The Du’a
اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي عَبْدُكَ وَابْنُ عَبْدِكَ وَابْنُ أَمَتِكَ وَفِيَّ قَبْضَتِكَ نَاصِيَتِي بِيَدِكَ مَاضٍ فِيَّ حُكْمُكَ عَدْلٌ فِيَّ قَضَاؤُكَ أَسْأَلُكَ بِكُلِّ اسْمٍ هُوَ لَكَ سَمَّيْتَ بِه نَفْسَكَ أَوْ أَنْزَلْتَهُ فِي كِتَابِكَ أَوْ عَلَّمْتَهُ أَحَدًا مِنْ خَلْقِكَ أَوْ اسْتَأْثَرْتَ بِهِ فِي عِلْمِ الْغَيْبِ عِنْدَكَ أَنْ تَجْعَلَ الْقُرْآنَ رَبِيعَ قلبِي وجَلاء حُزْنِي و ذَهَابَ هَمِّي
O Allah, I am Your slave, and the son of Your male slave, and the son of your female slave. My forehead is in Your Hand (i.e. you have control over me). Your Judgment upon me is assured, and Your Decree concerning me is just. I ask You by every Name that You have named Yourself with, revealed in Your Book, taught any one of Your creations, or kept unto Yourself in the knowledge of the unseen that is with You, to make the Qur’an the spring of my heart, and the light of my chest, the banisher of my sadness, and the reliever of my distress.1
Du’a is an ibadah, it is an expression of trust a believer has towards his creator, Allah SWT, the Prophet ﷺ has taught us how to make du’a to Allah which is shown in many hadith.
Today, we will look at an example from the hadith on the du’a to alleviate anxiety and sorrow, the du’a might seem long, but the phrases used by the prophet ﷺ are concise, and to further understand this du’a, let us divide the content into three parts: acknowledgement, praising, and asking.
1) Acknowledgement:
“اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي عَبْدُكَ وَابْنُ عَبْدِكَ وَابْنُ أَمَتِكَ وَفِيَّ قَبْضَتِكَ نَاصِيَتِي بِيَدِكَ مَاضٍ فِيَّ حُكْمُكَ عَدْلٌ فِيَّ قَضَاؤُكَ”
“O Allah, I am Your slave, and the son of Your male slave, and the son of your female slave. My forehead is in Your Hand (i.e. you have control over me). Your Judgment upon me is assured, and Your Decree concerning me is just.”
The Prophet ﷺ started the du’a by calling out to Allah and acknowledging that we are the servants of Allah, that Allah swt has complete control over us, He gives us life and He can take it away, whatever He decreed upon us is just, as He is the Creator, The One who is worthy of worship.
This act of acknowledgement is the proper etiquette in making du’a to Allah swt, that before we ask for anything, we show our need for it, our state of helplessness and that Allah is The One who can help us with our needs, for he Hears our calls to Him and He grants whatever that we wish for, provided we come to him, with full of certainty and sincerity.
