ALLAH states in the Quraan: “Whenever you call upon me, you can rest assure that I will be close to you.” To many of us this Dua does not feature in our lives. The Ahadeeth mentions: “Dua is the core of Ibadat.” “There is nothing more valuable in the eyes of ALLAH than the Dua of a Mumin.” For the simple reason that when a Mumin makes Dua to ALLAH he is expressing the quality of Abdiyat (slavery). “ALLAH I am a slave and without your help I am worthless.” Dua is thus very important. In another Hadeeth we are encouraged: “When you ask then only ask from ALLAH.”
It appears in a Hadeeth that a person will come before ALLAH on the day of Qiyaamah and ALLAH will show him his Ni’mats and favours in Jannat. This person will be amazed and astonished to see all of it, so he will tell ALLAH, “Ya ALLAH I did not do that amount of deeds to be rewarded so much.” ALLAH will say, “I have instructed you in the Dunya to make Dua and I promised to accept all your Duas. Can you remember those days when you were in pain and misery and you picked up your hands as I have instructed you? However I did not help you because I kept your rewards for the Akhirat and these are the results of your Duas.” The servant will then say, “Ya ALLAH how nice if all my Duas in the world were not answered!”
Sometimes we make Dua for many days without getting an answer. We then become despondent. This is a very bad attitude because when we make Dua in reality we are speaking to ALLAH and only special servants are allowed to speak to ALLAH. Let us take a worldly example: if there is a King in our country, how many people will get the opportunity to speak to him. And when you do get the opportunity to speak to the King, how will you speak to him?
Here every day ALLAH is allowing us to speak to Him because it is important to speak ALLAH. By speaking to ALLAH we are showing ALLAH that we need Him.
Once the Sahaba radhiyallahu anhum asked Rasoolullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, “Is ALLAH near or far from us because if ALLAH is near then we will speak softly and if ALLAH is far then we will speak loudly.” Rasoolullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam replied by reciting the Aayah: ‘And when my servants ask you about Me, then verily I am close by;’ He also said that ALLAH is even closer to us than our jugular vein.
Rasoolullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said that we must not follow the attitude of the Mushrikeen and Yahood The Mushrikeen had small idols for their small needs and big idols for their big needs. Our attitude should be that even if we need salt or a shoelace, we should ask ALLAH because it is not the salt or shoelace that is important, but it is the relationship of the Mumin with ALLAH. So whenever we ask or whatever we want or need, we should ask ALLAH. We have money in our pockets and we are going to the supermarket to buy the salt, so transform that little action into Ibadat by saying, “ALLAH I need salt, you have provided the money and I am going to purchase the salt; this is what
I need.” So going to, and coming back from that supermarket becomes Ibadat, and above all we are speaking to RABBUL IZZAT.
It comes in the Hadeeth that every Dua of a Mumin is accepted provided he does not make a Dua for anything which is sinful and wrong or to break family ties. For example, making dua for a curse to befall someone. A person is well off so we ask ALLAH to take all his wealth away. These types of Duas are Haraam and are not accepted.
So whenever we come to the Masjid let us engage in Dua. There is no need to lift up your hands.
One of the Duas we should make is that, O ALLAH make us people whose Duas are accepted, and make dua that ALLAH strengthens our Ieman and grants us a death with Ieman..... aameen Yaa Rabbal Aalameen.