Safi Khan – Soul Food for College Students The Du’a Series Class 6
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of intentions being sincerity and being sincere in Islam, as it is not just a performance. They stress the importance of privacy in the church's worship and the importance of not overburdening people's actions by asking for things that cannot be answered. They also discuss the importance of forgiveness and not allowing anger to grab onto one another. The speakers emphasize the importance of avoiding del submits and not allowing one to take over one's life. They end by discussing the importance of not allowing anger to grab onto one another and not allowing one to say, Jesus is awful.
AI: Summary ©
Alright.
We'll go ahead and, and start.
How's everyone doing?
Look outside. It's sunny. It's crazy. Right? Thursday,
sunny weather.
It's it's it's awesome to see
everyone here, again,
heading towards obviously the end of the week.
Hopefully,
everyone who's in college is,
either done with their semester or nearing the
finish line. So, inshallah, the summer the summer
vibes have already begun.
And, masha'Allah, y'all can kinda, like, start figuring
out what to do for the rest of
your summer whether you're working or just enjoying
some time off, hamdulillah, travel, whatever it may
be inshallah.
May Allah
bless everyone's time, this summer. Alright.
So, a couple things
inshallah today. We're going to begin the
chapter of the
things that the
prophetic tradition
discourages us to do while we're making dua.
So that's gonna be the main theme of
today,
and also we have a really cool surprise
at the very end. A really good friend
of mine,
a mentor of mine, doctor Sam Ross. I
don't know how many people in here know
him. He's actually a professor at TCU.
He, inshallah, is going to come in in
the very last, like, 10 minutes of the
session today,
to share, like, a really, really amazing project
that he's doing.
And it requires a little bit of kind
of
he's gonna give a little pitch to you
guys,
about a really interesting,
survey that him and his team
are essentially kind of curating and and and
trying to receive and get some data through
about, like, a young Muslim's experience growing up,
you know, as a Muslim or if you're
not if if you weren't a Muslim and
you convert to Islam,
he wants to kind of,
learn a little bit and and and and
and do some research inshallah in that regard.
So he's gonna come into the last 10
minutes of class today and
share some some some details about that Insha'Allah.
So for our intents and purposes, we're gonna
continue on with this particular chapter, which is
the discourage acts during du'a. So for the
past 2 weeks, we were talking
completely about
the
etiquettes of du'a. How does one beautify their
du'a? And, obviously, of the many things that
one is supposed to do during their dua,
we talked about making sure that you know
who you're making dua to, making sure that,
you know, you're pure in a pure state
of mind, in a pure state of body
and spirit and soul.
We also talked about hoping for the best
of your dua. Right? Making sure that you,
praise Allah
and the prophet
during your dua. All of these different things
are etiquettes of the dua. Now what do
you do in terms of
avoiding certain things in your dua? How can
you avoid lessening the quality of your dua?
The scholars, Du'arama, they have listed out a
really amazing
list, a compilation of the things to avoid
during during your time making dua. So some
of these are a little bit more technical,
and I'm gonna kind of gloss through the
more technical ones, but inshallah, we can extract
some lessons from each and every single one
of them. So
he says here the author says here, the
first thing to avoid in your dua
and he titles it something interesting, but I'm
gonna actually kind of amend it a little
bit and kind twist it a little bit
just to make it make more sense in
our context.
He says poetry in Dua. He says what
is meant by poetry is excessive rhyming of
words and matching word patterns in each sentence
since this does not befit the humility that
should accompany a dua.
Now one thing that I will say to
amend this, at least for our intents and
purposes, and he mentioned something really interesting here.
It says, Imam Khattabi
wrote that excessive rhyming is not like during
your dua, nor is it like to exert
oneself in order to achieve it. Now particularly
in this regard, one thing that I would
like to share is don't worry about the
word poetry.
I want you to think about the word
performance.
Right? Dua is not a performance.
Dua is not a measure of how elaborate
one can make their words.
Dua is not something that is necessitating a
person to say, oh, you know what? Let
me think of the most flowery, fruitful, beautiful
pieces of my vocabulary knowledge that I can
find in order to express myself. That's not
what dua is. Right? Because dua, before anything
else, and we talked about this for the
past couple of weeks, is sincerity.
If a person is not sincere in their
dua, then that dua cannot be effective.
And the reason why some of the scholars,
Imam Al Khattabi, Khattabi, he says that don't
be excessive in your wording in your dua
is because when one start starts to think
of, like, how can I make this dua
really beautifully kind of, like, vibrant and,
really amazing in its verbiage,
they're more focused on the the the performative
value of that dua versus the actual sincerity
value of that dua? And when you look
at Islam and you cut it in any
way you want to, you'll find that Islam
is the opposite of what we call performative.
Islam is not performative. It's substantive. Right? Everything
that you do as a Muslim is based
on substance, and it's based on purity and
intention. Right? When a person prays, they're not
praying because they're seeing other people watching them
pray. They would pray if there was nobody
else watching them. Theoretically, a Muslim should be
fasting even if there's no other human being
in the world that exists besides them.
