 As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh Bismillahir rahmanir raheem, Alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala Rasulillahi wa ala alihi wa sahabihi ajma'in All praise is due to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala Blessings and salutations upon Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam His household, His companions, may Allah bless them all and bless every one of us Grant us goodness, grant us ease And may Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala have mercy upon our offspring, those to come right up to the end Brothers and sisters, we're talking of supplications from revelation And I want to make mention of a powerful supplication in Surat Aala Imran That Allah makes mention of people who fought with the Prophet peace be upon him against the enemy And they made a specific dua or the prophets of Allah against their enemies And they made a specific dua Allah says, you know what? We gave them the goodness of this world as well as the next And Allah says, I love those who do good So what is that supplication? What a powerful dua O our Rab, forgive our sins and forgive our excessiveness in our affair You know, if we have gone wrong, if we have done something Israf is normally connected to that which is excessive Here we're asking for forgiveness for that which was excessive in our affairs And you know, strengthen our feet, make them firm, make firm our feet And that is generally connected to not giving up, help us not to give up You're asking Allah saying, O Allah, help me to remain firm so I don't give up You know, it's easy to give up sometimes when Allah tests you with challenges Things happen, we endure for a year for a while Then we give up, the dua is O Allah, strengthen our feet, you know, grant them the proper position Unshakable We're talking of making it firm So this dua That's the first thing always And the excessiveness, whatever our faults in this affair of ours In this matter of ours Wa thabbit aqdamana wa ansurna a'al qawmi al-kaafireen And make firm our feet and grant us victory over the disbelievers Allah says Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says We gave them the reward of this world and the best of the hereafter In terms of reward and indeed Allah loves those who believe So my brothers and sisters, that's also a beautiful supplication that we should be adding to our list of supplications That we should be calling out to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with I think a lot of us have so many challenges, so many problems People we consider jealous, envious, etc. People who might have harmed us, who may intend to harm us It's interesting to seek the help of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Then my brothers and sisters, there is another powerful dua also in Surat al-Imran Where towards the end Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaks about the creation of the heavens and the earth And how important it is to ponder over the creation and to say to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Oh my lord, you have not created all of this in vain So it is an act of worship to look at the creation of Allah, when you see nature When you see the creatures of Allah, the sun, the moon, the stars, the skies The plants, the different types of creatures, the sea, the water Everything you need to ponder over it, even within yourself You need to ponder over what Allah has blessed you with You know the eyesight we have, everything we have, a gift of Allah If you ponder over it, you realize the greatness of Allah So to declare that greatness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala You would be achieving closeness to Allah Rabbana ma khalaqota haza baqila subhanaka faqina aza bannaar Oh Allah, you have not created all of this in vain without purpose So therefore, oh Allah, save us from the fire of the punishment Sorry, the punishment of the fire Save us from the punishment of the fire, the fire of the hereafter The grave, waqina aza bannaar What a powerful dua mentioned by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala It's amazing because we're looking at the greatness of Allah And realizing how small we are, how insignificant we are In comparison to the creation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Rabbana ma khalaqota haza baqila Oh Allah, all of this is not created without purpose You know, for nothing, just as a play, just as a pastime No, oh Allah, this is massive creation of yours Ma khalaqota haza baqila subhanaka glory be to you, oh Allah The glory is owned by you, deserved by you, you are the owner of it So glory be unto you, oh Allah, faqina aza bannaar So save us from adab, the punishment of the fire That's the beginning of these verses, verse number 191 Of surat ala imran And then we have verse number 193 as well Where we have a verse that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Says, the people call out to Allah with those who truly Ponder over the creation of Allah Rabbana inna nasa me'na munadi'in yunadi'il il'imaani An aaminu bi rabbikum fa aamanna Rabbana fawfir lana dunu bana wa kafir anna sayi'atina Watawafana ma al-abarar It's made up of an introduction