantine with your children,
and you are going crazy, or you're wishing that you had children to
go crazy with whatever you are going through. He is your safe
space, and his names are the ones that we call out to because he
Subhan wa Taala teaches us who he is through them. There is a woman
who told me she's an older woman whose husband passed away over
almost 10 years ago. May Allah have so much mercy on him and
enter him into the highest paradise and all of her loved
ones. And she said that she used to walk on a cliff that would
overlook a beach, and just walk there every single day, looking
out at an apartment building. And this apartment building had
patios, and on these patios, there was one with a chair, and she
would look at that specific patio and stare at that chair, and she
would wish that she could just sit on that chair and look out at that
ocean drinking some tea.
And one day, her loneliness just became too much to bear. She sat
in her home and she broke down to Allah, and she asked Allah to
bring someone who could be her friend, somebody who could help
her not be so so lonely, calling out to a rub, calling out to the
one who she knows is listening as Sameer, to Allah alim, who knows
her circumstances. And then after she poured out her heart, and she
told me, this wasn't a regular dot. This was her heart breaking
and everything coming out into a week later, she was walking back
on those cliffs, and she saw a woman who looked like she was
looking just for her. She made a beeline just for this auntie. She
just went straight to this auntie, and she was.
Like, who are you? This is my name. How are you? And they
started to talk. They were both in similar life, life, life
experiences, both in their 70s and 80s, talking to one another about
their lives. And then this woman asked this Auntie to come back to
her home and continue their conversation over tea. Now this
Auntie was like, you know, I just met this lady, but she felt
comfortable with her. And so she went, where did they walk to that
apartment building that the auntie was always seeing. And she invited
this Auntie into her home and asked her to go onto the patio
while she made some tea. And so now she opens the patio door, and
she sees that very same chair she used to see while she was walking,
wishing that she could sit on that chair.
And now she's being invited to sit on that very same chair, and she's
drinking the tea that this woman is inviting her to drink on her
patio,
looking out over the ocean that she so long to sit in that chair,
drink that tea, look out at the ocean with and now she's made a
friend, and this friend with her goes everywhere. And subhanAllah,
look how ALLAH SubhanA wa Taala didn't just answer her dua.
Answering her dua would have simply been sending someone.
She not only answered her dua with friendship,
but he perfected that answer by giving her a want of her heart
that she never asked for she wanted, but she never made dua for
simply sitting and looking out of that ocean in the chair
Subhanallah, when you make dua your safe space, when you know
that Allah, subhanho wa Taala is the only one who will answer you,
you know that you can go there with all of your fears and all of
your tears, and that he will respond subhanho wa taala, and
that is making dua protection. That is the P in pain, taking your
pain, pouring it out into dua as a place of protection, as a place of
safety, as a refuge. Let's go to the A in pain. That is assurance,
being assured that when you make dua, Allah will answer you why?
Because it's not about the person who's making dua. It's not about
you. It's about the one you are making dua to whether or not you
are doing all the deeds that you used to do in the past. So many
people tell me, I used to be so on top of my worship, I would make
tahajjud. I would pray extra fast, but now with the reality of
responsibilities of life, I can't do all of those things. And
Ramadan, specifically, I hear all the time from people who used to
be able to spend hours in the masjid, and now they're at home
with responsibilities, and they can't give the same type of
worship sacrifice, and they feel terrible about it. I myself have
gone through this. I would just spend so much of Ramadan weeping
because, not weeping out of piety, weeping out of regret, like I used
to be, this person of worship, and now my reality is I can't do that
anymore. One of my teachers taught me. He said that Ibn Al Taw Allah
says that you wanting to do something,
you wishing that you could do other types of worship that you
cannot do because of the responsibilities Allah has put
into your life right now. That is your own desire. It's your own
desire to do all of these extra things, which is wonderful. It's
wonderful you have that desire. But that's not the type of worship
that Allah is asking of you. He is asking of you to work full time so
you can support your family. He is asking of you to to emotionally be
there to support someone you love. He is asking you to physically
take care of someone in your life that you need to. Allah is having
these responsibilities in your life. Well, we look at ourselves
and we think I'm not reading Quran like I used to, or we think about
other people and how look at their righteousness and look at us in
comparison.
