Dua for the Ummah
By Nouman Ali Khan | 2026-01-08T17:40:01.738765+00:00 | Topic: Allah
Dua for the Ummah - Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan
Opening Praise and Testimony
إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنُؤْمِنُ بِهِ وَنَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَيْهِ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَنَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَنَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ أَرْسَلَهُ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى بِالْهُدَى وَدِينِ الْحَقِّ لِيُظْهِرَهُ عَلَى الدِّينِ كُلِّهِ وَكَفَى بِاللهِ شَهِيدًا فَصَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ تَسْلِيمًا كَثِيرًا كَثِيرًا أَمَّا بَعْدُ فَإِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابُ اللهِ وَخَيْرَ الْهَدْيِ هَدْي مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَإِنَّ شَرَّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا وَإِنَّ كُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ وَكُلَّ صَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ
قَالَ اللَّهُ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ فِي كِتَابِهِ الْكَرِيمِ بَعْدَ أَنْ أَقُولَ أَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّحِيمِ
"And your Lord says, "Call upon Me; I will respond to you." Indeed, those who disdain My worship will enter Hell in humiliation."
اللَّهُمَّ لَا تَجْعَلْنَا مِنْ أَصْحَابِ جَهَنَّمَ يَا أَرْحَمَ الرَّاحِمِينَ رَبِّ اشْرَحْ لِي صَدْرِي وَيَسِّرْ لِي أَمْرِي وَاحْلُلْ عُقْدَةً مِنْ لِسَانِي يَفْقَهُوا قَوْلِي وَاللَّهُمَّ ثَبِّتْنَا عِنْدَ الْمَوْتِ بِلَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَاللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْنَا مِنَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِ آمِينَ يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ أَمَّا بَعْدُ
The Famous Hadith About Purity and Acceptance
I'd like to start today's khutbah with a very famous hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. It's a long hadith but a very profound one. He begins by describing Allah. He says:
(Muslim 1015)
that Allah, no doubt He is good and pure and He does not accept anything unless it is good and pure
(Muslim 1015)
and Allah commanded the believers the same things that He told the messengers to do.
The Equal Standards for All Believers
Meaning, messengers don't have a different Islam and the followers have a different Islam. You know, sometimes people start thinking yeah, well those were prophets so they were great and yeah, they did what Allah told them but how can you compare them to us? So we're not like them so please don't put their standards on us. And yet, in this beautiful hadith first of all, Allah says Allah just wants He will only accept goodness and purity and He did not put some extra burden on the prophets. The essential commandments of Allah are the same for all of His slaves. They were examples of how to follow that. We'll never be as good as them but that does not mean we're not capable of obeying Allah. So He says, the same instructions that were given to them were the same instructions that were given to the believers.
Quranic Commands About Consuming Pure Things
Then He quotes the Quran:
He says, quoting the Quran those of you who believe, Allah says eat from good and pure things. Now notice, the good and pure came back. He says, first of all, Allah is good and pure. He doesn't accept anything unless it is good and pure. Then He quotes an ayah. In the ayah, He says, Allah says those of you who believe consume from what is good and pure (at-tayyibat), good and pure and then وَاعْمَلُوا صَالِحًا and do good deeds and act righteously.
The Sequence of Righteousness
So there are two parts to that ayah. The first part of it is consume that which is good and pure and the second is act righteously. Now this is an important sequence because sometimes somebody might feel shaitan can come to them and trick them into thinking that even though they're doing something haram or consuming haram at least they're doing some good so they're doing some good deeds and that makes it okay for them to continue to do the not good and pure things that they may be consuming. And Allah says, no. First and foremost you have to leave filth, you have to leave evil, you have to leave disobedience of Allah, you have to leave the haram, you have to consume only the good and pure and then act righteously. And that's why one becomes a stepping stone to the other.
So كُلُوا مِنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ
Then he quotes another ayah:
he says, Allah also says consume from the good and pure things that we have provided you.
Allah's Abundant Halal Provisions
Meaning plenty of halal options that are good and pure. So whenever a human being is tempted by options other than the permissible, other than what Allah has blessed, they're thinking the impermissible is somehow a better option for me, it's a better alternative for me, the halal isn't good enough, it's not gonna make me happy, it's not gonna fulfill my needs. And Allah says, no. I've provisioned you plenty of good and pure things, stick to them. كُلُوا مِنْ طَيِّبَاتِ مَا رَزَقْنَاكُمْ
Notice the word keeps coming up: first as a description of Allah, second as something only Allah will accept and now third what we consume. Meaning our consumption has to be things that are good and pure.
