Allah answers dua and calls us to act
“Don't belittle any small power that we have to give.”
Allah answers every du'a immediately and causatively, and He asks us to answer His call just as immediately, through worship, service to others, and seizing the final days of Ramadan.
The khutbah in 7 steps
- Opening praise and Ramadan framing: the 24th day, last ten nights
- Arabic grammar lesson: the letter fa signals causation and immediacy
- Prophets' du'as answered with fa: Ayyub, Yunus, Nuh, Yusuf, Musa, and the believers at Badr
- Why we may not feel the answer: the hadith that du'a is granted, deferred, or averted as protection
- Allah's nearness (wa idha sa'alaka ibadi anni) and His counter-call: will you answer immediately
- Urgency of the moment: five or six days of Ramadan left, mortality illustrated by a young friend's death
- Three practical focuses for the last days: Quran, the five obligatory prayers, and du'a
In the khateeb's words
“when you add the letter fa to the beginning of a verb it changes the understanding of what that verb is”
“don't belittle any small power that we have to give is it your money”
“we have five to six more days of Ramadan left we can't let this slip through our fingers”
For the dinner table
Today the khateeb taught us something beautiful from the Arabic of the Quran: the tiny letter fa means Allah answers du'a immediately, right after it is made. He showed us Ayyub, Yunus, Nuh, Yusuf, and Musa, every time they called on Allah, the very next word was 'so We answered him.' Sometimes we do not feel the answer right away, but that does not mean it did not come; Allah may be protecting us from something we cannot see. Then he turned it around on us: Allah says He is near and answers our call, so will we answer His? With only five or six days of Ramadan left, he asked us to focus on three things, the Quran, praying the five daily prayers on time, and making heartfelt du'a, especially before iftar and in the last part of the night. Like the staff of Musa, whatever small thing we have, our time, our skills, our money, Allah can turn into something powerful when we use it to help others.
- If Allah answers every du'a right away, why do you think He sometimes makes us wait to see the answer?
- Musa had almost nothing but still helped the two women water their sheep, what is one small thing you could do for someone this week?
- What is one du'a you want to make before breaking your fast tomorrow?
More on Ramadan & fasting
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