Dua For Going To The Masjid
By Abdul Nasir Jangda | 2026-01-19T07:42:01.619812+00:00 | Topic: Worship
Dua For Going To The Masjid: Accepted Supplication
By Abdul Nasir Jangda
Introduction
The next dua that we're going to cover here inshallah is on page number 23, the bottom of page 23. It's a very beautiful dua. Very interestingly, most people are familiar with the fact that there is a dua for entering a masjid and there is a dua supplication for exiting the masjid.
But a lot of times folks don't realize that the Prophet of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) also used to offer a dua. He used to also pray when leaving his home towards the masjid. When he would set out towards the masjid in the direction of the masjid, there was also a dua the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) used to say at that time.
It's a very powerful beautiful dua which kind of puts into perspective what the purpose, what the motivation, what the reason for going to the house of Allah (جل جلاله) is what it is part of it.
The Dua for Going to the Masjid
Arabic Text:
Reference: Sahih Bukhari 670, Sahih Muslim 763
And he would say this at the bottom of page 23. You can hear the repetition of words and hear kind of the consistency in the supplication.
Word Analysis
(اللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْ - O Allah, Make/Place)
So to go ahead and do the word analysis (اللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْ - make). A more flowing English translation would be put, place.
(فِي قَلْبِي - In My Heart)
في means in, inside of (قلبي) is my heart. The word is (قلْب).
The word for heart in the Arabic language is (قَلْب). One of the few words. But the most general word for the heart is (قَلْب) in the Arabic language.
And what's interesting about the word (قَلْب) is, it comes from the root which means for something to flip or turn. انقلاب We saw it. المنقلب وسوء - to return back home. To head back home. That comes from the same root. And the reason why the (قَلْب) is called that is because the heart constantly goes through change and the turn of different emotions and feelings and sentiments.
And also some of the linguists also mentioned that this also represents the... How easily the heart can be turned and swayed at the same time. How fragile the human heart is. And how flexible and malleable and impressionable the human heart is.
The Hadith About Hearts
And there's a beautiful hadith where the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) says:
(Reference: Sahih Muslim 2654)
That the hearts of the slaves are between the two fingers of Ar-Rahman. Between the two fingers of Allah. He turns them back and forth however he wills.
(نورا - Light/Illumination)
So, the word (قلب) it refers to the heart (قلبي) my heart (اللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْ فِي قَلْبِي), Oh Allah, place inside of my heart, put in my heart (نورا)
We talked about the word (نور) earlier. The word (نور) means a light. More than a light, it's an illumination.
It's a glow. It's a light that glows and illuminates that which is around it. So, it's not like a laser light. You just shoot a light at one spot and just that one spot is brightened. Not even like a flashlight where it's still to a certain extent. It points light in a particular direction.
The better example of a (نور) is like a flame, like a fire, like a lamp, a lantern. That the source of light could be very small. But it spreads light. That is the effect of (نور). That is the type of light that is called (نور)
The Significance of Nur (Light) in Islam
Nur in the Quran
And throughout the Quran, throughout the book of Allah, the example of faith and iman, the parable, the example, the image that is given to faith and belief and iman in Allah is (نور). And the absence of that faith and that iman is called (ظُلُمَات، ظُلْمَة), darkness, layers and layers upon layers of darkness. (بَعْضُهَا فَوْق بَعْضٍ)
But iman, belief, a connection with Allah, the realization of Allah (مَعْرِفَة الله) it is called نور throughout the book of Allah.
Allah as Nur
And what's powerful about the word نُور is, look what else is called نُور. Allah Himself is called نُور
Reference: Quran 24:35
Allah is the illumination, He is the enlightenment of the heavens and the earth. So it's very very interesting. So the word (نور) we're saying here, Oh Allah, illuminate my heart, brighten my heart.
The Connection to the Masjid
Put iman, faith, belief, your recognition, and the enlightenment that is a consequence of recognizing you, Oh Allah, put that into my heart. Then think about the effect of having that light, having that light, that lamp, that illuminates its surroundings. What does that do? That makes everything around you clear, right? You can see things clearly.
If you're walking in the dark, you don't know where you're going, you might run into something. But if you turn on a lamp, a light, now you know exactly where you're going. Things make sense, you know where things are. You recognize things for what they are. You recognize things for what they are.
Similarly, when that light is turned on in the heart, when that (نور) is there in the heart, the iman, the recognition of Allah, then what ends up happening? Everything else makes sense. You see things for what they are, but you can't see things in the darkness.
