 Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim in the name of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, most gracious, most merciful. Alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala Rasulillah wa ala alihi wa sahabihi ajma'in. We praise Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala upon all conditions. We send blessings and salutations upon Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, his household, his companions. We ask Allah to bless them, to bless every one of us, to grant us goodness in this world and the next, to make us from among those who benefit from the beautiful month of Ramadan, to make us from those whom whenever we call out to the Almighty, he gives us what we want and we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to be pleased with us. My brothers and sisters, we're looking at the supplications of the messengers of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and initially only the places where they are mentioned to have sought the forgiveness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I've given you the example of Adam alayhi salam, the example of Musa alayhi salam, the example of Ibrahim alayhi salatu wa salam, Suleiman alayhi salam, and here we are with Dawood alayhi salatu wa salam who was the father of Suleiman alayhi salam. Some people had come to him in order to distinguish between them, in order to judge between them who was right and wrong. And unfortunately, without listening to one of the parties, he already made a decision. Immediately, he realized he was wrong because he had not yet given the other party the opportunity to clarify what their position was and to express their evidence. So immediately, he sought the forgiveness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and this is made mention of in Surat al-Ambiyya, in fact, it's made mention of in Surat Saad wa ya Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says here is the verse Allah says, Dawood alayhi salam immediately realized that Allah had tested him. So he sought forgiveness and he fell prostrate. He bowed down immediately, turning back to Allah. Now when we hear this verse, we're actually supposed to be falling down into prostration ourselves. And the reason is when we hear an instruction from Allah to the believers to fall prostrate, we fall prostrate. When we hear how others in the past have fallen prostrate, when they have had something good they have heard or when they have had an instruction of Allah and they fell prostrate, we also will fall prostrate. When we hear how some did not prostrate, even when they were instructed to prostrate, we fall prostrate because we are not like those. These are some of the reasons behind something known as sujood atilawa, those prostrations whereby you read a verse of the Quran and you have to prostrate. This is one of them where Dawood alayhi salatu wa salam, he fell prostrate as a result of seeking the forgiveness of Allah when he knew that what he did was actually a mistake. So Dawood alayhi salatu wa salam, what we learn from this number one is something outside of this topic of supplications and that is when you judge between people, make sure you give everyone a chance to put forward their evidence, their story. You don't judge without listening to both sides or more sides if there are more involved. But if you want to give advice to someone, you may give them advice without listening to anyone else because obviously if you were to ask me for advice based on something you said, I would be able to advise you on condition that what you said to me was accurate. May Allah make it easy for every one of us. But a point I'd like to draw from this supplication of Dawood alayhi salam, look at how he sought the closeness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala by falling prostrate when he sought forgiveness. So with us too, we seek the forgiveness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. When we seek the forgiveness of Allah, we need to follow it up by engaging in acts of worship for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that would reconfirm that indeed we are connected with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So this was Dawood alayhi salatu wa salam. What a beautiful beautiful way of seeking the forgiveness of Allah where he seeks the forgiveness and immediately thereafter, he fell prostrate. So this brings me to recapping what we've said in over the last few episodes and that was we praise Allah, we seek the forgiveness of Allah, we declare the greatness of Allah, we express our total dependence upon Allah, the independence of Allah, all these words, it's preferred to do a good deed before you seek something from Allah, before you make a dua or supplicate to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And also what's important for us to know is sending blessings and salutations upon Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is very very important without it, you would actually be minimizing that the power of that dua and the supplication you're making. Thereafter in a very humble way, we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, we again at the end of our supplication seek the blessings of Allah, we send blessings and salutations upon Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and we follow it up with obedience. That's a very important last factor that we've learned here from Dawood alayhi sallam supplication to follow up your dua with obedience and not with