Aqeel Mahmood – Tafseer of Surah alFajr Part 1
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AI: Transcript ©
So last week, we started with the tafsir
of Suratul Fajr.
And last week was a kind of, introduction
to the Surah in a way because we
discussed a hadith which is mentioned
in Tassir Ibn Uqedir at the beginning of
the explanation of this surah
where we told the story of, one of
the companions who basically prolonged his prayer
when a man came and joined him in
the prayer and he left
after after
the companion Mu'adh radiallahu an made the prayer
along. And so this other companion he left
and he prayed separately and he made his
way out of the Masjid. And so when
Mu'adh heard about this, he said, Munafiq, this
person is a hypocrite.
And so he went to the messenger of
Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, and when he
heard about this incident, he called the man
over as well. And so he asked him,
why did you do this? And he said,
because he was prolonging the pray. He was
making the prayer along. And I left because
I wanted to pray by myself because the
prayer was so long and I had business
to attend to so I left. So
the messenger of Allah Sallallahu Salam he told
Mu'adh radiallahu an he said,
Are you someone who's causing fitna? You're someone
who's causing problems.
So again, this shows us, as we mentioned
last week, the importance of looking after one's
community,
bearing in mind the fact that not every
single person in a congregation or in the
community are same. With regards to their iman,
with regards to their strength. And so when
a person,
is leading people in prayer or generally speaking
when a person deals with others, he has
to be soft and easygoing and lenient. And
so he said, why didn't why didn't you
read? Or if only you had read
or Walleli
or Wal Fajr. The Surah Al Fajr is
mentioned, which is why we discussed. And also
we talked about
how Allah
has made this religion
something which isn't
a burden upon people and so something which
is supposed to make things difficult. And we
gave many different examples,
such as, for example, in the absence of
water, a person can make.
Also, we talked about how,
you know, we gave, many examples. For example,
how the principle of
that doubt isn't
certainty isn't removed by doubt. So for example,
if a person's performing tawaf and he's not
sure whether he performed 6 or 7 circuits,
then he knows for sure minimum he's performed
6 circuits.
And so he bases his decision based on
what he's sure of. And we gave other
examples
of the fact that this religion is something
which is easy. For example, a person when
he's traveling, he doesn't have to pray for
raka'at when he's traveling because he's considered to
be a traveler. Someone who's fasting in the
month of Ramadan, if he's traveling,
then the obligation of fasting has been lifted.
All of these examples show us the fact
that Allah Azzawajal
has made this religion easy for us, and
this is what we were talking about last
week. So we never actually went into the
actual tafsir of this Surah in of itself.
So today, inshallah, we're going to be starting
with tafsir of this Surah. And this Surah
is the 89th
surah of the Quran, Suratul Fajr. The 89th
surah of the Quran, and it consists altogether
of 30 ayaas. And the scholars, they say
that
this surah is a Maqi surah, which means
it was revealed in the early years of
the dawah of the messenger of Allah, salam,
before he made the Hijrah to Madinah. So
it was in the Makki era of of
prophethood.
And
if we were to give a basic overview
of this Surah,
basically this Surah the the themes and the
topics of this Surah is that in this
Surah Allah Azzawajal, he's basically reminding us
of those who disbelieved in the past after
making specific oaths. So Allah puts emphasis on
the fact that there are individuals who disbelieved
in the past. So he gives examples of
the people of Ad, for example. The people
of Thamud, Firaun,
and his nation, those who disbelieved. And also
Allah Azzawajal in this surah, he talks about
how human beings, how they behave
in times of wealth and also in times
of poverty.
How their mindset is, what they do, the
way they are, the the way the the
the way their their mindset is, And also
how some of this behavior that they have
will be a cause for them to enter
into the hellfire. And how Allah, subhanahu wa
ta'ala,
you know, has given individuals
this ability to be able to ascertain
right and wrong. And also,
through this,
a person ends up following
his desires.
So even a a person that's why we
mentioned difference between a human being and an
angel is that a person has been given
a choice. And so when he chooses to
follow his desires
in a way as a result of him
choosing to follow his desires and or disobey
Allah, he's basically disregarding
the the inevitability
of the day of judgment itself. The fact
that it's actually going to take place. And
also, Allah at the end, he gives glad
tidings to the good peaceful soul.
