Dua


In Islam, is a prayer of invocation, supplication or request, asking help or assistance from God. Duʿāʾ is an integral aspect of Islamic worship and spirituality, serving as a direct line of communication between a believer and Allah. Unlike salat, a formal daily prayer performed five times a day with prescribed motions, postures, and recitations, du'ā' is a more "free prayer", characterized by spontaneity and informality. For this reason, du'ā' most closely corresponds to the English term prayer, a term that originates from the Latin precare, meaning 'to beg' and 'to entreat'. Thus, duʿāʾ is more flexible and can be performed at any time and in any place. Through duʿāʾ, Muslims affirm their dependence on Allah and their trust in His wisdom and mercy.
A special position of prayers are prayers of Sufi-Masters, the mustajaab ad-du'a, prayers answered immediately. Requirements for these prayers are that the Sufi is never asking God for worldly but only for spiritual requests. In times of sickness, danger, or drought, they were answered, while their prayers could also punish those who oppose them.

Role in Islam

In Islamic thought, du'ā' is considered both an act of worship and the most spontaneous and ordinary appeal to God. It fulfils three theological purposes: praise, petition, and intercession. Praise is primarily directed at God, his divine qualities and deeds, but can also celebrate the divinely inspired qualities of human beings like the Prophet Muhammad and members of the early community. Petition is to ask for God's aid and intervention. Annemarie Schimmel observes that prayer is an intimate conversation between man and God that consoles the sorrowful heart, even in the absence of an immediate response. Intercessory prayer reflects a more communal dimension of prayer, grounded in the belief that prayers on behalf of another person are meaningful and beneficial. It is common for Muslims to follow any mention of Prophet Muhammad with "May God bless him and give him peace." In this way, Muslims are expected to offer prayers even for the Prophet.
Classical Muslim exegetes and Sufi thinkers debated how Qur'ānic verses promising divine response to supplication could be reconciled with prayers remaining unanswered. Commentaries by Al-Tabari, Fakhr al-Din al Rāzī, and al-Qurtubi on the following verses sought to explore this paradox:
"I answer the call of the suppliant when he calls upon Me ."
"Call upon Me and I will answer you."
Atif Khalil notes that Islamic traditions provided different ways to reconcile this paradox. By drawing on the hadith "Du'ā' is worship", some exegetes extended the meaning of du'ā' to include repentance or worship. In this reading, God's 'response' is his acceptance rather than a fulfilment of the prayer. Later authors such as 'Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī, al-Qurtubī, and al-Ghazālī argued that effective du'ā' requires good moral conduct, repentance, and the pursuit of a lawful life. Thus, sin and injustice can serve as obstructions to receiving a divine response. Sufi commentators like Rāzī and Rūmi maintained that even the act of calling upon God is itself the greatest reward, demonstrating faithful dependence upon God. As du'ā' facilitates intimacy with God, prayer serves as its own response. Most authors noted that sincere petitions may be answered in varied ways: the request may be granted, deferred to the afterlife, rewarded with something better, or used to avert any misfortune.
There is a special emphasis on du'a in Muslim spirituality and early Muslims took great care to record the supplications of Muhammad and his family and transmit them to subsequent generations. These traditions precipitated new genres of literature in which prophetic supplications were gathered together in single volumes that were memorized and taught. Collections such as al-Nawawi's Kitab al-Adhkar and Shams al-Din al-Jazari's al-Hisn al-Hasin exemplify this literary trend and gained significant currency among Muslim devotees keen to learn how Muhammad supplicated to God.
Over time, devotional literature on du'ā' has expanded beyond prophetic supplications. This devotional literature documents formulaic du'ā' of certain pious individuals. Popular du'as would include Muhammad al-Jazuli's Dala'il al-Khayrat, which at its peak spread throughout the Muslim world, and Abul Hasan ash-Shadhili's Hizb al-Bahr which also had widespread appeal. Du'a literature reaches its most lyrical form in the Munajat, or 'whispered intimate prayers' such as those of Ibn Ata Allah. Among the Shia schools, the Al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya records du'as attributed to Ali and his grandson, Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin.
File:Young Muslim supplicating in Masjid al-Haram, 6 April 2015.jpg|thumb|A young Muslim supplicating after salah at the Great Mosque of Mecca, Saudi Arabia

