Were It Not for Our Dua

“O Allah! I seek refuge in You from the knowledge which is not beneficial, and from a heart which does not fear (You), and from desire which is not satisfied, and from prayer which is not answered” (Tirmidhi, Daawat 69).

Dua is the general term for the connection between Allah the Almighty and His servants. The word is defined as “calling upon someone, invocation, asking for something, supplication, and a request for help.” It is an admission of a servant’s helplessness and weakness before Allah, as well as a plea for His help and grace, made with love and reverence. It is for a servant to direct every fiber of their being to their Creator, glorify Him, and ask of Him. Allah (jalla jalaluhu) instructs us to turn to Him with dua:

“When My servants ask you about Me, Indeed I am near. I respond to the invocation of the supplicant when he calls upon Me. So let them respond to Me [by obedience] and believe in Me that they may be [rightly] guided.” (Al-Baqarah, 186).

The full breadth of the concept of dua can be categorized under three main headings:

• Proclaiming the oneness of Allah the Most High and praising His glorious name.
• Asking Allah for His forgiveness, mercy, and other benefits that improve one’s spiritual state of being.
• Asking Allah for worldly blessings and boons.

Dua can be generalized as a form of supplication to Allah for worldly and spiritual benefits. Although dua primarily encompasses expressions of plea to Allah for one’s needs and desires, it also contains considerable degrees of praise, dhikr, tasbih, and exaltation of His divine personage and attributes. This aspect of dua is highlighted by the fact that Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) remarked on the dua to be uttered on the day of Arafah in his hadith as follows:

“The best invocation is that of the Day of Arafat, and the best that anyone can say is what I and the Prophets before me have said: La ilaha illallahu wahdahu la sharika lahu, lahul-mulku wa lahul-hamdu wa huwa ala kulli shay’in qadir. (None has the right to be worshipped, but Allah, the Alone, Who has no partners. To Him belongs Dominion and to Him belong all the Praises, and He has power over all things” (Tirmidhi, Daawat 138).

As a matter of fact, words of tasbih (subhanallah), tahmid (alhamdulillah), and tahlil (la ilaha illallah), expressing praise and reverence, also signify dua by virtue of having an inherent request for ajr and reward as a connotation of their meaning. It’s worth noting that, in the Qur’an, it is said that mumins’ duas will begin with “subhanakallahumma” and end with “alhamdulillahi rabbi’l-alamin”:

“Indeed, those who have believed and done righteous deeds - their Lord will guide them because of their faith. Beneath them, rivers will flow in the Gardens of Pleasure. Their call therein will be, "Exalted are You, O Allah," and their greeting therein will be, "Salam (Peace)." And the last of their call will be, "Praise to Allah, Lord of the worlds” (Yunus, 9-10).

While assessing the ayahs and hadiths about dua, our scholars have deemed asking for things from Allah and beseeching Him for one’s wishes to be granted as supplementary to expressing one’s veneration, insignificance, awe and helplessness before His endless might and wealth, and realizing one’s infinitesimal existence before His infinite greatness. Due to this comprehensiveness of dua, Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said, “Dua is the essence of worship.” (Tirmidhi, Daawt, 1).

Abu Jafar at-Tabari (rahmatullahi alayh) interpreted the command “Supplicate to your Lord” as “Worship me, turn to none other than me with ibadah so that I accept your prayers and treat you with my mercy.” According to this assessment, the term dua encapsulates the concept of ibadah as well. Taking this interpretation one step further, Sufyan ath-Thawri (rahmatullahi alayh) asserts that even abandoning sins is a form of dua.

According to the great mufassir (interpreter of the Qur’an) Fakhruddin ar-Razi (rahmatullahi alayh), the hadith “Supplication is itself worship,” can be deduced to mean “dua is greater than and superior to other forms of ibadah,” just as the hadith, “Hajj is Arafat” (Tirmidhi, Hajj, 57) means “Making waqfah (standing up) in Arafat is the foremost principle of hajj.”

