 Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Bismillahi walhamdulillahi wassalatu wassalamu ala Rasulillahi wa ala alihi wa ashabihi ajma'in. We praise Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We send blessings and salutations upon Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam, his household, his companions. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to bless them and bless every one of us. Brothers and sisters, we are looking at the supplications or the du'as that are made mention of in revelation. And revelation is divided into two. You have the Quran and you have the hadith of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. So within the Quran Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has made mention of many of these du'as. We were speaking about the du'a or the supplication of Musa alayhi s-salam in the previous episode. And I'd like to make mention of the fact that the prophets of Allah may peace be upon them all. They did not curse. They did not seek the destruction of people until a point where they felt that they were totally belied. Then they sought the help of Allah using specific words. So it was not necessarily cursed, but it may have been a du'a of destruction. I give you an example of Musa alayhi s-salam. There was a point where he told Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala oh Allah you have given the Pharaoh lots of wealth and he is using that wealth in order to distract and deviate. He's using it to oppress and to do wrong, to turn people away. So oh Allah I am asking you to extinguish that wealth of his. Oh my Rabb, oh my Rabb Musa alayhi s-salam is saying it miss ala amwalihim. Switch off or turn off or extinguish or eradicate the wealth of theirs. Their wealth because they were using that wealth for evil. And tighten their hearts. The reason why tighten their hearts is because they are not accepting it. Now their hearts will be tightened and they will deserve the punishment because they are not going to believe until they see that punishment. That's what he says. They are not going to believe until they see that punishment. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala makes mention of this du'a and one very interesting factor is that these du'as are made mention of as a warning for us to say that when we harm people they may decide to pray for our goodness. They may decide to pray that we soften our hearts but there comes a point when they give up too. And when they give up what will happen is they start praying against us and I remember saying in one of the episodes اتق دعوة المظلوم فإنه ليس بينها وبين الله حجاب It's a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ Be fearful of the du'a, the supplication made against you by the one whom you have wronged for indeed there is no barrier between that supplication and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So this was a beautiful example of Musa alayhi salatu wa salam's du'a I want to move on to another du'a that definitely we learn from the Quran where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaks of the pious worshippers known as عباد الرحمن عباد الرحمن in Surat al-Furqan Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala towards the end describes the true worshippers of the most merciful and the description is very lengthy I've spoken about it in the past and I'm sure many others have also spoken about it because it is a part of the Quran and definitely lessons from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but there are two supplications that have been mentioned that these true worshippers of Allah utter, they say these du'as the one that is made mention of رَبَّ نَصْرِفْ عَنَّا عَذَابَ جَهَنَّ مَا إِنَّا عَذَابَهَا كَانَ غَرَامًا Oh our Lord, divert away from us the punishment of Hellfire for indeed that punishment is filled with torment with pain, with harm and it is very very severe very dangerous etc etc so when we are true worshippers of the Almighty we have hope in the mercy of Allah we will also fear the punishment of Allah because when we fear the punishment of Allah it leads us to doing deeds that will protect us from that fire from abstaining from deeds that would have got us into the fire or into the wrath of Allah and supplicating calling out to Allah constantly, oh Allah save me from the fire it's very important that we call out to Allah using these words رَبَّ نَصْرِفْ عَنَّا عَذَابَ جَهَنَّ مَا إِنَّا عَذَابَهَا كَانَ غَرَامًا what beautiful du'a and we call out to Allah you see people enter Jannah either because they worked to stay away from Juhannam or they worked to enter Jannah or they worked out of the love of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala may we fall into any one of those categories the highest being the love of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala so that is a du'a that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala makes mention of in Surat Al Furqan towards the end where the true believers ask Allah always to protect them from Hellfire because that Hellfire is definitely very, very severe, serious and very painful we then look at another du'a made by the same worshippers of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and it is this time connected to family members connected to progeny because the true worshippers of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala are always concerned about others as well not just themselves Masha'Allah I've seen the light for example I'm guided I still continue to ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's guidance this is what a person would think this is what a worshipper of Allah would think if you worship Allah alone and you try your best to fulfill your obligations to stay away from prohibitions you should want the same for those who are closest to you starting with your family members and then the circles that you interact with and so on so the du'a that is made is made mention of here in Surah Al Furqan again where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says والذين يقولون which means those true worshippers of Ar-Rahman the true worshippers of Allah who is the most merciful they are the ones who say رَبَّنَا هَبْلَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَاجِنَا وَذُرْيَاتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنْ وَجَعَلْنَا لِنْ مُتَّقِينَا إِمَامَا O our Lord grant us from our spouses and our offspring ذُرْيَاتِنَا meaning our offspring not just your children but the children's children and so on قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنْ the coolness of our eyes grant us the coolness of our eyes through our children our spouses, our family members وَجَعَلْنَا لِنْ مُتَّقِينَا إِمَامَا and make us the leaders of the righteous so you are working towards earning this righteousness or being righteous becoming a leader of the righteous becoming a leader of the righteous you see you just