As human beings, our life in this world is characterized by fluctuating conditions making us happy and sad. No one experiences perpetual bliss or misery. Life by its very nature is a test.

Pleasant and favourable conditions demand us to be grateful and humble and adverse conditions require us to be patient and to seek Allah’s help.

As Believers we ought to believe that every condition is a manifestation of the Will of Allah. What has passed us was not meant to befall us and what has befallen us was not meant to pass us.

وَاعْلَمْ أَنَّ النَّصْرَ مَعَ الصَّبْرِ، وَأَنْ الْفَرَجَ مَعَ الْكَرْبِ، وَأَنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا”

Assistance comes with patience, relief after affliction and ease after difficulty (Tirmidhi).

Our faith and belief is tested when we undergo difficulties and afflictions. These difficulties may be physical, emotional, financial or psychological. These adverse conditions may at times be upon an individual, a family, a community or upon a large section of the Ummah as is the current case of Palestine, Syria, Afghanistan and Myanmar, etc. Muslims believe in Islam and making dua before Allah Almighty is what they consider as a weapon in their hands to solve their problems. Prayers or dua are panacea for the present problems facing the Ummah today.

The problem with us is that dua for us has become a ritual and a final resort after all the options and the means have been exhausted. Dua, according to a Hadith, has the unique ability to change destiny,

عَنْ سَلْمَانَ الْفَارِسِيِّ قَالَ: قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ: «لَا يَرُدُّ الْقَضَاءَ إِلَّا الدُّعَاءُ وَلَا يَزِيدُ فِي الْعُمْرِ إِلَّا الْبر

All the Prophets AS, as we find in the Quraan, resorted to supplications as their ultimate ‘weapon’ to solicit Allah’s help when all their efforts would fail while reforming nations in their respective hostile environments.

A very poignant example of this is the incident of the Prophet Nuh AS. Allah Almighty mentions the incident in the following words,

كَذَّبَتْ قَبْلَهُمْ قَوْمُ نُوحٍ فَكَذَّبُوا۟ عَبْدَنَا وَقَالُوا۟ مَجْنُونٌ وَٱزْدُجِرَ

Long before them, the people of Nuh disbelieved. They rejected Our servant, called him a madman and drove him out.

فَدَعَا رَبَّهُۥٓ أَنِّى مَغْلُوبٌ فَٱنتَصِرْ

(After admonishing the people for 950 years, finally he cried out): “Help me, O Rabb, I have been overpowered!” [Al Qamar 54: 9, 10]

We can safely say that the Prophets AS, in discharging their responsibility of calling towards the Creator, qualified for His assistance. And the action that motioned this assistance in favour of the Prophets AS, was that of lifting their hands in dua.

At the time of the battle of Badr, with the future of Islam under threat, when a small ill-equipped band of 313 Muslims faced an army of 1,000 well-armed, the Noble Messenger of Allah ﷺ spent the entire night on the eve of the battle begging and supplicating unto Allah for His assistance and Allah the following day granted the greatest victory in the annals of Islamic history.

In another such incident, when Sultan Salahud-Deen Ayyubi R received news of the Crusader’s ships sailing toward them with reinforcements, he retired to the masjid and spent the night in prayer, beseeching and begging Allah’s assistance. In the Fajr prayer, he told a pious man, “Please make dua, so that the enemy ships left the shores carrying reinforcements.” The person replied, “Don’t fear, O Salahud-Deen. Verily the tears of the night have drowned the enemy ships.” A short while later news was received that the ships had sunk.

Such is the power of dua which has been rightfully referred to by scholars as the ‘weapon’ of a believer.