and then a question to Allah Request to Allah The introduction is oh my Rabb, oh our Rabb And you know the term Rabb actually refers to the Creator The one who's in absolute control, the one who provides The one who cures and so on So oh our Rabb, we have heard a caller calling out Towards iman, towards belief, to believe in your Rabb So we believed So we heard a caller calling out towards believing in you So we believed in you Therefore, wow, therefore forgive us, forgive our sins And expiate the sins that we've committed Iqfir lana dunu bana Forgive our sins wa kafir anna sayi'atina And our bad deeds we want you to compensate We want you to actually atone them for us We want you to forgive us The bad deeds that we've done by replacing Them and Allah SWT then says that they would say wa tawafana ma al-abarar and grant us death with the righteous Or resurrect us with the righteous You know, to be granted death and to be resurrected with The righteous So when we die, let's die in a good condition in the right Company with the right people and when we are resurrected Let us be resurrected in the good company with the right People. What a powerful dua It shows how deep the thinking is It shows how deep the iman is Brothers and sisters, when you call out to Allah It's a reflection of your faith in Allah It's a reflection of your conviction in Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, you are convinced You have a powerful belief You are worried about so many things of the future Maybe worry is the wrong word, but you are concerned About the future Concerned When you have the concern, it makes you prepare for it So you start asking Allah, you start working towards it And you start calling out to Allah constantly O Allah, forgive me, make it easy for me in my grave Look at this O Allah, forgive us, grant us a good death and a good Resurrection And we are saying Thereafter This is beautiful O our Rab Grant us what you have promised us with your prophets Your prophets told us certain things We believed it, we believe it We are convinced about it and granted to us And O Allah Don't embarrass us on the day of judgment We know indeed we believe we have faith That you do not go against your appointed time And your promise We know that We have conviction So this is the dua These are the verses of Surah Al-Imran 194 as well as 193 From this we learn that When the prophets came to promise us things Allah will deliver the goods and He says You can ask me about it You can question me You can say O Allah, we heard the Prophet say this We believed in it The Prophet says Whoever seeks forgiveness will be forgiven We sought the forgiveness O Allah, forgive us We know that you won't break your promise We know that when you have an appointed time And something you've promised You're not going to falter at all So this is conviction in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And O Allah, don't embarrass us on the day of judgment What is the embarrassment of the day of judgment? It is connected to exposing our deeds on the day of judgment In front of everyone For them to see What exactly we did and what we didn't May Allah forgive us If Allah has covered us in this world He will cover us in the hereafter But there is a way of achieving that cover Learn to cover the mistakes of others Don't expose them in a derogatory way To try and insult To try and be little If you'd like to correct someone It doesn't mean You need to expose them You need to talk to them Communicate with them Try your best to correct them In the most decent and reasonable way The Hadith says Man satara musliman satarahullahu fiddunya wa l-akhira Whoever covers the faults of a believer Allah will cover their faults in this world And the next So if you want to be exposed It's quite simple Just start exposing everyone else A day will come When you shall be exposed as well That is something we don't want So this is why We say O Allah Do not embarrass us or expose us Disgrace us on the day of judgment May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Grant us The goodness that we are searching for And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Bless us with every form of cover When it comes to the sins that we have committed And may we be from among those Who have earned Or sought the forgiveness And changed our lives So my brothers and sisters We look at more of the supplications That the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam Has taught us through this Quran That comes from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Here is Mention of the people of the book Some of the rabbis According to some of us Sireen It speaks about The negus of Abyssinia An Najashi Where When Ja'far ibn Abi Talib R.A. Read verses of the Quran in front of him He cried And he said a few things So some of the Mufassirin Say these verses were revealed Regarding the Najashi And these are verses of Surat al-Ma'idah Verse number 83 When they heard the verses that were revealed to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam You saw their eyes Fill up with tears Because of the truth That they recognized in those verses I want to pause You and I are muslimin How many of us cry when we