Theoretically, a Muslim
should be, you know, engaging in certain acts
of worship regardless if there's anybody around them.
Right? And so this is a really good
kind of question to ask ourselves, which is,
like, does my worship switch up
depending upon if I'm around people or if
I'm by myself?
Because the stories and the narratives that we
hear from the the scholars, the the pious
predecessors, the prophets even, is that their most
beautiful moments of worship to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala was sometimes found in moments of extreme
privacy. There was really nobody around them. And
one thing that I'll share with you guys
that's kind of amazing is
that those moments of privacy, those stories that
you read in the Quran of prophets making
dua and prophets praying to Allah in privacy,
there's a reason why those stories were collected
in the Quran. It's because nobody else saw
them.
Nobody else witnessed certain moments in between
Musa alayhi salam talking to Allah
Right? We found one of this beautiful beautifuls,
duas in the Quran of prophet Musa alayhi
salam When Allah, he told him to go
and confront the pharaoh, and he was extremely
scared, one of the characteristics of Musa alaihi
salam is that he had a stutter. And
sometimes that stutter used to manifest in times
of, like, high stress, high anxiety. And so
when he was told by Allah to go
and confront the pharaoh about all of his
crimes and his his his his his rule
and his dictatorship,
Musa al Islam, he made a dua. He
says,
He basically said in this dua, oh Allah,
expand my chest. Right?
And make the command that you've given me
something that is easy for me to do.
And untie the knot that's in my tongue
so they may understand and be able to
comprehend what I'm saying. Nobody else heard this
dua, by the way. Nobody else. There was
not, like, a group of people who were
nearby Musa alaihi salaam that heard that dua
being said. Rather, it was Allah that
gave it to us through the Quran.
So what does that tell you? That that
dua that Musa alaihi salaam he said was
something that was and into our eyes it
may seem poetic. Right?
It sounds beautiful in its pattern. Right? It
almost sounds like like like like poetry. It
sounds almost like a like a like a
stanza, like a couple of beautiful lines of
poetry. But the reality is it just happened
to sound like that, but it was bred
from sincerity.
Musa alaihi salam did not think to himself.
It's like, okay. Let me go back home
and write this down real quick, and then
hopefully Allah will record this in the Quran.
No. No. No. He this is something that
Allah gave him. When I'll tell you guys
some a really cool recipe in Islam. When
someone's intention is pure,
the outcome cannot help but be beautiful.
Does that make sense to you guys? When
someone's intentions are pure and somebody is sincere,
the outcome will be beautiful. You guys ever
seen those pictures of, like, one person praying
Dhuhr in the masjid by themselves completely? But
they're all the way at the front, they're
the only person in the entire Musa Allah
praying at that moment? When a person takes
a picture of them from from from behind,
that person doesn't know that they're taking a
picture. The reason why that moment is so
beautiful is because that person had no idea
there was somebody behind them.
Right? And so those are the moments of
sincerity that every single believer should try to
strive for because the more sincere a person
is, the more beautiful Allah
will make a certain circumstance for them. But
the opposite is is is is is dangerous,
which is when a person they're thinking of
other people before they think about Allah, Allah
not only will rip away the sincerity of
that action, but Allah will actually make the
outcome of it something that's a little bit
ugly to look at. Right? When a person
is trying, they're intending for that action to
be performative.
People can tell that there's performance within it.
People can tell that this person manufactured it
a little bit. People can tell that, yeah,
this guy is definitely not like he he
this person is definitely not being sincere. And,
again, it's not our role to judge people,
but
it is almost like it's almost like nature.
When a person is being insincere, you can
tell that insincerity just from looking at them.
Right? You don't have to say it. You
don't have to think too hard about it.
But again, being sincere, Allah
will beautify it. So that's one of the
advices here. And he actually quotes a really
incredible,
you know, statement from Ibn Abbas, the famous
companion radiAllahu anhu. He said that he was
teaching a group of students one time, and
he gave his students some really beautiful advice.
And he was obviously teaching like, like,
he was teaching the students of knowledge that,
you know, he he he was a teacher
too.
He was giving this he was giving them
this advice. He said, lecture to these people
once a week, and if you wish, then
twice a week, and if you have to,
then 3 times a week maximum.
Don't don't lecture. Don't put yourself in a
a position of authority over people more than
3 times a week because it's dangerous for
your soul. Then he says, do not make
the Quran tiresome for people. Like, do not
make the Quran something that's overburdening for people.
Make the Quran something that's easy for people.
Don't make it something that's unattainable. I mean,
how many of us have these experiences
as as Muslims growing up where we think
to ourselves, like, man, I'll never get to
that level.
I'll never get to that level. I'm just
like this layman. How can I how can
I ever achieve, like, that high status? Well,
guess what? The the the the the teachers,
the mentors that are really heavy in quality
are the teachers and mentors that never make
a person feel bad about the level that
they're at. They'll always help them grow, but
they'll never make Islam
a burden. There will never be Taklif over
a person because of their religiosity.