Oh, peaceful,
beautiful soul.
And then Allah mentions, for example,
enter
the enter with the rest of the slaves
of Allah, enter into my paradise, enter into
the gardens of Jannah. So this is basically
an overview
of the Surah itself. And if you were
to look at the Surah that are connected
with this Surah, meaning the previous Surah and
the surah which comes after,
the previous surah to this surah is
So this surah comes after
And,
one of the scholars, imam Suyuti Rahimahullah, he
talks about the connection of with
this surah, Surah Al Fajr.
And he talks about how at the end
of Surah Al Hashia, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
he talks about the punishment of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala upon those who disbelieve.
And on this is sort of which we're
very familiar with, especially, you know, on the
day of Jum'ah, people recite the Surah Al
Ataka Hadithullah Ghashiya. Towards the end, Allah says,
remind the people because you're only, someone who
reminds us. That's all your job is. You
can't force people to accept Islam. They all
have a choice of doing either good or
bad. And then he says,
you have no control over them.
Except for those who turn away and disbelieve.
For
you. Then Allah
for those people, he will punish them with
the greatest punishment.
To them or to us is their return.
And upon us is their reckoning. Meaning, we're
going to judge over them and decide their
fate, decide what's going to happen to them.
So this is the ending of the previous
Surah, Surah Al Ghashiya. And then this Surah
Surah Al Fajr, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, he
starts
as opposed to human beings. Human beings, we
can't we can only make an oath by
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or the names of
Allah. Because Allah is the creator, he can
make an oath by anything he wishes. So
he makes these oaths, and then he starts
talking about
those individuals
who disbelieved and those individuals
who are punished as a result of their
disbelief in the past.
And this is how the 2 surahs are
connected. Because in the previous surah, Allah mentions,
Those who disbelieve, Allah will punish them the
greatest punishment.
And in this surah Allah mentions,
Do you not see how you load out
with the people of
Ad. The people of the pillars.
The likes of which has never been created,
in the past.
And the people of Thamud who carved
rocks in the valley because they would live
in in the mountains themselves. They would carve
rooms in the actual mountains that they used
to reside in in that area.
And pharaoh.
So we see, you know, the connection of
these 2 Suras because in the previous Surah,
Allah mentions punishments.
You know how Allah will punish those who
disbelieve. In the next Surah, Allah gives examples
now. He's talking about examples of those who
disbelieved in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala like Samut
and like Ad and like Firaun.
So in the first eye of this Surah,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala he starts by saying,
by
the dawn or by the daybreak.
And we mentioned many times before in previous
surahs like,
Wadduhawatini
Wazaytun,
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala here, as we
mentioned, he makes oaths by any of the
creation that he wants. And whatever he makes
an oath by, there are things which
they they've been given this significance.
The fact that Allah Azzawajal
is making an oath by these things, showing
its status,
showing that they have something valuable to them.
And so Allah sometimes he makes an oath
by physical things,
like
by the fig and the olive, you know,
and he'll make oaths by other things which
are physical. And then he'll make also oaths
based on time, elements of time.
And we mentioned this before, for example,
by, Asur. And Asur literally, it means time.
Or for example, Allah mentions an oath where
he says,
So Allah makes an oath by the daybreak.
The moment the the the the sun rises
and
the the day comes, into existence after the
night. So Allah
likewise in this surah, he's making an oath
by a time period,
by a specific
moment in time,
a moment of the day. So here Allah
is making an oath by Al Fajr.
Now what is Al Fajr? What literally does
the word Fajr actually mean? Because we all
know that the the prayer is is the
Fajr prayer. But what does the word itself
actually mean the word Fajr? The word Fajr
comes from the word Fajr.
And literally in Arabic,
fajr
means when something bursts forth or when something
splits open or when something splits something apart.
Or for example, when something rips open and
as a result of that, light comes through
it.
So this is literally the meaning of fajar.
And also it can mean something which explodes,
an explosion.
That's also what it means. So that's why
sometimes on television, if you see something happening
in a war torn country or an explosion
takes place somewhere, they'll say infijar,
an explosion
based on the same word,
which means when something bursts open, when something
splits open, or when something rips open and
light comes through it. So here, of course,
in this ayah, this word and other ayah
as well,
in the in the Quran,
they are mentioned,
based on this meaning as well. That something
is bursting open, that something is splitting open,
the literal meaning of the word. For example,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, he says
that verily we have,
burst open the earth full of springs, meaning
springs and lakes and water has burst open
from the earth itself.