hear the verses of Allah Question Why? The answer is no we don't Why? Very rarely do we cry Very rarely Sometimes we cry at the melody We don't know what it means Sometimes we cry because the Imam is crying We don't know what it means How many of us are going to continue this way for 60 70 years without ever Having understood the meanings of the words of the Quran and that was your life We learnt the languages we spoke We went to school We learnt how to read and write That would help us for a few years I promise you we spent 60 70 years on earth to prepare for the hereafter And we never ever made an effort to understand the words of the Quran We kept on reciting them without understanding them Yes, there is a great reward for recitation No doubt every letter you get 10 rewards But there is a similar reward for understanding the Quran And Allah says in the Quran Will they not consider deeply pondering over the verses of the Quran? Will they not ponder over the verses of the Quran in another place in Surat Saad? Allah SWT says This book or a book that is blessed that we have revealed in order for its verses to be pondered over deeply That's the reason why Allah revealed the book in order for its verses to be pondered over deeply How many of us do that? Here is An-Najashi He heard a few verses he started crying Here is Umar ibn al-Khattab, radiAllahu anhu He heard a few verses his whole life changed Amazing And here we are We have the Quran We are Muslims We are making an effort to learn huge books in order to be able to lead the rest of a few years of this life But we haven't learned the one book that existed with us from the time we were born In the cases of those who were born Muslim But remember it's our duty to make an effort to learn, understand, put into practice Ask questions, know how to respond There are verses that you may know What is abrogation? What is the explanation? What are the reasons of revelation? This should be a part and parcel of your daily routine, my brothers and sisters And there is so much available online on your phones There is so much available you no longer need to go far and wide in order to learn the knowledge You can actually enroll on some reliable academy site or something that is there May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us and make us from those who understand So that was a small diversion because it's absolutely important But we get back to the dua The dua of An-Najashi and the likes Those who were the priests of the Christian faith Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says They said O our Rab We have believed Rabbana amanna Allahu Akbar They have said O our Rab we have believed We have believed So write our name from amongst those who bore witness Subhanallah Write our names from among those who bore witness We have believed They heard the verses They cried and they are saying O Allah we've believed So write our name Some people accept the faith of Islam And they may not be able to announce it to everyone Because of circumstances they are in Sometimes it's family Sometimes it's the community Sometimes where you're living It's not so easy sometimes to announce that you're a Muslim But Allah knows you know So you need to say Rabbana amanna faqtubuna ma'shahideen O Allah we have believed So write our name from amongst those who have believed Who have bore witness May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us from those who understand And realize Amin So my brothers and sisters That is An-Najashi and the likes The people who From the Christians who have Learned the Quran Or read it Or heard about it And cried and Believed in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala They call out to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So Allah says What he gave them in return Wow They cried at the verses of Allah And they said O Allah we believe If you cry at the verses of Allah And you say O Allah we've believed So write us from among those who bear witness Listen to what Allah gives you Tajiri min tahtiha al-anha wa khalidina fiha Wa dalika jaza'u al-muhsineen Verse number 85 of the same Surah Surat al-Ma'idah Allah says So we gave them a reward Because of what they said Fa'athabahum Allahu bima qalu We gave them a reward Because of what they said What was the reward? Jannatin The gardens of paradise They were granted entry into paradise Gardens beneath which rivers were flowing Forever and ever And that is the recompense That is the reward that we give those who do good Amazing how To utter words Obviously you need to be sincere But to utter these words Your tongue bears witness Your lips bear witness Your faculties bear witness Your teeth bear witness Your voice box bears witness And everything bears witness That you uttered the good words And all you needed to do is make sure it was from your heart And the tears here prove that it's definitely sincere So Allah says They cried when they heard the revelation It was supposed to have impacted upon them And it did impact upon them And then they said We love you so much We believe in you Forgive us Write us from among those who bear witness And so Allah says Not only did we write them from among those who bear witness But we