Suhaib Webb – The Supplications of Islam Part One What Does Supplication Mean to You
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How's everybody doing?
Sorry about asking people to part the Red
Sea there.
My apologies.
I wanna welcome everyone to the IC,
and we hope
that you will,
you know, enjoy
your time
in
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It's strange whenever you advertise,
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it's really important that we ask ourselves what
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when even Muslims are asking like, can I
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Like, is it okay if I come?
And that's really a disaster.
Let alone
people who may be seeking and aren't Muslim,
but just like the fact that the faithful,
right, feel
immediately intimidated.
So one of the things that the IC
is invested in is creating a community
where people feel comfortable.
That's duality. It's a dual responsibility there.
But doing our best to make people feel,
like, valued.
So we we hope that you enjoy, you
know, your visits to the IC inshallah and
that that we can
serve you diligently. So, Imam Khaled asked me
about
starting the halaqas again on Tuesdays
and he asked me what I thought
was, like, important. And I felt like coming
out of Ramadan
because I'm sure
a lot of us habituated supplication.
You know? Like Ramadan coming out of finals
for students. Right? I just had baby girl,
first 5 days of her life, she was
in ICU, so like I habituated supplication,
you know, because you become
one of my teachers used to say that
2 or 3 places
every Muslim becomes a Wali.
One is in the ICU.
Like the dua that you make
if you're seeing someone suffering or
you yourself are suffering, it's like super sincere,
you
know. And then the second is Hajj.
People go to Hajj like they have the
sense. And then of course, like before marriage,
when somebody's like trying to get married or
they're seeking a spouse,
they tend to like be super sincere, you
know, in what they ask
for. So we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
to, inshallah, help us. This this series, there's
a schedule out for it over what supplications
we're gonna be covering every week.
So that should have been sent out in
the email. And then tomorrow,
we'll send you a PDF of the supplication
that we covered today, along with the transliteration
and some of the notes so that, you
know, it would be helpful,
and beneficial to everybody.
Before before I start,
I just wanna ask you, like, a very
important question because it's it's it's extremely important
that we delve into the collective imagination of
the Muslim community.
I don't know if anybody follows me on
Instagram,
but,
you know,
someone. You know, if I find someone in
the street,
I'm going to beat someone up. Right? Because
every day I get 5 or 6 questions.
Well, someone told me this
and someone told me that. Right? I'm like,
who the heck is someone?
This person has a lot of followers on
This is a big influencer. Someone is a
really successful influencer.
And unfortunately, someone
tends to give like the worst religious advice,
like successfully
wrong.
You know?
And
when you go into that and you begin
to unpack that, you get a glimpse into
the collective imagination of the Muslim community
that oftentimes
frames things in ways which are like
irrationally pious
or irresponsibly
liberal.
It's very rarely that you find it in
the middle.
So yesterday, the girl was like, you know,
someone told me like my hair fell out
of my hijab, so I'm committing zina. Absolutely.
I was like, man, like,
who the heck is someone?
You know, like and how could you say
it to somebody? There's a brother, he told
me I didn't post this one. He was
like, someone told me I was wearing a
maw Saleh
jersey
in a mosque, and they told me I
had to leave. Someone.
Right? Who the heck is someone?
But for some reason, someone
has a big impact on us.
So before we jump into du'a,
supplication,
what do you
imagine to be the perfect moment
for Dua?
That's a question
that I want us to like spend a
few moments just sharing.
Right? Like,
what is that perfect setting?
You know, if you were able to, like,
set up dua,
what would the perfect dua look like?
And what situation
would you be in?
That's the question. So I might say,
last 3rd of the night,
everyone's asleep,
I made tahajjud,
and then my eyes are like full of
tears,
and I'm just like pouring my heart open
to God.
Like that might be the ideal situation in
my mind. So that's the question I'm asking
you. Like, when you hear the word dua
and you think of ideal dua,
what do you think of?
That's my question.
In your mind, successful dua was the first
thing you see that you're doing or where
you are.
Yes, ma'am?
Right? That's beautiful. Having this with
Allah.
Right? Speaking to God. Yes, ma'am.
Mhmm. Being able to, like, lock in.
Right. Right. Got it. Yes, ma'am. I tried
to,
especially when it rains.
I thought, oh, no. I'll be connected to,
you know or if I guess in a
similar way, I feel that lawless is wrong.
I don't know. I just I just have
to do it then. Okay. All the time,
but especially then. Beautiful. So like rain? Yeah.
Yes, sir? Like, the best time
if you try to add up all the
different blessing plus at times. It's like, Lila
and mother. No, but I mean you, your
reflection. Yeah. Don't bring Sunday school into this
yet because that's a cop out.
I mean, you personally.
Right.
