Introduction and Context

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Dear friends, assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. We find ourselves in the blessed month of Ramadan—the month of Allah's forgiveness, a month dedicated to the purification of our bodies and souls through fasting, prayer, the study of the Qur'an, and supplication. Today, I want to share with you a profound supplication of the Prophetthat is not widely known among us. While it is important to learn this supplication in Arabic, what truly matters is understanding its meaning and living in accordance with it.

There is an authentic hadith, transmitted by Imam Muslim, Al-Tirmidhi, and others, which states that the Prophetsought protection from Allah the Exalted for several things—specifically four or five matters. The Exalted Allah is the One whom the Prophetaddresses in this supplication, seeking protection from four or five dangerous things. Let me share what these are.

The First Protection: Knowledge Without Benefit

The Prophetsaid: "Allahumma inni a'udhu bika min 'ilmin la yanfa'a" (O Allah, I seek refuge in You from knowledge that is of no benefit). O Lord, protect me from knowledge from which there is no benefit. This is the first supplication of the Prophet ﷺ, and it is truly striking. Subhan'Allah, we live in an era, a time of so much information from which there is absolutely no benefit. We see people wasting their time, spending hours and hours scrolling, listening, reading—consuming information that has no value whatsoever. If knowledge does not contribute to our hearts, if it does not benefit our worldly life or our afterlife, then certainly that knowledge has no benefit.

Unfortunately, it seems to me that most of the information available on the internet today is of this nature—knowledge with no benefit. Abu Al-Darda' (may Allah be pleased with him), one of the most prominent companions of the Prophet ﷺ, known for his piety, said something truly concerning that has personally affected me deeply. He spoke of a troubling reality: when such a learned companion warns us about the importance of knowledge that we act upon versus knowledge that we do not act upon. Sadly, we must be objective about this—we often see people who know something is wrong, yet they persist in doing it anyway. We have religious officials, memorizers of the Qur'an, scholars, doctors of Islamic knowledge, who do things that even the worst ignorant person from the pre-Islamic times would not do, Subhan'Allah.

We see people who speak against backbiting, yet we hear them backbiting. We see people who scheme and manipulate, who spread others' words, who rig contracts, fix tenders, do the worst things—rigging elections, buying people's votes, extorting, giving bribes, taking bribes. There is hardly anything that Muslims do not do today. We hear it all the time: "That hajji did this and that," "That professor is like this," and so on. We must be aware that this contradiction between words and deeds is a great danger.

The Danger of Contradiction Between Words and Deeds

The Exalted Allah warns us about this, saying: "O you who have believed, why do you say that which you do not do?" (Qur'an 61:2). We are contradicting ourselves—saying one thing and doing the opposite. I remember learning something equally frightening in Islamic seminary, a statement in Arabic that says: "There are reciters of the Qur'an who teach the Qur'an beautifully, perhaps eloquently, but the Qur'an itself curses them." There are people who teach the Qur'an, yet that same Qur'an curses them. We must truly ask ourselves: Do we act upon what we know? Are we sincere in that action? Does it reflect in our hearts?

Of course, much could be said about this segment alone—the contradiction between words and deeds. Among us, specifically among Bosnians, among those who have knowledge and titles—professors, masters, doctors, physicians—we see people doing things that a wise person would never imagine such educated individuals could do. This is a critical issue we must confront.

The Second Protection: The Hard Heart Devoid of God-Consciousness

The second matter, which the Prophetemphasizes even more decidively and which seems to be the central message of this supplication, is: "Wa min qalbin la yahsha'" (from a heart that does not fear). This is a heart that does not feel God-consciousness, a heart that does not feel humility before Allah the Exalted. It is a heart ruled by the ego—"I, I, me." You have people for whom almost every other sentence is "I think," "I hold," "I do this," "I do that." As people say, "Come on, relax a bit." But this is simply one of the problems. When a heart does not emanate humility and fear of Allah, but instead emanates arrogance, ego, and pride in various aspects of life. Where a person, when they come into a particular gathering, wants to be dominant, wants to impose their opinion, wants to persist in what they have decided. And we do not see—wrongly, we do not see—that there is any reflection of this in the person's behavior.

