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بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله رب العالمين فالصلاة والسلام على شرف الأنبياء والمرسلين محمد ورسول الله ﷺ صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم تسليماً كثيراً كثيراً فما بعد.
My brothers and sisters, الحمد لله
Allah ﷻ سبحانه وتعالى gave us the ability to make dua and Allah ﷻ permitted us to make dua. So we thank Allah ﷻ for permitting us to make dua to call upon Him directly and to seek His help because only He can help. لا حول ولا قوة إلا بالله. There is no one who has any ability, any strength, any power except Allah ﷻ. And Allah ﷻ gave us the ability to make dua and Allah ﷻ gave us the permission and the ability to seek that help.
Now how do we make dua accepted? One of the most powerful ways of making dua accepted is to make dua for others. As Rasulullah ﷺ said to us in his hadith that when a brother makes when a person makes dua for his brother then Allah ﷻ appoints him to make dua for his brother then Allah ﷻ appoints him to make dua for his brother to make the same dua for this person. And Allah ﷻ said the dua of the angel is even more accepted than your dua. So make this a habit of making dua for others for your brothers and sisters. And I request all of you for your dua for me and my family. So make dua for each other. This is the ultimate secret of success to make dua for each other.
The beauty of this is that when you are making dua for your brother then any negative emotions that you have concerning that person if your dua is sincere then the negative emotions also go away; your heart gets cleaned. Obviously you will make dua for people you like, you will make dua for people who are good to you, you will make dua for people who have helped you, and so on. This is natural. But I am saying make dua even for those people who are not good to you, especially for those who have not been good to you. Make dua for people who have been unkind or unjust, people who oppressed you, people you don’t like, and for good reasons. Make dua for them sincerely. And say: “Allah, take out this negativity from them.” “Allah, help them from sources they cannot imagine.” The levels of negativity—make dua for those who are good for them, turn them into people that you will be pleased with. Allah, these people are oppressing others. This is my brother, my friend, somebody I know, I don’t know, but I know about this person is oppressing others. They are doing things which are wrong. So Allah save them from that because the biggest calamity is the anger of Allah.
So if you find that your brother is going on a path where he or she is likely to anger Allah, make sincere dua for them. Today we criticize them, we make videos about them. You know, we write long posts on WhatsApp and on various social media about the P, about so-and-so, see what so-and-so is doing well. This is this is wrong; about this is wrong in what they are doing. And you and we criticize them. My submission to you is even if your criticism is valid and justified, how about making dua for them? Because the person will not be changed by your criticism. Please understand this right; the person will not be changed by your criticism just because you make a video or something. What is more than likely to happen is that this person now has bad feelings about you because you have publicly humiliated that person. You have made this video or what advice was made, and you have publicly insulted this person, so they are not going to feel very good about you. For them to take your advice after you have done that, after you publicly criticized them, is highly unlikely.
On the other hand, if you did not criticize them, if you did not publish pamphlets about them, if you did not make videos, if you did not write posts and this and that, instead of that, if you had sincerely made dua for that person, especially dua and tahajjud and sujood, then the chances are that they would have been corrected by Allah ﷻ. Allah ﷻ would have changed their hearts. Because in the end, the only way that person will change is if Allah changes his heart. And that heart will only change if you know, and the heart will change if Allah wants it to change. And one of the ways in which that will happen, insha’Allah, is by your dua. So think about this. I’m talking about making dua for those who, according to you, are misguided. Those who, according to you, are on the wrong path. And you are genuinely interested in them coming to the right path. Right? Now, in such a case, as I said, instead of doing what we normally do—may Allah have mercy on us—we have made this into one habit nowadays: using social media and so on to publicly criticize people. Very, very nasty thing. Very bad thing. And must never be done. Very, very bad.
So, instead of that, my submission is, make dua for the people. Because, again, I repeat, Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, when you make dua for your brother, Allah appoints an angel, a malak, to make dua for you. And the dua of the malak, the dua of the angel is more makbul and more accepted with Allah than your own dua. So, let us become people of dua. See the duas in the Quran; if you see how Allah taught us to make dua. All of those duas are in the plural. So, when we are making dua, we are making dua for others. “Rabbana aatina fid dunya hasanatun wa fil akhirati hasanatun wa qina azabatan.” O our Rabb, give us goodness in this world and goodness in the hereafter and save us from the hellfire. “Rabbana la tuzik qulubana ba’da iz hadaytana wa hablana milla dhunkar rahmayna kaan tal wahab.” O Allah, do not allow our hearts to be deviated after they have been guided. And you are the all-forgiving. Now, the point is: all of these duas, if you see, “Rabbana la tuwaqizna in nasina awaqtana” (the last ayat of suratul baqara), all of them plural. So, remember that this is a sign that Alhamdulillah, Allah Ta’ala loves people who make dua for others.
