5 Pillars Made Plain – Why do we pray

Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon you all. I'm Abdullah odo and welcome back. Why do we pray or why pray, we're going to sum it up into three things for reflection, redemption, and renewal. And actuality it's in that sequence.

reflection, you reflect over what has happened and reflect over things that may happen. But you're pondering over the current situation, the past situation, you're thinking. redemption is an action that emerges from that reflection, once you think about something, you're going to act on it. And particularly redemption is one of the things amongst many thankfulness, or fear. redemption is one of those seeking forgiveness, you felt bad about doing something. So you seek forgiveness because you thought about it. And renewal is the conclusion of that once you sought forgiveness for something, you renewed yourself, and you've had some type of spiritual rejuvenation, you sought

forgiveness and you asked for God to forgive you to where the next time you're encountered with that particular thing. You won't fall into it by the permission of Allah. This is actually mentioned throughout the Quran and numerous verses. But what I want to talk about in particular, is that what's happened with Prophet Moses, peace and blessings be upon him in the 20th chapter, verse number 11, through 14, a lot of talks about when Moses was on his way back to Egypt, and he was with his family in the cold blazing, blazing Blizzard, and he saw a fire from a distance, he told his family stay here, I will go to this fire and perhaps use it with my staff and take a portion of that

fire as a guide for us on our way back to Egypt. But Allah says, when he came to that blazing fire, he was called out Oh, Moses, indeed, I am your Lord, take your sandals off for you are in the valley of what is called Tour, which is Mount signing, Sinai, and I have chosen you. So listen to what is about to be revealed. Verily, I am a law there is no god except me. Worship Me, by establishing the prayer for my remembrance. So here we see that Allah firstly revealed themselves to set himself to Moses, establishing who he is, and giving him a responsibility. So upon Moses, knowing that he has been chosen as a prophet Now, what is the first thing that a lot tells him a lot tells him fat

Buddha, and he worshipped me, the first pillar of Islam was akima salata and establish the prayer second pillar of Islam, Why leave victory for my remembrance, and that is the 14th verse here. So that's what we want to highlight on that when a lot chose him as a prophet. What's the first thing that he told him, he told him about himself, who he was, gave him knowledge, and then gave him an action plan, gave him a responsibility. So we see the first pillar of Islam is the knowledge. It's the knowledge of Allah, and the acknowledgement of that. And then the action plan, which is initially establishment of the prayer, to establish the prayer to pray. So what's the reason for

that? Is reflection for my remembrance. So we say, reflection is recalling based on knowledge that you have knowledge of a law, you reflect on his greatness. And the best time to do that is when you have detached yourself. you've tuned out when you pray. So you remember God's greatness upon you what you've done earlier in that day, and you thank him for that. You remember God's greatness upon you how he is the partner, how he is the off forgiving, he forgives us for any shortcomings that we may have. And you remember that and you ask Him for His forgiveness, with your undivided attention, praying to Him, and that's the redemption. When you're done and you conclude with the prayer because

of your hope, your fear, your trust, your love, all of these actions of the heart seeking redemption. You have a spiritual renewal, you feel a little clean, you feel a little ease, it brings you a form of salaam, peace. And that's the goal. And that's why we say Islam is submission and surrender to the Creator. For means that peace is salvation, you obtain this peace, through submission, you obtain this peace through prayer. That is why we pray.

So when we look at this, consider this. The prayers in Islam are five, as we see the second pillar of Islam is praying five times a day, throughout the span of a day. So throughout 24 hours, we have five legislated prayers. Let's compare these five prayers to the amount of sins we commit

more than

On a 24 hour basis, so look at the ratio of sins compared to the prayer. And look at the wisdom of Allah subhanho wa Taala, the Exalted the wisdom, how he appropriates the knowledge of our sins of our nature, that we embrace our humanity, of our deficiency, and of the complete perfection of God. And through that, we pray five times a day, throughout the span of a day, sunrise, you wake up, you perform prayer, you reflecting on yesterday, you reflecting on what you've done yesterday, then you ask her forgiveness of what you've done, you ask a lot to make you strong on maybe something you felt weak upon, or to make you strong on what you're about to embark on on that day. And when you're

done, because you've had that type of serenity, you've obtained peace, and you're ready to start your day, the middle of the day, you may perform some mistakes, you may have looked at something that you shouldn't have looked at, you may have said something you shouldn't have said, you've done something that you shouldn't have done. That's why the prayer relinquishes and does away with wrongful immoral deeds. Allah says in the chapter number 29, verse 45, and establish the prayer or establish recite the book that has been revealed to you and establish the prayer For verily prayer relinquishes wrongful and immoral actions. And the remembrance of Allah is the greatest thing. And

Allah is well aware of what you do. So prayer relinquishes and takes away, and maybe even by the permission of Allah erases those bad deeds on our record when we have to stand in front of him for every single thing that we have done, good and bad. So again, we pray for means of reflection, redemption, for spiritual renewal, to reflect on what we've done, which will bring actions of the heart and which will In conclusion, by the permission of Allah, make us people that have Salaam and peace within their hearts, in their actions, Muslims, may Allah bless you all, and make use of those that understand why we pray to increase us in our togetherness with each other and establish that

strength of a relationship with our Creator as salaam alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Thank you.