Zakariyya Harnekar – Daily Duas for Beginners
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Assalamu alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. I make
to add that you're all well on this
wonderful evening,
and that you are in the best of
states with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
My name is Zakaria Hanikah, and I was
requested by Radha Mas'ud
to spend some time with you this evening,
insha'Allah, to discuss the topic of Duaa.
And so,
I humbly obliged, and insha'Allah will be spending
some time to discuss Duaa.
It's a 5 week series insha'Allah,
and
the objective
is for us to
cover
a number of adaiyah
that we make frequently or throughout our day,
and that I feel, well not just I
feel, but Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam taught them
to us because they would have a profound
impact on our lives if we do in
fact implement them.
So
before getting into that, you know it's always
important to have a nice introduction to a
topic. We'll first speak about what Dua is,
and some of the virtues of Dua.
Thereafter we'll get into some of those adaiyah
or supplications
that we should make to Allah regularly,
and we'll look at the benefits in terms
of the metaphysical benefits
and also simply the benefit of what we
are saying in those Adaiyah.
Right? And hopefully, we'll spend some time also
learning them, like, learning the meanings of each
word so that they become meaningful to us.
Right?
So in that, we'll include a number of
adkar as well that we do regularly,
so that we can become more
engaged
and also
mindful when making those adkar and adaiyah. Now,
if I am a little bit uncomfortable
speaking
to a screen
is not that easy for me. I do
have some pet peeves about it, so please
forgive me for that. And,
please do engage
as much
as possible,
and I think that makes the online or
the virtual experience, which is another form of
reality,
all the more present in our lives in
reality. That makes it feel more like a
daros, more like a lesson,
more like a personal imparting
of
ideas and thoughts from one heart to another,
rather than the coldness of me actually just
sitting in front of the screen and talking
to a screen.
What what makes it bearable is the fact
that, there are hearts behind the other screens,
and, you know, that's the only reason I
acquiesced and actually agreed to to do this
class.
So please do engage as much as possible,
ask questions, seek clarity, share your thoughts.
I do appreciate that from my own experience
whilst teaching, and it constantly reminds me and
keeps me engaged with the hearts on the
other sides of, you know, of the screens.
So we start by setting ourselves
intentions,
right, every
every action
should start with Bismillahi rahmanirrahim
as Rassoulallahu
alaihi wasallam taught us,
start by saying Bismillahir
Rahim in the name of Allah,
the Most Merciful,
the Especially Merciful, or in the name of
Allah, the
Infinitely Merciful, the Eternally Merciful.
And that is
an indicator
to the fact that we should start
seeking help from Allah,
whilst at the same time doing what we
are doing for the sake of Allah
and Rasulullah
taught us that in a number of hadith.
Right? So we start off by having good
intentions for this course. And what are some
of the good intentions that we can and
should have
whilst listening
in these few classes, Biyim Laihi Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
Firstly, the primary intention of every single action
of ours
in this,
ephemeral life of ours,
is that
we should do what we do to please
Allah.
Whether it be something mundane
like going to the bathroom or brushing my
teeth or whatever it may be. If I
couple that with a good intention it changes
the mundaneness,
the pure habitual nature of the act
into something that is rewarded by Allah
This is what our scholars tell us,
A good intention can change an act, a
mundane act,
or a habitual act into an act of
worship.
And so,
the purpose of our existence, the purpose of
our creation is that we worship Allah, as
Allah tells us in the Quran,
I have not created mankind nor Jinkind except
that they worship me.
And so that being the purpose of our
existence,
the primary intention
in our every action should be that we
are doing it as an expression of our,
or as an expression of worship to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. But a little bit more
on that later.
Right, so our first intention while sitting in
the class,
is that
we are doing it to please Allah
to attain closeness to Allah
to better our relationship with Allah
And then we have the intentions of learning,
of benefiting ourselves and benefiting others,
of reminding ourselves and giving a reminder to
others
of,
you know, of taking lessons for ourselves and
giving lessons to others as well.
And we have the intention of clinging to
the book of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and
of following
the guided
and Divine
way of Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in our lives.
Thereafter, there are many intentions to be had
of goodness.
Like
the fact that we may just want to
implement more practices that benefit us holistically in
this life and the next. That we may
want to, you know, give good upbringing to
our children,
that we may want
to, you know, create an environment in our
homes where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is remembered
frequently,
that our lives become centered around Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. All of those are intentions
that we should have whilst attending this class.
Right?
That's it.