Also, Allah says,
when he talks about the example
of of, the that individual who was blessed
with a garden.
And between the garden, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says, That
between it, we basically burst open and brought
forth a lake,
which would basically provide for that garden. The
garden would would be self sustaining
based on because of this lake, which went
through it, which Allah caused to burst open.
Also, Allah
says
Allah says that we burst forth or we
made,
12
different springs or 12 different lakes exist and
and come come come apart or or come
about as a result of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'a dividing and splitting up the the sea
when Musa alaihi salam was crossing, when he
was escaping from Firaun.
So, you know, sometimes we have this idea
that the the the sea split in 2,
but that's actually not correct. Because actually in
the Quran it mentions
that it was split into 12 springs or
12 sections.
So,
this word in this meaning is actually
mentioned in the Quran. So the word Fajara
with this meaning comes in the Quran.
Islamically, of course,
it can refer to the salah. So here
in this ayah when Allah says, it can
also be referring to, and this is what
some of the companions mentioned and the Mufassir
don't say, they say it's referring to the
prayer itself. Also other scholars they said, it's
referring to the morning.
Because Fajr itself literally it means something which,
comes about.
And so when light comes first, it's referring
to the early day, the daybreak.
When day comes out of the night, so
it's dark and then light comes out through
the night and the night ceases to exist
and it becomes daylight.
So al Fajr here can be referring to
the prayer. It can also be referring to
the morning itself
when the day first begins and the night
is basically finished. And also some of the
scholars, they said that it refers to Jamia
An Nahar, and some of the companions also
mentioned this, Ibn Abbas, if I'm not mistaken.
He said this refers to the whole of
the day, Jamia An Nahar. Every portion, every
aspect of the day. And previously, we've mentioned
the fact
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala simply by swearing
and making an oath by an aspect of
time shows us the barakah and the blessing
of this time.
The blessing of the morning itself.
And also the blessing and the virtue of
the Fajr prayer. And we're gonna go through
some of the virtues, some of the blessings
of the Fajr prayer, which are mentioned in
the Quran as well as,
not not only not only this ayah itself,
but other ayah in the Quran, which talk
about the virtues of Surat al Fajr. Also,
we'll mention some ahadith, which talk about the
virtues of Surat al Fajr because, of course,
it's always
one point or another with myself or with
anybody else where they become lax and lazy
with regards to the salawat. And Fajr naturally
is one of those salawat which a person
may become lazy with or he may be
it may be difficult for him to basically
end up waking up for on time and
praying.
So it's always a good reminder for ourselves,
for myself first and foremost and for rest
of us to basically remind ourselves of the
virtues of the prayer itself, the virtues of
the fajr prayer. And just like we talked
about the prayer when we discussed sot al-'Asr
and,
other, other things as well related to that
and other oaths which are mentioned in the
Quran. We talked about time managing our time
properly when we talked about sot al-'Asr as
well. So inshallah, it's it's a good way
of reminding one another and, you know, benefiting,
especially considering Ramadan is coming up.
You know, and, especially, you know, the fact
that when Ramadan is going to come, we
don't wanna be in a situation where we're
not able to wake up on time for
the Fajid prayer or wake up for suhoor
before the Fajid prayer because we're not used
to be being in the habit of waking
up on time. So it's always a good
preparation, always a good reminder to discuss these
things. So
from the virtues of the Fajr prayer, which
is mentioned in the Quran,
is the fact that in the Quran, Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, he mentions that the Fajr
prayer, the one who participates
in the Fajr prayer,
this individual
is being witnessed.
There are people who are witnessing this individual
perform the fajr prayer. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
he says,
Allah says perform the prayer at the decline
of the sun, meaning when the day finishes
until the darkness of the night,
darkness of the night, and
the Quran of
Fajr. And here the scholars say, what does
that mean the Quran of Fajr? It's referring
to the Fajr prayer itself.
When the person recites Quran in the Fajr
salah.
So,
here
what's what's meant here is the Fajr prayer
itself. And then Allah says, in the Quran,
verily the Quran of fajr is something which
is witnessed.