Today, may Allah protect us from this. The problem is that the heart becomes so hardened that it loses its sensitivity to the divine message. It becomes consumed with self-importance and the desire to control others. This hardness of the heart prevents a person from truly submitting to Allah's will and accepting guidance from others.

The Third Protection: The Insatiable Soul

The third matter: the Prophetwarns us against "nafs la tashba'" (a soul that is never satisfied). You see, every soul is more or less insatiable by nature. But when the Prophetmakes this supplication, he is really counseling us to struggle against this hunger of the soul. This constant desire for more—"Give me more, at any cost, even if I must enter the forbidden." We have people who do not care whether something is halal or haram. We have people who obtained a job in an unlawful manner, so every salary they earn from it is haram. We have people who came to their pension through haram means, so every penny of that pension is haram. We have people who obtained a contract through bribery, so every cent they received from it is haram. We have people who came to their position through corruption, blackmail, and other illicit means.

There is no doubt whatsoever that everything that came from such means is pure, Subhan'Allah, haram. This insatiable desire drives people to cross the boundaries of what is permissible and enter into the forbidden. May Allah protect us from souls that are never satisfied, that constantly want more and cross the line from halal into haram.

The Fourth Protection: Eyes That Cannot Weep

In some other versions of the hadith, the Prophetmentions: "Wa min 'aynin la tadma'" (from an eye that does not weep). We seek refuge in Allah from having eyes that do not cry. This means the heart is so hardened that it manifests in our eyes—eyes that have no tears left to shed. We have people who simply do not repent for their sins, who persist in their wrongdoing, and nothing touches them. Death, illness, sorrow—nothing, absolutely nothing moves them. Such a person's heart is so hardened that their eyes have no more tears to shed, either from fear of the Exalted Allah or from any soft feeling that might be offered from all sides. The heart's hardness prevents the natural emotional and spiritual response that should arise from witnessing injustice, experiencing loss, or confronting one's own mortality.

The Fifth Protection: The Rejected Supplication

The final matter that the Prophetteaches in this supplication is: "Wa min da'watin la justajjabu leha" (from a supplication that is not accepted). O Lord, I seek refuge from prayers that are not answered. Why are supplications not accepted? Precisely because of the state of the heart—a heart that is hardened, arrogant, conceited, and nourished by the haram. Because of the state of a person who perhaps mocks supplication before the Exalted Allah, or performs it merely as a formality without truly feeling what they are asking from the Exalted Allah. These five matters—or four matters that are transmitted in all versions and the fifth concerning the eye—are interconnected.

Conclusion: The Heart as the Center

All five of these matters actually return to our hearts. Everything revolves around the state of our hearts. How is our heart? Perhaps during Ramadan we will feel a little hunger. Although we do not fast for very long, perhaps we will feel a little thirst. Those of us who are coffee drinkers—as our people say—probably miss coffee the most. Yes, perhaps we most look forward to coffee at iftar. But how is our heart while we fast? Does fasting, prayer, taraweeh, our gatherings, our iftars—do these reflect on our heart? Do they show in our heart? Do we see any progress in our hearts? Because all five of these matters that the Prophetprays to be saved from are connected to our hearts. They all stem from the condition of our hearts.

Let us truly reflect this Ramadan: Are we accumulating useless knowledge while neglecting knowledge that transforms the soul? Is our heart hardened with arrogance, or is it soft with humility before Allah? Are we driven by insatiable desires that push us toward the forbidden? Have we allowed our hearts to become so calloused that we no longer weep for our sins or feel Allah's presence? And finally, are our supplications sincere and humble, or merely empty words? This supplication of the Prophetis a mirror for us to examine the state of our hearts and seek refuge with Allah from these spiritual illnesses. May Allah purify our hearts, grant us sincere knowledge, humble spirits, content souls, tender eyes, and accepted prayers.