The Rain Prayer (Salatul Istisqa)
By Hamza Yusuf | 2026-01-15T21:48:49.634274+00:00 | Topic: Iman
The Rain Prayer (Salatul Istisqa)
Opening: Seeking Forgiveness
The Reality of Sin and Morality
It's not a difficult morality, and so when we talk about sinfulness, which is almost a word that has been excised from the English vocabulary, it's a word that people want to remove from their dictionaries, from their lexicons, they have criminal law, which is positive law, made by men, but there's other law working in the world. It's a metaphysical law, it's a law of cause and effect, it's a law of you sow, you reap what you sow. And the basic morality of the human being was summed up in the Ten Commandments. This was a country, despite all of its problems in the past, it had an ideal commitment to those Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were enshrined in many places.
They've been removed because they say that we separate church and state, which is fine to separate church and state, but it doesn't change the fundamental truths of those commandments, which are shared throughout the world, whether you're Abrahamic people or not. Peoples everywhere had an understanding of those basic commandments. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in Al-An'am and other places in the Qur'an, there are three places where Allah sums up the morality of this book, the morality of the Qur'an.
The Divine Commandments in Surah Al-An'am
تَعَالَوْا تَعَالَوْا . Ta'alo means to come, but it also means to elevate yourselves. Elevate yourselves to the discourse of this book.
Come and listen to what your Lord has told you is prohibited for you to do. Is prohibited for you to do.
The First Commandment: Monotheism
That you don't associate anything with your Lord. This is the first in the Decalogue of the Jews and the Christians. And we share this land with many Jews and Christians. This is the first commandment in the Decalogue. That thou shalt not have gods beside me.
The Second Commandment: Honoring Parents
Allah says أَلَّا تُشْرِكُوا بِهِ شَيْئًا وَبِالْوَالِدَيْنِ إِحْسَانًا (Quran 6:151)
Honor thy parents. This is the fundamental relationship. If this relationship is upset, then the balance is upset. And we see everywhere parents being disregarded, disrespected by their children. Even murdered in many cases. Now matricide and patricide has become a common occurrence in our newspapers. Of people killing their own parents.
Parents' Responsibility Toward Children
But then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says about the parents. Because there's a two-way relationship. There's a two-way relationship.
Don't kill your children out of fear of poverty. Don't abort your children. Don't spiritually kill them. Don't force them to do things that are inappropriate for them. So the parents also have a responsibility to honor their children. The Christians have an understanding of this in their own book in the New Testament. Paul says to the people, honor your parents. But then he says to the parents, Don't give your children reason to dishonor you.
This is the relationship. And this is the foundation of human society. Is the family. And if the family becomes corrupt. If the family becomes debased. If the relationship between the parents is disrupted with their children. Then this is the beginning of the chaos in a society.
Divine Provision
And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says نَحْنُ نَرْزُقُكُمْ وَإِيَّاهُمْ (Quran 6:151)
We will provide for you and them. We will provide for you and for them. For your children and for you. Don't worry about your provision. If you honor these laws.
The Third Commandment: Avoiding Immorality
The Fourth Commandment: Sanctity of Life
And don't kill. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not fornicate. These are basic messages that have been given to us as guidelines for our lives. They're not difficult.
That's what Allah has counseled us to do. That in order that you might understand and use your intellects.
Commercial Ethics and Economic Justice
And now we move into the real grave sins after these which are the sins of commerce.
Don't go near the wealth of the orphan. Those people, the children, don't devour or consume their wealth. And be just in your commerce, in your commercial transactions. You look at how our country has become filled with the sinfulness of riba. The sinfulness of all of these haram transactions and abuse of people's wealth is widespread, rampant in our country.
And these are the sins that the religions don't talk about anymore. The economic sins. The recent Pope began to address them and they called him a communist. Simply for bringing up the economic sins against poor people. But these are real sins.
Allah's Mercy in Our Obligations
And then, a reminder. We don't give you more than you can bear. You can practice these things. These are things that are not outside of your ability to practice this basic fundamental morality. It's not outside of your ability.
Speaking Truth and Justice
And when you speak, speak upright, speak truthfully, speak justly. Even if it's against your own relatives, even if it's against your own religion. If your co-religionists are doing things that are wrong, you have to speak out against it. Because truth is truth, no matter where it comes from. And the Muslims should be people of truth.
