 We praise Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We send blessings and salutations upon Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam, his household, his companions. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to bless them, to bless every one of us, to grant us goodness, to open the doors of mercy upon us and to grant us every form of bless. Ameen. My brothers and sisters, we are looking at supplications from revelation and we are discussing the dua of Yusuf alaihi sallatu wa sallam. The prophet Yusuf may peace be upon him. He had an option of committing a sin or being imprisoned and he made a dua to Allah, رب السجن أحب إلي من ما يدعونني إليه. Oh my Rabb, the prison is better for me than what they're calling me towards and we spoke about this in the previous episode where I made mention of how important this dua was. It goes to show that we always need to please Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and we need to stay away from sin at times even if we have to endure a little bit of hardship in order to stay away from that sin. So Allah gave him this particular dua, responded to him positively. He was imprisoned and he enjoyed his time in the prison. He sees the opportunity while in prison to do whatever he felt was as positive as he could so that he emerged from there one day with no regrets. So my brothers and sisters, that was a dua of Yusuf alaihi sallam. But we want to go through another dua of Yusuf alaihi sallam also made mention of in Surat Yusuf verse number 101 where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says at a certain point when the parents were united once again, the brothers were united once again right at the end of the story. Another supplication of the prophet Yusuf or Joseph may peace be upon him is made mention of. Allah says He asks for two things but he precedes that dua with the praise of Allah and the acknowledgement of the gifts that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had bestowed upon him. So he says, Oh my Rab, you have given me so much. You've given me a lot. Here authority, dominion, kingdom, knowledge so much has been granted by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to Yusuf alaihi sallam. He's acknowledging it. Oh Allah, you gave me so much. You gave me a lot and you even taught me that which I didn't know whether it was the interpretation of dreams, the deeper understanding regarding speech, regarding what goes on with people etc. Allah inspired him, Allah revealed to him. So he says, You are the creator of the heavens and the earth and you are my protector in this world and in the next. Wali, Wali referring here to the protector, the closest of friends of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So he is saying you are my protector in this world and in the next. I want to ask you something. So he asks Allah, Tawafani Musliman, grant me a death in a condition that I am submitting unto you. Grant me a death in the condition of submission. Imagine this is a prophet of Allah saying, Oh Allah, when I die, let me be in a good condition. Let me be in a good state. Tawafani Musliman wa alhipni bisalihain. And let me be united with the righteous. Bring me together with the righteous. Let me join the righteous. So these are the two things he's asking for. A good death and post death he wants to be with the righteous as well. So this is a beautiful dua that we can all make as well. Tawafani Musliman wa alhipni bisalihain. Oh Allah, grant us a death as submitters because it's important to ask Allah for a good death. Hussnul khatima means the good ending. So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for a good ending. So this is a dua of Yusuf alayhi salatu wa salam. It's a powerful dua and it's a supplication that Allah makes mention of in the Quran. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would not have made mention of it if there was no lesson for us to be deriving from it. But rather we can look at his life, Yusuf alayhi salam, his words, we can use these words, we can understand how to call out to Allah, what to ask from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. If you notice, none of the prophets have actually asked for specific material items. It was always goodness, it was always the pleasure of Allah, it was always submission, it was always something to do with gaining closeness to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Even if they were asking for offspring, it was in order to gain closeness to Allah as we shall see in one of the episodes when we discuss one of the du'az of zakariya alayhi salatu wa salam. So it's important my beloved brothers and sisters for us to call out to Allah and not to be materialistic in our du'a only, which means we are human, we are not prophets of Allah. We might ask Allah, oh Allah make this easy for me, help me to buy a house, help me to do this and to do that. But that needs to be coupled with a brilliant intention and it should not be the main focus of all our du'az. Perhaps out of a hundred du'az you might make two or three that might be connected to certain materialistic things you may want in terms of luxury etc. But it's not recommended to be focused upon those items when in actual fact a true believer should be focused upon the pleasure of Allah. If Allah