All of us will be tested with loss in our lives, however big or small.
It could be something as tragic as losing a parent, child, or close friend. It could be the loss of health, wealth, love, a dream job or aspiration.
So how do you respond in those times of hardship?
Is there a dua that helps you cope and handle with pain? Is there a dua that helps you replace something that means the entire world to you?
Umm Salama (R.A) was a great noblewoman among the Sahaba, married to another great companion named Abu Salama, whom she was deeply in love with and whose piety she greatly admired.
The two of them learned an incredible dua from the Prophet ﷺ for whenever they were struck by a calamity or affliction:
إنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إلَيْهِ رَاجِعُوْنَ
اللَّهُمَّ أْجُرْنِْي فِيْ مُصِيْبَتِيْ ، وَأَخْلِفْ لِيْ خَيْرًا مِنْهَا
To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return.
O Allah! Compensate me in my affliction, recompense my loss and give me something better than it.
[Sahih Muslim]
Many of us learn the first half of this dua, and you will often hear it said at funerals. But how often do we pay attention to the latter half, or even the meaning of this dua?
Little did the narrator of this hadith know, this dua would play a critical role in her life.
Not long after the battle of Uhud, Abu Salama (R.A) passed away after a sustained injury, which devastated his wife.
Widowed, alone, a single mother mourning the loss of such a tremendously pious and loving husband, Umm Salama questioned whether or not she would find someone as noble as her late husband after her iddah period.
Even the greatest Sahaba, Abu Bakr and Umar (R.A) both sought her hand in marriage, yet Umm Salama relented, “who could be better than Abu Salama?”
But despite her reservations, she trusted in Allah, and called upon Him (S.W.T) with this very dua she learned…and not long after, she received a proposal from the greatest of all creation ﷺ.
Umm Salama & the Prophet ﷺ lived happily married until his departure from this world, thereafter she became a senior scholar amongst the Sahaba, narrating many ahadith from the Prophet ﷺ .
Imagine, going from the heartbreak of losing the love of your life, to marrying the one most beloved to Allah!
This shows the power of trusting in Allah, and responding to tragedy not half-heartedly, but with full conviction that what awaits you is far greater than what has passed, and Allah is the best of planners.
This dua should not be limited to funerals and times of grief, but for any and all losses and afflictions in life, because, as Allah tells us:
وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُم بِشَىْءٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلْخَوْفِ وَٱلْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلْأَمْوَٰلِ وَٱلْأَنفُسِ وَٱلثَّمَرَٰتِ ۗ وَبَشِّرِ ٱلصَّـٰبِرِينَ
ٱلَّذِينَ إِذَآ أَصَـٰبَتْهُم مُّصِيبَةٌۭ قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّآ إِلَيْهِ رَٰجِعُونَ .
We shall certainly test you with fear and hunger, and loss of property, lives, and crops. But [Prophet], give good news to those who are steadfast, those who say, when afflicted with a calamity, ‘We belong to God and to Him we shall return.’
[Quran, 2:155-156]
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