We know from our religious teachings that dua is at the very heart of our devotional lives. We also know this experientially: in many ways, dua is an indicator, a litmus test, of our spiritual state and inward alignment.
When we feel deeply connected to Allah, we express this through intimate moments in heartful dua and we make time for prayerful supplication. When we experience periods of crisis, we turn to Allah, awakened to our complete dependence on Allah, imploring Him through whole-hearted and fully-present invocations. And conversely, when we feel out of alignment spiritually, when we are disconnected from our inner world, it manifests in a retreat away from dua.
Many of us also have a fraught relationship with dua. Maybe we’ve prayed and prayed for something, but still await a response. ‘Should I even bother to keep asking after so long? Maybe it’s not meant to happen and I should just stop,’ we might conclude. Or maybe our uneasy relationship with dua is because of the many, seemingly contradictory, teachings we’ve heard about it. We may wonder: does dua change Allah’s decree (qadar) for us? What does it mean for a dua to be “accepted”? If duas are accepted in special times and places, what does that mean if we supplicate at other times?
Explore diverse Islamic perspectives on these questions and deepen your relationship to Allah through dua by joining Dr. Sheibani’s course today.
Your Instructor
Dr. Mariam Sheibani is a scholar, educator, and researcher. She is an Assistant Professor of Islamic thought and community educator who engages key issues facing Muslims and Muslim communities.
She offers new paradigms and frameworks for coherently integrating religious commitment with lived experience. She delivers accessible, relevant, and research-based courses that empower people to think through critical issues, co-construct solutions to shared challenges, and master practical tools for cultivating a meaningful God-centered spiritual life.
Dr. Sheibani’s unique approach draws on over two decades of traditional training in the Islamic sciences, graduate training at the University of Chicago and Harvard University, and pedagogical expertise honed at world-class universities and fifteen-years of community teaching.
More: mariamsheibani.com/about
Course Overview
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the course open to anyone?
Yes! The course is available to men and women.
Where was this course recorded?
This course was recorded at a retreat in Turkey’s Black Sea region in Summer 2024. The audience was composed of both men and women from all over the world.
What is the expected commitment for the course?
The core course material will take you about 6 hours to complete. The pre-recorded lectures span 5 hours of content divided across three modules composed of 20-to-30-minute videos.
Before and after listening to the lectures, consolidate your learning by spending time on the reflective and application exercises in the accompanying workbook (preview here). You can also use the workbook to jot down notes while listening to the videos.
As you make your way through the material, submit any questions you have in the question form. These will be reviewed by Dr. Sheibani and answered in the period discussion sessions she will hold. The next live session is scheduled for April 2025.
Finally, for further enrichment, you can consult the recommended readings posted as PDFs
What texts are used as a basis for the course?
For this course, Dr. Sheibani uses a variety of exegeses (tafsir) of the Quran, hadith commentaries, theological writings, and other spiritual works. These texts include Zabidī’s commentary on Book IX of al-Ghazali’s Revival of the Religious Sciences, Shaykh Zakariyya al-Ansari’s Talkhis al-azhiya fi ahkam al-ad’iyya, and commentaries on Ibn ʿAtaʾillah’s Aphorisms (hikam).