Let's get into
the topic at hand, and that is a
dua.
Now, dua is a Arabic word,
So we first have to understand what it
means before we can speak about it. Our
scholars say that
and, we are the nation. We are the
Ummah
of definition,
right? So our scholars say that before
you want to delve into any topic,
you should first understand
or you should first get a conceptualization
of that topic
and how you get a conceptualization
of the topic is by looking at the
definition of that topic.
So our topic at hand is Addu'a,
and so we look at the definition
of Addu'a
both linguistically
and technically,
so that we can get an appreciation or
an understanding of what the topic is about.
Right?
So there are many,
variant definitions of the word Adwa'a,
but
I'll share with you perhaps 2 of its
meanings, its linguistic meanings.
Thereafter, we will look at some of its
or just perhaps 1 or 2 of its
technical meanings.
The first of its linguistic meanings is Anida.
A Dua means Anida,
to call out to somebody,
right? For example,
or just to call somebody, for example, if
I
have my brother's name is Othman,
if he's standing at the end of the
room and I call out to him Othman,
then I can say
I have made Dua to him.
Right?
So that's one of the linguistic meanings of
a Dua, that is a nida, to call
someone.
A second meaning or second component of its
meaning that allow us to, you know, understand
where the technical meaning comes from is a
kalab.
A kalab, to request.
Right?
To request something from somebody.
For example, my brother that I just called
out to a bit earlier, Uthman, if I
tell him, Uthman,
give me
a book on that shelf.
I requested something from him. So I can
also say
I called on him for something.
Right?
So the first component of its meaning that
I mentioned is simply to call somebody. A
second component of its meaning is to request
something from the one being called.
Then, it needs technical meaning.
Perhaps I'll share with you
3, let's go with 3. I'll share with
you 3 technical definitions of what Dua is.
But here this is very important now
for us to appreciate what Dua is,
and what our state should be whilst making
Dua, you know, what our mindset should be
while making Dua, all of that stems from
actually having a conceptualization
of what it is, right?
So before even making a Dua, saying any
words out of your mouth.
It's important
for our for us to have an understanding
of what we're doing so that we can
do it correctly.
I see some greetings, walaikum Assalamu alhamdulillah, wa
rakatuh to all of those greetings.
One of those technical meanings
are,
it comes directly from the linguistic meaning, and
that is again
tolab.
It is to
request,
but it is what we'd say
In terms of a fitri or a technical
definition of a dua, it would
be What does that mean?
It's to request something,
right, to ask something
whilst having humility and submission
whilst having humility and submission.
And now you can see how this is
getting closer to what we know Dua to
be, because when we make Dua, we make
Dua to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So we call upon him, we request things
from him,
whilst having,
tadalul, humility, and hudu'ah, and having, like,
extreme
submission to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Another meaning of it would be,
according to
Ibn Hajar in his book Fathulbari,
a very important book in our tradition,
because it's one of the foremost commentaries on
Sahih al Bukhari.
He says in defining what Dua is, he
says
So, he mentions 3 things,
he says that a Dua
is making apparent
or expressing
the
greatest degree of humility
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And
it is also expressing
your dire need, your extreme poverty
for what Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has and
for Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala Himself.
And lastly, it is
it is
expressing
your resignation
to Allah Subhanahu
Meaning, you're handing yourself over to Allah and
seeking from him, but you are happy with
whatever he
provides you. The three parts to its meaning,
and
humility,
need, dire need as well as,
as well as resignation to Allah Subhanahu wa
Ta'ala.
And what brings all of those things together
and makes it Dua is the expression
of that.
I hope that's understood and we're now getting
a real appreciation for what Dua should be
in our lives, not just litanies of things
that come off our tongues with, you know,
heartless words, right?
Another technical meaning from
the Kuwaiti
Encyclopedia
of Islamic Fiqh
is
It is that Dua,
a technical meaning of Dua is
an expression which comes in the form of
a command, it's not a factual statement, but
it is
a request. So you're actually commanding Allah. When
you make dua to Allah, you're actually
presenting something in the form of a command
to Allah.
But if we think of ourselves in the
relation to Allah, do we have the right
to command him?
Do we have the right to impose upon
him? Certainly not.
The form of our words,
is the form of a command.
However,
the meaning of our words is a request.
So for example, I say,
give gift us with something. The word is
a command in the Arabic language, but you're
not actually commanding Allah like somebody below you
or beneath you. Hey, give me that thing.
No,
it's Oh Allah, please give me.
