 Asha'Allah as we approach the second last night before we remember the tragedy of Karbala and the day in which a tragedy occurred. Asha'Allah during this series of lectures we've talked about many aspects in which we need to learn from. As in we've covered aspects in which we can learn from the world of Jinn. We learned aspects that are haram and their effects such as music. We understood what it means to be free through the eyes of Imam Hussein. We looked at particular figures which we can hold on to whether it be a male or a female which we looked at and we looked at say the Zainab and a bit of depth in their lives and what we need to learn from them to become better people and indeed better Muslims. Now someone can come and say well I've learned all this, I understand where I want to be, I understand what I need to be and I see faults in myself. However what's the next step to take in order that I may first and foremost replenish myself and on the second level elevate in the eyes of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and indeed a step that we all need to take and in accordance to the importance of this month the importance and the great blessing that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has instilled in this month when you cry one tea for Aba Abdullah but inshallah we'll look at the rewards more so tomorrow but tonight we'd like to shed a light on the beautiful let's say gift or blessing of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala which he has blessed us with which is dua which can be interchanged with the concept of Salat but for the sake of the lecture for tonight let's look at the concept of dua as we know it now before getting into the actual gist of the topic of how to make dua what are the steps we need to first and foremost look at before making dua how can we allow our dua to be accepted what are the criteria and then secondly looking at after we reach this criteria are there any particular factors in which we'll veil our dua from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but indeed before we begin that we need to first shed a light on how effective dua can be and I've been asked on many occasions throughout the lecture series this muharram to talk about a concept better known as predestination versus free will so we'll stop at that station and see the effect that dua may have on the concept of predestination versus free will so inshallah after we look at predestination and free will as the first step then we'll go into the detail of dua within the time limit that we have for tonight so please help me in starting tonight's topic by reciting allah salawat ala muhammad wa aali muhammad predestination versus free will it occupies a large percentage of our Islamic libraries and there's many different opinions that come forth to allude to different factors now we find some opinions come to serve a particular agenda other opinions come from me stupidity and then we have the concept in which is the theory of ahl al-bayt or the followers of ahl al-bayt now the two extremes we have one side complete predestination the other side complete free will now the school of thought that comes forth and states that it's absolute predestination is the ash-arite school of thought now when we look at the brother's school of thought let's let's call even though they have different scholars that they look up to within their school and within their theology they split into two main schools of theology one being the ash-arite and one being the matazelite doesn't matter who you fall under as a scholar whether it be Shahf A. Malik Kihan if you are Hanbali you fall under two theoretical and jurisprudential schools which is the ash-arite and the matazelites the ash-arites are of the opinion that there's something called absolute predestination everything that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala everything that happens within this earth Allah's already written down and then you have the matazelites everything you're free to do whatever you want anything that you've pleased you can do because Allah doesn't open the script you can do whatever you want then this school of thought of Ahlul Bayt the Jafari school of thought now let's look at the the bad effects or stuff that we can look at within the school of thought that agrees for predestination or absolute predestination when we have one of the scholars of the four schools going towards the house of imam al-sadaq alaihi wa s-salatu wa s-salam and imam calvam comes out and he tells that scholar my dad's a little busy can i help you at a young age a very famous tradition but it shows us the effects of predestination and how it can be nullified subhanifa looks at the little imam calvam little in age not in wisdom obviously and he says i have a question for your father he's thinking he's just going to tell his father he says if we were to commit a sin is it just us is it us and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or is it just Allah as in predestined everything's predestined so the imam replies very beautifully he says if it's only Allah that's committing the sin or is forcing you to commit the sin or if Allah has a hand in allowing you or forcing you to commit a sin then where is the basis of heaven and hell as even Allah has forced you to do this particular bad deed or forced you to do this good deed why is it that he's punishing you and rewarding you on that basis and if he's punishing you how is it that he's not punished a logical answer he says the only thing that stands to reason is that you solely committed that act of treason or that act which is sinful or that blessing which is a reward young age replies beautifully takes everything that is predestination clean out of existence because he says first and foremost if there's such a thing as complete predestination and you had no choice in what you were to