Mindfulness in Salah with Sh Mohammad Elshinawy

Hi I'm Dylan today we've got a very special guest someone who's very beloved to Misha Mohammed a Chanel insha Allah who will be joining us very very soon. But while Facebook does the whole spreading thing and YouTube does the whole spreading thing over the next couple of seconds, want to get everybody on inshallah Tada feel free to jump in and say your setups where you're logging in from Shaw left I'm sure we're gonna have over the past couple of days we've been having a heavy African audience come did a lot I'm sure tonight we're going to get a lot of people from a lot of different places and so welcome everybody. We're going to be talking and Sharla thought about even

just a couple of really practical tips with Ramadan around the corner we asked Allah subhana data to allow us to experience Ramadan and give us the ability to to experience it and have accepted actions accepted see I'm accepted pm except to charity accepted a citation of the hold on welcome everybody the living legend Sameer Sonmez from New Jersey I had also had my token Desi friend and also had an Ico said I want to love Muslim woman from Morocco I said I'm gonna have to LA but he says are you still gonna follow steam? No, I'm not in full steam anymore. Heart is still there though. Why they go sit down Surya from South Africa. I told you the African presidents is already making itself

known who I think was Sidama to Allah

said I'm from Oklahoma to have Ramadan I didn't consider Allah sent me your hope you're doing well, man. It's Amato it was said I'm off to LA where y'all coming from? Where y'all joining us from Linda Clark from Philly. Right Aiko said I'm going off to La Holla Holla chef a budget I was set out to LA Long time no see hopefully see you in Houston soon. hope everybody's doing well with Ramadan around the corner. What are you looking forward to most? This is our first like post COVID Ramadan. At least post face Mac face masks for those who weren't be wearing face masks. So Amina says from London Radek was salam. It's called I believe it. Tiara says from New York article Sidama thought

I'd like to welcome everybody Welcome, welcome. So we're going to be talking in sha Allah on a few tips, practical tips on creating mindfulness in the salon inshallah. So before we begin, just take a moment and feel free inshallah to share the facts to send the link out to your friends and family send it into your whatsapp groups, as you move says, or suffer as a fam A says, how are you? I'm doing I'm doing excellent. I'm delighted today that we wake up as a great blessing from Allah subhanaw taala. Brian from Chino, California. Welcome.

And we have Egypt on the dunya in the house Khadija from Nigeria.

All right.

So, that being said, welcome everybody. So like I mentioned the challenge is from the get go, let's, let's, you know, send this link out to your family and friends inshallah and let's, let's, we're going to keep this we're going to keep this hopefully very, very concise, and inshallah very to the point and so I want to welcome my beloved chef Mohamed is Chanel, we welcome chef Mohammed, real quick, let me let me hit you with his bio, even though we're broadcasting on his page, let me hit you with his bio in sha Allah. He's the religious director at Jesus, son of Mary mosque in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He's a graduate and instructor at Moscow University Associate Director of

Systematic Theology at an institute more than or in addition to all of that. He is

the author of a beautiful book on sulit usif meditations on sort of Joseph it's called when the, when the stars prostrated when the stars prostrated him, they laugh, and he is the author of the beautiful prophetic proofs of Prophethood series at European Institute. You can check out the videos as well as the articles there. I was gonna share how are you doing? And the big brother I'm not too bad. But 1984 Big brother.

That's big brother. I love pleasure. Pleasure, man. Long time no see hope you're doing well over in Allentown. Are you in Allentown? Yes, sir in Allentown. Allah bless you.

And your lease all the Muslims everywhere. It seems like the whole world is moving to Allentown since you moved there and Masha Allah as the new Exodus. But I only take pride in people I pull out of Texas downtown. I haven't.

I'm the route so that's the fine, we moved to Texas and then you find your way back to the East Coast. There's not too not too close to the heat just a little bit outside. Mashallah. So, Chef, this is a course you know, you know, I always tell people, my first course is majesty, I would always, you know, give the shout out. I don't know if you even remember it. But we were at a convention one time. And you were sitting with me and you told me or like, Did you read my love by Chef said, matter of fact, Allah Azza I was like, No. And you were like, you gotta read it and I was like, boom, and I went, and I went on this whole journey on the names of Allah

Japan Oh data and your that conversation with you as was the catalyst actually. So my last panel thought or what would you?

