Du'a Is the Marrow of Worship

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 7 July 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

We ask Allah, blessed and exalted, not to deprive us of beholding these blessed faces, to bless us in our companionship and brotherhood, to continue for us the Fajr prayer in safety and tranquility, not to distance our bodies from His houses, nor cut us off from the places of prostration to which we have grown accustomed, and to make them witnesses for us before Him on the Day of Resurrection. And I wanted us to reflect together on the concept of du'a before the Lord of the worlds, glorified and exalted.

Three directions of du'a

Du'a is a word which, when it comes to your mind, makes you think you will repeat some words, and this repetition comes in directions. The first direction is a du'a that expresses pure supplication, such as saying: «اللهم اغفر لنا، لا إله إلا أنت سبحانك» (O Allah, forgive us; there is no god but You, glory be to You). The second direction is the du'a of seeking help, such as a servant crying out to Allah, blessed and exalted, over a condition that has befallen him or a calamity that has struck, wanting it lifted and removed. And the third direction, which is the most complete, is the du'a by which a person expresses his true gratitude and great thanks to the Lord of the worlds, glorified, for the blessings He has bestowed on him, the good He has showered on him, the generosity He has poured out on him, and He is the Generous, glorified.

The speech of the heart

People think that du'a is the repetition of words that run on tongues, but in reality it is the pure speech of the heart; a speech in which a person addresses his Lord not so much as he addresses himself. Du'a is the moment in which a person is laid bare before himself, with no arrogance or conceit accompanying him. It is the moment in which the effect of position fades away from you, and the numbers disappear with it, and no one among people stands out in front of you or before your eyes, but only Allah alone, with no partner: the Remover of harm, the Lifter of calamity, the Reliever of worries, the Bringer of good, the Provider, Possessor of power, the Firm.

Why "marrow" of worship?

It is reported from our Prophet ﷺ that he said: «الدعاء مخُّ العبادة» (Du'a is the marrow of worship),^[1] and you stop at the word "marrow" to realize that it is the focus of feeling, the place of concentration, and the seat of thought; a person does not perceive his self, his reality, or his being except through this brain in his body. It is the region in which countless processes take place, and in its depth revolves the seat of awareness: Where am I? What am I doing? Why am I here? Where am I going? When do we move? How much do we have left? The essential questions of life all revolve in this brain.

So if it came in the narration: «الدعاء مخ العبادة», reflect: you call to mind the acts of worship with their details, the works written about them, the differences of the jurists and the reasons for their differences, and the ways of performance; you dive into the rulings of ablution, prayer, fasting, and Ḥajj. Then you move to transactions, which cover everything that proceeds from you and everything that comes to you, and every movement you make in your life. Then to the field of manners you practice with heart and mind. All this represents the religion, and then the narration tells you that du'a is the marrow of all this. Why? Because when you raise your heart, not your hand alone, to Allah, you embody the station of the servant before the One who directs his affairs.

Our Lord teaches us how to make du'a

And because of our complete inability and small capacity, our Lord teaches us how to make du'a, for He knows that I am unable to do that. Even in the station of prophethood, the Prophet ﷺ being a human being who receives teaching and help from his Lord to reach the station of raising the hand and the way of taking refuge before the Creator, the Exalted, his Lord says to him with utmost simplicity: Say, I seek refuge in the Lord of mankind; say, I seek refuge in the Lord of the daybreak. And these supplications: «أعوذ بك من همزات الشياطين» (I seek refuge in You from the incitements of the devils). These words and these formulations come to us, and others, in the Qur'an from the Lord of the worlds; and our Lord teaches us: Say, «الحمد لله رب العالمين» (Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds); say, «إياك نعبد وإياك نستعين» (You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help); say, «اهدنا الصراط المستقيم» (Guide us to the straight path). So there is no way for a servant to reach the station of du'a except by help from the Lord of the worlds.

The guidance of the heart to du'a

This help comes in two stages. The first stage is the guidance of the heart to du'a. You see many people fall into a calamity or a hardship, or be in a very severe matter, and not know how to say: O Lord. His heart has not yet been guided to this place, but he thinks with his mind, laments in his pain, bemoans his luck, and beats himself as some people do in panic, and the crisis intensifies on him and the words "O Lord" do not occur to him, while for another this is the first thing that occurs to him, because Allah, blessed and exalted, has guided his heart.

So when we say: "Du'a is the marrow of worship," we are speaking of the coming together of two things which are the core of the human being: the presence of the heart, and the presence of the mind, which is the brain. So we are before a gathering of mind and heart around the words "O Allah," and the answer of the Lord of the worlds, glorified, to the heart that senses the weakness of this human being and the greatness of Allah at the same time, and to the mind that thinks of taking refuge before the Creator of the heavens and the earth and the Director of their affairs, glory be to the Creator, the All-Knowing.

