And invoke Him in fear and aspiration (of hope). Indeed, the mercy of Allah is near to those who do good.
Another important condition of supplication is that one must not become hasty and impatient and stop supplicating because he did not receive a response sooner or at all. The Prophet (sallallahu alaiyhi wa sallam) said, You are responded to as long as you do not become hasty and say, I supplicated and it is not being or was not responded to.
And the final condition of ones dua being responded to is that one must make sure he is living off of halal and permissible means.
Allah says, Put your hope in Me. Man was not created sinful, but he was created weak. He is prone to fall into the temptations of sin and the whispers of Satan and when he does, he should always remember to turn to Allah, call upon Him, and ask for forgiveness with hope in His mercy. Allah stated in a Hadithi Qudsi, I am with My servant as He expects of Me. The meaning of this is that Allah treats His servants the way he expects Him to. If one has hope in Allah and trusts Him, Allah will act accordingly to that servants beliefs and faith. And if he does not have faith and is in despair of his Lords mercy, Allah will act accordingly. Not having hope in Allah and despairing of His mercy is a great sin and an act of kufr. Allah quotes Prophet Yaqoob (alaiyhis-salam) in the Quran:
“Indeed, no one despairs of relief from Allah except the disbelieving people.”
(Surah Yusuf 12:87)
One must be hopeful of Allahs mercy and forgiveness and fearful of His punishment. It is this fear that should lead one to seek Allahs forgiveness with hope. Allah says:
“Know that Allah is severe in punishment and that Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.”
(Surat al-Maaidah 5:98)
In the above verse, Allah gives us reason to fear because His punishment is justly severe, as well as good reason to have hope, since He is the Most Forgiving and Merciful. There should be a balance between fear and hope and not too much or too less of one or the other. If there is too much fear, then a person may negate Allahs quality of mercy and ascribe to Him unkindness (Allah forbid!).
There was a sect called Khawaarij, who worshipped Allah only in fear and held the belief that anyone who commits major sins was a disbeliever and would be thrown into the Hellfire forever. This is a gross extremism and straying from the correct path.
Yet, another sect, which emerged within the first century of Islam, had no fear and believed that sins did not affect ones faith and that as long as one believed and testified in Islam, he would enter Paradise regardless of his actions. Both of these extremes lead to a dangerous consequence.
To understand the balance of fear and hope of Allah, let us look at the very first chapter of the Quran, Surat al-Fatiha. The first verse says, All praise be to Allah, Lord of all the worlds. In this verse, love for Allah is expressed. We acknowledge that Allah is our Lord and the Lord of all the worlds. He is the Creator of all things; He sustains and nourishes everything; He gives life and death; anything good that we have is from Him; and everything is dependant on him and nothing can happen unless Allah wills it to happen.
In the second verse we express our hope in Him by stating, ar-Rahma-nir-Raheem. The meaning of which is: The Beneficent, The Merciful. When we mention these two names of Allah, then we have hope, since He is the One, who is full of mercy and we hope He will forgive our mistakes and shortcomings. We should never lose hope because there is no reason to.
And in the third ayah of Surat al-Fatiha, fear of Allah is expressed when we recite, Master (King) of the Day of Judgement. When we recite this verse, we remind ourselves of the Day that we will be standing in front of our Lord and be questioned for our deeds, a Most Awful Day. It will be a day in which not even the smallest action will be hidden. This reminder of the Day of Judgement should bring fear to our hearts.
Fear and hope, both should be equally proportioned in our hearts, in our worship, and in our dua to Allah. Allah says:
“Call out to Him with fear and hope.”
(Surat al-Araaf 7:56)
“They forsake their beds to call their Lord in fear and hope.”
(Surat as-Sajdah 32:16)
The Prophet (sallallahu alaiyhi wa sallam) said, The like of these two qualities do not unite in the heart of a servant except that Allah gives him what he hopes for and protects him from what he feared.
In the Hadithi Qudsi that is being discussed in this post, Allah says, O son of Adam, if your sins were to reach the clouds of the sky and you would then seek My forgiveness, I would forgive you. Here, we will discuss the importance of repentance and seeking forgiveness and its virtues.
First of all, we should never lose hope or stop asking for Allahs forgiveness. Its importance is shown to us in the following hadith of the Prophet (sallallahu alaiyhi wa sallam):
“O people! Turn to Allah in repentance and seek His forgiveness, for surely I make repentance a hundred times every day.”
Repentance is such a great act of worship that doing it can totally erase ones sins altogether, as the Noble Prophet (sallallahu alaiyhi wa sallam) said, One who repents from sins is like one without sin.
When a person sins and then sincerely turns to Allah for forgiveness, one will find Allah ready to accept his repentance and to forgive him, as this verse indicates:
“And whoever does a wrong or wrongs himself, but then seeks forgiveness from Allah, he will find Allah forgiving and merciful.”
(Surat an-Nisaa 4:110)
Everyone commits sin and does wrong, but Allah is always willing to forgive and He always gives them a chance to repent and seek His forgiveness. A believer should never forget the fact that Allah is so forgiving. If Allah had willed, He could have held everyone accountable for his or her sins, but He has decreed that He shall allow His servants to seek His forgiveness and that He shall in fact forgive who and what He wills. In fact, Allah commands that His servants seek His forgiveness:
“And seek Allahs forgiveness. Certainly, Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.”
(Surat al-Muzzammil 73:20)