Dua for Life’s Hiccups

The Messenger of Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “There is no Muslim who, when afflicted with a misfortune, says as Allah has ordered him to say, ‘Surely to Allah we belong, and surely to Him we are returning, (Quran 2:156) O Allah, reward me in my misfortune and give me better than it afterwards,’ except that Allah grants him better than it.” [Muslim; Kitab al-Jana’iz]

When a Muslim says, “Surely to Allah we belong,” the Muslims accepts that he belongs to Allah and that Allah does as He wishes with His possessions. And when the Muslim says, “and surely to Him we are returning,” it means that when we return to our Lord, He rewards us for our perseverance – for the reward for perseverance is never lost.

There are four levels (stations) of responding to misfortune, each higher and better than the previous one.

The first level is the station of inability to cope. This is the response of the person uneducated about Allah and the Akhirah. When misfortune strikes, this person becomes agitated and complains.

The second level and appropriate response is patient endurance and perseverance, keeping up with good deeds and refraining from bad deeds – not letting the misfortune harm your Islam.

The third and better kind of response to misfortune is the station of acceptance and contentment with the Will of Allah.

The fourth and best kind of response to misfortune is the station of gratitude, in which the misfortune is viewed as a blessing – and so the one who is afflicted is thankful to the One Who Afflicts him for it. This feeling of gratitude can only come about when one knows that whatever Allah has chosen for me is better than what I could choose for myself and that with patience through this misfortune and asking Allah to reward me for it and replace it with better than what I had before, I will end up better off than I was before the misfortune struck.

So don’t forget to recite this Dua whenever there’s a hiccup in the smooth running of your life.