The Path to Acceptance by Allah
What that's teaching us is that when we become those who only take in and only take from this world what is good and pure, then we become acceptable to Allah. That's when we become acceptable to Allah. That is our way of becoming purified ourselves - to remain within the circle of things that Allah has permitted and not touch and go into things that Allah has not permitted. That's how we become good and pure people.
So it's not some crazy secret formula. How do I become a better person and sometimes people think that you have to follow some ridiculous secret exercise in order to become righteous. Allah has made it very simple. If you want to be acceptable before Allah, stick within good and permissible things. Just stay within the halal and you'll be fine. And that's the starting point of this hadith.
The Example of the Traveler
And then Abu Hurairah who was narrating this hadith says:
(Muslim 1015)
then he made - the Prophet ﷺ gave the example of a person
(Muslim 1015)
he says this person traveled a long distance and they were disheveled, meaning they traveled for so long they don't have a chance to get a change of clothes, they don't have a nice place to stay and they're getting the wear and tear of travel is getting on them.
The Reality of Ancient Travel
Nowadays we have luxurious travel so you just go into an air-conditioned airport through security and then you sit on a cushioned seat and then you say man the flight's delayed 45 minutes and they don't even have Wi-Fi right now and like we're used to these luxuries and we think that this was a tough journey.
Now compare this to a journey from a thousand, fifteen hundred, two thousand years ago when people are walking in a desert, when people are riding on a camel that's straining their back with every step it takes and there's no air conditioning and there are no rest stops. There's a possibility of death because before the next rest stop comes your water's going to run out and you're going to die in the desert and robbery - there is no security, there's none of those things. So a person is completely overrun.
You know how you and I feel sometimes you take a long flight like recently I flew back from Malaysia and it's about a 30 hour journey with the stops included and by the time you come home you're completely disheveled, you can't even stand up straight, you can't think straight, you know you smell weird and this is
just from an easy journey, this is comparatively an easy journey. But Allah's messenger is describing someone who's on journey for months, not for hours, for months. They haven't seen home and by the way when you go somewhere new then you don't get the food of your choice do you?
The Hardships of the Journey
Nowadays we do. Now we say hey I'm going to search a restaurant and find it. That's not how things worked back then. If you're out there and you see a rabbit I don't care if you like rabbit or not, you're going to eat. Today what's for dinner is rabbit, that's what you're going to eat. If you didn't find any animal it's just vegetable, that's all you're going to get. That's what you got. There's no options, there's no search for a nearby place to eat, it doesn't work that way. So you're consuming what you may not even like but just to survive.
So this person's been traveling a long time, they're disheveled, they're covered in dirt أَغْبَرَ
(Muslim 1015)
then they reach their hands up to the sky.
The Beautiful Scene of Supplication
And some scholars describe this hadith as perhaps someone who has come a long distance all the way to the Kaaba, that they've come all the way to perform the ritual of hajj and they've left their home behind and they left every luxury behind and they are going through all this difficulty. And the Quran even describes that even when you take a single step, a single step, that none of it - there's not a single step you take for the sake of Allah except that it's recorded in your favor. This person's taken thousands of steps, hundreds of thousands of steps and the discomfort that they're feeling all of it for the sake of Allah, for no other purpose.
When someone is out in the middle of this discomfort, in this intense heat, they're not doing it for worldly gain, they're not doing it for any kind of reputation, they're doing it for the sake of Allah. That's all that matters. Now there's just them and Allah.
So يَمْدٌ يَدَيْهِ إِلَى السَّمَاءِ he raises his hands to the sky يَا رَبِّ يَا رَبِّ my master, my master.
What a beautiful scene! A person who's left the world behind, who's going through every kind of discomfort, the only priority they have is Allah. That's it. That's the only priority they have.
The Shocking Conclusion
And what does that have to do with the rest of this hadith? Listen to the shocking conclusion of this hadith. He says:
(Muslim 1015)
and this person the food they eat is impermissible and the drinks they drink are impermissible and the clothes they're wearing are impermissible and they're being sustained by the impermissible. All the things are haram, haram, haram, haram.
