Aqeel Mahmood – Ways To Attain Tranquility in Your Prayer
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AI: Transcript ©
Khateeb at Green Lane Masjid.
So without further ado, Insha'Allah, I'll pass over
to
away. Many of us were going to experience
certain things in the month of Ramadan
which we haven't experienced since the last Ramadan.
Maybe some of us haven't prayed the long
prayers since last Ramadan's, you know, since the
last
Ramadan
prayer. Maybe some of us haven't fasted since
the last Ramadan.
Maybe some of us haven't read as much
Quran as we would have liked since the
previous Ramadan that we had.
And
today's talk is going to be talking specifically
about the salah
and about how to attain or
tranquility
in the prayer.
You know, and considering Ramadan is just coming
up, I think it's very important for us
to be able to know and learn and
attain
this this valuable,
piece of information
to improve our salah, not just in the
month of Ramadan, but also outside of the
month of Ramadan.
Many times a person starts to pray
as even outside of the month of Ramadan
and he tends to get distracted,
and he doesn't have that sense of
and that tranquility that he wants in the
prayer.
He doesn't feel that sense of.
So inshallah, what we plan on doing today
is going through some things
that an individual can do in order to
maintain his in the prayer. And before we
go into these different things that a person
can do to improve and maintain his in
the
different things that a person can do to
improve and maintain his
in the salah,
I wanna talk about
why first of all, what is
and why is so important?
In the Arabic language is to have calmness
and peace and tranquility
in the prayer.
That's what Khushu is. So when we talk
about Khushu, this is what it means, that
you're in the salah and you have this
sense of peace and you have this sense
of security while you're praying. And many of
us, we tend to lose this quality in
our salah,
you know, and it becomes something which we
do just out of,
you know, out of necessity maybe or out
of, you know, is part of our schedule,
is part of our schedule, is part of
our routine, and is something that we do
day in and day out and it loses
its value. It loses its, you know, its
special
status in our lives.
So Khushu is having a sense of peace
and tranquility
in the salah.
Why is Khushu so important?
Khushu is important because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
mentions it in the Quran. And in fact,
he describes
Khusho as one of the characteristics
of the believer. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
verily the believers
are successful.
The believers are victorious. And then Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala says,
he describes the believers
and he says, Those who when they pray,
they have
they have in their prayer.
So one of the attributes
of a believer, of a mumin is that
he has this
in the salah. And also because Allah
helps those individuals
who have
in their salah. Allah
will help them. Allah says
seek help through patience
and through prayer.
And then Allah says,
verily, this is something which is great. It's
something which is hard. It's something which is
difficult.
Except for those who have.
So if a person has khushur in the
prayer, he has the sense of tranquility in
the salah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will help
him.
So it's something which is important.
And also the the most obvious benefit is
that your taste, the sweetness of the salah
when you have khushu.
When it becomes a normality, when it becomes
something you're doing every single day and it
just becomes, you know, something just
that you're doing out of necessity, then you
it loses its flavor. It loses
its essence. It loses
that, you know, that sweetness that you're supposed
to get from the salah. The messenger of
Allah aliahi wa sallam, whenever the time for
salah would come, he would say to
You know, give us glad tidings of the
prayer by giving the azaan. So he used
to look forward to the salah because he
knew it was a means of communicating with
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It was a means
of getting away from this, you know, this
world and the desires and the the distractions
of this world, and
maintain his hushu in the salah? How can
a person
improve or maintain
his tranquility in the prayer?
I'm gonna mention certain things that a person
can do
before the salah,
and then I'm gonna mention some things that
you can do during the salah
and also some things that you can do
after the prayer to maintain your khushu in
the prayer.
If a person has finished his prayer,
then how can there be things that you
can do after the prayer to maintain your
kushu in the prayer if you've already finished
the salah?
But we'll we'll talk about that when we
get there inshallah. But altogether, we're gonna mention
15 ways. Okay. 15 ways to maintain your
and the prayer.
The first one or the first five
are things that you can do before the
salah itself, before the salah has even started,
in order get the person mentally prepared for
the salah.
The first thing is not to rush when
you're making your way to the Masjid for
the salah.