The messenger of Allah, he said that verily
the angels
that the angels of the day and the
angels of the night bear witness to him
when he participates in the salawat.
And especially specifically, Allah mentions Quran al Fajr,
the prayer of or the Quran of Fajr.
The prayer the Fajr prayer which is performed,
at at its appointed time. Also, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, he talks about the Fajr prayer
in Surah Alai Imran.
When he says,
Allah mentions and those who pray and beg
for Allah's forgiveness in the last hours of
the night.
And Zaydab Nuslam,
Radia Allahu An, he said that they are
the ones who attend the Fajr prayer in
congregation.
So this is who is being referred to
in this ayah.
Those who seek Allah's forgiveness
towards the last part portion of the night,
the last hours of the night. And some
of the companions I said is referring to
the the Fajr prayer itself. Also, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala he mentions
in Surto
Sajda, he says,
That,
the their sides forsake their beds. So Allah's
praising the believers
and from the praises which he gives them
is that their sides forsake their beds, meaning
they refuse to lay down in their beds
and sleep, and rather they go to invoke
their lord in fear and in hope.
Now when does a person naturally normally go
to bed? When is he in bed? During
the night until the morning. So the scholars,
they said that this is basically referring to
2 salahs.
It's referring to the prayer,
and it's referring to the fajid prayer.
Because the Isha prayer is so late that
a person, especially in the summer in in
in nowadays, in the summer in the summer
days,
the Isha prayer is very late. So a
person may be lying down, maybe relaxing, maybe
getting ready to go to sleep. And so
at this moment in time, when the time
for Isha comes in
and he makes the effort, he has the
strength to get out of bed and to
perform the salah. In this in this situation,
he's rewarded for it. Allah is
remembering and reminding us of the reward,
of this because it's something which is difficult
to do. And also the fajr prayer because
you're in bed.
You're in bed and you wake up specifically
for fear of Allah,
and to invoke and to mix dua and
supplicate to you to your lord in fear
and in hope.
You know, afraid of his of his punishment
and also hopeful that Allah will reward you
because of the deeds that you're doing. So
all these ayat, they talk about the virtues
and the the the stages of the Fajr
prayer itself, and this is in the Quran.
And in the Hadith of the messenger of
Allah, there
are many Hadith which talk about the virtue
of the Fajr prayer as well. From those
Hadith is a Hadith which is in Bukhari
and Muslim
where the messenger of Allah,
he said that
there are angels who take turns
in visiting you by night and by day.
So there are specific angels that come by
night, and they witness and they see us,
and they visit us by night, and also
they come by day as well. The groups
of angels, some of them come during the
night, some of them come during the day.
And he said they all assemble
at two moments
of the day,
once at Fajr time and once at Assur
time. So once for Fajr and once for
Asr. To these these two times of the
day. And then he said those who have
spent the night with you,
ascend to the heavens and their lord who
knows better than them, asks them what condition
did you leave my servant in?
So when they leave, when a portion of
the angels leave and they go to the
heavens, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala asks them, you
know, what did you what condition did you
leave my servants? How did you leave them
behind? And, of course, Allah knows how he
left the slaves. Allah knows how they left
the slaves behind because Allah is all knowing,
but he's trying to basically make an example.
He's trying to, you know, show people and
show the angels
how obedient some of his slaves are. And
so he asked the angels, what condition did
you leave my slaves in? And they reply,
we left them while they were performing salah,
and we went to them while they were
performing salah.
Meaning so when we went to them, they
were performing salah because they go at Assur
time or or at Fajr time. And so
they say we left them when they were
forming
salah, and we came to them later, and
they were also performing salah.
And so this is a praise for the
slaves of Allah, and it's a mercy from
Allah. The fact that Allah asks the angels
because he has to ask the angels. The
angels won't just say it because our angels
only do whatever Allah
orders them to do.
And so the reason why Allah asks them
in the first place is for our own
benefit.
Because when Allah asks them they have to
respond, and when they respond in this way,
who benefits?
We benefit because who's mentioning us?
The angels. And the angels are blessed creations
of Allah.
So, SubhanAllah, you know, sometimes a person can
take this hadith and he can,
misconstrue and misunderstand the hadith. And he can
say, look, Allah doesn't know what's happening to
his own slaves. But the whole point is
that he's trying to get the angels to
speak about the righteous slaves of Allah on
this earth.