So what about people like us? What about people who you make dua, but
you think I'm not good enough for my dua to be answered? But then
what listen to what the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says,
He told us that dua is the ay Bada, and then he recited,
only
your Lord says commands. It is an actual command. Make dua to me, I
will respond to you. It is a promise that if you make dua,
Allah will respond. And he also says, well, either and if the I
either the.
And then, when you, when you ask about Allah, he is close, kharib,
ujib. Ujib, I either he answers the one who calls, when that
person calls, what are these? Look, kharib, he is close. Ujib,
one of the names of Allah is Al Mujib. He is the one who responds.
He answers you, and he's pairing up this name and this attribute of
his name, Mujib al hujeeb. He is the one who answers. Al Mujib is
the one who answers. He's pairing these up and saying that when you
ask something, when you ask Allah, no matter where you are, whether
it's something in your heart or a whisper or you're screaming out
loud, begging him, whatever it is, he is close, and he answers. And
that is a promise. It is a promise from Allah, the Prophet salallahu,
alayhi wa sallam taught us odo Allah, make dua to Allah, and you
are certain well and to move in unabil, that you are certain, have
this assurance that He will answer you. And again, it's not about who
you are, it's about who you're asking, because in dua, you are
affirming all of the names of Allah and His attributes. He is Al
Kareem. He is the constantly generous. You affirm to him that
you know his generosity, which is why you are asking the Prophet
salallahu alayhisam taught the companions to make to even it's
for even if it's for their shoelaces, make to offer
everything for the big and for the small. You might lose your car
keys, and you're like, Oh, am I really going to, like, pour, like,
pour my heart out and to offer my car keys? But at the same time, we
need, you need your car keys to get out, and you can't find them
anywhere. So yes, make pour your heart out and to offer your car
keys. And add a phrase, add a phrase I know, Allah, anything
else I should have made dua for right now, Oh Allah, everything
good, everything good in this life and the next. Give it to me and my
loved ones. You pour out your dua for the small include the big two.
You never, ever lose with the DUA. The Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa
salam taught us that every single dua will be answered as long as
you're not asking for something sinful and you're not asking to
cut off ties with relatives. And I want to make a clarification here.
There are lots of relatives who are very toxic. They are abusive.
They are physically abusive to people. I get these questions all
the time. Those are different circumstances. You have to protect
yourself and your family. We're not talking about these, these
types of circumstances. But when you are in circumstances where you
are asking, and you are just asking for something that's not
sinful and not harmful to someone else, you're asking for you, the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasam told the Companions about the
Promise of Allah to answer. What are the companions reply? They
said, so we're going to ask for it. We're going to ask. We're just
going to make sure. We're going to make John. The Prophet sallallahu
sallam said, the Prophet SAW taught that them that Allah is
even greater than this, that it doesn't even whatever you ask,
he's going to answer, and more. So keep asking, continue to ask,
because whatever you ask, Allah promises to answer. And I'm going
to share a story with you, which I have shared widely before, and
you've probably never heard of me, so it doesn't matter anyway, but
if you've read the story before, I'm going to tell you the story of
when I asked for something which seems really minor, but it was a
cell phone, and I was in Medina begging Allah to bring my cell
phone back from a taxi, because I left it in a taxi, and I was
making this sincere, serious dua, thinking to Allah and saying out
loud, Oh Allah, you've promised that if you make dua, that if I
make dua, you will answer. You've told me that you are listening.
The Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa sallam told us to have Yaqeen in
our dua, and here I am making this dua to you, this cell phone to me,
was a brand new gift from someone that I loved. It had all of these
notes that I hadn't backed up that were really important, and they
had so many pictures of my child with his great grandparents, I
didn't want to lose that because of all that it meant. And so I
left Medina and we went to Dubai and Subhanallah in transit. We
were spending a few days there, and my husband texted an old
number, and he texted it with a brand new number from Dubai. And
if that number from Dubai had gone onto my cell phone, my old cell
phone that I had left in Medina, it would have shown up with a
whole bunch of string of numbers. But if he had texted with his own
name on his regular cell phone, it would have shown up just as his
name,
Subhan Allah. I get a I get a phone call on that number that
night, and it was a woman in Medina who told me, I found a cell
phone in Medina, and this is the number that showed up. She wasn't
she had Pamela. She had to be able to read that number.
