Mustapha

My friend and I were @ the foot of Jabel Hafeet, a beautifully lit green hill, in the middle of an oasis. Maghrib fell, and we heard the azan, and walked towards the masjid, but we were too far from it. My friend and I decided to pray out in the open on the grass. We walked to a cafeteria nearby to ask for the direction of the Qiblah. I noticed there was someone already praying inside the cafeteria, and there was a collection of prayer mats. I asked the guy for it in Arabic, and he was nice enough to take the mats, go out of the cafeteria and spread them out for us. We prayed, it was beautiful, with the vast expanse of green sand in front of us. We went back into the shop. I returned the mats to him, and he told us to pray for him. My friend and I without thinking said "inshallah", instead of making a dua for him. I guess it happens when you don't speak the language.
In that moment, I felt horrible for not being sincere to what I was saying. He was sincerely asking us to pray for him, he really wanted us to, perhaps because he didn't see a lot of people performing salah, that it was something disappearing slowly from around him, and when he did meet such people, he thought it to be a very precious experience...
"My name is Mustapha. Make dua for me using my name."

Asking someone to make dua for you is routine, whether it's in person, over the phone, at the airport or your MSN nickname. But just as asking is important, so is making that dua. And, what dua do we make for someone we don't know much about?
- To give them the best in this world, and the best in the hereafter, and to save them from the hellfire.