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How Much Du’a Do You Make for Others? | Khutbah by Dr. Omar Suleiman
When everyone said “me, me,” the Prophet ﷺ said “my ummah, my ummah.” He cried for his followers and made du‘a for people he never met — including you. The Prophet ﷺ taught us that when you pray for others, angels reply: “Ameen, and for you the same.” So expand your du‘a. Pray for the ummah, for the oppressed, for those who’ll never know your name. When you pray beyond yourself, Allah expands your heart. Watch till the end to learn how the Prophet ﷺ’s example can transform your du’a.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
We praise Allah and bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for Him. And we bear witness that Muhammad (ﷺ) is His final messenger. We ask Allah to
send His peace and blessings upon him, the prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him and those that follow in his blessed path until the Day of Judgment. And we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen.
Dear brothers and sisters, there is a hadith that so many people have heard. And in fact, two hadiths that I want us to try to connect to each other into a much broader subject.
And so the hadiths that I'll narrate to you, most of you have heard these hadiths, but see if you can pay attention to a connection between them. The first hadith is the hadith of
Abu Darda (رضي الله عنه) that he said that he heard the Prophet (ﷺ) saying da'watul muslimu li akhihi bi dhahril ghaybi mustajabah.
The du'a of a Muslim for his brother in the unseen, when no one sees him, is an answered du'a. Wa 'inda ra'sihi malakun muwakkal. At his head is an angel that's been assigned.
Kullama da'a li akhihi bi khayr, qala al-malakul muwakkalu bihi, ameen. Every time he makes du'a for his brother in good, the appointed angel that is at his head
says ameen and for you as well. Ameen and for you as well. Ameen and for you as well. It's one hadith that many people have heard.
Another hadith is a hadith specifically about our messenger (ﷺ). It's the hadith of Abdullah ibn 'Amr (رضي الله عنه) that he said
qara Rasulullah (ﷺ) qawla Allahi 'azza wa jal: Rabbi innahunna adhlalna kathiran minan-nas faman tabi'ani fa innahu minni wa man 'asani fa innaka ghafoorun raheem
That the Prophet (ﷺ) read the ayah that oh Allah, Rabbi innahunna adhlalna kathiran minan-nas. They have led many people astray. So whoever follows me, then verily he is of me and whoever
disobeys me, then You are the Most Forgiving and the Most Merciful. [Ibrahim 14:36] In tughadhdhibhum fa innahum 'ibaduk, wa in taghfir lahum fa innaka antal-'azeezul-hakeem.
If You punish them, then they are Your slaves. And if You forgive them, then You are the Almighty, the All-Wise. [Al-Ma'idah 5:118]
Fa rafa'a yadayhi wa qal: Allahumma ummati ummati wa baka. He raised his hands to the sky (ﷺ) after reading those two ayahs.
And he said, oh Allah, my ummah, oh Allah, my ummah, oh Allah, my ummah. And he continued to repeat this (ﷺ). Fa qala Allahu 'azza wa jal: Ya Jibril
idhhab ila Muhammad (ﷺ) wa rabbuka a'lam. Fas'alhu ma yubkik. Jibril, go to Muhammad (ﷺ) and ask him what is causing you to cry.
And so Jibril ('alayhi salam) comes to him. Fa atahu Jibril fa sa'alahu fa akhbarahu Rasulullah (ﷺ) bima qal, wa huwa a'lam. And he told Jibril what he said and Jibril already knew what he said.
Fa qala Allahu 'azza wa jal: Ya Jibril idhhab ila Muhammad (ﷺ) wa qul inna sanurdika fee ummatika wa la nasu'uk.
Oh Jibril, go back to Muhammad (ﷺ) and tell him, don't worry, we will please you with your ummah. We will not let you down. We will not disappoint you in regards to your ummah.
One of the small subtleties to pay attention to here is that when a person makes du'a for their brother or when a person makes du'a for their sister,
that Allah involves the unseen angels as you make du'a for your brother or sister who is unseen to then say ameen and for you. And it is the complete opposite of how we usually mention
people when they're not in our presence. How do we usually mention people when they're not in our presence? Bil-ghiba wal-nameema, we backbite and we gossip. Ayuhibbu ahadukum an ya'kula lahma
akhihi maytan. Would one of you like to eat his brother's dead flesh? And the word maytan, the word maytan in particular, dead flesh, the 'ulama said it has two meanings. That you are
killing him when you speak of his reputation and he's dead because he's not present in the gathering that you're speaking about. Most of us when we bring up other people, we eat their flesh,
we kill them and we speak ill of them. And that is where the shayateen, you can imagine if you could see the unseen around you laugh and snicker, right? Look at him speaking about his brother,
keep going, throw this, say this now too. But the other side of that is when you make du'a for other than you, Allah involves the malaika. Wa huwa a'lam, and Allah knows best. And Allah doesn't
need you to make the du'a or the malaika to make the du'a for you because Allah knows best. But Allah has an ecosystem that He has created of khayr, of good versus an ecosystem of evil.