Don't run
to the prayer.
The messenger of Allah, he said that if
the salah has started,
do not approach it running, but approach it
walking with calmness.
And then he said, whatever you catch up
with from the salah, then pray, and whatever
you have missed then completed after.
So there's no reason for a person to
rush for the salah. The messenger of Allah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he forbid someone from
rushing to the salah.
And one of the benefits and one of
the
reasons for this is because if a person
is rushing to the salah, he's running to
the salah,
okay, or even if he's in a car
for example and he's going 60 miles per
hour on a 30 mile per hour road,
it it constitutes the same thing. You're rushing,
you can cause, first of all, you can
cause damage to yourself or you can cause
damage to others.
And secondly,
because when you get to the masjid and
you were rushing to the salah and you
were running to the masjid for the prayer,
when you actually get into the prayer,
you're you're too busy getting your breath back
that you're not focusing on the salah itself.
You're not paying attention to this conversation you're
having with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You're not
actually focused. The first few moments of the
you're going to be trying to get your
breath, trying to get your breath back, trying
to, you know,
go get get back to normality if you
like. So, a person shouldn't rush the shouldn't
shouldn't rush when he goes to the Masjid
for the salah.
The second thing a person can do
is perfect your wudu.
When you perform wudu, when you perform ablution
before the salah, make sure you perfect your
wudu and take your time with this
this act of worship
before the prayer.
You know, when we go to visit a
friend that we haven't visited for a long
time or we're going for a wedding for
example or we're going out
for some kind of party, we like to
shower, we like to, you know, bathe, we
like to dress up, we like to look
good, we like to put perfume on, we
like to present ourselves in a good way
because we know we're going to be meeting
someone we haven't met for a long time,
people, you know, who are close to us,
some relatives, some cousins, some friends, and so
we wanna look presentable.
And so we bathe, we shower, and we
wear our best clothes, and then we make
our way to wherever we're going.
With regards to the salah, you're going to
meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You're conversing with
Allah himself
himself in the prayer.
So it's even more important,
more important than any kind of, you know,
appointment that you might have or event that
you might have planned in your life.
That you purify yourself and you present yourself
in the best possible way.
And part of this is by perfecting your
and
itself
is an act of worship. So don't neglect
this this this act of worship before you
make the salah. The messenger of Allah alaihi
wa sallam, he said,
There is no salah for the one who
doesn't have wudu.
And you all know the story of the
one who didn't complete his wudu properly, and
so the messenger of Allah alaihi sata wasalam
told him to go and perfect his wudu
because he had missed out a small part,
you know, of his body.
So a person should
try to perfect his wudu before he comes
to the salah. And all of these things
that, you know, you do before the prayer,
it's mentally preparing you for the salah. It's
a type of mental preparation
so that you're ready for the salah, so
that you're ready to meet Allah
The third thing that a can do before
the salah
is
wearing the appropriate
clothing
and looking good before you have this conversation
with your creator.
You know, many times,
many of us we when the time for
salah comes, we don't dress
we don't dress up for the occasion
even though we're meeting Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
You know, the time for salah might come
and we might pray in our in our
pajamas or whatever whatever we might be wearing,
and then when somebody knocks on our door,
we we rush to put something put some
nice clothes on because you know we don't
know who's gonna who's gonna who's knocking on
our door. We don't know who's come, and
so we try to look presentable.
But there's more of a reason for us
and it's even more important for us to
dress appropriately
when we're praying to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And the stories of, you know, scholars of
the past
who they would wear the best of clothes
when they would go to the Masjid.
Some of the scholars of the past, and
I think it was Imam Anil Sayyid or
Imam It
said that whenever he would go to the
Masjid, he would wear the best of clothes.
He would wear the nicest clothes. And he
said that one day he went to a
a masjid
to,
collect a hadith from from a from a
scholar from a sheikh who was teaching people
hadith. So he went to this masjid and
he was about to sit in this in
this sitting
Sheikh who was delivering his lecture on hadith,
and when the Sheikh saw him and he
saw the way he was dressed
in such nice clothes, he sent him away,
he threw him out.
