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بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله رب العالمين، وسلامه على شرف الأنبياء والمرسلين. محمد رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم تسليماً كثيراً.
My brothers and sisters, yesterday our brother Zafar Ansari asked a question: “Why should we make dua if Allahﷻ has decreed whatever He has decreed?” He cited the hadith that the pens have been lifted and the ink is dry; pages are dry. Then he asked, “So why should we ask? Why should we make dua?”
The answer I gave was this: Maybe what Allah has written for you and me is that He will give him what he asks. So there is scope for dua. Therefore, I thought today let me remind myself and you about the whole point of dua. As we know from the hadith, Rasulullah SAW said, *Ahsanul Hadith Kitabullah*—the best of speech is the Book of Allah. So the best place to look for evidence regarding making dua is in the Kitab of Allah.
Allahﷻ commanded us to make dua. Allah said, *”Wa Qala Rabbukum Ud’ooni Astajib Lakum”*—Your Lord has proclaimed, “Call upon Me, I will respond to you.” Surely those who are too proud to worship Me, to call on Me, will enter Jahannam completely humiliated. We ask Allahﷻ to save us from humiliation and to save us from Jahannam. We ask Allahﷻ to grant us Jannatul Firdaus without Hisaab. To make dua is the Hukum of Allah; it is the command of Allah.
Rasulullah SAW said, *Ad-Dua Ummu’l-Ibadah*. He said, *Dua Mukhul-l-Ibadah*. Dua is the head, the brain of worship. In another place, Rasulullah SAW said, *Ad-Dua Huwal-Ibadah*. Dua is ibadah. Dua is worship. Or as he said, عليه الصلاة والسلام. So we have the evidence of the Quran and we have the evidence of the Sunnah of Rasulullah SAW. From his hadith, we know that we have been commanded to make dua, and that dua is ibadah, dua is worship. And that is the reason why it is haram to make dua to anyone other than Allahﷻ—living or dead, animate or inanimate, human or other than human. We are not permitted to make dua to anyone other than Allahﷻ because dua is ibadah. To make dua to anyone other than Allahﷻ is to commit shirk open shirk, which takes us out of Islam. If somebody makes dua to anyone, there is no condition on this; whoever it might be, if somebody makes dua to anyone other than Allahﷻ, this person has committed a sin. It’s a mistake, but it’s still a sin, and we must make istighfar and tawbah. But if he does it knowingly, then this person has committed open shirk, and he has left Islam.
So please let us understand: Dua is ibadah itself. Why should you do dua? Because of this, therefore if dua is ibadah, as we know, if you do ibadah of Allahﷻ, then you get reward for this. So why should we do dua? Because there is reward in making dua. Just making the dua itself—we are not even talking about if I ask Allahﷻ for something. For example, a very simple thing: we ask Allahﷻ to give us Jannah. Jannah we will get after we die; you are not going to get it now. But the fact that we ask Allah for Jannah, this asking itself is going to give us Hasanat. It’s going to give us reward. Right? We ask Allahﷻ for whatever you want to ask for—things of this Dunya. You ask Allah to be prosperous, to be wealthy, to be healthy. We ask Allahﷻ for our families. Whatever it is, the first benefit of that is that Allahﷻ will reward us for asking. Allah will reward us for asking. This is the benefit of dua because dua is ibadah; therefore, Allahﷻ will reward us for asking.
Then, regarding the giving of it: The Sahaba asked the Prophetﷺ to give them Jannah. It’s our experience that we ask Allahﷻ for something, and Allahﷻ gives it. In some cases, Allah does not give it. So please can you explain? Nabi SAW said, first and foremost, Allahﷻ Himself has said, “You ask Me, I will give you.” So therefore, ask Him, and Allah will give. So the first thing to understand about dua is that it is ibadah; it is something which is worshipped. Therefore, it is commendable, praiseworthy, and it gets us rewards (Hasanat).
