You see a du’a is always good because you remember Allah (SWT), but if it is done out of short-sightedness (let’s call it that instead of bad) … then Allah (SWT) may either grant it as a hard test or not grant out of His Mercy and Wisdom. When a zid based du’a is accepted - hardships follow - and sometimes those hardships are undetectable - the detectable hardships are a blessing because we can mend our ways, but undetectable hardships are dangerous because when we are no longer in need and then we will not remember Allah (SWT) but some good people do … but some times we don’t realise we are in need and we start to battle with our fate …
Asking for something haram is just on another level of ignorance - I have heard people doing du’a for having their lottery ticket to win. Having done the lottery was bad enough … but in the case of better choice and worse choice where both are within the halal boundary then we have some room … What the great saints have said in the past is that since Allah (SWT) Created us, He is the Most Wise and Loves us more than we can imagine … It would be foolish to conclude that we can select what is better for us than what He has already destined for us. That is why such saints have an amazing du’a … they say …
“O Allah, Be for me as you were for me before I was” … or … “O Allah, Give me tawfiq to accept my fate” … Some people say we do not need to ask du’a … they are not correct … du’a is better asked for others - “O Allah (SWT) give shif’a to the baker down the street” rather than asking selfishly … It is well documented that a certain du’a is always accepted and that type of du’a is durood … So people say place your own du’a with durood … praising RasoolAllah (SAW) either side of your own du’a … the effect is your du’a will be treated as part of the durood … but on a deeper level … by attaching your du’a to remembrance of RasoolAllah (SAW) it is more likely that you would have made sure that it is halal and good for you. Sometimes we recognise our own weakness and we ask from Him … and to recognise our weakness is to understand His Greatness … which is a form of worship when done with that intention.
1501. `Ubadah bin As-Samit (May Allah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, "Whenever a Muslim supplicates Allah, He accepts his supplication or averts any similar kind of trouble from him until he prays for something sinful or something that may break the ties of kinship.‘’ Upon this someone of the Companions said: "Then we shall supplicate plenty.‘’ The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, "Allah is more plentiful (in responding).‘’
[At-Tirmidhi]
First we have to understand that there are two types of problem a person can face.
It is due to his test, as Allah SWT mentioned in Quran that “And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient”
The other is brought to a person by him/her self. "“What! when a misfortune befell you, and you had certainly afflicted (them) with twice as much, you began to say: Whence is this? Say: It is from yourselves. Surely Allah has power over all things.” Sûrah Al `Imrân: 165]
“But those who have earned evil will have a reward of like evil: ignominy shall overtake them.” Sûrah Yûnus: 27] "
So in both cases the Dua is a tool to ask for Mercy of Allah’s in regard to his forgivness.
It’s hard for me to imagine that Allah would fulfill a zidd if it’s not in our best interest. I can understand Allah wants to teach us lessons, but I find it hard to understand that Allah would teach us the lesson that a certain dua should not have been made…by fulfilling it for us and then following it with hardships.
You know how the with a genie it’s said that “be careful what u wish for”…? Well, I don’t think that such an admonition applies to Allah. A genie simply fulfills wishes…he doesn’t discriminate or exercise wisdom when granting a wish.
It’s for this reason that I’m very skeptical about common sayings such as “Be careful what you wish for because qabooliyat ki ghari ho sakti hai.” If Allah were to automatically fulfill any and every dua that was made during a “qabooliat ki ghari”…then it removes the “wisdom” quotient from the granting.
I am also skeptical about bud-duas. I believe that even in fulfilling bud-duas…Allah is fair…that He will not fulfill a bud-dua unless the intended recipient of the bad-dua is truly guilty of hurting/oppressing the person who made the bad-dua.
but isn’t it the way that Allah already knows that we are going to do the zidd and he is going to fulfill it and then we’d be in trouble?
Really, I can never bring myself to understand predestination v/s free-will stuff.
If Allah already knows whatever is going to happen and nothing can change that knowledge, then everything that is going to happen will never change no matter what we do. So, some of us are destined for heaven and some would end up in hell and we cannot change it, even dua.
If a parent sees their kid doing some zidd for something, they may appease their child and fulfill the zidd without much thought as to whether that zidd will yield harmful consequences at a later point. Despite our parents being wiser than us they don’t have the wisdom that Allah does.