Everyone grows with their faith. It's never something
that's overburdening for anybody. So he told his
students, he said, do not make the Quran
something that is burdensome for people. And then
he said, make sure that when you come
across a group of people, do not interrupt
their conversation
by your talk and that they get tired
of you.
So ibn Abbas, he says, like, when you
see a group of people and they're all
hanging out together, don't, like, come in there
and just kind of insert yourself in the
conversation. You know, you can do a whole
series on just this advice of Ibn Abbas.
He said, don't go into a group of
people and just assume that, like, you're the
most important voice of that entire group.
Like, sit there and he says, but rather
listen.
Listen to people. When you come into a
new place,
when you come into a new circle, a
new gathering,
be patient. Learn from the people around you.
One of the exemplary,
you know,
characteristics of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
is that he used to say that I
didn't speak very much. There was brevity in
my speech.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was
a master listener.
He used to listen to people.
And I can guarantee you, people in here,
you can tell that when you're talking to
somebody, if they're listening to you or they're
not.
Right? Like, there's very obvious signs of a
person listening to you. There'll be things that
you say that they will bring up later
and be like, yeah. I remember you mentioned
that. You're like, woah. You're paying attention to
that moment? And they'll catch you off guard.
But then you can be talking to a
person who's not listening to you can say
all the words in the world, and then
after you're done speaking, it's as though they
learned nothing. They heard nothing. Right? There's a
huge, huge component
of being a beautiful listener in Islam. You
can only be a as good of a
Muslim as much as you listen to the
people around you, to learn from the people
around you. So Ibn Abbas, he said, when
you go into a circle, don't just insert
yourself, listen to people. And then when you
are asked, speak.
When somebody asks you to speak, then you
speak. You don't speak out of turn. You
speak with permission.
You speak by saying, you know, hey. Can
I can I can I can I share
something here? That's the etiquette of a Muslim.
And then he
says, beware of poetry and rhyming in your
dua, for verily I encountered the prophet and
his companions avoiding this. And so this aligns
with the the the the advice that we
gave. Now number 2,
transgression
in one's dua. Now what does this mean?
Okay. The main thing that I want everyone
to focus on here is this particular verse.
Allah says,
he says,
That make your du'a to Allah
with humility
and in secrecy.
Don't make your duas public. Again, protect that
sincerity that you have. Verily,
that verily he does not like those who
transgress. Now what does it mean to transgress?
The first thing
of transgression in a person's dua is asking
for things that are not allowed in Islam.
A person cannot ask Allah for something
that Allah has forbidden for them.
Okay? And and and I'm gonna give you
guys like a like a a little bit
of a an example, and some people may
Google at this. Right? I I I had
a person and, again, there's there's this is
a safe space. I don't wanna, you know,
create a a an environment where people start
to kinda question and judge one another, but
I'm sharing this example for the ease of
everyone understanding this point. I remember one time
a person asked me, and this is a
serious conversation. This person asked me, he was
like, I really want to marry this girl.
And I said, okay, alhamdulillah, that's, you know,
good intention. Right? You know, go what what
are you doing to kinda kinda work in
that in that in that journey? And he
was like, oh, yeah. You know, I'm I'm
I'm trying to to to to talk to
her parents, and I'm trying to kind of
make sure that I do things the right
way. But, like, is it wrong of me
to, like, make du'a that, like, I get
to spend time with her before, like and
I and I and I told him to
pause for a second. I was like, well,
all the good work that you're doing,
it it it's being it's being questioned with
a dua like that. Because you can't make
dua to Allah
who's supposed to give you something that's completely
pure and beautiful, and you ask him for
something that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala would be
displeased with. It's like asking Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala, you know, hey, Allah, you know, allow
me to to to to delay my prayer.
No. No. No. We don't ask those things.
Why? Because we know that Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala would not be pleased with those things.
And so he says here, it is the
height of transgression to demand from your creator
those things that he has prohibited for you,
either in this life or in the life
after in the life here after. A common
question that's very interesting. I'm gonna see if
anyone kind of, like, relates to this. A
common question is, the people that I dislike
in this dunya, can I not see them
in the akhirah?
But, yeah, there's a very common question amongst
Muslims. Right? Like, yeah. You know, like, this
person, like, I've dealt with them for decades
in the dunya. Like, when I get to
Jannah, inshallah, I was like, first of the
inshallah, say inshallah, it's like like, Inshallah, when
I get to Jannah, like, do I have
to like, can I, like, can I, like,
you know, just not have them around me?
And the first thing I said to this
person is all of the the the the
bad feelings that you have towards this person,
it's not gonna exist in Akhirah.
I know it's hard for you to imagine
this
because we live in such a limited mind
in this dunya. We we feel emotions of
hate and and anger and, you know, irritability
and all these different things that are common
in dunya. But in the akhirah, the people
who annoyed you in the dunya will not
annoy you anymore. If Allah has forgiven that
person and Allah has
forgiven you, then you will be with this
person in the akhirah. Obviously, you may not
have to be best friends, but you will
not be bothered by one another like you
are in this dunya. So don't ask Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, oh, Allah, you know, like,
I I I don't want that person to
be there when I'm there. Right? I mean,
this is this is not of the etiquettes
of people who are who claim to be
believers. I mean, the believer is a person
who, a, even if they even if they
choose to kind of, like, not be close
to somebody in the dunya, but, again, ask
Allah
to forgive them. How beautiful is it a
person who's been harmed by another person, but
they have the heart and the soul to
ask Allah for forgiveness for that person?
