The desire to make people reflect on their lives and help them develop a strong connection with Allah led Umeda Islamova, an entrepreneur and a super active mother of 3 children, to come up with the Dua Journal. Dr Farhat Zafar has reviewed this incredible tool and shared her insights with us.

The look & feel

The Dua Journal comes in a simple yet elegant off-white hard cover with stamped title. It encloses 199 pages comprising of different sections to reflect and record the events in your life. Each page begins with an inspirational prayer that inspires you to go a step further each time.

Why we need a dua journal in our life

Every striving Muslim seeks the means to be close to Allah . He/she wants to develop a spiritual connection with Allah wherein they are conscious about pleasing Allah with every passing minute. To such questioners, Allah asked his Prophet to respond as follows,

“And when My servants ask you, [O Muhammad], concerning Me – indeed I am near. I respond to the invocation of the supplicant when he calls upon Me. So let them respond to Me [by obedience] and believe in Me that they may be [rightly] guided.” [Qur’an: Chapter 2, verse 186]

Dua is a powerful connection between Allah and His slaves. Each time a servant supplicates, Allah has promised to respond. The Dua Journal will help us make dua an essential part of our life. In the hustle and bustle of life, many times we may forget to supplicate to Allah to ease our problems, to help us succeed, to bless our loved ones or to forgive our shortcomings. The Dua Journal has various beautiful sections that can transform your life. It will help you deeply reflect on your life.

Here is a brief introduction of the sections included in the Dua Journal:

a) I make dua for…

My father did the best training to ingrain the concept of dua in me. Whenever I made a wish, he responded by asking me to make dua to Allah and that He would fulfill it. Whenever I had a problem, he responded with the same, no matter how small my problems and wishes were. My father did complete my wishes, but he instilled in me the habit of turning to Allah for everything in life, whether big or small. He taught me that effort and dua go hand in hand. Every day this section of the Dua Journal reminds me to make dua for myself and my loved ones. When I decide what to ask each day, I strive to make the same dua at the designated times of acceptance of dua.

b) I am grateful for…

Days pass by and we forget to thank Allah  for the blessings He has granted us. An old man said, “For 50 years Allah  enabled me to go to the bathroom without any difficulty and I never cared to thank Him for that. Now that I suffer this disease, the doctor has charged me a good amount to help me relieve myself.”

There are many such blessings in our life which we take for granted. This section in the Dua Journal helps me record the things I am grateful for and reminds me of the blessings of Allah  in my life. As Allah  said,

And [remember] when your Lord proclaimed, ‘If you are grateful, I will surely increase you [in favor]; but if you deny, indeed, My punishment is severe.’ [Qur’an: Chapter 14, Verse 7]

c) Today’s happy moments were…

In search of the greater happiness, we miss out on the small things in life that can make us happy every single day. Each day can be cheerful, each day can be full of life. Happiness is not a single flower but it is a bouquet assembled with different flowers, leaves, buds, and ribbons. When I record the happy moments in the Dua Journal, it helps me to realize that my life is beautiful. The happy moments get embedded in the journal for me to feel happy in times of blues.

d) One thing I wish I did differently was…

Life can be a very enriching experience. What we learn from books is knowledge, but what we acquire from experience is wisdom. A person who thinks that he is perfect and has done his job perfectly can never be successful. Because being successful requires continuous improvisation. In this section of the Dua Journal, every day, I get to reflect on the bad choices that I made or the better ones that I missed. It continuously reminds me of the things in my life that I can do in a better way. It helps me develop my wisdom.

e) Today I learned…

A day spent without learning is a day wasted. Learning enhances one’s personality. Each day we should reflect on the progress we made. We are in a fast paced world with new things springing up every single day. We must keep updating ourselves about the current events and advances. A part of being grateful for the blessings of five senses and the technologies at our disposal is to utilize them to gain the beneficial knowledge. Recording my progress in this section of the Dua Journal serves as a reminder to stay in a continuous state of learning.

f) My iman goal is…

No Muslim can claim that he is perfectly righteous. A Muslim should always be striving to get better. He should acquire knowledge, reflect upon it and put it into practice. In this section of the Dua Journal, I love to jot down my iman goals that I wish to achieve and then strive for it. It can be a sunnah that I wish to develop or a surah that I want to memorize. I pen down my iman goals and then work for them, acquiring them one by one.

This was the review; our reviewer seems to have benefited  tremendouly from this experience. Now tell us: what are your thoughts? Do you have your own dua journal? Do you think this increases your spiritual productivity? What other hacks do you have? Lets us hear from you in the comments. 

The post [Review] How This Dua Journal Can Boost Your Spirituality appeared first on ProductiveMuslim.com.