Ammar Alshukry – Does Lack Of Khushoo Break Salaah

			We need a quick fix break, does for sure, break the salah. Now this isn't a fifth course. But this
is something that we do want to be able to explore the Prophet sallallahu wasallam in that famous
Hadith, it's called literally called the Hadith of the man who prayed badly. There's a guy who's
praying and Rasool Allah, Allah, Allah, they sent him after the summer, he tells them to go back and
pray because he didn't pray. Now he goes back, send prayers and then he goes back to Rasul Allah,
send them in the province level lightest, Adam says, go back and pray because you didn't pray a
little yet for suddenly for them to suddenly go back and pray because you didn't pray. And then he
		

			goes back and prays a third time. And then he comes back to the salsa lesson and the Prophet
sallallahu Sallam says to him, go back and pray because you didn't pray. And so demands like
aloeswood law, I don't know how to pray a prayer Other than this, this is the only prayer pray. And
so the Prophet saw the lights and and then tells him how to pray. And of the things that he says,
and the pillars of Salah are extracted from this hadith of the prophets, the blue light S and M
says, to stand and read what is easy to you from the Quran. And that's why standing is a pillar of
the prayer without getting into too many fixed standard tangents. But if a person has the ability to
		

			stand, then they have to stand in the prayer. You know, a friend was just texting me recently. And
he was he just made a comment about he was in New York, and he was praying on park benches. And I
was like, What do you mean praying on a park bench? He said, You know, I kind of just sit down and I
pray on the benches like no, you can't do that. You have to pray standing up to is a pillar of the
prayer. Some people will talk about just I pray in my car. It's like, No, you can't just pray in
your car. The arm is a pillar of the prayer. If a person has like a reason to be afraid, then a
person can pray sitting down. Well, let me let's talk about the city praying in the car seat
		

			situation. Most people will find themselves praying in a car because they're in a space where
they're really late. Like simple example. You're gonna go pick up something from the airport. Yes.
And you're in the cellphone lot, maybe great, right? Now, if you get out of the vehicle, and usually
that's not as crowded, right? Cars coming in and out.
		

			Like you get out and braid between the lanes. It's like, now you're risking, like, blocking another
vehicle from getting in. Okay, so like, what's your option there? So if a person is in a
circumstance where they literally cannot get out of the car, right? I'll give you an easier example.
You're in traffic. Sure. You're in bumper to bumper traffic, and you're gonna miss out on the salon
and you can't get out of your car. Come over, you can't pull over because you're in traffic right
now say pull over to the shoulder or something. You can't even do that. Okay, I'm talking bumper to
bumper, like I've been in. I've been in situations, like, specifically going into the Holland Tunnel
		

			from Manhattan. Like you just can't move. You can't move your car. And so if that's the case, then
you would be able to pray. You know, sitting down, so very passive prayer. Yeah, I mean, but a lot
of times, people when they say I'm praying in my car, like it's just convenience, it's convenience,
or I don't want to go through or I'm like,
		

			it's a it's a it's not a real fear, okay. It's a imagined fear. What I mean by that is like, oh,
people are looking at Yeah, people will look at me, okay. That's, you know, that's not a reason for
you to pray. You know, in your in your car. A quick experience that I had, just two weeks ago, three
weeks ago, I was praying in, I had pulled up to HEB, which is our local grocery store chain here in
Texas. And I go into the parking lot. And I realized that I hadn't prayed also, I thought I prayed
also at home. When I got to the parking lot, I realized that I didn't pray. And so I, and it was
like, maybe 30 minutes towards mothership. And so I decided that I was going to, I didn't want to
		

			have to drive back home or anything, I'm just going to be in the parking lot, no big deal. So the
parking lot is pretty much empty.
		

			And so I parked my car so that it's my sutra, so that it's in between me and the Qibla. And I stand
behind it, and I go Allahu Akbar, and enter into the prayer. Almost like within before even going
into the court, a car slowly pulls up behind me, and it's right behind me. It's not to the right of
me where I can see them in my peripheral vision. Not to the left of me, not. It's right behind me in
my blind spot. I'm like, This is so annoying. Of all the places, all of the places where this guy
could have parked. This entire place is empty. They pull up in my blind spot and I'm like, okay, so
I pray a brief prayer. And by the teacher who time I'm really annoyed, and I'm like, whoever's
		

			behind me I'm about to tell them like when you see a Muslim praying like this, do not park behind
them. I'm just gonna educate them. And I said I'm I come sit on like them. And I look behind me and
I see two brown ladies. Okay. One is like young and the others are elder
		

			The so to DC ladies,
		

			but they don't look Muslim or anything like that. So I just changed my mind and I get up and I start
walking. And then as I'm walking, one of them goes, Yo
		

			and I'm like, Yes, I look back and she's like,
		

			and the old lady, she's like, uh, her hands is like shaky because she's giving me the thumbs up. I'm
like, okay, so then I assumed that, like, they had basically saw me praying, so they wanted to pull
up to kind of, you know, protect me wash. So it was like, it was a nice sweet gesture. But, and
maybe they were Muslim, you know, but it's, it's just the idea of, yeah, so praying in your park
picking a parking lot since you have sisters all the time. They they've mastered the art of praying
in dressing rooms. They go into stores, and they'll pray in a dressing room. But praying on a park
bench when there's no need to. You have the capacity to stand. It's a pillar of the pair you have to
		

			stand. I think this whole situation, we should reenact reenact the whole situation.
		

