Ramadan – The month of supplication

وَقَالَ رَبُّكُمُ ادْعُونِی أَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْ إِنَّ الَّذِینَ یسْتَكْبِرُونَ عَنْ عِبَادَتِی سَیدْخُلُونَ جَهَنَّمَ دَاخِرِینَ

“Your Lord has said, ‘Call Me, and I will hear you!’ Indeed those who are disdainful of My worship will enter hell in utter humiliation”.[1]

One of the duties and programs performed by the people who fast in the month of Ramadan is supplication, whispered prayers and seeking the fulfilment of desires from Allah, the Bestower of Desires (Qadhi al Hajat).

          Reciting supplication and seeking good from Allah is recommended (Mustahab) at all times; it empowers the soul and is among the causes of happiness of heart, peace of mind and revival of the faculties of thought and spirit.

          Dua (supplication) removes sorrows and sadness, serves as a strengthening food for the soul, ends depressions, causes optimism and hope for the future, and protects from the nightmares of despair.

          Dua, means to invoke Allah, seek His support and request Him for the fulfilment of desires; human beings naturally benefit from the great blessing and vast divine mercy.

          Mankind – how much ever he becomes powerful and strong – turns towards Allah (who is greater than everyone, needless of everyone and solves everyone’s problems) at times of afflictions and difficulties, and seeks refuge in Him, and requests Him for the removal of hardships and afflictions in which he has been entangled. His nature guides him towards Allah and he doesn’t find any resolver other than Allah:

قُلْ أَرَأَیتَكُمْ إِنْ أَتَاكُمْ عَذَابُ اللَّهِ أَوْ أَتَتْكُمُ السَّاعَةُ أَغَیرَ اللَّهِ تَدْعُونَ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِینَ۔ بَلْ إِیاهُ تَدْعُونَ

          “Say, ‘Tell me, should Allah’s punishment overtake you, or should the Hour overtake you, will you supplicate anyone other than Allah, should you be truthful’?”[2]

          “No, Him you will supplicate”

اگر افتی بدام ابتلایی                      بہ جز او از کہ می جویی رھایی[3]

“If you fell in the trap of affliction, from whom will you seek rescue except Him?”

          In the ups and downs of life, and the happenings of time, and in front of the difficult and unbearable circumstances, a man reached such instances where he cannot rely upon anything for himself except supplication, and only supplication can compensate the spiritual weakness and powerlessness.

          One of the things towards which every sick and suffering person is inclined is supplication.

          Every sick, afflicted and depressed man likes to have a friend with whom he can share all his sorrows and make him aware of his depressions and describe his sufferings for him, and tell him all that has happened to him one by one; in short, he seeks a problem solver.

          The science of psychology identifies this feeling as one of the methods of diminishing the sorrows and decreasing the disturbances, worries and spiritual sorrows.

          If a person conceals his sorrows inside his heart and doesn’t reveal it before anyone or doesn’t find anyone with whom he can share his heart’s sorrow as it is, it will increase the fire of disturbance and the thoughts of depression much further. Thus he will find this vast and extensive world narrow and dark for himself.

          One of the benefits of supplication for a believer is that he can share his secrets, sorrows, sufferings and pains with his Merciful and all-Hearing Lord, and he can describe his entanglements without any concealment; and he seeks solution from Him and knows that Allah is nearer to him than anyone else; He listens to his moaning and invocations and responds to it.

          A faithful servant realizes after the supplication that his inner pains have lightened, and the weight of his sorrows and spiritual pressures have diminished.

          Indeed if supplication wouldn’t have been there, and if Allah’s servants wouldn’t have chosen the path of supplication, and if they were helpless in not being able to share the secrets and sufferings of his heart, how unbearable and bitter his life would have become, and his spiritual entanglements would trouble them.

          We must be grateful to Allah in exchange of the existence of a blessing in the form of supplication, and we should honor and respect this blessing.

          It has arrived in the supplication of Abu Hamza Thumali:

"الحمد للہ الذی ادعوہ فیجیبنی و ان کنت بطیئا حین یدعونی"

“All praise is for Allah whom I call upon with my needs then He answers me even though I was slow when He calls upon me”.

And in that same supplication, we recite:

"الحمدُ للہ الذی اسئله فیعطینی و ان کنت بخیلا حین یستقرضنی"

“All praise is for Allah whom I supplicate and He grants me (what I plead for) even though I was stingy when He sought a loan from me.”

And on another instance from this beautiful supplication, we recite:

"الحمد للہ الذی انادیه کلما شئت لحاجتی و اخلو به حیث شئت لسری بغیر شفیع فیقضی لی حاجتی"

“All praise is for Allah whom I call upon with my need whatever I wish and I entrust Him with my secrets without an intercessor and He grants me my wishes”

"الحمد للہ الذی ادعوہ و لا ادعو غیرہ و لو دعوت غیرہ لم یستجب لی دعایی"

“All Praise is for Allah whom I do not plead to anyone but Him for if I pleaded to others, they would not grant me”.

          Supplication raises ones aspirations, strengthens his will and decisions, and makes human beings prepared and insured against the great happenings and sorrows.

          His holiness, the Master of martyrs, Imam Husain (peace be upon Him) – in the beginning of the day of Ashura – wherein it was enough that he was to be welcomed by all those afflictions and tragedies, and those extreme sufferings, in order to defeat the great stouts of the world and rub their faces on the surface of humility and surrender – faced towards the court of Allah and invoked Him with these meaningful sentences and asked His approval and power, and in that battlefield of difficulties and hardships, he did not deviate from the right path at all, and did not move his eye from his motive and goal even for a moment.

"اللھم انت ثقتی فی کل کرب و انت رجایی فی کل شدۃ و انت لی فی کل امر نزل بی ثقۃ وعدۃ کم من ھم یضعف فیہ الفؤاد و تقل فیہ الحیلۃ و یخذل فیہ الصدیق و یشمت فیہ العدو و انزلتہ بک و شکوتہ الیک رغبۃ منی الیک عمن سواک ففرجتہ عنی و کشفتہ و کفیتنیہ فانت ولی کل نعمۃ و صاحب کل حسنۃ و منتھی کل رغبۃ"

          "O Lord! I depend on you in every affliction and am hopeful of Your blessing in every hardship. In every difficulty with which I am faced, You are my only remedy and resort.

There have been many embarrassments which weakened my heart and no remedy for it was available. The friends did not assist me and the enemies rejoiced at my misfortune. However, when I ceased to seek assistance from everyone except You and sought the remedy only from You, You provided me solace and relief and removed the difficulty. Every blessing and goodness reaches us from You and everything should be sought from You only".

Study the soulful sentences of this supplication carefully to comprehend the weapon with which Imam Husain (peace be upon Him) was armed; a weapon against which if all the world, with its troops and army joins hands with the army of Kufa, it cannot defeat the truth and virtuousness of Imam Husain (peace be upon Him), and it cannot shake his courage, steadfastness and bravery, and it cannot make his focus deviate from his actual motive and goal towards any other place or point.

Indeed, Allah is the supporter and the ultimate motive of Imam Husain (peace be upon Him), with whose help he could come respectfully and gloriously out of that battlefield filled with calamities, without getting humiliated, disgraced and surrendered by the infidels; and it assisted him to support the religion of Allah by gifting his life and the lives of his sons and companions.

Supplication is the medium of purifying ones inner soul and depicted the intelligence of the supplicator regarding his need and necessity towards Allah, and it causes the inculcation of virtues like humility, modesty, humbleness, and helps in refraining from arrogance and pride.