Prayers of the Pious

Abu Bakr as-Siddiq asks that the end of his life be its best part, his last deed his best deed, and his best day the day he meets Allah.

Key points

• The early Muslims kept their finest du‘as for the end of their lives: the closer the meeting with Allah, the more they cared how they would arrive.
• Abu Bakr died at sixty-three, the age at which the Prophet ﷺ died, and is buried beside him.
• The du‘a covers three endings at once: the last stretch of life, the very last deed, and the Day of meeting Allah.
• As he died he recited Yusuf’s prayer to die in submission and be joined with the righteous (12:101).

Think aboutIf today were the last stretch, which deed would you most want to be your last?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

Habibah al-‘Adawiyyah, a devout woman of the early generations after the Companions, climbed to her roof at midnight to speak to Allah while the world slept.

Key points

• Her words: the stars have set, eyes have closed, kings have shut their doors, and His door is still open; every lover is alone with the one they love, and she is alone with Him.
• At dawn she would ask whether her night had been accepted, so she could rejoice, or rejected, so she could console herself, and promise never to leave His door either way.
• Ibn Rajab pointed out how we wait at the doors of kings by day, yet sleep when the King of kings invites us by night.
• We never know for sure if a du‘a was accepted. Her answer was neither to relax nor to give up, but to keep knocking, as Ibrahim and Isma‘il asked for acceptance after building the Ka‘bah (2:127).

Think aboutWhen did you last speak to Allah when no one else was awake?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

‘Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud taught his students a du‘a that is a promise lodged with Allah, to be returned on the Day of Judgement.

Key points

• It grew out of the verse that only those who have taken a covenant with the Most Merciful will be able to intercede (Maryam 19:87).
• In it the servant admits that if Allah left him to himself he would drift towards harm and away from good, so he trusts nothing but His mercy.
• The Prophet ﷺ said that whoever wants to hear the Qur’an as fresh as when it came down should listen to Ibn Mas‘ud’s recitation: this du‘a shows how he lived with a verse.
• Allah is too generous to send back empty the hands raised to Him (at-Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud), so holding Him to His promise of mercy is good manners with Him, not presumption.

Think aboutWhat has Allah promised that you could ask Him for, by His own promise, tonight?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

At the end of his life the Umayyad caliph ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan admitted that his sins were huge, and that a little of Allah’s pardon was bigger.

Key points

• He is a mixed figure: real achievements alongside real wrongs. The book does not hide either, and the du‘a shows him facing his own record.
• Al-Asma‘i is reported to have envied him for being able to say these words at the end.
• The Prophet’s ﷺ du‘as for forgiveness admit our faults plainly; sayyid al-istighfar admits both His blessings and our sins (al-Bukhari).
• Allah has a hundred parts of mercy and sent one into the world, keeping ninety-nine for the Hereafter (Muslim). No one enters Paradise by the size of their deeds, only by His mercy.
• Hope at the end of life is good, but it does not excuse us from our duties while we still have time.

Think aboutWhich sin have you been treating as too big for Allah’s pardon?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

‘Umar ibn al-Khattab asked to die as a martyr in the Prophet’s ﷺ city, and not at the hand of anyone who had ever prostrated to Allah.

Key points

• When Uhud trembled beneath them, the Prophet ﷺ told it to be still, for on it were a prophet, a siddiq and two martyrs (al-Bukhari): ‘Umar knew how he would die.
• Martyrdom in Madinah seemed unlikely while the Muslims ruled it; his daughter asked how it could happen, and he said Allah would bring it about if He willed.
• He was stabbed while leading Fajr, and his first question was whether his killer was a Muslim. Told he was not, he praised Allah.
• Whoever sincerely asks Allah for martyrdom reaches the rank of the martyrs even if he dies in his bed (Muslim), and the Prophet ﷺ promised to intercede for those who die in Madinah (at-Tirmidhi).
• Every unlikely part of his du‘a was answered, and he is buried beside the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr.

Think aboutWhat do you want the last scene of your life to look like? Have you asked for it?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

The Prophet ﷺ, walking with Abu Bakr and ‘Umar at night, stopped to listen to Ibn Mas‘ud’s du‘a and told him to ask, for he would be given.

