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MADRASA AL-HIDAYA |
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MUSLIM SCHOOL OF RIGHT GUIDANCE |
Bismillāh ar-Rahmān ar-Rahīm
MANBA‘ AL-IMDĀD: A FOUNTAIN OF HELP
A Compendium of the talks of:
AL-HABĪB AHMAD MASH-HŪR BIN TĀHĀ AL-HADDĀD
Rady Allāhu ‘Anhu
Compiled by his grandson:
As-Sayyid Muhammad bin Mustafā Bū Numay
Rahmatullāhi ‘alayh
DARS 36: THE MEANING OF DU‘A AL-QUNUT
(According to the Shafi‘i madhhab)My master, my grandfather, may Allah spread his benefit, explained the meaning of Du‘a al-Qunut. He said, may Allah be pleased with him:
Half of Du‘a al-Qunut is a supplication and half of it is Praise of Allah. The meaning of al-Qunut is the return to Allah and the supplication to Him. And what we seek first from Allah is the guidance. So we say:
Allahummahdinaa fee man Hadayt(a)
O Allah! Guide us among those whom You have guided.The foundation is the guidance. If your Lord has guided you to the path of goodness and you walk in it, you reach to all those who journeyed on the path that reaches.
Ihdinaa: Guide us! Guide us on the agreeable path, and on the Straight Path, and on the path of Muhammad ibn ‘Abdillah (Sallallahu ‘alayhi wa Sallam), and on the path of the sacred Muslim law. And you seek from Him (Allah) that He leads you and guides you.
Fee man Hadayt(a). What is the meaning of fee man Hadayt(a)? These are words under which are great secrets. It means guide us with the guidance of people who preceded us. You guided them and they walked on the path and they reached You, and You accepted them and You were pleased with them. So include us among them, O Lord, and make our deeds like their deeds.
And who are those whom Allah guided? (They are) the Prophets, and the Truthful and the martyrs and the pious. Guide us with their guidance!
Man has many brothers. You alone by yourself may not be able to reach a place but together with your brethren, you will reach all places. If it was not for your brethren, you would not be able to do things collectively. So with the presence of the brethren, the one who is big carries the small, and the heedless gets the blessing of the heedful, and the ignorant gets the blessing of the learned through the means of the gathering. This is the wisdom.
So when Allah said to the Prophet, may Allah bless him, who is the master of existence, and a great (Prophetic) Messenger to whom was sent the Qur’an, and (he is) the leader of the Prophets; (when Allah said to him) concerning the Prophets (who preceded him):
Those are the ones whom Allah guided, so follow their guidance. (6:90)
O Muhammad!So we say: O Allah! Guide us among those whom You have guided, from among the men of Allah; and the brave from the gnostics (knowers of Allah), from the Friends of Allah, from the pious. Include us (O Allah) in their patronage, and include us in their count, as they are the guides, and they are the exemplars, and they are the role-models. So we seek guidance similar to their guidance. If your inner-most heart is deficient, they will perfect it for you. And if your heart is heedless, they will make it heedful. And if you are ignorant about some matters, they will teach you. And if you are deficient, they will seek forgiveness for you and intercede for you with Allah, the Glorified and the Exalted. So you enter among them. And if guidance comes to you, the objective is attained. And if guidance enters the heart, the aim is fulfilled.
A poet has said:
And if guidance comes to heart
the limbs become eager to worship.If guidance enters the heart, the limbs are driven to worship and to acceptance by Allah, the Glorified and the Exalted, and to good deeds. And guidance is a great blessing if it enters the heart. As for the one who has no guidance, he is on error, may Allah save us from that. Shaytaan (satan) has led him astray and he travels in satan’s group and journeys with them, and he is led astray among those led astray, and the army of Iblis (satan) all together (26:95), may Allah save us from that. This is the problem and this is the damnation. And after guidance, what is it that you seek?