Our parents would never or rarely would they fulfill a zidd to punish us…or teach a lesson…would they? Allah’s more merciful to us than our parents. Even if Allah knows before hand that they we will do a zidd for something…He wouldn’t give it to us if He knows it’ll destroy us right? He wouldn’t grant our zidd only to prove that our zidd was wrong… Would He?
It’s said that when we pray for a fellow Muslim in their absence, the angels make the same dua for us. If that “same dua” is not beneficial for us…would the angels not make that dua for us then? I never thought of this until now; it just occurred to me.
I don’t have a problem with your premise or understanding of how ‘zidd’ will Allah would or would not work. I believe and agree with you that if there is a God, HE would be more merciful and kind than our parents.
My problem is with the understanding of predestination.
If Allah only wants good for us, then how come many many would end up in hell?
(Supposing you are wrong about the zidd part and others are right), if Allah has the power to grand our ‘zidd’, isn’t it changing the things He predestined for us?
I dunno. Maybe it’s like this: Allah doesn’t interfere with our free will though He knows our inclinations and what path we’ll choose. As Psyah said earlier, maybe even the wicked are presented with countless opportunities to do good..but use their free will to do the opposite. I’ve heard that only a small percentage of things are predestined and the majority aren’t. I could be wrong but if we were predestined to be doomed to hell, why would Allah tell us to strive to be good Muslims? Why would He send down messengers to guide ALL members of various communities if only some of them were pre-chosen to go to heaven? Why would He send down books for the guidance of ALL and not exclusively for the believers? A long time ago in a lecture somebody explained this but I don 't remember it now, however the gist of it was that if it we had no say at all as to where we end up, we wouldn’t be told to strive to be good.
If you believe that Allah (SWT) has already given us what is in our best interest then you should also conclude that any du’a to change our fate would come with a price. Getting hardships does not mean that we are getting punished … It merely means the exam is harder … This stems from the idea that Allah (SWT) is Most Wise and Loving and our desires for ourselves are shortsighted …
I’ve been trying to say all this time that we need to stop viewing hardships from Allah (SWT) as evil or as though it stems from wrong … No … Hardship can come with or without du’a … And with or without the right du’a too …so can ease … It’s how we react to those situations of ease or hardship that crystallises what was best for us …
^Psyah Bhai… Dua maangnay walay ko nahi pata if what he is fervently asking for is in his best interest or not. “Comes with a price” sounds like “making the asker pay.” Why would Allah make us pay for making dua about something that we first of all had no idea if it’s even good for us let alone that the knowledge that it goes against the fate decreed for us? Is that in accordance with the quality of mercy?
I remember praying for something sooo regularly. I made dua in sajood…I made dua acter recitation of Quran…I don 't think I ever asked for anything with so much energy and attachment and persistence. I didn’t get what I wanted. I am grateful for that now because it wasn’t until much much later that I saw more clearly how harmful the thing was for me. At various points along this journey of dua making…I saw red flags which I dismissed.
A couple years ago someone on GS posted that her friend had prayed and prayed to get married to a particular guy. Allah granted her wish and she had a miserable marriage… After which she said that perhaps this was the result of her zidd… That she should have been careful about what she wished for. But I saw it as qismat. She was meant to get married to that guy regardless of whether her dua was more like a zidd or or much less than that. Otherwise… There are plenty of examples of folks around the world who were not granted their zidd.
The Mercy is already there, with our selfish du’as we want to change that … the purpose of du’a is not fulfilment of it … but to be drawing closer to Allah (SWT). Sometimes du’as are not accepted because Allah (SWT) wants the slave to continue asking - placing him at the doorstep of Mercy.
It is my belief that Allah (SWT) has already given us what is in our best interest, but we don’t realise it, so we do know what is in our best interest - it is our taqdeer. Our weakness causes us to ask for something different, the Mercy in this is that our displeasure with our kismet causing us to ask from Allah (SWT) in du’a is equal to a reward … so this is how the Mercy should be understood.
Again the way the marriage is being viewed and the guy is being viewed and the predicament is being viewed is in the sense that “they are evil” … however, the way to view all of these things is that after getting in the marriage or predicament has it made the person remember Allah (SWT) more or less? If more then that has been a good thing despite them feel stressed over it and if less then it is a bad thing despite them being happy over it.
1)word DUAA is from roots DAAL, AIN and WOW or YAA. This root has many meanings but its meanings revolve around the concept of reliance or support.
2)Basically people have needs and wants and those needs and wants cannot be fulfilled without help or use of other things (living or non-living) including God or people.
