A man whom while during Hajj was visited by two angels

There is a story related by Imaam Ghazali of a man whom while during Hajj was visited by two angels in a dream on the night of Arafah who told him that of the six hundred thousand pilgrims making Hajj, only six of those were accepted. He woke that morning anxious and in grief, rightly worried about his own standing given that only six people had their Hajj accepted. The next night, in Muzdalifah, the two angels visited him again in his dream and told him for each of those six people, due to their merit and own prayers, a hundred thousand were given to each, so all six hundred thousand people had an accepted Hajj.

All of us, one hopes, can recall of supplications that we have made to Allah that have been answered. We can fall into a trap of thinking that my du’a was answered by Allah. But were those supplications really answered, or was it just the supplication of someone more righteous than we being answered? Could it be that whatever good fortunes have befallen us, whatever we have wished for in the past that has come true, was in fact because of an accepted du’a of someone else rather than our own du’a? Perhaps it was the du’a of our parents, or our family members, or our friends. Perhaps it was the du’a of a stranger who we have never seen or never met, who saw us in the corner of his eye one day and made du’a for us. Perhaps it was the du’a of one of our ancestors hundreds of years ago praying that good would befall his offspring. Like those nearly six hundred thousand people making Hajj that year in that story, we may never really know. All we can do is work and struggle to find sincerity and humility in our du’a and pray to Allah (SWT) that we may be included amongst the righteous.

by Perihatin