1. PIOUS PEOPLE’S DU‘Ā (SUPPLICATION) IN THE QUR’ĀN (1)

1.    PIOUS PEOPLE’S DU‘Ā (SUPPLICATION) IN THE QUR’ĀN (1)

The du‘ā’ of people other than prophets is divided into a personal one starting with رَبِّ (“My Lord!”), and as a group starting with رَبَّناَ (“Our Lord!”). There are three personal du‘ā’ mentioned in the Qur’ān as follows:

a.     the du‘ā’ of Āsiyah bint Muzāḥim, the Pharaoh’s wife, who had  adopted the baby Mūsā (Moses) mentioned in Q. 28:8-9, when she said:

رَبِّ ابْنِ لِي عِندَكَ بَيْتاً فِي الْجَنَّةِ وَنَجِّنِي مِن فِرْعَوْنَ وَعَمَلِهِ

وَنَجِّنِي مِنَ الْقَوْمِ الظَّالِمِينَ (التحريم :11)

“My Lord! Build for me a home with You in Paradise, and

save me from Fir‘awn (Pharaoh) and his work, and save me

 from the people who  are wrong-doers.” (Q. 66:11)

    The Qur’ān commentator al-Ṭabarī said that when Āsiah was told that Mūsā and Hārūn prevailed over the magicians, she said: “I believe in the Lord of Mūsā and Hārūn.” Fir‘awn sent his aids to find out whether she had really become a believer, otherwise she was still his wife. As she insisted on keeping her faith the aides were ordered to find a biggest stone and to throw it to her. When they came to her, she looked up at the sky, and she was able to see her house in Paradise. When they threw a stone at her, her soul had been captured, and they were stoning her lifeless body.

    Classical Qur’ān commentators mention stories about of Āsiah bint Muzāḥim. The commentator Abū’l-‘Āliyah said that Fir’awn came to know that she had become a believer. He went to his council of elders and asked them what they thought about her. When they told him that she was a good woman, he told them that she worshiped a Lord other than him. So, they told him to kill her. Then they tied her hands and legs. She prayed, “My Lord! Build for me a home with You in Paradise…” and when she saw it she laughed.

    “See how crazy she was,” said Fir‘awn, “she laughs while we are torturing her.” Then she passed away.

Another story reported by ‘Uthmān al-Nahdī from Salmān al-Fārisī, is that she was tortured with sunshine, but the angel Jibrīl (Gabriel) shaded her with his wings.

This is one parable of the pious woman, whereas the other parable is the story of Maryam (Mary), who guarded her chastity, and whom Allah breathed into the sleeve of her shirt or her garment through His Rūḥ (Gabriel)… (Q. 66:12).   

b.     the du‘ā’  of the wife of ‘Īmrān’s wife, mother of Mary (Maryam). Her name was Ḥannah bint Fāqūdh ibn Qutayl. Ibn Isḥāq said that she could not have children. One day she saw a bird feeding its chick, and she wished she could have children. When she was pregnant she vowed to devote her child to worship Allah and serving the place of worship Jerusalem as follows:

رَبِّ إِنِّي نَذَرْتُ لَكَ مَا فِي بَطْنِي مُحَرَّراً فَتَقَبَّلْ مِنِّي

إِنَّكَ أَنتَ  السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ (آل عمران : 35).

“My Lord! I have vowed to You what (the child that) is in my womb to be dedicated for Your services (free from all worldly work; to serve Your place of worship), so accept this from me. Verily, You are the All-Hearer, the All-Knower.” (Q. 3:35)

          She had expected to have a baby boy, but after the delivery of the baby Maryam, she prayed:

رَبِّ إِنِّي وَضَعْتُهَا أُنثَى وَاللّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا وَضَعَتْ وَلَيْسَ الذَّكَرُ كَالأُنثَى وَإِنِّي سَمَّيْتُهَا

مَرْيَمَ وِإِنِّي أُعِيذُهَا بِكَ وَذُرِّيَّتَهَا مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ. )آل عمران : 36(.

“O my Lord! I have given birth a female child” – and Allah

knew better what she brought forth – “And the male is not

like the female, and I have named her Maryam (Mary), and

 I seek refuge with You (Allah) for her and for her

 offspring from Satan, the outcast.” (Q. 3: 36).[1]

What she meant is that a female cannot do the male’s job in remaining in the church worshiping, cleaning, and keeps its maintenance while, as a female, that something could happen to her like menstruation, and mix with men.

Allah accepted her supplication, as Abū Hurayrah said that the Messenger of Allah s.a.w. said:

“Every newly born baby is touched by Satan

 when it is born, and the baby starts crying because

 of this touch, except Maryam and her son.”