2) Praising
أَسْأَلُكَ بِكُلِّ اسْمٍ هُوَ لَكَ سَمَّيْتَ بِهِ نَفْسَكَ أَوْ أَنْزَلْتَهُ فِي كِتَابِكَ أَوْ عَلَّمْتَهُ أَحَدًا مِنْ خَلْقِكَ أَوْ اسْتَأْثَرْتَ بِهِ فِي عِلْمِ الْغَيْبِ عِنْدَكَ
I ask You by every Name that You have named Yourself with, revealed in Your Book, taught any one of Your creations, or kept unto Yourself in the knowledge of the unseen that is with You,
The prophet ﷺ continues by saying: “أسأَلُك بكلِّ اسمٍ هو لك”, meaning, “I ask You by every Name that You have named Yourself with” and this parallel to what Allah swt says in Quran2 :
وَلِلَّهِ ٱلْأَسْمَآءُ ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ فَٱدْعُوهُ بِهَا ۖ
Allah has the Most Beautiful Names. So call upon Him by them,
Allah has 99 names, “Asma’ul Husna” (ie. The Most Beautiful Names of Allah), these names are made known to us through Quran and Hadith, and we are encouraged to call upon these names whenever it suits, for example how we ask Allah through his name “ ٱلْوَهَّابُ” (Al-Wahhab, The Bestower), when we seek guidance in the du’a:
رَبَّنَا لَا تُزِغْ قُلُوبَنَا بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَيْتَنَا وَهَبْ لَنَا مِن لَّدُنكَ رَحْمَةً ۚ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلْوَهَّابُ “They say: “Our Lord! Do not let our hearts deviate after you have guided us. Grant us Your mercy. You are indeed the Giver of all bounties”3
The prophet ﷺ did not stop there, he ﷺ proceeded to go in detail by invoking the names of Allah that, unbeknown to us, exist, and is only known to Allah, this shows the vastness of the knowledge of Allah SWT which is incomparable to what we know, and it also pictures the weight of the du’a that we are about to ask for, which is to alleviate our anxiety and worry. Having such feeling is not a simple moment that passes by, but rather it is something that weighs us down, a burden so heavy, none can lift this burden without the will of Allah SWT, and in this du’a, the prophet ﷺ teaches us to surrender and go back to our creator, in His entirety, to alleviate ourselves of this burden that we carry with us.
3) Asking
أَنْ تَجْعَلَ الْقُرْآنَ رَبِيعَ قلبِي وجَلاء حُزْنِي و ذَهَابَ هَمِّي
to make the Qur’an the spring of my heart, and the light of my chest, the banisher of my sadness, and the reliever of my distress.
Now that we have acknowledged our relationship with Allah SWT and praised Allah, by invoking in all of His names, we move on to the du’a, to ask Allah to alleviate our feelings of worry, sadness, anxiety, distress.
What is beautiful is how the prophet guides us through this du’a, by showing us what we can do in times of distress, and that is, to go back to the Quran. Verily, du’a are not magic words, we have to pair our du’a with effort to make it into a reality. For example, if we were to ask Allah for sustenance, we cannot just wait for sustenance to come, we have to look for sustenance too. Similarly here, the prophet ﷺ showed us how we can alleviate our stress, which is to go back to the Quran.
In addition to that, the words used by the prophet ﷺ is very beautiful, in relation to the connection of the Quran with our hearts, the prophet ﷺ used the word “الرَّبيعَ” (Al-Rabea’ , ie. Spring)
(Al-Rabea’/الرَّبيعَ) is the spring season, which comes after winter. Winter is the season where the crops have died out, and it is cold throughout, it is as if the earth “died” . Spring comes as a revival, a season where flowers bloom, trees grow, a glimpse of heat, and that is a metaphor of the effect that the Quran has on our hearts, it revives our heart, whenever, wherever. When we feel sad, we do not feel the same, it is dark and gloomy, and we yearn for light and life, and one of the ways to reach so, is via the Quran.
After the companions of the prophet ﷺ heard this hadith, one of them, Ibn Mas’ud, asked, O Messenger of Allah! (Do) we have to learn these words?” He ﷺ said, “Yes, whoever hears them should learn them.” and the ulama’ mentioned this encouragement from the prophet ﷺ is because of the greatness of this du’a, in its words and phrases used, and that everyone is in need of it.
The beauty in the du’a of the Prophet ﷺ is its conciseness, notice how he ﷺ manages to teach us a du’a to alleviate our sadness, but at the same time, teaching us so many things through it, with the most impactful words without having to specify and prolong the du’a, such is our prophet ﷺ, the one who has been sent as a guidance for us, and we should do our best to learn from his sunnah, and apply it in our daily lives.
References
- Ahmad 1/391, and Al-Albani graded it authentic
- Surah Al-A’raf verse 180
- Surah Ali-Imran verse 8
