Prophet Sulaiman s Prayer

Prophet Sulaiman's Prayer

By Nouman Ali Khan - Malaysia Tour 2015

Opening Prayer and Greetings

I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan. He said, O my Lord, forgive me and grant me a kingdom that no one after me should have. Truly, it is You who is the Bestower. (Quran 38:35)

The Lord has opened my heart and made my affair easy for me. And He has made my speech easy to understand. (Quran 20:25-27)

So, all praise is due to Allah and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah and upon his family and companions.

Once again, everyone (السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ)

The Transformative Power of the Quran

One of the things that the Quran did for me in my own journey and it continues to do for me is it continues to shape the way I think about reality. Allah's comments, a lot of times, they change my attitudes towards things that I thought I knew.

You know, one of the things about, one of the most remarkable statements in the Quran about reflecting deeply on the Quran is:

Do they not deeply reflect on the Quran or is it the case that the hearts have their own locks placed on them? (Quran 47:24)

And that is a very profound statement. Why would Allah say that the reason they don't reflect on the Quran is their hearts have their own locks placed on them? It has many things, many meanings.

Breaking Free from Preconceived Notions

One of them I want to share with you is that sometimes you have a preconceived notion. You've already made up your mind what the ayah means. Or you've already made up your mind as to what is permissible and what is not permissible. You've already made up your mind as to how to think about something and how to not think about something.

Maybe it came from your culture. Maybe it came from your background. Maybe it came from the lectures you heard or something. Right? And it became a part of you. And that's just how you think. The Quran is forcing you, when it reflects, to unlock everything you have in your heart. Let Allah dictate what your conclusion should be. They cannot be dictated by anything else.

The Importance of Understanding Process Over Answers

And so there are people who when they... And I've seen this happen. You're trying to study the book of Allah. You're trying to learn the meaning of the ayah. And they say, well, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait. We learned that this means this. Or we learned that it's X. But the ayah is saying Y. It's not saying X. No, but that doesn't matter because we already learned that it's X. So you can't question that anymore.

One of my mentors, Dr. Akram Nadwi, was telling me one time that he was discussing... By the way, we do this with Quran, we do this with hadith. And when people are ready to do this with hadith, then Quran is an easy step. So he said he was talking to a number of ulama. These are scholars. And they were discussing some issue. And he said, well, what about this hadith? And the scholar said, well, no, no, no. Actually, no, I know that's a hadith. But, you know, the fatwa remains. And then the sheikh quoted one of the other scholars that they look up to. And as soon as they quoted that other scholar, everybody said, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah, that makes sense.

And he said, wait. When I told you the hadith on the same subject, you all had a counter. But when I told you the scholar said it, all of you just immediately agreed. Nobody had a problem. There's the respect for scholars, you know. But you know why we respect our scholars? Because they did their best to understand the book. And they did their best to understand the sunnah. But when they gave us their answers, let me tell you something.

You know in mathematics, like in calculus, you can have a four-page set of calculations. And at the end, there's an answer. Right? And that answer, for everybody else, they just care about the answer. For a student, what do they care about? How do they get to this answer? What was their process? What was their process? We need to understand the process. The thing with Muslims became, we became too interested in the answer. We lost interest in what? The process. Don't tell me the details. Just tell me what the answer is.

The Need for Transparency in Islamic Scholarship

Now the thing is, sometimes, is it possible that even a teacher missed a little bit? Or they didn't consider everything? So they gave you the answer, but maybe the answer should be revisited. Does that happen? Yeah. Yeah. And as students, it's our job to actually understand not only the answer, but understand the process. To understand the process.

And it became so bad in the ummah, that when you ask someone, Well, what was their process? When they came at this conclusion. They get offended. Who are you to ask the process? Are you a scholar? Are you supposed, you have a right to ask? No, no, no, no, no. This ummah has actually always been transparent. Our ummah, even among each other, were always transparent. Nobody ever said, who are you to ask me? What are your qualifications?

And when that transparency starts going away, the respect for scholarship starts going away. As a matter of fact, our scholarship maintained a high level of respect because they were transparent. Not because they felt like they don't have to give any answers or explanations. It was the exact opposite. And now people think, if we maintain that and we never question them, that is the only way we can maintain their respect. It's actually the opposite. Society, as a large, starts losing respect for these people. They say, these people think they know everything. They don't want to explain anything. We're all dumb. And the majority of society moves away from ulama.

Addressing the False Dunya vs Deen Dichotomy

Anyway, I said that as an introductory thing, but what I really wanted to talk to you about is one dua that changed my attitude about a lot of things. It's something that affected me and affects, I think, a lot of people. So I travel and I meet young people and they say, Ustadh, I'm studying engineering. I feel really bad. Why do you feel bad? Because I'm studying engineering. It's dunya, you know, I'm studying dunya. Make dua that my parents don't make me study engineering so I can go study deen. Because I don't want dunya, I want deen.