Key points

• Ibn Mas‘ud asked for faith that never turns back, delight that never runs out, and the company of the Prophet ﷺ in the highest garden of eternity.
• The report is graded hasan or sahih by several scholars, among them al-Hakim and Shu‘ayb al-Arna’ut, and Ibn Mas‘ud said he never left it out of his prayers.
• The Prophet ﷺ taught us to ask for al-Firdaws, the highest level of Paradise (al-Bukhari).
• Offered anything he wished, Rabi‘ah ibn Ka‘b asked for the Prophet’s ﷺ company in Paradise (Muslim).

Think aboutIs your du‘a for Paradise as specific as Ibn Mas‘ud’s?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman, who kept the Prophet’s ﷺ secret list of hypocrites, met death telling Allah that He knew how much he loved Him.

Key points

• People asked the Prophet ﷺ about the good; Hudhayfah asked about the evil so he could avoid it (al-Bukhari).
• He used to seek refuge from any morning or evening that would lead to the Fire, and at the end he asked Allah to bless their meeting (al-Haythami found the narrators reliable).
• To say “You know I love You” at death takes a whole life of that love.
• The Prophet ﷺ taught us to ask for Allah’s love, the love of those who love Him and the deeds that bring us to it (at-Tirmidhi, from Mu‘adh, hasan sahih).
• Hope and fear are the two wings; love is the body that carries them.

Think aboutWhat evidence of your love for Allah would you point to?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

Asma’ bint Abi Bakr, nearly a hundred years old, prayed over her son ‘Abdullah ibn az-Zubayr as he went out to face death in the siege of Makkah.

Key points

• She asked Allah to have mercy on his long nights of prayer, his thirst in the midday heat of Makkah and Madinah, and his goodness to his father and to her.
• Then she handed him over to Allah’s decree, accepted it, and asked to be rewarded as those who endure and give thanks are rewarded.
• She had carried food to the Prophet ﷺ and her father during the hijrah; her son was the first child born to the emigrants after it, greeted with cries of Allahu akbar.
• Ibn ‘Umar is reported to have noted that the men who killed him also shouted Allahu akbar. The same words can be carried by very different hearts.
• There are few du‘as stronger than a mother’s, and the du‘a of the wronged is not turned back. She died soon after his body was brought down.

Think aboutWho prays for you like this, and when did you last thank them?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

‘Abd ar-Rahman ibn ‘Awf, among the richest and most generous Companions, spent whole circuits of the Ka‘bah asking for one thing: protection from the greed of his own soul.

Key points

• The righteous feared the very faults they were furthest from, which shows how high they set their own standards.
• He explained that if he were saved from his soul’s greed he would not steal, commit zina or do any evil: greed is the root of many sins.
• Whoever is saved from the greed of his soul is among the successful (59:9 and 64:16), and the son of Adam would want a third valley of gold if he had two (al-Bukhari).
• Greed is not only about money. A soul that always feels empty reaches for more of anything, and sin often fills a hole that should have been filled by Allah.

Think aboutWhere in your life do you feel “not enough” even when you have plenty?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

Caught in a storm at sea, the ascetic Ibrahim ibn Adham called on the Ever-Living, the Sustainer: having seen His might, he asked to see His pardon.

Key points

• Adh-Dhahabi tells the story: the passengers were sure they would drown and begged him to pray; the sea calmed, and he went back to sleep.
• He did not say “You have shown us Your punishment”. Hardship is a display of His power, and he asked to see the other side of Him.
• Pardon (‘afw) is more than mercy: it is being left in safety, as if the danger had never come.
• The scene recalls Yunus in the belly of the whale, where only Allah could reach him.

Think aboutRecall a time you saw Allah’s power up close. What would it mean to ask for His pardon in the same breath?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

Ibn al-Jawzi, the great preacher of Baghdad, asked Allah not to punish a tongue that told people about Him, eyes that read the sciences pointing to Him, or a hand that wrote out His Messenger’s hadith.

