Every Muslim Needs This Du'a Framework | Khutbah by Dr. Omar Suleiman

Opening

We begin by praising Allah by bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for Him, and we bear witness that Muhammad is His final messenger. We ask Allah to send His peace and blessings upon him, the prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him, and those that follow in his blessed path until the Day of Judgment, and we ask Allah to make us amongst them. اللهم آمين.

Dear brothers and sisters, as we enter into the final phase of Ramadan, may Allah allow us to be amongst those that catch لیلة القدر. اللهم آمين.

Building a Du'a Framework

I wanted to use this khutbah as an opportunity to build out a du'a framework, because many times people ask: How should we make du'a in this time? What du'a should we say here? What's a way to draw it all out? And of course, the first reminder is that your du'a should be sincere and let your heart speak with whatever words come, as long as they do not transgress the bounds of du'a and they follow the Sunnah of the Prophet, then those are the best du'as.

But what this actually ended up becoming is more of how to build a du'a framework in general. So it's not necessarily specific to لیلة القدر, but really something elaborating on one narration from the Prophet about what a person should hold on to in Ramadan.

The Hadith of Four Qualities

Now the narration that I'll cite, it's a long narration and Imam Ibn Khuzayma classifies it as authentic. Al-Bayhaqi and others, Hafidh Ibn Rajab includes it in his monumental work. Some of the scholars dispute the authenticity of the hadith, but if you take every piece of it, then there is something to back up every sentence of it. And there is a wording here that I want to focus on, and it's the hadith of Salman al-Farisi that is narrated that the Messenger of Allah said:

"Verily there has come upon you a blessed and mighty month, a month in which there is a night that is greater than a thousand months."

But here's what I want you to pay attention to in terms of a framework. He says:

"So hold on to four qualities in this month."

Usually when you hear a du'a or a hadith that says do these two things, do these four things, you might be expecting something that's foreign to you or something that's very different or a wording that's unfamiliar to you. But the beauty of the prophetic methodology is that it's comprehensive, it's simple, it's easy to remember, because the Prophet does not want you lost in poetry. The Prophet is giving you consistent methodology.

And so you get your one-on-one time with the Prophet: What should I do? Ask Allah to be spared, ask Allah for forgiveness - very simple prescriptions. But it's the way that this narration words it that is incredible. So four qualities that you should increase in, and He says:

"Two of those qualities you increase in your pleasing of your Lord, and two things that you cannot live without."

In fact, this was the wording that caught my attention most and that I want to spend the majority of the khutbah on - two things that you please your Lord by, and two things that you cannot live without, that there is no way for you to be independent of.

The Two Things That Please Your Lord

So he says:

"As for the two things that you please your Lord with: that you say لا إله إلا الله, that you bear witness to the oneness of Allah, and that you seek forgiveness from Him."

These are the two things that will increase your closeness to Allah and you really need to increase in this time of Ramadan where you are seeking this blessed month.

"As for the two qualities that you cannot live without: that you ask Allah for Jannah and that you ask Him to protect you from the fire."

The Prophetic Example

These are four extremely simple things. But I want you to dig into the framing rather than simply four things that we all know as basic Muslims: لا إله إلا الله, أستغفر الله, اللهم إني أسألك الجنة, اللهم إني أعوذ بك من النار - bearing witness to the oneness of Allah, seeking forgiveness from Allah, asking Allah for paradise, and then asking Allah to protect you from the fire. Why is this so significant?

There is an authentic narration in Sunan Abu Dawood, and I want to give you a framing of it. Imagine if you walked into the masjid and you saw the Prophet and his most elite companions, specifically Mu'adh ibn Jabal, and they're making these beautiful du'as and you can hear their dandana. Dandana means the humming sounds, like the murmuring sound.

So if you're walking into the masjid and you see the Prophet sitting and making du'a, and then you see Mu'adh ibn Jabal and people like Abu Bakr and Umar making du'a, and it just seems to flow so beautifully. You can't make out the exact words that they're saying, but it's just a beautiful flow, and then you're like, "I'm gonna go to Allah and make du'a and I have no idea what these people are saying. Clearly what they are saying is far different than what I'm saying. I come to Allah with a very broken du'a. It doesn't rhyme. It's not poetic. It doesn't sound in any way like what I'm hearing from the Prophet and Mu'adh."