Her, charge my phone, take it off airplane mode. She had to know how
to do all of these things. Allah, panata. Allah brought a very
truthful person who knew how to work with this type of phone, who
was willing to make that call. And then Subhan Allah the fact that
she was able to see that number instead of just my husband's name,
so she was able to make a call with it, because it's locked so
she couldn't open it. So then may Allah bless Sheik Haseeb Noor and
Sheik Ahmed Bilu their with their help, sheib was able to get my
cell phone from the woman in Medina meet one of my friends who
went to make Amra in Mecca, from California. Gave her that phone
and she came back. She lived seven hours away from me, but I was
speaking at a conference in her city the day after she arrived
from Mecca and Subhanallah, her sister gave me that cell phone
that I left in a taxi in Medina. This is so minor a cell phone. Who
cares about losing your cell phone? Obviously, cell phones are
important to us today, but at the end of the day, are you going to
pour your life out into dua? Yes, you are. Why? Because it's not
just that Allah Pana Taala can bring the heavens and the earth
together to answer Abdullah, still minor, like a cell phone. But what
about you who is going through depression? What about you who has
just lost someone you love? What about you, who is struggling in
your marriage, whatever you are going through, if he can answer my
job by bringing everything together for it, then what about
the reality of what you are going through, which is so much greater
than a cellphone? And what are you doing? You are hoping in him. You
are trusting in Him. You you are showing your love to him while you
doubt yourself, while you wonder whether or not you're good enough,
while you question the sins that you commit. But you're still
trying to pray, even if sometimes you struggle with it, you're still
trying. Don't you think that he sees that? Don't you think that he
loves that Allah subhanho wa Taala appreciates he is a Shakur. He
appreciates even the smallest amount of good that you do. And he
doesn't just appreciate by saying thank you. He appreciates it by
rewarding it, not just through your small action,
but it can be 10 to 700 to even an infinite amount, greater amount of
times of reward for what you've done in this life and especially
in the hereafter. Because he is a Shakur,
he is so grateful for everything. He is the appreciative. And that's
why we should never put our hope and our job being answered because
of us. He answers our dua because of who he is, not because of who
we are, and in your hoping of him, when you make dua with certainty
and you say, Oh Allah, I am not deserving of this blessing, but I
ask you anyway, because you are the one who has the full power and
capacity and the generosity to give it to me. You are doing
worship. You are doing one of the highest forms of worship,
and he is so grateful for that. It is beloved to him, and he promises
to answer you. Subhanho wa taala.
So when we're talking about turning our pain into dua, and we
look at it as a place of protection, and we look at it as a
place in which we are assured that Allah SWT will answer us, we then
go into the next part, and that is i, that is insight.
When we make dua, there are so many times that we don't feel like
our dua is answered.
So often when we make dua, we feel like he's not answering us this
prayer.
And I get this question very often from people who say things like
they've been making a specific dua for 10 years, or they've been
making a specific dua for a certain amount of time, and
they're emotionally overwhelmed. They don't know if they should
still make this dua, because it's too hard for them emotionally to
keep making it. Should I still make dua for this? Is it a sign
that Allah Pana Taala just doesn't want this to happen in my life?
Should I give up on this,
the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa sallam told us that, again, as
long as we're not making dua for something sinful or breaking ties,
then what? Then he promises to reply. And these are two different
narrations, and one of them it's as long as we don't say I made
dua, I made dua, I made dua, and Allah is not responding.
And in another narration, the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa
salam teaches us there are different ways for dua to be
answered. Your dua can be answered by give being given exactly what
you asked for, and maybe in an even better way, a.