All of this culminates in the evident conclusion that dua isn’t just an act of opening one’s hands to Allah the Exalted in prayer and asking things of Him. It has an expansive domain of definitions that includes directing one’s entire being to turn to their Creator, admitting one’s helplessness, and seeking refuge in His grace. The stronger a believer’s ties of dua that bind their heart to Allah the Most High, the greater their value in His sight. Allah (jalla jalaluhu) says in the Qur’an:

“Say, ‘What would my Lord care for you if not for your supplication?’” (Furqan, 77)

The expression “if not for your supplication” in this ayah is joined with various alternative explanations that our scholars have propounded throughout the ages:

• If you didn’t have iman…
• If you didn’t perform ibadah…
• If you didn’t beseech Him in the face of hardships…
• If you didn’t thank Him when He provided you with His blessings…

Ayahs of Dua

Approximately two hundred ayahs in the Qur’an are directly related to dua. If we add ayahs that involve believers’ pleas for forgiveness, such as tawbah and istighfar, to the count, a much greater number of ayahs can be linked to the concept of dua.

The ayahs“Supplicate to your Lord humility and privately. Indeed, He does not like transgressors.” (Al-Araf, 55) and “And to Allah belong the best names, so invoke Him by them.” (Al-Araf, 180) teach believers the manners of supplicating to Allah. Furthermore, certain ayahs and surahs serve as perfect archetypes for believers to grasp how to pray to Allah. The foremost example in this regard is none other than surah Al-Fatiha. One of the names of this surah, which we recite in every rakah of every salah, is “suratu’s-sual,” while another is “suratu’d-dua.” “Sual” means an ask or request. It is a rather apt pseudonym for this surah, considering that those who recite it ask Allah to guide them to the straight path with the ayah, “Guide us to the straight path.”

The most frequently repeated ayah of dua after surah Al-Fatiha is the following ayah, which is found in surah Al-Baqarah and constitutes a sunnah act to recite during the final tashahhud of salah:

“Our Lord, give us in this world [that which is] good and in the Hereafter [that which is] good and protect us from the punishment of the Fire.” (Al-Baqarah, 201). Anas bin Malik (radiyallahu anh) reported that Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) uttered this dua frequently. (Bukhari, Daawat, 55)

Another ayah that is recited at the final tashahhud of salah and considered a dua is the following supplication by Ibrahim (alayhissalam):

“Our Lord, forgive me, my parents, and the believers on the Day of Reckoning.” (Ibrahim, 41).

The last ayah of surah Al-Baqarah is also among the ayahs of dua, and it is recommended that we recite it after isha prayers:

“Our Lord, do not hold us accountable, if we forget or make a mistake, and, Our Lord, do not place on us such a burden as You have placed on those before us, and, Our Lord, do not make us bear a burden for which we have no strength. And pardon us, and grant us forgiveness, and have mercy on us. You are our Lord. So then help us against the disbelieving people” (Al-Baqarah, 286).

More than 80 ayahs in the Qur’an instruct us in how prophets have prayed to Allah. Twenty-one of these mention duas made by Musa (alayhissalam), while Ibrahim’s (alayhissalam) duas are quoted in 17 ayahs, Isa’s (alayhissalam) duas in 16 ayahs, Nuh’s (alayhissalam) duas in 12 ayahs, and Zakariya’s (alayhissalam) duas in 9 ayahs. In addition to these, there are also duas in the Qur’an made by Adam (alayhissalam), Shuaib (alayhissalam), Yunus (alayhissalam), Yusuf (alayhissalam), Ayyub (alayhissalam), Lut (alayhissalam), and Sulayman (alayhissalam).

While the duas of these prophets would constitute a subject of discussion extensive enough to require its own article, let us conclude with the duas of the last of the line of prophets, the final link of the chain of nubuwwah (prophethood)and sayyidu’l-mursalin (the master of messengers) Muhammad Mustafa (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). These duas are reflected in the Qur’an with the following words:

“Say, "O Allah, Owner of Sovereignty, You give sovereignty to whom You will, and You take sovereignty away from whom You will. You honor whom You will, and You humble whom You will. In Your hand (hand of might)  is [all] good. Indeed, You are over all things competent. You cause the night to enter the day, and You cause the day to enter the night, and You bring the living out of the dead, and You bring the dead out of the living. And You give provision to whom You will without account [i.e., limit or measure].” (Al-i Imran, 26-27).

“And say, “O my Lord, make me enter a rightful entrance and make me exit a rightful exit, and grant me from Yourself a supporting authority.” (Al-Isra, 80).

Abdülkadir Alioğlu