Key points

• He would tell his students to look for him in Paradise and, if he was missing, to ask Allah for him.
• Behind the du‘a is fear of hypocrisy: a teacher who guides others to Paradise and is lost himself.
• Asking Allah by your good deeds is taught in the Sunnah, as in the three men trapped in the cave (al-Bukhari), as long as it comes from humility and not from pride.

Think aboutWhich good deed of yours would you dare to mention to Allah, and which would you rather He forgot?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

Mutarrif ibn ‘Abdillah asked not to become a warning to others, and to profit from his own knowledge more than anyone he taught.

Key points

• It is the same fear as Ibn al-Jawzi’s from another side: being remembered as the scholar who did not live what he taught.
• The Prophet ﷺ compared revelation to rain: some land soaks it up and grows things, some holds water for others, and some lets it run off (al-Bukhari).
• The goal is to be the fertile land, not only a container that others drink from.
• Allah hates that we say what we do not do (as-Saff 61:2-3).

Think aboutWhat do you tell others to do that you have not yet done yourself?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

Sallam ibn Abi Muti‘ asked that if Allah had raised any righteous person to a rank through a trial, He raise him to it with ease instead.

Key points

• When Allah loves a people He tests them (at-Tirmidhi; al-Albani graded it sahih), and on the Day of Judgement those spared will wish their skins had been cut with scissors when they see the reward of the afflicted (at-Tirmidhi 2402, which he called gharib; al-Munawi and al-Albani graded it hasan).
• So is trial the only road to Allah’s love? The du‘a answers that He can give the rank without the hardship.
• It matches the Qur’anic prayer for good in this world and good in the Hereafter (2:201).
• Do not ask for trials. Ask for the reward with ease, and if a trial comes anyway, meet it gracefully.

Think aboutWhat reward are you hoping for that you could ask Allah for with ease?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

An unnamed man in the masjid asked Allah not to keep from him the good that is with Allah because of the evil that is with him. Sufyan ath-Thawri overheard it and never forgot it.

Key points

• Some of the most beautiful du‘as come from people no one remembers; even the great scholars learned from them.
• His good comes down to us while our ingratitude and sins go up to Him, and the du‘a asks Him not to let the second cut off the first.
• Sayyid al-istighfar says the same: I admit Your blessing upon me and I admit my sin (al-Bukhari).

Think aboutWhich blessing are you afraid a sin of yours might cost you?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

A man told the Prophet ﷺ he had dreamt of praying behind a tree that prostrated and asked Allah to write a reward for it, remove a sin by it, store it up and accept it as He accepted Dawud’s prostration.

Key points

• Ibn ‘Abbas then heard the Prophet ﷺ say the same words in a prostration of recitation (at-Tirmidhi).
• The prostration of Dawud is in Surah Sad (38:24).
• A servant is closest to his Lord while prostrating, so make plenty of du‘a there (Muslim).
• Sufyan ibn ‘Uyaynah said only people can make a complete sujud: forehead, hands, knees and toes on the ground in humility.

Think aboutIn your next sujud, what will you ask for?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

Two stories of houses that did not burn, about believing in the du‘a you make.

Key points

• The book tells, crediting Abu Musa al-Ash‘ari, of a fire in a Basra neighbourhood: a man refused to rush home because he had sworn by his Lord his house would not burn, and it was the one left standing (see Read with care).
• Some people are dishevelled and turned away from doors, yet if they swore by Allah He would fulfil it (Muslim). Status in this world is not status with Him.
• The dhikr “In the name of Allah, with whose name nothing on earth or in heaven can harm” is said three times morning and evening (Abu Dawud 5088, at-Tirmidhi 3388, from ‘Uthman; Shu‘ayb al-Arna’ut graded it hasan).
• Many recite beautiful du‘as without believing them. Trust (tawakkul) is what gives a du‘a its weight.

Think aboutIs there a du‘a you say every day without expecting anything from it?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

A Bedouin praised Allah as the One no eye sees and nothing that happens can change, who knows how heavy the mountains are, what the seas hold, and every drop of rain and every leaf, and then asked for a good ending.