So this is a very profound statement, Oh Allah, put (نور) in my heart. And it's not a coincidence that the Prophet of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is saying this when going to the masjid.
The Importance of the Masjid
The Hadith About Masajid
When the Prophet of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said:
Reference: Ibn Majah 759
That the masajid are the houses of Allah on the face of this earth.
The Analogy of Friendship and the House of Allah
I always give this example, it's a real basic example. Might even insult somebody's intelligence. So basic, simple, elementary, but it's something to think about. If I say, Imran is my best friend. My best friend in the whole world, in the whole wide world. Just me and him, BFFs. We're super tight. My best friend.
And then after salah or whatever in the evening for dinner, you know, we're supposed to go to brother Imran's house for dinner. So a couple of the other guys, they jump in the car with me. Say, let's go. Let's go to Imran's house for dinner. I'm like, do you know where Imran lives? They're like, yeah, I think I can give you some basic directions just to kind of get you in the area if you're kind of, you don't remember the name of the street. I say, no, no, I don't know where he lives.
What do you mean you don't know where he lives? You've never been there before? No, I've never been to Imran's house. Would you be skeptical or not if I said, I'm Imran's best friend, his bestest friend. That's not a real word, but that's how tight we are. I'm his best, best, very best friend. I've never even been inside of his house. I've never seen the inside of his house.
Nothing. It raises some doubt, doesn't it? There's some skepticism there. How can you be so tight with somebody and never even sat in their house or, you know, visited their home before? That's impossible. That shows the fact that you're not as close as you think you are.
And we have to think about the same fact when we talk about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. There's a reason why that title is given to the masjid, the house of Allah, the house of God, that it is the masjid.
And so if we claim a relationship with Allah, we claim to have that connection with Allah, but we don't go to the masjid, we don't have a relationship with any masjid, we don't have any type of frequenting to the house of Allah, then how legitimate is our claim to have a relationship with Allah? It's something we really have to think about.
Detailed Analysis of the Dua
(اللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْ قَلْبِي نُورًا - O Allah Place Light in My Heart)
Soنور enlightenment, illumination of the heart, that (نور) in the heart. There's a reason why the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is asking for that on the way to the masjid because that's where you go to get it.
He's making a list. Just like before we go grocery shopping, you got a list, what I need to buy. This is his list. He's making this dua on his way to the masjid, O Allah, this is what I need. This is what I need at the masjid. This is why I'm going to the masjid. This is what I hope to achieve and receive at the masjid, at the house of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So as I was saying that, so the light of the heart, the nur of the heart, it illuminates the heart, that's iman, that's representative of faith. And to get iman, to build iman, to be solid one's iman, a masjid is part of the equation. I'm not saying it's the end all be all.
There were plenty of munafiqun and hypocrites at the time of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) who would come and stand five times a day and pray with the believers. It's not just like, that's it, come to the masjid, instant iman, done for. I don't have to worry about anything else.
Nor is it that type of a judgment that just because somebody might not come to the masjid as much as, you know, maybe they should be, that we just completely discount their iman. Like obviously that person is not a believer, he doesn't come to the masjid. That's not our role, that's not our place.
We worry about ourselves. But I have to understand for me, that part of the equation of my iman is the house of Allah. And having a relationship with the house of Allah.
(وَفِي لِسَانِي نُورًا - And In My Tongue, Light)
(وَفِي لِسَانِي نُورًا) And in my tongue, place (نور) Meaning now from that heart, fuel the tongue so that what comes from the tongue is also illuminated. It's beneficial. Light, iman, is what comes from my tongue. Not darkness, not hatred, not bad words, not bad language, not animosity and hatred towards people, but enlightenment, benefit (نور) comes from my tongue.
(وَاجْعَلْ فِي سَمْعِي نُورًا - And Place in My Hearing, Light)
(وَاجْعَلْ فِي سَمْعِي نُورًا) And place in my ears.
And it didn't use the word (أُذُنِي) which literally means the physical ear. It said (سَمْعِي) my ability to hear, my listening. Place in my listening, in what I listen to, what I hear, put (نور) in that
Because not so much the physical ear that is the focus, but what we take in, what we are processing through this one channel that Allah has provided to the heart. That place (نور) inside of what I hear, what I listen to, what I absorb from around me.
(وَاجْعَلْ فِي بَصَرِي نُورًا - And Place in My Sight, Light)
(وَاجْعَلْ فِي بَصَرِي نُورًا) And place in my sight.
