Reflection 1.0 - CCUB 2621 Section 204

How Duaa Works - Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan

This is a very insightful khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan on duaa. Even for me personally, sadly enough sometimes I feel discouraged to make duaa because I don’t feel deserving of Allah’s help and would end up digging myself even deeper into my problems. This khutbah helps me see things from a different perspective and in a way eases me of my worries to some extent.

What I understand is that we don’t make duaa to demand for help from Allah. It is frankly rude of us, as mere servants, to demand something from our Creator. Duaa, as the root word in Arabic suggests, means to call to Allah and to communicate our emotions to Him. We beg for His help and the reality is our duaa may or may not be granted. And this does not have anything to do with the question of if our duaa deserves to be granted. As the khatib mentioned, it is evident from the stories mentioned in the Quran that even the prophets and other solihin did not get some of their duaas granted. This is because without us knowing, Allah has other plans for us, not because He doesn’t want to listen to us.

The difficulties we are currently going through has their place in our life and there has to be a reason for them, and a reason why our duaa of having those difficulties removed has not been granted. Because our knowledge is limited, we may not know why something happened. But, as Nouman Ali Khan explained, Allah oversees everything including the fact that we are struggling and the reason behind those struggles. Something better is coming, either for us or for others, either in this life or in the Hereafter. This perspective is certainly something that is lacking from Western, particularly atheistic and individualistic views. Because according to them, there is only life in this world and it is unfair that a person would need to suffer for the benefit of others, especially if “the others” are strangers that bear no relation to them.

All that being said, even if some of our duaa may not be granted and the difficulties that we face may not be lifted immediately, a duaa is still a Muslim’s greatest weapon. It is a rope that ties us to Allah because through duaa we can communicate to Him and lessen our emotional burden. Through duaa, we will be granted strength to overcome our problems as long as we have faith that Allah has some other better plans in store for us.