Wa ‘aafinaa fee man ‘Aafayt(a)
And heal us among those whom You have healed.(These are) great words. Heal us of diseases in reality and in essence; the diseases of the heart, the diseases of the body, the diseases of doubt, and all the diseases. You seek from Allah that He heals you of that.
Fee man ‘Aafayt(a); among those whom You have healed, among those who preceded and excelled and manifested perfect good health, (having) soundness of Faith, soundness of knowledge, soundness of sacred Muslim law, soundness of drink (at the fount of knowledge), soundness of the spiritual path, soundness of creed. And all of it is sound health. It is not only a healing from the disease. It is a healing from the diseases of the heart. Bear this in mind and do not say: “And heal us among those whom You have healed from the diseases of the heart” means the pain in the heart because the blood does not rise to it. The diseases of the heart are those about which Allah said:
In their hearts is a disease and Allah has increased their disease. (2:10)
Among the diseases of the heart is hypocrisy, may Allah save us from that. Among the diseases of the heart is jealousy. Among the diseases of the heart is doubt in Allah. Among the diseases of the heart is enmity towards the pious, among the diseases of the heart is lack of respect for al-Mustafa, the Chosen Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace).
And how many are the diseases of the heart? So, all these are among the diseases of the heart, and you seek from Allah that he heals you of them. And heal us among those whom You (O Allah) have healed of manifest diseases and hidden diseases. So if your Lord has guided you and healed you from error and deviation and of diseases, what else do you seek to return to?
We say:
Wa Tawallanaa fee man Tawallayt(a)
And look after us among those whom You have looked after.When You have guided us and healed us, look after us with guardianship, and help us in our affairs, and set right our affairs. Make us such that when we call out to You: ‘O Lord!’ You reply: “What is it that you want, My servant?” And when we supplicate to You, then answer us, and when we ask of You, grant us. These are the ones whom Allah looks after. And Allah befriends the righteous. And he whom Allah befriends, he is the wali (Friend of Allah). So who is a wali? Is he the one with a great social position? No. The wali is the one whom Allah befriends with His Patronage and guides him to the agreeable spiritual path and he is protected by Allah. He fears His Lord. He walks on the agreeable spiritual path. So, when Allah befriends him, He brings him under His command and under His direction. If he asks of Him, He gives him, and if he supplicates, He answers him, and if he calls to Him for help, He helps him. And even if he tells him to remove the mountain, He will make it vanish. To conceal (from others) the Friendship of Allah is easy for a Faithful Muslim servant of Allah.
Someone from us said that we are all awliya Allah (Friends of Allah). Yes, each Faithful Muslim believer is a wali (Friend of Allah).
Allah is the Protecting Friend of those who have Faith – He brings them out from the darkness to the light. (2:257)
But wilaya (protecting friendship) is of many types. There is the small wilaya and the big wilaya. The small wilaya: it is Faith and belief, and we have it, if Allah wills. Allah brings us out from the darkness of disbelief, and polytheism, and show-off, and hypocrisy, and conceit, to the light and worship and Prayer and the Qur’an and its recitation and (His) remembrance. And the greater wilaya: it is the spiritual openings. If you exert in good deeds, Allah illumines your inner-sight, and unveils to you secret things and you see amazing wonders. You see the angels and you hear the inanimate things (example: minerals) glorifying Allah, and He opens for you the mysteries of the Qur’an, and the high heavenly Kingdom is unveiled to you, and many things appear; you see from afar, and what is hard becomes soft for you, and matters become easy for you.
As has been narrated in a Hadith (Qudsi) (Sacred Saying) narrated from the Prophet, may Allah bless him (in which Allah says):
So when I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, and his seeing with which he sees, and his hand with which he holds, and his foot with which he walks. And if he asks of Me, I surely give it to him, and if he seeks refuge with Me, I surely give him refuge. (al-Bukhari)
Even about death, He (Allah) says: “I do not wish to trouble my obedient servant. He dislikes death while I have already decreed it for him”. Look at your Lord! How he loves his Faithful Muslim servant. He says: “I am not reluctant about anything that I do as much as I am reluctant to withdraw the soul of My Faithful Muslim servant.”