3)Whenever we are in need of help we call out for help in some way to something of which we need help and support. For example, when we want to build a house we get help of all the materials needed for building a house as well as people who have the skills to build the house. Likewise we need help with living our daily life from our creator. Each and everything has its own way of helping us to be able to accomplish what we need get done. Likewise Allah too helps us the way he can as per his set up systems and laws which he put in place with his purpose in his mind for which he created everything and that is what he has explained in revelations. Just as we have reason to do or not to do something so Allah has his own reasons for doing things that he does as he explains in the quran for example. In the quran we have been told all that was needed for us to know but to get the message of the quran we need to come out of our ignorance by becoming literate, educated, trained and skilled in thinking and doing things. Without all this we cannot understand the message of the quran.
4)The quran is final revelation from Allah wherein Allah has told mankind whatever he wanted to say to them for ever so the quran contains all we need to know. When Allah says tell my people I am near and can hear their call, it simply means that Allah is with us in form of his message which can tell us all we need to know by studying it. The question is what is it that we need to know from the quran? As we know that universe is already there with all that it contains for fulfilment of all of our needs and wants. We have been bestowed with brains, senses, bodies and revelation. Using all these we can live a blissful, dignified and secure life. It is because revelation teaches us how to use provisions of Allah properly so that his purpose of creation becomes fulfilled.
5)We do not have any need or want within scheme of things that can remain unfulfilled unless we fail to use things properly due to our ignorance of our purpose of creation. The universe is planned and set-up to work in a certain way by Allah for his purpose so we cannot live in this world successfully without knowing that purpose and without being one with that purpose. Anything we will do which goes against the stated purpose of Allah will not work in our favour. It is because we are not just one person but billions of people and we are all in conflict with each other in many different ways all the time and we wish that Allah was on side of each of us as we want him to be. Can Allah be everything for each of us in every way despite conflicts? No. However we all can unite on what Allah wants for us and that way we can ensure that we stop living as different people with loads of conflicts with each other. Think about your parents having several children who are all in conflict with each other. Can your parents be on side of all of you? No but if your parents are sensible and you are sensible then your [parents can unite you on certain goals with some guidelines can they not? Likewise Allah has created loads of people but they all can live together as one if they followed his guidance by knowing it properly and adopting it faithfully. So prayer is nothing more than calling on our creator for help with living our daily lives problem free. The response of Allah is in the quran because it guides mankind how to live in this world successfully. People should study my work on the quran and see how it helps people understand the concept in the quran. Unless people get quranic concepts right all people do becomes wasted due to random and confused approach to things. So long as people will do what mullahs have been telling them they will remain confused and useless for themselves and others.
6)The quran tells people to rely on message of Allah for guidance and that guidance is primarily or fundamentally about living properly in this world to have blissful, dignified and secure existence. It is because if people do not survive first and foremost then all the rest cannot be accomplished by people at all. This is why living properly in this world is of such importance. The concept of God we have been instilled in our minds by way of indoctrination by our mullahs is not the concept of God told in the quran. God is not a toddler playing with his toys, for he is AL-HAKEEM ie the wise ruler of this universe. So thinking I will say this and God will do that is not the case. The plan of God is in motion and is heading for its fulfilment exactly as he planned it. We cannot change mind of God because that means change in his plan and whose plan should he follow mine, yours or someone else’s? If God awaited a plan from us the human beings he will still be waiting to create the universe because we will be fighting among ourselves what will the perfect universe will be as per our approvals. This is why whenever we have something on our minds we are supposed to look for guidance about it in the quran. This is what prayer and answering of prayer is in the quranic context. A man of God does not will but whatever the will or plan of Allah is as he himself has told about it. For more please see HERE and HERE. It is a must read for all regardless muslims or nonmuslims. Islam is a deen not a mazhab this is why it needs people to bring about a proper human community which then brings about kingdom of God here in this world because without having control over land and resources humanity cannot survive. Deen of islam is therefore primarily about proper management of people and resources, production and distribution for ensuring well being of mankind. This is why all other ways of life are condemned because they are based upon personal gains at the expense of each other which lead mankind to harm and destruction due to divisions based on rivalries which in turn lead to animosities and hatred and therefore terrible wars. This is why ways of life adopted by rulers, money lenders and mullahs are not the way of God. The sooner people realise this fact the better it is for humanity.