For us, the malak that is muwakkal is one of the ordinary angels and how extraordinary is every ordinary angel. For the Prophet (ﷺ), it is shadeedul quwa, ar-ruhul-ameen, Jibril ('alayhi salam)
that is assigned to him. For us, maybe you can make du'a for one person. The Prophet (ﷺ) is making du'a for an ummah and weeping. And here's what I want you to pay attention to.
Our messenger (ﷺ) always uses his du'a to pray for other than himself. It's actually remarkably consistent in all of the ahadith. If I started to just cite the ahadith
instead of summarize them, it would take me an entire half an hour, hour just to read the hadith of the Prophet (ﷺ) making du'a for the ummah, making du'a for a group of people. But
whether it was when the Prophet (ﷺ) said, da'awtu Allaha bi thalatha, I made du'a for three things. And he made du'a that the ummah would not be destroyed by anything external, by an army on
the outside, wiped out by an army or wiped out by a plague. But, an la yaj'ala ba'sahum baynahum, that their misfortune is not found amongst each other. That's the one du'a that Allah did not
answer. And then on the Day of Judgment, the Prophet (ﷺ) says that he has that one answered
du'a and he has spared it. A nabi of Allah has that one answered du'a. He waits for the Day of Judgment
and he will enter upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala jalla jalaluhu and he will fall in sujood and he said that he would be inspired by mahamidin. He would praise Allah in a way that he can't tell
you right now. And he would make a du'a that he doesn't know right now. Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, who you call upon is the one who inspires you on how to call upon Him. When Adam
('alayhi salam) said, rabbana zalamna anfusana wa illam taghfir lana wa tarhamna lanakunanna
minal-khasireen. Allah gave him the words to make tawbah. So Allah will give the Prophet (ﷺ) the
words to make du'a on that day. And what's he going to make du'a for? He'll make du'a for his ummah. His shafa'ah is for ahlul-kaba'ir min ummati. And then he'll intercede on behalf of the ummah,
including the person who has the major sin. And this is what distinguishes him. You see, on the Day of Judgment, even a mother would forget her child. Even a mother would forget her child.
The anbiya of Allah, when they were here, they made du'a for other than themselves. Rabbighfir li wa li walidayya wa liman dakhala bayti mu'minan wal-mu'mineena wal-mu'minat.
[Nuh 71:28] Made du'a for the believing men and the believing women, whoever enters in to the house of iman. Nuh ('alayhi salam) made du'a for them. Ibrahim ('alayhi salam)
made du'a for the believers on the Day of Judgment as well. Rabbana ighfir li wa li walidayya wa lil-mu'mineena yawma yaqoomul-hisab.
When it actually happens, but when the earth shatters and it's rolled up and everything is in its scrolls, the heavens and the earth and Allah 'azza wa jal unfolds that scene of the Day
of Judgment, every nabi when they go to them to start the Day of Judgment will say, I can't,
except for the Prophet (ﷺ). I am for it. Stay with me for a bit because this khutbah is not about the du'a of the Prophet (ﷺ) for you to marvel at him. It's about the spirit of what the Prophet (ﷺ) is
teaching us. When everyone else says Allahumma nafsi nafsi, the Prophet (ﷺ) was already saying
Allahumma ummati ummati. Do you see the difference in the terminology? Me, me, my ummah, my ummah. In this dunya, it's understandable on the Day of Judgment that everyone is saying nafsi nafsi.
Everyone is saying that. The mother would drop her child and say nafsi nafsi. Me, me. That capacity only belongs to the Prophet (ﷺ) on that day. But here in this world, how many people are saying
nafsi nafsi and how many people are saying ummati ummati. How many people truly sincerely make du'a for others than other than themselves? And is it that you just have to see the person and then
suddenly you'll make du'a for them. Suddenly something will spark your interest. I want you to ask yourself and be very honest with yourself. Now that Gaza has calmed down, whatever calm down
means, just means that the Zionists kill at a slower pace. And the images maybe are not as gruesome as they used to be. You don't see as much blood. Maybe it's not on your social media
feed the way that it used to be. Have your du'as calmed down as well? Did you already forget them? Did you really need for your brothers and sisters in Sudan for those horrific videos out of
al-Fashir to come out over the last few weeks for you to remember that they've been going through this for years? Did it now just start? Because I have to see something so gruesome that it pulls
me away and maybe I'll just throw at my screen. Ya Latif, one small du'a. How many of us did the
Prophet (ﷺ) see? How many of us did the Prophet (ﷺ) know individually but he cried for you? And that's why, inna sanurdika fee ummatika wa la nasu'uk.