disobedience, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make it easy for every one of us. I now want to go into some of the other supplications of the prophets of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala where they they were not connected directly to seeking forgiveness, but they were general supplications. Let's look at Nuh, the prophet Noah, may peace be upon him, just to put you into the picture. Nuh alayhi sallatu wa sallam was sent to his people very few actually accepted the message. That was fine, but they started harming him. Harming him was actually now calling the wrath of Allah against them. But Nuh alayhi sallam, the prophet Noah, may peace be upon him, was very, very patient. He did not lose his cool. He was extremely patient. He tried with them as the generations came, they were worse than the previous generations. Remember, he lived with them for many, many years, almost a thousand years he was with his people and he lived even beyond that. But the strange thing is when he called out to Allah, when he called out to Allah at a certain point where it was just too much, it teaches us that no matter who you are, there is a point beyond which it becomes difficult to remain positive. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala guide us. We are not prophets of Allah. The prophets remain positive, but they still called out to Allah, oh Allah, it's enough now. With us as humankind, I think if he, if he was patient for 90, for 950 years, we probably would be patient for nine hours, maybe. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us all patience. But at that juncture, he raised his hands calling out to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And the prophet, peace be upon him, used to raise his hands when he used to call out to Allah and he sometimes raised them very, very high as well. So raising your hands when you are calling out to Allah is a sunnah of the prophet, peace be upon him. Nooh, peace be upon him, he then says to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Rabbi, Inna qawmii qaddabooni. Rabbi, Inna qawmii qaddabooni. We take a look at Surah to Shu'ara, verse number one, one, seven. Qala Rabbi, Inna qawmii qaddabooni. Fa ftahtah baini wa bainahum fathhaa wa najjinii wa man ma'iyya minal mu'mineen. He says, oh my Rab, my people have belied me. That's what he says. Oh my Rab, my people have belied me. So open for us or separate us, open for us between us, make for us a victory between us and them. Open for us an opening such that you will save myself and those who have believed with me, najjinii wa man ma'iyya, minal mu'mineen, myself and those who have believed with me. He called out to Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah responded his call. Allah says, we then saved them. But remember the period between seeking the help of Allah and it started coming immediately, but the effect of it was years later. He was told, okay, now you bear patience. No one is going to be accepting the message from now on, whoever is remaining, they're going to remain on misguidance. But you start building an ark, Subhanallah. So it took long. Allah didn't just say, okay, no, we love you enough to just destroy them in the morning. It was a long period of time and the ark was being built and then slowly but surely a lot of developments took place and after a while, after some years, the floods happened. This shows us that when we call out to Allah for something, He hears it and He knows when the time is right, it will happen. Musa A.S. when he called out against the Pharaoh and we probably will see that prayer, that supplication, Allah tells him, قَدْ أُجِيْ بَدَّعُوَتُكُمَ فَاَسْتَقِيمَ Your dua, your supplication has been positively responded to. We have answered your dua. Now we want you to be steadfast. It's reported that 40 years later, the punishment actually came. So Allah says, remain steadfast. We've heard you. We know what you want. We're going to give you what you want. We've already given it to you, but remain steadfast. When the time is right, it's going to come. Every one of us, we call out to Allah. We ask Allah, let's seek His forgiveness as we learned from the beginning. Then we ask Allah what we want. We want to be protected from people who are oppressors. We want to be protected from wrongdoers. You know, فَفْتَحْ بَيْنِ وَبَيْنَهُمْ فَتْحَنْ Oh Allah, you know, open something between them and us now. We need a victory between between us. We need to declare a certain whose victory it is between us. So it's amazing how when we call out, we become impatient. Allah has heard it. It might take a year, two years, five years. It will happen. Be patient by the will of Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So this is Nuh, Alaihi Salatu Wa Salam, one of the wordings that is mentioned in the Quran. In another wording, Allah says, how He caused all of them to be drowned. We saved Him and those who were with Him in the laden ark. An ark that Allah had instructed Him to take certain things, certain animals on board with Him and the people, the believers, they were all in. And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, we saved them. The rest of them were drowned. So this was the response, this was the response that was given to Nuh, Alaihi Salatu Wa Salam. In Surat Al Qamar, it's amazing how different wording is used because obviously Nuh, Alaihi Salam must have called out to Allah so many times with different wordings, but asking for the same thing. So He called out to His Rabb saying that I am overcome. So help