Like, I know that this person wronged me,
but Allah forgive them.
Imagine the ajr that a person will get
if they can make du'a for a person
that they technically quote unquote dislike.
What what an incredible thing. The prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam, right, people used to actually almost
question this dua of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam. When he was in early Mecca, the
prophet made a famous dua that he actually
benefited from later on in his life in
the la in in in the second stage
of the,
which is he made dua, oh, Allah strengthen
Islam
with 1 of the 2 Umars.
Who are the 2 Umars? One was Abu
Jahl.
Okay? And the other was
Umar ibn Khattab.
These were the 2 Umrs because Abu Jahl's
real name was Umar.
And so the prophet made dua, and at
that point, both of these Umar's, Abu Jahl
and Umar ibn Khattab were both very, very
huge opposers of Islam.
And so when the companions that were Muslim
at that time, they used to find the
prophet making du'a for these 2 people that
they really disliked. They would be like, why?
Why are you making du'a for something like
that? Why are you making du'a for this?
And the prophet, he says, you have no
idea.
We want these people to be a part
of our ummah.
We're not an exclusive ummah.
We don't we we we never bask and
and and and and and and be and
and are happy and are elated
at the at the removal of certain people.
No. We want these people to be guided
by by by Allah.
There are certain people who we may look
at now and we're like, wow. I I
I really don't like them. But imagine if,
you know, subhanAllah, if they experienced some more
prophetic
character and example in their life, perhaps they
would have turned whatever you disliked into something
that is of benefit to the ummah. Right?
We never know. So never make dua for
someone to be removed
or to be,
you know, taken away. Right? We don't we
don't we we don't make dua for things
like that. And so he says, a person
should realize his place and status in front
of his creator and beware of exalting himself
to where he thinks that he is above
his fellow creation. Again, this is a form
of arrogance and is allowed to do what
they are prohibited doing, prohibited from doing.
So he gives the example of, a du'a
that was made in the Quran. So we'll
kind of fast forward through some of these.
They're a little bit hard to understand, but
inshallah, if anybody has any questions about them,
please come to me after class. Number 3
is not expecting a response.
Now this is powerful.
He says, although this has been discussed to
a certain degree in the etiquette of dua,
because of its importance it needs to be
reiterated.
Too many people expect that Allah will not
respond to their dua, and it is possible
that the only reason that their dua is
not responded to is because of their presumption
of Allah
And I quoted this before that there's a
very famous statement of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
that says, I am as my servant thinks
of me.
If you have hope in Allah, Allah will
deliver
what you want or what you need from
him.
If
you have confidence,
if you have if
you have conviction
that Allah will be there for you, Allah
will be there for you.
Do not doubt Allah.
It's like asking somebody for a favor, and
at the end of that favor, you're like,
yeah. You're probably not gonna do this for
me anyway.
The person who you're asking that favor for
is gonna be like, wow.
Okay. Like, you clearly, like, don't have any
faith in me whatsoever.
And not saying that Allah
will treat it like another person because Allah
Allah is not like creation, but that same
etiquette exists.
That if you want from Allah, you cannot
have
hopelessness in Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. You continue
to hope in Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala no
matter how long it takes. Right?
Allah may be keeping something away from you
because it's better for you to be kept
away from it. And you're sitting here and
thinking that, yeah. You know what? Like, I
I think in my mind, I've made kind
of this equation up in my head that
it would make sense for me to have
it right now. But Allah knows in his
infinite wisdom that this would be extremely harmful
for you.
I've talked to literally, and you guys will,
like, find this fascinating. I've talked to, like,
elders in the community
who come and they're like, I have a
lot of regrets in my life. And so
I I asked them, like, what what are
some of the regrets that you have? And
they're like, yeah. Well, I never got to
pursue my passion, and I never got to,
like, fulfill my dreams and my career and
whatnot. I, you know, I took, like, a
kind of, like, a regular job and kind
of went through the motions. And I'm like,
well, Well, how's your family? Like, yeah. My
family is good. Like, my kids are doing
this and doing that. And, you know, I'm
a do you are are your kids Muslim?
Like, do do do they pray? Do they
keep in touch with you? Do they care
for you? And he's like, yeah. Yeah. Everything's
good. And I said, well, I can I
can I share something with you? I said,
what if Allah gave you what you wanted
and another part of your life was completely
the opposite of what it is today?
Like, you got to become that career that
you that you wanted to pursue. You weren't
you got you got that dream that you
wanted, but none of your kids really kept,
kept up with you. None of your kids
prayed.
None of your kids had, any love for
Allah. What if it's because that you were
a more of, like, a low key,
down to earth person
that Allah gave you so much more barakah
in your life? Right?