Somebody else says, Ustadh, I have a job. I feel so bad. Why do you feel bad? Because I'm an accountant. Well, okay, then you should feel bad. But they'll say, you know, because all I do is, you know, I file the taxes for this company or do the books and this and that. And I spend nine hours a day doing that, but I only spend one hour a day reading Quran. Or I only spend a little bit of time in the masjid, but I spend most of my day working. I feel terrible.

I'm like, what do you think farmers do? They do a lot more hours than you do. What do you think other people of other... Like, what does Allah want from us? To leave our occupations and recite Quran all day? You know, some people have that attitude. If I was only studying deen all day, then I would be a good person. You know? And if I'm doing other things, then I'm not a good person. If I'm earning a living, I'm running a business, I'm going to college, then I'm not a good person. SubhanAllah, this is so off. It's so far from the view Allah paints, the picture Allah paints in the Quran. I can't even begin to describe.

The Quran Encourages Engagement with the World

Why would this book want to keep you inside a library, or inside a university, or inside a masjid, all day and all night, when this book is saying, go look at the sky.

Say: Go travel in the land. (Quran 27:69)

If you want to know the tafsir of go travel in the land, it's not going to be from Ibn Kathir or Qurtubi or Ibn Ashur رَحِمَهُمُ اللَّهُ . Where are you going to get the tafsir of go travel in the land? By going and traveling in the land.

Where are you going to get the tafsir of:

Didn't they look at the bird above them, spreading its wings and collapsing them. (Quran 67:19)

It's not going to be a grammatical analysis that tells you what that ayah means. What is it going to be? You going out and watching birds spread their wings, and saying, whoa!

Allah wants you to experience life. This is what He tells you in this book. You come back to this book, it pushes you out in the world. Then the world outside pushes you back into the book. Then it pushes you back in the world. You keep going between the ayahs of creation and the ayahs of revelation. That's the process of the Quran.

The Dua of Prophet Sulaiman - A Revolutionary Perspective

So one of these ayahs, that is so epic, is the dua of Sulaiman عَلَيْهِ السَّلام . Sulaiman عَلَيْهِ السَّلام you know, when prophets make dua, they make dua for akhira, they make dua for forgiveness, yeah? They make dua for their future generations, isn't it? Listen to this dua:

He said, Master forgive me. (Quran 38:35)

And give me the gift of kingdom.

Give me, give me the gift of some kind of kingdom:

That is not even appropriate for anyone who comes after me.

Give me so much kingdom, that it's not even appropriate for any human being that comes after me to have that kind of kingdom.

You are the one who continuously gives gifts. (Quran 38:35)

Understanding the Deeper Meaning

What is Sulayman عَلَيْهِ السَّلامُ asking for? First thing, forgive me. Second thing, which is what shocked me, I was like, what? He asked for kingdom. Okay, that's deen or dunya, by the way, by our standards. Sounds like dunya, isn't it? And not just dunya. Don't just give me and give other people. He didn't just say that, he said what? Give me so much and give me something that is not even fitting for anybody else. Make me unique in what you give me. In where? In dunya. How in the world is this appropriate? It sounds like he's asking only for dunya.

The beauty of this dua, number one, is his top priority. Ya Rabb, forgive me. If you understand, Ya Rabb, forgive me, then everything else about this dua will make sense. If you don't understand, Ya Rabb, forgive me, you will not understand what the rest of this dua is.

The Concept of Lasting Legacy

A human being can only do so much in this life. We can't, I can't, I'm only gonna live so many years, then I'm gonna be leaving this earth, whether I like it or not. My date is done. My time is done, the angel shows up, the appointment is there, it can't be delayed. The only thing that lives after me is what? As far as my akhirah is concerned, and my forgiveness is concerned, I can make ،استغفار الله، استغفار الله استغفار اللهyou know, I can make tawbah to Allah, I can cry before Allah, only so many years. Only so many times. But what can help me earn Allah's forgiveness even after I die? It's called صدقة جارية isn't it? Something good you leave behind.

The hadith will tell us your صدقة جارية could be your money. One of the most beautiful forms of صدقة جارية is what your children, they do good deeds after you, yes? Allah has given different people different blessings. Some people have money, they don't have children. Some people have children and they don't have money.

But:

Money is a part of the beauty of this life, children are a part of the beauty of this life, isn't it? (Quran 18:46)

Now Allah gives certain people certain capabilities and other people other capabilities. If you study the prophets in the Quran, they don't all have the same talents. They have different personalities, and they have different special skills. They have different highlights.

Sulaiman's Special Gift of Governance