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The Role of Remembrance in a Crisis | Daily Reminder
Sh. Tahir Wyatt explains the role of du'a (supplication) and dhikr (remembrance) during calamities and discusses how to talk to Allah.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Alhamdulillahi wa salatu wa salamu ala rasulullah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Brothers and sisters in Islam, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reminds us in the Qur'an what we should do at times of calamities. He subhanahu wa ta'ala says, فَلَوْ لَا إِذْ جَاءَ هُمْ بَأْسُنَا تَضَرَّعُوا وَلَكِنْ قَسَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَزَيَّنَ لَهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ In this ayah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, if only when our calamity came to them, they تَضَرَّعُوا, that is that they humbled themselves, that they turned to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in obedience and worship. وَلَكِنْ قَسَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ But their hearts became hard. وَزَيَّنَ لَهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ And shaytan made what they were doing appear to be good to them. The great مُفسِّر أبو عبد الله محمد بن أحمد القرطبي رحمه الله تعالى, he says that in this ayah, there is a divine rebuke. That is that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is rebuking them for abandoning supplication. They abandoned dua when the calamity came to them. And that is because their hearts were hard. The soft heart, the one that is receptive to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's revelation, the one that is empathetic and sympathetic, the one that recognizes that when these calamities come, they are a test from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to us, and that these tests bring out the best in us if we endure them with patience, and that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not test any soul with a burden greater than it can bear, and we really believe this, and if we put our trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, we will make it through this calamity. The important point here to note is that Allah عز و جل is encouraging us to do many,
or to make dua when calamity befalls, and therefore during the times of calamities and sufferings, such as we're going through right now with the COVID-19 pandemic that has gripped the world, it's even more important that we turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala at this time and ask him for his relief and his protection. There are many duas that we can make, specifically protection from illnesses, or more generally to be protected from any harm, and to remove the harm that has befallen, and I'm sure that many of you have seen lists of duas going around, and this is good, alhamdulillah, that people are thinking about the importance of making dua at this particular time. However, many of those lists are simply that, they're lists, and a lot of us don't really know what these duas mean, and it is important to understand the meaning of what we're calling upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as many of the scholars say, that the dua is the weapon of the believer, the weapon is only as effective as the one who is using it, so if we're making these duas but we really don't understand them, then they're not going to be as effective as they could be if we actually know what we're asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for, and this is very important, so that as we're learning these duas, that we learn the meaning of these duas, and today what I'd like to do is go back to the beginning, what I mean by going back to the beginning, is that I want us to memorize a dua that is all-encompassing, and a dua that will help us to make more dua, and that is because, simply because I memorize a dua, or I know the meaning of a dua, or I have the willpower to make this dua,
it doesn't mean that I'm actually going to make it, the only time I'm really going to supplicate to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and call upon him, is if he aids me to do so, and this is basically what we find in the statement of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, إِيَاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَيَاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ Every time we recite surah al-Fatiha, O Allah, it is you alone that we worship, and from you alone we seek assistance, that is, that we seek assistance from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in worshipping him, this is similar to what we say when the adhan is being called, when the muezzin says, حَيَا لَلصَّلَاةِ حَيَا لَلْفَلَحِ We don't repeat after the muezzin, we say, لَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ There is no movement, there is no power, there is no might, except with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, I don't have the ability to answer that call to prayer, to come to success, unless Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala aids me in doing so, so as we memorize these duas, and we know them, we know that I'm supposed to say this dua in the morning, or this dua upon leaving the house and so forth, we're only going to do that if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala aids us in doing so, and this is what I mean when I say going back to the beginning, so I want us to memorize the dua today, that we should be saying in every salah, in every single salah, from now until the day that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala calls us back, we should be saying this dua, it is the dua that the Prophet ﷺ taught Mu'adh, when he took him by the shoulder, Mu'adh ibn Jabal radiallahu ta'ala, and when he took him by the shoulder and he said, إني لأحبك يا مُعَاد Oh Mu'adh, I truly love you, so he goes on to say to Mu'adh, فلا تدعن في دُبر كل صلاة تقول فلا تدعن في دُبر كل صلاة تقول اللهم أعني على ذكرك وشكرك وحسن عبادتك
