India, April 19 -- Dua is not something technical. It is an external expression of an internal tempest. When a person discovers God in all His glory and greatness, then, while thinking of God, his feelings become so intense that he deeply realizes the presence of God; he feels as if he has reached the vicinity of God. When he undergoes this tumultuous experience, this in the hadith is described thus: "Man remembered God in his solitude and, with the intensity of emotion, tears well up in his eyes." (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 660)

This hadith speaks of a person who thinks of this world as a testing ground, and deeply realizes the eventuality of death and the Day of Reckoning. Then he undergoes these spiritual feelings, when he keenly f...