have to try you just have to keep on obeying Allah's instruction Allah is the one who grants you success there is no need to fight with someone else when you want to be a leader, no in the case of being a leader in righteousness there is no war with another person but rather there is a sacrifice and a struggle between you and Allah you are sacrificing and struggling for the sake of Allah you are trying your best to please Allah you are not trying to do someone else down you are not trying to attack someone else you will not achieve anything by putting someone else down but rather you will achieve a lot by earning the pleasure of Allah yes, if people are doing something wrong you might want to teach in a positive way you might want to reach out to them or to convey the message to others to save themselves from that type of behavior or from that understanding but we don't need to attack others in a derogatory way in a negative way, vulgar, abusive, etc because being a leader of the righteous it's not just one person a whole nation could be leaders of the righteous we are leading our family members in goodness as the Prophet SAW says each one of you, every one of you is a shepherd and each one of you is responsible for his flock and he goes on to explain that even in the family where the father is a shepherd he has a role to play and he is responsible for his flock so this is the mercy of Allah SWT a quick translation of it once again O my Rab, Rabbana O my Rab, grant me the coolness of my eyes through my family and my children, my offspring and make me a leader of the righteous or make us leaders of the righteous O my Rab, grant me the coolness of my eyes and make me a leader of the righteous very interestingly, this dua can be repeated even if you don't have offspring even if you are not married because obviously it would mean if Allah accepts it from you He would bless you with a spouse who is going to be the coolness of your eyes and insha'Allah children who will be the coolness of your eyes so it doesn't mean that only if I have a spouse and children I would use these words to call out to Allah but rather you call out to Allah from a young age using these words and they will definitely open the doors of goodness by the mercy of Allah SWT similarly a person who is having difficulty, hardship, problems in their married life or with their children some children might be difficult etc together with trying to find solutions to the problems you are facing that would be advisable to call out to Allah and words of this nature are really helpful because they are words that Allah says the pious, those who are conscious of Allah those who are the true worshippers of the most merciful calling on the mercy of Allah would actually use to call out to Allah so this dua goes far and wide in solving our problems and in giving us the mercy that we are searching for from Allah SWT and this is why Allah says after making mention of all these qualities of the people who are true worshippers of Allah they call out to Allah to save them from hellfire they seek forgiveness from sin that they may have committed they are concerned about the generations to come because part of the plan of Allah SWT is a duty or the duty of every individual is to pass the baton you know you have iman it's not good enough to keep it to yourself you have to give it to others and you give it to your children Subhanallah your family members that is the minimum that is the minimum so then Allah says the amazing verse Allah says those are the ones who will be granted who will be granted the reward of Al Ghurfa Al Ghurfa is a special place in paradise for those who were concerned with what Allah has made mention of and the concern includes being concerned about your family members and your children and praying for them and working hard with them spending time with them being dedicated trying your best to make them understand their duty unto Allah remembering that we may not succeed always look there were prophets of Allah such as the prophet Nuh alayhi salam and the others they had children and family members Lut alayhi salam his wife the prophet salam his uncle and so on there are examples of people who are from the family members or broader families who did not accept the message but the trial was there the dua was there the prophet salallahu alayhi salam prayed for them to be guided and so did the others they prayed to be guided Nuh alayhi salam prayed for his son to be guided as well but Allah says no we chose not to guide that particular child so we try our best where the children have grown up as adults there is a point that we may not be able to do much but we've handed the baton prior to that hopefully it's not good enough to be engaged in sin and be engrossed in that which displeases Allah until your child begins to displease Allah too and then you say oh what has happened here it may be too late by that time may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala not let that happen to us so this is why Allah says those who have born patience those who have been patient and those who have tried hard Allah says they will have al-ghurfa the special place in jannah because of that patience and they will be greeted with salam they will be greeted and welcomed with peace you know the peace is the greeting in the dunya in this world as well as in the hereafter and so Allah says they will dwell therein forever and ever may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us all goodness and jannah we move on to yet another supplication a beautiful supplication that is a very very important topic also connected to family members brothers and sisters you want the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you must make sure that your relationship with your parents is good if you want the mercy of Allah if you want Allah to answer your du'as if you want goodness in this world you must make sure that you are kind to your parents some people might say well my parents are very bad people they ask me to sin they stop me from obeying Allah's instruction all of that should not stop you from being kind to your parents you must be kind this kindness is something you don't have to compromise no matter what they are doing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not speak about obedience when it comes to the disobedience of Allah because obedience is for Allah but kindness and you know to listen to them in that which they are reasonable that which they have not gone beyond the limits of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is part of that kindness insha'Allah so in order for us to understand that the duty upon us is to be kind to our parents and its reasoning we need to go back to creation Allah created man and in order to reproduce Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala used a system and that is the parenthood where we will have parents and the parents have had children we