Omar Suleiman – A Dua Away #03 When To Not Say InshaAllah
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
May Allah forgive you, Insha'Allah.
Actually, no. It's may Allah forgive you.
You see when it comes to the things
that we intend to do we say Insha'Allah
only if Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala wills. But
when you're making du'a to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala
specially for something that you know is good,
there are no ifs and insha'Allah. It's simply,
oh Allah,
give it to me and you ask Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
with
full certainty.
You're asking a Lord who told you that
He loves to forgive. So don't say forgive
me Insha'Allah.
You're asking Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala who told
you that He guides those who seek it.
So don't say guide me Insha'Allah.
Say, O Allah, forgive me. Say, O Allah,
guide me. Say, O Allah, give me.
Unlike Istikhara, there is no need to put
a conditional
if with something that you know you should
be asking Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala for. In
fact, SubhanAllah,
think about it. 17 times a day we
say, ihdinas Siratal Mustaqeem
Guide us to the straight path, not please
guide us to the straight path if you
will. Guide us to the straight path, oh
Allah, with a sense of dependence but also
a sense of insistence.
And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said in
the hadith of Abu Huraira radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu
he said,
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, none of
you should say, oh Allah, forgive me if
you wish,
or bestow your mercy upon me if you
wish,
or provide for me if You wish, but
instead he should be firm in his request.
And he said SubhanAllah
in one narration,
wal yu aadhimir ragba
That let one ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
with great hope because Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
does not think that anything that He gives
is too great to give His servant. And
He said sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
That verily He already
does what He wills and no one can
force anything upon Him. SubhanAllah, there is a
lot that's actually implied in this. Al Qadhi
Ayad He
says that just like it would be bad
adab
to not say insha'Allah when you say that
I'm going to do something say I will
do something insha'Allah.
It's also bad adab to put insha'Allah in
du'a for two reasons. He says the first
one is that it's totally unnecessary
because Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala already will do
what he wills and you are implying that
there may be some sort of hesitation
from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala or lack of
an ability
to carry out that decree or to carry
out that dua.
The second reason he says is actually
a sense of self sufficiency.
He says that when a person says inshita,
if you will,
that it implies
that you have some sort of independence from
Allah's decree. Meaning you're saying that you can
technically do without the thing that you're asking
for, but oh Allah, if You will, can
You also give this to me? And He's
saying instead,
when you call upon Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
call upon Allah
with desperation,
you are begging for it and you are
determined to get the answer. So there is
no contradiction between
the brokenness and the vulnerability that we approach
our du'a with and the conviction and the
certainty that we have that Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala will answer that dua.
And that is the saying of the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that Allah has said,
That I am what my slave thinks of
me and I am with him when he
calls upon me. And so in the hadith
Qudsi, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
ties a good opinion of him with certainty
in du'a when you call upon Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
And, you know, there's a question that comes
up especially when we're talking about istikhara.
Okay. At what point
is my istikhara not bearing fruit anymore? At
what point do I move on? And the
reality is
is,
the prophet
said call upon Allah while you are certain.
Every single dua
has a certain yield
so long as a person is certain in
the one who's granting that yield. And so
if you made istikhara for something a 100
times
and the answer was actually rejection
it's merely rejection of the way that you
thought it would be best to manifest itself.
But Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala could have raised
you a 100 or a 1000 or a
1000000 ranks in Jannah by that istikhara while
also giving you something better in its place.
So there is no such thing as a
fruitless du'a and a person should not have
a sense of hesitation
when they approach their du'a and say maybe
Allah
is
getting tired of hearing me say this du'a
over and over again and someone's saying wait
a minute, you know, do you hear what
you're saying? Yes. Even the Prophet said, in
Allahha la yamaloo hatatamaloo Allah
does not tire of forgiving you
until you tire of seeking His forgiveness. Allah
does not tire of answering you until you
tire of asking Him. And so you should
never think that, you know, maybe I've asked
Allah
too many times for something, or maybe at
this point I should tone down my du'a.
You should elevate your dua, you should raise
your dua, you should have confidence in your
dua.
The confidence is not that the outcome will
be as you wanted it to be. The
confidence is that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta A'la
will give you the best outcome based upon
His knowledge, His wisdom, His power. And with
that Alhamdulillah.
Alhamdulillah
for all of the times Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala
rejected
what I wanted from my Jira and gave
me something so much better in its place
even if I did not make the connection
with those two things. And then there's another
thing that the scholars mentioned, that sometimes a
person approaches du'a with this hesitation
because they think maybe I'm too sinful,
like maybe the reason why my duas are
not manifesting
in the way that I wanted them to
manifest is because, you know, I'm struggling with
this and I'm struggling with that. You have
all these great Muslims that are calling upon
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and so there's an
element of hesitation like, Oh Allah, if You
will, Oh Allah, if You want, oh Allah,
I know I don't deserve it and SubhanAllah
all of that
is also a bad opinion of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala because Allah does not need you
to be perfect in order to answer you.
Allah doesn't need you to be an angel
to answer you.
And Al Imam Sufyan ibn Uryayna Rahimullah,
he has probably one of the most beautiful
commentaries on this hadith. He says,
No one of you should ever find hesitation
in their dua
because of something they know about themselves. And
he says, fa'innallahaazawajalajaba
duaa sharri khalki Iblis la Anahuwah
Allah answered
the dua of the worst creation. May Allah
curse him, Iblis. When Iblis said,
When he said, Oh my Lord, grant me
respite until the day of resurrection, Allah Subhana
Wa Ta'la immediately said,
minalmundarien
that you are amongst those who have been
granted respite. And that serves as a reminder
that no one should feel unworthy
and no one should be hesitant when they
call upon Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala as He
is ever ready to hear your sincere supplications
no matter what it is that you are
asking Him for, especially when you're asking Him
for the things He told you to ask
Him for.
Guidance, forgiveness,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to be pleased with
you. You have a Lord who wants you
to know that He is rahman al Raheem.
You think when you knock on the door
of Ar Rahman Al Raheem He says,
no, I will not forgive you, I will
not show mercy to you. So the Prophet
sallAllahu alaihi wa sallam is saying, 'udrAllahu antumuquinnawabi
ijabah' Don't say, 'insha Allah, insha'tta, oh Allah,
if you will, oh Allah, I know, O
Allah, no, O Allah, give me this, O
Allah, give me that. And even with your
worldly requests,
you know when Zakariyah alayhis salam, and I
wanna play a scenario out for you. If
Zakariyah alayhis salam made that du'a in Masul
Aqsa,
and he was saying, I've never been disappointed
by you, O Allah.
If Allah did not give Zakariyah alayhis salam
a child, do you think Zakariyah alayhis salam
would have regretted that du'a? Do you think
Zakariyah alayhis salam would have said, well, I
guess he just disappointed me.' No. He would
have been pleased regardless.
But that's the point.
Your relationship with Allah
should be one in which you go to
Him always desperate yet confident.
Always trying to be better, but not waiting
to be better to ask Him. And dear
brothers and sisters,
we should do our best to remove the
barriers between us and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
so that we elevate the acceptance of our
dua and our deeds. But at the same
time, don't wait to be perfect
when you are calling upon the one who
is perfect and who never required from you
perfection in the first place.