Safi Khan – Soul Food for College Students The Du’a Series Class 2
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Alright. We're gonna go ahead and,
begin.
Assalamu alaykum everybody. How's everyone doing? Alhamdulillah.
So
oh, vibey out there.
Weird, cloudy, rainy situation.
There's always, you know, there's actually a, hadith.
It always reminds me whenever anybody gets, like,
really,
like, it gets weirded out by weather or,
like, bothered by weather, there's a hadith where
the prophet
he says, like, don't curse the weather,
because you have no idea really, like, what
your complaint about the weather can do for
other people. Like, when it rains, right, a
lot of people, like, oh, it's raining outside
and it was gloomy outside. But the reality
is, like, that rain could actually bring, like,
incredible, incredible blessings to certain people in the
world. Right?
Stuff to think about always. You know, as
people, like, mature religiously, it's always important to
kinda remember these things because
one person's complete could actually be another person's
blessing.
Alright. So we're, inshallah, going to,
continue on,
and we are
carrying on with
our Dua series. Okay?
So the Dua series,
first and foremost, I wanna kind of let
everyone know, the Dua series is gonna be
like a learning series for everybody, including myself.
Dua is one of those things that a
lot of people, they kind of claim. Like,
oh, yeah. I know what du'a is. I
know what I've been making du'a for so
many years. But the reality is that once
a person starts to kind of, peel back
the layers, right, of certain things like dua,
you really start to appreciate
the depth of something that you thought you
already knew all about. And so that's kind
of what,
the, you know, du'a really does kind of,
you know, exemplify
that reality.
So
we're going to continue on with the second
session of the series, which is all about
the different types of duas
and the different moving components of dua. Right?
Dua involves so many different things. Dua involves
what is being asked for.
Dua involves who is being asked.
Dua also involves
the one who is asking. Right? There's a
lot of different things that are involved inside
of a dua.
And so
one of the things that the the the
scholars, they say,
is,
you know, understand that dua generally can be
of 2 types. Okay?
One is something that we call the dua
of asking.
Okay? The dua of asking. And this is
kind of standardized as whenever somebody raises their
hands and they ask Allah ta'ala, they ask
Allah
oh Allah, give me this or give me
that or don't give me this and don't
give me that. That's generally called the du'a
of asking. And I think a lot of
people are familiar with that because this is
the type of dua that a lot of
us engage in. Whenever our backs are against
the wall or whenever we're in dire need
of something,
we reach out to Allah
because we feel that, like, he is the
only one worthy of asking at this point.
And this is an extremely virtuous thing, by
the way. A lot of people don't realize
that,
you know, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. One of
the things that I expressed last week is
that we really have to fundamentally
separate our minds
from
the duniya y things that we assume
and making those assumptions of Allah So,
you know, whenever you reach out to somebody
in the dunya,
and you only reach out to them when
you're in need, a lot of times those
relationships will not with stand the test of
time because people at the end of the
day have patience. Right? Or they have impatience.
People at the end of the day will
feel that they were taken advantage of, etcetera,
etcetera. But Allah
is not one who has those, you know,
same
human tendencies because Allah
is not human.
Right? There's nothing like Allah
So a person can ask Allah
for anything,
And that is one of the primary
relationships
between creation and and and creator is that
we ask Allah no matter what it may
be. And that's one of the tricks of
shaitan, which is to make us feel bad.
Right? Oh, you haven't prayed. You haven't you
haven't spoken to Allah in forever, so now
you're gonna just ask him about something that
you really want. And this is Shaitan's trick
in trying to get us to think of
Allah
in a human relationship
manner. Okay? But the reality is that our
relationship with Allah is the furthest thing from
our human relationship. So one of the first
categories of dua is do the dua of
asking or the type of dua in which
you ask him. The second type of dua,
the scholars they say, is the dua of
worship.
Dua Right? And this is along the lines
of when a person makes dua and all
they're doing is just worshiping Allah
Right? Right? They're saying there is, you know,
there's no possibility
or power without Allah
Right? You're not necessarily asking for anything, but
you're making dua at the same time because
you're just worshiping God. And how many times
do we realize that in our lives that
sometimes we don't reach out to people because
we need something. We reach out to people
because we wanna talk. Right? And sometimes those
conversations
are actually the most beautiful conversations.
Conversations when there really isn't any sort of
need or want. There's just a reach or
a call out to to to to to
someone
when you just really wanna speak to them.
That communication in it in and of itself
is the therapy. Right? Sometimes when you reach
out to somebody and you're going through something,
you're not really seeking anything from them. You
don't really want any help from them, but
you realize at the end of the day,
that phone call was actually the therapy.
And this is why we sometimes say that
the Dua in and of itself is sometimes
the answer to the Dua.
It's a very interesting phrase. Right? Because whenever
somebody thinks of dua, they're like, oh, yeah.
Like, well, what's the purpose of the dua?
What's, like, the thing you're seeking from the
dua? Well, sometimes my dua is actually what
I'm seeking.
