Post by Bayyinah | Nouman Ali Khan

Abu Bakr (RA) used to make this du'aa; the man who believed before anyone else, who gave everything he had for the sake of Allah, who stood firm when others hesitated still felt the need to ask Allah to show him what was true and give him the strength to act on it. That should tell you something about how difficult both of those things actually are. Knowing the truth and following it are not the same thing. Most people who are stuck in their lives are not stuck because they don't know what the right thing is. They know and can see it clearly. The problem is the gap between seeing it and doing it. You know the relationship isn't right but you stay. You know the habit is eating away at you but you go back to it. You know what you should be prioritising but something keeps pulling you in the other direction. This du'aa asks Allah to close that gap, not just to show you the truth but to grant you اتِّبَاعَه, the ability to actually follow it. Then comes the part that most of us are too afraid to admit we need: وَلَا تَجْعَلْهُ مُلْتَبِسًا عَلَيْنَا فَنَضِلَّ — do not make it confused for us, lest we go astray. This is asking for protection from the most dangerous kind of misguidance, the kind that doesn't look like misguidance at all. The kind that sounds reasonable, feels progressive, looks like everyone around you is doing it so it must be fine. The kind where truth and falsehood are so tangled together that you can't tell where one ends and the other begins. This du'aa asks Allah to untangle that for you before it's too late. And it ends with something that should stop you in your tracks: وَاجْعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا — make us leaders for the righteous. This is not asking to simply follow the truth quietly. It's asking to become someone whose clarity of vision and strength of conviction becomes a source of guidance for others. That's a bold ask and the fact that Abu Bakr made it tells you that this kind of leadership doesn't come from ambition. It comes from asking Allah for it and being made ready for it by Him. Abu Bakr was given the title al-Siddiq, the one who confirms the truth and he still made this du'aa every single time. If the man who could see more clearly than almost anyone who ever lived still needed to ask for clarity, then we need this du'aa far more than we realise. May Allah show us the truth clearly and give us the courage to follow it, show us falsehood clearly and give us the strength to walk away, protect us from confusion and make us a source of guidance for those around us. Ameen. Transliteration: Allahumma arinal-haqqa haqqan warzuqnat-tiba'ah, wa arinal-baatila baatilan warzuqnaj-tinaabah, wa laa taj'alhu multabisan alayna fanadill, waj'alna lil-muttaqeena imaama.