And so he asks them, and they reply,
and they said, we left them while they
were performing salah, and we went to them
and they were performing salah. So they're basically
praising us while we're here on this earth
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala himself. And so
he's reminded the angels also of the reason
why he created
the Adam, alayhis salam, in the first place.
Because from the the offspring of Adam, there'll
be those who are righteous.
So this is a beautiful hadith which talks
about this, you know, the this this this
incident which takes place on a day to
day basis with the angels,
this creation of light, and Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. The fact that the angels have this
conversation with Allah,
you know, with regards to the righteous slaves
of Allah, and we can only ask Allah
that he makes us from those righteous slaves
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Also, another hadith which talks about the virtues
of the Fajr prayer
is when the messenger of Allah alaihi sallam,
he mentioned the hadith narrated by Muslim.
He said that the
2 rakat
of fajr,
the 2 sunnah
prayers, the 2 rakats which are the sunnah
of of of the fajr prayer before the
fajr prayer are better than this world and
all that it contains.
So when a person
prays
2 optional prayers,
the sunnah prayers, before the Fajr prayer itself,
then it's better than the whole world and
everything that that is inside of this earth,
everything that this earth contains.
So this again shows us
the the beauty and the the immense mercy
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
just by the fact that we can pray
these 2 optional prayers before the obligatory prayer,
the the obligatory fudgeal prayer, and it's worth
more than this burden, everything that that it
contains.
Also, another hadith of the messenger of the
alaihi wa sallam,
when he talked about the difficulty
of the these 2,
these 2 prayers being on the monastic and
the hypocrite.
So he said the most difficult prayers for
the Monafiq, for the Monafiq and for the
hypocrites
are the Isha prayer and the Fajr prayer.
And if only they knew what these prayers
contained with regards to their reward
and the blessing in these two prayers, they
would come to pray even if they had
to crawl.
So even if they were weren't able to
to come because of an injury or because
of some other reason, they will still make
their way if only they truly knew and
understood
the the reward and the benefits,
that these two prayers contain, they would come
even if they had to crawl. So this
shows us again the the virtue and the
status
of the prayer and also the Fajr prayer
as well. Also another hadith of the messenger
of Allah alayhi wasallam
when,
he mentioned in a hadith
narrated by Muslim
when he said that
He said whoever prays the prayer in congregation,
then it's as if he has standed half
of the night in prayer.
Whoever stands and whoever participates in the prayer.
In congregation,
it's as if he's prayed half of the
night in prayer.
And then he said,
whoever prays the Fajr prayer in congregation,
then it's as if he's prayed the whole
of the night.
So, again, this shows us the the reward
behind an individual praying the prayer and praying
the prayer in congregation.
Also, another hadith of the messenger of Allah
Alaihi Sallam
talking about the virtues,
of the Fajr prayer.
He said, whoever prays the Fajr prayer, a
Hadithan Muslim, whoever prays the Fajr prayer,
he is then under the protection of Allah
subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
So beware, oh son or daughter of Adam,
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doesn't hold you
to account for being away or absent
from his protection for any reason.
So Allah
is basically telling us of the reward
of praying the fajr prayer, the fact that
you'll be under the protection of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. So don't
go out of your way to be away
from the protection of Allah.
Don't exclude yourself from this protection of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And the scholars, they talked
about this hadith,
and,
they talked about why specifically Fajr.
Why specifically is Fajr mentioned in this hadith
and not other salawat? And we mentioned before
that the reason why Fajr is mentioned is
because,
Fajr is normally the prayer which is difficult
for people to
be able to maintain and be able to
to pray because of the hardship it entails.
You know, performing it is a sign of
an individual's sincerity
and the sign of an individual's iman and
the faith. The fact that a person can
pray the fajr prayer on a consistent basis
shows his level of iman, shows his level
of faith,
which may be more than others who aren't
able to pray the Fajr prayer on a
consistent basis. You know, whoever is a sincere
believer, whoever has sincerity,
whoever is able to wake up for the
Fajr prayer, then he deserves the protection of
Allah
because he's making that extra effort.