I think it's either when you've done something
really difficult for the sake of the Allah
Okay. Or right after that. Nice. They're in,
like, a really bad state, even though you
can only rely on Allah. Nice.
And now.
Got it. Yeah. Awesome. Yes, sir. I love,
Duhammus.
No. But I need you. Yeah. That's the
one I use. Yeah. But your personal what
you're going through, don't project to Musa. Be
you.
Well, it's like
the Dua
is. Right. So that's like.
So it's like
this anxiety
or this pressure
to
live in this world and just try to,
like,
ease that.
It's something that I I constantly have to
talk about. Nice. Nice. And feel free to
push back. Don't worry. I'm trying to push
you guys into being who you are. We
tend to project
and not talk about, like, where we are
or what we're going through. So I'm I'm
not trying to give you a hard time.
So the the supplication of prophet Musa
and Surat Taha, oh Allah, expand my chest,
remove the impediment from my speech.
Right? Assist me with my brother.
Right. Beautiful. Beautiful. Who else? Yes, sir. I
think, we tend to forget whenever we are
satisfied or happy in life, we tend to
forget to there are a lot of times
you said, but I think that's the point
where you are
most content and satisfied with with life. So
I think you should take a moment when
you sincerely sit down and just do like
our
Mhmm.
Grabbing that moment of sincerity. Yeah. When when
you're just super satisfied, not concerned about anything,
just happy.
Yeah. I mean, there's this narration. Right? Remember
me in ease and I'll remember you in
hardship.
Right? Beautiful.
Excellent. And they say, like, the gratitude
of the common person is,
you know, like the sabra of the common
person or the or the thankfulness of the
common person is after
When you are feeling anxiety, when nothing around
you, no world,
things giving you ease or comfort. Mhmm. And
you're like, I can't talk to anybody except
the law, and I need them right now.
Like, nothing else is breaking up. So Yeah.
And, you know, it's interesting how answers can
be like complete polar opposites, and we're all
like, yep. Mhmm. Because dua is muhl ibadah.
Right? What we're learning now is the statement
of the prophet like, supplication is the marrow
of worship.
It's with you in every situation. Right? There
will always be the ability to contextualize it.
Exactly.
Anyone else? Yes, ma'am.
What does that mean? Wow.
I don't know. You don't know if you're
gonna get to the next. That's when you
kinda say it.
Yeah. That's that's a it's like the middle
of the day. Because I see your feet
that time, you're making it in that day.
That's beautiful, man. So like, you don't know
if you're gonna make it to the end,
so you get more It's nice. Yes, ma'am.
When I'm trying to do something? Yeah. When
you when you really wanna pull something off,
yeah, that tends to like be that, like
that pre workout
that you could take to kinda get you
in a good place. That's beautiful.
Yes, sir.
That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Yes, sir.
Right. And I think it's important to understand
what I'm trying to frame now. I'm trying
to keep us away from texts.
Right? In sejood, laila toqadr. That's private theology.
But I would argue that some of us
have made the most sincere duas when we
experience public theology,
like when we wanna do something important.
Like at the ICU when your daughter is
like, they told me her oxygen levels are
dropping. We don't know why. She's perfectly healthy.
That moment, I'm like, the only one that
can raise oxygen
is Allah.
Right? So my my challenge what I'm trying
to challenge you to think about is public
moments. Right? Those are important. Like for example,
in aspects of salah. So what I'm talking
about now is the nitty gritty l train
at the game, last night, is Kawhi gonna
do it?
Right? Those moments
where
you have to kind of float on your
own.
So I would say the most important du
I I ever made was in a nightclub
in a bathroom,
DJing
at 18 years old.
And I was DJing for a guy who
was Muslim,
and he was like, yo man, you need
to get your life together. Like, we're both
in the club bro. Like,
whose life's not together here? He's like, did
you read the Quran I gave you?
Right? And then in the restroom,
if you're a Buddha, if you're Jehovah, if
you're Allah, if you're Jesus,
whoever you are,
I need a way out of this.
So the point I'm I'm trying to make
here is
those public
uncurated,
unfiltered moments of dua.
And if you think about it,
the Quran really captures those moments.
Like
Moses,
Sayidina Musa is experiencing rejection.
So he's it's not like he was in
the mosque at 3 AM
and he was in full Tahara and he
had his Somali rose, Eteran
and he was wearing a kurta.
Musa just got rejected.
He just ran from his people.
So he has nothing to turn to but
God. Adam and his wife, when did they
make the supplication?
After they fell,
not before.
Saydna Ibrahim
is in the fire.
So I find it ironic that sometimes, and
you guys, hamdulillah, are are a little bit
more realer. This is a New York crowd,
so it's
kind of a little different grit.
But people tend to talk about duas being
like I just prayed 2 rakah and I
made like all the of the wudu
and like everything was going great and I
was fasting and it was the time of
Adan
and I made dua.