were to do on this earth then Allah should not have created the heaven and hell because everything's already predestined Yazid can come forth and he say why are you commemorating Muharram because Allah is already predestined for me to kill imam Hussein or Iyad Abdullah easily the Khulafa that's why they utilized the ideology which is predestination anyone goes up to an Umayyad Khalifa tells him why are you sitting on the throne of Ahlul Bayt Bahlul gives us a beautiful example Harun al-Rashid once left the courtroom Bahlul at the time he as we know presents to be insane he runs up to the courtroom he sits on the throne of Harun al-Rashid and everyone knows the extent of the prosecution of Harun you don't need to go into the depth of that but he comes and sees Bahlul on his throne as we say or the pulpit or in his chair so he has him dragged down moments he sat dragged down and beaten insane you're not supposed to prosecute someone that's insane he still hasn't beaten and then you find Bahlul firstly crying then smiling Harun looks at him says what's going on you're getting beaten and you're smiling he says look look look at the effect he says I've only for moments sat on a throne that does not belong to me and look what's happened to me beaten and look at my state he says you sat on that throne your whole life look at what punishment awaits you on the day of judgments so that's an example that we have from Bahlul giving us an idea and an ideology to look into which people take forth to serve their agenda predestination Allah has already predestined for me to take this throne Allah has already predestined for me to kill this person Allah has already predestined for me to make that sin therefore if I go towards a haram act it's Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that's allowed me to do that such a thing or written for me to do such a thing that makes absolutely no sense when looking at heaven and hell as in why did Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bring forth messages in the first place why did he bring a quran to tell us this is right from wrong do this and don't do this if he's already predestined what we will do and what we won't do isn't it one ideology put it aside let's look at the other one free will absolute free will is already overlooked because a person when you ask him where you are where you asked when you are to be born or did Allah ask you when he wants to take your life did you choose which parents to be born into did you choose whether you want to be a male or a female when bring when brought into this world and he doesn't answer those questions meaning in the first level and you don't have to go further than that is they have absolutely no free will in that context therefore how can you have absolute free will so where does the justice lie where does theology tell us predestination is and where is the aspect of free will so Imam al-Sadaq's asked this question he says where does the school of Ahl al-Bayt stand in this instant and the reply of Imam al-Sadaq was very beautiful he says to the person that's asking lift one leg so he lifts the leg he says lift the other leg at the same time he says I'll fall down he says that's exactly how predestination and free will works some things you have control over other things Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has control as in first and foremost Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doesn't ask you when he brings you towards this earth Allah doesn't ask you before he chooses for you a mother and a father Allah doesn't ask you when he will take your life Allah doesn't ask you what calamities he puts you in what fitan and therefore what what do we find the free will in the choices that we make Allah puts paths in front of you he tells you each path I will test you what do we know and especially when he loves someone he keeps testing him we have a narration stating that if Allah loves a servant he will give him a hard test and a harder test and every time he passes he gives him a harder test and a harder test why to elevate his rank on the day of judgment to wipe out from his sin that's why when we looked at the night of Aba Fadlil Abbas the idea of knowledge and when we looked in the night of Sayyid az-Zaynab the aspect of patience goes hand in hand with knowledge and we look at it inshallah after two examples that we give to wrap it all together why knowledge is such an amazing aspect when looking at this particular theory then people come and say well if Allah's already predestined everything will our choices change anything that's pre and predestined and the answer is yes we with our actions can change something that's predestined there's two different loess one a scripture which is with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and another scripture which is with the angels the scripture which is with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is untouched the one with the angels constantly changing you can see Malik al-Mout one day has his list that is taking the lives of tonight and as we know five times in narrations five times every night Malik al-Mout comes waits tells Allah wants me to take that person's life now or tomorrow five times so that's the first level now when we look at in more depth the aspect of dua the aspect of patience the aspect of how we can change something that's already been predestined the imams come and tell us of the things that can change something that's already been predestined is number one Salat al-Rahim Imam Zayn abedin tells us there was two companies that came one that enjoined relations one that cut him off he tells that companion he tells them Allah has increased your life by 30 years for you in joining relations and to the other person he has minimized your life by 30 years because you cut relations so automatically we know that yes our actions that we