Right.
So it is what? It is an expression
that is of
a command nature, it's not a factual statement.
And it indicates to a request.
And that request is coupled with,
a high degree of humility and submission,
and it can also be called
a
asking. It can also be called asking.
Right enough on the definitions
and those technical aspects now, Insha'Allah.
So I hope that gives you an appreciation
of
what Dua is at its core,
What Dua should mean to us, and what
our mindset should be when engaging in Dua.
It's not just saying some things in Arabic
and,
you know,
making it sound nice in a nice voice.
No. That's not what it is.
In fact,
that's sometimes why it's, you know, perhaps at
times you hear somebody making a dua with
a, with a certain tune, and it actually
to somebody who understands what's happening, it seems
a little bit out of place. I'm not
saying that you mustn't say your Dua with
nice tunes, no, when you speak to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala you speak in a beautiful
manner.
But it's not something to just make like
a sing song, you are actually speaking to
Allah with humility, you are imploring him for
something,
or for things
that you are in need of. So you
come almost with the mindset of a of
a beggar.
I just said the word,
the mindset of a beggar, and here we
had a question,
can we say begging instead of command? Or
is there more
of
a command meaning to Dua?
No. No. That's perfect.
We are begging of Allah is exactly what
it is in meaning,
right? But in terms of form, how we
express that in the Arabic language, it's in
the form of a,
of a request or, and the form of
the words is often
a command form.
But we don't have the idea of command
in the meaning of Dua.
In the meaning of Dua, we have the
meaning
or the understanding
rather of
begging,
imploring, asking, requesting.
Right? That's what Dua is to us.
Right?
So as I was making the point still
that,
when we engage in the act now of
Dua, it should actually be done in a
manner that is befitting
of
begging and imploring Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
It's not just mindless or heartless words. No,
it's something very personal with Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. You know,
if you study the subject of Aqidah,
as some of our Scholastic Theologians
conveyed it and codified it,
you may find that
in that
subject of belief or creed,
it may make Allah
seem very very distant
and impersonal.
However,
when we come to the chapter of Dua,
which is actually a part of a broader
subject of tazkiyah
and the defining ourselves,
then we see the personal nature of our
relationship with Allah
Yes, when we think of Allah as a
being that we cannot truly fathom,
and that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is perfect
in every way, and that Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala is not encompassed by time and space,
then it makes Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala a
little bit at times unrelatable to our minds.
But when we engage in Dua to Allah
and we learn about Dua, then it ensures
that Allah
is known to our hearts,
and it amplifies the personal
nature of our relationship with him
And I think this will be highlighted
when we look at some of the virtues
of Dua, not looking at a particular Dua,
but what is a benefit,
What is the reward
of simply
the concept of Dua and making Dua, whichever
Dua it is? Right. We'll look at that
in a moment, Insha'Allah.
At this point in time, are there any
questions before I move on?
No? Like I said, feel free to engage.
Ask whatever
is on your heart. I like the difficult
questions.
You know, I think that builds people,
or it gives people more conviction when they
have their difficult questions answered.
I think the I think the video is
recorded,
by the host, insha'Allah.
Right.
So moving on to the virtues of Dua.
Okay. We do have a question here. Can
it only be done in Arabic? I did
mention a few things about the form of
the Dua in Arabic being a form of
of of
of the command, and so one may
think that to mean that Dua can only
be done in Arabic,
certainly not,
certainly not.
Dua can be made in any language.
Dua can be made in any language. Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is the creator of all
of those languages.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala understands all of the
requests in all languages, and certainly, in fact,
at times when we understand what we're saying,
we we may learn a Arabic Dua, and
we don't know what it means.
Right.
And,
on account of
not
rizq, for example,
but we don't know what the words of
the dua mean.
It makes the dua less meaningful to ourselves.
Whereas if you had asked Allah the same
thing in English, for example, it might have
moved your heart.
It might have made you feel more like
a beggar before Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and thus in that case at certain times
it would even be better to make your
dua like that.
However
yes. So I hope that answers the question
of can the du'a be made in
in other languages.
The second question we had was is there
a format for making dua? Yes, there is
a format for making dua, but we'll get
to that a little bit later inshallah. Right?
Also,
why are duas always done in Arabic at
the end of salah
and hutbas in the Masjid?
That is a very good and important question
as well,
because in our Farud salah, in our Farud
salah,
generally the scholars say that dua should be
made in the Arabic language.
