By Babatunde Jose
By earnestly praying to God, we achieve the greatest of blessings: atonement for our sins and an increase in rank with our Lord. Prayer is also a potent remedy for our sicknesses, for it instills faith in our souls.
As human beings, our life in this world is characterized by fluctuating conditions happiness and sadness. There is no perpetual bliss or misery. Life by its very nature is a test. Allah says: “He is the One that has created Life and Death in order to test who amongst you is best in conduct.” (Quran, 67:2)
Pleasant and favorable conditions demand us to be grateful and humble while adverse conditions require us to be patient and to seek Allah’s help.
Dua means invocation – to call out – and is an act of supplication, meaning asking or begging for something earnestly or humbly. It is an act of worship in which we ask Allah for His forgiveness and mercy, to grant us His favors and answer our requests.
Making dua (invocation) is an important part of the Islamic faith, as Allah says in the Quran that believers should call on Him and ask Him for His assistance and forgiveness. Along with this, Allah provides assurance that He can hear and see everyone wherever they may be, and that He will indeed respond to prayers.
In Surah Ghafir, He says: “. . . Make Dua before Me, I will accept. . ..” (Quran 40:60). Thus, Muslims should not be shy in seeking the help and guidance of Allah in every problem they face in their life.
Every condition is a manifestation of the Will of Allah. What has passed us was not meant to befall us and what has befallen us was not meant to pass us. Assistance comes with patience, relief after affliction and ease after difficulty. (Tirmidhi)
Our faith and belief is tested when we undergo difficulties and afflictions. These difficulties may be physical, emotional, financial, or spiritual. Allah says: “Verily We will test you with some fear, hunger, and loss of wealth, life or the fruits of your labor.” (Quran 2:155)
These adverse conditions may at times be upon an individual, a family, a community or upon a large section of the Ummah as is the current case of Palestine, Syria, Afghanistan, Myanmar and our country Nigeria where people are suffering needlessly, queuing for PVC, at ATM for new notes and worst of all for fuel, a God-given resource for which our country is the 6th largest producer in the world, but which we have been importing for 30 years. As the largest economy in Africa, we are ironically the poverty capital of the world and as the largest black nation in the world, we also have the highest population of out of school children.
Prayers or dua are panacea for the present problems facing the nation today. The dilemma, however, is that dua for us has become a ritual. Yet, Dua, according to a Hadith, has the unique ability to change destiny (Tirmidhi).
All the Prophets (peace be upon them), as we find in Quran, resorted to supplications as their ultimate ‘weapon’ to solicit Allah’s help when all their efforts to reform their respective nations faced hostile environments.
For example, the Prophet Noah (Nuh), asked God to inflict a torment on his people, who went astray despite his best efforts to guide them to the right path. As an answer to his prayer, God inflicted a great flood on them which went down in history.
The Prophet Job (Ayyub), called out to God because of his distress, saying “… Great harm has afflicted me, and You are the Most Merciful of the merciful” (Surat al-Anbiya, Quran 21:83). Allah said: We responded to him (Job) and removed from him the harm, which was afflicting him and restored his family to him.” (Surat al-Anbiya, Quran 21: 84).
God answered Prophet Solomon (Suleyman), who prayed: “My Lord, forgive me and give me a kingdom the like of which will never be granted to anyone after me. Truly You are the Ever Giving.” (Surah Sâd, Quran 38: 35). And God bestowed a great power and wealth on him.
Accordingly, those who pray should keep in mind the verse, “His command when He desires a thing is just to say to it, ‘Be!’ (Surah Ya-Sin, Quran 37:82).
At the time of the battle of Badr, with the future of Islam under threat, when a small ill equipped band of 313 Muslims faced an army of 1,000 well-armed, the Noble Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) spent the entire night on the eve of the battle begging and supplicating unto Allah for His assistance and Allah Almighty the following day granted the greatest victory in the annals of Islamic history.
In another such incident, when Sultan Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadhi (c. 1137 –1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin, received news of the Crusader’s ships sailing toward them with reinforcements, he retired to the masjid and spent the night in prayer, beseeching and begging Allah Almighty’s assistance. In the morning prayer, he told a pious man, “Please make dua, so that the enemy ships left the shores carrying reinforcements.” The person replied, “Don’t fear, Saladin. Verily the tears of the night have drowned the enemy ships.” A short while later news was received that the ships had sunk.