Your dua can be answered by some type of evil, being removed from
your life, being protected from something. The Prophet sallallahu,
alayhi wa salam told the companions that dua is for what
has already happened, what is already happening in your life and
what's going to happen. So always make dua. So Panu to Allah,
because in these, in these,
in these different ways, Allah can answer you. So whether it's going
to be through that dua specifically being answered, or
whether it's going to be some type of evil averted, or whether it's
going to be on the Day of Judgment, you coming on the day of
judgment, and you see the blessings of your DUA there,
that's when it's given to you. And you say, I wish that I had men
received nothing except for for it for in the Hereafter, or it could
be given in a different way at a different time. And so there is no
way that your DUA is not answered. Ibn hajab, he mentions he's a
great scholar. I'm a pastor, with a commentary of Zahi Abu Khari. He
mentions that your da, every single da, is answered. You can
make the claim that all of my daughters are answered when I ask
sincerely, as long as you also recognize, like Ibn heads and
might be in a different way than what you expect. What about when
you're so emotional over something specific that you are asking for?
Then what? In that case, you don't say I made dua and I made dua and
Allah didn't answer me. Why? Because Allah's canatala says I am
as my servant thinks I am. He is as you think he is. So if you are
making dua and that whole time you are thinking
Allah's not going to answer me. Why would he answer me? He's just
going to test me. He knows how badly I want this, and because he
knows how badly I want it, he's not going to give it to me, and
he's going to test me instead with the exact opposite of what I'm
asking for.
May Allah forgive us for thinking this way. How can we make dua? How
can we make dua? Asking, and that whole time we're saying he's not
even not only not going to reply, he's going to test me because he
knows about the I want this by giving me the exact opposite, he
says, I am as my servant thinks I am. You will make dua to him with
insight, knowing that he is listening, He will answer you, but
also trusting that he might give you something different, because
that is what is better for you, or he might give you exactly what
you're asking for.
Or sometimes people who get exactly what they're asking for
regret what they got, and they wished that they had not asked for
that thing. So make sure, when you're asking, you say if it's
best for me or give me something better. Which is why in the dua of
istikhara, it's so beautiful, because in the DUA itself, when
you're making this prayer, asking Allah for guidance on what to
decide, that you leave it up to him to guide you to what is best,
and you trust that if it's not best, when you make istikhara, do
you know what happens? Allah removes what you made, what you
made, the decision for you might make a certain decision, but then
it wasn't the right decision, Allah will remove it and instead
bring you back to the right decision. You can never go wrong
with dua. You can never go wrong with istikhara, but if it becomes
too emotional and too difficult for you to make that dua, because
every single time you make it, you're pouring all of your
emotions into it. You're weeping, you're getting headaches because
you can't handle the amount of emotion you're pouring into this
dua, then it's okay to take a break from the intensity of your
emotion and instead say, for example, Allah knows that when you
make the jaa, Rana Atina, hasana, wafirati, hasana, wakina, Ada
Binna, oh, Allah, give us goodness in this life and goodness in the
next life and save us from the hellfire, when you make that dua,
you intend that that also includes that thing that you passionately
want, that you would be making dua for, put you just emotionally
can't handle right now. You just need a short break. You need a
break until you're ready to go back to that dua. That's okay, but
keep making dua. You can still make that dua in a different way,
in a way that you can handle it, but never give up. And I want to
tell you that what you're asking for, realistically, maybe it will
come true, but maybe it won't, and accepting who he is and that He
knows what is best for you is part of the process of taking your pain
and turning it into something that will not leave you feeling so hurt
from but instead helping you feel uplifted through when I was in
college, there was a I was making all the time, everywhere,
SubhanAllah. I remember making it in Ramadan in the elevator on my
way up to the different floors in the library in sujood, while I was
fasting all the time. And the more I made this door, the more one
door would close after another would close. I.
