By: Dr. Shadee Elmasry
Sometimes you make dua so much you feel like you are nagging. Or you look around you and people are dying left and right and here I am asking for a personal improvement to my life that seems so insignificant in the grand scheme of things. And it seems selfish. Or your idea is so huge, it seems absurd, it would take a miracle.
When this happens, think about this...
How many people are in this world? How many animals? How many grains of sand? And yet Allah says He knows their exact number. That's His name Al-Muhsi. That should change your perspective on "too much."
Have you ever seen a pesky insect in your house and killed it then wondered, what is even the point of their little existence? A gnat might live a few hours before we swat it away. Yet there was World War I, World War II, and still, Allah was creating and maintaining the world of gnats and ants and earthworms. Does that change your perspective on "significance?"
Next, take a look at some of these mountain ranges, the depths of the oceans, the expanse of outer space, or consider that absolutely none of this ever existed and suddenly was made to be without any laws of nature or cause & effect. Simply His will and saying "Be," and it is. Now how do you feel about your dua being "big" or "impossible."
With the right understanding of Allah, dua becomes easy. It becomes constant, and the ask becomes bigger and bigger. There is no large, small, or insignificant for Allah. The fact that such a being hears us and *wants* us to ask Him is so energizing and even life-altering.
One of my favorite ayas: "Say, my Lord would not even bother with you if it were it not for your dua" (25:77 Furqan).
To know Him is the greatest blessing. To draw near to Him, to ask and receive, is the fulfillment of that blessing. Receiving begets more love until the focus becomes the one called upon more than the matter being called for.