Again, it didn't say (عَيْنِ عَيْنِي) means eye (بَصر) is your vision. Your vision, like what you see, not only what you see, but (بَصر) is deeper than that. That's why (بَصِيرَة) comes from this root. It's not only what you see, but how you process what you see. Not just what you're physically looking at, but your perception and understanding of what you're looking at.
That don't not, Oh Allah, what I look at put (نور) in it. But more importantly, how I process what I'm looking at. What I perceive of what I'm seeing, put (نور) in that as well.
(وَاجْعَلْ مِنْ خَلْفِي نُورًا - Put Light Behind Me)
(وَاجْعَلْ مِنْ خَلْفِي نُورًا) Put from behind me (نور). And what's very interesting, that's why the translation again was kind of awkward, from behind me. It sounds awkward. We don't talk like that in English. But the reason I'm doing that is to illustrate that there is something extra here that needs to be taken note of.
Normally, you could have expressed this idea as
Just like we go out to the cold and we put out a jacket and we put on a cloak, and we feel warm and protected. So, oh Allah, give me a cloak. Give me a jacket, give me a coat of تور to protect me, to shield me from the darkness that is out there in the dunya.
وَمِنْ أَمَامِي نُورًا )And Light in Front of Me(
وَمِنْ أَمَا مِي نُورًا Again, it could have just said
Then you're wearing that coat or jacket, but instead of just cloaking over your shoulders, you put your arms inside of it and you button it down all the way down the front. Now you're completely covered and encased. Now you're fully protected.
وَاجْعَلْ مِنْ فَوْقِي نُورًا )Put Light Above Me(
وَاجْعَلْ مِنْ فَوْقِي نُورًا Put from right on top of me light and illumination and تور
وَمِنْ تَحْتِي نُورًا )And Light Below Me(
وَمِنْ تَحْتِي نُورًا And from right underneath my feet, place تور and illumination.
اللَّهُمَّ أَعْطِنِي نُورًا )O Allah, Give Me Light(
A complete bubble of protection and encasement in نُور and illumination. And then he finally ends the dua and the supplication with
The Wisdom Behind the Sequence
Beautiful, powerful supplication. And the first part of it, very important to note the sequence. This is very precise prophetic wisdom. There's a sequence here. He starts with the heart. Then he speaks of the tongue. And then what we listen to. And then he talks about perception.
How we perceive things. This is telling us there's a process working on the heart. Then learning to control the tongue. Then being careful about what we're taking in. And then perception starts to change. Then things look different. Then things make sense, start to make sense the correct way.
And when that happens, when we start to perceive things differently, then everything around us will be illuminated. Everything around us will be illuminated.
The Effect of Nur on Perception
Different Perspectives
You know, and subhanAllah, you know, sometimes you see different things. Somebody can walk into, somebody can meet someone. Two people can meet a person or two people can come to the masjid. Or two people can attend a class or two people can attend a gathering. And have completely different takeaway points.
One person is saying, Oh, he was very nice. The masjid was very nice and serene and calm. The class was very beneficial. Or, you know, this gathering was very nice. There was a lot of brotherhood or a lot of sisterhood.
The other person is saying like, I didn't like the way that guy was doing this. You know, at that masjid I always noticed that. You know, in the class why was this. Oh, in that gathering I don't like those people.
Same gathering, same person, same majlis, same class, same masjid. Two different people with completely two different, just what they took away from that. And that starts all the way on the inside and extends all the way to the outside. How we perceive things, how we receive things is a reflection of our own heart.
The Hadith About the Believer Being a Mirror
That's what the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) meant when he said:
(Abu Dawud 4918)
The believer, the Muslim is the mirror of another Muslim.
What does that mean? Most of these types of hadith, we interpret them towards the other person. Like, oh, so you know, you can tell them what is wrong with them. Why is it always about somebody else? Why is it never about me?
When I look in the mirror, what do I see? I see me. So if I look in the mirror and there's a huge stain on my shirt, should I break the mirror? Yes or no? Everybody here has got like broken mirrors at home. All right. When I look in the mirror and I see a huge stain on my shirt, should I break the mirror? No, there's nothing wrong with the mirror.
The mirror is just simply reflecting back what is there. The problem is with me, not the mirror. So the scholars actually explain in the context of that hadith that when I come face to face with another believer, and maybe I deal with some ugliness, some rudeness, some bad behavior, that is simply just a reflection of me.
I'm just seeing my bad akhlaq being reflected back at me. Very interesting. And so when there is نور on the inside, there will be نُور on the outside. And everything around us will be beneficial. Everything around us will be beneficial. We will be able to benefit and know the good of things, not obsess and get stuck over the bad of things.
