Learning from Shaykh Mokhtar Maghraoui

Bismillah.

Alhamdulillah wa shukrulillah. Praise be to Allah for answering our needs for a continued reminder. Praise be to Allah for giving us the joy of listening to His da'ie, a gem we've just discovered - Shaykh Mokhtar Maghraoui. MashaAllah! His words of counsel are a much-needed balm for our bruised heart. Certainly we have hubb for such a person lillahitaala.

You may listen to Shaykh Mokhtar's lectures at AL-MADINA INSTITUTE. We have been listening to his talk on "The power of dua" over and over again and here is the partial transcript for you. May we become encouraged, may Allah give us the tawfik to follow his lessons and also the lessons of the other shuyukh which are made available at almadinainstitute.org

Shaykh Mokhtar said:
"We were once at home in Jannah. And then we disobey Allah swt in Jannah and we have to leave home and to come to this earth which is not where we were born. We were home and we had to leave home, the company of the Divine swt. The company of the Source of life, of the Source of love, the Source of peace, the Source of goodness, the Source of happiness and the Source of freedom. And in this dunya, in this world, we are given another chance to go back home and to go back home ultimately and forever, and never leave again home. And in the course of going back home, in this dunya, we are tried with prosperity and adversity.

We are meant to go back home. And in the course of facing adversity and prosperities, we cannot make it home without the help of Allah swt. Nobody makes it home without the help of Allah swt. Nobody reaches the Divine in his or her heart in this dunya and fully in akhirah at home without Allah swt.

And thus the importance of du'a, and thus the importance of supplication, of prayer of invoking Allah swt, of pleading to Allah swt, of realizing our destitution, our need for Allah. "O mankind, you are the ones in need, in dire need for Allah and Allah is the only independent one." The du'a would become then the most important and instrumental ways of reaching Allah. And thus Rasulullah s.a.w calls it THE ibadah. Ad dua u huwal ibadah. Du'a, supplication, prayer is the ibadah, to the extent even from Allah's grace, bounty and kindness, and rahmah, gentleness, and compassion, He azzawajalla even is displeased with those of us who do not supplicate Him swt.

The person who does not ask Allah, who does not plead to Allah, who does not supplicate and solicit from Allah swt, such a person will incur the anger of Allah. Whereas human beings and creatures, the more we ask them the more they become prone to be angry at us. Allah the more we ask Him, the more He loves us. The less we ask Him, the angrier He is at us, subhanallah. "Say to the human beings if you were to own the treasures of my Lord you would withhold." And indeed the human being was created miser if you will.

Rasullullah s.a.w said in a hadith sahih:
Ad dua'u silahul mukmin...
Subhanallah, in his beautiful statement, it is said that du'a, prayer, supplication is the weapon of the believer. That's your weapon in all conditions, in prosperity and in adversity, especially in times of hardship and difficulties, personal and otherwise. This most beautiful, spiritual, peaceful weapon, the weapon of the believer is his or her prayerfulness, a state inside, a feeling of connection to Allah and wanting to connect to Allah with invoking and imploring Him through du'a. And it is the pillar of the deen, to the extent that Allah describes those who do not implore Allah in prayer, that they are mutakabbirun. In this ayah also describes du'a as ibadah and those who do not implore Allah that's a sign of arrogance.  The scholars said in this ayah, those of us who do not take moments sincerely in turning to Allah expressing our true, innate, natural, natural need for Allah, and do not raise our hands, both hands, soliciting from Allah s.w.t that's a sign of arrogance inside of us. It's a sign of kibr inside of us wa na'uzubillah....

Forgive me for any errors and omissions.
Listen to the full audio here:
http://www.almadinainstitute.org/audio/the-power-of-dua/

Shaykh Mokhtar will be holding a seminar on the 'The Inner Dimensions of Fasting' on 9 July 2011 @ Islamic Society of Central Jersey, New Jersey, USA. We pray so that our sisters and brothers living in and around the area would be able to attend the majlis, InshaAllah.



Register here:

http://www.almadinainstitute.org/seminars/the-internal-dimensions-of-fasting/