Omar Suleiman – A Dua Away #08 Dua To Change My Heart And Theirs

The prophet

literally had Jibreel alayhis salam come to him

and remove his heart from his body as

a child

and take out any portion of evil out

of it. And then, again, as an adult,

take his heart and clean it with zamzam

and pour into it more faith and more

wisdom.

And with all of that, the most frequent

du'a of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam

was for his heart. So what then for

the rest of us?

Our goal as believers

is to purify from our hearts anything that

contradicts the love of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

The more of your heart that Allah Subhanahu

Wa Ta'ala occupies,

the more present your heart is going to

be in du'a.

And the more you're going to find yourself

constantly guided towards that which is pleasing to

Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

The more that you allow your heart to

become full of your desires or distractions or

grudges,

the less capacity those hearts are going to

have. And so when you think about the

duas that you make for your heart, when

you look at the Quran,

of the first duas that we find is,

rabbana la tuzirqulubana

bada idhadaytana.

Oh Allah, do not let our hearts deviate

after

You have guided them. Why? Because we know

that the Quran is guidance.

But just because your heart finds guidance at

one point doesn't mean that it's going to

stay upon that guidance.

So, O Allah, do not let our hearts

deviate from that guidance after You have guided

those hearts.

But then as it relates to others, we

also find, wala tajaaafiqulubina

rillan lil ladheena aaminu. And, oh Allah, do

not let there be hatred in our hearts

towards the believers. So think about it this

way. The first dua is in relation to

Allah.

The second dua is in relation to our

brothers and sisters.

The first one is about guidance.

The second one is about making sure that

our hearts don't become weighed down with grudges.

Now think about this hadith from the Prophet

SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam.

Abdullah ibn 'Amr radiAllahu ta'ala Anhuma, he narrates

that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was asked,

ayyunasi

afdul,

who is the best of people? So the

Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, kullu maqmumalqalb

sadukh al lisan.

Everyone that has a pure heart

and a truthful tongue.

The Sahaba answered the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam

and they said, You Rasulullah,

Sadukul lisan narifuhu We know what a truthful

tongue is. Famaamakhmooulqalb

But what is this pure heart that you're

talking about? And he said sallallahu alaihi wasallam,

It is a heart that is pious and

pure.

It has no sin in it, no injustice,

no malice, and no envy. And if you

think about those duas from the Quran,

if your hearts do not deviate from the

path of guidance, and if your hearts don't

have hatred towards the believers,

then you find your heart arriving at the

station of being, Mahmumul Qald, this pure heart

that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam

is talking about. Now the greatest example of

someone who was Mahmum al Qalb and sadook

ul lisan had a pure heart and a

truthful tongue was none other than asadook al

Amin

the honest and the trustworthy one. The Prophet

sallallahu alaihi wasallam is always admired for the

way he was able to forgive

and he was always admired for his truthfulness

alayhi salatu wasallam

even by his enemies and he didn't arrive

at that station by accidents.

And that's why you find consistency

with all of the people around him that

if you were to ask them what was

his most frequent du'a, It was always a

dua for the heart. Salam radiAllahu ta'ala Anha

was asked, oh mother of the believers,

what was the dua that you most frequently

heard from Our Messenger SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam?

And she said the most frequent dua of

the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was

Sabbitqalbi

aladinik.

O turner of hearts,

make my heart firm on your path. Think

about it. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, whose

heart was already purified,

whose heart was already washed,

whose heart was filled with divine guidance,

and his greatest concern was

keep it that way.

O turner of hearts,

make my heart firm on your path. Anas

ibn Malik radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu was asked the

same question and he gave the same answer.

He said that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam

used to say, You Muqalib alquluob, sabitqalbi aladinik,

O Turner of hearts, make my heart firm

on your path.

And he said

that I said, O Messenger of Allah,

we have faith in you and we believe

in everything that You have been sent with.

It's as if You are afraid for us,

meaning You're teaching us to say this du'a

so frequently. It's as if You're worried about

us, O Messenger of Allah, going astray. And

the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, yes, verily

the hearts are between 2 fingers from the

fingers of the Most Merciful,

He turns them however He wills. And Abdul

Abnu Amr ibn 'Aas radiAllahu ta'ala Anhuma

narrates the same thing from the Prophet SallAllahu

Alaihi Wasallam, but with a slight variation in

the dua. He says that the prophet Sallallahu

Alaihi Wasallam said

That verily the hearts of all of the

children of Adam are between 2 fingers of

the fingers of the most merciful

as one heart. Imagine all of the hearts

of all of humanity,

all in the hands of Allah Subhanahu Wa

Ta'ala and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said,

yussar rifuhu haythu yasha

that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala turns those hearts

as He sees fit. And then the Prophet

Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said,

Allahumma musarifalquluubsalubanaalataatik.

Allahumma musarifalquluub

Oh Allah, the turner of hearts,

turn our hearts towards your obedience.

Now SubhanAllah, if you go back to the

dua of istikhara,

you're asking Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala with that

same word,

turn us away from that which is not

good for us. Here you're saying, oh Allah,

turn our hearts using the same words.

Turn our hearts towards your acts of obedience.

And some of the scholars said what we

can deduce from the 2 du'as

is that when you're asking Allah Subh'anaHu Wa

Ta A'la for firmness for taba'at, you're asking

Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta A'la to stay on

the path of Islam and to keep you

safe from that which contradicts Islam. And in

this dua, in this variation of the dua,

you're asking Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to direct

your heart

towards the deeds that are pleasing to Him

Subhanahu

Wa Ta'ala And we learn from this SubhanAllah

that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam taught us

that verily in the body there is a

piece of flesh, that if it is good,

everything else is good. And if it is

corrupted, everything else will be corrupted. And he

said, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, that that is the

heart. Likewise,

if your heart is not right in your

du'a,

then what dua will benefit you in place

of the dua? For the heart. And the

Prophet sallAllahu alaihi wa sallam also said that

the parable of the heart is like a

feather that is blown about by the wind.

It turns over this way and that way.

Meaning what? You have to have the right

wind around your heart and you have to

ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, the one who

controls all hearts to keep your heart firm

upon this path.

Now by the way, SubhanAllah,

one of the best ways that some of

the ulama mentioned to keep your heart firm

upon guidance

is to be someone who is concerned with

the guidance of others. And we find that

our Messenger Alayhi Salatu Wasala was constantly making

du'a for Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to guide

others. Remember,

and he was frustrated with his people of

Dose. And he told the Prophet sallallahu alaihi

wa sallam to make dua against the people

of Dose. And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa

sallam said, Allahumma di dosa. Oh Allah guide

Dua's waati bihim

and bring them to me. Think about when

you're making du'a for someone that you love,

when you're making du'a for the guidance of

another person. Even if you're making du'a for

your children or you're making du'a for someone

from your family and you have an angel

that is appointed that says Amin walakabimithl

Amin and for you as well. It may

be that your concern with the guidance of

others that is born out of your reverence

for guidance itself and the concern that you

have for your heart that allows for your

heart to have empathy for others and want

them to be spared in the hereafter,

is the reason why Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala

keeps your heart firm

upon this path. And so just as Allah

Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala can direct our hearts to

each other in so many different ways, one

of the best ways that we can build

that bond with one another is to make

du'a that Allah

Allah guide our hearts collectively

so that our hearts are constantly directed towards

Him and in the process

directed towards each other.