A Muslim cannot do without du’a, rather leaving off praying to Allah amounts to priding away from Allah’s worship out of self-sufficiency and that’s kufru.
Knowing that, however, there are etiquettes associated with prayer as well as expedients for its acceptance as taught to us by the noble prophet salallāhu alayhi wa Salaam
Etiquettes of Ad-Dua’
The following are some of the etiquettes of Ad-Dua’:
– The first of them is ikhlaas like other ibaadaat because prayer is also a worship. So one needs to make Allah the sole object of reverence.
– Then before prayer, one must acknowledge a disposition of destitution towards His favours; all might and capabilities are to be accorded to Him.
(These beliefs and acknowledgement can be put into words to precede the actual request)
– Next is to be resolved that the prayers will be answered with unwavering certainty
– One may perform wuduu to be in state of purity and face the qiblah before commencing but that is only encouraged, not mandatory.
– The mind should be present at the time of the prayer with a humble disposition of fervent hope and awe. It is also important to be calm and not hasty, and be moderate and not too loud while pronouncing the wordings of the du’a
– Then one must admit Allah’s numerous blessings, thank Him for all His obvious and hidden favours and praise Him for His grandeur. And also to admit one’s misgivings and shortcomings and seek forgiveness for them
– Then one should send solaawaat on the Rasul, his family and companions and ask Allah to raise his rank
– Then one should continue with the prayers, starting with matters that concerns oneself personally first before praying for others
– One should be cautious and not be overtly selective in making requests, rather one should ask for what is best and favourable
– Avoidance of cursing one’s own family or properties or asking Allah to aid in injustice or sinning
– And lastly, it is recommended to repeat the wordings of the du’a three times each.
In the case of expedients, the following etiquettes can be considered:
– One may do 2units of naafilah before starting
– It is recommended to raise the two hands when making special du’a (but that shouldn’t be a practice associated with 5 daily solaawaat)
– To be wary of the source of one’s earnings, food and clothings must be earned from halal means
– To target periods and conditions known specifically for prayer acceptance; such as between the adhan and iqaamah, the last 1/3 of the night, after the last tashahhud in every solaawaat before tasleem, when it’s raining, after solaatul asr till sunset on Fridays, when drinking zamazam, during sujood, immediately after waking from sleep in the night before anything else, and days like arafah, during Ramadan and laylatul Qadri, and other days significant for that, when on a journey, when breaking the fast, prayer of the parents for their child, prayer of the oppressed and so on.
– Also making tawassul employing the legislated means in the Sharee’ah:
1)using the beautiful names of Allah and His lofty attributes that conforms with the kind of prayer,
2)invoking Allah in hardship and using that as expedient,
3)asking by the virtues of ones previous good deeds,
4)making prayer requests from pious people, preferably made in absentia.r
Paying with the Mighty names of Allah
Du’a is also best made employing AsmaaulLaah al-Azham (The mighty names of Allah) that have been specified in some specific wordings of du’a in the Sunnah and some original du’a reported from the Rasul with specific wordings if they suit our condition. The following are few of them:
1) “Laa ilaha ilaaLlah wahdahu laa shareeka lahu, lahul Mulku wa lahul Hamd wa huwa alaa kuli shay’in Qadeer. Alhamdulillahi waSubhaanallah wa laa ilaha ilaa ALlah waLlahu akbar, wa laa awlaa wa laa quwata ilaa billahil aliyil azheem”
This is to be said first thing after waking from sleep during the night, and then make any requests from Allah after saying the du’a.
2) “Allahumma inni as’aluka bi’aniy ash’hadu annaka anta Llah laa ilaha ilaa anta, al-Ahdu, As-Samad, aladhi lam yalid wa lam yuulad walam yakun lahu kufuwan ahad”
Then one should ask for whatever one wishes afterwards.
3) “Allahumma inni as’aluka bi’ana lakal hand, laa ilaha ilaa anta (wahdahu laa shareeka lak) al-manaan badee’ul samaawaati wal-ard, yaa dhal Jalaali wal-Ikraam, yaa Hayyu yaa Qayyum”
Then one should ask for whatever one desires.
The last two have been reported to contain Asmaa’ulLah al-Azham, for which Allah won’t reject any requests made by them.
Do not be impatient for acceptance and do not despair
The person making du’a should be reserved and not be impatient for its acceptance because Allah answers du’a in 3 different manners: sometimes He grants what was asked, at other times He grants what is better than it or uses it to avert an impending harm, and lastly, He sometimes store them to be granted in Qiyaamah, and that’s the most rewarding.
So it’s not from good etiquettes to give up on prayer because it appears that the prayer has not been answered as expected or granted as soon as demanded, one should continue to pray and never relent or despair till one gets what one wants. It is also better to leave our affairs to Allah to decide for us in our prayer rather than making specific demands, since He knows what is best for us in every situation while we do not.
May Allah accept all our du’a and grant us all the goodness we ask for and those we forget to ask for, from the goodness of this life and the hereafter.
By Abu Aamaal
English 