So this is something that's extremely beautiful.
Don't be a person who thinks like, oh,
you know, no. It's a I I don't
I don't know about this dua. No. No.
No. Ask that dua with and and make
that dua with conviction.
Yaqeen, with istiqama. Right? Make that dua as
though Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala you know that
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala will answer you. Okay?
So
here he continues and he says, there was
a very
amazing person, Sofia al bin Noreina, who said
when he said, let none of you think
that his dua will not be answered because
of their sins, that he knows of himself.
Indeed, Allah responded to the dua of the
worst of creation Iblis.
May Allah curse him when he said,
So Iblis asked Allah for permission
to give him a long life
to try and distract human beings. And Sufyan
ibn Rayina, he's saying that Allah gave Iblis
permission
from his dua.
If Allah gives shaitan
permission in his dua,
who do you think you are?
Are you calling yourself worse than shaitan?
Hopefully not.
So don't think that you're ever your duas
are not heard by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Don't ever convince yourself that I'm such a
bad Muslim that there's no point in me
making dua because that's not how Allah feels
about
you. That's not how Allah sees you.
That's sometimes how we see ourselves.
That I made this mistake, and it's so
large. It's so looming that there's no point
in me making dua anymore. That's never gonna
be the case.
That's never gonna be the case. The story
that the of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
of the men who killed a 100 people.
He killed a 100 people, and he went
to a sheikh, and he said, tell me
what to do with my life. And he
said, I want you to go, and I
want you to travel and get away from
this place. You had one too many bad
memories. This is literally PTSD and a hadith.
Because you had one too many bad memories
here. You committed one too many crimes in
this area. So I want you to go
and start fresh somewhere else. In the middle
of that person's journey, he passed away.
And so the hadith mentions that the angels
of mercy and the angels of punishment, they
came down trying to claim his soul.
And each of them said, no. He he
he he belongs with us. And the other
said, no. He belongs with us.
And the Hadith had mentioned that an arbitrator
of them said, well, let's see. If he's
closer to his his his his his his,
you know, departure
location,
then he'll be taken as as as a
person of punishment.
And if he's closer to his destination, then
he'll be taken as a person who's forgiven.
And the hadith mentions that Allah
shifted the earth
shifted the earth for him so that he
would be closer to his destination,
so that he was a person that was
forgiven completely by Allah
Imagine
that. Imagine that. I mean, if a person
like that can be forgiven
for doing things that were so appalling,
What type of person are we to think
that, oh, some of my mistakes are too
large, that there's no point in making dua
and asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for forgiveness.
These are all things that Allah
is not only capable of, but Allah
loves to forgive those, especially those who have
mistakes.
People who have mistakes that go to Allah.
It is a beloved scenario for Allah.
Allah wants you to go up to him
when you feel broken.
Allah wants you to go up to him
when you feel shattered. Allah wants you to
go up to him when you feel like
you have no one else to turn to.
That when you think that you have no
one else on your side, you turn to
Allah and Allah will find you an exit
from whatever situation that you find yourself in.
From places that you thought were unimaginable,
places that you thought were not even there
in the first place. I always give the
analogy that a believer when they turn to
Allah with all of their mistakes, all of
their sins, all of their shortcomings,
and they see a dead end ahead of
them,
they don't see anything, they don't see doors
or windows, but they're looking straight ahead, when
they call to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, Allah
reminds them that they can climb up.
You always had that option, but without Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in your heart and in
your mind, you never knew to look up.
You just thought that there was one road
to go, but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reminded
you that there's another way.
But you must have Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
in the heart and the mind in order
to appreciate and understand that.
Number 4, the scholars they say to avoid
praying for only matters of the dunya.
So every dua that somebody makes,
add a little bit of akhira within that
dua.
It proves that you're not a person of
dunya.
It proves that you're not attached to the
dunya.
At the end of the day,
yes, I live here. I live in this
world that Allah has given me temporarily,
but my heart does not desire to be
here forever.
And my duas reflect that.
Every du'a that I make, even if it's
for dunya y things.
Allah, give me a good job. Allah, allow
me to, you know, get this degree, or
Allah, allow me to marry this person. Allah,
allow me to do this or move there,
be with this friend.
A part of your dua should also reflect
that you're interested in not only the dunya
aspect of what you're asking for, but also
the akhira aspect of what you're asking for.
How do you do that?
Oh, Allah, allow me to be close to
this person, not only in this dunya, but
also in the akhirah.
Oh, Allah, allow my home in this life
to be here. I love this place. Allah,
allow this this this the the the the
this, you know, when I when I applied
for this apartment or I put in a
down payment for this house, Allah allow me
to achieve and get this house or this
apartment, but Allah allow my home, the akhirah,
to be even more beautiful.
Allah allow me to get this job,
but also at the same time, you Allah,
allow this job to be something that's pleasing
to you.
Allow this job to be something that I
can take care of my family with.
I can send some money to my parents.
How many of us have been thinking about
stuff like that? Right? Like, I wanna grow
up and for the first time, you're now
in a demographic where you're starting to think
of less of a consumer and more of
a giver.
