Secrets of the Prophetic Supplication

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on May 22, 2025 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

O Allah, deliverance for Your oppressed servants on the earth, O Lord of the worlds, and an answer for Your servants who seek Your protection; O Allah, make them firm, help them, ease what lies before them, and fulfill their needs. And now, we are on the journey of travel as we began in our talks about the supplications of the Prophet ﷺ.

Sincerity in Every State

These lofty meanings that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to speak to himself before he spoke of them to anyone of his community, he, peace and blessings be upon him, would draw out and be guided by, so as to teach the community what true sincerity is in humbly beseeching Allah, glory be to Him, the Exalted. Beseeching is well known in people's lives: it comes in times of crisis; no sooner does one of us fall into a crisis or a calamity than he beseeches the Lord of the worlds, as if his soul were suddenly cleared and his heart purified in a moment. But the Prophet ﷺ was not like that; rather he was beseeching Allah in all his states, knowing his Lord in all the turnings of life.

He ﷺ did not see himself; rather he saw the decree of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, and saw the works of Allah and His power, glory be to Him, in the life of creation, so he would hardly let his gaze rest on anything that Allah created without glorifying Allah and praising Him. And I call to mind an example for that: if you were in a very wondrous place, you would hardly look at any spot without saying: How magnificent! Then you turn and say: Astonishing! Then you move on and it is the same amazement; there is not a single detail of the place that does not stir your interest and wonder. And our Messenger ﷺ, no sooner did his eye fall on anything than he saw in it the greatness of the Creator, glory be to Him, the Exalted, and that suffices as an esteeming of the Lord of the worlds: that you realize the trace of His greatness and His self-subsistence upon His creation in everything that Allah has dispersed in this existence.

The Travel Supplication

Let us continue, and here we are before our well-known supplication that we all know, and our Prophet ﷺ teaches us: «اللهم إنا نسألك في سفرنا هذا البر والتقوى، ومن العمل ما ترضى، اللهم هوّن علينا سفرنا هذا واطوِ عنا بعده، اللهم أنت الصاحب في السفر والخليفة في الأهل، اللهم إني أعوذ بك من وعثاء السفر، وكآبة المنظر، وسوء المنقلب في الأهل والمال» ("O Allah, we ask You on this journey of ours for righteousness and taqwā, and for deeds that please You. O Allah, make this journey of ours easy for us and fold up its distance for us. O Allah, You are the Companion on the journey and the Successor over the family. O Allah, I seek refuge in You from the hardship of travel, from a sorrowful sight, and from an evil return in family and wealth").^[1] The narrations are many because of the many scenes, and they show us that the Prophet ﷺ was worshipping Allah only with what occurred to his heart, calling to mind from these meanings what he put first and what he put later according to the state of the traveler and what occupied him.

Travel Is Worship, Not Luxury

We begin with his words: «اللهم إنا نسألك في سفرنا هذا» ("O Allah, we ask You on this journey of ours"). Travel was one of the tasks of worship, not a luxury that happens in the life of the servant at some moment; it was one of the accomplishments added to the account before Allah on the Day of Resurrection, and travel, with all its hardships, was targeted for its own sake, for it is an accomplishment because it moves the servant from one state to another.

Righteousness and Taqwā: The Steadiness of the Soul Amid the Changes of the Earth

We are speaking of the changes of the earth: a fertile environment, then after travel you move to an environment that is not, then after a while to a desert land, then to a land whose people do not know culture, then to a land whose condition is different. This turning between lands is met by a single psyche: I left here and I am Ahmed, I went to Britain and I am Ahmed, I moved to Switzerland and I am Ahmed, I went to Egypt and I am Ahmed, then I returned to America and I am Ahmed; it is the very same person, so-and-so is so-and-so. So how does the soul settle amid the changing of conditions?

An example of that: if we move suddenly from a dry environment to a humid one, then to another, the change of weather conditions affects the body, does it not? So how about the soul if it goes to a land whose culture is not its culture, whose conditions are not its conditions, and where people's customs differ? No companion is greater for you than righteousness and taqwā: «اللهم إنا نسألك في سفرنا هذا البر والتقوى» ("O Allah, we ask You on this journey of ours for righteousness and taqwā").

Then he ﷺ says: «ومن العمل ما ترضى» ("and for deeds that please You"). Perhaps a person acts at random at times, in the sense that he imitates the people of the land and does as they do, but this does not please Allah, glory be to Him, the Exalted. So the Prophet ﷺ goes ahead with this supplication, then looks at the length of the distance, the remoteness of the destination, and the difficulty of the journey, and says: «هوّن علينا سفرنا هذا» ("make this journey of ours easy for us").

"Make It Easy for Us"

You know that the days, the nights, and all conditions are hard and difficult except what Allah, the Exalted, makes easy for the servant. By Allah, besides whom there is no god, you may see yourself, for example, longing to live in a large, comfortable, highly luxurious house, then you look at yourself after a year of staying in that place, having discovered its faults and defects and learned of the flaws in it, and you are struck by a kind of boredom, and some of what was very great for you appears as a source of gloom and frustration, and we seek refuge in Allah. So what changed the souls, altered the intentions, and replaced the aspirations? It is the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted. Glory be to the One who makes things easy for His servants!