I need that line of communication between me
and Allah
That's all I want. I don't really want
anything other than me saying, You
Rabbi.
That's all I want. Okay? And so some
of the scholars here, they say
that in reality when you look at it,
right? These two types of Duas
are sometimes related to one another.
The Dua of asking
and the dua of worship can actually be
1 in the same. And he gives an
example here which is really beautiful. He says,
when the Muslim prays, oh Allah,
bless me with pious offspring.
Oh Allah, give me like a beautiful family.
Oh Allah, give me a beautiful spouse. Right?
It's a dua that you guys make on
a daily basis. I'm just kidding.
InshaAllah, it's not a bad dua. It's a
good dua. I don't know. We can stop
making Muslims feel bad about the duas that
they make. It's a good dua. InshaAllah, continue
to make it. He says, then this is
a clear example of du'a of asking. Dua
al Masala,
as he is asking for some benefit.
However,
this simple dua
implies
without him saying anything,
that Allah is the one who hears his
prayer
and responds to it, and he is the
one that gives sustenance and blesses people with
offspring.
So even
think about this. When you're making the dua
to God, oh Allah,
bless me with a righteous spouse. Right?
Just off the first kind of
off off the first hand, it seems like
you're asking for something that's a want or
like a desire.
But the reality is by making that
sincerely to Allah, you're actually saying that Allah,
you're the only one that can give me
this.
So, actually, it turns into a dua of
worship
Because you actually worship Allah
through the asking of him. And then he
gives a second example.
He says, another example is,
That there is no change or power except
with the help of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
He says, at face value this expression
is
a It seems like this is a dua
of pure worship
as nothing is actually being asked when you
say
It seems like you're just praising God.
But this expression
necessitates that a person making this dua that
that a person make dua
to Allah. They make the dua of asking
Allah when a person affirms that there is
no power nor is it possible to change
anything except the will and permission of God,
then this automatically necessitates that he asks Allah
or she asks Allah and only Allah
whenever they wish to achieve something. Right? So
when you say
you are subconsciously
actually asking Allah for something. And I want
you guys to think about this. Aren't there
moments in which you almost, like,
you ask somebody for something without directly asking
them for something?
Right?
Like, you look at them and you're like,
oh, you're heading to the hangout at, like,
3 o'clock?
So am I, but, like, man, I wish
I had a car.
And
everybody has, like, self aware friends. Right? They're
like, yeah, man. Sucks for you. Alright? I'll
see you there. Right? No. No. No. Usually,
when a person's like, yeah. You know, you're
heading to the same place at 3 o'clock.
Me too, man. I just wish I had
a car.
Usually, the friend who is emotionally available
or self aware,
they understand that this means, like, you know
what? I'm going to offer this person a
ride because it seems like they're asking me
for something without actually asking me for something.
They're saying, oh, nice. You have a car.
Right? Like, you're praising me for having something.
But indirectly, you're actually asking for something. And
this happens a lot of times with Allah
that we say to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
Alhamdulillah.
Right?
Oh Allah,
all praise or all gratitude is owed to
you, and
all praise is due to you. Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala subhan'ala. You know what's really incredible
here?
That some of the most powerful duas
are the duas that are within the heart.
Why?
Because sometimes when a person
wants something,
yearns for something
so deeply and so intensely,
they might not find the words to describe
what they're trying to ask.
Right? They're not even sure what words to
say.
All they can think of is
Oh Allah,
I'm so grateful to you.
And
all praise is due to you. And you
can't find the words. How many of y'all
have ever, you know, experienced this or seen
someone go through this where they want something
or they're trying to ask for something so
bad, but they choke up?
They choke up. They actually can't even, like
when they get to it, oh, Allah, you
know,
allow me to to to to seek some
sort of in my life, some sort of
peace in my life. When they get to
the word or peace, they begin to choke
up. You don't think Allah
hears that dua
just because that person didn't verbally say it?
If If a person's trying to make dua
for their parents, anytime I can guarantee you,
how many people in here, there's like a
category of dua that you make that just
gets you emotional?
There's like one category that gets you emotional.
I know for a 100% for a fact
whenever I, you know, whenever I make dua
that is related to my daughter, like, it's
very hard for me to complete it. It
sounds strange. Right? It's it's very hard for
me to complete it. I gotta, like, get,
like, my game face on if I if
I'm trying not to cry. Because when it
comes to my daughter, I get very emotional.
So sometimes in Ramadan, when I was making
dua for her, the if a person just
looked at it, it would have just been
like a view of, like, this grown man
kind of crying like a baby.
And so, like, another person will look at
him, they'll be like, oh, like, it doesn't
seem like he asked for anything. He just
cried for, like, 5 minutes straight. No. No.
No. But Allah
he knew exactly what I was asking for.
Okay? So even though a person did not
necessarily
ask for something verbatim,
It is also called dua of asking because
they are so committed and so ingrained in
their worship to Allah.