I know we're at the stage now, me
and my siblings.
We're at the stage now where we're talking
about our parents. Like, what are we gonna
do?
How are we gonna take care of them?
What what what situation do we wanna put
them in where they're they're the most comfortable
and they're the least stressed?
These are ways to make your dua something
that's not only dunya, but also akhirah. And
Allah,
he mentions this in the Quran. He says,
He says that there there are people in
the dunya who will say, oh Allah give
us this and this and this and this
life, and they have no share in the
akhirah.
Because all they do is they make dua
for the dunya. Oh, Allah, give me this
car. Oh, Allah, give me that give me
that shirt. Oh, Allah, give me this job.
Oh, Allah, give me this thing. Give me
that thing. Oh, Allah, allow me to go
to this place and that place. Oh, Allah,
allow me to travel. Allow that ticket to
be available still so it doesn't get sold
out. Like, all these things, they're fine. This
isn't against making dua. But then Allah, he
says,
He says, but then there were people who
will say, oh, Allah, give us the best
of this life and the best of the
hereafter and save us from the fire.
And he says,
these are the people who will have a
share of what they earned and Allah
is swift with his accounting, his hisab.
Meaning, like, you know, when you ask Allah,
like, remember always remember the end goal. Dua
is not something that's limited to the dunya.
Dua is something actually that is meant for
the akhirah.
And Allah has extended that gift to benefit
you here in this life right now. Okay?
We can gloss over this. It's a little
bit easy to understand. Improper names and attributes
of Allah This
is decently simple. He makes a couple of
kind of, in in my opinion, comical points.
He goes, likewise, if a person's asking for
forgiveness, he should not call out the attributes
of Allah
That's a no brainer.
I ask you for mercy severe in punishment.
Okay.
So then
he says,
do not make dua to expedite punishment. Now
what does this mean? He says
that an asymptomatic narrative that the prophet once
visited a sick person who had become so
thin that he was almost like a newborn,
like, animal. And the prophet asked him, did
you make any dua or ask Allah for
anything? And he said, yes. I used to
say, whatever punishments are in store for me
in the hereafter,
give it to me in this world.
And the prophet
corrected him, and he said,
you will never be able to bear that.
Why would you say that? You should in
fact say, oh, Allah, give us the best
of this world and the best of the
hereafter,
and protect us from the punishment of the
hellfire.
So it's actually not of the etiquette of
a person to say, oh, Allah, allow me
to avoid the punishment of the hereafter
by receiving punishment in this in this life.
A lot of people, I can see how
it can, like, turn into, like, oh, that's
like it's like a super, like, woke spiritual
person. Right? Like, they're asking Allah to free
them with the punishment of jahanim, and so
they'll get the punishment of this life. Rather,
ask Allah for the best of this life
and the best of hereafter. You know a
really good example of this, by the way?
How many of y'all are familiar with the
story of Yusuf alaihis salam?
Generally? Okay. So there's a portion of Yusuf's
story. I don't know if how many people
remember this, but there's a portion there's a
portion of Yusuf's story
where he basically was,
almost like he he he was
he was the victim of an attempt of,
like, seduction
by this woman that he used to almost,
like, look at as, like, a mother figure.
And she basically said that, you know, I'm
gonna call all of the
the the the aunties of the community over.
And we're all and and and the Quran
literally goes, like, they were all cutting fruits
one day, and Yousef
alaihis salam, he walked into the room and
they began to cut their own hands because
of the beauty of Yousef alaihis salam, which
is insane to think about. Right? Like, try
to get on that level. Right? There's, like,
some people named Yusuf here. They're like, alright.
I'm I'm almost there. But, you know, like,
they literally they were they were they were
literally they were so distracted by his beauty,
alayhis salam, that they began to cut their
own hands and didn't even notice it. And
so because of this, Zuleikha, the wife of
the the the the the the ruler at
that time, she looks at them and she
says, you see, this is the person that
you judge me about. How can you judge
me? I I advanced towards him, and now
look at you. You're cutting your own hands
because of his beauty. So all of them
made this plot to go and try and
seduce prophet Yusuf alaihi salam, and Yusuf alaihi
salam, he made a dua at that point,
and it's in the Quran. He says, oh,
Allah,
allow the prison to meet to be more
appealing to me than what they call me
to.
And it's a very famous verse in Surah
to Yousef. He says, oh, Allah, allow the
prison
to be more attractive to me or to
be more appealing to me than the Haram
that they're trying to invite me to.
And
everyone knows that the outcome of that du'a
is that prophet Yusuf was put in prison.
Technically, Allah gave him what he asked for.
So there was a commentator of of of
Quran who said that if
Yusuf alaihi salam had asked Allah
to give him a way out
of the prison
and also a way out of that situation,
Allah is so merciful, perhaps he would have
actually given him a way out of both
scenarios.
But because Yousef asked for the prison or
he said beautify the prison for me more
than what they call me to, Allah gave
him the prison.
