Maybe it’s guilt, maybe it’s burnout from years of trying and not seeing the result you hoped for, but sometimes your duas just feel hollow.
The truth is, you’re not alone, and many Muslims feel this way.
In his class on the fiqh of dua & dhikr, Shaykh Waleed shared the story of a convert lady who said:
“What I miss most about my Christianity is dua. When I was Christian, prayer meant so much to my family and me. Before we ate, we would hold hands and pray. When I was young, every day before I went to bed, my father would kneel with me in front of the bed and we would pray together. I always prayed to God, and that is one of the reasons I became Muslim. But I don’t see this concept of dua in my Muslim sisters and mothers.”
She came to Islam because of prayer, but what she found was that Muslims don’t value it as they should.
This is the crisis. Dua is the most direct connection between you and your Creator. It is the most honorable act a human being can perform.
The Prophet ﷺ said:
“There is nothing more honoring than dua.”
(Tirmidhi)
And yet, for so many of us, dua has become something we rush through, mumble without meaning, or skip entirely.
With the final nights of Ramadan here, and the chance to catch Laylatul Qadr in any one of these nights, now is the time to invest in your dua.
So how do you get past this emptiness and find sweetness in your dua and dhikr in these 10 nights?
Here are a few reasons why your dua feels empty, and how to fix it in the last 10 nights of Ramadan.
You don’t know what you’re saying.
Dua and dhikr are about your connection to Allah ﷻ. If you don’t understand what you are saying, then there is no connection. So learn the meanings.
The point is to know what you are saying, not to repeat words you do not understand.
You think it takes too long.
It takes less than two minutes to say SubhanAllahi wa bihamdihi 100 times. The Prophet ﷺ said:
“Whoever says SubhanAllah wa bihamdihi 100 times, his sins will be forgiven even if they were as much as the foam of the sea.”
(Bukhari and Muslim)
Two minutes. That’s it. We spend more time than that scrolling through our phones every hour.
You procrastinate.
You tell yourself you’ll make your adhkar later. And then later never comes.
You don’t know the reward.
The Prophet ﷺ came to his companions and said:
“Is one of you unable to earn one thousand good deeds each day? Let him glorify Allah one hundred times. Thus, it will be recorded for him as one thousand good deeds, or one thousand bad deeds will be erased.”
(Muslim)
Those 1000 rewards will take care of those many sins you committed that day. It is one of the simplest and most powerful ways to purify yourself, and it costs you almost nothing.
You’re involved in sin.
Sin creates a barrier between you and Allah ﷻ. It clouds the heart and makes dhikr feel heavy on the tongue.
So if you know you are involved in haram, then don’t expect dua and dhikr to come naturally.
But don’t think that Allah ﷻ will reject your duas just because you’re sinful!
Sufyan ibn ‘Uyaynah said, “Allah accepted the dua of Iblis, so He will most likely accept your dua.”
If Allah ﷻ answered the request of the most wretched creature in existence, what makes you think He will not answer yours?
How to Bring Your Dua Back to Life
The good news is that fixing your dua doesn’t require some massive spiritual overhaul.
It starts with the basics.
1. Start with sincerity and ask Allah to help you remember Him
Dua is an act of worship, and every act of worship begins with sincerity. But here is what most people miss: you should ask Allah ﷻ to help you make dhikr. The Prophet ﷺ taught Mu’adh ibn Jabal رضي الله عنه to say after every salah:
“Allahumma a’inni ‘ala dhikrika wa shukrika wa husni ‘ibadatik.”
“O Allah, help me to remember You, to thank You, and to worship You well.”
(Abu Dawud)
If even the companions رضي الله عنهم needed help staying consistent, what about us?
2. Praise Allah before you ask
The Prophet ﷺ heard a man making dua without praising Allah ﷻ or sending salah and salam upon the Prophet ﷺ. When the man finished, the Prophet ﷺ said:
“This man rushed his dua. When one of you wants to make dua, he should start with praising his Lord.”
(Musnad of Imam Ahmad)
Look at Surat al-Fatihah. It is all praising before one single request: ihdinas siratal mustaqeem. That is the model. Praise first. Then ask.
