5- Letting Allah take care of it all
Not a leaf falls but Allah knows about it. When things do not seem right and we have no clue where to go and how to ask Allah, we can always just allow Him and His plan to take shape, because He is the Best Caretaker of affairs!
On from the first story of tremendous patience, to the second of unbelievable courage to the third today which we can relate to a bit more- du’a after committing a mistake. Yunus (peace be upon him) was a Prophet. He was a Prophet who went and called a nation to Islam.
However, when his people rejected, he got angry and left them. He boarded a ship and they hit a storm. Allah gave the people various signs, and part of it was that someone on the ship should be sent overboard.
They drew lots and all three times the person who came up was the Prophet Yunus. He accepted his fate and he was thrown overboard. That was bad enough. But, then a whale came up and swallowed him whole.
As he sat in the darkness, he remembered Allah. It was a dark night, and inside a dark ocean he was inside the belly of a whale, which was dark as well! From behind the three layers of darkness he called out:
There is no deity except You: exalted are You. Indeed, I have been of the wrongdoers.
Allah then ordered the whale to throw him up on the shore. In the depths of darkness, he called, and till date we know this du’a as “Du’a Yunus”.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said that whoever asks Allah by saying this du’a will be granted their wish.
Moreover, one of the tricks of shaytan (satan) is that he makes us lose hope in Allah after having committed a sin. This du’a is proof that after making a mistake, we should turn to Allah even more! What is it that the Prophet Yunus taught us about du’a here?
6- Turning to Allah
No matter what he had done, he didn’t feel any qualms about turning to Allah during His time of need.
7- Allah helps His slave regardless of what was done in the past.
8- Admit Sins
Admitting sins is one of the ways our duas are made even more powerful. It is proof that Allah gives us not because of who we are, but because of His Grace and Generosity.
To the last of the verses, and it is the dua we recite commonly when we hear of anyone’s death. This is the dua that should be recited when disaster strikes. At the time of disaster is when we often forget Allah.
And hence remembering Allah at that time is mentioned, and straight after that Allah mentions that these people are those upon whom is Allah’s blessings and mercy. What an amazing reward!
When Abu Salamah, the husband of Umm Salamah, died, she was in a lot of grief. She made this very dua and also asked Allah to provide her with something better than what she has gone through.
She wondered then if she would ever find a husband better than Abu Salamah. Lo and behold, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) himself proposed marriage to her!
Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return.
9- Ownership to Allah
This du’a is one where the one making du’a makes it clear that ownership belongs to Allah. In our times of disaster we have a feeling of control slipping from our lives. This du’a is a clarification that control might never be in our hands, but Allah has it all under control.
10- Reminder of the hereafter
Disasters are a way for Allah to make us yearn less for this world, and to yearn more for the hereafter. The hereafter is where Allah will right every wrong as well. And hence we finish the dua saying to Him we will return.
These 4 duas teach us 10 crucial lessons in making supplications to Allah. They teach us about what it is about the dua that make them so beloved to Allah that He has placed them in the Quran for them to be recited till the end of times.
So to summarize the 10 lessons that will help us make amazing dua, they are:
- Expressing our weakness
- Not blaming Allah
- Never forgetting His Mercy
- Trusting that He will deliver
- Letting Him take care of what will happen
- Turning to Allah whenever we are in need
- Knowing He helps regardless of our past
- Admitting our sins
- Knowing that He owns everything
- Remembering the hereafter.
(From Discovering Islam’s archive.)
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