Now, of course, there's an element of Qadr
Allah in there. No matter what would have
happened, Allah would have given him what was
already predestined for him. But this is a
powerful lesson that proves to us that you
if a person asks for something from Allah,
Allah will give it to that person if
it's the best, you know, if it's for
the best for that person. So if if
if you find yourself in a tough situation,
don't just say, oh, Allah, allow me allow
my my my my sins to be expiated
and allow me to avoid punishment in the
hereafter, and give me all the punishment in
the dunya.
Don't ask for that. Ask Allah for forgiveness
for everything,
because this is a reflection of how you
see Allah. Because a person who says, Allah,
give me the punishment in this dunya is
like saying that Allah has to punish you
some way or the other.
Allah does not have to do anything.
Allah does not have to punish you in
the afterlife or in this life. Allah can
forgive you in this life if he wants
to, So you have to ask for it.
Okay? So it's a very, very beautiful point.
The next couple ones Insha'Allah are not too
difficult to understand.
He says,
du'a against oneself and one family. Inshallah, hopefully
no one makes du'a against themselves themselves or
their family. If you do, please come to
me and we'll talk privately.
Number 8. This is important. To curse someone.
This is powerful.
To curse someone.
It is not the character of a Muslim
to curse others. The prophet
he said that a Muslim
is not given to harming others or cursing
them or being vulgar or being obscene.
Once the companions were whipping an individual
that had committed or had been caught drinking
wine or alcohol, and Umar ibn Khattab, out
of his anger, he cursed this man. And
hearing this the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he
said, don't say that. Do not help Shaytan
against this person.
Do not help Shaitan against this person.
And the author, he says, what character and
nobility, even in such a severe circumstance,
the punishment for drinking intoxicants is that a
person be whipped for a certain number of
times, yet even while inflicting this punishment, it
is not allowed to curse or harm in
in in any other manner.
That a person is not allowed to curse
somebody as a Muslim.
Don't curse somebody as a Muslim. And what
I will almost pair this as is, don't
allow your anger to get the best of
you in your duas.
Don't allow your anger to get the best
of you in your duas.
Don't allow yourself to say, oh, Allah curse
this person.
Curse that person.
There's a famous story of Abu Bakr and
Umar when they one time got into an
argument with one another.
And they got into an argument with with
one another, and by the way, this shows
you kind of, like, how close of friends
they were. And by the way, it shows
the humanity of the companions
Right? Like, we always some sometimes think to
ourselves that, oh, you know, these people, they
never got angry. They never got they never
got upset. No. No. No. They they got
angry. They got upset at times. This is
the humanity of people. Right? So Amal and
Abu Bakr, they were arguing with one another.
Okay? And
Abu Bakr said something to Amal, okay, that
Umar took offense to.
And so Umar Abu Khattab,
he makes a statement to Abu Bakr and
he says, yeah, Abu Bakr, I'm going to
take this to the day of judgment.
It's a very heavy statement.
Alright?
And so, Abi Bakr got like, and by
the way, he's a soft hearted man. Very
soft hearted man.
He's bothered by that. Right? Like, some of
us were like, if someone tells us that
it takes me to do it, we're like,
alright. Cool. Sounds good. See you there, slugger.
Like, no. No. No. Like, our like, Abu
Bakr was, like, he was a very god
conscious person. He got bothered by that. He
got very quiet.
And so the prophet, he noticed the demeanor
change of Abu Bakr over the next couple
of days.
And so the prophet, he says, yeah, Abu
Bakr, what's wrong?
And Abu Bakr is like, yeah, I ain't
no snitch. Like, I'm not gonna I I
don't wanna I don't wanna say it. I
don't wanna say it. And so the prophet
says, no. No. No. I insist.
What is bothering you, Abu Bakr? And this
is how by the way, Abu Bakr was
a prophet's what?
Was his father-in-law.
He was his father-in-law. He was married to
Aisha, Abu Bakr's daughter.
Like, this is family, man. Like, this is
a family thing here. So he goes he
goes, yeah, Abu Bakr, like, what is what's
bothering you so much? Like, if you're hurting,
I'm hurting.
And Abu Bakr, like, relentlessly,
he said,
me and Omar have gone to an argument
the other day, and he told me something
that really scared me. And the prophet says,
tell me what he said.
He said that he's going to take whatever
I said to him to the day of
judgment.
And, like, the prophet
he was like, okay.
He gets up, walks over to,
and he says, you,
And, he says,
are you sure you wanna be the person
that's gonna separate me and Abu Bakr on
the day of judgment?
And the Umar ibn Khattab, the narration says
that he was so scared by that statement.
He was so terrified by that statement of
the prophet that he ran to Abu Bakr
and he said, I forgive you for everything
you've ever done in your life. And if
you ever do anything to me ever again,
just know it's already been forgiven by me.
He goes, I do not wanna feel that
wrath ever again in my life.
What he just told me, do I wanna
be the one responsible for separating you and
him on the day of judgment? No. I
do not wanna be the one.
And this is why, by the way, you
know, there's a really special,
beautiful, like, almost like an imagery type of
hadith that later on happens in the prophet's
life. And, again, this proves to you how
close these three were, The prophet Abu Bakr
and Umar, one time they were walking into
the masjid in Medina, and they were holding
arms. Like, they were, like, locked in arms
like that.
