How Do I Make My Dua Natural and Sincere?

Answered by Ustadha Shazia Ahmad

Question

When I’m in supplication, I feel like I force it, that I force the words, especially at blessed times when I should be making dua. I always think about how long I’ve made dua. I know I should humble myself before Allah, but how? If someone says that his tawba wasn’t accepted and believed it wasn’t accepted due to a misconception, would the tawba be valid? If someone says my dua isn’t being accepted, then he’s being hasty, does this count as being hasty in tawba? What are the nullifiers of tawba? Is it like the nullifiers of dua?

Answer

Thank you for your question. May Allah reward you for your desire to be sincere and genuine, and may Allah make us all that way.

Dua

Don’t focus so much on how your dua is; instead, focus on making the dua from a needy and impoverished heart; that is where sincerity comes from. The etiquettes of tawba are the same as the etiquettes of dua, and you must ensure that the conditions of tawba are present as well. See those below:

• Are My Supplications Insincere?
• How Does One Gain Sincerity in Dua? Is Dua Best Silent or Out Loud? Is It Sufficient to Repent for Minor Sins Once? What Is Yaqin (Certainty)?
• What Are the Conditions of Making Tawba? 
• A Reader on Tawba (Repentance)

May Allah give you the best of this world and the next.
[Ustadha] Shazia Ahmad
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Ustadha Shazia Ahmad lived in Damascus, Syria, for two years, where she studied aqidah, fiqh, tajweed, tafsir, and Arabic. She then attended the University of Texas at Austin and completed her Master’s in Arabic. Afterward, she moved to Amman, Jordan, where she studied fiqh, Arabic, and other sciences. She later moved back to Mississauga, Canada, where she lives with her family.