are the children so we look up to those whom Allah chose as the creator to be parents of those whom he has brought onto the earth meaning us so this is why there is so much of importance given to parents a lot of people who are bad to their parents they hurt their parents physically or sometimes they are unkind to their parents they taste the punishment of it in this world and in the next and this is why when a parent actually curses the child or makes a du'a, supplicates against his or her own child there are two conditions one is if the child has deserved that du'a or that supplication against the child because they were evil in that case it's very dangerous because that prayer would be accepted you know when a parent makes du'a for a child supplicates for a child to Allah a lot of the times that du'a is accepted especially if it is deserved if it is deserved it is accepted so rather make good du'a my beloved parents out there who are listening to me when your children have done something wrong be careful don't make a bad du'a make a du'a that Allah softened their hearts Allah bring them back Allah guide them Allah make them kind Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless them etc etc even when they have done something bad but if you were to use the du'a and to curse them and to make du'a for their destruction they might turn back to Allah and you know what they might suffer as a result of your du'a however the second type of du'a the second category is the curse that the parents make against the children when the children do not deserve that curse that curse rebounds back to the parents remember this it's very dangerous so this is why don't just curse that curse might come back to you with a lot of harm and destruction we have a lot of parents who say may Allah destroy my child he's been so bad and I don't want to see him again may Allah destroy him and curse him and people say you'll always see suffering in your life and you'll always be the odd one out and you will always be the one who is you'll see what Allah will do with you he's going to fix you he's going to destroy you and so on if your child was innocent in what you are arguing with them about and if you were the guilty one actually the harm of that curse will come back to you wa la yahiqul makru sayyoo illa bi ahlihi you know the evil plot does not come and catch anyone besides he who deserves it so who deserves it when you are cursing someone it's evil that evil if it's deserved by you it's going to come back to you it's going to haunt you so be careful there are many children out there who complain to us that our parents are being unreasonable they are cursing us don't curse your children don't curse your children while we are spending a moment today speaking about how important it is for us to pray for our parents we would be failing in our duty if we did not remind the parents to be good and kind to their children as well be reasonable these children actually belong to Allah but they were given to you temporarily by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in order to see whether you do what Allah wants with your children or you are doing what your wombs and fancies want in transgression of the command of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala against your own children may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us goodness so Allah speaks about in Surat Al-Ahqaf man and Allah says we created man and we enjoined we asked him we requested him to be kind to his parents wa wassainal insana bi walidehi ihsana indeed Allah has instructed mankind to be kind to his parents man to be kind to his parents male and female both included hamalathu ummuhu kurha wa wadaathu kurha his mother carried him during the gestation period with great difficulty and gave birth to him in even greater difficulty amazing so whether your mother is a Muslim or a non-Muslim whether the mother is obedient or transgressing the command of Allah kindness is something that you have no excuse regarding you must be kind you might ask why well Allah has given you the reason because your mother has given birth to you your mother has carried you for nine months your mother has struggled and suffered to give birth to you it was a near death experience in the case of the majority my brothers and sisters we have to honour our mothers respect them for the fact that they took care of us right at the beginning there is an exception and the exception is if your mother has been so evil as to want to dump you to kill you to hurt you to bury you alive it is a commission to distance yourself from that type of a mother or father if your father has abused you tries to abuse you molested sexually whatever else it may be in that case you have the right to be distant from that particular father because the relationship has become such that we need to protect ourselves try not to be bitter although it's very difficult we're humankind but do not have something known as reverse oppression reverse oppression they did wrong it doesn't justify you to do wrong to them you may want to stay away you may want to go very far you may want to have very little to do with them or nothing at all depending on how bad the crime was and that does not justify any misbehavior may Allah SWT grant us goodness so Allah is saying your mother took care of you she gave birth to you so your mother is more deserving of your kindness than anyone else the Prophet SAW was asked who is the most deserving of my kind companionship from the people he says your mother so then he was asked again who else is more deserving of my kind companionship so the term here is not obedience it's kindness kindness and obedience huge difference although part of kindness is to obey in that which is reasonable so he says your mother that was the second time then he said okay the questioner says so who next he says well your mother a third time and then the fourth time he says well who after that he says your father Subhanallah all the dads out there our own mothers those of us whose mothers are alive may Allah SWT make us from those who fulfill their rights before they pass away there is a hadid that says destruction be upon a person who has had the opportunity to serve one or both of his parents or hers in old age and that has not resulted in them entering Jannah Subhanallah which means they haven't served them and they didn't enter Jannah as a result of being their parents it goes to show that when you serve your parents you actually attain Jannah you would actually get paradise so it's not going to be easy this hadid the prophet speaks about being kind to your mother three times more than your father but that does not mean you have the right to be unkind to your father I guess the mothers have a soft spot and emotionally they are very very soft the father is out there may Allah SWT grant us goodness we will continue in the next episode and until then I say I say