Dua

Often I have this feeling; sometimes nagging silently at the back of my mind, or sometimes overwhelming me. That I am not making enough dua.
Sometimes I panic because of it. There is so much to ask for, and when am I really taking out time to sit and make dua without interruptions? Even when I do get time, I am unable to concentrate, unable to put into words my feelings, unable to show my desperation. Unable to ask each and every dua I want and need, with the time and intensity it deserves. If I sit down to write all the things I want, the list will be endless. How can I possibly remember and articulate all those things at all the times of dua? It is not possible.
So I always end up feeling I am not making enough dua. Sometimes weeks pass and I haven’t made dua for the things I desperately need.
Sometimes I dont even know what to ask for. I sit down and I am blank. Where to start? How to put into a few sentences, the whirlpool of my needs?
I need to ask for happiness in marriage, my spouse’s job, help with in laws, children, success in my job, the things I see destroying my family, each and every member deserves a separate dua, removal of sickness in someone, Allah’s forgiveness, help in aakhirah etc.
So what I have realized now is that the main dua, the ultimate thing to ask for is really just guidance. Hidaya. It covers everything. In the moment we might spend hours asking for some worldly need, and that is good.
But Allah in His superior and infinite knowledge knows what we need more desperately than anything else, each day, each hour, each second, again and again and again.
Staying on the path of guidance is everything. If you lose the world and all in it, but you stay on the path of guidance you are blessed. If you gain the world and all in it, but you lose the path of guidance, you have lost everything.
So Allah made sure we ask for that ONE ultimate dua that really matters every single day. The average muslim who prays five times a day, asks for hidaya at least 32 times a day, whether he says it consciously or unconsciously.
In every rakah we praise and thank Allah, recognise His Rahmah and Justice, acknowledge our slavery. Then we say “ihdina as siraatal mustaqeem”
Guide us to the straight path.
This is the only path there is. There is no treasure in the world that is more precious than this guidance. Never take it for granted. It has conditions. No one can say they are already on guidance, we need to ask for it continuously. It needs hard work and dua. Dont ask for it casually. Put desperation in this dua. If you ask for this you have asked for what is most important for yourself and loved ones.
I love the fact that this is the dua that is the centre of faatihah, the centre of the salah.
Allah makes sure we ask for guidance 32 times daily. No salah is complete without it. How much He wants us to receive this guidance is evident.
And we dont say guide us ON the straight path, along the way. We say guide us TO the straight path. The path is the destination. There is no one place to reach, its just a path. There is no one destination and you are done. No comparisons to others, only comparison is to yourself. The path is the destination.
May Allah keep guiding us all to siraat al mustaqeem. Ameen.