After another would close. The doors would constantly close for
me And subhanAllah, I kept making this dua one year after the next
year after the next year, and I felt like no matter how much I
prayed, I was being steered onto all these different paths away
from it
from the time I made that dua. Do you know when that dua was
answered,
that dua that I made in college when I was Subhanallah, constantly
praying, wasn't answered for another 10 years, 10 years of
making that same dua,
and in the moment when my dua was answered, I realized that all
those doors that closed over and over again, they had to close to
put me onto a path which would guide me to that job being
answered.
And when it was answered, It wasn't answered in the way I
envisioned it in college.
I couldn't have envisioned it even being answered in the beautiful,
perfect way, in the perfect timing that Allah SWT chose for it to be
answered. Sometimes our DUAs are going to take a long time. But you
know what you lose in that process? Nothing. Do you know what
you gain in that process, every time you make dua, something
better is coming, some evil you're protected from, some other
blessing is coming. You're getting something in the here after your
sins are being forgiven. But most importantly, you are building a
connection with Allah subhanho wa taala. You are building a
sweetness in that relationship that is only born out of
desperation. That type of sweetness comes when you have
nowhere to go except for
Allah illAllah. There's, excuse me, there's no
illay. There's no refuge from Allah except with Allah Subhan,
Allah, that process brings you closer to him. So how can you lose
with the power of dua?
So that is looking at the insight of dua, knowing that when you're
making dua, you're looking at it in an insightful way, looking at
it with this perspective that no matter what you are praying for,
he will answer just maybe not an exact way you expected, but you
trust Him, because He is Al Hakim. He is the most wise, and he knows
what is best for you. And with that, let's look at N for
narrative. Sometimes in the DUA that you make, you are a given.
You're making this do I, you're, you're, you're saying these words
with a narrative that you don't fully understand. So for example,
let's look at the mother of Musa. Alayhima salam, the mother of Musa
is given this baby boy, not a girl. She's born, she bears a baby
boy. Now, when she has this baby, there is a hunt for baby boys.
They are being slaughtered by the Pharaoh. She could have said, Oh,
Allah, why didn't you give me a girl instead? Then I could keep my
baby and not have to go through any type of worry.
You know what she did? She listened to what Allah guided her
to do, which is to put her infant into a basket in a river, and
where did it go? This baby was not taken to another country. It was
taken to the palace of the murder of all baby boys. How many times
have we made dua? And when we see that, we think, Allah,
you feel like your trust is broken. I hear from people all the
time who say that they're resentful of God. They feel like
they can't trust him, that they feel like they don't believe that
he is on their side. And that comes from a place of pain, very
real pain. There are so many people who go through trauma,
abuse, so many things that they feel like God could have prevented
but when we look at the reality, many times those are because
someone else has done something to that person, and their trust in
God is broken because of the way someone taught them about God a
parent who physically beat their child, may Allah, protect all of
our children and help us be much better. Help us be great parents.
That's insane. And so in telling them, read the Quran, read the
Quran, read the Quran, and they're slapping them, which is haram.
This is not permissible to do in any sort of way, this child
becomes terrified of the Quran, and they're shaking when they try
to read the Quran when they're in their 40s, because of something
that happened when they were 56789, 10.
That is not Allah harming this person, that is that parent or
that Quran teacher or that individual who caused harm to that
child, but because they've taught Allah to be this Tara.
Find you know God who is out to get you their minds can't move
past that feeling. Go to therapy. It's so important to go to
therapy. Seek the help of a Muslim health professional who can help
you process these emotions and recognize that Allah loves you,
that He cares for you and that like the mother of Musa alaihi
salam, alaihi masalaam, alaihima salam, when she sees her, her boy
is delivered to a palace, and his sister comes and says that she can
help this baby be taken to someone who can nurse him. So what happens
Musa alaihi salam is returned to his mother, but now it's not a
secret. Now it's in the safety and the protection of the pharaoh so
she can be with her child in safety and protection, and the
state is actually providing her provision, paying her for this
job, so that she can have her baby and not be afraid, just like Allah
promised to give her baby back, and that baby had a bigger role.