Muslims as Witnesses to Truth
شُهَدَاءَ - Witnesses. We're supposed to be witnesses, and you look at what Muslims are doing everywhere. Our community is filled with sinfulness. We have racism. We have racism in our community, the Prophet prohibited racism. And then we have the cheating, the lying. And then we have these crimes, terrible crimes against people, against masjids. And now we see what's happening all over the world. If people don't wake up and see how serious what's happening.
Look at Ukraine. Ukraine is in a major crisis. Syria. Afghanistan. Iraq. What will it take? Does it have to come here until we wake up? What does it take for human beings to wake up and simply do one thing?
Just turn back to your Lord.
The Divine Covenant
And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says وَبِعَهْدِ اللَّهِ أَوْفُوا (Quran 6:152)
Fulfill this covenant with God. This is a simple covenant. Just a few commandments. Fulfill this covenant with God. Fulfill this covenant. This is what Allah is asking us to do.
The Connection Between Sin and Natural Calamities
Right now, the scientists say that there is about four miles up along the coast of California is a pressure that's preventing storms from coming in. It's like a wall that has been put up. Who put that wall up? You see, the materialists don't believe these things anymore. But the people that were here before, they had Ohlone Indians that were here before. If they had drought, they knew what to do. They would ask forgiveness. They would go make atonement. Aboriginal peoples understand this. Modern people have become so divorced from nature.
People now, they think, Oh, what a beautiful day. It is a beautiful day indeed. But it's not a day to make you smile when it should be raining. It's not a day to make us smile. We should be worried. Governor Brown said that this is only the beginning. That's what he said. Now, he has privy to information we don't have. What do they know that we don't know? What's going on? Because everywhere, this planet seems to be in turmoil. Not just in human turmoil, but natural turmoil. And there's a relationship, and this is what modern people deny. They deny the relationship between human behavior and between the natural world.
Ancient Wisdom on Cause and Effect
But the ancients all understood this. They understood this. They understood Ate. They understood Nemesis. The Greeks understood it. The Hindus understood it. The Buddhists understood it. The Muslims understood it. The Christians, the Jews, they all understood it. Modern man doesn't understand it. Modern man is in denial.
Modern man thinks that his actions have no impact. As long as he's not hurting anybody. No. Our actions have great impact and we're hurting many, many things.
The Hadith on the Bird's Death
Abu Huraira radiAllahu anhu said إِنَّ الْحُبَارَى تَمُوتُ فِي وَكْرِهَا بِظُلْمِ الظَّالِم (Musnad Ahmad)
That even the bird dies in the nest because of the sins of human beings. Their oppression against themselves, against others. The drought is from our own doing.
Nature as a Response to Human Actions
I once said to my Shaykh Abdullah ibn Bayyah that the biggest terrorist is nature. Because he can do what no terrorist can do. And he said, no. The biggest terrorist is the human being. Because nature only does to the human being what the human being deserves.
What comes to you is from what your own hands have brought and how much does He forgive. He forgives much.
If Allah took human beings to account, He wouldn't leave anything left on the earth. The Prophet said, Because had it not been for the children that are suckling and for young people with piety and for animals grazing, He would not have left any of you.
So, this is something for us to think deeply about. To contemplate.
Unity in Prayer
In our tradition, even the Ahlul Kitab are to come out. They're welcome to come out and pray with us because we're all in this together. We're all in this together. And we need the prayers. We need fasting. We need tawbah. People should be doing things, really. Because it affects all of us. It affects our children.
If this drought continues, you will see serious consequences to this drought. Already they're starting to show, but they will get worse. There will be rationing of water. People will be forced to ration the water they use in this state. And that's why we need the rain. May Allah give us rain. May Allah forgive us.
The Call of Prophet Nuh
The Limitations of Modern Science
No. Why can't they, with all the technology, why can't they bring the rain? All they can ask you to do is ration. This is the extent of all this knowledge that they have. They just tell you use less water. That's all they have. You can't seed clouds that aren't in the sky. We believe that God is the one that brings the clouds. He has angels that have this system. The Quran talks about the Riyah as a sign of God. Now we know how sophisticated the wind system on this planet is. And now we know. We didn't know that knowledge, but the Quran had that knowledge.
Prophetic Warnings About Sin and Its Consequences
Now, in conclusion, the Prophet told us some very profound things. And this is about the metaphysical nature of our actions and our behavior. And he sought refuge in these things. He told the ma'ashara al-muhajireen. He told them about certain khisal, qualities in people. And he said (أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ أَن تُدْرِكُوهُمَا - a'oodhu billahi an tudrikuhuma). I seek refuge in God that you never see this.
