This Ramadan, MuslimMatters is pleased to host the Institute Of Knowledge‘s daily Ramadan series: Heart To Heart. Through this series, each day we will spend time connecting with the Qur’an on a deeper, more spiritual, uplifting level.

[Episode 1 . 2 . 3 . 4, 5. 6, 7]

Transcription:

Reflections #8: Lessons to Learn from the Dua of Adam & Hawwa

In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah , who created us, sustains us, and has blessed us with Islam. All praise is due to Allah who has made us from amongst the ummah of His beloved Prophet Muḥammad . May Allah send salutations upon the Prophet , his companions, his family, and all the prophets before him. And may Allah protect those of us who choose to tread in their path.

Assalāmu ‘Alaikum Wa Raḥmatullāhi Wa Barakātuh!

In this session, I wanted to discuss verse no. 23 from Sūrah A‘rāf where Allah teaches us the du‘ā of Adam and Ḥawwa , where “They both said, ‘Oh our Lord! We have oppressed ourselves, and if you do not forgive us and have mercy on us, then surely, we will be from amongst those who have lost.” This was the du‘ā of Adam and Ḥawwa when they asked Allah for forgiveness. And this du‘ā teaches us the etiquettes of how to make du‘ā to Allah and the mindset that each one of us should have when we ask Allah for something.

In the month of Ramadan, many of us might have du‘ā lists. We might have made du‘ā lists so that we can readily ask Allah for what we desire the most. Allah in multiple places in the Qur’an teaches us things that we should be asking for. One of the most asked du‘ās is of course the du‘ā for guidance, in the sūrah that is the most recited by every believer throughout the course of their life.

In Sūrah Fātiḥa Allah gives us a du‘ā whereby automatically we are always asking [oh Allah ], “guide us to the Straight Path”. Now this particular verse and this du‘ā of Adam and Ḥawwa teaches us one key aspect of asking Allah , which is that before you ask Allah for what you want, acknowledge what you are, who you are and what you have done. Acknowledge the fact that you have fallen short. Acknowledge the fact that you are deficient. Acknowledge the fact that you have done wrong. Acknowledge the fact that you were not as good as you should have been. Acknowledge the fact that you have faults. Acknowledge the fact that you have oppressed yourself.

Allah teaches us that Adam and Ḥawwa when they made du‘ā to Allah , they first acknowledged the fact that they had wronged themselves. “Oh our Lord, we have wronged ourselves.” And this is key because we are being taught to humble ourselves before asking Allah . Acknowledge the fact that every wrong you have done, it harmed only yourself. That every act of disobedience is not a slight against Allah because it does not decrease Allah in any way, but rather you have only made things difficult for yourself. Oh Allah , I have wronged myself, I have oppressed myself. I have oppressed myself by doing the things you had asked me not to do.

We should never approach Allah with an air of arrogance. Because Allah has given us nothing to be arrogant about. There is nothing any person can ever hold up as a reason for having even a small amount of arrogance. Oh Allah , I humble myself in front of you. I acknowledge the fact that I have made mistakes and continue to make mistakes. Oh Allah , I have made tawbah over and over. I have repented so many times before and I am repenting again now. And I will repent more in the future. Oh Allah , I have oppressed myself by not doing what you asked me to do.

This is very important. It is not just about asking Allah . Yes, Allah expects us to ask Him and He is ready to grant us what we ask of Him.

Yet the etiquette of asking Allah is that we humble ourselves first. First, acknowledge the fact that oh Allah , no matter what you have given me, I have always disobeyed you in some way, shape, or form. Yes, I am human, and deficient. I am not perfect, and I cannot be perfect, nor am I expected to be perfect. Yet that guilty feeling should be there that oh Allah , you gave me the ability and the choice to stay away from making the wrong choices, yet I consistently disobeyed you. And all of us disobey Allah in different ways. All of us disobey in different ways yet Allah has blessed each one of us in different ways. But the key is making sure that oh Allah , even though I am asking of you, I acknowledge the fact I have fallen short. I have not wronged only myself when I have disobeyed you.

Adam and Ḥawwa teach us the reason why we are so dependent upon Allah , why we are so dependent upon the forgiveness of Allah . That oh Allah , if you were to not forgive us, if you were to not have mercy upon us, then we would absolutely be from among those who have lost. We will absolutely be among those who are losers. We will have lost in this world, and we will have lost in the hereafter. We are dependent upon your forgiveness. We are dependent upon your mercy. And if your forgiveness and mercy are not there, there is nothing and no one that we can turn to. And this is something that we should always remind ourselves of, that no matter our disobediences, no matter the deficiencies and our shortcomings, Allah’s Mercy has never been conditional. Allah has never threatened to withhold something because we have not done what he expected us to do.

Allah tells us very clearly that I will give you chances. I will give you time to rectify yourself. But ask yourself the question: have we ever felt the mercy of Allah being withheld from us? Because of our constant deficiencies, that if we did not do what we were supposed to, did we immediately feel the lack of something? Did Allah take away something from us when we did not pray Fajr one morning? No.

Our life continued, and maybe we even got good news on that day as well.
Allah’s Mercy is such that He does not play what we would consider tit for tat. In other words, you give, and I give. If you do not give, then I do not give either. Allah’s Mercy is not conditional. Allah’s Mercy is in abundance to the point where even people who disobey Him, people who reject even His existence, continue to experience the blessings of Allah . And this is because Allah’s Mercy is not like the mercy of His creation.

Allah teaches us through this du‘ā to remind yourselves who you are in need of. You need Me. We need Allah . If Allah chooses to withhold from us His Forgiveness, if Allah chooses to withhold from us His Mercy, who would we turn to? Who would help us in this world? If Allah does not grant us what we need, who can we turn to for help? Because whoever is going to help us is going to help because Allah allowed them to be of help to us.

If Allah does not forgive us, if Allah does not have mercy upon us, who are we going to turn to on the Day of Judgment? We cannot turn to the prophets, because the prophets will only be able to help us if Allah gives them permission to help us. So, ask yourself this question every day in the month of Ramadan and beyond: who needs who?
Allah is not in need of us. Allah’s Majesty, Greatness, Power does not increase by our worship of Him, by our acknowledging of Him. But we need Allah . If Allah chooses to withhold His Blessings from us, if Allah chooses to withhold His Help from us, who will we turn to? Who are we going to ask?

May Allah guide us, give us knowledge that benefits us, and give us all the ability to do what is best. May Allah protect us all. Assalāmu ‘Alaikum Wa Raḥmatullāhi Wa Barakātuh.

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Welcome To The Best Ramadan Ever!