He had to free the people of Egypt, the Israel. He had to free
them from the oppression of Pharaoh. He had to call Pharaoh to
worshiping Allah into social justice. And how did he do those
things? By being raised by the pharaoh in the palace, in a place
of power so he could come back and deliver this message, which not
only helped his personal life, but created a legacy, helped an entire
nation. And until today, we make dua for Musa alaihi salam, and we
we say about his mother, Musa alaihis Salam. Why? Because in
your life, sometimes we only see the narrow view of what we see in
the moment. But Allah knows our future. You don't know what they
what, what type of legacy you're going to leave. You know when it
matters what you did on this life in 500 years, what you did in this
world, is going to matter in 100 years, it's going to matter when
you're not on this world anymore. That is when it's going to matter.
And Allah knows that about the reality of our lives, because when
you are when we are gone when we are in our graves, before we're
even resurrected, the deeds that we have planted, maybe from the
tears that you cried because of something that you didn't
understand. Maybe those tears nurtured the soil through which in
which were seeds that the flowers were bloomed and those those
flowers became fruit, and birds, birds are eating from that fruit,
and you never even planted that seed. You just cried the tears
that nurtured that
bloom that came out, that helped all of these animals eat from it,
that became set up a jettya for you when you aren't even here
anymore,
that's when you need your DUA to be really answered. And of course,
we want it to be answered now, but Subhan Allah, Allah sees that
there is an entire, entire forever, an entire eternity, and
so out of his wisdom, he answers what's best for us, out of His
love for us, subhanAllah, and that is your narrative of dua, coming
to Allah. With that narrative, coming to Allah in with the
etiquette of dua, how do you call upon Him? Allah
mentioned the Allahumma means that you are taking all of the
Beautiful Names of Allah and His attributes, and you are calling
upon him by these names and attributes. She's saying, Oh
Allah. It's not just Oh Allah, it's Allah. I ask you by all of
these incredible, beautiful, powerful names and attributes. And
then you ask, but you praise Him first, and then you say, Allah,
habibi na Muhammad, you send Salah on the Prophet sallallahu some and
that can be, Oh Allah, please send your praise and blessings upon the
Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu. Muhammad, sallAllahu sallam, in
whatever way that you you send your peace and blessings to him.
Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, why do we do that? You know what the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has gone through, and as
you're going to make dua, whether it's something painful or
something joyful or whatever it is, you remember you're not the
only one who's alone? The Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa sallam went
through so much pain in his lifetime. You aren't alone. You
are heard. You're sending Salawat on the one Salalah, walay wa
sallam, who sacrificed so much for you, for our Ummah, and who keeps
special duals just for you, his dua for you is continuing to be
answered right now in our lifetimes and in the hereafter. So
Allah Alaihi Wasallam, and then you ask, it's from the etiquette
to be in wudu, to face the qlibla, um, make dua for people when you
are not seeing them behind you know you can what, even if you're
seeing them privately, because an angel will say, I mean, and when
angels say, I mean, the.
Angels when they say, I mean, their DUIs accepted. So the
righteous people, when they needed something, they would make dua for
their brothers and sisters, because they knew that the angel
would say, Amin and for you too. So make Java for other people, and
remember that you are going to Allah, and he is your safe space.
So Sheik Rida, he was the message the Imam of the masjid that I used
to pray in. I don't know if Shazia is here, but Shazi, if you
remember when we used to make dua behind Sheik Rabah in the
beautiful Masjid Bilal in Egypt, when we were studying there, this
Imam would make dua, not like how most of us make dua, even all of
the years that I've been so blessed to pray in different
messages for taraweya, I've never heard a dua made like this. This
is the way he used to make the DUA, of which he would praise
Allah. And he would sense a law on the Prophet sallallahu, ala Salam.
And then he would break down. He would say, Oh Allah, we are fuqra.