Okay?
So
then the author, he continues on,
and he talks about a couple of different
things. He says,
once a person acknowledges
these different types of Dua,
they begin to now
discover
these categories. The first of which is
the
respect to the one being asked. So talking
about Allah
He says, the dua is by its very
nature, a call or request to another being.
Right?
Right? Like, when this person called out to
their lord, when they called out to Allah
It's a humble call. So, therefore, it is
possible to categorize dua with respect to the
one being us. So the most important thing
in if you will, is asking yourself, well,
who am I making this dua to?
Who am I reaching out to? Okay?
And so,
the scholars they say, there are 4 categories
of people
when it comes to their intention of the
one that they make dua to.
He says, the first category
is
the category of those people who worship
other than Allah
Right?
They think that their sustenance, they think that
whatever they want or whatever they desire
will be given to them by someone other
than Allah
And I know a lot of times and
I know the author kinda goes into some
realistic,
you know, tangible,
literal examples of these, like people of other
religions who worship idols and idolatry. By the
way, this is the reason why
throughout the Quran, you see so many examples
of prophets
asking their people, like, why do you worship
things that can literally not hear you? Right?
Prophet Ibrahim alaihis salam, he got into arguments
with his own father about this.
Oh, father, why do you worship something that
cannot benefit you nor can it harm you?
Why do you waste your time doing this?
And although
although in today's day and age, as Muslims,
there may not be literal idolatry going on,
but in reality, there may be indirect idolatry
going on by the means of us putting
our hopes in things other than Allah
Right? Like, I hope in getting this job
more from the person that I interviewed with
before I hope I hope in Allah.
And this is why there's that famous hadith
that's recorded in the the 40 hadith of
Imam Nawawi where the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam,
he gives advice to one of his younger
companions and he says, if you ask, ask
of Allah before anybody else.
Why? Because when a person asks Allah
before anybody else, there's actually a deep intrinsic
value to their mentality
when they ask Allah before they go in
for that interview.
Because if you go in for the interview
and then you ask Allah,
in an indirect way, you're actually setting your
your spiritual, your soul up for this idea
that, you know what? Like, I'm gonna this
interview before I trust Allah.
But a person who makes dua to Allah
then goes in for the interview. They've put
it mentally in their head that before I
even interview,
before I submit that application,
before I do x, y, and z, I
already asked Allah permission to do this.
Even if you know that tomorrow you have
a job interview, ask Allah. Allah, please, please
allow me to get this job. I'm going
in for an interview tomorrow.
If I do well in it, if I
bomb it, if I if I if I
do terrible at it, all I'm asking you,
you Allah, is that you give me whatever
is best from this interview. And that way,
this person has actually put it in their
mind that Allah is before everything else.
I don't put anything before Allah
And this is, you know, the the reality
and the the outcome of this is that
whenever something happens,
whether you get the job,
whether you get accepted to that school,
whether you, you know, get whatever you ask
for,
you
are at at very much at peace with
the outcome regardless if you got what you
got or you didn't get what you wanted.
Because before you even relied on that interview,
you relied on Allah.
And you know that one of the outcomes
of trusting Allah is that Allah
may give you what you want right now,
or he may actually deny
you what you asked for because there's something
better in store for you. How many of
us know that hadith of the prophet, the
three answers to the dua? The prophet, one
time, he said that there are three possible
answers to a person's dua. This is very
important because it really helps us
mentally just prep for,
you know, what happens if I make dua?
Like, what should I expect in return? The
prophet he says that the first option is
that Allah Ta'ala will give them what they
want.
Allah will give them what they want. They
ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to get married
and this person, Masha'Allah, is married within the
next like year or 2. Even if it
might be slightly delayed, Allah gives it to
them. Okay.
The second is that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
will not give them what they want, but
he will dive he will diverge
a
harm
that was written for them, and he will
actually diverted away from them.
He will push away something that was harmful
that was written for them, but because of
this dua, they may not have gotten what
they wanted by Allah
will push away something that was supposed to
harm them.
And this always makes me think
so powerful. You know? It'd be so many
people think about this, guys. So many people,
they complain.
Yeah. I made Dua for this and this
and this and this, but I never really
got what I wanted.
But what if
what if
it was written for you that you would
go through some, like, serious, serious illness in
your life
or something
difficult was written for you, a car accident
or some sort of loss or whatever it
may have been. And Allah
refrained from giving that to you.
Even though he didn't give you what you
wanted,
Allah pushed away a certain harm that you
didn't even know about.
And on the day of judgment and only
the day of judgment, you will find out
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will say to
you, hey. Did you know that year 2024,
you had a pretty, you
know, You know, obviously, things could have been
better, but
you were supposed to actually get into this
major car accident that year.
But because you made that dua,
but you didn't get exactly what you wanted,
I tested you with a little bit of
patience,
but I actually completely diverted something that was
gonna harm you possibly for the rest of
your life.
