Leadership: An Islamic Perspective

He who reviews the Qur’aan will find that the Book of Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic, is replete with many verses and a number of texts indicating the virtue of Du’aa and the loftiness of its status. When you read the Qur’aan, you will find that the first Soorah with which the book of Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic, begins with it; Soorah Al-Faatihah contains this tremendous act of worship, and the last of the Qur’aan Soorah An-Naas as well, contains this tremendous act of worship.

So the Book of Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic, begins with Du’aa and ends with it. The Du’aa, which is within Al-Faatihah, is the greatest of supplications hands down. (It contains) asking Allaah, the Blessed and High, for guidance to the straight path and that the servant avoids the paths of those who are astray and those upon whom is the Anger of Allaah. The last of the Book of Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic, contains the Du’aa of seeking refuge with Him, Glorified and Exalted be He, from the evil of the one who whispers and withdraws; the one who whispers into the hearts of mankind; from the Jinn as well as men, in order to make them deviate from the straight path of Allaah and the upright way.

Allaah informs us that Shaytaan says:

Then I will come to them from before them, and behind them, from their right and their left, and You will not find most of them as thankful ones (i.e., they will not be dutiful to You).^[1]

So there is no firmness upon the straight path of Allaah, nor safety from the accursed Shaytaan-who calls mankind to deviation from the straight path-except by way of Du’aa and seeking refuge with Allaah, the Majestic and High; and a good manner of taking refuge with Him. This beginning and ending contain an indication of the importance of Du’aa from different perspectives; and the need of mankind for Du’aa to be firm upon the straight path of Allaah. When you reflect upon the other verses of the Qur’aan, you find the great status of Du’aa and lofty station of it within the Qur’aan.