We are so needy. We are so poor. Oh, Allah, subhanho wa Taala being
don't turn us away. Don't turn us away. If you turn us away, who
will answer us You told us, and your word is the truth. So here we
are making dua to you. Answer us. Answer us. Answer us. He would
beg, he would plead. And the duas that he made that I've never made
for myself in my life, but I was there to say, I mean, his dua
became true in my life because the power of his asking as someone
who's who's in need and who's in love and who knows, Oh Allah, if
you turn us away, who will answer us? Subhanhu wa Taala affirm that
He will answer you. And there are two names of Allah, excuse me,
two. A Hadith in which the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said
that if you ask that this person has asked Allah by names in which
that if Allah is asked by these names, then he will answer
SubhanAllah. There are two beautiful dua I'm suddenly seeing
that we have very little time for Q and A so I'm going to ask
inshAllah alburu to send out these dua to you in an email, and
Inshallah, you can learn them on your own and make dua to Allah by
these names that he promises will be answered the Prophet
sallallahu. Some didn't specify which name is in is the one that
he will answer with, but it's one of those names. And you can, you
can make dua with all of them. And I really recommend, as I
mentioned, this book reflecting on the names of Allah. So much of the
names of Allah that I talked about today was from this beautiful book
in English. It's the best. Where did I go? Is the best that I've
ever read in English. It's called reflecting on the names of Allah
by Gina and Yusuf. You can get it from El guruj and on Amazon and
Subhan Allah. Take the names of Allah, learn them, make to add to
them, and you will find your relationship with him a completely
different one. Take your pain
protection, assurance, insight and narrative. Take those four letters
that cause you so much pain into feel empowered by them, uplifted
by them, and feel your life change when you have pain. Ticket to dua
Subhanallah, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, said
that Allah, He is shy and generous. When you take your hands
up to him, he is shy to let those hands leave empty. He is so
generous that he will always answer. Never doubt that your job,
I will be answered. Pray, call to him, and he will answer
Subhanallah behind Shala. We have a few minutes for
Q and A now, just Hamadi and for your very beautiful speech.
Alhamdulillah, we are going to take a few questions now,
Inshallah, Alhamdulillah, just to let you know, Alhamdulillah, we've
got many sisters who have tuned in from South Africa, Cape Town, from
France, from Malaysia, from Singapore, bless you all so and,
of course, from London, from the UK and so forth. But one of the
real benefits of these live sessions is Alhamdulillah, that is
that is able to connect a global community. Alhamdulillah. So the
first question which we have, and if you feel you've covered it,
please let me know. So then we can, Inshallah, just move on. The
first question is, how long do you wait for your DUA to be accepted,
and what if it doesn't get accepted? So the brief point is
that as long as you're asking sincerely, your heart is present.
Ahmad Ali lauan, who said that he wasn't afraid of his draw not
being accepted. He was afraid that his heart wouldn't be focused and
present in that dua. If you're doing those things and you're
sincerely making that dua, and it's not for something sinful, for
example, your jaw is accepted 100%
it's how.
Is the dua going to be accepted? That's the question. What will it
look like in your life? We don't know. So you keep making that dua.
It could be tomorrow, it could be today. It could be 10 years from
now. It could be never, in the way that you're asking. But that
doesn't mean he's not bringing you other blessings and other gifts
and other benefits and other protection simply because you're
making dua. So keep asking, no matter what jazakam Next question
is, sometimes we sometimes we make dua and we get something different
to what we have asked for. How can we work on a tawakkul to accept
what is given as an answer and not feel disappointed, ie, to be
content. The best way to do this process is by learning who Allah
is, and the two ways that I recommend you do that is, number
one, reading the Quran every single day, in a language that you
understand, whether it's just one ayah or one page or two pages,
make the intention every single day, no matter what you're going
to read, and in a language that you understand, knowing who he is
allows you to trust the decisions he makes for your life when you
feel like you don't have control. Sometimes we have control in our
decisions. Other things we don't. Sometimes he's closing a door for
you, as a mentioned, sometimes a door is closed for you, so an even
better one opens. Sometimes one door is closed, so two doors open
in his mercy. One door closes in his wisdom, two doors open in his
mercy. So sometimes you don't know what's best for you. You have no
