It has been an incredible week – subhanAllah>
My computer crashed – an experience that has taught me much (writing fodder for a long time inshAllah) – but that wasn’t even all that was wonderful. I did coaching calls this week and had emails this week that have proved (yet again) to me that Allah SWT is the most powerful – and His Mercy transcends all things.
There was the sister who had an incredible monetary windfall – paying off a debt that was beyond imaginable. There was the brother who was able to bring Islam to the heart of a dying grandmother who’d long fought with him over it. There was the mother who realized that the situation she was currently in would destroy her relationship with Allah SWT and committed to making a radical change that has her, for the first time in her life, realizing what being a Muslim really means. She will be better off – her child will be better off. And so on and so on and so on. All of these people took it upon themselves to “life it up”, to make sincere dua to Allah SWT and TRUST that He would answer.
So often we make dua for things because – well just because. I hate to say it – but I think that we pray from a place of vanity. We want – we want – we hear that Allah gives and so we give it a shot. Let’s just make dua for this thing – and that’s fine because it’s a start. But that’s just it, it’s just a start.
What if we could grow so that our dua comes from a place of complete surrender? You’ve given it up when you ask of your Maker – you’ve put what it is that you want in His Capable Hands and you trust that He, SWT knows best and, no matter what, HE will answer.
Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, said: “No believer makes Dua and
it is wasted. Either it is granted here in this world
or deposited for him in the Hereafter as long as he does not get
frustrated.”
You may have heard of the Ultimate Dua List. It’s been expounded by Shaykh Muhammad for quite awhile now. Here’s how it works:
Step 1: Ask yourself, “If Allah said to me, I’ll give you anything you wish, just ask!” What would you ask for? Make a list – trying to fill at least 2 pages worth of dua from the goodness of this life and the next.
Step 2: Pick approximately 6 of that which you wrote.
Step 3: Make dua for those 6 things consistently at times when dua is known to be accepted. Examples of times include – during your sajdah, while traveling, between the adhan and iqamah, while fasting, after making wudhu.
And this is not to say that you don’t keep striving towards the meat of your dua. Someone once said, “work as if everything depends on you, pray as if everything depends on Allah.” Because it does.
Allah the Exalted, has said:
”And your Lord says: Pray unto me: and I will hear your prayer” (40:60)
“Call upon your Lord Humbly and in secret” (7:55)
“When My servants question thee concerning Me, I am indeed close
(to them): I listen to the prayer of every supplicant when he
calls on Me” (2:186)
What will you be making dua for? And more importantly, from which place will you make it – a place of vanity or a place of surrender?