There is no being in the world that does not call on Allah, blessed and exalted, Muslim or disbeliever, believer or denier. Among that is Pharaoh's declaration of his faith;^[2] it is the moment of du'a that overtakes a person when the delusion he has is uncovered; for people are deceived by their outward appearance, and each is deluded by what is in his hands, thinking he acquired it by his own power and obtained it by himself.

Ruqyah: gathering heart and mind

And when the Prophet ﷺ taught us a matter like ruqyah for the sick; when a person feels pain, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ taught us to raise our hands to the sky and call on Allah with kinds of du'a, such as: «اللهم ربَّ الناس، أذهبِ البأس، اشفِ وأنت الشافي، لا شفاء إلا شفاؤك، شفاءً لا يغادر سقمًا» (O Allah, Lord of mankind, remove the harm, heal, for You are the Healer; there is no healing except Your healing, a healing that leaves no illness).^[3] So what does the Messenger of Allah ﷺ want from me when he teaches me to repeat these words, or to raise the palms of my heart, my hands, and my body to the Lord of the heavens and the earth, asking Him to remove what this body has been tested with? What am I doing? I am gathering the whole of my heart and mind to take refuge before Him, glorified and exalted. That is du'a.

And you sense these meanings as you repeat: ﴿إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ * اهْدِنَا﴾ (You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help. Guide us);^[4] so there is no guidance except through Him, no step on the road except through Him, no stopping at what is right except through Him, no walking toward the causes of salvation except through Him, and no gaining of benefit except through Him.

Haste and poor judgment

But people are hasty and err in judgment. We have mentioned often that we ask Allah, blessed and exalted, to give us specific things according to our limited minds and our simple understandings, unaware of what lies beyond that. And you can imagine a boy asking his father to give him money, and his father says to him: Perhaps tomorrow, God willing, then he takes the money and buys with it something that will benefit him in the future. And the little one keeps asking and the elder keeps giving the same answer, then the little one says: My father did not fulfill his promise to me. And then the father grants him afterward a fortune he could not have obtained had he taken what he asked for and spent it on trivialities. So who knows better what is good for whom? And who arranges for whom? And who stores up for whom?

The answer we do not notice

The blessing present in bodies that strive to the mosques is the best proof of Allah's answering your du'a, blessed and exalted. And your seeing your children before you around you is greater than the treasures of the world given to someone other than you. And the breath that comes out of you as you remember Allah, blessed and exalted, is the wealth of this world and the next, and there is nothing above it, before it, or after it that a person on the face of the earth can gain. And your coming to the mosque and your remembrance of Allah are only the answer to a du'a that preceded from you. Then add to that what Allah, the Exalted, stores up for His servants in the Hereafter, when we come and have before us what Allah, blessed and exalted, promised His believing servants in Paradise: ﴿يَطُوفُ عَلَيْهِمْ وِلْدَانٌ مُّخَلَّدُونَ * بِأَكْوَابٍ وَأَبَارِيقَ وَكَأْسٍ مِّن مَّعِينٍ﴾ (Around them will circulate eternal youths, with cups, pitchers, and a cup from a flowing spring).^[5] This is some of what Allah gives to creation.

The du'a

Our Lord, inspire us to make du'a, answer our du'a, calm our thoughts and our souls, and grant us our desire, O Lord of the worlds. Do not deprive us of the sweetness of humble supplication before You, do not let our tongues be kept from taking refuge in You, and do not cut our hearts off from attachment to You. O Allah, do not turn our minds or our intellects away from remembering You, by a mercy and kindness from You, O Lord of the worlds.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Narrated by al-Tirmidhī from the ḥadīth of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him), who declared its chain weak (in its chain is Ibn Lahīʿah), so it is not established with this wording; its meaning is authentic in the ḥadīth of al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr (may Allah be pleased with him): «الدعاء هو العبادة» (Du'a is worship) (Abū Dāwūd and al-Tirmidhī). ^[2]: Editor's documentation: What is reported in the Qur'an of Pharaoh when drowning is: ﴿آمَنتُ أَنَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا الَّذِي آمَنَتْ بِهِ بَنُو إِسْرَائِيلَ وَأَنَا مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ﴾ (Yūnus: 90); as for "We believe in the Lord of Hārūn and Mūsā," it is from the saying of the magicians (Ṭā Hā: 70). The speaker attributed the second phrase to Pharaoh in the transcript. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The origin of the du'a is in the Two Ṣaḥīḥs from the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her), and the wording here is as the speaker cited it. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Fātiḥah, verses 5 and 6. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Wāqiʿah, verses 17 and 18.