Assalamualaikum my dear, 

How are you? How have the past two weeks been for you? 

I've been really enjoying my hifdh sessions recently because I'm in the section of the Quran that are filled with the stories. There's Surah Maryam with the powerful story of her giving birth. There's Surah Anbiya with the story of Ibrahim and the fire that was ordered to be cooled down. There's Surah Taha with the story of the two brothers, Musa and Harun (as), heading to Pharoah's palace.

But my favourite passage from all these different stories is this one specific page in Surah Anbiya. It's a page where Allah talks about a few incidents of different Prophets in context to the same thing. 

Guess what that context is?

Dua.

From verses 83 to 90, Allah narrates to us a whole page about stories of the Prophets in the context of dua.

And honestly, it is such a powerful beautiful reminder.

I’ve personally been making a lot of dua about something recently and it feels like Allah decided to show me this passage to strengthen me again. Alhamdulillah.

The three Prophets

In this page, Allah talks to us about 3 Prophets and their duas.

1. Ayyub (as) about the disease he was afflicted with

2. Yunus (as) about the belly of the whale

3. Zakariyyah (as) about having a child

He then talks about His response to those duas.

There is honestly so much to unpack in these verses, and I have promised myself not to write too much! So I will try keep it short to sharing one or two of my absolute favourite lesson from this passage.

The Pattern of Events

For each Prophet, Allah quotes to us the dua they pray to Him. And right after sharing what the Prophet’s asked, the next line is Allah sharing with us His response.

This is the exact pattern Allah uses for three consecutive stories.

I think it is so powerful that Allah decided to explain the same concept of dua to us through three different stories.

He could have chosen to share just one story to us, and we’d be able to extract the same lessons. However, by sharing three repeating stories, it’s almost as though Allah is teaching us that the pattern of events that happens when someone raises their hand in dua is unchanging.

Let’s see what this pattern looks like!

(Apologies that I haven’t shared the meanings of the full text. I found it was taking a lot of space! To read the meaning for the full passage, click here. But I’ll be explaining the important bits below) 

Lesson 1: The Beautiful Answer

As seen in the screenshot above, we can see that each Prophet asks for something and Allah responds with the same two words.

‘Fastajabna lahu’, ‘fastajabna lahu’, ‘fastajabna lahu’.

That means ‘We answered him…', 'We answered him…', We answered him…'

And then He continues the verse showing us how He answered their prayers (highlighted in light pink).

1. Allah removes Ayub (as)'s affliction and also grants him his whole community back.

2. Allah saves Yunus (as) from the whale and also makes his whole community Muslims.

3. Allah grants Zakariyyah (as) a son, Yahya, who ends up being a righteous Prophet himself.

Isn't it so beautiful that there are three different stories of need but every story of need repeats the same response from Allah?

'We answered him.’

It is almost as though Allah is telling you and me that any story of dua, any sort of need you have will only end with one response. It can only have one response, and that is - 'We answer…' 

So sis, anytime you put your hands up to ask of Him, have certainty in His Response. Place your trust in these stories He shares with you and me.

And never forget He is Al Mujeeb (The Answering One), Al Samee’(The All Hearing).

Lesson 2: An Answer With More Than The Ask

The second beautiful reflection I had from this verse was Allah’s answer to the three Prophet’s duas.

We see the Prophets asking about one thing, but Allah granting them more:

1. Ayub (as) asked about just the affliction he was experiencing, but Allah cured that AND gave him back more beloved people into his life than ever before.

2. Yunus (as) asked to leave the whale but Allah saved him from it AND made his whole community Muslim.

3. Zakariyah (as) asked for a son but Allah didn’t just grant him a son . He granted him a son who was a Prophet.

Isn't also so beautiful that Allah grants more than what they asked for?

It’s such a powerful lesson about Allah’s Mercy and Love for His servants. When they raise their hands to Him, not only does He grant their need but gives them more.

So sis, the next time you raise your hands to Him, don’t only be certain about a response, be certain that you will be granted more than you can even need.

Be certain about being granted from Al Karim (The Generous One), Al Wasii’ (The One Vast In Provision)

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For Next Week!

🤍 So sis, if you have been making loads of dua recently and you feel your resolve weakening, I pray these verses helped to strengthen you like they did for me. I pray you feel full of hope and love for Allah the next time you raise your hands to Him!

Also I’d love to hear your reflections on this passage too if you have any! (Maybe I’ll share some of them in the next newsletter so you can all benefit too ☺️)

Until next time,

Thasneema 🌻

PPS. I actually have two more beautiful reflections I have from these verses, but like I mentioned above, I’m trying my best to shorten these newsletters because I want them to be easy for you to read and benefit from. So inshaAllah, I will share the next few in the next newsletter!

I’d love to hear your thoughts about what type of length you prefer. I personally enjoy reading newsletters that aren’t too long so I assumed it would be the same for you too! But do you like longer letters, do you like that I split the reflections between two newsletters or does that feel disjointed? I’d love to hear your thoughts!