John Graf

As it should be for the glory of His face and the greatness of His authority. So all praise is for Allah, who did not give birth, and was not given birth, and to whom no one is equal. And all praise is for Allah, who guided us to this, and we would not have been guided had Allah not guided us.

And all praise is for Allah, who sent down the Book to His servant, and did not make for him any crookedness. We praise Him, and we ask for His help, and we ask for His forgiveness, and we ask for His guidance. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds.

Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whomsoever He misguides, none can guide him. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. Allah has sent him with guidance and the religion of truth, to make it manifest over all religions. And Allah is sufficient as a witness.

And peace and blessings be upon him and his family, and upon those who follow them in good faith until the Day of Judgment. O servants of Allah, Allah says in His noble Book, after I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan:

The Story of Musa and the Power of Dua

Musa عليه السلام Moses - he led, as we're told in the stories in the Quran, he led the children and the women and the elders of Bani Israel to the mouth of the raging sea and they were trapped. As it says, there was a mountain on each side and nothing in front of them but the water, and they look back to see Fir'aun Pharaoh and his chariots with blood in their eyes and blazed sheath racing towards them. They cried out to Musa, the Israelites they said: "They got us! They're going to kill us all!" But Musa, Moses عليه السلام, whose iman radiated of that of a Nabi of Allah, he said: كَلَّا إِنَّ مَعِيَ رَبِّي سَيَهْدِينِ - "No way, for my Lord will guide me and show me what to do."

Immediately Allah inspired Musa: he said "Strike the sea with your staff," and so he did. And then it suddenly broke apart in two large portions, each like a mountain towering above them. So Musa عليه السلام and Harun Aaron they led the Israelites through the path that Allah made for them in the sea. And then once they cleared its waters, they looked back to see what would happen to Fir'aun, and Allah ordered the sea to close, bringing down these massive waves upon Fir'aun and his chariots, utterly smashing and hurling their bodies to the depths of the ocean. And even Fir'aun Pharaoh as he tried to repent, but it was too late - both he and his army were utterly destroyed, left as an example for all time.

The victory and help of Allah Almighty came to the believers in such a way that Allah destroyed their enemies that they could not believe until the painful punishment had already come. In response to what, dear brothers and sisters? Think about what was this a response to? As we look, when Allah says in Surah Yunus:

"We saved Musa and we destroyed and we drowned the rest, and we saved Musa and those with him." Look back just a few verses in Surah Yunus and Allah says why this is a result of what thing: it was when Musa and Harun lifted up their hands and prayed to Allah. They said this following dua, they said in the Quran:

They said: "Oh our Lord, you have certainly bestowed upon - you've given Firaun Pharaoh and his chiefs splendor and wealth in the life of this world. Oh Lord, that they would use this wealth to lead astray your servants, so oh our Lord, destroy their wealth and harden their hearts so that they will not believe until they already see the painful punishment."

Allah's great victory came to the believers in this day as a result of the sincere call of his servants Musa and Harun.

The Weapon of Dua

Brothers and sisters in Islam, we have with us the most awesome weapon, a gift given to us by Allah, that is so powerful, that is in the hands of every single believer. The very same weapon that was with Musa and Harun that brought the victory and help of Allah on that great day - a power in the hands of each and every one of us so great that it can increase our sustenance, even alter the Qadr of Allah. That is the great strength of Dua.

And not only is Dua, as it was for Musa and Harun, a rope that will immediately connect each and every one of us to the greatest power - that of Allah the creator - but it is in fact the very essence, the essence of our worship to Allah itself. And as the Prophet says in an authentic Hadith: that Dua, it is worship.

Dua in the Month of Ramadan

So now I want us to reflect about this as we find ourselves in this blessed month, the month of Ramadan - a month when Allah talks about the significance of this month: شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ الَّذِي أُنزِلَ فِيهِ الْقُرْآنُ - that Ramadan was the month in which the Quran was revealed. And as we stand at night and we pray and as we fast during the day, Allah tells us another great significance of this month. Within these Ayat of Ramadan, the very next Ayat, Allah reveals an Ayat talking about maybe one of the greatest Ayat ever of Dua. He says:

Allah says: "When they ask you O Muhammad about me, then I am close - let them know I am close - that I answer the call of every Da'i, everyone who makes Dua, who calls upon me. So then let them answer my call and respond to me and believe in me that they would be guided."