The First Warning: Sexual Deviancy
(Sunan Ibn Majah 4019)
The first one he said: That sexual deviations and perversions never manifest in a people except God afflicts them with diseases that were unknown to the previous generations. They will get diseases. This is a metaphysical reality. Now, some people will say, but it doesn't just affect them. It affects everybody. Exactly. That's what the Quran says.
Protect yourselves against calamities that don't just afflict the wrongdoers. Because if it only afflicted the wrongdoers, everybody would just say, well, let them do their wrong and they'll get theirs. No, but because it afflicts all of us, we have to stand up and condemn it. We have to say this is wrong. They can say to us, just respect us. We respect you, respect us. No, in order for you to respect us, you have to respect our, not only our right, but our understanding and our responsibility to condemn what you're doing, to condemn it. We have to, in order to be true to our faith, in order to protect and guard ourselves from what we believe are calamities that won't just afflict you, but they will also afflict us. This is a real problem on this planet now.
Science Supports Islamic Ethics
These differences of understanding. But as far as I can tell, science is on our side. If we're really rational, if we really believe in rationality and what makes sense and what science is telling us, science is telling us there are certain things that you shouldn't do because they're dangerous. And as far as I know, there's nothing in our religion that's halal, that's harmful. But everything that's prohibited has harm in it. There's nothing in our religion that's prohibited, that doesn't have harm in it. Nothing. And everything that's permitted is good for us. It's just using the intellect.
What's better than Allah's judgment? So that's the first.
The Second Warning: Commercial Injustice
But then he said the second one.
(Sunan Ibn Majah 4019)
That no people become unjust in commercial transactions except that they get the tribulation of years of drought. And this is drought that continues. See people, again religions only talk about sexual problems. Our religion addresses the grave sins of economics. And you look at the inequality. Now that they're all talking about finally. They're starting to talk about this incoming inequality. These are the reasons that people are, rain is withheld from people when there's economic injustice. This is what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has told us through his prophet. So this is a grave tribulation.
The Third Warning: Withholding Zakat
And then he said that if a people, if they refuse
(Sunan Ibn Majah 4019)
The rain, if they don't help poor people, because economic injustice is oppression of people, exploitation of them, all these things. But then when you have wealth, and you don't help others with the wealth, then the rain is withheld from you. This is what our Prophet said.
The Forgotten Teachings
These are metaphysical realities, and you can't get around them. The Christian people and the Jewish people, their tradition, they know many of these things. But unfortunately, many of them have forgotten. The Quran says that had they only established the Torah and the Injil.
Had they only established the Torah and the Gospel, and what has come down to them from their Lord. They would eat from above them, from the fruit trees, and from below them, from what comes from the earth. They would eat from all that.
There are good people amongst them, righteous people, moderate people. But then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, (وَكَثِيرٌ مِّنْهُمْ سَاءَ مَا يَعْمَلُونَ - wa kathirun minhum saa ma ya'maloon)
But many of them no longer practice what they know to be true. And they've left it. So we're living in a country that has made many positive strides, undeniably. And we have to acknowledge that. But there are many things that they've gone backwards on. And we see the result of it. So may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive us our sins.
Supplication for Rain
I'm going to turn towards the qibla, make dua. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala answer all of our prayers. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bring rain inshaAllah that nurtures the earth.
It's dead. اللَّهُمَّ أَشْهِرْ لَنَا صُورَتَكَ , let us see the earth come back to life. We see its death and we know the reason. We know our sins and we ask You forgiveness.
Give our animals water, give our children water, O Allah, give the innocent among us water.
(Sunan Abu Dawud 1176)
O Allah, give water to Your servants and Your animals, spread Your mercy and revive Your dead land.
Closing Prayer and Call to Action
And if Allah wills, people will come out to the masjids. It will be difficult for them to leave, but if Allah wills, we will be able to do this. Until the time comes when there will be disturbances in the masjids, people will come to burn the masjids, people will do terrible things. If this doesn't happen, we should repeat this Sunnah annually. Muslims in California must ask other masjids to do the same. The people should come out.
If Allah wills, I will do this. Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah. May Allah give us the rain. O Muhammad, if Allah wills by this, the Muslims will ask the people from other masjids.