Fortress of The Muslim: Invocations From the Qur'an and Sunnah Pt. 1

Salaam.

Tonight I'll start with a book I'd like to share here in my blog. It's an abridgment of an author's original work entitled Ath-Thikr wad-Du'a wal 'Ilaaj bir-Ruqa minal-Kitaab wa-Sunnah. It's entitled Fortress of The Muslim, Invocations From The Qur'an and Sunnah and is compiled by Sa'id bin Wahf Al-Qahtani. Here I quote him:

"... In order to make it small and easily portable, I have chosen only the section on words of remembrance for this abridgment. To achieve this, I only mentioned the text of the words of remembrance instead of the entire Hadith. I also limited myself to mentioning only one or two references from the original book of Hadith."

On a more personal note, I probably could assume that most of us have a copy of this book since, I guess, it has been fairly distributed. I've seen some of my friends bringing this to school and/or seminars because it's lightweight and can easily fit inside the pocket. Also, it contains a lot of invocations that are applicable on a day-to-day basis.

The book contains 132 invocations with the sources. You can imagine how much of our daily situations in life it actually chronicles. Because of the vast number, forgive me if I'll only be sharing the ones that I think are relevant to the people who read this blog and will be dividing it into three entries that I will post a day or two away from each other. I also don't want to bombard you with novel-long entries, so that's why. The sources of the Hadiths are placed after each invocation/Sunnah. Lastly, since I'm not going to be able to place Arabic text in here I'll be putting the transliteration instead. I think being able to read the text in its original language, Arabic, is really important.

Istikhaarah (Seeking Allah's Counsel)

Jabir Bin Abdullah (May Allah be pleased with him!) said: The Prophet SAW used to teach us to seek Allah's Counsel in all matters, as he used to teach us a Surah from the Qur'an. He would say:

When anyone of you has an important matter to decide, let him pray two Rak'ahs other than the obligatory prayer, and then say:

"Allaahumma 'innee 'astakheeruka bi'ilmika, wa 'astaqdiruka biqudratika, was 'as'aluka min fadhlikal-'Adheemi, fa'innaka taqdiru wa laa 'aqdiru, wa ta'lamu, wa laa 'a'lamu, wa 'Anta 'Allaamul-Ghuyoobi, Allaahumma 'in kunta ta'lamu 'anna haathal-'amra (then mention the thing to be decided), Khayrun lee fee deenee was ma'aashee lee thumma baarik lee feehi, wa 'in kunta ta'lamu 'anna haathal-'amra sharrun lee fee deenee wa ma'aashee wa 'aaqibati 'amree (or say 'Aajilihi wa 'aajilihi) Fasrifhu 'annee wasrifnee 'anhu waqdur liyal-khayra haythu kaana thumma 'ardhinee bihi."

"O Allah, I seek the counsel of Your Knowledge, and I seek the help of Your Omnipotence, and I beseech You for Your Magnificent Grace. Surely, You are Capable and I am not. You know and I know not, and You are the Knower of the unsee. O Allah, if You Know that this matter (then mention the thing to be decided) is good for me in my religion and in my life and for my wlefare in th elife to come (or say in this life and the afterlife), then ordain it for me and make it easy for me, then bless me in it. And if You Know that this matter is bad for me in my religion and in my life and for my welfare in the life to come (or say in this life and the afterlife), then distance it from me and distance me from it, and ordain for me what is good wherever it may be, and help me to be content with it." (Al Bukhari 7/162)

Whoever seeks the counsel of the Creator will not regret it and whoever seeks the advice of the believer will feel confident about his decisions. Allah said in the Qur'an: {And consult me in the affair. Then when you have taken a decision, put your trust in Allah. [Al-Imran 3:159]}.

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What To Do If You Have a Bad Dream or Nightmare

Spit to your left three times. (Muslim 4/1772) Seek refuge from Allah from the Devil and from from the evil of what you have seen three times. (Muslim 4/1772,3) Do not speak about it to anyone. (Muslim 4/1772) Turn over to the other side. (Muslim 4/1773) Get up and pray if you desire to do so. (Muslim 4/1773)

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What To Say If You Are Afraid To Go To
Sleep or Feel Lonely and Depressed

"'A'oothu bikalimaatil-laahit-taammaati min ghadhabihi wa 'iqaabihi, wa sharri 'ibaadihi, wa min hamazaatish-shayaateeni wa 'an yahdhuroon."

"I seek refuge in the Perfect Words of Allah from His anger and His punishment, from the evil of His slaves and from the taunts of devils and from their presence." (Abu Dawud 4/12. See also Al-baani, Sahih At Tirmithi 3/171)