do on earth have a direct impact with what's been predestined and Allah can change it as he wishes now where does dua or the power of dua or the concept of dua play or what role does it play in the idea of predestination versus free will now as we know if we look at the schools of thought let's look at the schools of thought you bring forth every single religion now there's two things that signify and elevate the school of thought of ahl al-bayt above any other and you can bring this into any debate and challenge anyone to these particular two points what are they number one the fact that we have the best role models and i'm saying even when you get let's say a christian and you tell them what do you say about jesus son of mary and let's compare it to what we say about jesus son of mary mind you when ayah the billah when they take him to be divine they look at his qualities they look at his divine character his morals his ethics and that's why they gave him what ayah the billah a rank of divinity but when you compare asa in the quran to asa in the bible you'll see a huge difference of the miracles that asa in the quran had in comparison to the miracles in the bible as if when you go towards the church ask them one simple question before going into depth tell them do you or do you not believe that jesus son of mary spoke in infancy and the reply will be we have no such thing and how can you say a child spoke at infancy where you find that the quran states it bible says no way how can an infant speak infancy so automatically you know when we have role models and when i stress the fact that we have better role models i'm saying compare them to anyone and even their role models but look at it through a quranic perspective look at the idea of infallibility that we have other schools don't have religion has infallibility other religions don't have so first and foremost the ranks the role models that we have because we follow in their footsteps no mistakes other people who follow in footsteps that do have mistakes therefore our level in which we have to reach is much higher number one number two something that's very attached and if you want to look at it copyrighted to the school of thought of ahlul bayt and that's the concept of dua that we have dua is the one aspect that we have that you won't find in any other school of thought the supplications if compared to any other onajat in any other school you won't find something that comes close to one line from dua kumayl anything that will come close to one line from dua abu hamza thumali one line from dua asabah one line from sahif asajadiyah and that's why we have to look into this aspect that we've been neglecting when we have jewels and gems the words in which our infallibles talked with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala we need to understand that taqoran is number one in importance reading learning understanding to connect with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but at a spiritual level if you want to increase spiritually if we want to humble ourselves if we want to gain closest towards Allah you look at any dua and you will begin to realize how the imams talk towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and see how much we are arrogant how much we are stingy how much we lack in our personalities and character when we compare ourselves just by the words of how the imams talk with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala now the concept of dua how can we apply it how can we utilize everything that we've learned and make a dua tonight to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to allow us to remove ourselves from the path of shaitan and go towards the path of imam hussein what are the prerequisites what are the effects can anyone come and make dua now someone comes and asks a question because we look at our society nowadays the question always arises that i always make dua but Allah doesn't answer my dua we have examples from the Quran from the hadith from real life scenarios and i have so many but i only have 10 minutes to share everything with you before we finish i'll give you one example that's actually a real life event and if you can take this to be a reference point i guarantee you this seeming impossible if you want to apply it to your life and saying look at the tragedy that i have you'll begin to say that Allah has a beacon of light awaiting for me this happened to one of our ulama back in his days it didn't have medical advances in which we can check the state of someone this ulama once was asleep and his friends came it was a particular medical condition in which your heart beats lowers into such a state where it's barely visible barely visible and you're in an unconscious state mind so we could say the closest thing is someone that's unconscious with a very very low pulse his friends come around to him and they can't find the pulse so automatically they see this alama's past who's gone towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and as you know it's not like here in sydney the rituals take time the applications take time the burials take time upon time so there's a large gap in which the dead isn't buried but back in our countries you find that the person if he passes away within a couple of hours they've done the salats they've done the ghusl and he's buried so this alama imagine this he's still alive they've washed him they've shrouded him they've put him in his grave once they've put him in his grave they've piled the sand on top of him and they've left him imagine i want you to put yourself into that person's position in the grave imagine waking up because one day we'll all wake up in our graves but we want to be alive in the sense that we can go back towards the dunya and do that which we need in our graves but i need you to put yourself in that person's position you're alive six