A Deeper Look at Surah Imran - Part 2

 

Bismillah Ar-Rehman Ar-Raheem

Supplication, Pain, and Allah's Will 

‘At that, Zechariah called upon his Lord, saying, "My Lord, grant me from Yourself a good offspring. Indeed, You are the Hearer of supplication."’ (3:38)

Abu Sa’id al-Khudri reported: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “There is no Muslim who calls upon Allah, without sin or cutting family ties, but that Allah will give him one of three answers: He will quickly fulfill his supplication, He will store it for him in the Hereafter, or He will divert an evil from him similar to it.” They said, “In that case we will ask for more.” The Prophet said, “Allah has even more.” (Musnad Aḥmad 11133)

Your trials won’t last forever. Your pain won’t stay the same forever. He gives without measure, just like He is able to turn day into night, He can make our night of grief and darkness turn into a day of blessings. He is the One who gives rizq/provision. Sometimes one may exert less effort and still get a lot, other times he may exert his all, but gets less. Is is the decree of Allah, to give and constrict as He pleases

Allah does whatever He wants and wills. Nothing stands in His way, nothing can stop what He wills. Everything in this world has a process, to which there are steps. However, if Allah wills, He can bypass all those procedures (an evidence to humanity of Allah’s Might and Power), like how He created Isa without a father. 

It is very easy for us to make du’a and get what we ask for. If Allah wills to give or withhold, no one can do anything. Keeping this in mind, we must pair supplication with action. If we want something, we need to engage in what needs to be done. 

They (the opponents of ‘Īsā) devised a plan, and Allah devised a plan. And Allah is the best of all planners. (3:54)

Sometimes people may try to harm us, backstab us, but we must realize that nothing can harm us unless Allah wills it. We have the example of Maryam AS, who was criticized by the people, unfairly slandered; so our pain is not new. We should have this assurance in our heart that whatever happens, happens by Allah’s will. As long as we are pleasing Allah, we shouldn’t care what others say about us. 

Those (are the ones) who say: “Our Lord, surely we have believed, so forgive us our sins and save us from the punishment of the Fire.” (And those who are) the patient, the truthful and the devout, who spend (in Allah’s way) and who seek forgiveness in pre-dawn hours.”

Allah wishes for us to be of those who adorn ourselves with repentance. When in difficulty, He wants us to be patient. He wants us to be of those who are truthful in their speech and actions, those who wake up and perform tahajjud.

If we wish to better ourselves, we could start with acquiring knowledge of fardh/nafl, permissible, impermissible. Then there’s also tahajjud, which is a shortcut to gaining His closeness; it is the time to get your prayers answered, to seek help in diminishing and ridding yourself of your bad habits. 

It was narrated from Abu Bishr Ja'far bin Abi Wahshiyyah that: He heard Humaid bin 'Abdur-Rahman say: "The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: 'The best prayer after the obligatory (fard) prayers is prayer at night..” (Sunan an-Nasa'i 1614)

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying: Allah descends every night to the lowest heaven when one-third of the first part of the night is over and says: I am the Lord; I am the Lord: who is there to supplicate Me so that I answer him? Who is there to beg of Me so that I grant him? Who is there to beg forgiveness from Me so that I forgive him? He continues like this till the day breaks. (Sahih Muslim 758b)

That was narrated to us by Al-Qasim bin Dinar Al-Kufi (who said): “Ishaq bin Mansur narrated to us, from Isra’il” with this (Another chain) Bilal narrated that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “Hold fast to Qiyam al-Lail, for it is the practice of the righteous before you, and indeed Qiyam al-Lail is a means of nearness to Allah, a means of prevention from sin, an expiation for bad deeds, and a barrier for the body against disease.” (Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3549)