Was
the Quran
captures dua of the prophets in the most
hectic,
difficult, or most successful moments
that are uncurated.
They're not filtered.
They're very real. Like Mariam, I never had
a boyfriend dude.
And then she turns to Allah.
You look at Sayna Muhammad, Allahumma falaqaummi falaamalayal,
Allah forgive my people, they don't know what
they're doing to me. It's not a curated
moment. So I think one of the things
like we can appreciate before we talk about
dua
is that often times outside of the textual
encouragements, so don't don't get me wrong,
but we tend to find our sincerity in
the most uncurated moments because when it's uncurated,
we don't feel we have control.
Whether it's success or failure. So what's the
first thing that people in Jannah will say
In * A'raf, when they realize like, you're
now here. You made it They
make dua
because it's uncurated. It's beyond their control.
So we're gonna talk about dua but one
of the things I want us to think
about is
those moments where we've experienced, like, sincerity or
we've seen our dua accepted
or we've been in those places where it's
not easy to manage.
Uncomfortable.
Public theology
brings about a sense of verse adversity.
And moments of real tend to come either
through great moments of success
or what we may see as initially,
as failure.
So before we we jump into it,
let's appreciate then the statement, as I mentioned
earlier,
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
who he said, you know,
Like the marrow of worship. The guts of
worship is dua.
You know, a good way to explain it
would be like your core if you work
out.
Your core, one of the core components of
worship
is dua.
And that takes us to
a very important
statement of Imam al Qazari
in his Ihya,
where he talks about, like, the etiquettes of
dua.
I tend to be concerned when people say,
like, if you do this, do your do,
I won't be accepted. Like how do you
know that?
Like what if the person has a pentent
heart? Like what if the person
internally is with God?
You know, they just made a mistake.
Like we can't become modernists. Like we're not
engineers.
So when we talk about these etiquettes,
as he mentions in the beginning of his
text like, don't take it to an extreme.
Right?
Take it to a balance.
The first he said,
is
very beautiful. He said that, you know, try
to find
those times which are beneficial
as recognized by sacred texts.
Man, I remember subhanAllah.
Allah is so merciful.
My my my first Ramadan as an apprentice
imam. I was a 28 years old. SubhanAllah.
That was a while back.
And, it was my first Ramadan.
You know, being
an imam or assistant imam in a masjid
in Ramadan
is really like being like
an emcee at a party or something. Like
I don't know how to explain it. Like
you're you're working. Like you you don't have
any opportunity to stop.
So
this brother, this is before like cell phones
were popping. This is when we're still playing
Snake. You know, remember Snake on the cell
phone? Some of you are like, what's snake?
But
he calls the masjid and he's like,
I need to come to the masjid right
now.
So,
I say, yeah. He's like, is the Masjid
open? I say, yeah, it's open.
So, he came, I met him,
and this
I came from
overseas like 3 days ago with the goal
to lose my virginity in America.
I was like, dang
dude.
And I said, what happened? He said, I
went to like the red light district
and I met a person
and
as she got in my car the police
raided the police.
Swear to God, it's true story.
It's like, and as they were raiding it,
I said to myself,
I gotta go to the masjid.
I said, what happened to the person? He
said, she ran.
So it's just me and the cops
in Oklahoma.
So they let him go.
It was the 27th night of Ramadan, and
he had no idea it was Ramadan, man.
I have no idea how he didn't know
it's Ramadan.
But that's how like he was. And he
was like what should I do right now?
I was like first of all man, like
Allah loves you bro.
Like in spite of yourself, Allah brought you
to this place, man.
And he started crying and he was like,
I didn't even wanna come here. Like I
didn't wanna come to a mosque.
I don't pray.
I'm not a good person.
And I was like, yeah, but Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala Khta Rilliman Yasha.
So he said like what should I do?
I was like man just go make dua.
So sometimes
in spite of ourselves, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
will guide us
to blessed times.
To make dua
out of his love for us SubhanAllah. And
Masha'Allah, the brother got married, he settled down.
Hamdulillah, he's doing a lot better. Masha'Allah.
Masha'Allah.
So the first Al Qazad he said is
to, like, think about religious text as the
brothers were talking about sujood, laylatul Qadr, last
third of the night. Right?
And try to make dua at those times.
When it's raining, it's hadith about that as
well.
The second is he said you should look
for your emotional state.
Like in when you find within yourself, and
I think someone mentioned this, when you find
within yourself
that clarity
and that hunger for dua,
make dua.
As Mohammed mentioned, like, Alhamak Allah, like Allah
has inspired you to ask, so ask.
And Abdullah bin Mas'ud, he used to say,
you know, you should harvest those moments.
Like that's like the Costco of spirituality,
man. Like you can get anything you want
now because your heart's there.