Now what does his protection mean? What does
what does his protection of Allah
actually mean? The scholars are different with regards
to what this protection actually meant. Some of
the scholars, they said,
this hadith
proves or shows
that an individual
who prays the Fajr prayer,
this individual
shouldn't be harmed by others.
So when a person makes the effort and
he prays, he wakes up and he prays
the fajal prayer, then this individual, because of
the effort that he's making, he shouldn't be
harmed and no one should harm that individual.
Because he's making this effort and he's showing
this obedience to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And,
you know, it this also shows us,
the fact that
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is able to protect his slave in this
life and also in the hereafter.
If something happens to an individual in this
world after he's prayed the Fajr prayer on
a continuous basis,
then you can't say
that this hadith,
is is is
basically, is not true because
I wasn't protected by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Because this hadith could refer to protection in
this world, and it could refer to protection
in the
from the hellfire as well. Also, if we
look at the messenger of Allah, SAWSAWLAM,
there were times when he would pray and
things would happen to him.
He would be in Mecca, for example, and
the the the Muslim,
they would harm him and they would do
all kinds of things, and he would pray
the Fajr prayer every single day on a
continuous basis.
So, again, when we talk about protection, also
sometimes that something may happen to an individual,
but there may be some good coming out
of it that he doesn't realize, he doesn't
notice.
So a person has to be careful with
regards to,
not,
not
trusting
these Hadith of the messenger of Allah Alaihi
Salam. Because we know for sure that these
Hadith and these Ayat and the things which
are mentioned with regards to Islam are true
100%.
But with regards to our intellect and our
our understanding, that's what's limited now.
That's what, you know, that's
our logic won't be able to understand everything
with regards to the commandments and the ordainments
of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. We don't even
understand things which take place on this earth.
So a person has to be careful with
regards to questioning,
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala or questioning some of
his rulings or judgments. Also,
there's a beautiful story which is mentioned
proving,
this opinion of the scholars that it means
a person shouldn't be harmed, that this person
who prays a fajr prayer shouldn't be harmed.
There's a story about the son of Abdullah
ibn al Amr
who was himself the son of Omar Ibn
Khattab, the famous leader of the Muslims.
His name was Salim ibn Umar
Ibn Umar Ibn Khattab.
This man, he was sitting with Al Hajjaj,
the famous Muslim ruler who was oppressive and
he killed, many people. He was sitting with
Al Hajjaj, and Al Hajjaj
said to him, stand up and strike this
person's neck.
So Salim,
he stood up and he picked up the
sword, and he took hold of the man,
and he headed, with him towards the gate
of the palace.
And then his father looked at him when
he was taking this man out,
and
he said to him,
is he really going to do this? So
the father of the narrator of this hadith.
So Al Ahmesh is the one narrating this
hadith. So he narrating this hadith, and he
says that his father looked at him and
he saw him. He was taking this man
out and he's asking. Well, he may have
been Abdul Abdul Abin Amr, the father of
Salim. So it's Abdul Abin Amr who's basically
looking at his son, noticing what he's doing.
And he's repeating this 2 or 3 times.
He's asking himself, is he really going to
kill this man by the order of a
Hajjaz? Because Hajjaz is the leader of the
Muslims.
So
he goes out and is about to,
you know, execute this person, about to strike
his neck, about to kill him. And Salim,
he asks this man, he says, did you
pray Fajr prayer?
And so the man, he replies, and he
responds, and he says yes. And so he
says to him, then take whichever path you
want. Basically, leave. I'm not going to harm
you. And he takes his his sword, and
he throws his sword away. And so when
Hajjaz
approaches him and he says to him, did
you strike his neck? He asks him, and
he says no. So he says, why didn't
you strike him? And so he said, because
I heard my father, Abdulai ibn Umar, say
that the messenger of Allah, he said, whoever
prays Fajr is under the protection of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala until evening comes.
And so, basically, he never struck his neck.
And Hajjaj also never harmed Salim as a
result of this, and he let him go
free. So this is a beautiful hadith which
talks about
the the iman of the companions and of
the the the salaf of the past even
in the face of oppression and in in
the face of,
you know, harm where their own lives may
have been at risk. But even then, they
always, you know,
take
make Islam in of itself their priority before
anything
else. The other scholars, they said that this
hadith is referring to the fact that individual
who who prays the Fajr prayer, who observes
the Fajr prayer, who participates in the Fajr
prayer, then this person is under the protection
of Allah. Meaning,
Allah will
give security to this person. Allah
won't punish this individual
because he made the effort to participate
in the Fajr prayer in and of itself.