And only on that day will a person
look at Allah and say,
I cannot believe
that I ever questioned you You Allah.
Human beings, you know, subhanAllah.
This is why Shukr, you know, the prophet
says, you know, should should I not be
a grateful servant?
Should I not be a grateful servant? Why?
Because you should be grateful for things that
you don't even know
were written for you or not written for
you.
You have no idea. There may have been
something that was terrible that was written for
you, but Allah
out of his mercy
allowed you to escape it, and you didn't
even know about it. So be grateful for
every waking moment of your life. Okay? So
the first category are those people who worship
other than Allah. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
protect us from ever putting our hopes in
things other than him, Amin.
He says the second category
are those who believe in Allah
and worship him,
yet never ask anything of him.
They claim to worship Allah. Yeah. I believe
in God.
I believe in 1
one one ilah. Right? I believe in 1
deity,
but
that
that claim
is never backed up by asking.
That claim is never backed up by you
humbly asking Allah for something in your life.
And the scholars they say, you know,
is that claim of La ilaha illallah
something that is filled with weight
if a person who claims such a thing
doesn't even have the heart to ask from
the one who they believe in?
And this is the one that the, you
know, the story of Ibrahim that I told
you guys of last week,
that Ibrahim was out late one night and
he was working and he was, you know,
trying to sell and, you know, make some
money, and then he came home late 1
night to worship and to eat.
And Allah had sent an angel to him
and said, yeah, Ibrahim. Why are you so
late today?
And Ibrahim, he says, I was out busy.
I was busy trying to make a living.
So, you know, I I came home later
than usual.
And the angel said to Ibrahim alaihis salam,
he said, what kind of a friend would
Allah
be
if you can ask him for something as
simple as, oh Allah, allow me to go
home to enjoy food and to enjoy some
rest in my house.
Because Allah Ta'ala is the one that said
in the Quran about Ibrahim alayhis salam that
I take Ibrahim
as Khalil, a friend of mine. What kind
of friend would I be if you couldn't
ask me for things? Right? Don't don't people
say that to each other sometimes? Like, what
kind of sister would I be if you
can't come up to me and tell me
these things?
What kind of friend would I be if
you can't tell me, like, the most, like,
inner thoughts in your heart? What kind of
friend would I be That you have to
hide things from me. Do you feel you
can't approach me? What kind of friend would
I be if that was our relationship?
So what kind of a Lord do you
worship if you can't
ask him of things
or tell him about things in your life?
Is it just a formality?
Do I just pray 5 times a day
out of formality?
Because I just know that I have to,
or do I worship?
Do I believe?
Because that's the relationship that me and Allah
have. You can't break my relationship with Allah
because I speak to Allah
because I want to.
There's a difference between
I have and I want.
You know? I pray, yes, because it's obligatory.
Oh, but if, let's say, hypothetically, prayer was
not obligatory, I would still pray
because I want to. I need to.
I desire to. I love to. It's a
privilege. It's an honor.
Salah then goes from this chore
into this immense privilege.
When I have to wake up in the
morning at 6:30,
I no longer complain.
When I wake up in the morning at
5:30, I no longer complain.
In fact, it's like, yeah. I've been sleeping
too long. I gotta talk to Allah. Right?
Maghrib is no longer a chore for me.
I don't have to break out of my
schedule
to do this thing that I have to
do. No. No. No. The time of sunset
is a time that I seek
because I need a break.
I've seen this beautifully, you know, when I
whenever we go to Umrah,
I see this beautifully. The moment that the
adhan comes in, all the store owners, like
they just
shut up. They just close shop.
Dunkin Donuts. Bam. It's gone.
Right?
Like, Carl's Junior and Hardee's. You own a
burger? Too bad. You gotta wait another 30
minutes. Why? Because no. No. No. Man, like,
I'm sick of, like, buying and selling burgers.
I'm I'm sick of selling donuts and coffee,
man. I need to go pray. I need
to go talk to Allah. That's like that's
my therapy. Right? So the second category, the
people who those who believe in Allah, but
they never ask of him. Okay? Then he
says, the 3rd category
are those people
who believe in Allah,
but they only turn to Allah
only out of severe need.
They never reach out to Allah
when things are going okay.
When When they're in extremely desperate situations,
they combine their
and
But in times of ease, they call out
to other than Allah
and this was as the author he says
here, the religion of the people who are
of jahala
at the time of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam.
They would, like, worship their gods whenever they
needed, like, rain. Oh, wow. Like, we're going
through a drought and, like, there's no water
for our crops and our our animals. So
we're gonna desperately call out to God, but
whenever things are going well, oh, we'll we'll
forget about it.
And one of the things to ask ourselves
really is, what's my attitude?
What's my attitude when things are going really
well?
The parents are happy with me. Not getting
into, like, daily fights with my siblings. My
friends are all
good. I don't think I have any enemies.
No one's jealous of me. I'm not jealous
of anybody.
