South Valley Islamic Community Blog

By Imam Ilyas Anwar

In last week’s khutbah, we discussed key aspects of the dua or supplication.  Allah says in the Quran 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.

A hadith has it that 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 has it 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 Nabi 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 mortals 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 whenever 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 second also does good to the first.  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 Quran regularly.  We should strive to go beyond mere reading and recitation.  We should ponder the meanings of the various ayats.  We should strive to emulate the sterling attributes of the Messenger of Allah, Muhammad s.a.w.  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 ghusul.  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 proscribed 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.

Transcribed by Dr. Bakri Musa

By Imam Ilyas Anwar

By this time our pilgrims would all have returned safely to their homes
and families.  Some will have superb a memory of the entire experience
of their stay in the Holy Land, some for a variety reasons would have
less than a positive or even unhappy experience, while most will have
mostly good memories for having undertaken the journey.  Praise be to
Allah, this year the Hajj was not marred by any major tragedy.

It is well to remember that when we undertake the pilgrimage, we are
implicitly or otherwise answering the “call” or invitation from Allah.
Imagine if we had been invited to visit the home of an important
person, if we come out of it complaining of our less than favorable
experience, it is not likely we would be getting another invitation.
Likewise with our pilgrimage journey; if our experience had been
entirely negative we would not likely to embark on another Hajj.

It is for this reason that on returning from Hajj we should highlight
the positive aspects of our experienced and be forgiving of the
less-than-pleasant aspects of the trip.  If nothing else, who knows,
our positive experience would inspire others to follow in our footsteps
and be committed to undertake their own Hajj.

There is a sunnah of the prophet that after every journey he
undertook, he would on his return first visit the local mosque to offer
his two-raka’at prayers as a thanksgiving for his safe return.  He
would also often do the same thing before embarking on a journey.  Yes
in the old days undertaking the Hajj was a long and often hazardous
venture.  Today however even though our arrangements are made well
ahead of time and that traveling is now much more comfortable and safe,
nonetheless it is till worthwhile to emulate the prophet s.a.w and
offer our two-raka’at prayers at our local mosque after rerunning on
long journey, especially the Hajj.

It is said after successfully completing the Hajj, we would be
cleansed and be like a newborn baby sin wise; we would be starting on a
clean slate.  As such, our dua and supplications would be more likely
to be accepted by Allah seeing that we are in a “pure” state; thus the
tradition of asking those who have returned from Hajj to make du’a for us.

The Hajj is such a momentous journey, with its deep spiritual and
emotional impact on the pilgrims.  The hajj would affect and change us
in profound ways.  It is a spiritually and emotionally cleansing
undertaking.  Thus we should not postpone undertaking our own hajj.  We
should not have the attitude of waiting till our old age while we live
our “fun” live meanwhile, so that when we undertake the hajj we would
be cleansed of all our sins.  For one, we may never have that chance.
For another, if we have led a life or chosen a path that is not favored
by Allah all these years, chances are our habits would have become
ingrained in us and that spending a week or two at the hajj would not
change our core being, no matter how spiritually moving the pilgrimage
might have been.  For these reasons, we must commit to undertake our
own Hajj as soon as we can.

Allah is most merciful, and that if we were to ask for true
repentance, He will grant us.  It is within Allah to forgive our sins
if we are committed to change ourselves.  The Hajj would give us the
necessary stimulus for us to change ourselves for the better.

Let us then ask of the pilgrims to make dua for us and may Allah
accept their du’a.  Even if we had not undertaken our own physical
journey of Hajj this year, let us join in our fellow Muslims who do so
by committing ourselves to our own spiritual journey, our won Hajj of
the heart. In doing so we demonstrate and join in the solidarity with
the pilgrims.

Our time on earth is finite.  Let us devote as much time and effort as
possible for the purposes of bettering our family, our community, and
ourselves.

Allah has blessed each of us with our own special ways to contribute
to society.  Some will contribute with their wealth, others through
their talent, and yet others through their personal examples or wisdom.
But contribute we must, we all put in our share.

Allah in His wisdom understood that when he created us mortals he knew
that we would be subjected to the trials and tribulations of living.
Some of us would be tempted to follow the path that He disapproves of.
Nonetheless he has given that freedom to choose whichever path.  After
all if Allah had wanted us to be angels, he would have made us into
angels.  He has created plenty of angels.  Similarly, if Allah had
wanted us to be destined for Hell, He would made us all into Satan.
Allah has given us the Quran to guide us along the straight path.
However he has also given us the freedom not to pursue such a path.  We
all have to decide on our own and then be answerable to Him in the
Hereafter.
Transcribed by Dr. Bakri Musa