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The Power of Dua

“Verily your Lord is Generous and Shy. If His servant raises his hands to Him (in supplication) He becomes shy to return them empty” (Ahmad, Abu Dawood, Tirmidhi)

Imagine your next door neighbor has a personal servant. You find out that the servant is asking for a house, a fancy car, and a large screen TV. Personally speaking, what do you think you would have done in this situation? The most probable thing that would happen is that you would just stare at him blankly. Most likely, the only thing on your mind would be, “His job is to work and just get paid – not to start asking for gifts and free handouts”. Let’s take the scene even further and imagine that not only did the neighbor say yes, but he is encouraging him to ask for more items.

If this was really to happen, any ordinary bystander would have been visibly puzzled at the peculiarity of this scene. However, if we were to look at the scene from a different angle, we might look at it differently. In reality, that scene is very much alike with the connection between Allah (swt) and his servants (except that Allah’s kingdom would not decrease at all, contrary to if we were to give). Allah’s love for His servants can be beautifully summarized in the following Hadith, “Verily your Lord is Generous and Shy. If His servant raises his hands to Him (in supplication) He becomes shy to return them empty (Ahmad, Abu Dawood, Tirmidhi)”. Another Hadith that talks about the greatness of Dua:

Abu Hurairah narrates from the Prophet (saw), “In the court of Allah, there is no greater thing than Duaa” (Ibn Majah)

There are benefits of making Dua including:-

1. The loss of arrogance - For someone that makes constant Dua, arrogance is something that is not among their characteristics because when one beseeches Allah, he is affirming his own powerlessness.-

2. The fulfillment of the Dua – Basically, you get what you wanted. For the people that sometimes see that their Duas are not being accepted, there is either the option that the Dua will be accepted later on in this life or in the Hereafter or the option that the Dua will accepted by other means as one Hadith said, Jabir narrates from the Prophet, “Whoever does duaa to Allah, Allah fulfills his seeking or in exchange averts misfortune until the duaa is not related to sin or breaking some relation.” (Tirmidhi)

One personal example that I can share is that when I was younger, I had wanted to win first place in a Quran competiton and so, I made Dua to Allah (swt) to help me win. Unfortunately, when the day for the competition came, there was another event that was taking place somewhere else and I had to go with my parents to that event instead of the competition. I felt sad because I had really wanted to win that competition and I wondered what happened to my Dua.

Two weeks later, my parents take me to a speech competition and there, I found out that the organizers will also be holding a Quran competition. I signed up for the competition and after participating in it, the awards ceremony started. Before starting, the organizers made a statement that made me awestruck; they said they would like to thank the organizers of a Quran competition that was held two weeks ago because the format of the whole competition was exactly the same as the one held two weeks back. I only became even more awestruck when I found out that I won first place.-

Looking back, I realized that if we make a Dua, Allah (swt) will answer it in the best way possible for us. Therefore, if we do not see our Dua being accepted immediately, we should not despair because either it will help us against some misfortune, or it might be accepted later…

3. The doors of mercy are opened – Abdullah bin Umar narrated that the Prophet said, “For whoever the door of Dua opened, for him the doors of mercy are opened...” (Tirmidhi)-

4. It has the power to change destiny (only the minor Qadr – not major ones such as the signs of the Day of Judgment) – Salman Farsi narrated that the Prophet said, “Dua turns away destiny and good deeds lengthen age (Tirmidhi).

There are certain things that one should keep in mind concerning the Dua:

1. The Prophet once said, “Dua is Ibadah” (Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, and Abu Dawud). Since it is a type of worship, it is something that we must always do. This is even to the extent that the Prophet said, “Allah is extremely displeased with the person who doesn’t do duaa to Allah” (Tirmidhi).

2. As mentioned before, the Dua must always be done. Nowadays, we only say our Duas when hardship befalls us and is the last resort, when all else has failed. However, this should not be the case as the Prophet (saw) said, Whosoever desires that Allah answers his Duas in unfavorable and difficult conditions, he should make plentiful dua in days of ease and comfort.”

3. Try making Dua for others because if you do so, the same thing may also occur to you too. There are certain ayahs in the Quran such as the last Ayah in Surah Nuh, the meaning of which is, “O my Lord! Forgive me, my parents, all who enter my house in Faith, and (all) believing men and believing women: and to the wrong-doers grant Thou no increase but in perdition!” If you are to recite this verse, then you get a sin erased for every Muslim living in this world. Also, the Prophet said, ”Duaa for a person not present is accepted quickly by Allah”.

4. Have complete conviction that Allah will accept the Dua, because if you don’t, then there is a high chance it won’t be accepted. The Prophet said, “When anyone of you does Dua then don’t say “Oh Allah! Forgive me if you want“, “Have mercy on me if you want“, “Give me subsistence if you wish” rather believe completely that HE will do whatever HE wishes. Nobody can force Him.” (Bukhari)

5. The best times to make Dua is when one is in Sujood, the times between Adhan and Iqamah, as well as at other times as indicated by the following Hadith in which the Prophet said, “Three types of people’s Duas are not rejected: 1) At the time of Iftar the person who has fasted 2) Adil ruler’s Dua 3) The Dua of the oppressed. Allah raises the Dua of the oppressed on the clouds and the doors of heaven are opened for it and Allah says, “Oath of MY Majesty and Honor! I will help and aid you. Even though if the help is after few days.” (Tirmidhi) Another Hadith listed another three in which the Prophet said, Three Duas are such in which there is no doubt of their acceptance: 1) Father’s Dua 2) Traveler’s Dua 3) Dua of the oppressed”. (Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah)

May the above information strengthen your resolve to make more Duas and may it benefit you in many ways. Ameen…

By the way, a beautiful website that explains more than 30 different types of etiquettes that one should follow when making Dua can be found in the following link: http://www.geocities.com/mutmainaa/dua1/dua_manner.html