A Du'a Away
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Du'as for Longer Life or Quicker Death | A Du'a Away
Is it ok to ask Allah for a quicker death? Is it ok to ask for an elongated life? Rasulullah (s) gave us supplications to encompass both scenarios, but these du'as should be made with a deep understanding of when and why to make them.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. One of the signs that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned of the Day of Judgment is the prevalence of people that would walk past graves and say, I wish I was in his spot. On the other hand, another sign of the Day of Judgment is the increase of materialism where you'll have people that are clinging on to every single desire in life because they don't believe in anything after it. For the believer, both living and dying are for Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and the abode of this world and the abode of the hereafter are both places in which you hope to be in a state that is pleasing to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. So remember the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam walking in on A'ishah radiAllahu ta'ala while she was making du'a. In this narration, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam walks in on Umm Habibah radiAllahu ta'ala as she is making du'a. And in this situation, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam hears a specific du'a from her and suggests to her something else. So Umm Habibah radiAllahu ta'ala was making the following du'a. She said that I was saying, Allahumma mat'ni bizawji rasulillahi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam wa bi-abi abi Sufyan wa bi-akhi Muawiyah. Oh Allah, allow me to live a long life alongside my husband Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and to have my father Abu Sufyan and to have my brother Muawiyah. Basically, allow me to live long with them. Allow them to have a long life as well. Allow us to enjoy each other's company for a long time on this earth. Now the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he says to her, you have asked from Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la about durations of life that are already set and the length of days that are already allotted and sustenance,
the share of which has already been fixed. And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la would not do anything earlier before it's due time, nor would he delay anything beyond its time. And then he said, walaw sa'altillaha an yuAAafiyaki minAAadhaabin finnaari waAAadhaabin filqabri lakana khayran laki Had you asked Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la instead to protect you from the punishment of the grave and from the punishment of the fire, that would have been better for you. Now, pause, Ibn al-Jawzi Rahimahullah points out something here that Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is not saying that there is anything wrong with the dua of Umm Habibah radiAllahu ta'ala anha. But the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was noting that what would be better is that you exert yourself, that you push yourself to make dua for the protection of the grave and the protection from the fire. Now, here's the question, is it okay to ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la to just increase your life? Is it okay to ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la to increase the life of someone else? Imam Bukhari Rahimahullah in his book Al-Adab Al-Mufrad, in that collection, not Sahih Al-Bukhari, in that collection, he has a chapter which is called Baab Man Da'a Bituul Al-'Umar, the chapter of the one who makes dua for a long life. And he includes in it a narration that has a weakness in it, but he wants to make the point that it is indeed permissible. And the narration is from Umm Qais radiAllahu ta'ala anha, that she reported that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam responded to her making a dua, and he said to her Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam taala umruha, that her life has been extended by virtue of that which she said. And they said, meaning the narrators, that we do not know of any woman that lived longer than her, meaning it was an accepted dua for Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la to increase her life. Now that narration has some weakness in it, but you have the most famous narration of a dua for long life, and what a beneficial life it was, the dua of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam for Anas ibn Malik radiAllahu ta'ala anhu to live a long life. And it's when his mother,
Umm Sulaym radiAllahu ta'ala anha, brought him to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, and asked the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to make dua for him. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Allahumma akthir ma lahu wa waladahu wa atil hayatahu wa khfir lahu. Oh Allah, increase his wealth, increase his children, and elongate his life, and forgive him for his sins. So Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la it's a comprehensive dua. So give him wealth, give him children, give him a long life, and then forgive him for all of his sins. Anas radiAllahu ta'ala anhu was the last major companion of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to pass away. He lived over a hundred years. He had more children and grandchildren than could be counted. He became extremely wealthy and was generous with that wealth. And hence you have the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam explicitly saying, Oh Allah, increase the lifespan of someone. Now here's the thing. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam knows that he's making dua for the increase of the lifespan of a young man in righteousness as well. What did Anas do with that long life? Was it a long life for the sake of having a long life? Or did we as an Ummah benefit from that long life? Because all of the narrations that we learn about the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam through the mouth of that young man who lived to be over a hundred years old radiAllahu ta'ala anhu. So we shouldn't pursue long life for the sake of long life, nor is it particularly beneficial to just ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la to live for many years on this earth. Now the question becomes here, what distinguishes the love for a long life of a believer from the love for a long life of a disbeliever or someone who wants to get every desire fulfilled in this life from someone who wants to do every deed possible to please Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and elevate themselves in the next life. The difference is Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la drives the desire to live and drives the desire to die if that is most beneficial. So let's get to that for a moment. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said in an authentic hadith,