And now a couple of years later

we're in um, you know, this course has been very dear to me because there's another problem that I wanted to solve and it's mindfulness is in salon. It's something that we all experienced. And I wanted to pick your brain and Charlotte data with regards to you know, what are what are tips that you have, I know that you talked with, at this scale, of course, with Michigan University and you you developed and you you, you spent time on this topic of for sure. What are some of the most practical tips that you found with regards to mindfulness,

just like love Bismillah Soto salam ala Rasulillah. I mean, I usually begin in the, in the course, in Teskey. One, when we get to Salah, and before we even speak about some of the inner dimensions of Salah, and we'll claim has great writings on that. And maybe we can touch some of it. But just the fact that like for sure is achievable, for sure is coherent. Like there is a linear progression towards for sure. It's an actual science, it's a discipline. That's a big part of it. And even the famous hadith of degraded no fade when the Prophet SAW Selim told them knowledge is going to be lifted. Now there's so he said yes, he did say that and he said the very first knowledge to be

lifted will be for sure. Had the letter CKEditor Allah Harsha to the point that you would no longer find that Oh, for sure. On this earth, you would hardly I'm sorry, let that get you would hardly ever. And so in one sense, it is frightening. That sure becomes a short supply. That's not a good thing. But at the same time, for sure is a science I mean, the science of sacred science a part of the dean and the dean has been preserved promised to be preserved so the science will be preserved like it's not going anywhere, for whoever works to find it, they'll find it then we go on to some tips in Sharla and you know, how to find it, how to pursue it, how to develop for sure and sada one

of the lines actually, that it was maybe 15 years ago in Brooklyn College after a lecture they asked Dr heighten had

about like, how do you develop tissue and solid and he just kind of like thought about it for a while and he just shrugged his shoulders that it's not a light switch. You're only gonna have a shoe or in Salah when you have a shoe outside of solid.

And it was

Yeah, powerful, like drop sort of moment. And everyone's just like, oh, you know, and so he has you understand for sure needs to be fixated on Allah to be observant of him to be respectful of his boundaries. I later found a

beautiful narration for Abu Salah mana Dharani Rahim Allah one of the Great's of the early masters of deskey the early Muslims and they asked him how do you get to this point where you're like the your knowledge of God crystallizes K for 10 No, no, I defer to Allah How do you like develop an actual meaningful, like transformative acquaintance with Allah azza wa jal? And he said we do it by obeying Him. It's not a theoretical, it's not a switch, you know, it is actually by working in service right? The layers get peeled through obeying Him and then they said to him okay for

Nano Tata who How can we get ourselves to obey Him? He said, Be through him. So like your we could talk about always, you know, asking Allah to invite you into His presence into for sure, asking Allah to improve you're a badass but you ask Allah to improve you're a badass that has to happen inside and outside the salah. It's a big part of it. So your

first step always for anything ever is always going to be to ask ALLAH SubhanA data for it. So

and isn't a beautiful that that's the Hadith that's what the province I said and teachers from either major but the after every salon that you say Oh ALLAH assist me in yada the critical issue critical has never had that IQ assist me in remembering you and thanking you and worshiping you beautifully. And each one leads to the another. The other remembering a lot leads to showing gratitude to Allah if you show gratitude to Allah. If you show gratitude as he then nakoma Allah says, I will increase you and then that leads to the momentum of worshiping ALLAH SubhanA data beautifully. And so we've got asking Allah Subhana Allah

what else we've got asking Allah we've got obeying him outside salah.

And again, that's not just ritual devotion, right? respecting his boundaries is quite overlooked so many times. You know, like, just to be really practical with Ramadan coming. Someone was asking us like give us like, just bottom line, what's the best thing to do in Ramadan? I told them guys like prioritize according to Allah's priorities, like

obligations first, right? We all know this obligations first, or we should all know this. That means new being punked

You will let your five prayers is more important than you praying all of them to address the gap. Right? Yeah. Because this one's voluntary and this one's an obligation so this one actually does it even if it were done outside of Ramadan, like, outside of Ramadan is still better than you know, praying later to further to GABA.