Understanding the True Meaning
And the question arises if this person's coming all the way to make dua to Allah I'm pretty sure they're slaughtering the animal properly and saying bismillah allahu akbar. A person's not going on the way looking for pork before they make these duas. They're eating the halal, they're drinking water, they're not drinking wine. So what is Allah's messenger talking about?
It's not just what you consume, it's the money you earned to get that. How did you earn that money? Did you earn that money by lying to somebody? Did you earn that money by cheating somebody? Did you earn that money through a haram business? You know people are engaged in grossly haram businesses and then they want to go buy Zabiha chicken because it's halal. Actually that chicken is haram because the money that you use to buy it is haram.
The Contradiction in Worship and Disobedience
And that larger text, the larger subject of the hadith is this person has left everything and they have this spiritual connection to Allah, they're crying and making dua to Allah and Allah's messenger says and while they're doing that they're totally okay with haram.
There's one part of their life - it's like you know I want you to imagine in our minds it's like a shelf right and in one shelf, in one corner of your mind is the worship of Allah and crying and prayer to Allah and hajj and all of it. And in another shelf there's a bunch of things that are haram and you're like this shelf can stay and this shelf can also stay. So sometimes when I'm consuming haram don't talk to me about religion but I'm going to go to hajj every year or I'm going to make qiyam and I'm going to be the most righteous and recite the most Quran in the month of Ramadan or do all kinds of worship and cry and prayer and raise my hands in dua and all of it. But the haram I can't leave. The haram is going to stay. That's got to stay where it is. That's a permanent shelf you know.
And if that's the mindset then he says by the end of this hadith:
(Muslim 1015)
how in the world is he going to be answered? How can his duas be accepted?
Allah's Promise and Its Conditions
You know when I started this khutbah I cited an ayah before you:
وَقَالَ رَبُّكُمْ your master has said ادْعُونِي أَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْ call me I'll respond to you.
Allah says call me I'll respond to you and that's actually a guarantee from Allah. When somebody calls on Allah, Allah guarantees that they will what? Respond. And then the rest of this ayah is:
those who are arrogant from worshipping me, they are too - worship me, they will enter you know ditches in hell and they will be dug deep inside of hell.
The Connection Between Dua and Worship
So the first part of the ayah was make dua to me I'll answer you and the rest of it is those who are too arrogant to worship me. What is the connection between those two things? It is as if in this ayah Allah is telling us dua itself is the worship of Allah. People who don't make dua are people who are not worshipping Allah. But Allah is also teaching us something else. There are some people who make dua but they think they're making dua but they're not actually making dua.
There's a delusion that you think you're making dua because if you were making dua, if I was making dua, Allah says guarantees I will answer you, I will respond, I will absolutely respond.
Allah says in Surah Al-Baqarah He says:
He says when my servant asks you, my slave asks you about me, tell them I'm near. I will immediately respond of whoever calls me whenever they call.
فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا لِي but then he puts a condition: then they should be responding to me too, they should be responding to me also.
What Makes Dua Authentic
What that means is we have this concept that we have made dua but actually there's the reality of dua. What makes a dua authentic to Allah, real to Allah? What makes it real to Allah is what I started with, the words of the Prophet: Allah is good and pure. He doesn't accept what isn't good and pure. This person was leaving the world behind, crying before Allah, making dua, begging Allah and didn't matter what they asked because what they were consuming was haram. So the dua, it wasn't really a dua at all. And according to another ayah of the Quran, this person is too arrogant to worship Allah.
Meaning you're humbling yourself in dua but you're not humbling yourself to leave what he forbade. So you're too arrogant to submit yourself. I'm too arrogant to give up what's haram. I'm too obsessed with my own self to give that up. How can this be called a dua?
The State of Muslims Around the World
I wanted to say this because you know recently all of you have heard the horrible news that's come out of Kashmir, the terrible, terrible news that some of you may know about from around the Muslim world. You know recently when I was in Malaysia I met some Muslims that were Uyghur and they told me about the state of the Muslims in that province of what is now claimed to be China which isn't really China and the state of those Muslims.
The fact that they can't even go pray, there's military presence outside their masjids, so many masjids are being destroyed, just destroyed. The fact that we even come have the blessing of standing in the house of Allah and sitting and listening to a khutbah in the house of Allah, we take that for granted. There are people today, right now in the world who cannot go there unless they risk their life.