 (Reported by Bukhari and Muslim).

This means, that the whole human beings including Prophets were touched by Satan when they were born, except Mary and her son Jesus. However, this does not mean that they are safe from Satan’s temptation. For every human being there is always a qarīn who always accompanies him/her.

c.     the prayer of the believer when he attained his full intellectual and spiritual maturity and reaches the age of forty. Allah said:

وَوَصَّيْنَا الْإِنْسَانَ بِوَالِدَيْهِ إِحْسَانًا حَمَلَتْهُ أُمُّهُ كُرْهًا وَوَضَعَتْهُ كُرْهًا

وَحَمْلُهُ وَفِصَالُهُ ثَلَاثُونَ شَهْرًا حَتَّى إِذَا بَلَغَ أَشُدَّهُ وَبَلَغَ أَرْبَعِينَ سَنَةً قَالَ

رَبِّ أَوْزِعْنِي أَنْ أَشْكُرَ نِعْمَتَكَ الَّتِي أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيَّ وَعَلَى وَالِدَيَّ

وَأَنْ أَعْمَلَ صَالِحًا تَرْضَاهُ وَأَصْلِحْ لِي فِي ذُرِّيَّتِي إِنِّي

تُبْتُ إِلَيْكَ وَإِنِّي مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ  )الأحقاف : 15(.  

 And We have enjoined on man to be dutiful and kind

  to his parents. His mother bears him with hardship. And she

 brings him forth with hardship, and the bearing of him, and

 the weaning of him is thirty month, till when he attains full

 strength and reaches forty years, he says: “My Lord! Grant

 me the power and ability that I may be grateful for Your

 Favour which You have bestowed upon me and upon my

  parents, and that I may do righteous good deeds, such

 as please You, and make my offspring good. Truly,

 I have turned to You in repentance, and truly,

 I am one of the Muslims (submitting

 to Your will).”  (Q. 46:15)

This verse states that Allah enjoined upon man to do good towards his parents, especially his mother who gave him birth and bearing him and his utter dependence on her took thirty months. This is also stated in another verse, as follows:

وَوَصَّيْنَا الْإِنْسَانَ بِوَالِدَيْهِ حَمَلَتْهُ أُمُّهُ وَهْنًا عَلَى وَهْنٍ وَفِصَالُهُ

 فِي عَامَيْنِ أَنِ اشْكُرْ لِي وَلِوَالِدَيْكَ إِلَيَّ الْمَصِيرُ (لقمان:14)

And We have enjoined on man (to be dutiful and

 good) to his parents. His mother bore him in weakness

 and hardship upon weakness and hardness, and his

 weaning in in two years – give thanks to Me

 and to your parents. To Me is the

 final destination. (Q. 31:14)

The Qur’ān commentator Ibn Kathīr said that when a man reaches forty years his complete intellect, understanding, and patience reach the level of maturity. At this age Allah orders him to renew his repentance and to turn to Him with strong resolution.

People of this age who followed Allah’s instruction to be dutiful to their parents and said the supplication in the above verse will be among the dwellers of Paradise, as it continues with the following verse:

أُولَئِكَ الَّذِينَ نَتَقَبَّلُ عَنْهُمْ أَحْسَنَ مَا عَمِلُوا وَنَتَجَاوَزُ عَنْ سَيِّئَاتِهِمْ فِي

أَصْحَابِ الْجَنَّةِ وَعْدَ الصِّدْقِ الَّذِي كَانُوا يُوعَدُونَ) الأحقاف : 61 (

Those are the one from whom We shall accept

the best of what they did and overlook their evil deeds.

 (They shall be) among the dwellers of Paradise. That

is the promise of truth that they

 had been promised (Q. 46:16)

As mentioned earlier the age of full intellectual and spiritual maturity according to the verse mentioned above is at the age of forty, not the beginning of maturity as mistakenly understood by Dr. Rashad Khalifah, as the age of responsibility.[2]

               Based on this verse he claimed that anyone dies before this “Crucial Age of 40” will go to Heaven. He said, “If the person believed and benefitted from belief by nourishing and developing the soul (see Appendix 5), he or she goes to the High Heaven. Otherwise, the person goes to the Lower Heaven.”[3]  This view is contrary to that of the majority of Muslims, that the age of maturity and responsibility starts when the boy starts having wet dream and the girl having menstruation, at the approximate age of 15, and could be earlier or later. It was the time when a boy and a girl can become parents. Three conditions are required for the boy’s maturity: (a). wet dream, (b). the grown of hair on the groan, and (c). reaching the age of fifteen. For the girl’s maturity the same conditions are applied to her, but with an extra condition, (d). having menstruation. This age of puberty is the crucial one, where he or she has the full responsibility as a Muslim. Do no wait until you reach forty.