And you know, same thing like not to looking at all of this garbage on our screens scrolling left and right you know, all these poison arrows we take in you know, 50 between blinks every all this stuff we go through with scrolling that's actually more important than looking in the most half and reading any for any at all this Ramadan because not looking here is an obligation reciting Quran is not and so our obedience and prioritizing, you know, the obligatory acts of obedience is is huge. Maybe she Harmar If you'd allow me to even take a step back before do an obedience, which is conviction to begin with, because the does tie your basic beliefs

to your actions and in particular Salah and Yahushua and Salah it frames it as a byproduct of your, your absolute positive knowledge or certainty that you're going to stand in front of Allah. Right? And so and so the buckler Allah azza wa jal says, you know, seek strength through patients in prayer, we're in no hurry like Kabira. And it's a big thing. It's a big thing, meaning it's cumbersome, like it's a it's just a burden in other cost sharing except for those that have sugar in it, right. And then the next is those who are the cost sharing, and Lavina, Alvin Luna and the hula or became a novena Hill on your own. The cost sharing people have for sure are those that are

certain

that they will meet their lords one day, and that they are certainly actively returning to him with every moment. And so the more you you stop, and you reflect, and you realize just how passing through we all are, just how transient you know, we're all drying up we are that leaf, our seasons about to end type thing, and we're gonna go and another season is going to come and other human beings gonna get his turn. The more you reflect on the temporality of life and the inevitability of meeting Allah azza wa jal, the more for sure you'll have in your sauna, you'll stand in front of him better the first time in preparation for the next time. And even fame actually, that's one of his

like, amazing reflections. And then he says, you stand in front of Allah twice. One time it's called Salah one time, it's called the reckoning, you take care of the first one, the second one is going to be a breeze, it's going to be so enjoyable, it's going to be a reunion moment. And if you neglect your negligence and the first one, then it's going to be a disaster, the second one muffled. So being having that you're thinking about the connectedness between standing to Allah here extending to Allah, there is another powerful means to access and so forth.

And that's also prophetic advice, right? It says, pray the prayer of someone who's bidding farewell. Right? Because if a person is praying is bidding farewell, then that person will pray properly, that person will pay properly. So that idea, you know, we did a live a couple of weeks ago, and said, I'm going to say man dropped a bar he had, he was

it was his course he has a course on body hammer law. And so he said, he said,

the fact that we talk about death a lot doesn't mean that we're a dead people. We talk about death a lot, but we're not a dead people. Right this this, what death creates and the presence of death and the awareness of death always what it creates is a sense of urgency with regards to life, right you're not taking things for granted. You're not taking the salah for granted you're not taking your conversation that you have with your mother for granted. You're not taking you become you learn presence outside of the salon and it reflects inside of the salon as well and you experience present inside the slot and it helps you become like in a world that's completely distracted. You benefit

not just from your conversation with ALLAH SubhanA data and Silla but your conversations with other people as well. And so I'm very happy that you mentioned that this notion of certainty so we've got dropped we've got certainty and just not gonna look at everybody for the you know, the engagement and the chat.

What else you have to do you have I want to get to five Inshallah, in this brief time that we have. So we've got certainty, we've got drought, what else and we got? Obedience, right?

I see I'm blowing up the list, I'm subdividing the obedience

with obedience. Sometimes people you know, get flustered Subhanallah and they say like, I'm trying and you people with your beards and your your cookies and stuff like that are telling us that because we don't like we're not proper outside of the salon. Now that we're coming to the salon broke in with all of our mistakes, and you're telling us that we're not going to experience the sweetness now.

The reality is

Is

is, is that if I haven't prepared, I haven't invested, I'm not going to come on the court and be LeBron James like, there's a there's a, there is an investment that you have to make in your Salah and Allah Subhana Allah that there's an investment that you have to make in your reading of the Quran, there is an investment that you have to make with regards to active worship, and nobody's disqualified from this. Just because a person is coming broken today doesn't mean that a person can't beg and implore Allah subhanho data to rectify their affairs tomorrow. You know, I met a man recently in quotes, we took a group to a concert hamdulillah and one of the brothers shocked me,

great brother, you know, in middle age, and he said, My Salah was shaky for until I was 46 years old. I was 46 years old and my salah was shaky. And then he said, One night I just cried to ALLAH SubhanA data, got a great heart, business man, all that type of stuff. Life is going great. He's like, I just cried to Allah subhana wa Tada. And I said, Why not me?