Key points

• The Prophet ﷺ had someone wait with him until he finished, then asked who he was, and gave him a gift because of how beautifully he had praised Allah.
• His request at the end is almost the same as Abu Bakr’s in chapter 1: the best of life at its end and the best day the day of meeting Him.
• Praise before you ask. Allah cannot be over-praised, and you do not need to be a poet: sincerity makes the words.

Think aboutBefore your next request, spend a minute describing to Allah what you know of Him.

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

Uways al-Qarani, a man of Yemen the Prophet ﷺ described but never met, was cured of a skin disease except for a coin-sized patch.

Key points

• The Prophet ﷺ told the Companions that if they met Uways they should ask him to seek forgiveness for them; he was known for his devotion to his mother (Muslim 2542).
• ‘Umar asked the caravans from Yemen about him every year until he found him.
• Ibn ‘Abbas said he knew no deed that brings a person closer to Allah than kindness to their mother (al-Adab al-Mufrad 4, graded sahih by al-Albani).
• The book reads the remaining patch as a reminder of the hardship and the closeness it brought: ask Allah to lift the trial, but not to take away its lesson.
• The du‘a at the head of the chapter is the Prophet’s ﷺ own ruqyah for the sick: remove the harm, Lord of mankind, and heal, for You are the Healer (al-Bukhari, Muslim).

Think aboutWhich past hardship brought you closest to Allah, and how do you keep its lesson?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

When people praised Abu Bakr, he asked Allah to make him better than they thought, forgive what they did not know, and not hold him to what they said.

Key points

• Praise can harm as much as slander: it can make us content with an image instead of the truth.
• Abu Bakr hid his good deeds so well that Companions kept discovering them by accident.
• Ibn al-Jawzi said that when people admire you, they are admiring the cover Allah has put over your faults.
• We hope people will speak well of us on the Day of Judgement; we just want what they say to be true.

Think aboutWhat do people praise you for that you know is not the whole story?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

Mu‘adh ibn Jabal reports the Prophet ﷺ correcting three men’s du‘as; the book pictures him as a teacher walking between students.

Key points

• One asked for the completion of blessing, and was told that part of it is entering Paradise and being saved from the Fire.
• One called on Allah as Possessor of Majesty and Honour, and was told he had been answered, so he should ask.
• One asked for patience, and was told he had asked for trial and should ask for ‘afiyah, wellbeing, instead.
• Patience is a great gift (al-Bukhari), but in hardship the Sunnah is to ask Allah to lift it and to meet what comes with patience.

Think aboutWhich hard thing have you been asking to endure that you could ask Allah to remove?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

‘Abdullah ibn Sa‘d ibn Abi Sarh asked that his last deed be the Fajr prayer, and died as he finished it.

Key points

• Life rises and dips, and no one knows whether death will come on a good day or a bad one; that is why the Prophet ﷺ taught us to ask Allah for a good ending.
• For those who pray at night, Fajr is less the start of the day than the close of the night.
• Those who have sat with the righteous at the end often notice that they seemed to know their time had come.
• Asking to die in prayer, in sujud or after it, is asking to be taken in the state Allah loves most.

Think aboutWhich act of worship would you most like to be doing when your time comes?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

A long night-prayer du‘a of praise credited to ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib: Allah perfected His light and guided, was patient and pardoned, opened His hand and gave.

Key points

• Each line ends in praise (laka al-hamd): every one of His gifts is met with thanks.
• It moves from His qualities to His acts: He answers the desperate, lifts harm, heals the sick, accepts repentance and forgives.
• It ends by admitting that no one’s words can repay His favours or count them.

Think aboutWrite five lines of praise in the same pattern: what Allah did, and your thanks.

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

Asked by his students for a du‘a, the elderly Yusuf ibn al-Husayn ar-Razi said he had been sincere to people in public and false to himself in private, and asked to be forgiven the second for the sake of the first. He wept, and died.

Key points

• Serving people can become an excuse to drop private devotion: “I do so much for others, a little slack in private is fine.”
• That is why some of the greatest public figures had the greatest private flaws.
• Only Allah knows whether his private failings were real or just the high standard he held himself to.

