These past few weeks have been full of hardships for some of my closest and dearest people in my life. I have been helpless to change their situations physically but have been praying for them as much as I can. We must believe that our duas (prayers) will be answered, either in this life or in the Hereafter. Allah (swt) has sent down in the Holy Quran quite a few examples of duas being answered, from Yunus (Jonah) peace be upon him, praying from the deep depths of the belly of the whale in the dark ocean to the patient Ayyub (Job), who finally prayed to be cured to the granting of righteous children to Zakariyyah and Ibrahim (Abraham). The list can go on and on because the Prophets all used dua as their primary arsenal in hopeless situations. They always knew and believed that only Allah can hear them and change their situations. The beautiful thing about dua in our deen is that praying for others can benefit us too. The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said “The supplication of a Muslim for his brother/sister in Islam in their absence will certainly be answered. Every time he makes a supplication for good for his brother, the angel appointed for this particular task says :’Ameen, May it be for you too'” (Muslim). All I can do at this point is pray, please keep us and all who are suffering in your prayers too!