Two expressions in the verse in question have to be taken into consideration, namely, إِذَا بَلَغَ أَشُدَّهُ “when he attains full strength” and وَبَلَغَ أَرْبَعِينَ سَنَةً “and he reaches forty years”. Some scholars, such as Ibn ‘Abbās and Qatādah say that full strength is reached at the age of thirty-three, and Ibn ‘Abbās said further that man’s strength becomes quite even at the age of forty, and weak at the age of sixty.                                                                                                                          (CIVIC, 12 December, 2014)    

المراجع: 

المكتبة الشاملة

تفسير الطبري (ت. 310 هـ )

تفسير القرطبى (ت. 671 هـ)

تفسير ابن كثير (ت. 774 هـ)

Ali, A.Yusuf.  The Meanings of the Holy Qur’ān

Asad, Muhammad. The Message of the Qur’ān

Khalifa, Rashad. Quran the Final Testament. Tucson: Islamic Productions

http://islamqa.info/ar/197392

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[1] Both verses are located in the Qur’an chapter three called Āl ‘Imrān, “The House of ‘Imrān.” Muhammad Asad gives us an illustration of this, and said:

“The House of ‘Imrān comprises Moses and Aaron, whose father was ‘Imrān (the Amram of the Bible), and Aaron’s descendants, the priestly caste among the Israelites – thus including John the Baptist, both of whose parents were of the same descent (cf. the reference, in Luke, i, 5,  to John’s mother  Elizabeth as one ‘of the daughters of Aaron’), as well as Jesus, whose mother Mary – a close relation of John – is spoken of elsewhere in the Qur’an (19:28) as a ‘sister of Aaron’: in both cases embodying  the ancient Semitic custom of linking a person’s or a people’s name with that of an illustrious forbear. The reference of the House of ‘Imrān serves as an introduction to the stories of Zakhariah, John, Mary, and Jesus.”  Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur’an, note 22 on Q. 3:33, p. 71.

[2] Dr. Rashad Khalifah, an agricultural engineer, claimed to be “God’s Messenger of the Covenant”. He was the founder of the idea of denying the validity of the Sunnah of the Prophet. This idea is called Inkār al-Sunnah. He claimed to have been ascended to heaven and met all the prophets sent by Allah. He said: “During my Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, and before sunrise on Tuesday, Zul-Hijjah 3, 1391, December 21, 1971, I, Rashad Khalifa, the soul, the real person, not the body, was taken to some place in the universe where I was introduced to all the prophets as God’s Messenger of the covenant…. What I witnessed, in sharp consciousness, was that I was sitting still, while the prophets, one by one, came towards me, looked at my face, then nodded their heads…. Except for Abraham, none of the prophets was identified to me. I knew that all the prophets were there, including Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Aaron, David, Noah and the rest. I believe that the reason for revealing Abraham’s identity was that I asked about him. I was taken aback by the strong resemblance he had with my own family – myself, my father, my uncles. It was the only time I wondered, ‘Who is this prophet who looks like my relatives?’ The answer came: ‘Abraham.’ No language was spoken. All communication was done mentally.” Rashad Khalifa, Qur’an the Final Testament, Appendix 2, p. 639.

[3] Dr.ashad Khalaifa gives the example of Theodore Robert Bundy who was executed in 1989, when he was 42 years old. The execution was delayed 11 years, although many people celebrated his execution for being “one of the most vicious criminals in history.” Therefore, he did not deserve Heaven. Had he been executed 5 years earlier, when he was 37 years old, he would have gone straight to Heaven, but he did not deserve it, as he was a criminal. This was, Rashad Khalifa claimed, not his personal opinion, but “revelation (?)”  from Allah. He gives another example for people who would enter Heaven, namely, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X who were assassinated “just a couple of months before their 40s birthdays.” Ibid., Appendix 32, p. 703. Then Rashad Khalifa stressed the importance of observing the religious duties as our means of attaining certainty, quoting Q. 15:99  (وَاعْبُدْ رَبَّكَ حَتَّى يَأْتِيَكَ الْيَقِينُ (الحجر:99 which he translates as "Worship your Lord in order to attain certainty" whereas its translation is “Worship Your Lord until (death) which is certain  has come to you”. When a companion passed away the Prophet said that al-yaqīn, meaning “what is certain” had come to him, namely, death.