Grades are looking good. I have, like, a
decent job. Right? Like, I got an internship
and
car hasn't given me trouble in a few
months. Like, everything seems like it's going well.
It's the prime opportunity for a person to
just kinda forget about reaching out to Allah.
But at that moment, can you be a
person who not only reaches out to Allah
when they need to, but they reach out
to Allah
out of extreme gratitude when things go well.
Everything's going well.
I don't have any problems right now.
And I wanna reach out to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. Can my duas be as sincere
and intense as they are when I'm in
trouble
as they are in times of ease? Okay.
And then he mentions the last category
is the category of true Muslims,
who they reach out to Allah not only
in good times but in difficulty,
but they also reach out to Allah because
they ask Allah out of worship and they
ask Allah out of things that they need.
Then he continues and he says
about the one who is making the do
making the dua.
These are categorized as a few different categories.
The first category
of people
are those who combine both these types of
duas, and it's kind of like, you know,
the last point that was made that they
worship Allah
out of need and out of want. Okay?
And one of the most beautiful ayat in
the Quran is something that you all and
myself including insha'Allah should recite every day multiple
times.
You Allah alone do we worship.
This is admittance of worship.
Allah, I'm reaching out to you because I
worship you.
Right?
And
you alone do I seek help from.
This is proof that you need both.
You worship the one you ask from
and you ask from the one that you
worship.
It's a mutual relationship.
Right? He says this verse clearly shows the
important relationship between worship and asking. And the
wise person is he or she who understands
and acts upon both of these types.
You ask and you worship of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
The second category of people are those that
have left both types of dua.
They neither worship Allah
nor they seek his help or aid in
any matter. So in this category,
fall the people who worship false deities
as mentioned above.
And then he says,
the 3rd category are those people that practice
Ibadah,
but they ignore
asking Allah. Now, I know that sounds really
strange from like the first get go. It
sounds really strange like, why would someone worship
Allah but not ask of him? I'll tell
you why.
There's a really, really interesting
you know, man, subhanallah. You know, human psychology
is very, very mind blowing.
There are people who say, like, you know
what? I'm gonna worship God,
but I don't wanna, like, seem, like, too
needy.
You know? Like, I don't wanna ask Allah
for too much.
Like, I worship Allah,
But I don't need I I don't wanna
ask him for too much.
I don't wanna ask him for too much.
Like, it's it seems like I'm a needy
person. It seems like I'm in ungrateful.
And this is how shaitan
sometimes
trickles into the veins of human beings.
Because shaitan's goal I want I want everyone
to understand this. Shaitan is clever. I'm not
praising the devil, but, like, I'm being honest
here. Shaitan is clever.
Shaitan is not trying to make a person
who worships Allah go into within, like, 24
hours. Like, that's not how it works. It's
not realistic.
Okay?
But what Shaitan will do is that he
will try to slowly
implement
small little doubts in a person's mind
and within their heart.
Shaitan will say, oh, yeah. Yeah. Go go
worship God. That's fine. No big deal. Right?
You know what's really scary? SubhanAllah is, you
know, one of my teachers growing up, he
said,
if there's anybody and this there's a reason
why shaitan is the worst creation of all
time. It's because shaitan,
he saw Allah
with his own eyes.
You know, that entire story of Adam and
Iblis.
Didn't Shaitan speak directly to Allah?
Of course, he did.
Doesn't he know of God's existence better than
a lot of other people? Of course, he
does.
But even after all that, he tries to
spend his entire life convincing people
that Allah is not real.
That's called true,
true shaitan.
The true devil.
Because you know the truth,
you've seen the truth, but you deny the
truth.
And not only you deny it, but you
try to draw other people away from it.
You know? This is like a rant. I'm
gonna say this on the livestream now so
I don't forget. I wanna do a class
about, like, how Shaitan tries to trick people.
It's like really, really, like it it's very
fascinating. I don't know Sheikh Mikael did it
earlier, but, like, it's really worth revisiting.
Because the games of Shaitan are are are
are many. And this is one of the
things that he tries to play at people.
Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. Worship God, but, man,
don't don't ask him for too much, man.
Shouldn't you be grateful?
Shouldn't you be grateful? Shouldn't you be, you
know, a person who is categorized as shakirim?
A grateful person?
Yes. Of course, you should be a grateful
person. But since when do people who are
grateful
not seek help and aid from Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala? One of my teachers said something
beautiful one time. He said that
Shukr
is shown
within the heart to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and on the limbs when it comes to
people around you.
That when you're around people, you show you
show
through your actions.
Meaning, I'm not known as a person who
complains 247.
I'm not known as a person who, you
know, always like asks for more and more
and more of the people around me.
In front of
dunya'i elements,
shukr is upon my limbs.
My tongue will not be ungrateful. My hands
will not be ungrateful. My my my my
body will not be ungrateful because that's the
shukr that is owed in the dunya.
When it comes to shukr lillah,
the gratitude o to Allah, that's gratitude in
the heart.