And so this is a time which we find ourselves in - the ultimate month for us as Muslims of Ibadah and worship of Allah - then how significant is for us to focus on the essence of worship, which is in fact our prayers, our Dua to Allah.

The Greatest Duas of the Prophets

Where would we be without Dua? Look at the significance Dua plays in our lives as individuals and as a Ummah. In the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ, the very first thing we should realize is that none of us would be believers today, none of us would have a hope of entering into Jannah, if it wasn't for the Dua - maybe the greatest Dua found in the Quran - of Ibrahim ﷺ, by which as a result Allah sent the final Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. When he, after building the Kaaba, he said with his son Ismail:

They said: "O our Lord, send amongst them a messenger, a Prophet from amongst them who will recite to them your ayat and will teach them the book and the wisdom and purify them. And certainly you are the almighty, the all wise." Where would we be without that dua that Allah sent Muhammad ﷺ, that all of us would believe in him - a messenger to all mankind, to all races and all nationalities, to the alamin.

And how many from the ummah of Muhammad ﷺ would be saved from hell fire because of the greatest dua given by any particular prophet after the dua of Ibrahim? That of who do you think? Muhammad ﷺ. He mentions in authentic hadith:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 199)

"To every prophet they were given one special dua, one prayer that they made this prayer and they knew it would be answered by Allah." Who do you think he made his dua for? Do you think he made dua for himself? He says: "I have saved my dua to be shafa." He didn't even make this dua in his life - on the day of judgment he will save it for that time so that he can make shafa or intercede for the believers on the day of judgment. Look at the selflessness of the prophet ﷺ that his greatest concern was us.

And how do you think we can obtain the shafa of the prophet ﷺ? Amazingly enough, it is through our dua - not the dua of course we say at the end of our salah اللّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ - but the dua that he teaches us: if anyone hears the adhan and after repeating what the mu'adhin says, he says: "The one who asks Allah for me for this place in Jannah, then the shafa - they will obtain my shafa on the day of judgment." Look at the significance of dua in our lives, brothers and sisters.

Dua as a Weapon Against Enemies

And I want us to look back a little bit in the Quran at some of the dua of the anbiya. As I mentioned in the opening of this khutbah, look at the power that dua can be - a power against those who aim to harm us, those who have enmity towards the Muslims, as it was for Musa and Harun.

In fact, for Nuh Noah, Allah sent the greatest flood this earth has ever seen to destroy his enemies as a result of his dua when he said:

"O Allah, do not leave upon this land any of those who rejected and disbelieved."

Also, what do you think it was when Islam was small in number and it could have been wiped out and destroyed? There were only 300 or 315 of the believers that were going to defend themselves in the battle of Badr. What was it that the Prophet was doing in the month of Ramadan all through the night? He did not sleep because he was praying to Allah, making dua, until Allah finally sent him the verse and said:

He gave him the good news: "I will send down a thousand angels, one after another, in succession to fight with the believers."

And as we also hear before the battle of Al-Ahzab, or during the battle, the Prophet ﷺ also made dua when he asked Allah: "O Revealer of the Book," he said: اِهْزِمِ الْأَحْزَابَ، اِهْزِمْهُمْ وَزَلْزِلْهُمْ - "Shake these groups that have come against us today, shake them and defeat them." And then Allah revealed in the Quran, he tells us: "Remember Allah's ni'mah upon you":

"When these parties, these Ahzab, all these alliances came against you to destroy you - and they were huge in number - but then Allah sent against them a wind and armies that they could not see." Again, as a result of dua.

Dua for Basic Needs

Dear brothers and sisters, what a great significance dua plays in our lives. How many of us came from another country and were not well off maybe, and we were looking to find maybe a wife and looking to settle down and looking to find a job? Allah reminds us of these basic needs in life to seek help from him. As we know, Musa AS who was a fugitive, had no money, had no food - he had run out of food - had no job, had no source of livelihood, had no wife, had no home. But then when he fell down in exhaustion, he says:

"Oh Allah, I am poor and in great need of any good you can send down upon me." And Allah established him in the land and gave him a home and gave him a wife and gave him a source of livelihood.

Allah reminds us so often in the Quran to seek help with him for all of our needs. If you're sick, it is Allah who heals us. As we know, Yunus AS was sick for many years, or Ayub AS was sick for many years, until finally he said to Allah:

"Oh Allah, such harm has afflicted me, but you are the most merciful of those who show mercy." And that Allah saved him.