Man says: “I do not wish for death. Let me go back, O Lord! I have a family that I have to take care of. Let me go back, I have things that I have to set right. Let me go back so that I can complete my work, and I wish for a sincere repentance”. At that time, Allah, the Glorified and the Exalted, if He has tested that your intention is sincere, is reluctant about what He does, but He has already decreed for you death.
Then when their term comes (to completion), they cannot remain behind a single hour nor can they go ahead of it. (16:61)
But He deals with you with approval. He opens for you (the doors of) His acceptance, and He opens for you something from the bliss of Paradise, and manifests for you from His lights, so you love to meet Allah at that time. You do not leave the world except that you are happy. That is why we see light on the face of the Muslim believer when he dies. When a blissful person dies, his face is shining. I have witnessed this among people.
I will tell you about one of my companions whom I knew. He was a worshipper and his house was far. To pray the dawn Prayer, he would go in his car to one of the congregational masjid. He always performed the dawn Prayer. And his hands worked towards goodness. So when he passed ahead, we called the community, and when I opened (the shroud from) his face, I saw that his face was shining. Why? The angels were giving him glad tidings. His good deeds were shown to him. This is the way Allah, the Glorified and the Exalted, befriends. He does not leave the world until he has been given good news.
Their Lord gives them glad tidings of Mercy from Himself, and acceptance, and Gardens (in Paradise) in which there is everlasting bliss for them. (9:21)
Wa baarik lanaa fee maa A‘tayt(a)
And bless us in whatever You bestow.You have given us guidance, and You have given us healing, and You have given us protection, so put blessing in it until it increases and until it flows to our children. If the blessing reaches Allah’s servant, it spreads to seven generations.
(Allah says):
Indeed if I bless My servant, My blessing descends to his seven generations.In this way, Allah protects the Faithful Muslim believer for seven generations.
If there is blessing in the good deeds and blessing in the guidance, a little appears to be a lot. The blessing is based on the intention in all the things, both in religious as well as worldly matters. You should not aim for abundance of deeds, seek blessing in the deeds. Do not aim for a lot of possessions, seek blessing in the possessions.
We have been narrated this incident. They said that there was someone who was constrained by circumstance and had many children, and he was from the good-doers. One night, crying to His Lord, he said: ‘I am in a distressing situation and with meager means.’ And he cried out: ‘O Lord! Give me provision from Yourself’. So he heard a voice saying: “Do you want hundred dinars (gold coins) without blessing or ten dinars in which there is blessing?” So he said: ‘I want ten dinars in which there is blessing’. So in the morning, he went house to house to earn ten dinars but he did not get anything. So, he stood up the second night and said: ‘O Lord! You promised a hundred dinars, I did not get them. To-day, I sought ten dinars, I did not get them. O my Lord! Your generosity and Your goodness!’ So a voice said to him: “Do you want ten dinars in which there is no blessing or do you want one dinar in which there is blessing?” He said: ‘I want a dinar in which there is blessing’. So in the morning, he worked what he could and when he obtained one dinar, he said: ‘There is blessing in this but how will it suffice?’
So he went to the market and he bought a big fish with half a dinar, and with the other half, he bought vegetables and flour meal. And he carried these to his home. So he said to his family: ‘Come! Look at the blessing of this dinar! If Allah wills, Allah will open for us many doors’. His wife kneaded enough flour for the children, there were enough vegetables, and everything was made properly. And he brought a knife to open up the fish. When the tip of the knife hit something like a stone in the stomach of the fish, and he split it open, there was a jewel like an egg whose value was a hundred thousand dinars.
So he said: ‘My Lord! This is permitted. There is no limit to my right to this. (It is) from the sea of my Lord and from the fish of my Lord. No limitation can ever enter into this. It is purely permitted. There is no intrusion of haggling or cheating or wrong doing’. So he dried the gem and it glittered. And there was blessing in it. It does not matter from which door blessing comes to you.