wrote them from among those who are granted entry into paradise Beneath which there are rivers flowing forever and ever And that's the way we reward those who do good Aren't we inspired to do a little bit of good My brothers and sisters in a beautiful season of this nature When we do good Subhanallah The Almighty will indeed reward us Wholesomely and handsomely And this is why There are other prayers that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala Makes mention of also regarding others And there is a lesson from every single prayer Everyone's dua There is a lesson Let's listen to this The Prophet Musa A.S. When he was sent to his people Certain things happened And It's amazing how Banu Israel The people who was who were the children of Jacob The children of Yaqub A.S. They were instructed by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala Through their messenger to do certain things And from among the things they had to worship Allah alone Protect themselves from worshipping the calf And so many other things And they came a time when the repentance and the words of Repentance came out And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala Speaks about this repentance made by the people of Banu Israel Qaloola illam yarhamna rabbuna wa yaghfir lana lana These people use the same words used by Adam A.S. He says, O Allah They said O Allah If you do not have mercy on us and you do not forgive us We will be from among the losers La illam yarhamna rabbuna wa yaghfir lana lana Kunanna min al-khasireen If you do not have mercy on us And if you do not forgive us We will definitely be from among the losers We will definitely be from among the losers The true loss is when you have not achieved the forgiveness of Allah That is the true loss Everything else is temporary But the forgiveness of Allah is something we are going to need for eternity And therefore it's an absolutely important dua That we should be making And this is why When the magicians Who were told That we should be making The magicians Who were told by the Pharaoh That they're about to be executed Because they followed Musa A.S. Or Moses may peace be upon him And they did not stick with the Pharaoh He threatened them He warned them He told them, I'm going to penalize you He ended up punishing them He ended up fulfilling what he did say But what did they say? They were about to be executed They made a beautiful dua They said Amazing These magicians They made a prostration to Allah The Pharaoh tells them I'm going to execute you They say, look, we still believe in Allah It's not going to change us We know magic We know what it's all about What this man's come with is not magic Subhanahu wa ta'ala So they say, oh our Rab Pour upon us patience And grant us death With the submitters With the muslimin Grant us death with the submitters And even resurrect us with the submitters Subhanallah So imagine these people are about to be executed And they're saying, oh Allah Let us have patience Oh Allah, pour patience upon us And they were not strong You know, they were not muslims for a long period of time They were new muslims They were literally what we would term Reverts Reverted moments ago And the Pharaoh is threatening them Hey, I'm going to execute you They say, well, whatever you're going to do is temporary We're not giving up And then they said, oh Allah, pour on us patience We desperately need the patience The perseverance, the strength right now This for me is huge inspiration Huge inspiration You know, people who want to do the right thing Whether it is deciding to dress more appropriately Whether it is deciding to fulfill your salah From today onwards Whether it is deciding to engage in the obedience of Allah Not doing anything haram anymore Quitting, for example, bad habits Whether it's clubbing Whether it's gambling Whether it's intoxicants Whether it's some form of abomination When we decide to give up A lot of the times we get pressure From who? The pharaohs around us They threaten us in different ways Sometimes our own parents Sometimes our family members They become pharaohs Pharaohs around us And they tend to put pressure on us To go back to our old ways And go further away from Allah These reverts who were brand new muslims Allah loved them so much That he mentioned their story in the Quran In many places Imagine, if Allah had to mention your name My name once I think it would be, that's it, you know So for Allah to mention their story In such a positive light It's definitely a sign of the love of Allah Because they endured for the sake of Allah What are you going to endure for the sake of Allah? Yes, we talk about supplications But that supplication needs to be realistic O Allah, I ask you to grant me the strength O Allah, grant me the strength And you need to be serious about it And you need to want it Many of us say, O Allah, give me sabr But we're not really looking for that sabr May Allah make us from among those Who are genuine and sincere May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala Make us from among those Whomever we call out to him, he listens And may Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala Bless you all I say this word And peace be upon you Iqbal