Why don't you choose me? That's it. I just am begged and begged and begged ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada. And I said, Why not me? And he said, and then I began to memorize the Quran. And I began to realize the Quran in my car. And he said, 46 years old, he said, I started memorizing the Quran. He said, I got five Jews down in my car. And then I memorized 20 Jews before I met a chef.

And then he said, When I met a chef, he said 20 years I've got a 20 years have gone by the shift like what are you doing with your life? You can't memorize the Quran on your own like this. You need to recite it to somebody. So he said, I recited it. And he said, Allah subhana wa Tada just opened up the doors. He said, I went to Hajj. And he said, You don't know who my roommate is. He's like, Have you heard of chef who need to do this and menisci I'm like, Come on, man. You're telling me he was your roommate and hedge God degrees for those of you who don't know he's like the

Quran master of the United States of America. And so imagine he's your roommate and you went from not knowing barely any Quran barely praying. And you're asking Allah why not me and now ALLAH SubhanA data has answered your door and put the greatest of the great in front of you.

And now he's got it ah, and he's got the Quran he's got mashallah open up the door. Right? And he started at 46 years old, right? But it's that question of, I'm going to, I'm willing to take the steps. I'm not going to sit there and I'm going to take the steps I'm going to I'm going to invest.

Allah Hamina fusuma era, the setup would say, Show Allah Subhana Allah goodness from yourself. Yeah, the investment on our part is huge, because, you know,

it is a little bit selfish. And sometimes it's a big topic that

Allah azza wa jal sometimes will even pluck your brochure. Even if you're doing everything right, by the way.

Like sometimes Allah suspends the sweetness of the prayer,

to test you, are you doing this just because what I get out of the prayer that I get the pleasure of the prayer, or is your primary gain still, the pleasure of Allah not my pleasure, and so profound, that the early scholars spoke about this, because this has become like, the shameless objective of religion in our day and age. like it'd be, like in the secular times, you know, people have written books, like when we when God became a drug, or we are not gods pets, as a pushback to the concept, or, as one writer recently said, you know, we see God nowadays, as our therapist, like we're, we're his pet is supposed to grow, not exposed to take care of us, is supposed to provide us Monday

morning inspirations. And that's it, just to feel good, right. And one person very, profoundly said, you know, God has been reduced in the modern mind to the lubricant of their lives. You just want it like you want God to just think more. So who exactly is mastered then and who is slave who is master and who is servant? And so, you if you please, a lot, and that's your primary gain, for sure he will, please. I just mean that every once in a while, you may not feel pleased, as a mercy from him as a litmus test. Am I still doing this for him? Number one, investing for his pleasure? Or am I doing it just for the sake of a self serving, you know, dopamine release, dopamine release?

Absolutely. Okay, so I'm gonna maintain that. That's, that's, that's, I don't know. I think that was three I started with.

Okay. So I think when you said conversation, also that brought me to the to the next point I usually mentioned to the students and you're scared.

You're not having a conversation if you're speaking two different languages, if you don't understand each other, and so, your the quality, the meaningfulness of your Salah will will just ascend, leaps and bounds it'll grow once you actually learn the meanings of what you're saying.

And you know, that that's rational and obvious and put the whole and reminds you about that.

At

in the context of prayer, Allah says, A man who according to him is the one who is blind, deaf and dominant denial about the hereafter. Is he equal to the one that is conflict that is standing devoutly, and Lady throughout the night said you don't want him prostrating and standing, fearing the hereafter and hopeful of the mercy of his Lord, then Allah says, could help.

Do those who know can they ever equate with those who don't know? Meaning they can never be equal? Those who actually know the reality of things, including the reality of the prayer what's available, right? Those who do not. And so knowing and having knowledge puts you on just gives you such an edge gives you on such a higher level.

