#077 Talk To Allah
Reconnecting and re-engaging with Allah
Salam everyone. Happy Ramadhan :)
Today’s newsletter is special. The verse in the Quran [2:185], talks about Ramadhan, and immediately after that, the verse [2:186] talks about making dua’ to Allah.
This month is a special time for us to make dua’
Nonetheless, that doesn’t mean we can’t make dua’ outside of Ramadhan.
Anyway, I hope today’s newsletter gives you hope for whatever you’re going through. May Allah make it easy for you.
And if you liked this newsletter, consider sharing it with anyone close to you.
Allah says:
When my slave asks you about me, then certainly I am near.
Allah did not say, “If my slave asks.” He says, “When my slave asks..” because he expects that absolutely it will happen.
He's optimistic about you.
You may not be optimistic about yourself. Allah is optimistic about you.
He tells His prophet, “When they ask you about me,” our expectation was that, Allah would tell him, “When they ask you, you tell them that I'm close.”
But no, when they ask you, Allah stops talking to His messenger and talks to you and me directly and says, “I am close, for sure.”
p.s: Please take note of the translation, underlined in red:
Allah speaks to Rasulullah: “If My servants ask you about Me, I am near.” The word “tell them”, as in the word “ ‘tell them’ I am near” is missing.
That means, Allah first speaks to Rasulullah: “If My servants ask you about Me,” then Allah talks to us directly; “I am near”
Halfway through that Ayah the conversation is no longer with the Messenger of Allah, the conversation is between you and Allah directly.
You haven't talked to Allah in a long time.
You feel like, when you do you don't talk to someone, you feel like they don't want to talk to you.
Where were you all this time?
You want to go through somebody else. Is he still mad at me? You know you don't want to deal with them directly.
But Allah breaks that wall.
He comes to you directly and says, فَإِنِّى قَرِيبٌ : “I am most certainly near.”
And then you feel like, you've been so far away, why would He answer my prayers?
And he says, أُجِيبُ دَعْوَةَ ٱلدَّاعِ : “I immediately respond to the single dua’ of the one who makes dua’.”
The single prayer, the single request, the single call of the one who made the call.
In other words, in this beautiful Ayah, Allah isn't even talking about the one who makes hours and hours of dua’.
He's talking about someone who turned to Allah just one time.
Even one time.
Allah doesn't say, “Oh okay, all this time you party and now you need something and you come to me for dua’? Get lost.” - No no no no no, “I will immediately respond even to that person, at that one time that they made the dua’”
And what are his qualifications?
You know, we feel like if you're going to be able to address someone important, you should have prerequisites.
That is always the case.
And even spiritually speaking, people might feel, well, if you're gonna make dua’ to Allah, then you better be dressed properly.
You better be in the Masjid, it's the best place to make dua’; the haram, or the Ka’abah or Masjeed An-Nabawi, or you have better have stopped sinning and then you should make dua’ etc; all of those things are true.
But in this ayah (verse) of hope, Allah says the only qualification I need from you is that you're ready to make the dua’, that's it.
You could be in the lowest, in the pits of darkness, just turn back to Allah, nobody else.
You're not doing this to show anybody else how religious you are, or to impress anybody else, or you're not concerned about the judgment of anybody else.
People around you and me, will think much.
They either think much better than who we are, or much worse than who we are.
People around you think you're a really good person, and you know what you are. Or people around you think you're a horrible human being, yet there's no goodness in you, and neither of them know.
Allah knows.
Allah knows and you know. You don't let the Judgment of people fool you. You don't let yourself do that. You don't even know where you stand, Allah truly knows.
So you leave all of those judgments behind.
It doesn't matter what people say about you, good or bad. It doesn't matter what they say about you.
You just turn to Allah and you asked him.
You forgot about the noise, all the other noise.
“And whenever you make that dua’, إِذَا دَعَانِ , I will respond to the one who makes the call.”
I know Allah says He will respond immediately whenever we make the call.
This is in the context of the month of Ramadan especially in the month of Ramadan, because Allah has extended his rope.
Call on Allah.
Ask Allah for things. Speak with Allah. Speak with Allah when you're alone. Speak with Allah when you're in the car.
