Do You Want Your Dua's To Be Accepted?

You all know the story of Uwais al-Qarni; if not then we'll summarize it briefly. Uwais al-Qarni was not a companion, he was tabi'i; He never met the Prophet (ﷺ); and the Prophet (ﷺ) told Umar Ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله عنه) that, 'there will come to you a man from Yemen' and he described him in detail, and he said, 'his name is Uwais from the tribe of Qarn. When he comes to you, then ask him to make Dua for you.' Ask him -- Umar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله عنه), you all know who he is -- Umar, you ask this person whom I've never seen, to make Dua for you. 

Why?!! 

Because he was righteous to his mother. 

Umar ibn al-Khattab, being who he is, is told to go to this man because he was righteous to his mother. 

Now some books of history mention a story - Allah knows how authentic it is but it is mentioned in our classical sources - that Uwais al-Qarni was the only son, his father had passed away, so he's taking care of his mother in a very dutiful manner.

And he asks and begs permission to go to Medina to meet the Prophet (ﷺ).

So his mother grudgingly allows him to go but she says, 'look, you know that I need you, therefore I only give you, basically a day or two in Medina; as soon as you get there, you meet the Prophet (ﷺ), you come back.'

It is said that Uwais traveled from Yemen all the way to Medina, and when he got there, lo and behold the Prophet (ﷺ) was away on an expedition, he wasn't in Medina. So now he's stuck between two options: the first is to wait a week or two -- he's traveled from Yemen, that's already a month's journey -- the first is to wait a week or two - the Prophet (ﷺ) wouldn't be gone for more than a week or two, and wait for the Prophet (ﷺ) to return. And if he did, he would be raised in status from a tabi'i to a sahaabi (companion of the Prophet ﷺ). If he did, his status would forever be raised eternally. And the second option was, 'listen to my mother.'

What did he choose to do? We can guess. He chose to obey his mother.

To give up this voluntary status, because being a sahaabi is a privilege but it's not wajib (not compulsory); listening to your mother is wajib (compulsory). And so according to this riwaaya, Uwais al-Qarni stayed a day or two, as much as his mother had allowed him, and then he rode his mount and he rolled all the way back to Yemen. And he voluntarily, willingly, gave up that status in order to please his mother. 

It is no surprise, therefore, that the Prophet (ﷺ) said what he said to Umar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله عنه), that when Uwais al-Qarni comes to you, ask him to make Dua to Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) because this is a man who used to treat his mother with righteousness, with birr. And subhaanAllah this really shows us, we want our Dua's to be accepted, let us treat our parents with that dignity and respect that they deserve. We want Allah to bless us? We want to the Prophet (ﷺ) to know who we are? Uwais al-Qarni (and the Prophet (ﷺ)) they never met! Allah's وحي (revelation) came down; Jibreel told him who Uwais al-Qarni was. How magnificent of a status was this man that Jibreel comes down to inform our Prophet (ﷺ) of this human being, this beautiful human being, whose only good that we know of -- we don't know anything else about him, that's all we know -- whose only good that we know of was...that he was barran (براً), he was somebody who would treat his mother with that type of birr. 

And that is why the Prophet (ﷺ) never ceased to remind us and advise us to take care of our parents with the utmost gentleness

By Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi