Do you feel that your Dua's are not being accepted? Then read this!

[Hamza Asadullah]

Do you feel that your Dua's are not being accepted? Then read this!


Bismillahirahmaniraheem

It was narrated from Abu Sa'eed that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said:

"There is no Muslim who does not offer any Du'a in which there is no sin or severing of family ties but Allah will give him one of three things in return: either He will answer his Du'a sooner, or he will store it up for him in the Hereafter, or He will divert an equivalent evil away from him because of it." They said: "We will say a lot of Du'a." He said: "Allah is more generous." Narrated by Ahmad (10749)

Sufyan ibn 'Uyaynah (Ra) said "Let none of you think that his Du'a will go unanswered because of the sins that he knows of himself.

Indeed, Allah responded to the Du'a of the worst amongst His creation; Iblees (Shaitan, the cursed one), when he said; 'O My Lord! Give me respite until the Day of Judgement!' He (Allah SWT) replied, 'Then you are of those who have been reprieved.' (Surah al-Hijr 36-37).

So if the Du'a of Iblees' can be accepted, then surely the Du'a of a sinner has more right than the devil himself!" And surely your Lord is never unjust...

Do not despair of the infinite mercy of Allah

Say: My servants who have acted extravagantly against themselves still do not despair of Allah's mercy. Allah forgives all offences; He is the Forgiving, the Merciful (Az-Zumar 39/53).

Ibrâhîm ibn Adham (Ra) said, when he was asked about the verse: "Call upon Me and I will respond to you." [Sûrah Ghâfir 40:60] They said: We call upon Allah, but He does not respond to us. So he said:

"You know Allâh; yet you do not obey Him.
You recite the Qur'ân; yet you do not act according to it.
You know Shaytân; yet you continue agreeing with him.
You claim to love Allâh's Messenger 'alayhis-salâm; yet you abandon his Sunnah (guidance and way).
You claim to love Paradise, yet you do not work for it.
You claim to fear the Fire; yet you do not stop sinning.
You say, Indeed death is true; yet you have not prepared for it.
You busy yourselves with the faults of others; yet you do not look at your own faults.
You eat the sustenance that Allâh provides for you; yet you are not grateful to Him.
And you bury your dead; yet you have not heeded its lesson." Al-Hâfidh Ibn Rajab related it in al-Khushû' fis-Salâh (p.62).

We must never get impatient and despair for Almighty Allah says in the Qur'an: "And of the people are some who say, “We believe in Allah,” but when one [of them] is harmed for [the cause of] Allah, they consider the trial [i.e. harm] of the people as [if it were] the punishment of Allah. But if victory comes from your Lord, they say, “Indeed, We were with you.” Is not Allah most knowing of what is within the breasts of the worlds [i.e. all creatures]? And Allah will surely make evident those who believe, and He will surely make evident the hypocrites." [Quran 29:10-11]

Thus, every claim must have its proof, and faith is a claim which needs proof. Steadfastness in times of hardship is a manifestation of faith and it is also the proof of its existence and its firmness. Almighty Allah Says (what means): "Do the people think that they will be left to say, We believe and they will not be tried? But We have certainly tried those before them, and Allah will surely make evident those who are truthful, and He will surely make evident the liars.…." [Quran 29:2-3]

Trials will befall us in our lives. Some of us more than others. We only need to look at the situation with our Ummah around the world to realise that what we may be going through is nothing close to what our brothers, sisters and children are going through right now. Looking at those who are worst off than us actually helps us put our own trials into perspective and should make us thankful to Allah that we are not going through any where near as harsh a trial as others are going through right now.

Also we must never lose hope in Allah when making Dua as indeed, Allah responded to the Du'a of the worst amongst His creation; Iblees (Shaitan, the cursed one), when he said; 'O My Lord! Give me respite until the Day of Judgement!' He (Allah SWT) replied, 'Then you are of those who have been reprieved.' (Surah al-Hijr 36-37).

So if the Du'aa of Iblees' can be accepted, then surely the Du'aa of a sinner has more right than the devil himself!" And surely your Lord is never unjust...

Just because we may not see the immediate effects of our Dua's then it does not mean that we should get disheartened and lose hope in the effectiveness and powers of our Dua.

Ibn Al-Jawzi (Ra) commented in one of his books where he discusses this topic about the matter of Dua’s not being answered:

I think part of the test is when a believer supplicates and receives no response, and he repeats the dua for a long time and sees no sign of a response. He should realize that this is a test and needs patience.

What a person experiences of waswaas (whispers from shaytan) when the response is delayed is a sickness which needs medicine – I have experienced this myself. A calamity befell me and I supplicated and did not see any response, and Iblees started to lay his traps. Sometimes he said: The generosity (of Allah) is abundant and He is not miserly, so why is there a delay?

I said to him: Be gone, O cursed one, for I have no need of anyone to argue my case and I do not want you as a supporter!

Then I told myself: Beware of going along with his whispers, for if there was no other reason for the delay except that Allah is testing you to see whether you will fight the enemy, that is sufficient wisdom.

My soul (nafs) said: How could you explain the delay in the response of Allah to your prayers for relief from this calamity?

I said: It is proven with evidence that Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, is the Sovereign, and the Sovereign may withhold or give, so there is no point in objecting to Him.

The wisdom behind that is proven in definitive evidence. I may think that something is good, but wisdom does not dictate it, but the reason for that may be hidden, just as a doctor may do things that appear outwardly to be harmful, intending some good purpose thereby. Perhaps this is something of that nature.

There may be an interest to be served by delay, and haste may be harmful. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “A person will be fine so long as he does not become impatient and says, ‘I prayed but I did not receive any answer.’”

The response may be withheld because of some fault in you. Perhaps there was something dubious in what you ate or your heart was heedless at the time when you said the dua, or your punishment is being increased by means of your need being withheld, because of some sin from which you have not repented sincerely. So look for some of these reasons, so that you might achieve your aim.

You should examine the intention behind this request, because attaining it may lead to more sin, or prevent you from doing some good, so withholding it is better.

Perhaps losing what you have missed out on will cause you to turn to Allah and getting it will distract you from Him. This is obvious, based on the fact that were it not for this calamity you would not have turned to Him, because the real calamity is what distracts you from Him, but what makes you stand before Him is good for you and is in your best interests.

If you ponder these things you will focus on what is more beneficial for you, such as correcting a mistake or seeking forgiveness or standing before Allah and beseeching Him, and forget about what you have missed out on. Source: Sayd al-Khaatir (59-60).

Therefore we must realise that Allah knows better what is best for us so we should have full faith, trust and reliance on him that he will do what is best for us. Also if we wants to increase the effectiveness of our Dua's then the following hadith tells us how to do this:

It was narrated that Faddalah ibn ‘Ubayd (Ra) said: The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) heard a man making Dua after his prayer, but he did not send blessings upon the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) said: “This man is in a hurry.” Then he called him and said to him or to someone else: “When any one of you has finished praying (and makes Dua), let him start by praising Allah, then let him send blessings upon the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam), then after that let him ask for whatever he wants.” (Al-Tirmidhi, 2765)

The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) said: “The slave will receive a response so long as his Dua does not involve sin or severing of family ties, and so long as he is not hasty.” It was said, “What does being hasty mean?” He said: “When he says, ‘I made Dua and I made Dua, and I have not seen any response,’ and he gets frustrated and stops making Dua.” (Al-Bukahari, 6340; Muslim, 2735)

So we must realise that trials will befall us but Allah is testing us to see how strong our resolve is and whether we will turn to him or not. So we must never lose hope. We should make us of the times when Dua's are readily accepted especially the time of Tahajjud. Ask of him, beg and cry unto him and he will never leave you empty handed!

So never lose hope in making Dua to Allah. We should always bare in mind that we do not know what is best for us and others. It may also be that Allah is keeping our rewards for making Dua to him so that on the day of Judgement when we see the rewards and we ask Allah what are these huge rewards and he tells us that these were the rewards of the many Dua's we did but we thought they were not answered but Allah kept the reward for us. Therefore we would wish that none of our Dua's were accepted so that we may get all the rewards on the day of Judgement.

Therefore never lose hope and keep making Dua and always bare in mind that Allah knows what is best for us and those we make Dua for and it maybe that he is accepting our Duas in other ways that we are not aware of that are even better than the Dua's we made.

So trust in Allah and know he will never turn us away empty handed because those who make much Dua can only be in a win win situation!

May Allah never make us lose hope in him and make us patient and persevere through trials and hardships. Ameen

[Hamza Asadullah]

[Hamza Asadullah]