Question Summary:
What is the proper way to make dua?

Question Detail:

What is the proper way to make dua?
Is there anything about reading durood before and after the dua?

Answer :

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.
Dua is an act of worship and and has a number of adaab that should be observed:
The first is that a person should make dua with sincerity and an attentive heart and mind  believing positively that Allah will respond to his dua and not become despondent if his dua' is not answered immediately or in the dunya. This is because if Allah does not give His slave what he asks in this dunya, then He will either give him something better in the Hereafter or avert a calamity from His slave as a result of the dua.
Secondly, a person should eat only halal and make sure his income is obtained from halal sources.
Thirdly, if he can be in a state of wudu or do a good deed such as pray salah or give sadaqah, etc. before making dua this is all the more better in getting his dua accepted.
Fourthly, he should begin his dua by praising Allah and send salawat upon the Prophet  (salallahu alahyi wa sallam) and end his dua with salawat as well. This is because the salawat is accepted and so the supplications that are contained between the salawat are also likely to be accepted.
Fifthly, a person should make dua with raised hands, facing the qiblah, and ask Allah by His Great Names, and make each request three times, pleading one's weakness, ignorance, and faults while at the same time praising Allah's Greatness, Mercy, and Generosity.
 
Finally, if a person can do so, he should seek those times in which supplications are accepted (between the adhan and iqamah, the last one-third part of the night, when making iftaar, after the obligatory salah, etc.) and make dua with those words or statements following which supplications are accepted, such as the dua of Yunus (alayhis salam):
لَا إِلَهَ إِلا أَنْتَ سُبْحَانَكَ إِنِّي كُنْتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ
 
And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best
Sohail ibn Arif,
Student Darul Iftaa
Chicago, USA
Checked and Approved by,
Mufti Ebrahim Desai.