Allah ﷻ Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la told us the story of Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam and see the duas of Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam. This is when he’s talking; he’s telling us about this in the Quran, in suratul baqara, where Allah ﷻ said وَإِذِبْتَ لَا إِبْرَاهِيمَ رَبُّهُ بِكَلِمَاتٍ فَأَتَمَّهُنْ قَالَ إِنِّي جَعِلُكَ لِلنَّاسِ إِمَامًا قَالَ وَمِنْ ذُرِّيَةِ قَالَ لَا يَنَالُوا أَحْدِي الظَّالِمِينَ. Remember when Ibrahim was tested by his Rabb with certain commandments which he fulfilled and Allah said I will certainly make you into an imam for the people, a role model for the people. Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam said, what about my offspring? Think about that, here he is being given this, Allah said I will make you the imam of the people. For all of humanity you will be the imam. And his immediate question is, what about my offspring? Talking about others, the beautiful emotion feeling, thought of including others in the goodness that comes your way. And Allah said, my covenant is not extended to the wrongdoers, meaning I will give it to a people who do well but not to everybody.
وَإِذْ جَعَلْنَا الْبَيْتَ مَثَابَةً لِلنَّاسِ وَأَمْنَا وَاتَّخِذُوا مِنْ مَقَامِ إِبْرَحِيمَ مُصَلَّى وَأَعْهِدْنَا إِلَىٰ إِبْرَحِيمَ وَإِسْمَعِيلَ أَنْ تَحِرَ بَيْتِيَا لِلطَّائِفِينَ وَلَعَاكِفِينَ وَرُكَّي السُّدُودِ. And Allah said, and remember when we made the sacred house, which is Bayt al-Haram at Qadakawatullah, Masjid al-Haram, a center, and a sanctuary for the people saying, you may take the standing place of Ibrahim as a place of prayer, Ibrahim as a place of salah, and we entrusted Ibrahim and Ismail to purify my house for those who make tawaf and who make itikaf and who make luku and who make sujood in prayer.
وَإِذْ قَالَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ رَبِّ جْعَلْ هَذَا بَلَدًا آمِنًا وَارُزُقْ أَهْلَهُ مِنَ الثَّمَرَاتِ مَنْ آمَنَ مِنْهُمْ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ قَالَ وَمَنْ كَفَرَ فَأُمَتِّعْهُ قَلِيلًا ثُمَّ أَطَّرُهُ إِلَىٰ عَذَابِ النَّارِ وَبِئْسَ الْمَصِيرِ. And remember when Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam said My Rabb, make this city of Mecca secure and provide Samarat fruits to its people, those among them who believe in Allah in the last day, and he answered Jalla Jalaluhu: “As for those who disbelieve I will let them enjoy themselves for a little while then I will condemn them to the torment of the fire and what an evil destination.” And then Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam says what is Allah? Then Allah tells us about what he said.
وَإِذْ يَرْفَعُ إِبْرَاهِيمُ الْقَوَعِذَ مِنَ الْبَيْتِ وَإِسْمَعِيلُ رَبَّنَا تَقَبَّلْ مِنَّا إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ السَّمِي وَالْعَلِيمُ. Again in the plural both of them; he’s not saying one like give me. And of course if Ismail is my son he’s my helper no, he said give both of us. And remember when Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam raised the foundation of the house with Ismail Alayhi Salaam, both of them praying Our Rabb accept this from us, you are indeed the all hearing, all knowing.
رَبَّنَا وَجَعَلْنَا مُسْلِمَيْنِ لَكَ وَمِنْ ذُرِّيَتِنَا أُمَّةً مُسْلِمَةً لَكَ وَأَدِنَا مَنَاسِكَنَا وَتُبَىٰ عَلَيْنَا إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الطَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ. Our Rabb make us both fully submit to you. Look at this thing: “Rabbana waj’alna muslimayni laka.” O Allah make us among those who have fully submitted, make us fully submit to you and from our descendants give us a nation that will submit to you. May Allah make us among them insha’Allah, show us our rituals and turn to us in grace, you are truly the acceptor of repentance. And then he says this beautiful dua which is the prophecy for the coming of Rasulullah: رَبَّنَا وَبْعَثْ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِّنْهُمْ يَتْرُوَ عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِكَ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابِ وَالْحِكْمَةِ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ. O our Rabb, from among them raise from them a messenger who will recite to them your revelations, your ayat, and teach them the book and wisdom and purify them; indeed you alone are Almighty always.
Allah ﷻ subhanahu wa ta’ala accepted these duas of Ibrahim alayhi salam and he sent Rasulullah ﷺ. The only one that Allah ﷻ did in his wisdom and grace is that he changed the order Ibrahim alayhi salam put purification as the last of the things that he asked for. Allah ﷻ made purification a condition of knowledge: “Yatru ‘alayhim ayati-hi wa yuzakki-him” (purify them first) and then teach them the book. And Ibrahim alayhi salam said teach them the book and he said purify anyway. The point being that Allah ﷻ subhanahu wa ta’ala accepted the dua of Ibrahim alayhi salam fully and completely. And the duas of Ibrahim alayhi salam were all for other people: for the people of Mecca, for Rasulullah ﷺ, for his ummah, for the muslimin. And this is a sign of the acceptance of duas that Allah ﷻ accepts the duas of those who make these duas sincerely for others. So that is the secret of the acceptance of dua. We ask Allah ﷻ subhanahu wa ta’ala to make our duas accepted, to be with us, to help us, to protect us from ourselves, from protect us from our own nufus, and to protect us from shaitan. Wa sallallahu ala nabil kareem wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma’in bi rahmatullahi wa barakatuh wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.