Seeking Safety and Good Health When Supplicating

[ Part Ten of a series of inspiring articles from a recorded lecture entitled, “Min Ma’een al-Imaam Ahmad” (“Benefits from the Life and Works of Imam Ahmad”) by Shaykh Saalih Aal ash-Shaykh (may Allaah preserve him) ]

Seeking Safety and Good Health When Supplicating

Al-Khallaal was a student of Imam Ahmad. I tried to bring a statement from each one of Imam Ahmad’s students who narrated something noteworthy, so if I did not fully accomplish this, then know that his history was rich, his sayings were many, and his school deserves that you study it and reflect over it. You will find that he was truly the imam of Ahlus-Sunnah in his speech and actions.

Al-Khallaal said, “I heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal saying, ‘I had memorized the Quran. Then when I began seeking the narrations, I became busy.'” When he began seeking and memorizing the narrations, he became too busy to keep track of the Quran, and forgot some of it due to his occupation with the narrations.

“I had memorized the Quran,” said Imam Ahmad, “But when I began seeking the narrations, I became too busy for it, and it got away from me. So I asked Allaah, the Mighty and Exalted, to grant me its memorization, but I did not add, ‘in safety and good health.'”

He said, “O Allaah! Grant me the memorization of the Quran,” without adding, “In safety and good health.” He was saying that what is more befitting is to ask, “O Allaah! Grant me the memorization of the Quran in safety and good health.”

He said, “So then I did not memorize the Quran until I was shackled in prison. If you ask Allaah for something, ask for it in safety and good health.”

Firstly, the imprisonment of Imam Ahmad was something that assisted and benefited the Sunnah. It was something that made the truth prevail, it made the ‘aqeedah of the Salaf prevail during a time when the people were being tried by those who claimed that the Quran was a something created.

So he was jailed in the way of the Sunnah, and he benefited the people greatly, as he guided the people to the Sunnah of the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alayhe wa sallam) and the correct belief regarding the Quran not being created.

Even though he was imprisoned for this great reason, prison is still not a place of safety or good health. Imam Ahmad said, “I did not say, ‘in safety and good health.’ I asked Allaah to allow me to memorize the Quran, and I did not add, ‘in safety and good health.’ So I did not memorize it until I was in prison and in chains.”

Without a doubt this is a great statement, showing that a man must think throughout his supplications and always ask Allaah to pardon him and cause him to be in safety and good health.

So if you seek something from your Lord, the Mighty and Exalted, then ask Him to grant you safety and good health, since you do not know what is going to happen.

Perhaps you may not receive what you ask for except at a time when a sickness has made you bedridden. Perhaps you will not receive what you ask for except after you have lost your children and family and you are sitting alone in your house. Perhaps you will not receive what you ask for except after being exiled from your homeland, something that you are not happy about and you did not choose it. So therefore, always ask Allaah to give you what you ask for in a state of safety and good health.

Similarly, we should seek refuge in Allaah from trials, trials that cause people to go astray. So a person should include in his supplications that Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic, keeps these trials away from him.

The scholars have said that what is best is to seek refuge in Allaah from the trials that lead people astray. The supplicant should say, “O Allaah! I seek refuge in you from the trials that lead people astray!” or “O Allaah! I seek refuge in you from being tried in my Religion!” or the likes.

This is because even good things are trials, the family is a trial, and money is a trial. These are things that a person must deal with – He has to get married, he is going to have children, he has to have money, etc. These trials are good things in their origins, but they may cause some people to go astray. So a person must seek refuge in Allaah, the Mighty and Exalted, from all trials that may lead one astray.

Continue reading… Part Eleven – The Effect of Knowledge on One’s Writings

Or go to the Index of articles in this inspiring series.

Translation, Titles, and Footnotes by: Moosaa Richardson

Originally published on Bakkah.net: 1423-05-16

7 thoughts on “Seeking Safety and Good Health When Supplicating

  1. asalamu alaikum,

    i dont know how to contact you so im leaving a msg here. i was going over one of your translations titled: Imaam Al-‘Izz ibn ‘Abdis-Salaam As-Sulamee Hadeeth Checking and Comments by Al-Albaanee.

    there is a mistake in the translation, where you said: So Allaah made following the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alayhe wa sallam), and only him, an outward sign of a servant’s love of Allaah.

    it should be “Allaah’s love for the servant” not “the servant’s love of Allaah”.

    baarakallahu feekum!

  2. wa ‘alaykumus-salaamu wa rahmatullaah,

    May Allaah bless you for the correction. Actually, I can’t locate the original Arabic book right now to check, and I don’t know how much benefit there would be in fixing that one error anyway. That article series was one of the first things I translated into English, and there are many, many things I am not happy about with the translation, the choice itself, and the notes. It is too big a project to edit for me, I would simply prefer to re-translate it from the beginning, yet it is not a priority. I removed that article (at least I thought I did!) in 1424 (about 9 years ago), and haven’t edited it for re-publication since.

  3. Could our noble brother tell us how to say the following supplications, from the article above, in Arabic?
    “O Allaah! I seek refuge in you from the trials that lead people astray!” “O Allaah! I seek refuge in you from being tried in my Religion!”

  4. As SALAAMU ALAYKIUM, Being as though we live on the west iin America on the East coast,Does the ruling for the supplications of rain and them getting answered due to it being ask while it s raining, is this also applicable to when it is snowing?

  5. O Allaah! Grant me the memorization of the Quran in safety and good health.”

    Assalamualikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu.
    Please can you share Dua in Arabic. In Sha Allah.

    • wa ‘alayk as-salaamu wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh

      اللهم مُنَّ عليَّ بحفظ القرآن بالصحة والعافية

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