That's gratitude in the heart. Allah knows how
grateful you are.
Allah is all wise. He knows how grateful
you are.
But to Allah is the one who we
show our neediness to.
Even though
we have what we want, we have more
than what we could want.
Think about it, guys. Think about how many
things in your life that Allah
has given you without you having to lift
a finger.
Allah has given me a parent,
2 parents.
Allah has given me
an air conditioned home to live in. Allah
has given me at least 1 or 2
meals of a day.
Allah has given me a card to transform
me from point a to point b. Allah
has given me so much.
I've never had to ask for those things
and that's why and we'll talk about this
later when we get to the the the
latter chapters of this book, which is that
all duas should begin with shukr.
Oh Allah,
thank you for giving me what I have.
You spend minutes
talking about
for what I have, and then you make
your ask.
Because if a person comes in in their
dua and all they can think about what
they want, they've completely forgotten about what they
do have.
But never ever get caught in the trick
of shaitan and tell yourself, yeah. You know
what? All I gotta do is worship. I
don't wanna ask Allah because that's too much.
Nothing is too much for Allah
If you truly believe that Allah Allah
is then nothing is too much to ask
Allah. You know, sometimes people are like, I
I I have a good friend.
I have a good friend. I don't know
if he's gonna know that I'm talking about
him on the live stream, but inshallah, he
he might be he might be a little
flattered. But
we have a friend who, you know, I
whenever we go to Umrah. Right? And, for
example, he might not be there or something
like that,
I'll message them and I'll say, you know,
I'm I'm making dua that Allah
gives everybody even more risk, like, in their
life, like, more
more more wealth, more happiness, more sustenance. And
he goes and he says this every time.
Privately messaged me. He goes, hey, ask Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala for me that I make
a $1,000,000.
He just says it.
You know?
And it may seem like a little bit
of like a joke. Yeah. Like, oh, ask
Allah to give me a raise of, like,
$1,000,000
a year. Right? It sounds like a little
far fetched dua,
but the reality, you know what? I I
texted him one time. I said, you know,
this proves that
you are not a person that withholds anything
from God.
You ask whatever the heart wants.
As long as it's khair, you ask Allah
for it.
Nothing is is is is too much for
Allah in your mind and that's a beautiful
trait.
That's a beautiful trait.
Think about it. Think about if the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
1500 years ago,
he had like a 100 people saying la
illaha illallah.
Could you imagine if the prophet shied
away from asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
guide everyone's hearts to Islam?
You know, the the term realistic. Right? Like,
oh, be realistic.
Realistic is very subjective to the person's
circumstances. Right? Oh, there's no way I'll ever
ever make that much money.
Oh, there's no way I'll ever have those
things in my life. There's no way. It's
not possible.
Don't you think at the time of the
prophet in Mecca,
it would have almost been unrealistic unrealistic to
think that there would be one day where
there would be 2,000,000,000 Muslims?
Could you imagine if the prophet, alaihis salatu
salam, shied away from asking Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala to guide every single person on earth?
He said, no. Let's be realistic. Let's get
the people of Mecca.
Forget the people of Yemen, and the people
of Syria, and the people of Palestine, and
the people of you know, China and the
people of, you know, Malaysia and Indonesia and
Africa. Forget about those guys. Like, how is
Islam How is that possible?
And now you got some random dude in
waxing hashi praying maghrib in, like, 15 minutes.
Why? Because the prophet never gave up on
that dua.
You got some random guy in Denton, Texas,
u n t.
Brother. Right?
UNT has an MSA?
What? I'm kidding. There's like a bunch of
UNT people never gonna come back to Seoul
Food ever again. No. But like seriously, think
about that.
Think about that. One time I went to,
you know, I have the privilege of traveling
to a lot of cities
in my line of work. One of the
most remote cities I've ever visited was a
place called Jackson, Mississippi.
Someone's loyal to Jackson here. So
went to Jackson, Mississippi.
I went there
and
I went to their masjid.
It's like rural. There's like cornfields, like left
and right. Right?
And all of a sudden, in the middle
of that entire field, there's a $1,000,000
masjid.
$1,000,000
masjid. I said, what?
Muslims found their way here?
That's insane.
Sheikh Al Anasser, I was just speaking to
Sheikh in my office earlier today. He just
got back from South Korea.
I was like, Sheikh, what's the Muslim seem
like? He's like, you wouldn't believe it.
I said, what do you mean? He goes,
there are people walking around in hijab and
and, like, you know, thobes all over South
Korea.
The masjids are beautiful.
Halal food, man.
South Korea?
K pop?
Like that joint,
like, that's crazy.
I was like, meeting, we're like joking around.
He's like, no. No. No. For real.
Can you imagine that the prophet salallahu alaihi
wasallam limited his dua? No. Let's be realistic
man. Mecca Medina.
Right?
Jordan, if we get time.
Yeah, like,
no, no, no man. He extended that dua.
Allah, guide the people of like Canada.