Types and categories

Dua is essentially an expression of submission of faith to God and of one's neediness. Dua denotes a petitionary prayer that seeks divine favour or aid. Unlike salat, it is considered by Muslim thinkers to be a verbal phenomenon although at times physical postures may be used. The content of dua is usually centred on human need and distress, although it can, and ideally should, also include expressions of gratitude and praise.
Type I: Du'ā al-mas'alah, or the 'du'a of asking.' This type of du'a is when one asks for the fulfillment of a need, or that some harm be removed from him/her. An example would be when a person asks, "O God! Grant me good in this world, and good in the next life!"
Type II: Du'ā al-'ibadah, or the 'du'a of worship.' This type of du'a includes every single act of worship. Examples would include when a Muslim prays or gives zakāt or fasts.

Salat

The salat is the obligatory prayer recited five times a day. The timing of the five prayers is based upon a hadith that recounts the angel Gabriel's visit to the Prophet. Gabriel visited the Prophet five times: at noon, in the mid-afternoon, at sundown, in the evening, and at sunrise. It is described in the Quran: "And establish regular prayers at the two ends of the day and at the approaches of the night: For those things, that are good remove those that are evil: Be that the word of remembrance to those who remember :" Salat is generally read in the Arabic language; however, Imam Abu Hanifah, for whom the Hanafi school is named after, proclaimed that prayer could be said in any language unconditionally. His two students who created the school: Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani, however, did not agree and believed that prayers could only be done in languages other than Arabic if the supplicant can not speak Arabic. Some traditions hold that Abu Hanifa later agreed with them and changed his decision; however, there has never been any evidence of this. Hanbali theologian Ibn Taymiyah issued a fatwa proclaiming the same. Until the 1950s, Ismailis from India and Pakistan performed the prayer in the language of the local Jama'at Khana.

Common duas

  1. A person who recites from ' in Surah Al Imran till the end of the surah on any night or part of the night will receive the reward of performing salat for the whole night.
  2. A person who recites Surah Ya Sin early in the morning will have his needs for the day fulfilled.
  3. Abdullah bin Masood narrates that Muhammad stated that the person who recites the last two ayat of Surah Al-Baqara till the end, then these two ayats will be sufficient for him, that is, God will protect him from all evil and ploys.
  4. When retiring to sleep, make wudu, dust off the bed three times, lie on the right side, place the right hand under the head or cheek, and recite the following dua three times: '
  5. A person who recites three times ' in the morning, followed by the last three ayat of Surah Al-Hashr, then God delegates 70,000 angels to send mercy onto him till the evening. If he dies that day, he will die as a martyr. If he recites these in the evening, then God delegates 70,000 angels to send mercy upon him until the morning, and if he dies that night, he dies as a martyr.
  6. A Muslim servant who recites ' three times every morning, it becomes the responsibility of God to satisfy him on the Day of Qiyamah.
  7. A person who recites in the morning has pleased God for His favours of the morning; and if he recites it at night, he has thanked God for His favours of the night.
  8. If a person recites three ayat of Surah Ar-Rum and then misses his usual recitation of the day, he will still be rewarded for it. This applies to the night as well.
  9. If a person retires to bed on the side and recites Surah Al-Fatiha and Surah Al-Ikhlas, he is immune from everything except death.
  10. Reciting Ayat-ul Kursi will cause the reciter to be protected throughout the night by the angels, and Satan will not come near him.
  11. When a person goes to bed, an angel and a Shaitan surround him. The Shaitan whispers: "your awakening will end in evil", while the angel says, "end in good". Whoever sleeps after engaging in dhikr will be protected by angels throughout the night. To gain the protection of the angels, it is encouraged to engage in dhikr before sleeping
  12. A man once dreamed of Muhammad several times. Each time, he asked Muhammed for advice on how to retain his faith. Muhammad told him to recite the following each day:

    Zayn al-'Abidin's Dua

Ali ibn al-Husayn Zayn al-'Abidin conveyed his understanding of the relationship between human and God by the prayers and supplications that he offered God during his extensive nighttime vigils in the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi in Medina. These prayers and supplications were written down and then disseminated by his sons and the subsequent generations. Among them is the Al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya, which is known as the Psalms of the Household of Muhammad.