So this man, who's a simple man, he comes to the Prophet and he says, "Ya Rasulullah, I don't understand your dandana and the dandana of Mu'adh. I don't get it. I don't understand what you're saying, what you're murmuring, what you're humming."

Now the Prophet could have said, "All right, now take out your notebook and write," right? Or, "Listen to what I have to say and memorize this." But that's not what the Prophet did. The Prophet said, "كيف تقول في الصلاة? What do you do when you pray? What do you say when you pray?"

You see the prophetic wisdom. Instead of telling him what he says, it's, "Well, what do you say?"

So he said, "I say the shahada: أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وأشهد أن محمداً رسول الله. I simply say the shahada and I say اللهم إني أسألك الجنة وأعوذ بك من النار - I ask Allah to grant me paradise and to protect me from the fire."

My whole du'a is bearing witness to the oneness of Allah and by implication, the shahada to the Prophethood of Muhammad - because maybe he's a new Muslim, maybe he just learned the shahada - and I ask Allah for paradise and I ask Allah to protect me from the fire. That's it.

The Prophet said, "حولها ندندن - me and Mu'adh, all we do is we take those four things and we build around them. You're good. That's good enough."

(Sunan Abu Dawood)

And so what do you say to someone who just converted to Islam and is like, "This Arabic seems overwhelming and I've got to memorize this and I've got to memorize that"? You bear witness to the oneness of Allah, you send praise on the Prophet, ask Allah for Jannah, ask Allah to protect you from the fire. You're good. Build on that. That's fine. Whether it's Arabic, English, whatever it may be. That's fine. Build on the principles, on what brought you into this deen in the first place.

The Wisdom of Simplicity

And so that's why even when our mother Aisha - and there's wisdom to this as well - asked the Prophet for a du'a to say in the last ten nights. Aisha is an incredibly intelligent woman. Aisha could memorize a book on the spot, right? I mean, this is an incredibly literate, thorough, intelligent, eloquent, poetic woman.

"Just say: Oh Allah, You are al-Afuw, You are the Forgiver, You love to forgive, so forgive me."

One of the wisdoms is that Aisha is going to repeat thousands of things that the Prophet taught her. Imagine if Aisha gave us something that we have to read off a paper and we're gonna be walking around in the last ten nights trying to remember this. But the Prophet was making that du'a and Aisha was making that du'a.

The Four Foundations

However, let me come back to the narration: four foundations, at least, that we can build a du'a structure around, because it is wonderful to prepare yourself for du'a. It is wonderful to get yourself ready for how you're going to exert yourself with Allah.

First Foundation: Renewal of Tawheed

خصلتان ترضون بهما ربكم - two things by which you please your Lord. The first one is that renewal of Tawheed, that renewal of the oneness of Allah and your covenant with Allah and praising Allah and sending salawat on the Prophet.

Whether it is the last ten nights, or it is as you are on your way to do umrah or hajj and you're saying لبيك اللهم لبيك, or it is as you're standing on the day of Arafah and you're saying لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له، له الملك وله الحمد، وهو على كل شيء قدير - it always starts with this ترضون بهما ربكم.

And Surat al-Fatiha gives you that equation as well. The first half is for your Lord, the second half is for you, and that is in the hadith Qudsi that "I have divided Surat al-Fatiha into two. The first half for the Lord, the second half for My servants."

And so that first half is the praise of Allah - al-thana, al-tawheed - all of those things by which you renew that covenant with Allah. And in that, you don't have to simply repeat the prophetic prescriptions, though they are beautiful. The elaborations of tawheed: الحمد لله، الحمد لله الذي أنعم علينا بالإسلام، الحمد لله الذي أنزل الكتاب. You can grow the hamd with different prophetic prescriptions, and that's beautiful. You can grow the tahleel, the لا إله إلا الله with prophetic prescriptions, and that's beautiful.

But the point is renewing that oneness of Allah and the praise of Allah alone, and the praise and the salawat on the Prophet, because before you ask, you anchor. Before you ask, you anchor. You anchor yourself in the One that you are about to ask from and you say the things that are pleasing to Him. So before you ask Allah for anything, even of the akhira, you renew that covenant with Allah and you anchor yourself in that praise.