Guide the people of Iceland and Greenland and
Ireland and Australia.
You know, all these different places. It's because
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam's love for
Allah
that these people may have found guidance in
this dunya.
Right? So never
never ever limit Allah. And then finally,
he says
the 4th category, the final category
are those people that ignore dua
and only practice the dua of asking. Now
this is tragic as well, which is that
a person
only asks Allah, but they never praise Allah.
They never worship Allah. They don't pray. They
don't fast.
They don't do the things that are considered
worship. All they do is they ask whenever
they want to because of their own desires.
And he says here something very beautiful. He
says, the primary example of this
is Iblis himself.
He says for when he expelled
Iblis, when Allah expelled Iblis from paradise due
to his qibler, due to his arrogance,
He made dua to Allah. People forget about
this, that Iblis actually made dua to God.
He made dua to God. He said, Allah,
give me respite.
Allow me to live until the day of
judgment. This is a dua. Allah asked
Iblis asked Allah for this. He said, Allah,
allow me to live a long life.
Allow me to live until the day of
judgment.
And Allah granted him his request.
Yeah. You'll live until the day of judgment.
Let's see what damage you can do.
So, Iblis Subhadallah.
This is gonna be this is gonna get
clipped, by the way, on some TikTok page,
and I'm gonna get canceled 100%,
but Iblis
was a dahi.
Is that crazy to think about?
Isn't that crazy to imagine
that Iblis was one who made dua? Shaitan
made dua,
but his dua was a selfish one.
His dua was one that was bred from
selfishness,
from arrogance, from ignorance. Allah give me a
long life,
But never did he back up that dua
with love of God.
Never did he back up that dua with
a sincere love and sincere worship of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Right?
So we'll end today's class with this inshallah.
This is an extremely, extremely beautiful point that
the author makes here at the tail end.
He says
that
what is asked
in your du'a?
Okay.
He says
that du'a can be categorized
in 2 categories
in terms of what is asked, meaning, the
matters of deen and the matters of dunya.
Okay? It's possible to divide what is asked
for into 2 categories, matters pertaining to the
religion
and matters pertaining to the dunya.
Examples of the first are the are to
ask for increased faith or increase in good
deeds or forgiveness of one's sins. And examples
of the second are to ask Allah
for increase in money or to be cured
from a disease or for more or or
children.
And then he says,
another way to categorize and this is the
one I wanna focus on to end class
today. He said, another way to categorize
what is asked for is by examining the
benefit or harm that it causes.
So it is possible to state that the
entire dua of all creation centers around 4
pillars. Now check this out. These are beautiful.
Firstly,
a person can make dua
for good that already exists.
For example,
a person might be in a state of
good health or good wealth
and they make dua, oh Allah, allow this
to remain.
Allah, do not take this away from me.
You ever heard that dua by the way,
Right?
Oh Allah, do not allow my heart to
deviate
after you have guided it, after you've guided
me. What's it talking about? It's talking about
something that exists now.
How many how many people in here have
existing blessings?
And how many times do we ever ask
Allah
to never take those blessings away?
Allah allow me to continue to enjoy
loving my parents.
Allah allow me to continue to enjoy
the health that I have.
Don't take my health away from me. The
first category of what task Allah for can
be categorized by good that exists.
The second category is
good that is desired. Oh Allah, give me
something that I don't have in my life.
Give me something that I don't have yet.
A person does not have good health perhaps,
so they wish for it.
This is asked for by means of dua.
Thirdly,
evil that exists. Oh Allah,
a person might be sick or they may
be suffering from poverty, so they ask Allah
to remove that from them.
Allah take away the sickness that I have.
Allah take away this pain that I'm going
through. I suffer from anxiety. I suffer from
mental health. I suffer from serious serious problems.
Allah,
cure me of these things that are difficult
for me to go through. That's the third
type which is difficulties or evil that exist.
And the 4th is evil that does not
exist yet.
Y'all ever heard of that dua?
Nobody, alhamdulillah, nobody understands what adab bin nar
is yet.
Nobody understands it and insha Allah nobody will
ever understand it. Say, I mean.
You're asking Allah for protection from the punishment
of the hereafter, the punishment of the fire.
You don't that has not touched you.
You don't know what that is. And you
continue to ask Allah to prevent you from
ever going close to it.
And so,
this inshallah is what we'll end with. This
is powerful. I wanted to share this with
everybody insha'Allah today.
This Dua right here, you'll find
in
Surat Al Imran.
You'll find this dua in Surat Al Imran
verse number 193 and 194. I want to
read it together today insha'Allah. I'll actually have
somebody maybe, read it the translation for me
inshallah. Anybody wanna give it a shot?
You wanna give it a shot inshallah? We
got some good college students, bright English scholars.
Right? Taymor, go for it. Show that UTD
education real quick.
Go ahead.
Good. So it reads
He says, our Lord forgive us for our
sins
and
he says to basically absolve us of our
misdeeds.