For that reason it is reported among his guidance ﷺ upon entering the house: «بسم الله ولجنا، وبسم الله خرجنا، وعلى ربنا توكلنا» ("In the name of Allah we entered, in the name of Allah we left, and upon our Lord we relied").^[2] And the basic principle of the term tawakkul, when mentioned, is that it accompanies setting out from the house; so how does it accompany a person as he settles in his homeland where he sleeps and rests on his bed and pillow, with his wife and family? It is the tawakkul of the soul in seeing well those within the home; reliance on Allah, Blessed and Exalted, that He guide the mind to take in the place with its beauty, its perfection, its flaws, and its defects. It is the integration that takes place within this human soul until it senses the goodness of the good it has in hand.

"Fold Up Its Distance for Us"

Then he ﷺ says: «واطوِ عنا بعده» ("and fold up its distance for us"). Sometimes, by Allah besides whom there is no god, you travel for long hours as you go on, and they pass over you as if they were five minutes, glory be to the All-Creating, the All-Knowing! And I swear by Allah, the All-Powerful, that sometimes you travel in the depth of the night, in its last third, and at certain moments you feel as if the angels were carrying the mount, and as if you were soaring in the atmosphere of the sky, and as if the angels surrounded you from every side, from the effect of remembrance and supplication, and from your sense of the purity of the soul, the calm of the heart, and the quiet of the mind; with the glorification, the remembrance, and the repeating of supplication to the Lord of the worlds you feel as if you were living in another world than this one in which the rest of creation lives. Glory be to the All-Creating, the All-Knowing!

And sometimes your soul is constricted by a road no longer than one hour, and you are restless and weary in it, the ground is heavy and long, and the trip is very hard. How does this happen? It is the effect of a blessing that the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted, deposits in this soul that travels on this earth and turns about in it. So the Prophet ﷺ says: «واطوِ عنا بعده» ("and fold up its distance for us"). From the beginning he senses the plan of time and knows the remoteness of the place, but he has prepared his soul to endure, and what helps it in this endurance is what the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted, deposits in it of determination, well-being, and strength, and of the provision of the heart before the provision of the body.

"You Are the Companion on the Journey"

Then he ﷺ says: «اللهم أنت الصاحب في السفر» ("O Allah, You are the Companion on the journey"). We see in his life ﷺ that when he traveled he did not ascend any height without saying takbīr, and did not descend from any height without saying tasbīḥ. And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ tells us of such supplications: «اللهم إني ظلمتُ نفسي فاغفر لي» ("O Allah, I have wronged myself, so forgive me").^[3] What wrong on your part against yourself, O Messenger of Allah ﷺ, may my father and mother be his ransom, peace and blessings be upon him? But it is wronging the soul when it thinks that something in life is hard. And I want to stop at this point: sometimes we find situations hard, and finding situations hard means that the servant has begun to think about his own strength, his own might, and his own capability, and forgot for a moment what decrees Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, has for him to fold up these distances. So if he senses that the road is long and the trip is hard, whether it is a trip by car or by plane or in the call to Allah, or the journey of life itself, or the journey of work, or the journey of raising children, for all of them are journeys; if the servant senses the roughness of the road and the difficulty of the task, it is as though he is looking at his own capacity, and has forgotten Allah's decrees for creation to carry out deeds, and were it not for this capacity we could not do anything, however small.

He ﷺ says: «واطوِ عنا بعدًا، اللهم أنت الصاحب في السفر» ("fold up its distance for us; O Allah, You are the Companion on the journey"). And the servant's companionship with his Lord on his journey is his sensing the watchfulness of the Lord of the worlds over him, and his intimacy with the remembrance of Allah, Blessed and Exalted. And you can imagine someone, for example, saying: By Allah, this trip, this road, is for me nothing more than the completion of a reading of the Mushaf; so he reckons the calculations of time by the amount of deeds that will be placed in the scale, nothing more and nothing less.

"And an Evil Return"

And he ﷺ says: «ونعوذ بالله من سوء المنقلب» ("and we seek refuge in Allah from an evil return"); he seeks refuge in Allah from an evil return, that is, that he returns to a homeland and does not find it as he had thought, or returns one time to his family and finds them in a state other than the state in which he left them. He ﷺ says: «ونعوذ بك من سوء المنقلب في المال والأهل والولد» ("and we seek refuge in You from an evil return in wealth, family, and children").

And it is also mentioned that when the Prophet ﷺ set out he said: «استودعتكم الله الذي لا تضيع ودائعه» ("I entrust you to Allah, whose trusts are never lost").^[4] And we will continue, by leave of the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted, tomorrow. I ask Allah to complete all our affairs for us with good.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The travel supplication is narrated in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim from the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with them both, and in the chapter there are other narrations that vary in their wording and in the order of their sentences, which is what the speaker pointed to with his words "the narrations are many." And the body contains as much of its wording as the speaker pronounced. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The supplication for entering the house was recorded by Abū Dāwūd from the ḥadīth of Abū Mālik al-Ashʿarī, may Allah be pleased with him, with a close wording: «بسم الله ولجنا وبسم الله خرجنا وعلى الله ربنا توكلنا», and there is criticism of its chain; so it was introduced in the form of a narration, and it is not asserted that he never entered his house except with it. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: Takbīr on ascending and tasbīḥ on descending during travel is in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī from the ḥadīth of Jābir, may Allah be pleased with him. As for the supplication narrated upon mounting, its wording in Abū Dāwūd and al-Tirmidhī from the ḥadīth of ʿAlī, may Allah be pleased with him, is: «سبحانك إني ظلمت نفسي فاغفر لي فإنه لا يغفر الذنوب إلا أنت»; and the speaker's wording is recorded here. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: «استودعتكم الله الذي لا تضيع ودائعه» was narrated by Aḥmad and Ibn Mājah from the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with them both. The speaker did not attribute it.