Second thing: All duas are accepted. Allahﷻ accepts all duas. The acceptance itself, Allahﷻ explained through Rasulullah SAW. Allah does in three ways. Firstly, Allahﷻ will give you what you ask for. “Ya Allah, give me a job,” Allah gives you a job. “Ya Allah, give me a house,” He gives you a house. “Ya Allah, give me children,” He gives you children. Give me a spouse—He gives you a spouse. Whatever it is, right? Whatever you ask for, you ask Allah, Allahﷻ gives you. So this is very clear: I ask, I get.
The second way in which Allah accepts duas is as Mavisullah SAW explained: You ask Allah for something, Allah does not give you that thing, but at that time there was some calamity, some illness, some accident, or something bad was supposed to happen to you. Allahﷻ removes that. Now, this we don’t know, but because this is in the Qa’ib, we don’t know this. And that’s why Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim Al-Jawziya, or somebody else among the Salafi Salihin, he said if you knew how much Allahﷻ is doing to ensure that your life is without pain, without suffering, without difficulties, you will fall in Sujood. So Allahﷻ removes a difficulty in exchange for the dua that you made.
And Nabi SAW said there is a third kind of dua: That you ask Allah for something, Allahﷻ did not give it to you in His Hikmah; He did not give it to you, and at that time there was no calamity, there was nothing bad in your Waqadar. So at those duas, Nabi SAW said Allahﷻ keeps them with Him for you. Allah keeps that dua with Himself for you, and when you meet Allahﷻ on the Day of Judgment, Allahﷻ says, “Oh my slave, you asked Me for such and such, and I gave you; you asked Me for this other thing, and I removed a calamity from your life.” And Allahﷻ will show us what that calamity was so that information will be given to us. Then Allahﷻ will say, “And then you made this dua, and I did not give it to you, and there was no calamity at that time to be removed.” That dua is with Me, not with you now. Ask Me whatever you want, I will give. This conversation is happening before the Arsh of Allahﷻ on the Day of Judgment. Allah will say, “I have this dua for you which you asked Me; now you make dua—not that dua, whichever dua you ask Me, whatever you want, I will give you.”
Rasul SAW having said this, he said if you realized the value of that dua on that day—the Day of Judgment—where Allahﷻ is giving you an open invitation: “Ask Me, I will give you,” He said, “If you knew the value of that, you will wish that your whole life you keep making dua to Allahﷻ day and night, and Allah does not accept any of those duas in this world. You will wish that you make dua day and night, but Allah does not give you any of those things in this life in this world, and all those things are kept for you for the Day of Judgment because the value of that on the Day of Judgment there is no comparison for that in this life.”
Then we have: Dua is one of the biggest Sunnahs of the Anbiya. The very first dua, the very first dua which was made was what? *Rabbana Zalamna Anfusana, Rabbana Zalamna Anfusana Wa Illa Taqfir Lana Wa Tarhamna Lana Kunanna Minal Khasireen*. The dua that our mother and father, not Adam AS, both of them: *Rabbana Zalamna*. This is very important; it’s not single plural. “Oh Allah, we have transgressed against ourselves.” And if you don’t have mercy on us then we will be among the Khasireen; we will be among the people who are the losers. So our mother and father, Adam AS and Hawa AS, will be among the people Allahﷻ caused them to make. Allah taught them this dua. They made this dua, and this dua was accepted. Allahﷻ forgave them their sin, and Allahﷻ wrote Jannah for them. So this is the first dua that was made.
And then of course we have the dua of Musa AS, we have the dua of Ibrahim AS, we have many duas—Nuh AS and so on—and Rasulullah SAW also made. We literally used to make duas day and night his whole life. When he got up, he made dua; when he sat down to eat food, he made dua; when he finished eating, he made dua; when he went to the toilet, he made dua; when he came out from the toilet, he made dua. Continuously, his whole life was duas. It is very, very good, and it is highly recommended that we learn all of these duas so that we can also make them. This is the power of dua. The important thing to understand with this is that in the case of the dua also, there are many duas in the Quran itself which Allahﷻ has taught us to make. For example, one of the duas which we all know, which Allahﷻ said: *Rabbana Atina Fid-Dunya Hasanatan Wa Fil-Akhirati Hasanatan Wa Qina ‘Adhaban-Nar*. “Give us Hasanat. Give us goodness and blessings in this life, and give us goodness and blessings in the life of the Hereafter, and save us from the Hellfire.”
