The Key Aspects Of Supplication


Allah says in the Qur'an to ask Him and He shall answer our prayers. It is within the power of Allah to alter our fate. It is through our dua that we ask Allah for His Mercy and Benevolence.

There is a hadith that mentions believers must have faith that Allah will answer their dua. Allah may answer our dua during our life in this temporal world or He may defer our request till we are in the Hereafter. Allah responds to our dua in many ways. He may answer by pardoning or obviating our sins, or by sparing us of an undesirable fate. Allah may choose to respond to our dua in any manner He so chooses.

Another hadith mentions that our dua will be more likely to be accepted if we are patient and not in any rush in making the dua. There is a story of Prophet Musa whose prayers were not answered until at least 40 years later. If this was how long a prophet's prayers were answered by Allah, then us mere believers should not be hasty in expecting an answer from Allah. We must never utter statements to the effect that Allah does not listen to our prayers.

Our prayers would more likely to be heeded by Allah if we have faithfully followed His commands than if we have disobeyed Him. This makes sense. We obey Allah both in the words we utter and the deeds we perform. We should praise Allah when ever we can and strive to do the things that He commands us to do and that would please Him.
There is a story of a man who does good to another man because the latter also does good to the former. This is to be expected, we reciprocate the good that is being done upon us. The greater challenge, however, is in doing good to those who have been less than good or even evil to us.

Consider a worker who has been diligent in his work. He regularly comes early to work and does beyond what is expected of him. Naturally that would please his employer. It should not surprise us that the employer would look favorably and reward such a worker over someone who always misses his work and does things that his employer would not be pleased with. Not only would that worker not get any favorable considerations from his employer, the worker may well get punished by being fired.

Following Allah's command and doing the things that would please Him would be one way for us to get favorable considerations from Allah, as for example with our reading the Qur'an regularly. We should strive to go beyond mere reading and recitation. We should ponder the meanings of the various verses. We should strive to emulate the sterling attributes of the Messenger of Allah, Prophet Muhammad . We express our love for him by emulating him, for those are the same qualities that would please Allah.

We must strive to reach the peak of our spirituality. When we have doubts about what we are about to ingest as being halal or haram, we should err towards avoiding it. If we are concerned that we are not in a purified state for prayer, then we should redo our ablution and ghusl. Likewise in our deeds; if we have doubts about the goodness of a particular deed it is best that we refrain from doing it. Allah is Merciful and Forgiving. By doing the things that He commands us to do and avoid those that He prescribed against and err towards the latter, then we would hold ourselves in good stead.

There are a few practical or ritual aspects in making dua. For example, we must be in as a spiritually pure state as possible, hence making dua after our prayers. We should hold both our palms up and at the end of the dua we should close our palms to our face. Consider that in reciting a dua we are making a request to Allah. When we write a letter seeking something from our superior, we want that letter to be in the best physical form as possible, with every word tidy and the paper folded neatly. Likewise when we are doing our dua, we too should pay attention to these little details.

Key Aspects of the Dua or Supplication Part 2 to be continued next month, insha'Allah.

Ilyas Anwar is a contributing writer to Illume magazine.


Related Suggestions

 
COMMENTS DISCLAIMER & RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
The opinions expressed herein, through this post or comments, contain positions and viewpoints that are not necessarily those of IslamiCity. These are offered as a means for IslamiCity to stimulate dialogue and discussion in our continuing mission of being an educational organization. The IslamiCity site may occasionally contain copyrighted material the use of which may not always have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. IslamiCity is making such material available in its effort to advance understanding of humanitarian, education, democracy, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, and such (and all) material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.


Older Comments:
MOHAMMED YASEEN FROM INDIA said:
as salamu alaikum
this is a very good article and insha allah i will expect more such kind of articles in future
2010-06-03

BOB HOUGLAND FROM USA said:
The Straight Way of Islam is the supreme reward-- a reward ever-present and unchanging and leading to the only "Peace", the supreme felicity of God.
2010-05-06

SHUJA FROM UK said:
When 1971 war was going on between India and Pakistan, I was a child. I could still have felt the pain of defeat on Pakistan even on the faces of Indian Muslims. I am not telling who was right and wrong in 1971. My whole point was that even East Pakistani Muslims were praying for Pakistan even though they were butchered by the Pakistani military. The whole Muslim world was praying for Pakistan. Special prayers were going on in Makkah and Madinah. Guess what! Allah the Almighty rebuked all the those prayers and handed over an ignonomous historical defeat and humiliation to Pakistan and Muslims. Dua functions on certain foundations. Those foundations are completely removed by Muslims of today. We are cheaters, we are sucking the blood of each other. Islam has become just a ritual. Our ulema are selling the religion like bananas in the market. Our ulema have completely divided us like scattered ghettos. The Glorious Qur'an demands us to be united, our ulema loves to divide the Muslims on Fiqh issues. Our morals have nothing to do with Qur'an. Our connection to the greatest book is next to negligible. We are deceiving oursleves right and left. Our masajids have become power centers for frustrated people. Idiots and comedians have taken our masajids. Our youth is lost. Unless, the Islamic Middle Class rise up and take over the matters, far worst scenarios are on the horizon. May Allah the Almighty give us hidaya, guidance and make us understand Islam in its original form without layers of confusion.
2010-04-26

HENDON ALIAS FROM MALAYSIA said:
A dua is not just making wishes or asking for anyhting from Allah, it is another way of communicating to Him. Pour your heart out, tell Him of your anguish and worries, tell Him about your sorrows and joys. It is the time when you share everything with Him. It is the time to admit that He is the only one to whom you turn in time of everything. It is the time to humble yourself,
pray as if He will wipe the tears,pray as if He will embrace to comfort.If you really put your heart in a dua, you will feel His love embrace you.
Amin.
2008-02-25

ARIF FROM INDIA said:
Assalamualikum
Alhamdulillah, may Allah show us his guidance to us.The article is realy an eye opener to those who r desperate or to those who havnt have enough belief in Allah's clemency.Here by i express my heartfelt warmth from the article.Basically the faith in Allah's mercy is lost from the ummah i think its becoz they dont wait for to hav a thought about themselves that hw much they are good enough to receive Allah's benovelence.The most important thing we have to have in mind is that the above mentioned archives are for the sahabi's time,they loved Allah in every sense they could;as in in every aspect of their life.But i suppose today the faith itself has been commodised,and people think being a muslim is by doing five time salah and other rituals,but,infact our rasool(s) showed every aspect of our journey of life from how to dress to how to divorce,that is islam .
So dont panic if Allah wait for somemore time it is His will will be the ultimatum,hope for always best,or try to discover the warmth from what you hav.
Assalamualikum,and if ther is any thing from my writeup pls forgive,err is human.
2008-02-24

MUSLIM.INUSA FROM US said:
Manners of supplication:
Manners mentioned by prophet Mohammed (SAWS):
1-Trust Alla and have certainty that supplication will be answered
2-Perform wudu
3-Face the Qiblah
4-Raising one's hands
5-Make supplication from your heart
6-Ask Alla with low tone voice
7-Start with thanking Alla and salat on Mohammed (SAWS).
8-Ask Alla by his names and attributes.
9-Mention a good deed which you have done for Alla
10-Persistence in supplication and repeat duaa
11-Do not make supplication against oneself or others
12-Do not ask for haram "sin"
13-Ask for every thing you desire
14-Make supplication for all muslims
15-Say at the end ameen
2008-02-23