is pleased with you, if Allah has forgiven you, if Allah is going to grant you goodness in terms of your spirituality and religion and in terms of your relationship with Allah then you've succeeded, even if you don't have much in terms of this world. So this is a beautiful du'a that we make mention of regarding Yusuf alayhi salatu wa salam. Now there is a question that arises when he says, Tawafani Muslim and grant me death as a Muslim. He's not praying to die but he is saying whenever you take me away, take me away in a condition that you are pleased with me, that I am submitting unto you. So to say that Yusuf alayhi salam asked for death would be wrong but rather he just said whenever you take me, take me away in a good condition. Because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has said in another narration of Anas ibn Malik radiallahu anhu that is muttafak alayhi. He says la yatamanna yanna a hadakum ul-mawta. One of you should not, or you should not, you should not hope for death to say oh Allah take me away, oh Allah take me away. You know min dharrin asabahu because of a difficulty or hardship that has reached a person. So no person should say or should wish for death to run away from a problem. That's a hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. No person should wish for death in order to run away from a hardship, a trial or a calamity that Allah may have caused to befall them. But rather we should say oh Allah keep me alive for as long as you know that life is good for me, take me away when you know that it's better for me to go. That's what the hadith says. So in this instance Yusuf alayhi sallam was not asking for death but rather he was saying whenever you do take me take me away in a good condition. My brothers and sisters I hope that we can learn that we should not be asking for death but rather ask for a good condition upon the death that is chosen by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We want to move on to the the supplication of the Prophet ayyub alayhi sallam. Job may peace be upon him. He had been tested by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in so many different ways. Allah blessed him with offspring, Allah blessed him with prophethood, Allah blessed him with a good body and skin, Allah blessed him with wealth, his wealth was taken, his health was taken and his children were taken. And in such a way that he suffered and struggled but he was a very patient person. You see Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that he tests everyone and when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tests everyone, every single person would then see the result of that test on the day of judgment and Allah will decide where exactly you fit in in terms of your results. So some people have failed their test may Allah not make us from those, some people have passed them and some people have passed with flying colors. Some Allah has praised them to say you know we tested them so much and the result was the following. Now I want to look at Ayyub aleyhi salam. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says These verses make me cry. It's Surat Sa'at verse number 44. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying Imagine Allah is saying we found him to be patient. We tested him one after the other. So many things. We took his wealth away. He thanked us. He was still patient. We took his health away. He thanked us. He was still patient. It did not decrease his acts of worship. He actually increased them. We took away you know his health, his wealth and his family members one by one. All of them we found him to be very patient. He was still as close to us as ever. Brothers and sisters when things happen in our lives that does not come right. Things that do not come right for us. We must remember don't lose faith. Faith is the last thing you should be thinking about losing because it is faith that keeps you going. It is conviction in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that will make you continue. Look at Ayyub aleyhi salam. An Nabi of Allah meaning a prophet of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chosen by Allah beloved to Allah being tested by Allah with great tests and he passed the test with such flying colors that Allah says about him. We found him to be very very patient. What a great servant of ours. What a great servant of ours. Who is saying this? Allah is saying it about Ayyub aleyhi salam. What a great worshiper of ours. Why is he such a great worshiper? Because he was Awab. Awab is one who comes back to Allah always. He always returns to Allah every day. He's worshipping Allah. He's returning to Allah. He was indeed one who constantly turned to us for everything. In hardship he turned to us. In ease he turned to us. So much so. Ayyub aleyhi salam is one of the prophets who who did not ask Allah to solve his problem. Amazing. When he had problems he loved Allah so much he was convinced conviction to the highest degree that he didn't say oh Allah help me out of my problem. But look at the words he uses. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says O Muhammad peace be upon him. Remember our slave Ayyub. When he called out to his Lord. When he called out to his maker. What did he say? He said, Satan has afflicted me with two things. With Nusbin and Adab. So these two things one is connected to his body. You know when the term Adab is connected to his his body and the term in fact it's connected to his body and his wealth. Nusbin refers to the tiredness, the fatigue you know. Satan has actually attacked him from two angles. One angle is his body, his health and two was what he had. What he had was divided into two. His wealth and his family members. So he only said oh Allah, Satan has attacked me. That's all. He didn't say so help me so you know protect me so he knows Allah loves me enough. I love Allah enough. If Allah has chosen this for me I'm going to go through this. Now we are not the prophets of Allah. I'm not saying to anyone that you only need to tell Allah oh Allah, Satan has attacked me and stopped there. Our levels of conviction may not be upon that level. In fact they won't reach that levels of the prophets but we can say oh Allah Satan has attacked me. Oh Allah help me. Oh Allah open my doors. Oh Allah guide me. Oh Allah protect me and so on. Ayyub alayhi salam chose not to say all of that. This is why in another narration, in another verse actually with different wording of the du'a. Now why different wording? It's not that oh the Quran is contradicting you know by using one wording one time and another wording another time. No the du'a was made many times. Sometimes this wording sometimes that wording the wordings were different so Allah makes mention of the du'as of the prophets of Allah with different wordings because they called out many times and they did not call out using exactly the same wording all the time. So Allah says for example in this beautiful surah He says oh my Rabb. Harm has reached me. Harm has touched me. Harm has got to me and you are the most merciful of those with mercy. That's it. You are the most merciful from those who have mercy. Amazing. So again he didn't say oh Allah harm has got to me. Please help me out of this harm. He says oh Allah harm has got to me. I know you're merciful. You're the most merciful of all those who have mercy. That's enough. The fact that I have hope in your mercy, I'm convinced and I know the quality and standard and height of your mercy. I already know that that's enough. The fact that you know that I'm going through this. I'm just repeating to say oh Allah you know it's gotten to me. Now this is why Allah says but I want to quickly show you how Allah responded to this du'a. The du'a of a you. Now if you take a look at some of the surahs of the Quran. You know we have surah saffat. We have surah al-anbiya. We have some of the surahs where Allah makes mention of the du'a's and the supplications of the prophets. He shows you that all the prophets called out to us. All the prophets called out to us. The prophets of Allah called out to Allah more than you and I and the rest of the creatures of Allah. Yet they were the chosen ones. They went through greatest difficulty and they called out to Allah more than anyone. Look at the Quran. It's filled with supplications made by the prophets of Allah. Allah would not have mentioned these supplications if he didn't have a lesson in them for us. If he didn't want us to use those words to call out to understand that you will have hardship. You will have problems. You will have issues. All those should make you stronger. Remember when Ayub called out to Allah? Remember when Zakaria called out to Allah? Remember the prophet Yunus, when he went away while he was upset and he thought that it would be okay to continue. But he called out to Allah. He called out and so many different verses that Allah says this one called out, that one called out, everyone called out. They called out to Allah, call out to Allah. And this is why at the end Allah says you know they all called out to us hoping and with hope and fear. They always called out to us. Who am I and who are you? We are far lower than all of the messengers of Allah. Surely we should be calling out more. So Ayub After making this du'a Allah says he was very patient. We tested him. He was patient. So you make a du'a Allah will wait until he wants to give you that du'a. Like we've said in previous episodes that Allah chooses how to respond to you with what he knows is better for you short term and long term. Sometimes there is something you desperately want. It's not good for you but Allah keeps it away from you and gives you in return in the hereafter something so great that when you see it you will wonder why Allah did not do that more often to you. SubhanAllah. But while you're on earth, man wants exactly what he wants and that's it. So Allah says The verse number 84 of Suratul Anbiya Allah says we responded to him. To who? Ayub. The Prophet job may peace be upon him. And we took away the difficulties that he had. We took away the hardship that he faced. We gave him back his family. We gave him back his family. And not just that but we doubled it up for him through our mercy and as a reminder for the worshippers. SubhanAllah. If you look at that verse it's just too powerful because Allah says we took something away from him. When he was patient he kept on thanking us. He kept on worshipping us for years on end. We gave him back more than what we took away from him. Much more in order to express to him our mercy and in order for it to be