Think aboutWhat do you let slide in private because of the good you do in public?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

Sufyan ibn ‘Uyaynah asked Allah to keep us under His gracious covering, and to make what it hides something He is pleased with.

Key points

• It goes further than asking to have our sins hidden: it asks that what lies under the cover be worth hiding.
• Al-Fudayl ibn ‘Iyad said the early Muslims hid their good deeds as carefully as their sins.
• Excellence (ihsan) is when a hidden deed becomes a private matter between you and Allah, and you would rather no one else ever saw it.

Think aboutWhat good deed could you do this week that no one will ever know about?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

Ibn al-Qayyim reports that his teacher Ibn Taymiyyah often said, when stuck on a question: O Teacher of Ibrahim, teach me.

Key points

• Another version calls on the One who gave Sulayman understanding.
• Understanding is a gift from Allah, not only a reward for effort, so ask for it when you are stuck.
• Calling on Him as the Lord of a prophet reminds you that the Lord of Ibrahim, Zakariyya, Maryam, ‘Isa and Muhammad ﷺ is your Lord too.

Think aboutWhat are you stuck on right now? Ask the Teacher of Ibrahim before you open the next book.

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

A man from a nation before ours said: You are You and I am me; You keep returning with forgiveness and I keep returning to sin, so forgive me. He fell into prostration and was forgiven.

Key points

• Jabir reports it, and a voice answered him: you keep sinning and I keep forgiving, so I have forgiven you.
• Du‘a does not need poetry. The simplest honest words can carry the greatest request.
• Allah already knows what you will ask. The du‘a is for you: the connection, and the realisation that comes while asking.

Think aboutSay your own version: who He is, who you are, and what you need.

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz lost his son ‘Abd al-Malik, his brother Sahl and his trusted servant Muzahim, one after another, and told Allah it had only made him love Him more.

Key points

• The Prophet ﷺ buried six of his seven children and his wife Khadijah, and still had so much to give.
• ‘Umar did not pretend the loss did not hurt; the Prophet ﷺ wept for his children too.
• He asked Allah to take him as well, without his having been negligent or careless. He died soon after, at about forty.
• Turn pain into a request for the Hereafter rather than resentment of Allah.

Think aboutHas a loss pushed you away from Allah or towards Him? What would it take to turn it towards Him?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

Abu ‘Uthman an-Nahdi saw ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab weeping in tawaf, asking that if he had been written among the wretched, Allah erase it and write him among the blessed.

Key points

• It rests on the verse that Allah erases and confirms what He wills, and with Him is the Mother of the Book (ar-Ra‘d 13:39).
• Each person’s provision, lifespan, deeds and whether they will be wretched or blessed are written while they are in the womb (al-Bukhari).
• Despite being promised Paradise, ‘Umar never took it for granted.
• The practical question: if your book of deeds were handed to you today, would it come in your right hand?

Think aboutWhat would you need to wipe from your record before you would be glad to show it?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

Umm ad-Darda’ watched her husband Abu ad-Darda’ spend a whole night asking for one thing: as You made my form beautiful, make my character beautiful.

Key points

• It is the Prophet’s ﷺ own du‘a (Ibn Hibban, graded sahih by al-Albani).
• Asked why, he said good character makes people pray for you until those prayers carry you into Paradise, and bad character makes them pray against you.
• Your outer form (khalq) and inner character (khuluq) share a root: imagine holding your character up to a mirror.
• Abu Dujanah, dying, is said to have placed his hope in guarding his tongue from hurting anyone (see Read with care).

Think aboutWho might be praying against you because of something you said? What could you do to put it right?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

The book ends with a du‘a for guidance: to see truth and falsehood for what they are, and to be helped to follow the one and avoid the other.

Key points

• We ask Allah for guidance at least seventeen times a day in al-Fatihah; whoever asks sincerely will not be led astray.
• Something can feel right without being guidance, and people offer conflicting advice on how to get close to Allah: hence this du‘a.
• Ask to understand His message properly, follow the Sunnah properly, and see your own faults.
• The book closes with a prayer journal: write your own du‘as in the pattern of the ones you have read.

Think aboutWhere do you most need to see the truth clearly right now?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter