 Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. We praise Allah and we seek His aid and we ask for His forgiveness and we seek His protection from the evil of ourselves and from the evil of our actions. Whomever Allah guides, none can misguide and whomever Allah misguides, none can guide and I bear witness that there's no God but Allah alone. He has no like and I testify that Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is a slave and messenger. We also give praise to Allah who has brought the hearts together on this auspicious day of Juma'a. Juma'a literally meaning a day of gathering. Just as he brought our hearts together on that primordial day of Yom Al-Ast, Yom Al-Mithaq. On that day Allah gathered us in the realm of souls and he asked, Al-Astubi Rabbikum, Am I not your Lord? And we testified, Bala, indeed you are. This gathering then is a reminder of that first primordial gathering and it's a warning of the upcoming gathering when we will all be brought together again, that of Yom Al-Qiyamah, when we will all be questioned whether we remain faithful to that first covenant and if we did Allah promises that he will remain faithful to his promise of paradise. And we even just repeated this very meaning in the Sunnah Dua'a that we did after the Adhan. The Dua'a being Allahumma Rabbah ad-hid, Lord of this all-encompassing Dua'a and of this standing prayer. Grant Muhammad the rank of the intermediary and virtue and send him as possessor of the praise station on Maqamul Mahmood that you promised him. Indeed you do not break promises. The end of this Dua'a is really something to marvel at, something to wonder about and it begs the question, grant him the station that you have already promised him? Why would you make Dua'a for something that's already guaranteed? Why would you make Dua'a for something that Allah has already promised? And this doesn't just come in this Dua'a, there are other Dua'as like this as well. One of the Dua'as narrated from the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and other scholars say from his companions is Allahumma, Allah, I ask of you for contentment after your decree and for the return of life after death and the enjoyment of gazing upon your noble wudra. For the return of life after death, isn't this guaranteed for everybody? Why would the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam or his companions make Dua'a for something guaranteed? This is a question to ponder and something that we'll come back to. But there are other questions about Dua'a that are often asked and probably the most common question is this experience that many people have that they'll make Dua'a for the same thing again and again day after day, month after month, year after year and they'll ask why haven't my Dua'a been answered yet? I've been making Dua'a for years that X, Y and Z will happen with my children but the opposite seems to be happening. I've been making Dua'a for years that Palestine and other oppressed lands will be saved from their occupiers and they'll be freed. And actually the entire ummah has been making this Dua'a and yet in so many decades has anything changed? Has the situation gotten any better? So what gives them? Where have our Dua'as gone? Have they gone wrong? And this is something that we must ask ourselves. Yet perhaps the answer lies not in whether our Dua'as have gone right or wrong perhaps it's not that our Dua'as have gone wrong but perhaps we don't really know what it is to make Dua'a. Perhaps we don't understand what Dua'a is and therefore we're expecting something from something that's not. What we must realize that Dua'a is not meant to be like ordering an Amazon package where we click the confirm order button by raising our hands and if the package doesn't arrive the next day we raise our fists at a lot angry and complain that we ordered the next day shipping it hasn't arrived yet. What happens? This attitude isn't Dua'a this is what we call entitlements. This is the feeling that Allah owes you something when in fact he is your rub he is your lord and you are his abd you are his slave. He is your lord to whom you owe everything and we are his slaves to whom he owes nothing. And this you know this can be a bitter pill to swallow it's difficult to understand because we seek to make religion for ourselves oftentimes but if your approach to your Dua'a is as though you are a rub to whom Allah owes something and Allah is your abd to whom it to whom he owes you everything who owes it to you that your Amazon package arrive on time. Is it really surprising then that our Dua'as don't seem to be working? In Arabic to clarify then what our Dua'a really is in Arabic when we ask for something there are three different words that are used. The first word is Talaad and Talaad means to demand something and this is when you make a demand it's when you as a superior ask something of your inferior so it's asking from above downwards and the second word is Iltimas which in English is to request and a request is something when you ask something of your equal of your peer so you're going sideways and the third word is Dua'a. Dua'a which means to plead to beg. Dua'a pleading begging means when you as an inferior ask something of your superior and this then is the key that's missing in our Dua'as that we should come to Allah in a state of Dua'a in a state of begging in a state of pleading that in a state of desperation because we recognize that only he can bring us what we need and that in reality it's only him that we do need at all. Allah says and who answers the desperate one? What's the word Allah uses? Who answers the desperate one when he calls on him meaning makes Dua'a to him. Allah responds to the Dua'a of someone who comes in desperate need of him without attaching to whatever specific object we're making Dua'a for and the reality of that is that it is Allah who we need and not the object that we make Dua'a for in the first place. Allah says and when my slaves ask about me and notice the wording here Allah's speaking to everyone here everyone who has been asking for years after making the same Dua'a are still confused and ask where is Allah why haven't my Dua'a been answered where is Allah why haven't my prayers been answered Allah's speaking to you here when my slaves ask about me then I am close I answer the