The Answered Supplication

Du‘a is the servant asking his Lord for what his own means cannot reach. The chapter asks what we really gain from it.

Key points

• Du‘a is a call upward, to the One no cause can stop. We turn to Him for exactly the things our own means cannot deliver.
• Asking is an admission of need, which is why people who feel self-sufficient stop asking (96:6-7). Comfort can hide the Giver: we thank the water company and forget who sent the rain.
• We ask for what looks good to us, but our view is short. Like a father who refuses his son a gun, Allah may hold back what would harm us, and the holding back is the answer.
• People pray for harm in anger as readily as for good (17:11). If every angry prayer of a parent against a child were answered, families would be ruined (10:11).
• In 2:186 the answer to “ask you about Me” comes without “Say”: Allah replies to His servants directly, and du‘a needs no go-between.
• In the hadith qudsi of Abu Dharr (Muslim 2577), if everyone who ever lived asked at once and each were given, it would take from Allah’s dominion no more than a needle dipped in the sea.
• The real gain is the humility of asking, which is worship in itself, whether or not the request is granted.

Think aboutWhen did a “no” from Allah turn out to be a mercy you could only see later?

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The Qur’an teaches us what to ask for, and most of what it teaches looks to the Hereafter without forgetting this life.

Key points

• Most of the Qur’an’s du‘as ask for forgiveness, guidance, steadfastness and Paradise, because the Hereafter is the life that lasts (29:64).
• Asking for this world is allowed: 2:201 asks for good in both, and 28:77 says not to forget your share here. 2:200 warns against asking for this world alone.
• The book reads “good in this world” widely: anything that brings you closer to Allah. Good in the Hereafter starts with being kept away from the Fire.
• The close of al-Baqarah (2:286) covers forgetting, mistakes and burdens. Allah never asks more than we can carry, and the book points to people who do far more than the obligations as proof.
• Pardon (‘afw) wipes out a sin’s trace the way wind wipes footprints from sand; forgiveness and mercy go further still.
• Other du‘as it gathers: for firm hearts (3:8), for forgiveness and firm feet (3:16, 3:147, 3:193-194), Adam’s du‘a (7:23), refuge from the devils’ whispers (23:97-98), for spouses and children (25:74), for gratitude (46:15), for those who came before us (59:10) and for our light to be completed (66:8).
• The Prophet ﷺ often asked the Turner of hearts to keep his heart firm on His religion (at-Tirmidhi 3522, graded hasan by Darussalam).

Think aboutWhich du‘a from the Qur’an could you learn this week, to say in sujud or after salah?

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The angels pray for the believers, and every Prophet turned to Allah with a du‘a that fitted his moment.

Key points

• The angels who carry the Throne ask Allah to forgive the believers, to keep them from the Fire, to bring them into Paradise with their righteous parents, spouses and children, and to shield them from their misdeeds (40:7-9).
• A parent’s righteousness reaches the children: Allah joins believers with their offspring (52:21), and the orphans’ treasure under the wall was kept safe because their father was righteous (18:82).
• The first du‘a on earth was repentance: Adam and Hawwa’ admitting they had wronged themselves (7:23), so the door of tawbah was open from the first day.
• Nuh prayed against his people only after some 950 years of calling them (71:26-28). Ibrahim, leaving Hajar and Isma‘il in a barren valley, still asked for hearts to incline to them and for provision (14:37): missing means are no reason to stop asking.
• Building the Ka‘bah, Ibrahim and Isma‘il asked Allah to accept their work (2:127-129). The book’s lesson: ask Him to accept every deed, at work and at home.
• Yunus called out from the darkness, and Allah said He saves the believers in the same way (21:87-88), so his words belong to anyone in distress.
• Musa prayed against Pharaoh’s misuse of wealth (10:88); the book follows a report that about forty years passed before Pharaoh drowned. Sulayman began with forgiveness, then asked for a kingdom he would use for good.

Think aboutWhich Prophet’s du‘a fits what you are going through now?