When the Sahaba asked for the question regarding the last Ayat of Surah Al-Baqarah, and that is the whole beautiful story of that: When these Ayats were revealed, it was very difficult on the Sahaba. When Allahﷻ said, *”Lillahi Ma Fi Samawatihi Wa Ma Fil-Ardi Wa In Tubdhu Ma Fin Anfusikum Aw Tukhfohu Wa Yuhasibukum Bihi Allahu Fa Yaghfiru Liman Yashao Wa Ya’uddhu Man Yashao Wa Allahu Ala Kulli Shay’in Qadir”*—Allahﷻ revealed and said that whatever is in the heavens and the earth belongs to Allahﷻ; and Allahﷻ, whatever you think and feel, and so on, in your hearts, Allah knows this; and whatever you say, Allah also knows this. And if He wishes, Allah will punish, and if He wishes, Allah will forgive, and Allah can do whatever He wishes. When this Ayat came, the Sahaba were so affected by this that they went to Rasulullah SAW. They fell down on their knees and they asked, and they said to him, “Ya Rasulullah, if Allahﷻ punishes us…” They said, “Ya Rasulullah, Allahﷻ commanded us to pray, and we pray; Allah commanded us to give Zakat, we give Zakat. Now Allahﷻ is saying that He will take Hisaab. He will take account for our thoughts and our feelings. These are not in our control. If Allahﷻ takes Hisaab for this then we will be destroyed.”
Rasulullah SAW’s response—which is very important to understand—he didn’t say, “Yes, I think this sounds reasonable because it does sound reasonable.” He didn’t say that. He said, “Are you going to be like those who said *Samayna Wa Sayna*? We hear but we will not obey?” He said, *”Qul: Samayna Wa Atana Ghufranaka Rabbana Wa Ilayka Al-Masir.”* He said, “Say, ‘O Allah, we have heard, and we will obey. Forgive us, and to You is our return.'” And the Sahaba Ridwanullahi Alayhi Majmain—Even though they had gone there with a Ma’ruza (a request), they did not insist on that. They didn’t say, “Oh no, this is not what we meant,” and so on. Rasulullah SAW said, *”Qul: Samayna Wa Atana Ghufranaka Rabbana Wa Ilayka Al-Masir.”* The Sahaba repeated that.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala for 12 months after that, nothing happened. For 12 months, nothing happened. The last two Ayats of Surah Al-Baqarah didn’t come right then. For 12 months, *Saidiyat Ayesha Siddiquah Adela Anha’s Hadith*, she said for 12 months nothing happened. So for 12 months, the Sahaba lived under the weight of this Ayat that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala can hold you responsible even for your thoughts. They lived under the weight of this Ayat which was revealed. And after 12 months, then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala revealed *Aamana Rasool* till the end: *”Amana Rasool Bimaa Umzula Ilayhi May Rabbi Wal Mu’minun.”* So till the end, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala revealed those last two Ayats. And again if you see, those two Ayats also are dua.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala taught the Sahaba dua. So the gift of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala was Allah taught them the dua. And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala abrogated this Ayat. And Allah said, *”La Yukallifu Allahu Nafsan Illa Husaha La Ha Ma Kasabat Wa Ala Ha Ma Tasabat.”* So Allah said, “For the person is only what they say or do, and Allah will not punish you for your forgetfulness, and Allah will not punish you if you do something by mistake. Allah will forgive.” So this Ayat was abrogated. And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala revealed the Ayat of forgiveness. And then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala taught the Sahaba these duas, and we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala to be pleased with us and to grant us *Khatima Bil Khair*, and Jannatul Firdaus ma’a Nabiyyin wa Siddiqeen wa Shahada wa Salihin, ma’a Rasoolillahi Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam, wa Sallallahu Ala Nabiyyil Kareem, wa Ala Alihi Wa Sahbihi Ajma’in, bi Rahmatika Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim.