Du'a

Last week, we focus on the sunnah of making ablution and coming out of the washroom. Here is the sunnah for this week:

After the fard salahs:

• After slautation, say Allahu Akbar in loud voice
• Say “Astagfirullah” thrice in low voice
• Recite “Ayat Kursi”
• Read the morning and evening supplications after farjar and asar prayers (Another Link)
• Recite other Adhkars and Supplications
• Pray the two rakahs of ishraq after the fajar prayer (The Messenger of Allah [SAWS] said, “Whoever prays the dawn prayer (fajr) in a group and then sits and does dhikr until the sun rises, then prays two rakas, shall have the like of the reward of a hajj and an umra.”)

Tip of the Week:

Note: This is the 5th post in our series on Tafseer of Juz ‘Amma.

In our last post, we talked about how the human race does taghaa if they see themselves as self-sufficient. Living in western societies, we see this all around us–people racing, fighting, stealing, overworking, to make a few more dollars so that they can “make it.” They buy lottery tickets so they can “make it” and be rich, rich rich!

The Prophet (salallahu alayhi wa sallam) used to make a du’a:

اللّهُمَّ إنِّي أعُوذُبِكَ مِن العَجزِ وَ الكَسلٍ

Why is this du’a important? For two reasons:

• Laziness is an attribute of munafiqeen. If this wasn’t bad enough, being lazy leads to procrastination, which leads to its own set of problems.
• It’s common these days for people to say “I can’t do it.” Like “I can’t pray at work,” or “I can’t achieve X.” The Prophet (salallahu alayhi wa sallam) would say a’oothubillah to that kind of talk. Think about it!

Action Plan:

There’s a beautiful du’a that Allah mentions near the end of Surah Baqarah:

Translation: So do ‘affuw on us. And forgive us. And have mercy on us. [Surah Baqarah, verse 286]

Allah mentions three things, in order:

1. ‘Affuw ‘annaa: Affuw linguistically means to erase something; to obliterate something; to completely destroy something and leave no traces of it whatsoever. This du’a is saying: make affuw of our sins. Remove them completely.
2. Waghfir lanaa: Ghafira linguistically means to protect–that’s why a helmet is called a mighfaar. Read up about Allah’s two names: Al-Ghafuwr and Al-Ghaffaar. Here, the du’a is saying: and if you do not ‘affuw our sins, forgive us, and protect us from the consequences of them.
3. Warham naa: Rahmah is mercy; Allah has two names related to this quality–Ar-Rahman and Ar-Raheem. Here, the du’a is saying: and if you do not even forgive our sins, then have mercy on us! Subhanallah!

What an amazing du’a! Do affuw of our sins; and if not, forgive us and protect us from their effects; and if not, have mercy on us!

Bismillah.

One of the things I decided to blog about is my own personal du’a–it’s not lifted straight from the pages of the Qur’an or Sunnah, but it draws from them. My goal was to have a du’a that:

• Is short, so I can recite it in sujood every rakah or every salah
• Is encompassing–covers every aspect (in this case, of the akhirah)
• Is easy to remember, so I can remember it as needed!
• Is easy, not full of hard-to-pronounce or hard-to-remember words.

The du’a is:

Bismillah

What is the greatest gift you could ever receive? That you could ever want? That would bring you the greatest happiness and delight?…..Think about it.

Got an idea? ….good.

Most of us will be thinking of Jannah and all of its delights. But the most pleasurable thing in Jannah is not having spouses, or servants that will serve you, or drinking milk and honey. No rather, there is something MUCH GREATER for the Dwellers of Jannah that Allah ta’ala is keeping for them…

Bismillah

The Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه و سلم) said, “How can I feel comfort while the angel responsible for The Trumpet has placed The Trumpet to his mouth and lowered his forehead, awaiting when he will be commanded (by Allah to blow in it)?”