Absolve us of our evil deeds
and cause us to die in a state
of righteousness.
Okay. And then he says in the last
part of the dua
we learn
He says, grant us from what you've promised
us through your messengers
and do not disgrace us on the day
of judgment for you never break your promise,
you Allah. Now check out this explanation which
is so, so powerful, subhanAllah.
He says so you'll find the 4 categories
of du'a right here in this one du'a.
The phrase forgive us of our sins
and remit us from our evil
is a dua
that an existing evil be removed.
Fawgfirulana.
Whenever you ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to
remove your sins, you're asking Allah
to take away something from you that is
bothering you that exists already.
The sins of a person should bother a
person.
Allah, I make these mistakes.
I don't like the fact that I make
these mistakes.
I'm addicted to certain things. I don't like
the fact that I'm addicted to certain things,
you Allah.
I want you to take this away from
me. I'm uncomfortable by it. So first thing
is you're asking Allah to remove
an evil that exists.
And then he says
and cause us to die in a state
of righteousness.
Allow us to die in state of righteousness.
Alhamdulillah. Everyone say Alhamdulillah that they're Muslim.
This is a state that you are all
benefiting from, I'm benefiting from.
So the second category is
asking Allah to allow a good that exists
to remain.
To never allow that to go away.
Because if it was for If it was
up to Allah,
Allah could make somebody who is wealthy the
poorest person the next day and the poorest
person on earth the wealthiest person the next
day. It doesn't take anything for Allah to
do that.
So your thing that you believe is, like,
so set in stone. Yeah. You know, I
have 2 I have parents. I have a
family.
I have friends.
I got, like, some money. All that stuff
could change in a heartbeat. How many of
y'all have people you've seen with your own
eyes? People whose
situations turn overnight.
They went from everything to nothing overnight.
And then the opposite is also true, certain
people go from nothing to everything overnight. Allah
can change that status for a person. So
when you have something good, ask Allah to
allow that to continue.
Oh Allah, I'm a Muslim. Allow me to
die as a Muslim.
Don't allow me to change. Even when you
think that, yeah, yeah, alhamdulillah, I'm I'm a
happy Muslim. I'm never gonna leave Islam. Don't
ever don't ever assume
that that's gonna be a constant.
A scholar one time he said that it
is a crime. A crime for a person
to wake up in the morning and assume
that they will live until the end of
the day and a crime for a person
to go to sleep at night and to
assume that they will wake up in the
morning.
It's a crime to think that way. So
when you wake up in the morning you
say, alhamdulillah, that Allah Ta'ala has returned my
soul to me. And by the end of
the day when you go to sleep you
say alhamdulillah, that Allah has allowed me to
see today.
So that's the second type and then he
says that
the phrase grant us from what you've promised
us
grant us from what you've promised us, he
says is a dua for good that does
not yet exist yet.
It's still yet to be given to you,
Jannah.
You ever ask for Jannah.
I ask Allah Ta'ala for Jannah. You don't
know what Jannah is yet. You haven't tasted
it yet. You haven't felt it yet.
But it's something that awaits you.
If you love Allah and you ask for
it enough,
it's there.
So, the 3rd category is a type of
dua
that there's a good that awaits you. Ask
for that good that awaits you. Ask for
that good that's there. And then finally, he
says, the phrase,
do not disgrace us on the day of
judgment is a dua to avert an evil
that does not yet exist.
Oh Allah,
please keep me far away from
punishment.
This is asking Allah Ta'ala for
saving from something, an evil that you have
not experienced yet.
This you know, I I will say to
end class today,
this entire
session today
should help everyone really understand the well rounded
nature of a person who makes dua.
There are so many things to make dua
for. Sometimes, like, we see dua as, like,
this
linear
one line. Right? But then when you start
to understand dua a little bit more, you
realize that dua
is much more of, like,
it's it's way more
there's so many offshoots of it. It's not
just one straight line. There's so many things
that can go this way or that way,
and it can go up and down.
It really is like it has it has
depth to it.
And so from understanding this, we ask Allah
to allow us to truly appreciate the form
of worship that the prophet he says is
du'a, and we ask Allah
to make us of the people who make
dua sincerely.
And we ask Allah
to allow us to never ever ever turn
away from this powerful form of worship that
he's given us called the dua. And we
ask Allah
to accept all of our duas, and we
ask Allah
to give us whatever is best for us
in his infinite wisdom.
What I'm gonna start doing next week we
don't have time for it today because, the
Maghrib Adhan is in, like, 3 minutes. But
next week, what I'm gonna do is I'm
gonna plan to, like, end class at, like,
7:55
and do a little bit of q and
a,
with everybody after the session's over. Because, again,
like I said, dua is such like a
it it's such a, like, a deep topic
that sometimes there are questions that come about,
that people would like to ask about that
particular session.
And so, inshallah, we'll, we'll start to do
that next Thursday.
Okay?
Guys. Thank you so much for being here.
We'll see you guys next Thursday.