And we are in great times of distress and we are in a calamity - who can save us? It is of course our dua and our relationship with Allah, like Yunus who was in the belly of the whale in the depths of the ocean in the darkness of the night. But Allah heard his cry when he says:

"Oh Allah, there is no one else but you, and I have been of the wrongdoers." And Allah answered his prayer and saved him.

The Comprehensive Nature of Islamic Dua

We can learn so much if we reflect on the dua of the Anbiya. But to put in summary, brothers and sisters, when we look to see all the different things we can make dua for - Islam is the most beautiful religion. I myself, coming from the background of Christianity, being raised here in this country, when I became Muslim I was amazed. You know, one of the first things they give you in a new Muslim packet - they give you a prayer rug and they give you a small booklet where you can learn dua. It's called حِصْنُ الْمُسْلِمِ - this is the fortress of a Muslim.

And I was reading through it and I was amazed that every single thing we do in our lives, that the Prophet ﷺ and Allah teaches us how to call upon him - whether it is entering into the masjid or leaving the masjid, going home, entering the home, even entering into the bathroom, when we travel. Everything we do, we have a way to constantly remind ourselves and call upon Allah for everything.

Even the Prophet ﷺ was trying to bring this point home when he was talking to Ibn Abbas as a young child. He told them: "When you ask for anything, ask from Allah." وَإِذَا اسْتَعَنْتَ فَاسْتَعِنْ بِاللّهِ - "And when you seek help from anyone, seek help from Allah."

No good can come upon you in your lives except from Allah. بِيَدِكَ الْخَيْرُ - we say "O Allah, and your hands is all good." Why is it that we say إِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ so many times? "It is only you we ask for help."

So O Allah, we ask you to make us of those who listen to this reminder and follow the best of it. أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ الْعَظِيمَ لِي وَلَكُمْ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ

Second Khutbah

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى رَسُولِهِ الْكَرِيمِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَأَصْحَابِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ

Can Miracles Happen to Us?

Brothers and sisters in Islam, maybe some of us, if we listen and we look in the Quran and we see many of these ayat talking about the Anbiya and the power of the Dua and how Allah answered the Dua in sometimes what we consider completely miraculous ways, maybe we would ask the question: can the same happen to us?

Let me tell you a quick story before I go into answering that question. There's a story that's narrated in Ibn Kathir and At-Tabari during, after the death of the Prophet ﷺ. The followers, the sahaba, the believers and the companions of the Prophet ﷺ were sent out by Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq, who was the Khalifa at that time, sent out to fight the Murtaddin. And he sent out his army at the head of a man by the name of Abu Ala Al-Hadrami.

And when they went to fight them, they were over in the eastern southern portion of the Arabian Peninsula. And so they attacked the enemies, and the enemies, even though they were greater in number, they had retreated to a certain spot. And so the Muslims went to camp, and something happened while they were camping - all their camels got scared and ran away. So now they're in big trouble - everything, they're in the middle of the desert in the middle of nowhere, they have no water, they have no food, they don't even have many of their weapons. And so how can they complete their mission?

So Abu Ala Al-Hadrami he tells them: "Aren't we Muslims? Aren't we here for the sake of Allah? Mujahideen?" He says: "All we need to do is raise our hands to Allah and pray to Him." So they raised their hands to Allah and prayed. And as it's narrated, it was about the time of Fajr and they were praying to Allah, asking for help to save them.

And what happened? They said they looked to the sky and they could see rain clouds coming, and it started to pour rain down over them - so just in the area that they were at. So what happened? When the rain came down, they started to gather it and put it in containers. What do you think happened? When the camels saw the rain came down on the spot, they all came back to the spot. So now they got back everything that they lost, and they had water too.

And so they pursued the enemy, and it became dark, and so they were camping next to the enemy in a spot not too far off. And it was late at night, and Abu Ala Al-Hadrami he said he heard some noise. So he sent Muslims out there to find out what was this noise about. And when they got there, they noticed that the people were all drunk - they were just completely drunk out of their minds and they were mumbling and they couldn't understand even what they were saying.

So they came back and told the general Abu Ala, they told him this. He said: "Let's attack now, let's attack now." So the Muslims gathered everything and attacked him late at night, and he said that they were just slaughtering them because these people were drunk and they didn't know what was going on. But yet they were able somehow some of them to retreat and regroup, and they fell back to the ocean - and this is in what's the Arabian Sea or the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Gulf - and so when they got there they had ships standing by and they took those ships out to an island somewhere far away.

