“So Allah gave them the reward of this life and the beautiful reward of the Hereafter”

In Surah Ale-Imran, when describing the Prophets that came before and the people that fought alongside the prophets, Allah says that they never lost assurance because of what afflicted them nor did they weaken. And Allah says that He loves “As-Saabireen” (those who persevere). This is in ayah 146 of the surah.

In the next ayah, Allah mentions a dua that those ‘Saabireen’ said as they fought their enemy. Allah said:

وَمَا كَانَ قَوْلَهُمْ إِلَّا أَن قَالُوا رَبَّنَا اغْفِرْ لَنَا ذُنُوبَنَا وَإِسْرَافَنَا فِي أَمْرِنَا وَثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَنَا وَانصُرْنَا عَلَى الْقَوْمِ الْكَافِرِينَ

“And their words were not but that they said, “Our Lord, forgive us our sins and the excess [committed] in our affairs and plant firmly our feet and give us victory over the disbelieving people.”’ Surah Ale-Imran, 147

This may seem like a very straightforward dua but let’s look at it step-by-step to see why this dua is so powerful. Because in it is a hidden formula for us to gain victory over the disbelieving people.

First of all, they are asking Allah to forgive them their sins.  This means that even when they are facing the enemy, the disbelieving people, they do not forget that they have their own faults too. They realize that they have things that they need to fix about themselves too. So they engage themselves in seeking Allah’s Forgiveness and they try to stay away from their sins.

In the next part of the dua, they also ask Allah to forgive them for the excess in their affairs. The word إِسْرَاف in Arabic means to go overboard. To do more than what’s necessary when it shouldn’t be done. For example, as they are fighting against the disbelieving nation, they may have wronged those who shouldn’t be wronged knowingly or unknowingly. إِسْرَاف can also happen in other aspects of life. For example, a person can do ‘israaf’ in money, when they spend money more than they should. They could do israaf in the way they give time to people in their lives. Giving more time to some while neglecting others. Israaf can also be done with emotions by emotionally investing in one thing in life and neglecting the rest of the things.

The people described in this ayah recognize that they have done israaf in their lives. So they are asking Allah to forgive them for the israaf they did and we can only imagine the effort they have made to fix that ‘israaf’.

Next, they ask Allah to plant their feet firm. They are asking Allah to help them stay in the battlefield without running away. ‘Planting one’s feet firm’ is also an expression to describe stability in life. Once they made the effort to stay  away from sins, and once they have their affairs right, it would be easy for them to be stable. But they realize that they can only do so with the help of Allah so they ask Him to keep them stable.

Finally those people ask Allah to give them victory over the disbelieving people. Guess what Allah gave them in return as a result?

فَآتَاهُمُ اللَّهُ ثَوَابَ الدُّنْيَا وَحُسْنَ ثَوَابِ الْآخِرَةِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ يُحِبُّ الْمُحْسِنِينَ

“So Allah gave them the reward of this world and the good reward of the Hereafter. And Allah loves the doers of good.” Surah Ale-Imran, 148

Subhaanallah! Allah gave them the reward of this world AND also the reward of the Hereafter. Why did He do so? Because of the attitude those people carried when they faced the disbelieving people.

Hence if we want such a success from Allah, we need to have the same attitude of those people. We must not fall weak when facing the disbelieving people. No matter how they try to put us down, we must never back away. While we do so, we must work on our own sins, seek Allah’s forgiveness and make tawba constantly. Also, we must strive to live a balanced life that doesn’t have ‘israaf’ in it. We must strive to give everything it’s due right in our lives. And then we are qualified to plant our feet firm and have victory over the disbelieving people and have the reward of both world and Allah promised for the doers of good!

May Allah make us from them. Ameen!