Also,
other hadith which talk about the virtue of
the Fajr prayer,
it said that there was a hadith or
there was a hadith in, Bukhari and Muslim,
where Abu Horeb
narrated that the messenger of Allah he said
that,
if they knew, and this is similar to
a hadith we've done previously, where he said,
if they knew what the reward what the
reward of prayer
is, then they would come to it even
if they had to crawl. Also, another hadith
in where
the messenger of Allah, he said, whoever prays
the morning prayer in congregation, whoever prays the
fudger prayer in congregation.
And then after this, he sits remembering Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala until the sun rises.
And then he prays Turaka'at,
the Duha prayer,
which is basically performed after the sun has
written. We talked about the Duha prayer when
we talked about, the.
He said whoever prays the morning prayer in
congregation,
and then he sits remembering Allah until the
sun rise and then prays
out of Dua, he will have a reward
similar to the Hajj and the Umrah pilgrimage.
So this is the reward of a an
individual who performs the Fajr prayer in a
congregation,
stays in his place,
remembers Allah, waits for the sun to rise,
and then performs Turakat of Dua prayer. It's
as if a person traveled
to Mecca, performed Hajj, performed Umrah, and then
came back.
So just in the space of a couple
of hours,
you know, or even an hour, depending on
how many fajr prayer is, you know, and
when the sun rises, basically, you've got the
reward of someone who performs Hajj al Umrah.
So, again, this shows us how easy Allah,
subhanahu wa ta'ala, has made certain things for
us. You know, it's not difficult for a
person to attain good deeds. It's not difficult
for a person to, you know,
stack up lots of good deeds in in
a space of a short amount of time.
Also, the messenger of Allah, he
mentioned in another hadith,
his or rather,
he mentioned
in one of his quotes, one of his
sayings,
he said for me to attend the Fajr
prayer in congregation
is dearer to me than spending the night
in prayer.
For me to attend the Fajid prayer in
congregation
is dearer to me and more beloved to
me than spending the night in prayer. Now
why is this the case? Why did he
say it's more dearer to me to attend
the Fajid prayer in congregation
than for me to spend the night, entire
night, in in in prayer,
during the night? First of all, because of
the virtue of the fudged prayer itself.
Also, because of the fact that you're praying
in congregation.
And so if a person prays at night
on his own, there's a different feeling to
that in and of itself. When a person
is praying in congregation, there's a sense of
brotherhood. There's a sense of being with others
who have also made the effort to attend
the prayer itself. And so it's it's a
special time. It's a time when a person
is with other people who have made the
same amount of effort, and you're praying in
congregation. There's a sense of brotherhood, and, you
know, it has the specific feeling to it
also because it's a folk prayer. It's obligatory
prayer. Whereas the other salawat, the night prayer,
generally speaking, is an optional prayer. It's not
something you have to do. Whereas the Fajr
prayer is something which, you know, is is
not obligation upon every single one of us.
Also, Imam al Shulkani,
he talks about,
from the one of the virtues of the
Fajr prayer. He talks about a virtue of
the Fajr prayer, and he says that
the heart of the believer
is closest to Allah
at the time of Fajr.
The heart of the believer is closest to
Allah
at the time of Fajr. Now why is
this the case? Why does he say that
this is the time when a slave's heart
is closest to Allah? He says because at
this moment in time, when a slave wakes
up at the time of Fajr,
why is he waking up?
Why is he waking up?
What?
To worship Allah. When a person normally wakes
up in the morning, what does he wake
up for?
For for breakfast
because he's hungry, to go to work,
okay, to go to college, to university, to
go to school,
okay, because he has an appointment somewhere.
You know? For for whatever reason he wakes
up, he's not doing it for the sake
of Allah. When he wakes up specifically
for the fajr prayer,
he's waking up for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
himself.