The best format, as the scholars described, is to praise Allah ﷻ at the beginning, the middle, and the end of your dua. The least you should do is praise Him at the beginning or the end. ‘Umar رضي الله عنه is reported to have said:
“Your dua is stuck between the heavens and earth until you say Allahumma salli ‘ala Muhammad.” [Tirmidhi]
3. Repeat your dua
Anas ibn Malik رضي الله عنه said that when the Prophet ﷺ asked for something, he would repeat it three times (Bukhari). In some cases, he made dua five times (Bukhari). Repetition is not a sign of desperation. It is a sunnah.
4. Make dua with firm conviction
The Prophet ﷺ said:
“Let not any one of you say, ‘O Allah, forgive me if You will, O Allah, have mercy on me if You will.’ Let him be resolute in the matter, whilst knowing that no one can compel Allah to do anything.”
(Bukhari and Muslim)
Don’t sit on the fence when you make dua. Ask Allah ﷻ as you know He is capable of everything, because He is.
5. Choose the right time
Not all moments are equal. The Prophet ﷺ taught us that dua is most likely to be accepted at specific times: the last third of the night, the hour before Maghrib on Friday, right before salam in your salah, while in sujud, when breaking your fast, and during the month of Ramadan.
The Prophet ﷺ said:
“The closest one of you comes to his Lord is while he is prostrating. Therefore, make many supplications therein.”
(Muslim)
And he ﷺ said:
“After you finish tashahhud, make dua with whatever you wish.”
(Bukhari)
Right before you say salam is one of the most overlooked moments in the entire prayer. The Prophet ﷺ told us to choose the most beloved dua to our hearts and say it right there.
6. Learn the meanings and vary your adhkar
Many people only know one dhikr. But the Sunnah is filled with variety. In ruku’, you can say Subhana Rabbi al-Azeem, or you can say SubhanakAllahumma Rabbana wa bihamdika Allahumma’ghfirli. This variety keeps you engaged. It keeps the dhikr fresh. The more you know and memorize from different adhkar, the more you will actually do them.
7. Fix your relationship with Allah
‘Umar رضي الله عنه said something that should reframe how we think about dua entirely:
“I was never concerned with the answer of the dua. My concern was always with the dua itself.”
When your focus shifts from “Will Allah give me what I want?” to “Am I connecting with Allah the way He deserves?”, the entire experience transforms.
And if you feel distant, if your heart feels hard, if you can’t seem to find the words, then make that the dua itself. Say: “Ya Rabb, for whatever reason, I don’t enjoy my dua as before. Ya Allah, if You are not angry with me, I don’t care about anything else. Ya Rabb, I know that You have so many other creations other than me, but I have only one Creator — You.”
Beg Allah ﷻ. Ask Him. He is always there for you. 24/7. You can call on Him any time.
A Reminder for the Last Ten Nights
Everyone on the face of this earth makes dua at the same time, in different languages and with different requests, and Allah ﷻ hears every single one of them as if each person were the only one asking, and He has the ability to give every single one of them what they asked for, at the same time.
The Prophet ﷺ said that Allah ﷻ said:
“O My servants, if the first of you and the last of you, the human of you and the jinn of you, stood in one place and asked Me, and I gave each one of them what they requested, that would not decrease what I have any more than a needle decreases the sea when it is dipped into it.”
(Muslim)
This is who you are calling upon in these last ten nights. Don’t let them pass while your tongue is still and your hands are down. Don’t let another Ramadan go by where dua was just something you rushed through before iftar.
Keep your tongue moist with the dhikr of Allah ﷻ. Learn what you are saying. Praise Him before you ask. Repeat your requests. Be resolute. Choose the best times. And never, ever give up.
The Prophet ﷺ said:
“Keep your tongue always moist with dhikrullah.”
(Tirmidhi)
That is the advice of a lifetime. And these are the nights to start living by it.
This piece is adapted from Shaykh Waleed Basyouni’s AlMaghrib Institute seminar, 24/7: Fiqh of Dhikr & Dua.