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For almost every moment of the day the Prophet ﷺ taught words that tie it back to Allah.

Key points

• The aim is a life in which no step is taken without Allah in mind, and the gain sought from du‘a is humility before Him rather than the request alone.
• Before sleep: dust off the bed and say “In Your name, my Lord, I lie down” (al-Bukhari 6320), and recite al-Ikhlas and the last two surahs into cupped hands. Sleep is a small death (39:42), so the night’s du‘as remind us our souls are in His hand.
• On waking, praise Allah for giving life back. After a bad dream, seek refuge and do not tell others; after a good one, thank Allah.
• Morning and evening each have their remembrance, and the master du‘a of forgiveness, said with certainty, promises Paradise to the one who dies that day or night (al-Bukhari 6306).
• Salah has its own du‘as: after the opening takbir, in ruku‘, in sujud and before the salam, and du‘a between the adhan and the iqamah.
• Travel, coming home, marriage, rain and hardship each have their words. For children he sought protection with Allah’s perfect words, as he did for al-Hasan and al-Husayn (al-Bukhari 3371); in distress he praised the Lord of the mighty Throne (al-Bukhari 6346).
• Barakah is not having a lot, but having Allah’s pleasure in what you have.

Think aboutWhich ordinary moment of your day still has no du‘a attached to it?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

There are blessed times and places for du‘a, but the book’s main point is that the answer depends most on the person asking.

Key points

• It lists the last third of the night, the iftar of the fasting person, the time between the adhan and the iqamah and Laylat al-Qadr, and places such as the Ka‘bah, the Prophet’s Masjid, al-Aqsa and every masjid.
• Allah hears you in London as He does in Makkah. What brings an answer closer is a person’s nearness to Him through good deeds and lawful earnings.
• Lawful earnings come first. The traveller with dusty hair raising his hands while his food, drink and clothes are unlawful is not answered (Muslim 1015). Even office stationery taken home matters, and parents should ask where things in their house came from.
• Ramadan breaks the habit of worship: giving up what is usually lawful renews the heart and opens it to du‘a.
• The wronged and the traveller are answered because they have no one left but Allah (at-Tirmidhi 3598, graded hasan by Darussalam; al-Bukhari 1496).
• The Qur’an’s own du‘as come first, since they are in the words of the One being asked.
• Worldly ease is no sign of Allah’s pleasure (9:55), and whoever wants only this world may get it with no share after (42:20). A sign that a du‘a has been answered is the calm and contentment Allah puts in the heart.

Think aboutIs there anything in your home or income you would not want to explain? What would it take to clear it?

Write a fa’idah from this chapter

When it is right to pray against someone, how du‘a fits with fate, and the one du‘a the Prophet ﷺ saved for the Day of Judgment.

Key points

• Allah loves pardon: those who hold back anger and forgive are among the doers of good (3:134). When Abu Bakr cut off his help to Mistah after the slander, 24:22 came down and he restored it.
• Praying against someone is allowed for the person wronged (4:148) and against open enemies of the religion, as Nuh and Musa did. Praying against people out of envy or temper is not, and the book warns that someone who has also wronged others should hold back.
• There is no barrier between the du‘a of the wronged and Allah (al-Bukhari 1496). Allah gives the oppressor time, but when He seizes him He does not let go (11:102).
• For Laylat al-Qadr, the Prophet ﷺ taught ‘A’ishah a du‘a asking Allah, who loves to pardon, for pardon.
• Du‘a and its answer are part of Allah’s decree. His knowing our choices does not force them, as a father can guess what each son will buy with a pound without making him buy it.
• The book separates what happens to us without choice from the law, where we choose to obey or not.
• Every Prophet had one du‘a sure to be answered; ours ﷺ saved his to intercede for his ummah on the Day of Judgment (al-Bukhari 6304), and the book closes with the hadith of the great intercession (al-Bukhari 4476).

Think aboutIs there someone you have been praying against? Could you leave it with Allah, or pardon them?

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