(250) Chapter: Issues regarding Supplications, their Virtues and Supplications of the Prophet (pbuh)

Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Seek refuge in Allah against the turmoils, attacks of misfortunes, and evil of judgement and joys of the enemies." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim] . And in a narration Sufyan said "I suspect I added one." Commentary: The trouble of a trial which is unbearable for a person and from which he does not have the power to rid himself is called (juhd al-bala'), translated here as `turmoils'. Some people are of the opinion that it is synonymous with poverty combined with abundant children. But Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar is of the view that it is only one of the several kinds of "Troubles of a Trial.'' "Ash-Shaqa' is the opposite of good fortune, that is, to pray for protection from misfortune. No Decision of Allah is wrong but some of His Decisions may be harmful for certainpeople while others are beneficial for them. This means that their goodness or badness is related to persons. What it signifies is that one should pray to Allah to keep one safe from such decisions which are harmful for him. "Shamatat'' the pleasure that one's enemy feels on one's trouble. In other words, it is prayed that Allah may protect one from any such trouble which is pleasing to one's enemy, because when a person is in trouble, his enemies feel pleasure over it. In this Hadith, one sentence was added by Abu Sufyan and during his old age he did not remember which one it was. But we learn from other Ahadith that it was "the pleasure of enemies''. (Ibn `Allan). This Hadith also shows the honesty and integrity of the narrators of Ahadith. They were honest to the extent that if a few words of supplication were added to a Hadith by its narrators, they would point it out. Some scholars have regarded these words an addition in the Hadith by its narrator, who is otherwise reliable, but it is not a problem of "addition of authority'' because in that case, the addition is the saying of the Prophet (PBUH) which is mentioned by one narrator and omitted by another. But here it is quite different as the narrator of the Hadith himself is pointing out the addition made by him. Such additional words are technically called "Mudraj''