There are people who if you find copies of Quran, if you find a tafsir of the Quran, then your family can disappear, your family can disappear. This is the state of the Muslims. This is how they're living. There are places in Ramadan they force them, they have these beer drinking contests during the fast and they force the men to drink beer publicly and if they don't their families will disappear and they force this on the Muslims. This is the state of those Muslims.
The Response to Muslim Suffering
What's happening in so many places in the world doesn't even make it to the news, it won't make it to the news. And these catastrophes that are happening, at the very least everybody says we gotta do something, we gotta do something. And yes, we have to do something. And some people say we have to go after the governments or we have to be politically more active, we have to raise our voices and I don't deny any of those concerns and I don't deny any of the political activism or the call for justice or to hold corrupt government leaders to account, none of that.
But you know Allah says in the Quran:
they know what is outside in the worldly life.
Everybody hears this and says let's make dua for our brothers and sisters, yes or no? Every time you hear something like that we say at least make dua for these people, at least make dua for the oppressed, at least make dua for the women and children. Those women and those children and those old men that are being thrown in jails, they're our fathers, they're our children. Our bond to them is (لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ) which is thicker than blood, that's thicker than blood. That's our family. That's not somebody else's daughter, that's my daughter. That's not somebody else's sister, that's my sister. Those are my parents and that pain is supposed to be felt and the very least we can do is make dua for them.
The Artificiality of Modern Dua
So we say make dua for them and around the world you know what we've done? We've turned dua into such an artificial thing. It hurts me and I know some things I say somebody might find offensive but it doesn't matter and if you find it offensive I ask your forgiveness ahead of time but the thing is nowadays in the world of social media and the internet frenzy people say our hearts and prayers go out to the victims, we make dua for them, may Allah forgive them.
Posting a dua is not dua. Posting a dua is not a dua. Dua is a conversation with Allah. Dua is a conversation with Allah, not with the internet, not with people. It's a conversation with Him. And then you say to Him hey how come you haven't made dua? How come you haven't made dua for them? Really? Because until you know somebody's made dua, dua hasn't happened?
The Power of Private Dua
The most powerful dua is in the Quran, like the dua of Ibrahim (عليه السلام) when he was standing at the Ka'bah. Nobody was around, he was in the desert, no one was around and he made this dua and because of his dua our messenger came. When you see in this hajj season millions of people going around the Ka'bah and making tawaf and calling on Allah and screaming (لَبَّيْكَ اللَّهُمَّ لَبَّيْكَ) that's because of a dua made by one person because that person had left all of disobedience to Allah completely and was completely in submission to Allah. That dua changed the map of the world, it changed the map of the world. That's what dua is. Dua is not something small.
You know the mother of the Quran is the Fatiha, Ummul Quran, it's the mother of the Quran and the Fatiha itself is just a dua. اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ is just a dua. And what is dua? Dua is not a public outcry. Dua is a sincere conversation between the slave and Allah, a real conversation between the slave and Allah. It isn't something artificial, it isn't a show, it isn't (يَا رَبِّ يَا رَبِّ) like this hadith says while people are consuming haram, while people are disobeying Allah and then they say we should at least feel bad for them.
The Cost of Caring
If you really feel bad for them and you want Allah to accept your dua then leave haram. How much do you care for those people that are suffering that you still care too much to not let go of the haram, to let go of Allah's disobedience? Because if you really wanted Allah to answer these duas for those that are suffering then that care for them and that love for them that we should have, it should be enough. If nothing else was enough even that should be enough for us to leave disobedience to Allah. Even that should be enough for us to leave haram.
And us not leaving that haram, us not leaving disobedience to Allah and then artificially making duas like the person described in this hadith - Allah will not ask us why didn't you care about this ummah. Our
messenger did not describe this ummah as one body. When one part of it hurts the rest of it hurts. You know this is the ummah, this is us, ourselves. It's not even someone else. When they're being humiliated and degraded we're being humiliated and degraded, we're being humiliated.
The Power of Dua
And the most powerful thing Allah has given us, the mightiest weapon Allah has given us is direct conversation with Him. People say speak to the politicians because they have influence. People say speak to these people because they have influence. Let's influence the media because when you have millions of people listening that will have influence. Who has more influence than Allah? Who has more influence than Allah? And we can't even have a real conversation with Allah.