feet under you wake up all the doors are closed then isn't it as in how you're going to dig yourself out you're wrapped so tightly in the shroud and you have sand you can barely breathe now we know when all the doors are shut in your face there's always one door that's always remaining open isn't it the door of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because when we know don't need Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or when we think we don't need Allah the Qur'an remains on the shelf it only comes out in Ramadan in the funerals or in a kattab that's when we know the exact verses that we need to take out from the holy Qur'an let's take it out have some baraka put it back in otherwise when do we remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala if it's not in the tragedies who need him that's why Allah stresses that remember me even in the good not just the bad when you remember me in the good i will increase that which you have so the person six feet under imagine no door but the door of Allah subhanahu so he goes towards Allah and he says oh Allah I have a nither he says if you get me out of here I don't know how you're going to get me out of here I'm six feet under no way out I'm wrapped he says but I have a nither if you get me out I will write a translation of your holy Qur'an as soon as you get me out of here dua towards Allah look at the power that's the person we can argue that there and then Allah has prescribed that he would die six feet under no way to get out you want to suffocate so he prays to Allah makes a nither back then and I think till till now we have people that their job job I'm not necessarily the best of jobs these people used to live on selling the shrouds that the people used to be shrouded in before they were buried so this person found out that there's someone that was buried that night so as soon as the Allah made that dua that person goes towards that grave he begins digging and digging and digging put yourself in the state of the Allama imagine you hear someone outside he's digging he was straight away going to scream please help me please assist me I'm alive down here dying but you have to remember as soon as you make a sound that person's thinking to himself well there's a jinn or I'm going to die that's medical mode he's digging up a grave how on earth is there someone alive still under there so the Allama remains very very silent until an instance where he's dug up everything he's reached the shroud he's opened the shroud and the person that's assumably dead grabs his hand imagine the state of that person I don't think he ever went opening graves ever again what on that instance the Allama he gets out doesn't he from a dua and once he gets out he writes a translation of the whole Quran and you can find it till tonight the translation of the Allama Tabrasi you will find it and it's a true story that narrates to you so we find the power of dua is there yes without a shadow of doubt it can change something that's already been predestined if we are going on the wrong path let's use our teas Imam Ali what does he say he says the people he says there's two weapons in dua kumail one weapon is your teas your teas are a weapon second weapon he has a narration stating that your dua is a lethal weapon use your dua use that combination weapon weapon utilize it look at how much you can pray towards Allah to change something that person you may think it's impossible Allah shows us in many instances that's nothing called impossible is that thing that you want greater or the creation or the creator of all things keep that in the back of our mind the example you give me from the Quran when we look at the life of Zakaria at an old age nor could he have a child nor could his wife they're both could not produce children nor could they have children at an old age Allah gives him dua power but not everyone Ali ibn Abi Talib refers to us when he tells us in dua kumail he says oh Allah forgive me the sins that veil my dua isn't it forgive me the sins that veil my dua i could i could want to be a better person i may want to achieve greater things i may want to be a better person i may want to follow in the footsteps of Allah and i make dua and i make dua however if i have sins that veil my dua how are they ever going to get answered and that's why Ali ibn Abi Talib tells us in dua kumail that yes there are sins that veil the dua one of these sins backbiting another sin music another sin and we're known very very very well in this particular aspect eating haram knowingly or unknowingly it will have an effect on you in which it will veil your dua your salah not accepted 40 days 40 nights that's why there's so much stress being put on make sure you double check what you eat make sure you know the source because mama sadaq we narrated yesterday says about the enemies that fought aba abdillah that their stomachs have been full of haram and because of that they went the opposite way dua now there is stuff that can veil dua running out of time there are things that we need to practice when making dua as well imam al-sadaq narrates towards very beautifully he says there are particular things when you want to make dua towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you follow but before we look into these instances we want to touch upon the idea of knowledge the idea of knowledge when we said someone two nights ago we said if someone was to become sick many of us will take two different paths one path being absolutely going out of religion altogether someone that's sick their children are sick they may have a deformity they may have an illness straight away they say why did Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala put me through this goes the other way out of religion altogether as in i know first hand people that say we don't pray anymore and i ask them why says Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did such and such to my child and i can't handle this and because Allah did this i'm going away but because how merciful is Allah when he does this to me that is someone that doesn't have knowledge of Allah's mercy when Allah comes and tells us that when he gives an illness to someone but firstly before that in Surat al-Baqarah verse 285 Allah already says Allah does not burden a soul more than it can handle isn't it now how can you come and say well i can't handle this if Allah the Creator says that i know that you can handle this that's why i give you bala that's why i test you and every test has either one of two either when you're tested with an illness with a calamity with a burden with a death anything hardship that you go through minus haram obviously minus the haram any hardship that you go through that you go through Allah says there's either one of two either Allah is decreasing from your sins until you're purified that's why why do we look at when we look at the people that the females that give birth all the trials and tribulations that they go through childbirth the pain Allah says as soon as you've given birth your sins are wiped because of the hardship idea is removal of sins no sins Allah says i'm elevating your rank it's a win-win scenario and that's why when a person comes towards the prophet of islam and he asks him he says i love you oh rasulullah what did rasulullah reply with prepare yourself for poverty in my time if you love me prepare for poverty what does he say then he says then i love ali ibn abii talib look what he says he says prepare yourself for calamities prepare yourself for fitna after fitna after fitna prepare yourself because i'll reward you on your firm stand i'll reward you for remembering i'll reward you for following in the footstep even though it's so hard that's an instance so if we have knowledge we would have more patience if we have knowledge we thank Allah for the blessing that he's given us that's one aspect now what to do when making dua what to do imam sadaq in a cumulative of traditions comes forth with four main points number one he says first and foremost when you want to make dua towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala go and make wadhu purify yourself you don't want to be in a state when you're asking something from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to be a state of impurity be in a state of purity number one number two when you're making dua face the qibla number three say bismillah rahman al raheem number four praise Allah say alhamdulillah for such and such and such and such that you've given me and after as he said say astaghfirullah and astaghfar has an own avenue that we need to go into and the how-to for astaghfar because it's not just as easy as saying astaghfirullah that's it no it has a very detailed avenue we have to look at aliv nebri talib says if you want to make dua there is one instance in nehjil balagh he states and it's very very beautiful if you look at it he says in nehjil balagh he says before you make dua first you have to because that in itself is a dua towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala how do we know this in the holy quran states so if you have this example in the quran that yes this is a prayer and Allah says i answered this prayer aliv nebri talib says it beautifully he says how can Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when a person is asking him accept a prayer or accept a dua and refuse the other so he's saying whenever you want to make a dua first and foremost send your blessings towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala send your blessings towards the messenger and then make your dua because Allah will surely grant it now the third level i wanted to look at that i'm already over time but the third level i'm to look at is the time frame in which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives you that which you have asked for because people have been asking for years upon years i've asked you numerous times and i've asked Allah numerous times to give me such and such and he still hasn't given me in the quran it states if you ask from me i will give you Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says it very clearly in the quran so he says i've done that i've asked him Allah he hasn't given me yet and so Imam sateq replies very beautifully he says do you think Allah is untruthful he says when Allah says in the quran do you think he's untruthful he says it he says no he says then what may be the reason then the person begins to say either it's not good for me at this moment he may think that there's a better thing for me in the future or a better let's say time frame in which i should receive it or maybe something that i've done to veil this or maybe there's a sin for me to veil and in that instance the person replies to himself he says well the problem is not with Allah the problem may be with me and that's why we need to first and foremost look at ourselves brothers and sisters and say from tonight inshallah that we can make dua by firstly looking at our sins and making istighfar towards Allah never to commit them again number one number two inshallah Allah accepts our du'as because of the step that we will take towards him inshallah and we want to make a dua when talking about the concept of dua inshallah tonight for all of the mu'mineen and the mu'minat al-ahyaa minhum wal-amwad to allow us to stay firm on the path of Ahlul Bayt and not let anything shake us or shake our foundation and allow us to increase in the knowledge and the ma'rifah of Ahlul Bayt and may Allah allow our du'as to be accepted and may Allah allow everyone here to be of the companions of Imam Sahib al-Asr wa al-Zaman with al-suraat al-mubarakat al-Fatiha but before it three of your loudest salawat ala muhammad wa al-muhammad