You know, basics like meanings of Al Fatiha

is something that I dedicate a whole class to and Mischka because that is the solid even one of the names we've had hasn't solder. So you haven't really spoken about or even covered the tip of the iceberg without speaking about, in fact, behind its meanings, but also the meanings of what you're saying within the solid. You know, like when you say Allahu Akbar, to move past the superficial Allahu Akbar means God is great, or even God is the greatest, that's still a little bit superficial, to be honest. Because Allahu Akbar is in a comparative tense, right, Akbar, meaning he is greater than, but then it's an open ended statement. That's the whole beauty if you understood it was an

open ended statement. It means whatever you want in front of that sentence, and it still stands true. So if I'm coming to Salah stressed out, or I'm coming to Salah, afraid or I'm coming to Salah, like just obsessed with the glitter of the world, or whatever it is, right? You just Allah is greater than my problems and my ambitions than everything, anything, Allah is greater, and you keep repeating that throughout the Salah, while knowing what you're saying. That's where the culture comes from. Like, I'm not saying that if you know the meanings you're gonna have for sure, because you can know the meaning and still be distracted. But I'm saying if you don't know the meanings, you

will not reflect on something you don't identify. Right?

It's the same thing with Orion like what are you going to reflect on the the sounds the melodies know, that gives you such a surface surface level, you know, ethos of the Quran, but the meanings itself are huge.

So that's, that's number four, right? Learning the meanings of some of the words you're saying little by little, in fact, it has seven lines Subhanallah being alliums polynomial Allah, like half a line each. They're powerful, beyond powerful, super potent for sure, you know,

dimensions are found there.

And then we have the Sunnah of the province of Eliza.

Yeah, one of my Michelle

when he was talking about the importance of observing the Sunnah and your Salah, he said that your prayer is like a container that you're taking to a buffet like the size of your plates basically are like your your Tupperware.

And so depending on, you know, the quality of your container is what you will come back, you know, and so the perfect Salah, the Sunni that Mohamed salah, that's going to bring back the best returns on your prayer. And so some containers are filled with cracks and everything just seeps right through. Even if it picks something up, it'll seep away. And that's actually Allah forbid one of the signs of a truly corrupt part is that he sees flashes of light like in the beginning of certain buckler, right the lightning, but that's it, like the reminders go away so fast. And so anyway, the sooner is the best container you want to present to Allah azza wa jal to come back with some Iman to

come back with some, you know, renewed faith and have your Salah. And what do we mean by that? Coming to a full stop is like an obligatory level of the Sunnah. Coming to a full stop with every posture. You haven't even prayed if you haven't done that, okay? It kept telling them to go back and pray for you have not pray, go back and pray for you have not great, but also there's another layer here of the recommendations, he gave some Allahu alayhi wa sallam that you you don't want to just keep yourself at the bare minimum because that's critical level and if you dip below that, as far as invalid altogether, you want to be in a safe place where the Salah is for sure valid and maybe even

fruitful, right because there's a type of Salah we don't notice that sometimes just like fasting where if you did it find you got it. Allah will not ask you why didn't you pray? Why didn't you fast? That doesn't mean the faster the prayer is going to be a transformative experience for you, doesn't mean you're going to actually experience something there. And so we think of the elements of the Sunnah like, like making dua between event and your karma. That means you're going to be like settled at that time waiting for your karma time and and that warms your heart over to a conversation with Allah. Right. One of our teachers Shefali Fifi, we still are

Just on the side stuff in the messages for us, we will read my data just send again, I've been playing together.

He used to say the heart is like a fan the fans in the ceiling. He says when you turn the fan off, it doesn't just stop, right? It's not a Tesla. Right? There's the motor slows down, slows down, slows down, slows down, slows down, and then it takes a while for it to actually stop. He goes, your heart is the same way when it's spinning on duniya when it's in the grind about this world, and then you literally just like slip your phone in your pocket as you're walking up to the stuff and you say Allahu Akbar, by the time your heart winds down and starts reversing into the right direction. Your Salah is over. Right? That's a great that's a great example Mashallah.

