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Question:
" What It Takes to get just a single response from Allaah "
Jeewan's Response:
All Praise is due to Allah, we begin with His name and turn to Him in all of the tests He puts forward to strengthen us. May He shower peace and blessings upon Muhammad, the seal of the prophets, his family, companions and those who follow his way until the Day of Judgement. May Allah, the most Kind, most Merciful bestow upon you His peace and tranquility and replace your sadness and frustration with tawakul (ultimate reliance on Allah), yakeen (certainty) and sakina (divine tranquility).
Firstly, my dear sister, let me assure you that Allah SWT is All Hearing. He Hears the calls of all His servants. Allah assures us of this and tells us that He hears the dua of the supplicant. Allah also tells us that if we come to Him walking, He will come to us running.
Never ever despair in your dua to Him even if you do not see your duas being answered. Always remember that Allah is as we expect of Him. By this we mean that if we make dua and expect that Allah will answer it, then Allah will answer our dua. But if we make dua and expect that Allah will not answer it or think maybe Allah will or will not answer it, then our duas may not be answered. This is why when we make dua, we do not say "Oh Allah grant me so and so …Insha Allah". We must always be definite in our duas. We do not ask Allah for something and then say "if you will" because Allah will only answer it if He wills anyway. The other thing that we need to keep in mind is the nature of dua is such that our duas may be answered in three ways:
1) It may be answered right away or at a time decreed by Allah
2) Allah may not answer that specific dua but in it's place avert some kind of calamity or disaster from befalling us
3) Allah may reserve that dua for us and give it to us in the Hereafter
So although, a person may not see their duas being answered immediately, know that Allah may have answered it in other ways by protecting us OR reserving the dua for us to be answered in the Hereafter when we will be even more grateful for it being answered.
There is one other thing that is even more important as it pertains to Allah and His Mercy. Many times we expect, pray for, want Allah's mercy yet we are not merciful to Allah's creation. If we keep in mind the hadith of the prophet pbuh who taught us that the best of people is the one from whom people can expect good from them and not fear their harm. And the worst of people are those whom people can expect no good from them and fear their harm (paraphrase). It teaches us something about the adab or manners we should always have with people. There are also ahadith in which the prophet pbuh talked about those who would pray but they would be unkind to animals and backbite and slander others and how they would be punished for it.
In fact Allah SWT reminds us of this in sura Ma'oon (small kindnesses) and talks about those who pray and are seen to be praying but they forget the small kindnesses to the orphans and those who need it.
In contrast, we have the hadith of the prostitute who saved the life of the dog and whose sins were forgiven because of this kindness. Islam in it's very essence is a mercy to all of humanity. My humble suggestion is that you spend time serving others and being merciful to them. This does not mean losing status but remembering that all those around us have rights that we should observe. If we remember the story of Omar ra when he was journeying to Jerusalem with his servant, we see an excellent example of how he would take turns riding on the horse with his servant. To the point that when he was about to enter Jerusalem, it was his servants turn and the servant wanted Omar to stay on his horse as he would be entering the city. Yet, Omar ra insisted that it was the turn of his servant and he walked while the servant rode.
My dearest sister, I believe that you will truly begin to see the mercy of Allah in your life when you start becoming a vehicle of that mercy to those around you. To those whom you have hurt and you fear that the situation will become worst if you were to try and talk to them to reconcile those differences OR if they are gone now and you don't know where they have gone to, then give some sadaqa in their names. Treat those who work for you with kindness, remember their needs and the needs of their family. And as you do this, try to find joy in it. At times, it may be difficult and at times you may feel it is a waste of time, but I believe that Allah SWT has given you this test not only because you can bear it, but because you are meant to become a vehicle of kindness and mercy to all.
It is important to make tawba and ask Allah for forgiveness for anyone who was hurt due to your actions as this can come back to us on the day of Judgement and continually make istighfar (asking Allah for forgiveness). And do so with hope and knowledge of Allah's mercy.
Look at the virtue of Zainab, the wife of the prophet pbuh. When he was asked which wife would meet him first after death, he said, it would be the wife with the biggest hand. It is believed that this would be Zainab because of her ongoing work with the poor and needy.
As you do this, not only will you see Allah's mercy around you but you will become the recipient of the duas of others as well. Never, ever despair of hope in Allah and His mercy. It is all around us, it is the breath that we have that gives us life and opportunity, it is the time that we have that can be of benefit to us in the hereafter. There are always things that we can be thankful for, but sometimes we forget and other times, we take those things for granted. Insha Allah, I pray that this is helpful and would like to encourage you to keep in touch with us and let us know how things are going with you.
And Allah (swt) knows best.
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