Making Du'aa Your Child's Instinct

Just the other day, I noticed something about my everyday life that really got me thinking. I was rushing out in my car to make it in time for an appointment and I found myself reciting the Du’aa that the Prophet recited upon mounting his camel.

بِسْـمِ اللهِ وَالْحَمْـدُ لله، سُـبْحانَ الّذي سَخَّـرَ لَنا هذا وَما كُنّا لَهُ مُقْـرِنين، وَإِنّا إِلى رَبِّنا لَمُنـقَلِبون
"In the name of Allah and all praise is for Allah. How perfect He is, the One Who has placed this (transport) at our service and we ourselves would not have been capable of that, and to our Lord is our final destiny.”
[Abu Dawud 3/34, At-Tirmidhi 5/501]

‘What got me to recite that prayer even in that rushed state?’ I questioned. I had never really given it any thought before, but I noticed now that every time I open that car door and with the rev of that engine, that prayer would just roll off my tongue. Every time. For how long had I been doing that exactly? OK. Now that was a question I could answer straight away; ‘For as long as I could remember really!’

I know it’s not such a big deal. A lot of us probably have certain prayers that are just part of our everyday lives. But what really puzzled me here was that even after hours of thinking back on my early years I couldn’t recall ever making a conscious effort to actually learn that prayer. Neither could I remember taking the decision to start incorporating it into my life. How did it become a part of my life then?

This wasn’t just a one-off incident either, I found myself experiencing that multiple times throughout the day. Like when reciting the Du’aa upon completing the meal:

الْحَمْـدُ للهِ الَّذي أَطْعَمَنـي هـذا وَرَزَقَنـيهِ مِنْ غَـيْرِ حَوْلٍ مِنِّي وَلا قُوَّة
"All praise is for Allah who fed me this and provided it for me without any might nor power from myself."
[At-Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah]

Or when reciting the Du’aa upon waking up in the morning:

الحَمْـدُ لِلّهِ الّذي أَحْـيانا بَعْـدَ ما أَماتَـنا وَإليه النُّـشور
"All praise is for Allah who gave us life after having taken it from us and unto Him is the resurrection."
[Al Bukhari, cf. Al-Asqalani, Fathul Bari 11/113, Muslim 4/2083]

So these weren’t simply just ‘words’ of remembrance like Subhan’Allah or Masha’Allah, which I might have just picked up on. Surely having an entire Du’aa memorized, or rather multiple Du’aas, would definitely require a conscious effort? Right?

Wrong.

This little nagging at the back of my mind remained until that one day when I was with my dad and we decided to get some groceries. We left the house, went down stairs, opened the car doors and got in, my dad revved up the engine and then the next thing I heard was my dad’s booming voice:

“بِسْـمِ اللهِ وَالْحَمْـدُ لله، سُـبْحانَ الّذي سَخَّـرَ لَنا هذا وَما كُنّا لَهُ مُقْـرِنين، وَإِنّا إِلى رَبِّنا لَمُنـقَلِبون”

There it was, the moment of clarity! It was like being 7 years old again! So this was why I never had to learn all those prophetic prayers! Unlike most of us where we tend to ‘murmur’ the prayer to ourselves, my dad has always had the habit of saying them out loud. And suddenly, all these memories came flooding in.  I remembered him coming in to wake me up for Fajr, placing a soft hand on my face with the morning Du’aa ceaselessly on his tongue. I remembered us gathering around the dinner table, our appetite tingling with the aroma of spices and warm bread, making our plates, sitting down and hearing my dad’s voice saying ‘Bismillah’ before taking my first bite and hearing that booming voice again after the last bite. Needless to say, my dad looked at me in alarm as I hugged him and thanked him for his exemplary ways.

This even made me realize the absolute beauty of how the message of Islam was brought to us. Allah did not just sent down the Quran and other scriptures alone, rather He always sent an amazing example with them to follow – The last being our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Allah says:

“There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent example for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day and [who] remembers Allah often.”
[Al-Qur'an 33:21]

Of course, there is nothing wrong with reciting the Du’aas to yourself. You really don’t have to announce it to the world every time. But when it comes to raising children… well, 3 words: Lead by Example. That truly is the best way to do it. I can vouch for that!