However,
it's a matter of dispute, and some scholars
say that especially in your sunnah salawat, you
can make Dua in other languages as well.
Because the the salah is by and large
everything is done in salah in Arabic. It's
a ritual form of worship.
Right? And so it has a very clearly
defined form.
So you can't go in your Fajr salah
and start saying the Qudu in English. No.
There, there's a element there's a ritual element
to it, a formalized ritual element.
Right. And for that reason,
we perform the Dua in Arabic, as well
as in the Khutba. However, in the Khutba,
Dua can be made in English as well.
Right. It's a matter of disputing the various
schools of fiqh.
However, there are opinions that, permit making the
dua. Certain parts of the Khutba in the
Arabic have to be done, or study certain
parts of the Khutba
have to be done in the Arabic language
and others, or they can be insertions of
other languages according to some scholars. Right.
So the question was, what's the reason for
that? What's the benefit to that? The benefit
to that is is that there is an
element of formalized ritual act of worship
in,
the Surah. Right? And so you
the I like, you have to always be
journeying journeying to, especially in your doing
everything in in the Arabic language. Right? Reciting
the because,
well, it's it's only really Quran in the
Arabic language,
etcetera in the Arabic language. Right. So there's
an element of formalized,
of a formalized ritual nature in the salah.
And for that reason, what's required of us
there is not to say, well, English is
my language.
But for that, those specific Adiayyah, it's important
for us to learn the meaning, so learn
the meanings so that we can have presence
of heart when making them.
Alright.
And really the compulsory
Adiayyah in salah are minimal. It's only
really saying Allahu Akbar,
the Fatiha,
and
the Tashahood,
and the salaam, that's all that's required of
compulsory
of of sayings in the sala.
So
it's actually very minimal.
Yeah. So let's move on to some of
the virtues of,
of Dua.
From the virtues of Dua,
is that
it is a command of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
it's simply expressing our nature as being His
worshipers.
How so?
In the Quran Allah commands us to make
Dua,
Allah
commands us to make Dua, and that's a
very profound thing,
because
It's what we're saying is Allah is commanding
you to ask Him for things.
Allah's forcing you,
okay, I shouldn't perhaps use the word forcing,
but He is compelling you. He is commanding
you to ask
of Him for things.
Right, and I'm sure you can get many
lessons from that already. For example, Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala very emphatically says in the Quran
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in the command
form:
And your Lord has said,
call upon me,
or call upon me,
and I will respond to you. Call upon
me and I will respond to you. In
another verse Allah
says: call upon him, make dua'a to him.
With sincerity, making sincere or making your deen
your way of life solely for him. So
these
are just 2 verses when Allah commands us
to make dua to him.
Another, so
the first benefit to making dua is that
you are simply responding to the command of
Allah.
Right. And that's very important because, as I
said earlier, we were created to
to be Allah's slaves, to express our nature,
to do Ibadah. Maybe I should just touch
on this word, Ibadah as well,
and just you know get our understanding of
Ibadah.
What is Ibadah?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, you know you
can maybe if you have some opinion or
whatever you can type it in the chat.
Allah says in the Quran,
a verse that I quoted earlier,
I have not created mankind
nor jinnkind except that they worship
him. Right. Just listen to it again,
if I say
Ma plus Illa,
then in the Arabic language word that implies
is Hasr, it restricts
a meaning of a sentence. So just listen,
if you hear the man in the verse,
Right?
I hope you heard it there.
That can either be
translated as not except. I did not do
something except
for some other reason, or,
you can translate it as well as only.
Only. So here we have one, a form
of worshiping Allah.
Is
worshiping Allah, but I want to see that
word form over there
is important
because oftentimes when we think of Ibadah, we
only think of the ritual acts of worship.
Praying
salah,
fasting the month of Ramadan, giving charity
or, going on Hajj, going on Umrah.
When we think of those things, we think
of Ibadah,
right? Reciting the Quran, we think of Ibadah,
making dhikr, saying things with our mouth, we
think of Ibadah. However, in this verse Allah
says,
I have not created mankind nor Jinkain except
that they worship Me, or I have only
created mankind and Jinkain
so that they worship Me. I've only created
them so that they worship Me.
But then if you just consider the nature
of the world that Allah created,
can you get by in life just like
that? Just doing ritual acts of worship.
Can you like
literally make Salah your whole life?
If you make salah your whole life,
you know, barring Allah
sustain you by some miracle,
you will normally just die because you have
to eat.
And the norm is to eat, you have
to acquire your sustenance. You have to go
work or you have to go hunt or
something.
