An Explanation Of The Du’aa Of Qunoot by Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Saalih Al-‘Uthaymeen

The word E!?
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 (Barakah) “blessing” literally means a lot of anything good that is continuous. The scholars even trace this word and its meaning back to the word E!?'  (Birkah) which means a large amount of water. It is any wide container or gathering of water that continuously contains a large amount of water. Similarly, blessing is also a continuously large amount of good. So the meaning of this statement is: Send blessings down upon that which You have given me.

The wording, “in what You have given” is comprehensive including anything Allaah has given us of wealth, children, knowledge, and everything else Allaah () has bestowed upon us. Therefore, you ask Allaah to put blessings in all of that. If Allaah does not put blessings into that which He has given you, a great amount of good will surely be prevented from you.

How many people possess a vast amount of wealth, yet it is as if they are living in poverty?

This is because they gain no real benefit from their wealth; they simply collect it and never benefit from it. This is the result of the blessings being removed from it.

Likewise, many people have lots of children and grandchildren, yet they do not benefit their parents in anything due to their disobedience and ungratefulness. Such people have not been blessed in their children.

You also find some people to whom Allaah has given a great amount of knowledge, yet it is as if he is illiterate. You see no traces of knowledge upon him in his worship, in his character, in his manners, or in the way he treats others. Rather, his knowledge may even increase him in arrogance and thinking himself to be above the rest of Allaah’s servants, belittling and humiliating them. Such a person does not realize the one who bestowed this knowledge upon him is none other than Allaah. You see that he never benefits people with his knowledge, neither with lessons, nor advice, nor with writings. On the contrary, he is exclusively centered only upon himself. This is without doubt a great deprivation, even though religious knowledge is one of the most blessed things Allaah gives to a servant.

One reason for this is that when you teach it to others and spread this knowledge among the people, you are rewarded for that and this is from many different perspectives:

1. When you spread this religious knowledge, you do so for the religion of Allaah ().

So you become from the Mujaahidoon in the path of Allaah: that is because you have opened the hearts to religious knowledge like the Mujaahid who conquers a land with rectification and faith.

2. From the blessings of spreading knowledge and teaching it is that by doing so, there is the preservation and protection of Allaah’s legislation (the Sharee’ah). If it were not for the passing on of knowledge, the legislation would not have been preserved.

3. Also from the blessings of spreading knowledge is that when you teach others, you are doing them a great deal of good. You give them insight into the religion of Allaah (). Moreover, when the servant then worships Allaah with knowledge and insight, similar rewards they are given will be your reward, because you directed them towards a particular good. The one who directs another to do something good is just like the one who actually does it.9

4. Also, by spreading and teaching knowledge, one’s own knowledge increases. It is known that anyone who teaches a particular knowledge to people, his knowledge in that subject will increase. This is because in teaching, one is recalling what he previously learned and memorized as well as learning new things that he must prepare. In this meaning, there is a famous (Arabic) proverb regarding wealth, “It increases by spending it often, and it decreases if held in a tight fist.” Similarly, if knowledge is withheld and not taught, it will eventually decrease.