me. I'm overcome. I'm overwhelmed. How many of us feel overwhelmed? We feel overcome by the hardship, the difficulty, so much more that is happening here Nuh, Alaihi Salam. He only says, oh Allah, help me. You know, it's like someone yelling help and the people will come. They don't have to say exactly what help they want. The moment you see this person, you will understand and realize what type of help they want. Either there is a fire, the fire is burning and the person is calling out help. You don't need to say, what's going on? You can see that there is a fire, it's burning. So immediately the person will be rushing to the assistance. Someone's drowning. You know, you don't go and say, what's going on? No one does that. The minute you hear help, it's powerful. It is powerful. People will rush. Do you think your Lord will not rush? Allahu Akbar. So my brothers and sisters here in Surat Al Qamar, Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'ala says Nuh, Alaihi Salam says, Anni Magloobun Fantaasir, or Inni Magloobun Fantaasir depending obviously on the wording. He says, I am overcome, overwhelmed. Please help, help me. So Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'ala says, Fafatahna Abwabas Samayi Bimaimun Hamir, what a powerful wording. Allah says, so we open the doors of the skies with flowing water, gushing water, complete. It was so much that nobody would survive it. Subhanallah. Another place of the Quran, Allah explains how the water came from underneath. The water table rose above the ground level and it came from the top as well. So they were, they were engulfed in all this water and they drowned. Now look at the wording of Allah for Allah time is nothing time is a creature. That's it. Amazing. Allah says Nuh, Alaihi Salam cried for our help. You know the word used by Allah, Fafatahna. So we opened the doors of the water from the heavens. It seems like there was no gap between the two, but there was such a long gap. Subhanallah, such a long gap. There was a gap where he had to build the ark. People laughed at him and there's a long history. But remember, when you call out to Allah, your endurance will have seemed very short the day the victory comes. All of us at some point in our lives, we've been through hardship, difficulty. Don't you agree when an easy day comes? We forget the hardship. Ask the women who've given birth how difficult it was during their days of or during the time of labor. When they were delivering that particular child, but they will have, they will tell you, do you know what? It's gone. I forget that. I remember people telling me, do you know what? It's, it's we went through such difficult days and we would never like to go through these difficult days again. And Allah test them with something even more difficult. And what happens? They then go through those days and they say, do you know what? Still we now that we are in ease. It's okay. We forget about what happened in the past. People who are wealthy today, they've got a good job. They forget the fact that they suffered for four years, five years hunting for a job and they were almost going to give up hope. Don't give up hope. I keep on giving this example of a job in most of my episodes because so many people actually message and email saying, Sheikh, you know, what do I can we read for a job and so on? And they think that it's, you know, you're just going to read this door and everything's going to happen. There is a timeframe. Are you willing to wait? Are you willing to wait in the same way that the previous prophets have actually waited? If you're going to wait patiently and keep on repeating the dua, then that is the plan. Now one might ask, why does Allah do that? Why does Allah make us call out to him? And then he gives us a response, but he takes his time. Simple reasons. Number one, to test you if you are truthful in your belief or not, if you are truthful in your belief, it will bring you closer in conviction and faith to Allah. So Allah says, you said you're a believer. Okay, we're going to test you. You've had a few things. We're going to take away a few things. Will you still remain a believer? You say, yes. So Allah says, right, we've taken away so many things. You're calling out to Allah. We're still not going to give it to you. Do you remain a believer? Are you firm? Are you going to continue in your worship? Does it bring you closer to us or does it take you further away? If it takes you further away from Allah, you have lost my brothers and sisters. Take a look at those who are sick and ill. May Allah grant them cure as they're making dua to Allah. Sometimes they become despondent. They become, they lose hope. They lose their faith and that is a very, very bad sign. Allah says, don't lose faith. Don't lose hope. It's part of our test. Many people when they get better, they go back to their bad ways. They forget Allah. So many people when they suffer, they come close to Allah with the minute Allah solves their problem, they actually become distant from Allah. For that reason, Allah keeps them in the difficulty and hardship because he loves the way they're calling out to him and crying in this condition. When they were not in this condition, they were actually far from Allah and he knows if we take them away from this condition, they might go back into their disobedience of Allah. So for this reason, Allah delays. He tests you. Do the people think it's enough for them or it's going to be okay, sufficient for them to say we're believers? Then they're not tested. The only time you're