Now the Muslims that arrived there, they didn't have any ships, they didn't have a way to pursue the enemy, and maybe some of them never been to the ocean, they didn't even know how to swim. But Abu Ala, after the lesson that they learned, he turned to them and said: "Aren't we Muslims? Aren't we here for the sake of Allah? Aren't we here for Allah's pleasure?" He said: "So let's raise our hands to Allah and make dua and pray to him."

And so they were praying and they were hoping that Allah would open the sea for them like he did for Musa and Harun. So they were praying and they were praying, and then they said: "Let's go." And then they said "Bismillah" and they started to walk.

And what happens is narrated - narrated by many of the Sahaba who were there witnessed this event - they said: "We started to walk on the water." They walked on the water, and they said it took them almost an entire day - what would take an entire day to cross to get to the other side - and they walked upon the water all the way till they got to the island, and they fought the enemy and defeated them, and they came back all on the same day.

And those who were there, they narrated lines of poetry. They said: "Didn't you see how Allah humbled the sea for us? And we prayed that Allah would open it, but we didn't even have to - Allah allowed us to walk over it, and Allah allowed a miracle for us that he didn't even - the people before us didn't even have."

The Promise of Answered Prayers

So now back to my question, brothers and sisters. Now these are karamat, I want you to understand the context of these karamat. Many of the karamat we find happening to the Sahaba and the awliya of Allah happen within this type of context. However, Allah in the Quran promises that he would answer our dua if we just simply ask. And in fact, the ulama they say that this ayah - there was never anything like it revealed to the ummah before us - where Allah says:

"And your Lord says: Call upon me, I will answer your call." Eventually Allah will answer your prayer - it is a guarantee: أَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْ

And in authentic narration, the prophet says:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2735)

"The prayer of Allah's servant will always be answered, as long as they do not ask for something that's a sin or that they break any of their family relations - they cut their family ties - the dua will not be answered, and as long as they do not give up hope and lose patience."

The best advice we need to give ourselves - because dua can be answered in several ways and one of them is that it wouldn't be answered in the time that we would wish - one of the best advices I can give you is patience. When Allah says when we seek help from Allah, how do we do it? بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَاةِ - Allah even put sabr before salah - we have to have patience.

But we also should never give up hope, never give up hope in that Allah will answer our dua, because that was the attitude of the anbiya. As Ibrahim said:

"I will call upon my Lord, and I will always have the hope that I will never be unblessed in my dua to my Lord."

Special Times and People for Dua

And so brothers and sisters, just as a brief reminder, there are in fact special times that we can make dua. As we know, in sujood, a servant is closer to his lord in this position. And also in the last one third - ثُلُثِ اللَّيْلِ الْآخِرِ - as the Prophet says, the last one third of the night.

And something very special that we have access to actually all year round if we're fasting, but we actually have access to it every single day this month. As the Prophet says in authentic hadith in At-Tirmidhi of the manners, of the times which your dua will be mustajab, will be answered by Allah, he says:

(Jami' at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3598)

He says: "The three people - their dua will not be rejected: the righteous imam, and the saim - the faster - at the time he breaks his fast, and the dua of the mazloom."

The Prophet says:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1496)

"Beware, protect yourself from the dawah, the one single dua of any mazloom. If you're the zalim, the Prophet says beware that this mazloom would make dua against you."

So this is a time - in the spirit of Ramadan - we should ask forgiveness from one another that Allah will forgive us on that day, and we will not have somebody who will come and stand and they will ask for their justice and their rights, because Allah will definitely answer their dua.

Making Dua for Others

And another thing that we should remember much in this month, brothers and sisters, to make dua often for one another. Of the ways that your dua will be answered, the Prophet says:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2732)

"The dua of any Muslim for his brother in his absence will be answered, it's mustajab." That the angel pointed over him will say: آمِينَ وَلَكَ بِمِثْلِ - "May O Allah answer this prayer and give this person the very same thing."

When the Prophet ﷺ selflessly saved his dua for us, we should be making dua for our brothers and sisters. We should be making dua for our parents, for our children, that Allah would save them. For our brothers and sisters overseas that are suffering and dying. This is a special time for us.

O Allah, we ask you to make us of those who believe in you and believe in the power of our relationship with you and our dua. O Allah, we ask you to answer our prayers.