Seek from Allah blessing in good deeds. Seek from Allah blessing in intention. Seek from Allah blessing in children. Seek from Allah blessing in everything. That is why he said in Du‘a Qunut:
Wa baarik lanaa fee maa A‘tayt(a)
And bless us in whatever You bestow.Because if there is lack of blessing, there comes something bad, may Allah protect us.
Then he said:
Wa qinaa sharra maa Qadayt(a)
And protect us from the evil of what You have decreed.There is a decree behind you. You walk in it. And there may be good in the decree or there may be bad in it. Seek from Allah good in the decree. And there is no doubt in the decree. So you seek from Him and you say to Him: ‘And give us good in what You have decreed’. You remain forever in His Providential Care, and in His consideration and with good destiny. And each of these supplications is greater than the other.
Then after supplicating to Allah, the Glorified and the Exalted, you praise Him and you say:
Fa Innaka taqdee wa laa yuqdaa ‘Alayk(a)
Wa Innahu laa yadhillu man Waalayt(a)For surely, You decree and none can decree about You,
and indeed, he is not humiliated whom You have befriended.Whoever my Lord befriends, no one has the power to subdue him.
Al-Habib ‘Ali bin Hasan said:
Him whom You befriend, his honour cannot be destroyed
And him whom You abandon, his work cannot be wrapped up.The one whom He has befriended cannot be humiliated, and if the enemies intend to humiliate him, they will not be able to humiliate him as he has already been honoured.
Wa laa ya‘izzu man ‘Aadayt(a)
Nor is he honoured who is opposed by You.The one to whom He is opposed cannot be honoured. He must be from the humiliated, may Allah save us from that.
(Tabaarakta Rabbanaa wa Ta‘aalayt(a)
You are full of blessings our Lord, and Most Exalted).Fa Laka’l Hamdu ‘alaa maa Qadayt(a)
And all Praise is to You for what You decree.Then you turn to yourself and you see the shortcoming in yourself and you say:
Nastaghfiruka wa natubu Ilayk(a)
We beg forgiveness from You and turn to You in repentance.This is the great Du‘a Qunut in which are great supplications.
It has been said that indeed, al-Habib ‘Umar bin ‘Abd ar-Rahman al-‘Attas took the whole night after the Prayer of ‘Isha till dawn to recite Du‘a Qunut and many doors (of heaven) were opened for him. And we supplicate with it, and if Allah wills, doors of heaven will open for us. How many of us have presence of heart and how many of us have softness of heart? In this way, those who are not so beautiful become beautiful. O the troop with camels! Group your camels among yourselves!
DU‘A AL-QUNUT (Transliteration)
Allahummahdinaa fee man Hadayt(a)
wa ‘aafinaa fee man ‘Aafayt(a)
wa tawallanaa fee man Tawallayt(a)
wa baarik lanaa fee maa A‘tayt(a)
wa qinaa sharra maa Qadayt(a)
fa Innaka taqdee wa laa yuqdaa ‘Alayk(a)
wa Innahu laa yadhillu man Waalayt(a)
wa laa ya‘izzu man ‘Aadayt(a)
Tabaarakta Rabbanaa wa Ta‘aalayt(a)
fa Laka’l Hamdu ‘alaa maa Qadayt(a)
Nastaghfiruka wa natubu Ilayk(a)
DU‘A AL-QUNUT (Translation)
O Allah! Guide us among those whom You have guided,
and heal us among those whom You have healed,
and protect us among those whom You have protected,
and bless us in whatever You bestow,
and protect us from the evil of what You have decreed,
for surely, You decree and none can decree about You,
and indeed, he is not humiliated whom You have befriended,
nor is he honoured who is opposed by You.
You are full of blessings, our Lord, and Most Exalted,
and all Praise is to You for what You decree.We beg forgiveness from You and turn to You in repentance.