no one of you should actually wish for death. And no one should make dua to die before Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has decreed for it to come to them. Why? Innahu itha mata ahadukum inqata'a amaluhu wa innahu la yazidul mu'mina umruhu illa khayra because he said Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that the believer can no longer do good deeds when they die and a believer's life is not increased except that it gives them the opportunity to do more good. And so does the believer wish for death? No. You think about Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la that hadith where the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is presented the case of a man who dies shaheed one year before his best friend, one year before his companion who dies after him and not shaheed yet his rank is increased. Why was that? Because he had another year to worship and please Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And so the scholars mentioned that we are not a people who hate this life. We see life as an opportunity to please Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, not ourselves. And that should be encompassed in any du'a that we make to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la for a longer life. Now there are also du'as for a quick death, but you have to pay attention to what those du'as are. There are du'as in which you ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la to take you if it is best for you because of something terrible that's going to happen. So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said in an authentic hadith, Allahumma inni as'aluka fi'lil khayrat wa tarka almunkarat wa hubbal masakin wa itha aratta fil nasi fitna faqbidni ilayk ghayra maftoon Oh Allah, I ask you for the ability to do good deeds, to leave off evil, to love the poor. And if you intend for the people a fitna, if you intend for the people tribulation, then take me back to you without being tried. Now this type of fitna that the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam is referring to is not the type of fitna that is simply severe hardship. It's the type of fitna that potentially compromises your deen. And that's why in some narrations, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam specifically said, fitnatin mudhilla, a fitna that leads me astray, a fitna that causes me to steer away from my deen. And this is what the scholars mentioned that Maryam Alayhi Salam was doing when she made du'a to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, I wish I would have died before this because she was afraid that what was going to happen to her as a result of that child was going to be a fitna for her and her deen. Instead, it was a means by which she was elevated. And so the type of fitna that would actually make you want to ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la to die is the one in which you fear that your deen is going to be impacted. So does the believer love life or does the believer love death? The believer loves Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and the believer accepts whatever Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la sends to them as an opportunity to please him. So if that is a longer life in which we could do good deeds like sadaqah and salah, charity and pray and do good for the world around us, alhamdulillah. And if that is an opportunity of shahada, of martyrdom that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la sends to us, alhamdulillah. And if Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la takes me at this point because he knows that I'm at my peak, alhamdulillah. And if Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la knows that something else is going to happen that might steer me away, alhamdulillah. And that's why, by the way, when you look at righteous people that passed away in a young age, a lot of times we say, oh wow, if that person would have lived a few more years, right? What would they have done? You don't know. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la does. So alhamdulillah for the one who decrees just the right time for us to come into this earth and just the right time for us to leave. At the end of the day, the believer's love for life is rooted in their wanting to do more good
deeds to please Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And their love for death is rooted in their wanting to meet Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, not because they love death itself. And at the end of the day, we want Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la to take us at the time that is best for us. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said in such a comprehensive hadith that let not one of you wish for death, but if a person is going to make du'a for death, then let them say, Oh Allah, let me live as long as life is better for me and let me die when death is better for me. At the end of the day, you trust Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la with the timing because just like Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la knows the reality about something you're asking him for, Allah knows the reality of you if you were to live another day or die tomorrow. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says in such a comprehensive hadith that let not one of you wish for death, but if a person is going to make du'a for death, then let them say, Oh Allah, let me live as long as life is better for me and let me die when death is better for me.
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