going to be tested is when you say you're a believer. You've now entered the examination. So you are going to be tested by Allah one after the other. You lose loved ones. You suffer health matters. You suffer financial matters. You suffer social problems. You suffer mental stress and whatever else you have. You suffer so many things because that's Allah saying, wow, you wanted to be tested. We're going to test you. A person wants to pass an examination but doesn't want to sit the exam foolish. A person wants a PhD but doesn't want to make an effort with the thesis, etc. Foolish. You want to achieve a qualification. You're going to need to prove yourself. You want to achieve closeness to Allah. You're going to have to prove yourself. Allah says, I'll test you. You're really close to me. I'm going to test you. You really love me. I'm going to test you. Subhanallah, prove that love and this is why the response is sometimes delayed for you to be given an opportunity to prove your love, dedication, faith, conviction in Allah. And this is where we should never ever lose. May Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala make us from those who always call out to him with lots and lots of hope. So Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala has made mention of a few other of the supplications of Nuh, alaihi salatu wa salam. And some of them are very, very strong, very, very strong where right at the end of Surat Nuh, Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala says Nuh, alaihi salam at, you know, in that desperate need he was being harmed by these people for years, for generations. And he says, Rabbila tathar al al-arzi min al-kaafirin adayaran, oh my Rabb, I don't want you to keep even one of them on earth, don't even leave a single one of them. They're giving birth to those who are worse than they are. Wow, imagine what type of hardship he must have gone through in order to say that for someone to be patient for 950 years and then give up, Allahu Akbar. May Allah grant us even a droplet of that patience. So I always say, when we are harming someone, if they're friends of Allah, they may not pray against us. They may not pray against us. They may say, oh Allah, guide this person, you know, soften their heart, bring them towards you, et cetera. But there comes a point where they may raise their hands and the hadith says, ittaqida watal mazloom. Fa innahu laisa baynaha wa baynallahi hijab. Be fearful of the supplication made against you by the person you have wronged, Muslim or non-Muslim. You have wronged someone. Be careful if they have to call Allah in order to deal with you, you are doomed. That's what the hadith says. Be careful when you harm someone, be very careful of the supplication they may make against you because there is no barrier between it and Allah. When someone has wronged you, the angels are saying, Ameen, Ameen, Ameen, to any dua you make, make a good dua. Allah is listening to any dua you make and He's going to give it to you. When you make a dua, make dua for guidance. But my brothers and sisters, that's on the other side. What about those who have oppressed? This hadith is saying, be careful of that dua. Look at Nuh, alaihi salam. He was patient. He was calm. The day he asked Allah, Allah says, we'll destroy all of them and everything gone, completely wiped out. Why? Because we know they've wronged you. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala make it easy for us. That's why when we are suffering in our own lives, yes, many people think to themselves, perhaps, you know, it's just a test or is it a punishment? I usually would like to let people think that it's a test from Allah, but there are a few questions you need to ask yourself. Have you wronged anyone? Have you harmed a friend of Allah? Have you harmed the ulama? Have you mocked and joked about those who are obedient? Have you actually done something wrong, especially to a fellow human being? Because Allah can forgive you when you seek forgiveness from Allah, but a fellow human being may not forgive you when you wrong them and you will taste the bitterness of what you've done in your life, multiplied, multiplied. So people are seeing my life is a mess. I've got no contentment, no happiness. I've got nothing. Everything is turning upside down. Well, I need to ask you a few questions. Have you wronged someone? Think deep, think carefully. Did you swear a beggar on the street? Did you, did you curse a non-Muslim outside there in an insulting way, hurt his feelings? Like I said, the non-Muslims too. And Allah says, it taqidawat al-madloom, the condition is they need to call out to Allah with that dua, if it's against you and it's to Allah, there is nothing that says it's not going to be accepted. It may be. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us an understanding. Don't wrong, don't oppress people. Don't hurt and harm people. Watch out because that is very dangerous. This is why the development of character and conduct in Islam is given such a high place that you will earn jannah just by the development of your character and conduct, because if you have bad character and conduct, you will suffer the consequences of it when people start cursing you at a certain point. Insha'Allah in the next episode, we will be seeing more of the supplications of these wonderful messengers of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and what they asked Allah and how he responded and we will look at the wording insha'Allah. May Allah bless you all. I'll say this. Wassalamu alaikum.