We read in the Bible, 2 Kings 20:1-6 the story of Hezekiah. This is axiomatic of the power of supplication: “In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.’”
2 Then he (Hezekiah) turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying, 3 “Remember how, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 5 “Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. 6 And I will add to your days fifteen years.”
Such is the power of dua which has been rightfully referred to by scholars as ‘the weapon of a believer’.
While there are conducive and opportune moments when duas are accepted in relation to the above there are no restrictions or specifications on the act of dua. Dua can be made at any time, in any place, in any language.
A person who has faith in this truth can pray to God for anything and can hope that God will answer those prayers. For example, a person who is seized by an incurable disease will surely resort to all forms of medical care. Yet, knowing that only God restores health, prayers will be offered to Him for recovery. We pray today that God should restore the health of our afflicted brothers and friends. Amen
Dua is that act which ‘connects’ the slave to his Master. The slave lifts his hands as begging bowls in an expression of begging as a beggar does. “O mankind! It is you who stand as beggars in your relation to Allah, and it is Allah Who is Free of all wants, Worthy of all praise. (Quran, 35:15).
It is said that Allah feels shy in turning His slave away empty handed. (Tirmidhi, Ahmed, Abu Dawood).
If it is not in the nature of a mother to turn her child away empty handed no matter how disobedient a child may be, how is it possible that the One who is the most merciful and who has placed mercy in the hearts of all mothers turns away His slave, empty handed? How is it possible for the One Who becomes angry when His slaves do not supplicate to Him not to be happy when they do? (Sunan Ibn Majah)
Continuously turning to Allah Almighty in dua is a sign of one’s conviction in Him and the more one turns to Him, the more one’s faith increases. Dua is a condition of the heart and conversation with one’s Maker in the language of one’s choice.
Dua in times of ease is gratifying and engenders humility while at the same time it serves as an assurance of our duas being accepted in times of difficulty, according to Tirmidhi.
Dua in times of difficulty, accompanied by the shedding of tears is uplifting, invigorating, assuring, cleanses, refreshes, and provides solace and relief to a broken heart.
A person can ask God for anything within the limits of the permissible (halal). This is because, as mentioned earlier, God is the only ruler and owner of the entire universe; and if He wills, He grants man anything He desires. Every person who turns to God and prays to Him should credit God’s power to do anything and “be firm in supplication” as our beloved Prophet, peace be upon him, said.
In current times as individuals we are faced with so many tribulations and internationally, the Ummah is faced with crises across the globe that, at times we cannot help but feel helpless, frustrated, and depressed. In such times we have the choice of negotiating these hurdles all by ourselves or through voicing our dissent by petitioning the ‘powers’ that be or to utilize the most powerful ‘weapon’ at the disposal of every Believer — dua and stand up before Allah Almighty and to petition Him for His help as He alone is the one who has power over everything and every situation.
Collectively, we can raise up our hands and supplicate to Allah to deliver us from the Pharaoh of our time. Vox populi vox Dei.
… There are some people who say, ‘Our Lord, give us good in the world.’ They will have no share in the hereafter. And there are others who say, ‘Our Lord, give us good in the world, and good in the hereafter, and safeguard us from the punishment of the Fire.’ They will have a good share from what they have earned. God is swift at reckoning. (Surat al-Baqara Quran 2:200-202)
Prayer for Palestine: Lord God, we turn to you in these trying hours when conflict is a daily reality for our sisters and brothers in Israel and Palestine. We ask you to bring justice to the people of Palestine. And utmost peace and reconciliation in the region.
Barka Juma’at and Happy weekend
Dua: On no soul doth Allah place a burden greater than it can bear. It gets every good that it earns, and it suffers every ill that it earns. (Pray): “Our Lord! condemn us not if we forget or fall into error; our Lord! Lay not on us a burden like that which Thou didst lay on those before us; Our Lord! lay not on us a burden greater than we have strength to bear. Blot out our sins and grant us forgiveness. Have mercy on us. Thou art our Protector; help us against those who stand against faith.”
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