call of the caller in other words the the person making Dua'a when he makes Dua'a when he makes that Dua'a then answer me what you mean will be and believe in me Allah's answer to us is that he is near he is close he's ready to accept our Dua'a he's ready to answer us his answer to your Dua'a when it's done in a state of begging when it's done in a state of pleading out of desperation is guaranteed in the moments that you make that Dua'a but again this is qualified right this is so long as a Dua'a is a Dua'a and not a demand so long as it's done in a state of begging Allah so long as it's done recognizing that it doesn't matter how he responds so long that he does respond that is when the answer is guaranteed we return to Allah's words that we've been looking at so let him answer me and believe in me once Allah has informed us that he is ready to answer our Dua'a he's ready to do so in the very moment that we make Dua'a he continues and he says so answer me and believe in me and so when we call on Allah he's telling us he will answer us if we answer him he will answer us if we answer him and the scholars of Tafsir and others have explained that to answer Allah's call means to comply with his commandments and his prohibitions and to believe in him now why would Allah place his condition on our Dua'a because this is the true sign of desperation in a famous hadith that's narrated in the collection of you know no we the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam mentions a man who is on a long journey and he was on his dirt journey with disheveled messy hair his clothes are filled with dirt and dust he extends his hands towards the sky in Dua'a saying Ya Rabb Ya Rabb my lord my lord and yet his food is is haram meaning is earned from unlawful income his drink is haram his clothes are haram he is fed by the haram meaning that the actual food he eats is haram how is he ever going to receive an answer here the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is teaching us an archetype and this is the archetype of wishful thinking a person who's done little or nothing to answer Allah's call to the extent that the basics of his living his food and his clothing even that hasn't come in line with what Allah calls for this person still has vain hopes that Allah will answer him where's the desperation where's the Dua'a where's the begging and pleading of Allah Allah says I will answer when you answer me and this person has failed to respond to Allah and even the simplest of things is this then the archetype of a desperate man who is in a true state of Dua'a no who is this then this is the entitled man the one who demands Allah gives him what he wants just because he wants it who treats Allah like his amazon delivery driver someone who's desperate in his Dua'a will take every means to Allah will take every means to him and will treat all of his acts of worship all of his obedience and everything he does in this life I like a Dua'a because in reality it is a Dua'a what we do for Allah is not something it's not our payment to get a reward of our choosing and this is because we cannot give Allah anything in reality anything we call our own figuratively even our own actions are given to us by Allah and so in the seerah during the battle of Bothered the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam an example of this he seized in his hands in his blessed hands a fistful of dirt and stone and he threw it in the face of his enemies and Allah says about this event you did not throw when you threw but Allah threw you did not throw when you threw but Allah threw in other words he the Prophet sallallahu assalam his very active throwing was enabled by Allah and had it not been for that tofiq had it not been for Allah enabling this action his action in that circumstance sallallahu assalam and all of our actions by extension would never materialize and so our actions are therefore gifts from Allah to us and not the other way around and so when we deliver them back we should accept them humbly recognizing that in every act of good that we do we are in need of Allah and that this is the essence of dua it is an expression of our need of our desperation for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala a dua mokho li ibadat dua is the bone marrow of worship in other words it is the essence of worship but bone marrow is an interesting metaphor because bone marrow is made up of blood cells right red and white blood cells it is in other words what makes the bone a part of the living creature rather than a rock rather than some just mineral the dua then is the lifeblood of our worship if our prayer does not express a need and desperation for Allah then it's a dead prayer it's a lifeless prayer if our fasting does not express a need and desperation for Allah then it is a dead fast is a lifeless fast even our good character if our good character with friends colleagues and families is unmotivated by need and desperation for Allah then it is a lifeless character all of our ibadah then is a dua all of it is an expression of need it's begging Allah pleading with him for our needs and so let us approach not only this prayer but all of our actions saying Ya Rabb Ya Rabb I call on you in my moment of need a need that none other than none other uh can fulfill except you I come to you as your humble slave my affairs are not in order but perhaps there's this one good thing that I've done and I ask you by that one good deed by that one act of charity by that one moment of forgiveness by that one act of courage when I stood up for your for your religion like in the hadith of the three men trapped in the cave who asked you by their good deeds that they may be freed I asked you by this good deed that I did even though it was you who granted it to me I asked you still by it to answer my dua to answer my needs to take away my worries to soothe my anxieties and to accept from us our prayers and our tears that we cry in the middle of the night Allah you said let them answer me so yes to jeebu Lee and I will answer you to jeebu Da'a to Da'a Iida Da'an Allah this was your promise in that I took leave from me I'd like we were like we recited after the other and you do not break your promises so answer me in my time of need Allah says in his noble scripture in Allah who are my like that who you saw