I don't know. It it it looks strange
to, like, an American context, but let me
when you go overseas, and you see, like,
dudes holding hands all the time in the
Haram. Like, it's like there's walking with each
other. And so the prophet, Omar Abu Bakr,
they were holding like, they were locking arms
together and walking to the masjid for salah
one day, and all the companions are just
kinda, like, daydreaming, looking at them. They're like,
wow. Like,
it's like it's like iconic, man. You know?
Like, that scene is iconic. I wish, like
man, I wish I could, like, AI, like,
Photoshop myself right in between, like, right there.
You know? Like, nobody would know. So but
and so they walked in, and the prophet
he noticed that some of the other companions
were looking at them with, like, this kind
of, like, beauty. They're, like, almost, like, like,
nicely jealous of them. And the prophet, he
looks at me and he says, the way
that we're walking together in this life will
be the same way that we walk together
in Jannah.
He says it's about each other.
So imagine, like, you know, subhanAllah,
this friendship is something
between these 3
that
really withstood the test of time, Wallahi, and
it's something that, subhanAllah, and you see to
this day.
When you go to Medina
when you go to Medina,
where are these 3 buried?
1, 2, and 3. The prophet is buried
on the left, Abu Bakr is right next
to him, and the army of Al Khattab
is right next to him.
The way that we live in this dunya
with our friends and our companions is very
reflective of the way that we'll live with
them in the akhirah.
Ask yourself what type of friend we are.
Right?
Insha'Allah,
we'll end with that.
There's a couple of more that I wanted
to share with you guys, but inshAllah ta'ala,
we can inshAllah,
probably wrap up here and, and and continue
on next week. And one thing that I'd
like to share here as well,
you know, there's a couple of advices of
the prophet he shared about, you know, making
sure that you don't let your anger get
to the best of you, especially in your
state of worship in dua. He said, you
know, people used to curse the wind at
that time, and the prophet he said, you
know, don't ever curse the wind because the
wind is a helper of Allah
and brings his mercy and his punishment. So
when you see it, do not curse it.
And then he says even don't don't curse
the rooster. Right? I mean, like,
how many of y'all have cats in here.
Right? They wake you up for fajr, like,
40 minutes early every single morning. Right? They're
asking for food, but you wake up and,
alhamdulillah, you end up praying. So the prophet
would say to his companions, like, don't even
curse the rooster,
but for for it wakes people up for
fajr.
It wakes people up for tahajjud. It wakes
people up for tayamul layl. Like, don't don't
don't be angry at things like that. Like,
live a life that's not led by anger.
Anger destroys things like fire destroys wood. Do
not allow anger to take over your life.
There were so many examples of the companions
not letting their anger get to the best
of them. And this is why when they
made du'a, they would make du'a with the
clearest of minds and the clearest of hearts.
They would never hold grudges against people.
Adi ibn Abi Talib would forgive people in
the middle of the battlefield.
There were literally people who he used to
be fighting. There's a story of a man
he was fighting one time, and he had
him on the ground, and the guy he
had on the ground spat in his face.
And says,
he, like, stopped himself. And the guy was,
like, literally, like, waiting to die. He said,
why'd you stop?
He goes, because right now, if I were
to kill you, I would kill you because
you did something to me that was personal.
I'm not gonna kill you like that. He
left him. He goes somebody because somebody else
can do it.
I don't wanna do this in a state
of anger. The man who urinated in the
corner of the prophet's masjid,
The prophet
said, don't don't attack him.
Don't harm him. Why?
Because we are not people who act in
a state of anger. That's not what we
do. That's not who we are. We never
act from emotions like that. Okay?
So inshallah, what we'll do
next,
next Thursday, we will finish up with these
last few points.
One some of them are beautiful to limit
the mercy of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And then he says, to pray for certain
things particularly are discouraged.
He talks a little bit about over here.
You can see,
du'a for evil or hasteness in du'a. Will
cover that,
to imply that that one will not ask
anything else
after they ask. I mean, this is something
that's actually kind of I'll preview this one.
This is interesting here. He says,
that a person says something like, oh, if
Allah you give this to me, I'll never
ask for anything ever again.
And it's it's so incredible. I see the
smiles breaking across the the audience right now,
but subhanAllah think about how many times we
get caught in this. Right? Allah, if you
give me this, I'll never ask for anything
ever again.
And and that's not something that's within the
etiquettes of a person who makes dua. Why?
Because
giving
even the most
incredibly
vast and luxurious thing to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala is like nothing.
It's like nothing.
So why would you say to Allah, oh,
Allah, after I ask, I'm never gonna ask
anything else from you ever again.
Every single creation of Allah can go to
Jannah and Allah will not even be afflicted
by one small piece of his mercy.
So don't think that, oh, there's, like, limitations
to what I can ask Allah
for. And then we'll continue on, and there's
a couple more of these, and we'll, we'll
we'll wrap up with this next week. Okay.