a lesson to those who are our worshippers. It's a reminder. It's a beautiful story for us to take heed from. So this shows when Allah takes something away from you. He will always give you back more than what he has taken away from you. The condition is you need to bear patience. You need to persevere. You need to continue in your worship of Allah. You don't question the decree of Allah but you understand the plan of Allah. Many of us lose things and whether it's a business, whether it's a loved one even in the form of the death like in the case of Ayyub alayhi salam. Sometimes Allah knows that this was definitely better for us. If we were patient, if we are convinced, if we become closer to Allah as a result of the loss that we suffered it was definitely a gift from Allah. And as for what we've lost it always belonged to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So we don't get distant from Allah but rather we get closer to Allah. Continue making dua. Keep on supplicating. Keep on worshiping. Keep on remembering Allah with various tasabih and various ways of remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Declare His praise, His greatness and you will see the reward will be brilliant. The reward will be brilliant and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will open the doors in the dunya and the akhirah. So may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless every one of us. My brothers and sisters, this is Ayyub alayhi salatu wa salam. We see how beautiful Ayyub alayhi salatu wa salam his dua was. Allah returned his family to him. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala not only returned his family to him but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doubled it, multiplied it. His health was restored. In fact, his health was restored in such a way that he looked young again and he was absolutely overwhelmed by the way Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had blessed him. Sometimes we suffer health matters. Sometimes we suffer in our finances. We've lost loved ones. Go and read the story of Ayyub alayhi salam. Look at how he called out to Allah. Call out to Allah using the same words and you will find that's indeed the mercy of Allah. It's definitely the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Now I want to end off today's episode by making mention of a hadith that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has mentioned to us regarding the tests. You know people are tested. So we're tested. We call out to Allah. In the hadith of Sa'ad ibn Abi Wa Qas, radiallahu anhu narrated in Sunan al-Tirmidhi and also reported by Imam Ahmad, rahmatullahi alayhi. He says he asked the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, oh messenger, ayyu n'naasi ashaddu bala'an. Which of the people are tested the most? They have the most difficulty, hardship and calamity. So he says, al-anbiya'u, he says the prophets are tested the most. They go through the most difficulty. Thumma s'alihun, and then the pious, the righteous. They go through many tests and difficulties. Thumma al-amthal, fal-amthal. And then those who are closest to them, and then those who are closer, which means the next and the next, and the next in righteousness. The more righteous you are, the more pious you are, the closer you are to Allah. Allah says we will test you more. We will test you much more. I've been doing good deeds. I've been reading my Salah. I've been dressed appropriately. I've been behaving myself. I've been trying to please Allah. And look, my life is filled with difficulty. Well, that's a sign that what you're doing is right. Because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, go and study the lives of the prophets. Whether it is Jesus may peace be upon him, Moses may peace be upon him. Those that are, you know, the Jews and the Christians would stop at, or Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, or any of the other prophets mentioned in the Old Testament, or the Quran, or the scriptures, look at every single one of them. They had great difficulty, hardship. They were driven out of their homes in a lot of cases. They had people after them. Some of them were actually killed. They were harmed, but they were the prophets of Allah. They were the closest to Allah. It goes to show that we're on earth for a purpose. And that purpose is to worship Allah. He's going to keep testing us. You need to pass your test. So he says, A person is tested according to his level of religiousness and closeness to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So if he is strong, he's going to have more tests. When he's weak, the tests are weak as well. You know, he will not be tested in such a strong way. And then the hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam ends by saying, difficulty and hardship continues to affect a worshiper of Allah until he treads the face of the earth and all his sins have been wiped out because of the sabr that he has endured. So this is a very, very powerful hadith. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us a deep understanding, expiation of sins through the difficulty we're going through. I'll say this. Wa sallallahu wa sallam wa baraka ala nabina Muhammad. Wa sallamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa sallam.