A relevant question related to fate: Is it correct that “maoot ka aik din moeen hai?” Is date of death fixed? Does suicide/murder mean cutting your own or someone else’s life short or not?
Whatever is gonna happen will happen no matter what. Praying gives you strength to overcome hard times. Some people want good luck, some people want strength to face hard luck. Praying does the latter.
For example, I know of a friend who kept making dua to get married to the guy she loves. Things were not workinh out as the guy’s parents were completely against. After months of making dua, all of a sudden things changed and the parents agreed. Now they are getting married.
So does this mean that this happened becaue of her zidd based dua? Or is it because this was already pre destined?
When the marriage happens and it is an event past tense then we know it was qadr … the method and means of getting there is not important. Except that we should recognise that if the journey to that point has been rough then we made it rough on ourselves - either the parents or the girl … and if the journey was smooth almost effortless then we know that journey was closer to how we were expected to react to each situation in that process of actuality … Qadr is like shooting an arrow then slowing down time then you run up to the arrow and you can see it suspended in air you can see it’s direction …
Again we use du’a to change our fate … but the real purpose of du’a is the state of asking from Allah (SWT) it removes us of pride to be humbled before Him …
Word QADR is from root QAAF, DAAL and RAA. This root has many meanings but the main idea revolves around measures put in place to achieve a certain end. Allah has created this universe for a set purpose so to achieve that end he has put in place systems, structures, mechanisms and laws so that all processes run smoothly by way of certain procedures and practices. It is like building a factory and putting in place measures to ensure its smooth operation so that production of the end product is ensured. This involves proper planning and faithful execution otherwise the intended target will be missed. The main point however is to have sense of purpose so that planning could be understood through provided clues in forms of set out goals and provided guidelines.
This is why if the workers in the factory are fully aware as to what they are there for and what is expected of them and why by the owner of the factory then they will have better idea what to do and how to do it so that they are able to meet the requirement as workers in the factory.
The idea that Allah created people to test them and all the rest of rubbish that mullahs have told us is not found in the quran when the quran is read in its proper context for its proper understanding.
Allah did not create people for enslaving them for his worship and by worship I mean pooja paat. The quran uses terms in a very different way than we are told by our ignorant mullahs. It is high time people educated themselves and found out what the actual message of the quran is. Allah created people so that people come to know their creator through their own efforts with a bit of help from Allah through guidance. Just as Allah needed no son for succession or help so he needed no slaves because he is able to do all he wants to do all by himself.
He created things and sent his message so that mankind could find out how wise and creative he is by being wise and creative themselves. Till man becomes self aware by actualising his own potentialities put in him by Allah he cannot truly become aware of glory of his creator. Dogmatic indoctrination kills curiosity in people and renders them useless and that is why capitalism is so successful against religious dogmas. It is because religion lead people away from real world realities whereas human beings are material beings having material needs and wants for surviving. The only way of life that can win people over from secularism is deen of islam because it has yet greater potential to deliver humanity from problems which are by products of secularism based power struggle between people.
This is why all rulers, money lenders and mullahs should be educated to accept deen of islam if mankind want a blissful, dignified and secure existence so that mankind could then rise to fulfil other higher goals besides worrying about food and clothes etc.
Childish ways of looking at creation and revelation must be abandoned so that we could see what the actual message of the quran is. It is because religions ruined humanity that secularism gave it another lease of life. However secularism has its limits and they are beginning to show up but where should humanity go from here if not to deen of islam? It is because the quran is the only book in the world that puts before humanity the program with goals and guidelines worth chasing.
It is also very important to note that the quran puts before us conditional outcomes ie if you will do this then that will happen. For example, if you will put your hand in fire then you will burn but if you will not do this then that will not happen. Fire will only burn things if all conditions set for this purpose are met not otherwise. A person will die if he jumps into the fire but if he does not then he will not die. Bloody revolution will take place if people will not stop doing things they do to each other which bring about a bloody revolution but if they will stop then bloody revolution will not take place. Nations will be destroyed if they will do things that bring destruction upon nations but if they will stop then destruction will not happen. These are all set measures which are called QADAR or taqdeer.
The concept of predestination was instilled in minds of masses by mullahs as a dogma so that people instead of blaming rulers, money lenders and mullahs for fractures in human community could blame God for all their ills. Even highly educated muslims became victims of this nonsense due to lack of thinking because had they adopted logic and consistency they will have rejected this nonsense but instead they promoted it, why?