And as one one of our sisters mentioned
like my heart's in the game. When my
heart's in the game like that's what he
means by that's what he means by
And also what he means is like if
you feel down,
then make dua in a way that will
bring you hope.
If you feel laxed,
make dua in a way that will bring
about a sense of responsibility.
Like watching yourself
and knowing yourself internally.
The third is humility.
To ask with humility,
to ask in a state of need, iftakar.
As we mentioned,
a lot of times here some of our
teachers used to say, oh Allah, enrich me
by feeling poor to you.
And don't make me poverty stricken by feel
by feeling that I'm autonomous of you.
It's also okay to, like, be happy in
dua.
You know, thank you.
Allah says
like be joyous, be happy. You guys can
scoot forward and also scoot that way. It's
fine. Insha'Allah.
So
all of those emotional moments,
right, coupled with a sense of humility and
grace,
are important.
The next is to be certain in what
you ask for.
And the Bsalay Salam,
he said you shouldn't make dua, oh Allah
do this in shit, do that in shit,
oh Allah. If you want do this, if
you want no, like be
certain
about what you ask.
And be certain
in the answer.
The next is to never allow
your sins and mistakes
to keep you from believing that Allah
will answer your dua.
Of course, this means, like, someone who has
that sense of guilt. Right? Not like someone
that's just like
living a life with impunity.
That's why Sufain ibn Uyayna,
he's one of the early scholars. He says
something so beautiful.
He said,
you should never allow
You should never allow any of you you
should never allow yourself to feel
that your dua won't be answered
because of what you've done.
Allah said he answered the dua of the
worst creature, which is Ibis.
When he asked him,
give me time.
So basically what he's saying is, you ain't
Satan.
The next is to feel that Allah is
close to you.
And there's something in in in it's really
beautiful
in Arabic, we kind of lose it in
English,
but in
in,
in Arabic if someone's like, relatively far away
from me,
I should use what's called harfenida,
which is like an article of addressing someone,
like a yo, like yo, like I guess
in slang.
Right? Someone's far away, you might try to
catch their attention.
Yeah,
Ahmed. Yeah, Muhammad. Yeah Fatima.
Yeah, Ayuhaladinahamanu.
Right? Yeah. It's like someone that's far away.
But someone that's, like, right here next to
me,
it's it's unacceptable to be, like, yeah, Ahmed.
Like, what I'm right next to you. So
there's something beautiful
about Dua in the Quran
then never you find yet in front of
it.
As if to say, I'm so close to
you, don't have to say yet.
Just call me.
Just call me and I'll answer you.
The Quran says, you know, call me, I
answer you. Amrul Khattab used to say,
like, I don't worry about the answer.
I worry about me calling.
And if the call is there,
then the ijabatatima,
then the answer comes with it.
A few more inshallah,
and then we'll move on.
And that is the dua,
it's best to start
by praising Allah
because Allah begins the Quran with Alhamd
and also to end it
with praising Allah.
Allah says, like, those people in paradise they
finished their dua with Alhamdulillah.
The second is to send peace and blessings
upon the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam
because of a beautiful narration that Sayid Muhammad
alaihi salatu salam. He was sitting one day
and there was this man, he was supplicating.
Like ask now.
Meaning like this is a good opportunity
for dua to be accepted.
And that takes us to the last point,
It doesn't matter what language you make Dua
in.
You know, sometimes people,
like, they make it hard on themselves,
but I would rather have someone make dua
in a language that they're passionate in and
they're able to encapsulate their emotions in, than
just to repeat something
that doesn't have any meaning to them.
That's why if you notice on Fridays usually
I make the Dua in English.
Because like most people,
they're not gonna really understand.
I remember, this is a bad story, in
Egypt when I worked at Dara Ifta.
Dara Ifta was an interesting place to work,
man.
The house of Fatwa.
And we had this complaint about this imam
who he was a little bit he had
some issues,
and he was really angry
at his flock.
So he used to, like, you know,
make dua and his flock were some of
the students that were not Arabs. They were
coming there to study.
So he got angry at them and he
began to make dua in Arabic against them
and they didn't know he was making dua
against them.
He's like
Allah send watermelons
on them, man. Man.
Like, disfigure their faces.
All kind of crazy stuff, man.
So one of the students started to understand
Arabic. So he filed a complaint against
this imam.
And
when we investigated it, they were like, oh,
like, Amin
Amin You Allah, You Rabbi Amin.
So we asked him like he lost his
position and stuff. I think he was moved
to the Qariyah,
but outside in the country. But when they
ask him, like, why did you do that?
He's like, man they didn't understand what I
was saying, it doesn't matter. I was saying
all kind of crazy stuff.
So
you should make dua, you should make dua
in a language that, like, comes from the
heart.
Right? And is sincere.