 One of the great blessings of Allah SWT for the believer is the fact that we can talk to him. That is one of the greatest blessings of Allah SWT. Now we can have a communication with him without any intermediary. And the essence of that communication is what we call du'a. Du'a is calling upon Allah SWT. It is when you call upon him that you are no longer connected to anything else and complete dependency on him. And the greatest joy of du'a is obviously, is that Allah SWT accepts it. That's the greatest joy that is the Qabur, that Allah accepts you in du'a. Now that acceptance, only Allah knows how he accepts it. Immediately deferred in the junior and the Akhirah. And sometimes he doesn't accept it because Rumi said, sometimes you are asking for a poisonous snake. Ya Allah, give me a poisonous snake. And Allah knows that. So he doesn't want to hear your du'a because you are harming yourself with that du'a. So all of the du'a's are for a benefit. The response of it from Allah is a benefit for us. But there are five benefits in du'a's. We call upon Allah SWT. The first benefit of du'a according to our scholars is what we call lidba. It's this concept of tasting the sweetness of du'a. Because this communication with Allah SWT, this calling, this asking, there's a joy in it. There's actually a taste in it because everything in life has a taste. There's nothing that doesn't have a taste. People think it's only food that has taste. Now, sometimes you're in a relationship, you meet somebody and say, man, this person left a better taste in me. Why would you say that? Because the relationship also has a taste. Everything in life, even that has a taste. Every soul shall taste death. It's the same word we use for tasting food. Because there's a taste in death as well. There's a taste in worship. And there's this sweetness in this du'a. When you call upon Allah SWT, there's a sweetness that you can taste it. When this is why those people who don't taste the sweetness, they are deprived from one of the greatest blessings of Allah SWT. A man went to Musa A.S. and he said, I'm in a state of disobedience and I'm this and I'm that. Why isn't it Allah sending me a punishment? Ask that for me. Ask him. And Musa A.S. asked Allah, why aren't you sending him punishment? He's a man who's straight. He's not on a straight path. And Allah said, tell him, what is a greater punishment that he's not tasting the sweetness of this communication with us of power of du'a? That we have removed that from him. That is the greatest punishment we can give him. That he can't call upon us. And this is why for 40 years, he didn't have a headache. So he doesn't say, ya Allah, my head hurts. Because that calling upon Allah is so sweet, it is so powerful, it's so beautiful that it's only given to those who are worthy of it. And this is why when you call upon Allah SWT and when is the best time to call, obviously the Prophet SAW told us all of the times that are good, especially the last third of the night, especially at the time of Bajr, after Jun'a prayer. This is a beautiful time. But one of the best times is Sajda. And this is why when they went to Umsalama, the wife of her Prophet SAW, they asked her, what is the du'a that the Prophet SAW made the most when he was in Sajda? She said, he used to make this du'a, Allahumma yama qalb al-quloob, thabbit qalbi al-deem. Oh the turner of the heart, make my heart firm in this deem. This is the du'a of the Prophet SAW in Sajda. So Sajda is one of the best places to make du'a. Du'a, why? Iqbal Rahmatullah Ali said, he said, the reason why Sajda is so powerful and it is an amazing place to make du'a, he said, because the heart leads and the intellect bows down. The heart leads, but the intellect bows down where the heart leads. And when you put your intellect on the ground, the heart is elevated over your intellect. And then you say, Subhana Rabbi al-A'la, you are the most high Allah. And that's the place where there's no barrier between you and Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. Everything has to be removed from the place that you're making Sajda to the seven heavens. There's a spiritual cosmic shift that happens when we are in Sajda in that moment. And there's nothing between us and Allah and that's the best time to make du'a. And that is the benefit of du'a. The number one benefit is to taste this. And this is why there are people who don't taste the sweetness of their worship. If Sajda is done with love, it is then that you taste the sweetness of your worship. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam told us about du'a. A du'a is the innermost core of ibadah. It is the most amazing thing about ibadah is du'a. Du'a, calling upon Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. A du'a is a weapon of the believers who have been spiritual weapons that can turn the heavens and the earth upside down and right side up. It can. That's the power of du'a Allah can do whatever he wants. But we have to ask. And we have to ask from Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. And this is one of the problems of our time. We go to every door, we go to Allah. That's the last door we go instead of being the first door. So the first thing is to taste the sweetness of this because there is a sweetness in the ibadah. There's a sweetness in calling upon Allah. Mawlana Rumi has a story about a man who always makes zikr. And they ask him, why do you make zikr all the time? He said, I