And that is a reflection of the heart. And that's what is being said about this
Oh Allah, grant me تور. So this is the dua of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) in going towards the masjid.
The Need for Balance in Community Discussion
Acknowledging Problems While Maintaining Connection
See, there's a lot of discussion today in our community about the role of the masjid and the need of the masjid, the situation of the masjid. There's a huge discussion. And it's a very deep discussion, something we do need to be discussing.
But there is one thing that we need to remember in the course of this conversation that we're having about the masjid. Standing here in front of you, I have to admit, I cannot lie about the fact, because I had the same experience growing up, where the masjid that was, that a lot of the masajid that I went to as a child did not have the ideal, did not provide the ideal experience.
It did not provide a very very iman nourishing experience. And that's problematic. And that needs to be addressed, it needs to be fixed. No doubt about it. We got a lot of work to do. We have tons of work to do.
The Goal: Emulating the Prophet's Masjid
We have to get back on track. The model for the masjid is al-masjid al-nabawi. It will always be. The scholars have said that for the ummah today, everything that we're doing, all the activism, all the work, all the education, all the projects, all the initiatives, is to bring the ummah back to the place that it was, back to the level of spirituality and ethics and morality that it was on the day the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) departed from this world.
That's the goal. The goal for every institution and community is to emulate, to become a model, to become a replica of al-madinah al-munawwara, al-masjid al-nabawi.
That's just the truth and the reality. So we have a lot of work that needs to be done. But see, balance in conversations is very, very important. We got a lot of work to do. We can't get by with status quo anymore. You know why? Because too many people are falling through the cracks.
They're not even cracks anymore. It's the Grand Canyon. And 99% of the ummah is falling through that Grand Canyon. That is right outside the door of every single masjid and every single community. And we just can't afford that. So we have to work towards improving our situation.
But the balance of the conversation is, we as individuals, as ibadullah, imaullah, as slaves of Allah, believers, Muslims, worshippers, we still have to understand and realize that at the end of the day, the masjid, I'm not talking about any one particular masjid, but I'm talking about the institution that is called the masjid. The masjid, a masjid. We have to understand its significance.
Personal Wisdom from His Father
But at the same time, unless and until we do get there, this is something I learned from my dad. It's something I learned from my dad. We learn things from your role models, from your parents, from your elders. A lot of wisdom. I could talk for days and days and days, but there's some wisdom that you learn from people that are older, more experienced, wiser than you.
And one of the things I learned from my dad was, at the end of the day, no matter what's going on, all types of fitna. The community I was growing up in, my dad was one of the founders and there's all this crazy wild fitna going on, all this crazy stuff going on. But he'd still go. His fajr, his isha, maghrib, he'd still go and he'd pray.
And he even told me why. He said, because I go there for Allah, this is Allah's house. Ain't nobody own this place. They might act that like they do, they might think that they do, but that's their problem. This is the house of Allah. I come here, bow my head down, put my face on the ground in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, spread my hands before Allah and then I walk out.
Mind my own business. So I can't get cut off from the masjid. I can't let somebody else get in between me and Allah and Allah's house. Masjid is an important part of that equation.
And presenting myself before Allah in the house of Allah. And again as a side little note, just because this is such a focal point, such a huge topic of discussion about the masjid today. Like I said, a lot of work needs to be done and we need to keep working, we need to keep pushing and keep bringing about change for the better.
Conclusion
So, the تور in the heart, representative of iman. Why connected to the masjid? Because that's one of the places that helps to brighten and adds to the illumination of the heart, the house of Allah.
Number three, the benefit of that light being turned on inside of the heart, that iman, that تور. Just like when you turn the lamp on inside of a dark room, you can see things for what they are. You can recognize things, you can identify things. The life will start to make sense.
When that light, that تور is turned on inside of the heart, then the world, we see the world for what it is. We see the world for what it is. We're able to identify good, benefit from harm and evil. We gain that ability.
And number four, lastly and finally about the تور Remember I talked about the reason why that word نور is used? Because the light spreads, it emanates, it glows. To the point where, forget about even inside of that room, from outside of that room, from under the door, through the curtains, you can tell that a light is on inside. It's like pouring out, it's oozing out that light.
When that light turns on inside of the heart, it will ooze out of the person through a person's speech and actions and behavior and conduct, akhlaq, manners, character, disposition. It'll just ooze out. You know you're in the presence of a believer. You benefit from their presence, from the way they walk and talk.
And so very important lesson here. So,
So this is the dua of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) in going towards the masjid.