You have to farm or something like that.
And there's other things that you have to
do as well.
Your body will become shabby,
and in fact, unbearable
if you don't, take care of your hygiene.
You have to relieve yourself. You cannot live
without relieving yourself. Your body will die of
toxins.
So, Allah says he only created us to
worship him, but then we see these other
things that are part of our life, that
are necessary parts of our life, that Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala actually created assistance in our
life as well.
So is it then fair to say that
Allah only created us to worship with the
idea of having ritual acts of worship in
our mind?
In fact, we'll be left with a conundrum,
with a contradiction if we understand it like
that.
So what does Ibadah mean? What is this
worship that Allah created us for? That Allah
only created us for?
A better understanding of worship here would be
that Allah created us to
express our nature as being his slaves,
right? And that's where you see the relationship
between the word Ibadah,
worship, and Abd. And you hear the similarity
Ibadah and Abd.
They have the same root word or the
same root letters rather.
Right, there's a
very
close relationship between those words.
Ibadah
is expressing the fact that you are an
Abda.
Ibadah
is expressing the reality that you are the
slave of Allah
Now, when you think of it,
what does a slave, what does the master
of a slave require of him?
What makes one a good slave?
It would be doing whatever your master requires
of you.
So, via
the order of his creation, he requires us
to attain sustenance, He requires us via, you
know, the order that He created to relieve
ourselves.
And so, when I do that,
you know, according to, or the understanding that
this is the order that Allah created, or
the system that Allah created in the world,
And I do it within the parameters that
He legislated
for me. For example, when I go out
to earn my Sustenance,
I avoid Riba.
Right?
That act of transacting or buying and selling
things or engaging in some kind of contract.
That is Ibadah. That is Ibadah.
And, and you know, this idea comes from
hadith as well.
Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa sallam in a hadith
recorded by the Ma'am of Tabrani,
which is a
actually 3 compilations of hadith.
Perhaps their names aren't very familiar to people,
but
you can find authentic hadith even in there.
Rasulullah
or the companions of Rasulullah
they see a young man go out to
work.
Right. They see a young man go out
to work.
Then they exclaim,
you know, how excellent
this youth would be in his strength
and in his vigor,
if only he used it in the path
of Allah.
They exclaimed, they saw him going out to
work, right? And then they exclaimed, you know,
how excellent it would be if he used
his strength and his vigor in the path
of Allah.
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam came to hear of
this.
And then he
advised and admonished him
by saying
that if he is going out and I
might get the order wrong here,
right,
But the meaning is intact. If he's going
out
to earn a living,
so that because he has parents who are
in their old age,
and so he is going to fulfill their
needs, then he's already in the path of
Allah.
If he is going
out to work
to earn a living
so that he can and so that he
can look after his family's dependence.
And he can cause them, he can help
them to refrain from having to beg others,
then he's already in the path of Allah.
If he's going out to work
for his own self,
to earn sustenance for his own self,
so that he doesn't have to ask others,
then he's already in the path of Allah.
He's already doing worship.
However,
if he's going out to work
so that he can become, you know, he
can acquire things and become boastful about it.
And to show off,
then he is in the path of Shaytan.
Then he is in the path of Shaytan.
So if we understand this hadith correctly,
then it tells us
that even those mundane acts that we do
in our lives, if we are doing it
to please Allah, I brush my teeth
because Allah
loves beauty.
Then it is a form of worship. I
go relieve myself to look after the body
that Allah entrusted me with. That is an
act of worship. I eat to sustain the
body that Allah entrusted me with.
That is an act of worship.
Right? So when we have that understanding of
worship, we can realize, we can understand
Allah
only created us for worship. There's nothing that
we have to
do in our lives that cannot be an
act of worship.
There is nothing that we have I'm gonna
say it again, there is nothing that we
have to do in our lives,
whether it be by the design of Allah's
system
or by the commands that Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala has imposed upon us,
that cannot be done as an act of
worship.
Right? And it's simply our intention and the
state of our heart and our mindfulness when
doing those actions that make it an act
of worship.
Right?
So when we understand
that, when we have that understanding of worship,
then,
you know, we come to appreciate
the verse of the Quran, wherein Allah
says
Say to my say, O Muhammad
to the believers,
Or rather, and your Lord has said, your
Master has said,
Call upon me, ask of me,
I will respond to you.
And Allah also says.
And call upon him. Allah commands you call
upon him making sincere for him your deen.