Second Foundation: Seeking Forgiveness

وتستغفرونه - and you seek His forgiveness. And the ulema mentioned that of the benefits of this is that seeking forgiveness is how you clear the pathway to anything that you're going to ask Allah for.

And of the profound nature of even the way Qur'an words the greatest gift, which is Jannah and what is attained in Jannah: يغفر لكم ذنوبكم ويدخلكم جنات - "Allah will forgive you for your sins, then He'll enter you into paradise." يكفر عنكم سيئاتكم - "Allah will expiate your sins and then enter you into Jannah."

Almost to say that just as seeking forgiveness is a requirement to the entrance into paradise, that if forgiveness is attained, then paradise is guaranteed. And so every time Allah talks about dukhool al-jannah, entering into paradise, there is the forgiveness that comes before that. And so تستغفرونه is to clear the way.

The Prophet tells us that every night there is a du'a for the fasting person that's accepted, like we make du'a at the time of iftar. And Abdullah ibn Amr al-Aas, every single night in Ramadan, he would say:

"Oh Allah, I seek Your forgiveness."

The last ten nights: إنك عفو تحب العفو فاعف عني - "You are the Pardoner, You love to pardon, so pardon me." Every single night at the time of breaking the fast: اللهم إني أسألك مغفيرتك - "Oh Allah, I ask You for Your forgiveness."

If Allah forgives me, everything comes good after that, because sins block barakah in this life. They block the blessing of anything I'm gonna ask Allah for in this life, and they block the acceptance or the entrance into anything I'm gonna ask Allah for in the next life.

And so the focus on asking Allah for forgiveness - cleaning the heart, clearing the way of all of the obstacles. And in the framework that I want you to think about: because you're not just making du'a for yourself in the last ten nights, you're not just making du'a for yourself in general. The greatest thing that you could make du'a for for someone else is forgiveness as well.

And that's why even for your parents, before you ask Allah, "Oh Allah, grant my parents good health. Oh Allah, grant my parents a nice house. Oh Allah, grant my parents comfort. Oh Allah, make this easy for them," Allah says the greatest gratitude that you show to your parents:

"Oh Allah, forgive my parents, forgive them," because that's the greatest thing you could ask for them.

What do you make du'a for the previous generations when you think about those who came before? Tastaghfir - you seek forgiveness للذين سبقونا بالإيمان - for those who preceded us in faith. You seek forgiveness for your brothers and sisters. Yes, even in Gaza, in Palestine, and all over the world, you seek forgiveness for them, because forgiveness is the greatest thing that could be given to them that clears the way for everything else.

So ask Allah to forgive you, ask Allah to forgive your parents, ask Allah to forgive your ummah, ask Allah to forgive those who came before, ask Allah to forgive those that will come afterwards. And so this is the second thing.

And in that process as well, you'll notice that the Prophet is showing the humility in seeking forgiveness by showing us that we should seek forgiveness from Allah for the hidden sins and the obvious sins: ما أسررنا وما أعلنا، ما قدمنا وما أخرنا - that which we have done, that which we have yet to do, what we know and what we don't know. There are sins that we commit that we don't even know.

And to admit to Allah in the process that Allah has blessed us with so much and that there was no justification whatsoever in presenting those sins to Allah.

The Divine Response

These are two things, and when you're talking about the divine attributes, human qualities only give us a window. If you're really mad at someone, you know that your child is going to come and ask you for something, and before they ask you for something, you still hold something like they never really showed regret. They never actually sought forgiveness for something that they did that was very upsetting. They never showed any humility in that.

The moment that they do that, look how much your heart softens to your child. Like, "Oh wow, he's really sorry. She's really sorry, she gets it." خصلتان ترضون بهما ربكم - two things that you please your Lord with.

Third Foundation: Asking for Paradise

And then, what do you ask Allah? The words that caught me in this narration: لا غنى بكم عنهما - ask Allah for the things that you cannot live without.

I want to be real here for a moment. Ask Allah for money, but you can live without money. Ask Allah for health, but you can live without health. Ask Allah for all of these things of this world, but you can technically exist without those things. You can survive in the ultimate sense without those things. But ask Allah for them, but the Prophet is saying prioritize the things that you could not survive without.