And so because of this,
his heart is closest to Allah because
he never woke up for any other reason
except to worship Allah. Soon as he wakes
up, he's thinking about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And also considering the fact that Allah
took your soul during the night
because your soul is taken out from your
body. It's suspended over your body when you
go to sleep. And so if the last
thing you do before you go to sleep
is to remember Allah, and then the first
thing you do, as soon as you wake
up, as soon as Allah puts your soul
back into your body is to remember Allah,
then, of course, you can only imagine the
effect that this will have on your iman.
You know, the effect that it will have
on your soul in and of itself.
The fact that the first thing you do
as soon as you wake up, as soon
as your soul is placed into your body
once again, you know,
you know, after after a night of sleep,
after a night of it being suspended over
you, the first thing you do is you
worship Allah. You pray to Allah. Then, of
course, this is going to have an impact
on your heart. It's going to have an
impact on your soul. It's going to increase
your iman, strengthen your iman, make you stronger.
So these are just some examples
of
the the virtues and the and and the
stages of the prayer,
in Islam. And so reminding to every single
one of us about making sure that we
observe
this salawat, especially now that we're in the
summer. Fajid prayer is very early.
You know, Asia prayer is very late. It's
harder for a person to to make an
effort,
you know, for or to to be able
to observe this salawat.
But, you know, when the price,
is low,
everybody buys as as some someone once said.
When the price is low, everyone buys. When
something is easy to do, then everyone does
it. When something is difficult to do, then
not everyone can achieve it. And those who
achieve it, they're rewarded by Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
And so, you know, a person should try
to, you know, encourage himself and encourage others,
his family, and so on to, you know,
make emphasis
to these specific prayer,
the prayer. Person should sleep early. You know,
don't waste time when you go to sleep.
Make sure you do your adkar. Don't do
anything haram. Don't watch anything or listen to
anything haram before you go to sleep because,
of course, this will have an effect on
you in the morning.
Because if a person is looking or watching
things or doing things which are haram, then
goes to sleep straight away, he has the
influence of the shaitan during the night then.
And so then it's harder for him to
wake up for fajr.
Whereas if a person goes to sleep remembering
Allah in a state of reading
Quran, listening to good things, making his adkar,
and then he goes to sleep, then it's
easier for for him to be able to
wake up because the influence of Shaitan isn't
there. It's weaker.
And, also, when he wakes up in the
morning, first thing you should do is do
your and remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Do
the remembrance of the morning.
You know, because we know the famous hadith
where,
Shaytan ties 3 knots,
and those knots are untied,
in the morning. 1st, when you remember Allah
first thing in the morning, then when you
perform, the second knot is untied, and then
the third knot is untied when you pray.
So if a person wakes up and remembers
Allah straight away and then forms and then
prays, he wakes up fresh.
You know? And so the Fajr prayer in
of itself doesn't cause someone to become lazy,
but it causes someone to gain strength and
to be to be stronger for the rest
of the day. So inshallah, we ask Allah,
subhanahu wa ta'ala, that he gives us the
strength to be able to,
perform the Fajr prayer and be consistent with
them. And also that Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
gives us the ability to be able to
witness the month of Ramadan and that we're
able to make this the best Ramadan,
that we've, experienced
before.
If there's any questions, then I'll do my
best to answer them, Shah. No.
I lost you.
So you're right.
It depends what you're doing.
Okay.
It depends. If you're if you're doing alghar
and remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then you'll
be rewarded for those acts specifically.
Yeah. It depends on what specifically you're doing.
Yeah. Yeah. So Allah
mentions a link between
and.
And so he says towards the end of,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala talks about those who
disbelieve.
So Allah says for
your those who disbelieve, Allah will punish them
with the greatest punishment.
In Surah Fader, towards the beginning after he
makes these those oaths, he talks about he
gives examples.
Do you not see how you're no doubt
with the people of Ad, the people of
Iran, you know, and the people of Thamud.
So basically, he's talk he mentions the punishment
in general in Surahashiya,
how Allah is going to punish those who
disbelieve. And then he gives examples of that
in Surah Fajr.
Yes. So
so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, as we mentioned,
he mentioned in the Quran that the the
ocean or the sea itself was split into
12 sections.
So it wasn't split into 2.
You know, sometimes we hear, you know, the
things that we see, you know, sometimes
in the film, 10 commandments, the famous famous
film
that those to see split into, you know,
and this is a biblical thing. But in
Islam, we believe that it was split to
6 oh, sorry, 12 sections.
Yeah.