You don't have to speak to Allah in Arabic. It's okay.
You can speak to him in Punjabi, it's fine. You can speak to him in Bangladesh. You can speak to him in English. It's completely fine.
You can speak to him in fushah, you can speak to him in ammiyah; it’s cool.
Allah taught all languages.
If you don't know the language of the scripture, it's fine. But the thing Allah wants from you is to connect to him directly, first and foremost.
To speak with him. To call on him.
How many people actually call on Allah? Talk to Allah. Beg before Allah. Cry before Allah. The more you will talk to him, you know, we feel awkward.
Somebody might see me talking talking to myself in the car.
You know maybe I've got a psychological problem.
This is what’s called Iman Bil Ghaib: You truly believe in the unseen. If you feel awkward, then you feel like he's not really listening.
If you truly believe that he's listening, talk to him
Who cares about what anybody else thinks?
That's just between you and him.
And so He makes a request of you, He gave you an offer.:“I'll answer your prayers when you call, whenever you call, I will answer.”
But on the flip side of it, he made a request from you.
He says, فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا۟ لِى : “Then at the very least, they should at least try to respond to me.”
You're talking to Allah and Allah says, “I'll respond to you.” But now Allah says you should respond to Me too, or at least try to respond to Me too. He didn't say “Respond,” because that would mean you have to be perfect.
He said try to respond, istijabah, at least show me the desire to respond.
But if you want to respond to someone, you have to hear them first. It's impossible to respond to somebody unless you listen to them.
If there was no request made, there's no response.
If there's no questions asked, there's no response. So the fact that Allah is asking for a response means, he's asking you to listen to him first.
But how do you listen to Allah?
Oh wait, that's what the word of Allah is. When you're reciting the word of Allah, when you're listening to the word of Allah, when you're thinking about the word of Allah, you're listening to things that require a response.
That's Allah talking to you.
So He says, it's time. You're speaking to me, let me speak to you too.
You want me to respond?
Why don't you try and respond to me too?
This is telling us, that the Quran, at its core, is actually a conversation between the slave and the master.
Dua’ is when we speak to Allah; Quran is when Allah speaks to us.
So beautiful.
That's how a conversation becomes complete, isn't it?
It can't just be one way, it has to be both ways. We have to listen to Allah, and then Allah will listen to us also.
وَلْيُؤْمِنُوا۟ بِى : and continue to believe in Me,
لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْشُدُونَ : so they may be set straight.
We are now learning the essential ingredients for how to fix our life.
How to how do I fix my life, how do you fix your life, it's actually to truly be in conversation with Allah: I will speak with Him and He will speak with me.
I will speak with him with my dua’, with my request, with my supplication, with my confessions to him, with my admissions to him about where I stand, what I need, what my mistakes are, how sorry I am, what I hope to accomplish, what could better myself, how I'm hopeful when I when I meet him, that I don't disappoint him, that he forgives me for the mistakes that I made; all of those are my conversations to Him.
And then when He speaks to me, when He speaks to me, by the way He's not just telling you what to do when He speaks to you.
When he speaks to you, He's giving you hope.
He's making you grateful. He's making you conscious and aware. He's making you aware of the people around you and how you treat them. He's opening your eyes to reality.
This; this conversation will set you straight.
There are some people you know ,when you have a problem, you just need to talk to somebody.
These ayats are telling you these 30 days (of Ramadhan) are days to talk to Allah.
This is the conversation we have to have with Allah.
Some of you are working at night time, you can't make it to tarawih prayer. Some of you are, you know you're gonna have a hard time coming into the masjeed, you can't listen to lectures with gurus or whatever. Some of you have exams or you know you're taking extra courses in the summer, you have a busy Ramadan.
It's not going to be an easy time for some of you, it's going to be very very busy.
Those of you that can make the time for extra ibadah are wonderful.
Those of you who can't; understand this fundamental and your Ramadan will be beautiful
It's not just about fasting, it's about reconnecting and re-engaging Allah in conversation, in this prescribed in this guided way.
May Allah make all of us those who directly speak with Allah and Allah speaks to our hearts through his book.