Prophet Ādam: The Dawn of Humanity
Section 22 of 22 · Lives of the Prophets
The Duʿāʾ of the Sinners
فَتَلَقَّىٰٓ ءَادَمُ مِن رَّبِّهِۦ كَلِمَـٰتٍ فَتَابَ عَلَيْهِ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ هُوَ ٱلتَّوَّابُ ٱلرَّحِيمُ
“Then ’Ādam learned certain words (to pray with) from his Lord; so, Allah accepted his repentance. No doubt, He is the Most-Relenting, the Very-Merciful.” (2:37)
Allah (swt) taught Ādam some words to learn. Then Ādam received from his Lord words, and his Lord pardoned him and accepted his repentance; verily, He is the one who forgives. So Allah taught Ādam words to say. Allah taught Ādam a duʿāʾ to say, and then Allah (swt) forgave him.
قَالَا رَبَّنَا ظَلَمْنَآ أَنفُسَنَا وَإِن لَّمْ تَغْفِرْ لَنَا وَتَرْحَمْنَا لَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ ٱلْخَـٰسِرِينَ
“They said, “Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and if You do not forgive us and do not bless us with mercy, we shall, indeed, be among the losers.” (7:23)
What was this duʿāʾ? Allah (swt) says: they said, our Lord, we have wronged ourselves; if You forgive us not, and bestow not upon us Your mercy, we shall certainly be of the losers.
We have wronged ourselves. Look at this duʿāʾ. A very important duʿāʾ — and please memorise it and use it, because it is the duʿāʾ of the sinners. Rabbanā ẓalamnā anfusanā: O Allah, we have wronged ourselves. We have committed wrong, and we have harmed ourselves by this wrong. We're not harming Allah; we're harming our own selves.
Wa in lam taghfir lanā wa tarḥamnā: if You do not have forgiveness on us, and mercy, we would be of the losers. If You do not forgive us and have mercy on us, we would be losers. We need You, O Allah. So please, O Allah, we beg You to forgive us and have mercy on us. This is the duʿāʾ, the duʿāʾ that Allah (swt) taught Ādam and Ḥawwāʾ.
Ṣallā Allāhu ʿalā Muḥammadin wa ʿalā ālihi wa ṣaḥbihi wa sallam.
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* Kept as said. The narration in Musnad Aḥmad gives the number of prophets as 124,000, with 315 messengers among them.
** Kept as said. The ayah, 70:19, reads inna al-insāna khuliqa halūʿā.
*** Kept as said. The ayah about ʿĀd, 7:69, uses the plural khulafāʾ; the plural khalāʾif is the wording of 6:165, 10:14, 10:73 and 35:39.
**** Kept as said. The place named in this hadith is Naʿmān; in Musnad Aḥmad the narration explains it as ʿArafah.
***** Kept as said. The word in the hadith is ka-l-dharr, "like tiny specks" (dharr: the smallest ants); "pearls" would be durr.