call upon Allah all day or night because it's so sweet. My mouth becomes sweet from this remembrance. Sheikh Muhammad Ali Yaqubi, the great scholar from Syria, he said that the scholars who are in zikr, they forget about drinking water because their mouth becomes moist from the remembrance of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. These are the, this is the first benefit of making dua. The second benefit is tawassal. This connection with Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. You sever yourself from the world of asbah. And you go to Musabib. You go to the one who is the creator of asbah. And it is then that this relationship is very unique for firru in Allah. And run to Allah. Yusuf Ali Salam was not running away from Zulaikha. He was not running away from Zulaikha. No prophet would run away from anybody. He was running to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. And this, when you're in that station of tawakkal and trust with Allah and you have that relationship, it is then that you see the world of asbah which all means. It is Allah that's doing all that. It is not the medicine that heals you. It's the healing that Allah put in the medicine that heals you. When you take that medicine, you know that Allah has put that healing in the medicine. And this is a, this is a way of, this is ar-aqidah. We don't believe medicine heals if Allah doesn't want to heal you. But we know that this is the world of asbah and He put the healing in the medicine. And that's the way of the Muslims. So you cut yourself from going to every door instead of door of Allah. The first door you go is the door of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. The first door that we go is the door of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. The next thing that it does is a 13 benefit of du'a. It removes anxiety. It removes depression. It removes anger and hatred towards people. And this is what I think in the Mataratul Qulub, Sheikh Mohan Maulud writes that if you have hatred towards somebody, you're angry with someone. You have all of these towards another family member or friend or community member, right? He said, how do you remove that? They said, make du'a for them. But the fact that you make du'a for them, Allah will remove that from your heart. This is the power of du'a because it's like a cleansing. Du'a comes in and wash everything away from your heart because the heart is a place for Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala his life, his remembrance. It's not a place to be talking about to have hatred of other people or other things in your heart. It's not a place for hate the heart. So it removes anxiety. It removes because anxieties are there because we have no trust. Once you're tawassal, once you're connected with Allah, this is the result. Number three is the result of number two. Number two is that you have to have tawassal, connection with Allah. Once you connect with Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, the result of that everything is will melt away. I once had a thousand desires. But with one desire to know you, everything melts away. That's Mawlana. Everything melts away when Allah, when the light of God comes in with that connection with Allah comes into your heart. Everything else will melt away and go away and you would see happiness and joy in your heart. And the next one he said that it will turn your heart into an ocean. It's the Sardar. The shahf of the Sardar. Your heart will become expansive. It becomes huge. And once your heart becomes like an ocean, he said all of the tribes and tribulations of the dunya will be like little boats in the ocean. In other words, you can handle all of them because you become big. When we are, when we are constricted, one of the things that happens, we bring this dark car over us. And then we don't see the sky no more. We think that everything is suffocating. And that's the nature of depression and sadness and just constriction comes in. But once the clouds are removed and you see the sun and you see the night sky, you would see the magnificent and the glorious creation of Allah SWT. It is then that you realize, oh my God, what do we have? That's the same thing with the car. You have the same thing in the cosmos, but you are the cosmos. You are the cosmos. You are the cosmos. Everything that you see in the heavens and the earth is in you. You are the microcosm of the macrocosm. So removing those clouds of depression and sadness by making your chest, your heart, like an ocean. And then all of these things that look like gigantic boats become a little boat in your ocean because you were in a pool. You were in a creek. Now you turn yourself into an ocean. Everything else will become insignificant and small. And the next thing that he said he said that ah, you will find the one that you have lost. You will find the one that you have lost. You are Othman, Allah. You are orphaned, right? Let me take care of you. And then you were wandering. What does a wanderer do? What does a wanderer do? We can do our life. You know, yallah! You are wandering and we gave guidance. if you meet with us sincerely you will find guidance. And you will find the beloved It is through du'adh that you find God. Sincerely. There are people who have lost the law. Nurmi said, he said, I rather lose my limbs, my eyesight, my ear, my hearing, my hands, my intellect, my imagination. All of the gift that God has given, I rather lose all of them. As long as I don't lose you, y'all, because you knew the greatest loss is when you lose Allah, SubhanAllah. In reality, it's when you lose yourself. Because when you lose Allah, you lose yourself. You become worthless. In Nurmi said, I know, one thing I know, that if I'm with you, I'm a diamond. But if I'm not with you, I'm a worthless rock. Who are you? Who are you, O God, that you turn a worthless rock into a diamond? In a diamond into a worthless rock. If I'm with you, I'm a diamond. But if I'm not with you, I'm a worthless rock. Now, Allah makes us amongst the people who are people of remembrance in du'adh. People like the diamond. Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah. Du'adh is the essence of this deen. The Prophet, may Salat and Salam be upon him, told us something really beautiful. All his statements are beautiful. He says, Sometimes the Junior becomes very tasteful too. Sometimes the junior, right? This is the nature of the junior, we can taste that. We enjoy the junior too much. How do you get rid of that? How do you get rid of that? Just enjoy the junior too much. He said, Akhtar wa Zikri had him like that. Do much remembrance of the destroyer of that sweeper. What is that sweeper? The sweepers of the junior. With what? With vicar of modes. With remembrance of death. Because it kills the sweetness that comes from the things of this junior. So you're not drowned in the ocean of desires and passion. Everything has a taste. Life has a taste. Death has a taste. But the greatest taste is not the taste of that which you put in your mouth. It is the taste of the heart. It is the spiritual taste. And that is the power of yuhah. That is because yuhah is the only thing that only you know and Allah knows. You don't have to announce it. You don't have to announce it. Only thing is between you and Allah SWT. And that is the power of yuhah. But when you turn to Him, Allah knows your heart. And that's why you have to raise your heart as you raise your hand. As you raise your head. You raise your heart for Allah SWT. And you would see the difference. You would see the difference. And in our tradition, we have stories of all these Awliya saints and the prophets that made yuhah. And their yuhah were accepted. But there's a story in Atal's memoirs of the saints. He talks about this wrestler. A Persian wrestler who was the king's wrestler. He was a heavyweight champion. Mahmood Kurya. He was a heavyweight champion of the war. A king of Persia. And then they had a king from India that was visiting Persia. And they came in and they had a wrestler. And they had a show for the next day between the two kings. And all of the people. They came in. And Bahrain Mahmood being the home favorite. He said, let me go see how he trains this man. So he climbs over the houses. They were in the other quarters. And he goes and he looks from the top to see how this wrestler trains. To see if he finds his moves. See if he's any good. Any competition for him. But he doesn't see him. He sees his mother on a prayer rug and making du'a. Saying, Ya Allah, don't humiliate my son. This Mahmood Kurya guy, this is a beast. And now he's going to humiliate my son tomorrow. In front of the king. In front of him. What is going to happen to my son? Going back to India. Humiliating him. She just cries and makes du'a in the courtyard. As Bahrain Mahmood is listening from the top. Of the roof. He comes home and he has a dilemma. Socrates said dilemma. You have dilemma. There's three ways to solve the dilemma. You go through the horns. You just go straight through it. So he just goes straight through it. And he makes that decision. So he makes it come. And they start fighting. And immediately Bahrain Mahmood is defeated. Very easily on his back. For the first time. He uses his title in front of the king. This time. And everybody's booing him. Throwing stuff at him. You brought the name of our country down. You put our king down. But how many wrestlers' names do we know in the history of Islam? Why do we know Mahmood Kurya? Because he became a saint. Just by the idea of a New York act. And he said. He said I had a dilemma. My pride. My championship. My family. This is how I make Mahmood. This is how I make a living. The dilemma was what if that woman goes home and says a lot to him. He answered my prayer. Why didn't he answer my prayer? Because he realized that he is the means that Allah put between. And that was his greatest text. And he got it. By putting himself on the ground. The one who humbles himself. Allah alamics him. Allah alamics him. And he became one of the great saints of Persia. He's one of the few wrestlers who you can see. And that's the power of Allah. That's the power of Allah. Allah SWT works in mysterious ways. If you can figure out how Allah how he does things. That's not Allah. You can't figure it out. And that's why whatever you are. Whatever you are. If you're in the room and you don't go around in these old walls. And you say. How am I going to get me out of this situation? I swear by Allah. Even in those walls. He already has excellent strategy for you. Allah has an excellent strategy for you. All you have to do is fulfill the will of Allah. Just turn toward him. Don't run away from childs. Don't run away from tribulation. Run away. Run to Allah. And he would see that he would make a door from the walls. That's the nature of Allah. He can do whatever he wants. He can do whatever he wants.