Now the next part of the first verse
that I quoted is even more
telling, wherein Allah
says,
And your Lord said,
call upon me and I will respond to
you.
But what does Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala say
in the next part of the verse?
Allah says,
Allah says,
call upon me and I will respond to
you immediately Allah follows that up with by
saying, indeed those who are too arrogant,
those who are too arrogant to worship me
or they deem themselves above my worship.
Soon they will enter the hellfire
in a despicable state.
In a humiliated state.
Now, what does
what Allah
equates a number of things here. He equates
not making Dua,
to being arrogant,
to being too arrogant to worship Him.
Right?
And He threatens the one
that has that arrogance, that's too arrogant to
ask him.
Yahya Allah
threatens him with the outcome of the Hellfire
and humiliation.
And you can see in this verse. It's
beautiful in its composition.
How is it beautiful in its composition? Allah
calls you to ask of him and then
he promises to respond to you.
Now Allah is Al Kareem. He's the most
generous. Would Allah ask you
or command you to ask of him for
things?
And then not give it to you.
Just imagine that.
If if some person comes to the window
of, you know, your car or my car,
and they ask us for something to eat.
Don't you feel something in our outlook? Even
if you don't have something to give them,
you feel that, no, I would love to.
I would have loved to have helped you.
Even if even if you are bought out
of giving handouts.
Isn't there a feeling in your heart that
wishes that you could have helped this person
in a more sustainable way?
So imagine if you feel bad about not
giving and that's a sign or a virtue.
A sign of generosity in your heart and
Allah is Al Kareem, the most generous.
Is it even possible that you can ask
Allah
with humility
and then Allah SubhanAllah doesn't give you?
No, no, that's not Allah.
Allah is not like that.
If you ask, he gives.
If you ask with sincerity, Allah gives.
Maybe not in the form that you asked,
but in the form that he knows you
need.
In the form that he knows you need.
So you must always think good of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, but here in this verse
Allah says, ask of me. I'll give you
if those who are too arrogant to worship
me.
Those who are too arrogant to worship me,
and how does worship connect with Dua? I'll
tell you another hadith of Rasulullah
in a moment,
those who are too arrogant to do my
Ibadah,
they will enter the Alfa in disgrace.
In Hadith, Rasoolullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam tells us,
Dua
is Ibadah, in another Hadith he says,
Dua is the essence of worship,
at the core of every form of worship,
there is a plea to Allah.
There is an expression of submission to Allah
Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala And what did we say according
to Ibn Hajar? What was the definition of
Dua?
Expressing,
manifesting
the greatest degree of submission to Allah,
need for Him and the resignation to Him.
So if you understand it like that at
the core, at the very core of every
act of worship,
you find that there is the submission to
Allah, resignation to Him, and expression of our
need to Him. Because if you didn't need
Him, then why would you always submit yourself
to doing these,
these things that He commands you to do?
So that's why Allah says call upon me,
I'll give you, those who don't call upon
you or those who don't do my Ibadah,
and now we know that dua is Ibadah,
What were arrogant to call upon me? They
will enter the hellfire.
So Allah says call upon me, I'll give
you, and Allah says if you don't call
me,
then you have a bad outcome.
We have a bad outcome.
So,
you know, when I was talking about this
to another group, I was telling them, nowadays,
you get on YouTube and Facebook and all
of these things. You get those shows
where, you know, sometimes the person is taken
to a shopping center and they given a
trolley
and a time limit or something and they
run around the shop and they fill that
basket and they know that whatever they fill
the basket with or the trolley with they
they'll be able to keep it will be
given to them.
So yeah, Allah
and and you know how often don't we
think to ourselves, you know, how I wish
I was that person.
How I wish I was the one who
could fill my basket with
whatever I wanted,
and I would have it.
But, Allah promised that to you. You are
that person.
You are that child in that candy store,
in that toy store.
Whom Allah said,
Allah didn't even say take it off the
shelf.
Fit it into a limited basket or trolley,
nor did Allah tell you that you have
a time limit.
Allah told you ask of
me. And I will respond to you.
So may Allah SWT make us those who
realize that virtue of Dua.
And that
it is the essence of worship,
and that Allah wants to give us,
and then let us call upon him.
Another virtue to Dua
is that,
it's a sign that you are free of
arrogance.
Again stemming from that same verse.
The fact that you make dua to Allah,
especially dua that you make to Allah in
private,
that is a sign that you do not
have arrogance.