			At the parking lot, get a couple of women in the car that did this whole thing. It's totally
capital. I mean, it's a beautiful gesture at the end of the day, like the idea of watching over
somebody while they're praying. Just don't do it from their blind spot. Yeah. So from that hadith,
the Prophet sallallahu Sallam says stand and then read what is easy to you of the Quran. So you read
Surah Fatiha, it's a pillar of the prayer are there a hadith indicate that sort of the fat as a
pillar of the prayer and when he says record, he says and bow Hatha in a rockin bow until you reach
a point nine it's a bit nine is tranquility, serenity. So bow until you're tranquil in your bowing.
		

			When he says prostrate, he says prostrate until you are tranquil in your prostration, when you get
up from record at that is still a ha moment until you are completely erect. A lot of people when
they they hit you at the 45 degree angle, and then they're already on their wafers to suit. And so
the province The lady has ended up described these things. And because of that, tranquility is also
considered to be a pillar of the prayer. For sure, it is also considered to be a pillar of the
prayer. The question then becomes, is my prayer invalid? If I don't have for sure it is a pillar of
the prayer do I have to have this mindfulness. And so the scholars debated and didn't know they and
		

			he has a lengthy discussion in his book.
		

			The book on the inner dimensions of Salah by knock Damon, he talks about the two views of the
scholars, the first view is that a prayer without Cushaw is invalid. And he talks about their
evidences and I'll just summarize some of these evidences that if the majority of the prayer lacked
humility and comprehension,
		

			he says that it has no reward that that prayer has no reward. And they mentioned that when you say
the prayer is lacking humility, and humility is how they talk about mindfulness. Okay, so the second
thing was what my comprehension comprehension? Okay, well, sure is the challenge is so short is that
it's a comprehensive term. Okay. It includes all of these things where we talked about the short we
talked about, it's a lot of talk about what focus we're talking about intent. We're talking about
humility, humility, humbleness, we're talking about?
		

			Like,
		

			zoning in, right? Flow. Yep. Right. All of that combined. Yeah, all of that. So you're standing that
emotion that you're standing in front of a king, you're standing in front of the king, you're
standing in front of the king of it would be good idea to get like a checklist of like, what are the
elements of for sure.
		

			But here's the thing, we did the checklist already, we went through like the different meanings of
kosher and the Quran. That's a good enough checklist. Some of it is humility, some of it is
presence. At the same time, I don't want people to get so caught up in the detail like you know,
what social is at the end of the day, like you know, when you're present in Salah, you know how that
feels. You know, when when you're aware of what you're saying? It may maybe I'm getting overly
technical and material with the understanding of the concept, but like it like I feel like getting
into sulla at least getting to do to rock up. It's like getting into doing a heavy set. Okay, right.
		

			You're gonna have a set of weightlifting. Yeah, like it could be a deadlift, a bench squat, and
you're in there, you got to focus. You're like you step in like you posture. Is there. Your form? Is
there your intent is there you're imagining yourself doing the movement? Yep. Right. And then when
you're actually making the movement and you're not thinking about anywhere you parked your car?
Yeah, nothing about where you parked your car. Nothing about the guy next to you that might be
grunting really loud. Or whatever, right? You're there. You're gonna make that movie. Good.
		

			Lift that weight, and they put it down and the end just breathe and relax. Right like that to me
like and even then it's just like even the posture check, right? Like, oh, my feet lined up is my
torso, my hips, my shoulders, everything. And the point here is also is that you said a heavyweight,
right? So it has to be something that's personally challenging for you, if you're doing something
that's really light, it's very easy for you to be able to think of where you parked your car, or
where you get on the elliptical, for example, when you get on the elliptical or even if you're doing
those safe movements, but you're doing it with a really lightweight, yeah, right? Yeah, it has to be
		

			something where it's not so heavy that I can't lift it, and it's going to collapse on me. And at the
same time, it's not so light, that I can have a conversation with the person next to me and be
distracted and all of these types of things, it has to be at that sweet spot of challenge. Sure. And
it's the same thing for us a lot that you are in a position where I am speaking to Allah subhanaw
taala, I'm using sore and I'm using different I've got that are challenging for me, for me to be
able to remember so that it forces me to be in a state of presence. And so this this notion, this
idea of flow is described by athletes, and not just athletes, but even people who are doing
		

			something that they have the skills for, but it is a challenging version. And so a neurosurgeon
talks about how he was doing an operation that he had never done before. But he's got the skills.
And so he became so absorbed in doing this operation, that a part of the roof fell in.
		

			While he was doing the operation. When he was along the operation, however long it took afterwards,
he looked at his, he sees like this rubble on the side of the operating room, and he says what
happened and they said, this happened while you were doing the operation. He was like, I had no
idea. I didn't even know that they didn't hear anything. And that's important, because we read
outside of the setup, and the way that they were in the Salah, like some of the early Muslim
generations. They're in the operating room there. So they're in the operating room for their soul.
And we hear about these things. And it seems like it's so it's such an exaggeration, like, like,
		

			it's like you hear the arrow and hitting the leg or whatever, during a battlefield. And after the
battle, you're gonna take that arrow out. Yeah. Let me get into this a lot. And then by the time
you've done the gun, yeah. So Tom is a bet. He's the famous example. We're gonna get to his example
when we talk about, you know, the inspiration. So I don't want to share it here. There are lots of
lots of lots of stories that seemed fantastical. They seem like an exaggeration, but all it was, is
that they were able to enter a state of flow in the Salah. They got how many kids play basketball or
soccer, they twist their ankle, they they commit an injury, and they continue to keep playing. Yeah,
		

			they keep going. They're enjoying it so much, or it's such a challenge or it's the competition or
what have you. And then after it's over, they're in misery. Right after it's over. They're in
misery. It's the when the adrenaline fades off and then suddenly you get the post workout. Yeah, I
don't even think it's just the adrenaline it's also the the mental state so it's not just the
physical response, but it's also their their, their absolute focus on the on the task at hand.