He says, so don't leave off saying at the end of every salah, and in some of the narrations في كل صلاة in every salah, meaning, and what the scholars have deduced from this, is that this dua is better to say before the taslim, as opposed to after the taslim, so before the taslim, you say this dua, Oh Allah, aid me, help me, assist me, in three things, ذكرك وشكرك وحسن عبادتك Remembering you, thanking you, and worshipping you in the best manner possible. Now, this is a great dua, and we understand these words, بإذن الله But I do want to go through these three points, بإذن الله تعالى just so that we can get a quick understanding of what it is that we're actually asking Allah سبحانه تعالى for. So again, we're going to say this dua in every salah, and not just the fard salah, you're going to say it in your rawatib, your sunnahs, you're going to say it if you pray duha, you're going to say it if you pray salat al-witr, يعني This dua is to be made in every single salah before the taslim, Inshallah تعالى Okay, so the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم is instructing us to ask Allah to aid us, and that is because again, if Allah سبحانه تعالى does not help us, it's not going to happen. Aid us in doing, aid us to do what? Number one, في ذكرك in remembering you, and a dhikr has two different meanings. One is the opposite of al-ghaflah, heedlessness or neglect, and this is the dhikr of the heart. That is that we remember Allah سبحانه وتعالى inside of ourselves, that we remember his magnificence سبحانه وتعالى, his generosity, his mercy, that we are conscious and cognizant of Allah سبحانه وتعالى at all times that we don't forget him. So this is the dhikr of the heart. The second type of dhikr is the dhikr of the tongue,
and this is the opposite of silence. So we're remembering Allah سبحانه وتعالى with our tongues, and the best of that dhikr is the recitation of the Quran. And then there are the statements that are most beloved to Allah سبحانه وتعالى سبحان الله والحمد لله ولا إله إلا الله والله أكبر Sending Salah and Salaam upon the Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم Making Dua, just calling upon Allah سبحانه وتعالى as part of a dhikr in the general sense. So when we're asking Allah to help us in dhikr, we're asking Allah سبحانه وتعالى to help us not forget him and also to mention him with our tongues سبحانه وتعالى and this is the best of our actions. طيب The second thing, part two, the second thing that we're asking for is الشكر. We're asking Allah سبحانه وتعالى to help us to show our gratitude to him. وَمَا بِكُمَ نِعْمَةٍ فِي مِنَ اللَّهِ Every ni'ma, every favor that you have is from Allah and those favors may be material favors or they may be spiritual favors. I mean the fact that Allah سبحانه وتعالى has blessed you to pray five times a day, that you remember Allah سبحانه وتعالى that Allah سبحانه وتعالى has put in you the desire to make Umrah and to make Hajj and all of these other, you know, to be a person who is concerned about their piety and sincerity. These are blessings from Allah سبحانه وتعالى that deserve to be thanked as well as the other material blessings that we often think of like having a reliable vehicle and a spacious home and a patient spouse and beautiful children and so forth. The fact that Allah سبحانه وتعالى has blessed us with sight, that he has blessed us with hearing, all of these are blessings from Allah سبحانه وتعالى that deserve to be thanked. That thanks starts in the heart by recognizing those favors. It manifests itself on the tongue, that is when we speak about them, we praise Allah سبحانه وتعالى for them and it manifests itself on the limbs as well. That is that we don't use these blessings in a manner that is displeasing to Allah سبحانه وتعالى. Rather, all of those blessings that we have, we use them in a manner that shows that we appreciate this favor
from Allah سبحانه وتعالى. We use them in a manner, we use them to increase in our obedience to Allah سبحانه وتعالى. So this is all part of shukr. As we ask Allah سبحانه وتعالى for حسن العبادة, we ask him to aid us to worship him in the best possible manner. There are two main elements here. Number one is that all of that worship be sincere for Allah سبحانه وتعالى, that there be absolute ikhlas, that we don't turn to anyone else, that we're not doing this form of ibadah because we want people to notice it, because we want their thanks, or any of those things. But that we do it sincerely for Allah سبحانه وتعالى. We worship Allah عز وجل in public, in a manner, we worship Allah سبحانه وتعالى in public, in a manner that we would do so in private. We're not showing off, we're not being ostentatious, we're not looking for anything other than the reward of Allah سبحانه وتعالى. And the second part is that we do that worship in a manner that complies to the teachings of our Prophet عليه الصلاة والسلام. If it is done for other than Allah سبحانه وتعالى, it's not حسن العبادة, it's not good worship. And if it is done in a manner that is not sanctioned by our deen, then it is also not good worship. So we're asking Allah سبحانه وتعالى for these three things. اللهم أعني على ذكرك وشكرك وحسن عبادتك Oh Allah aid me in remembering you, thanking you, and worshiping you properly. وصلى الله وسلم وبارك على نبينا محمد you
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