Right? Because you weren't too arrogant, you didn't
have that
you didn't have that kibr.
You could humble yourself enough to express your
need before Allah
So it's a sign that you do not
have kibre, and
you know how fortunate we would be if
we had certitude that we have no arrogance,
because the one who has arrogance in his
heart does not enter the Jannah,
as Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam taught us.
Again, I mentioned before that dua is Ibadah.
So it's basically fulfilling the purpose of our
existence.
When we make dua into Allah, we are
fulfilling the purpose, what our action is in
Harmony with the very purpose of our existence.
And if you want something to function
without
schism and without having internal conflict,
then what the person does should be in
conformity
with their purposes. And so the purpose of
our existence is Ibadah,
Dua is Ibadah.
Therefore when we make Dua, we are simply
fulfilling the purpose of our existence.
Alright. Those are some of the virtues of
Dua.
Perhaps I'll mention 1 or 2 others.
Of the most salient of them is that
dua is a sign that you have tawakul,
that you are willing to place your trust
in Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
And also
that
the fact that you call upon Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala,
and you undertake the act
of making that Dua,
it shows that you have taken the first
step in using the means created by Allah.
You know, just recently we had an earthquake,
a traumatic earthquake,
and,
you know, it trended many people in a
great degree of apparent need, and as believers,
it also shook our hearts and affected us.
So we think to ourselves, what must we
do?
What must we do?
And the obvious things come to mind. We
must take means to help those people.
And we think of the fact that we
must
send money to them.
We must send food to them. We must
send, you know, things that they can use.
We must help them rebuild their homes.
But we are not material beings,
and we don't only use material means.
We are not just this flesh
and hormones inside me and chemicals. No, no,
we're not just that. We are spiritual beings.
So the first means that we should take
is to ask Allah to help them.
And that's not in conflict, sometimes we have
the mindset, they just these people they just
say, Imma just make Dua all the time.
No, don't make Dua, rather give send them
money, it's gonna help them. No, no, no,
no,
no, no.
Allah is the one who created all of
those material means.
The first thing you do is you undertake
or you use, employ the spiritual means and
that's asking Allah. Thereafter you employ the material
means.
Of sending money and all of those things.
Because at our very Essence, we are spiritual
beings
undergoing a material experience,
a physical experience
rather than being physical beings that
sometimes
experience,
spiritual States. No.
We are spiritual beings at our core
undergoing a physical experience. When we die,
our spiritual self will continue to exist.
Right? So we should realize that, and those
are some of the virtues of the Dua.
There are many other virtues
of Dua,
the, you know, the most obvious material benefit
of it is that
you're gonna get stuff from Allah.
Your needs will be seen to by Allah,
because he promised to answer them.
So, we look at those spiritual Fawaid or
benefits before looking at the material benefits of
Dua.
Right?
I think I'll stop there with with those
virtues of Dua now, and I'll take any
questions if you have. I see that there
are some questions,
so I'll take that now.
Firstly, from brother Nabeel, I've been taught a
du'am in Arabic by my father. I know
it like the back of my hand, but
don't know the meaning of it the meaning
of half of it. Would it be advisable
to switch to something in English instead? The
reason for asking is that my father has
passed on, and it is my understanding that
he's rewarded for teaching it to me whenever
I recite the dua. Certainly, it would be
good of you to continue making the dua
that your father taught you, and he will
to him will accrue all of the benefits
of your making the dua. But what I
would advise is
that,
you seek somebody to help you, and I
can even help you with that.
To translate the dua into English,
so that you can perhaps read it in
Arabic and in English,
or learn the English or learn the understanding
of it, and then make it in Arabic
with presence of art and with meaning.
Right. Rather than leaving the Dua, putting it
aside in favor of simply making Dua in
English.
Right? I hope that helps. Are there any
other questions?
There was a question about form the form
of making Dua.
So I'll just give a
okay. I'll touch on that in a moment,
but we have just another question here. Can
you touch on saying Amin at the end
of Dua?
Well,
what does Amin mean, firstly?
Amin is
a expression in Arabic
that means or translates to roughly may it
be so.
And we are taught in a hadith of
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that
you know there was once a companion making
a fervent Dua
and Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said if he
caps his Dua off
then he will certainly be granted what he
has asked for.
And what is how is he to cap
his dua? How is he to put the
finishing touch in his dua? And that is
to say Amin.
Right?
May it be so. Therefore,
It, it indicates to the certain the certitude
with which we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
for our,
for our needs.