And what are the things you absolutely could not survive without? The entire incentive of what exists at the end of this purpose of living: entrance into paradise and protection from the fire. So go there and start with that.

So you ask Allah for Jannah: تسألون الله الجنة. And when you ask Allah for paradise, ask Allah for the highest of paradise. So you just admitted your sins, and you should be feeling low, but because of the fact that you're admitting your sins to the Most High, then those lowly sins disappear. Ask Allah for the highest of paradise. Ask Allah for الفردوس الأعلى. Ask Allah to be the companion of the Prophet in Jannah, to be his companion in Jannah. Ask and ask and ask.

And ask of the highest levels of paradise, and ask Allah to grant other people Jannah that you love as well. Pray that Allah enter them into العليين as well. Ask Allah that your family be with you. But let that be the North Star that you're constantly asking Allah for. Now, this is before you get to the rizq, the sustenance.

Ask Allah for Jannah, and then تعوذون به من النار - ask Allah for protection from the fire.

Building Out Your Du'a

I want to share something here that some of the ulema of Tazkiyah mentioned: that one of the best ways to increase your du'a when you're asking Allah for Jannah is to ask Allah to grant you the qualities of the people of Jannah and ask Allah to facilitate for you the deeds of the people of Jannah. That way you will extend.

So you're not just asking Allah for Jannah and then the parts of Jannah that you want and the people that you want in Jannah, but you're asking Allah for the qualities and the deeds that get you into Jannah. So, "Oh Allah, facilitate this for me and open this for me." And you can then build out your list of the dreams and the aspirations you have for the sake of Allah.

Fourth Foundation: Seeking Protection from Hellfire

And then the same is true with وتعوذون به من النار - and you seek refuge and protection from hellfire. Ask Allah to protect you from hellfire, and ask Allah to protect you from the qualities that lead you to hellfire. Ask Allah to protect you from hypocrisy, ask Allah to protect you from insincerity. Ask Allah to protect you from the deeds - the lying, the cheating, the weak moments where the Shaytan can exploit and you get pulled into committing certain sins, the arrogance and the pride and the desires and the things that lead you astray. Ask Allah to clear those away.

Not just protect you from hellfire, but protect you from being with the people of hellfire and like the people of hellfire. And when you see your brothers and sisters suffering, ask Allah that they will not suffer again in the hereafter, that what has taken place for them of suffering in this life will not be repeated of suffering in the afterlife, that it is an expiation.

Including Your Ummah

Now with all of that being said - and I'm at the end of my khutbah already - as you come into the end and you include your ummah: لا يؤمن أحدكم - no one of you believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself. حب لأخيه ما يحب لنفسه. Everything that you will ask for yourself, you ask for your brothers and sisters.

As we're witnessing right now the expansion of the war on the innocents, on the war on المستضعفين - the schoolgirls that were killed in Gaza, now schoolgirls in Iran, the starvation that took place and that continues to take place in Sudan. You will see it expand to the regions that will fall apart because the natural resources cannot reach them anymore, because when the global economy crashes, the last to suffer will be the global elite. It's always the poor people that have to eat the pain in the middle, and our ummah has to suffer.

And there's a common reflection that I was hearing from brothers and sisters that I was checking upon over the last few weeks that live in some of those Gulf countries where they can just see the things in the sky. All they do is they can see it in the sky and they can hear the explosions. And most of them - I don't want to say all of them because it might have been just one person who didn't respond with this - in their reflection, this made us think of the people of Gaza: How could they live with this without the protection and air defenses and things of that sort? Like, we are on the edge just seeing explosions in the sky. How could they live with this destruction constantly falling upon them?

It doesn't need for you to live an experience to pray for someone that is in that experience. You know enough about your suffering ummah. Bring them to your du'a. Bring them to your du'a, bi idhnillah. Everything you ask Allah for yourself, ask Allah for them as well.

Conclusion

May Allah protect them as we seek protection, and may Allah grant them acceptance as we seek acceptance. And may Allah allow us to be amongst those who are accepted in ليلة القدر and beyond, and may Allah forgive us for all of our sins and protect us from the fire and accept all of our good deeds and enter us into the highest level of paradise.