We think of duas oh yeah I know dua but what are we really gonna do? Yeah I know you said make dua but what are we really gonna do? This is the attitude as if dua is some superficial thing that you just do as a ceremonial. You feel bad, make dua but where's the real action?
Real Dua Requires Real Change
Real dua means the ummah has made tawbah. Real dua means we have less disobedience. Real dua means these people are complaining you know we make dua against oh ya Allah these oppressors or whatever and those same oppressors when they make movies and they make music, they're the music we're playing in our weddings and then we make dua against the oppressors. And those of you who understand what I'm saying know exactly what I'm talking about. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Shame on us, shame on us.
And then we think to ourselves that you know at least we've made dua for them. This is not how dua works. That pain is something Allah will ask us about. That's something that we will be answerable to Allah for.
The Only Way Out
And if we're not turning, if we look at the suffering of the world around us today, the suffering of the ummah today, the only way out of it, the only way out of it, the only way the Muslims will be in a position of dignity ever again. Allah said it himself:
don't become weak, don't lose heart, don't be sad. You will be in the position if in fact you're believers, if in fact you're believers.
And he said that at Uhud when we had lost so many, when the Prophet was almost killed. Why? Because that is the time to turn back to Allah, to make real du'a to Allah. That is what a real believer does.
They meet the conditions of that du'a, they don't just artificially make du'a. That's what this is supposed to be. This is what our religion teaches us.
The Unseen Reality
Du'a, do not underestimate its power, do not underestimate its power. If you study the stories of the Prophets in the Quran every single one of them, you know the major events in their lives, the major events in their lives as captured in the Quran, for every single one of them the major event is associated with a du'a that they made to Allah. They asked Allah for something and then the course of history changes. They had a real conversation with Allah and the trajectory of their life and of the people, everything changes because of their du'as. So this is not something small, it's not a ceremonial thing. Yes there are real life actions we have to take but this, the unseen, the unseen reality, this is you know about Allah says about people you know:
person they only want worldly life and that's the extent of their knowledge. That's all they know. They see the news, they see the reality on the outside, that is reality. Allah says that's the extent of their knowledge. They don't know that there's another world, there's another unseen reality which is much more powerful than anything you can see and we have access to that reality because Allah has given us the ability to have direct conversation with Allah (عَزَّ وَجَلٌ) to make dua to Him, to really call on Him.
Prayer for Genuine Repentance
I pray that we become people of real dua to Allah, that we are ashamed before Allah for the disobedience that we've been doing to Him, that we can admit our faults before Him, that we can ask Him to forgive us and to really genuinely repent to Him and turn away from that sin.
You know I'm not giving you this khutbah to put you to shame. I hope you put yourself to shame and I put myself to shame before Allah. Not here when we're together. When you're alone by yourself tonight when you're just in your own moments with Allah, then you and I have to just humiliate ourselves before Him, we have to humble ourselves before Him. That's when we become people of dua.
The Connection Between Humility and Dua
The ayah began: call on me I will answer and the ayah ended: those who are too arrogant to worship me. Meaning you have to let your pride go when you make dua, you have to humiliate yourself before Allah. No sense of self needs to be left before Allah. You are completely bare and exposed before Allah. All the ugliness you and I hide inside, all of it is laid out before Allah and we beg Him to forgive, we beg Him to forgive. And after that then the doors of rizq open, then the barakat come. This is when the barakat come.
When Victory Comes
When did the help of Allah come? And even when the help of Allah came in the Quran, the last thing I'll share with you:
when the victory came from Allah, when the aid came from Allah, what did Allah's messenger, what was he told to do?
declare Allah's perfection which also means declare your own imperfection and just ask His forgiveness. Therefore ask His forgiveness. When victory comes we turn in forgiveness, when it doesn't come we turn in forgiveness.
turn back and make tawbah to Allah believers so you can be successful people who claim to believe.
Final Prayer
May Allah عَزَّ وَجَلَّ give us sincerity in our dua and sincerity in our tawbah back to Him. May Allah make us of those who become good and pure so Allah accepts our duas and accepts us ourselves as those that are good and pure and so that our words reach the heavens and the help from Allah descends, the help of the angels descends, the help of rizq descends and the protection and the dignity descends that we can protect ourselves and the ummah around us and humanity at large.
أقم الصلاة establish the salah.