And it is what Rasulullah Sallallahu Wa Salam
taught us to be the finishing touch on
our Dua.
When you present something to somebody, just imagine
you're doing a business proposal,
right, or
a funding proposal.
If you want
to be effective in that, you make the
proposal appealing.
Both in terms of its content.
But imagine I just scribbled my proposal on
a piece of paper in black and white.
It's not visually appealing.
And imagine if the language is bad, the
content of it may be good, but to
the one who listens to it, it won't
be appealing either.
So when we present something to Allah and
remember again, this dua is expressing or manifesting
to Allah our need and our humility and
our resignation to Him. So when we manifest
that, when we express that to Him Subhanahu
wa Ta'ala, we express it in a beautiful
manner.
Right. And therefore we put that finishing touch
on our dua of saying Amr.
So just in terms of, you know, a
form of of making dua,
dua is a a a form of Ibadah
that has
not it doesn't have many rules. Right? Like
salah, you have to have specific positions.
You have to say specific things in those
specific positions.
It starts in a certain way. It ends
in a certain way. It's a very formal
active version.
Du'a doesn't have all of those formalities as
necessity.
However,
However, it will have,
there are recommended aspects to the form of
our dua.
And those recommended aspects are
Saying or praising Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala at
the beginning.
Sending salutation upon Nabi Muhammad
thereafter,
and then asking of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala
your needs
in a beautiful manner.
Thereafter,
ending of the dua again with salawat,
hamd upon
salawat,
saying salutations upon Rasulullah salawahu alayhi wa sallam,
his family and his companions.
Praising Allah
again and saying Ameen at the end.
Right?
So that's something about the form of Dua.
And then another question, what will the the
remainder of this course cover? The remainder of
this course will cover,
I'm gonna take frequently
or maybe perhaps not frequently
made adayah, but adayah or duas that should
be made frequently. For example,
how do you structure the dua in your
day when you wake up,
when you go sleep,
when you do certain things, what other Duas
to be made?
Right. We'll spend our time on learning that,
learning the meanings thereof,
and also some of the benefits and virtues
to making those Duas.
Right. I might throw in here and there
a Sunnah practice
coupled with the dua.
For example,
it's Sunnah in the morning,
after making your dua to look out of
your window.
Oh, sorry. Not out of the windows. Actually,
to open up,
your door or something, or the window, whatever
it may be, and look into the sky,
and recite certain dua certain verses of the
Quran, and ponder on them. So certain
Sunnah practices that are coupled with those duas,
I will mention,
we'll discuss their benefit insha'Allah.
Right? I hope that answers that question. So
we'll take those frequently
made duas or duas that should be made
frequently,
and perhaps also the Kumut.
And then look at
the meanings of those Duas and the virtues
of those Duas and the benefits thereof.
Right?
This was an introductory lecture where we most
spoke about the concept of Dua and its
benefits.
Are we allowed to make Dua in our
Sajda during Farsalah? Always hear of Dua in
Sajda and its importance, but wasn't sure if
it should only be done in Sunnah Salas.
You can certainly make Dua
in the Sajdah of your Farsalah
as well.
However, you shouldn't
extend
the one position
longer
than the average of your long positions in
Salah. So you shouldn't, for example, have one
super long sajdah at the end of
your salah.
What you can rather do is one of
the recommended times to make dua and people
don't know this,
oftentimes
is just before you say assalamu alaikum
just before you make your salaam, that's also
a recommended time to make dua.
And in that position, you can extend
the position and make lots of dua.
Right? So
and in your Sunnah Surah, there you can
go to town with making Dua.
I hope that answers that question. Will I
give you the Dua?
Certainly, I will do that inshallah. I hope
to put them on some slides, and and
that can be sent to you as well
inshallah.
Alright. That brings us to the end of
the session.
I hope it was beneficial, and
it
gave a
good
conception of what dua is and what our
state should be when making dua.
And inshallah, as I mentioned before, we will,
by the grace of
Allah learn some adayyah that we can implement
and practice in our lives and teach to
our children to make Allah really the center
of our lives.
To make Allah truly at the center of
our lives. You can only make salah
for a certain amount in the day, but
dua and adkar you can do all the
time, all the time.
We will talk about that,
a bit later or in another session Insha'Allah.
For the as for the other questions, we'll
take them in future sessions
For now, we end
with
I'm not sure if the course is ending.
Is it ended?
Sheikh Masood?
Okay. I don't see him yet, so I'm
just gonna place in myself.