It stopped us a lot in our tracks. But he actually told us that we got to class too fast. He said you didn't do your test to be happier Salah Did you. That's how he built up to it. And so it stuck with us. And so appreciating the mechanism of the Sunnah, right? The whole package, the calmer you are in your emotions, and in your statements. You know, the Stiller your heart becomes there's there's only an imaginary disconnect between the exterior and the interior. And we got to work past that. That doesn't mean you know, sometimes shaytaan when he sees you being like particular and meticulous about the Sunnah and careful to follow, you know, the nuances of the Sunnah. They'll

actually use that against you and you got to be careful. You become OCD, right? Like, when? Okay, so I'm here like, is it here? Is it here? And you just get absorbed into the legality? Yes. Yeah, no swass is, is you need to understand that was was is there to make you hate a bad or hate yourself that I'm just not fit for this Islam stuff. That's all shaitan Watson was was right. And so that's why sometimes ignoring a little bit of the Sunnah for now to avoid with was, is something must have I used to do actually, it was very profound.

I read

it was a tweet for a shift party, and I looked it up for its reference. And I found it like Hola, hola. Soto. He said that the Sahaba sometimes would abbreviate their prayer, not the way we do. But like from relatively speaking, shorten their prayer a little bit. And they would say, Well, bad news to us. I'm trying to just get past those words, make sure there was twice as and catch up with me. If I take too long, I might drift. And so they're basically choosing quality over quantity, in terms of their tuition or whatnot.

So that's another one. So learning the sooner and applying the sooner, it is the best mechanism, the best container to actually get to pull things out of your sauna. When you when you get one is a really, you know, that's a bonus one, but it's excellent, which is that a person prays a brief prayer to have a focus in their prayer. And so sometimes the person will let themselves drift. Sometimes the person will try to recite a long Surah their mind is going in a million different places. And that's what happened to her they would need your money. So I'm praying and he said, How long have you been praying like this? He said, I've been praying for 40 years like this. He says,

you have been praying for 40 years. And if you had died, you would have died on our religion other than the religion on premises. Nobody is that dumb. And then he said, You taught him how to pray me said a person can pray briefly and pray correctly. So you can pray a brief prayer doesn't have to be long. But you secure all of those pillars that were just mentioned stillness in every station that you give yourself pause that you recite the chapters to, you know, even if they're brief chapters. But you know, I should have Elon has said about the progress of the light is that and that he would pray the truck as a figure that you'd wonder if he recited it five times. So you can you can pray a

brief prayer. That's still complete. Absolutely.

Chef, I mean, those are our six so I want people to type in the chat if you have all six of them in Sharla data please do type in the chat. I don't want to hold you longer shift because I know you've got a million meetings and we really appreciate you kind of squeezing us in and Charlotte to either but

two things again, well three things. Number one is she has to book which is

meditations on Soul sorts Yousif and it's called when the stars are frustrated. The Prophet series on

yuckiness channel, proofs of Prophethood it's a wonderful, wonderful project may Allah Subhana Allah bless and accept and then number three, which is the link that you have here on your screen and motive done online. This is the course that is devoted to

this topic, mindfulness in salon sha Allah Tada. So it's so over 10 hours,

maybe 14 hours depending on how it gets edited. But in sha Allah Tada it's all devoted to this particular topic. We go over the meanings of Salah certified had the Stations of the prayer, as well as

the stakes. We even Of course, you know, Sheikh Mohammed, we always have to, we always have to introduce a villain. You always got to take it in

in these directions and so we introduce a villain in the course. And the villain is very clear the province of the lobbyists and then define him as signs up. fins up is this guy, this devil who was actually assigned to rob you of your prayer. And so then we talk about how a person can protect themselves in the Salah, and how a person can guard their career even after this the law is over. Yes sir.

That's it so just like a little fade everybody said molybdate online we'd like to thank Jeff Muhammad Ajala Tasha mama Do you have any final tips for us with Ramadan coming around the corner? What's going on with you?

Know man, just pray for us less image saturation. You know, do yourself a favor and take the deep dive. Same way we do at work when we really need to be productive. May Allah bless your time and not allow us for you to take any of this for granted. Remember the sick and the deceased and yourselves do yourself that favor and

I mean subjected yourself to the burst of Allah's Mercy really

subject yourself to the burst of Allah's mercy

I mean, I just love how you come up with these things, man. No, but it's a hadith

literally the word for it stop giving me credit for

so deck yourself to the worst of Allah's Mercy Asha Allah. All right looks like almost everybody said I'm ready

to move