Allah will give you until you're pleased. As the 'ulema mention, everyone is happy with their salvation. The Prophet (ﷺ) is not happy with his own salvation. It's got to be more. And then
someone might say but is it just du'a? Is it just du'a? Du'a calibrates the rest of your life. Du'a tells you about your priorities. Du'a allows you to lean into your empathy because if in your most
intimate moments with your Rabb, you're remembering other than yourself, then that tells you you're a person who's more calibrated to ummati ummati and less towards nafsi nafsi.
Ud'u li anfusikum. You should make du'a for yourself. Ask Allah for al-'afwa wal-'afiya fid-dunya wal-akhira. To be spared and to have well-being in this life and the next.
But how much of your du'a expands? And Allah gives you in return for that expansion
by the angels making du'a for you. And I come back to Abu Darda (رضي الله عنه). Abu Darda is a beautiful human being and it shows you the way that the sahaba,
they internalize what they heard from the Prophet (ﷺ). Abu Darda (رضي الله عنه) is the one who actually narrated that hadith from the Prophet (ﷺ). And he says,
inni la ad'u li sab'eena min ikhwani fil-layli fi sujudi wa usammeehim. I make du'a for 70 of my brothers every night in my sujood and I say their names.
What a beautiful personality. 70 of my brothers every night when I go to sleep, when I wake up to pray qiyam, I make du'a for my brothers by name. I expand that du'a because of
what he heard from the Prophet (ﷺ). But you know when the sahaba would give you a number, they gave you the minimum. It's like an imam says when the Prophet (ﷺ) mentions
that he makes istighfar in a day, 70 times. Abdullah ibn 'Umar (رضي الله عنه) has said in a single gathering the Prophet (ﷺ) would say it over a hundred times. They take the minimum. So
either 70 as in kathra, as in multiple, more than that or this is the bare minimum. Umm Darda (رضي الله عنها), the wife. How many of us have bad secrets in the house? The wife.
She says that Abu Darda had 360 people that he would make du'a for every single night by name. 360 people. Kana lahu thalathumi'atin wa sittoona sadeeqan
From his brothers for the sake of Allah that he would make du'a for. He wouldn't call them the next day, say hey I made du'a for you last night. To say that you know I did this for you and I did
that for you and I did that for you. He would privately make du'a for 360 people every single
night. So she said that one day I asked him, why is it that you make du'a for all of these people? And he cited the hadith of the Prophet (ﷺ) and he said,
a la uhibbu an yad'u li al-malaika? Shouldn't I want that the angels will make du'a for me? And there was a man who narrated the hadith of Abu Darda (رضي الله عنه) and he said,
when I heard Abu Darda share the hadith and then share his own private practice, there was a man who broke my tooth that I hadn't forgiven. But I forgave him because of Abu Darda (رضي الله
عنه). He clearly internalized this hadith. And Umm Darda says and I would hear him all night long and the one du'a he made for himself, the one du'a that he made for himself, you know what it was?
Allahumma kama hassanta khalqi fa hassin khuluqi. Oh Allah, as You have beautified my outside, beautify my inside, beautify your character.
So she said, I said to him, nothing but that, you couldn't find another du'a except for just the du'a for your character? What did he mention? If your character is good and you treat people
right, then you provoke their du'as for you. The du'a of a mother or a father or the du'a of a
stranger or the du'a of a poor person. You don't have to tell them to make du'a for you. If you show good character to people, Allah yurda 'alayk. Make du'a for you quickly. You're provoking people
to make du'a for you. And you know what he said? He said that the believer goes to sleep at night,
maghfuran lahu wa huwa na'im. Forgiven while he's sleeping. He's being forgiven while he's sleeping. Why? Because while he's sleeping, someone else is remembering him and making du'a for him because of his good character.
Imam Ahmad rahimahullah ta'ala. He used to make du'a for people every night. Ibn an-Najjar rahimahullah narrates he had a list of people he made du'a for. Every night he made du'a for Imam ash-Shafi'i rahimahullah. Every single night.
Expanding his du'a, expanding that circle, because that calibrates a person who is not about themselves always nafsi nafsi. Ummati ummati. My ummah, my ummah. The weak and the oppressed.
And the people of khayr who do good. Expand your du'a for people. And Allah 'azza wa jal will expand the du'a not just of people for you, but even of the malaika as well.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us a people whose hearts are expanded for others so that Allah 'azza wa jal can expand the acceptance for us. May Allah make us people of ummati ummati and not people of nafsi nafsi.
And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give victory to every single oppressed person in this ummah. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive all of our brothers and sisters all over the world. Allahumma ameen. Alhamdulillah. Assalamu 'ala Rasulillah. Allahumma ighfir lil-mu'mineena wal-mu'minat. Allahumma ighfir lil-mu'mineena wal-mu'minat. Allahumma ighfir lil-mu'mineena wal-mu'minat.
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