idea, and that other thing might be the best thing, but it's hard
to accept that, because it's not what we want. But when you know
who is making that decision and it's out of love for you, then
when you look back on that moment 15 years later, then you can see
SubhanAllah. I didn't I couldn't see it at that time. That was what
was best for me. So knowing who he is through the Quran and as I
showed the book, going to this, reflecting on the names of Allah,
but picking one name a week, reading that book that that name
that week, and making dua to Allah by that name, and see how your
relationship with him changes over that period of time. Inshallah,
okay, JazakAllah khairan, next question is, when is the best time
to make dua? Oh, thank you. Han, a lot. Yes, this is I was going to
cover that in the etiquettes, and then I saw the time and I rushed
through it. Thank you for bringing this up. So there are, like, a
million different times to make dua, and they're accepted the very
best time. I can't say there's a very specific best time, because
there's so many. When you're fasting, when you're traveling,
when you're sick, when you're in sujood in the time after you make
it to Shah hood, before you give the salam, when you're here,
between the advent of the akkama, when it's raining, there are so
many times to make dua. So really don't limit yourself. Just make it
your habit that you make dua all the time, anytime that you need
something, and you don't, you just go and you make dua. And of
course, there are certain times like these that I mentioned, and
so many more in which that dua is extra special. Inshallah, okay,
jazakallahu, khairan. And for those who are, for those who are
asking about the book, the book is called remembering the names of
Allah by Dr jinaan Yusuf, Alhamdulillah, you can you can
send us an email to purchase a copy, or simply, you can go to
Amazon to purchase a copy for worldwide delivery from wherever
you are from. The last question is, at times I get scared to ask
Allah for something because I fear that I will have to pay a price.
And
sorry. And as a weak human, I would not be able to cope. What do
you advise
sister or brother who asked this question? I want you to know that
you are asking this question from a place of something that happened
in your life, someone has taught you that there's a price to ask.
That is not how dua works. Allah never, ever asks us for something
in exchange for our dua. Of course, we are asked to try our
best to worship Him, to try our best to ask for forgiveness when
we make mistakes. Obviously, we are asked to do certain things in
terms of our guidelines and the ways that we live, but that is
different from having an exchange of this jaw is going to come true,
and therefore I have to pay for in a different way. Allah is Al
Kareem. He is the generous you. He needs nothing from you. In
exchange, you don't have to pay for, as a result, for something
that he's given you. So obviously we have to do certain actions. We
have to do the work to get to where we need to be. But if you're
looking towards Allah and you're thinking in this way about his
answer, then I highly recommend you see where that thought is
coming from, because that's not a thought that comes from Allah's
Panama, Taala guidance. It's a thought that maybe came from
something you've experienced in the past, or something that's
that's something that's conditioned you to believe that
Allah is generous. He is Al Jawad. He is Generous without measure.
He's generous. He is Al menen. He's generous without cutting it
off, with no with nothing except giving. So like I mentioned the
previous steps, Quran reading the.
Book, go to therapy. Those are things Inshallah, which will help
us change our perception of him, and in doing so, be able to help
us trust His Generosity without expecting something
back. Jazakum, Allahu, khayran, we are going to finish this session
here in sha Allah. So So we've kept it exactly to an hour.
JazakAllah, may Allah subhanaw taala, reward you, Sheik Mariam,
may Allah preserve you your family, your kids, your husband,
your parents. Inshallah, and we ask Allah that He unites us in a
better place, inshaAllah, in Mashu Al Aqsa first, and then maybe,
hopefully, inshaAllah
blessed in the Ramadan 2019
where shaykha Mariam was one of the teachers for the for the
students who went, and she was really one of the first western
female speakers to be able to deliver sessions in the Haram
itself, in the noble sanctuary. So we ask Allah to elevate you and to
bring you again to this position again. Inshallah, Sheik Zayed,
Baraka, lofiq, may Allah, blessed for all the work that they're
doing. This isn't physically possible. Women being in spaces
like this is not possible without the work of someone like Al guruj,
may Allah bless you,
and we hope to see you soon inshallah. And for those for
everyone who has tuned in, for those who came late, you are going
to be sent an email tomorrow inshallah so you can watch the
video again inshallah and take notes Salam Alaikum wa rahmatulla.