Because
he thought that this man was a spy
working for the government because of the clothes
he was wearing,
man was a spy working for the government
because of the clothes he was wearing, because
of the expensiveness of his clothes, because of
how nice his clothes were, and so he
sent him away.
And then the imam, he went outside of
the masjid and he started to listen to
the Hadith from outside of the wall of
the masjid. He never stopped him from seeking
knowledge.
He stood outside of the wall of the
masjid and he was listening to the Hadith
delivered by the sheikh. And when he recorded
them, he said when he was recording these
hadith, he said
masjid. He said, I am I heard these
hadith from this scholar and I was outside
of the masjid so that people wouldn't think
that he was a student of the sheikh
and he was sitting inside. Subhanallah.
So you learn many things from this. From
them is his sincerity
and also
the fact that he would really, you know,
make an effort when he would go to
the houses of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And
when he would remember Allah as a wajal,
he would like
intention when he prays. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says,
worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala purely for his
religion, purely for his sake.
And we all know the importance of intention.
The messenger of Allah
said actions are but by the intention.
When a person is about to pray, he
needs to be in the right frame of
mind. He needs to understand that he's about
to pray to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And
when a person makes intention, he doesn't have
to say anything out loud. There's nothing he
has to say out loud. It's not something
verbal that he has to say. There's nothing
been mentioned by the messenger of Allah alaihi
wasalam or in the sunnah that would say
something out loud before al salah in order
to make this intention. But it's something which
is, you know, it's it's a it's a
state of mind that you're in. For example,
if it's a Asr time
and you're going to the masjid,
why are you going to the masjid?
To pray asr.
So the the the intention
is is is a state of mind. When
a person is going for Maghrib prayer and
he's performing wudu, why is he performing wudu?
Because he getting ready for the Maghrib prayer.
So this is his intention
because he's in that state of mind where
he's getting ready for the salah.
I remember when,
I was in Madinah, one of our teachers
he talked about,
he mentioned this time when he was in
the masjid and he he heard someone
before the salah. The salah had started and
someone came next to him in the Haram
in Madinah,
and he raised his hands
and he was he was saying something before
the salah. He was making so called intention.
And so he raised his hands and he
was about to pray, and before he started
to pray, he did this.
And he put his hands down, then he
put his hands up again. He started speak
started saying stuff again. And his intention he
hadn't done his intention properly, or so he
thought he didn't think he didn't do his
intention properly. And so he said, no, no.
I haven't done it properly. And then he
raise his hands again, he made intention again.
Subhanallah, you know when this kind of thing
happens,
you're you're opening a door for the shaitan
to come in.
And shaitan is gonna keep saying to you,
no, you haven't made intention properly. You haven't
said it properly.
You know, you haven't said that you're standing.
I mean, he's in the masjid and the
salah has started and it's the Maghrib prayer
or whatever prayer it is,
and
he's he's not not sure whether he has
the correct intention or not.
Whereas it's obvious that, you know, he's there
for the salah.
So the intention is something which a person
has in his mind, it's in his heart,
it's a state of mind that the individual's
in before he starts the salah.
Another thing that a person can do,
and this can be before the salah can
be during, the salah can be after after
the can be outside of the salah at
any time is for him to make dua
to Allah
to improve his and to give him when
he's praying. The messenger of he said
a dua in and of itself is
worship.
And Allah
says
that when my slave asks me, then no,
I am close.
I respond
So the condition for a person's dua to
be accepted is that he has to make
dua in the first place.
You have to make that effort.
And a person should make the effort with
regards to,
his
and he should make dua that Allah
gives him. It's Allah
who gives that person, you know, the strength
to pray in the first place. This is
why we say every single day, every single
when
we pray. You alone we worship and you
alone we ask for help.
And it's interesting because
when we say
asking help from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
an act of worship.
When we when we ask Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala for help, it's an act of worship.
So why does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mention
and you alone we worship and you alone
we ask for help? Why does he mention
help here when it's already under the category
of Ibadah, under the category of worship? Why
didn't he just say
and that's it?
And asking Allah for help is part of
worship. Why did he mention worship in this
ayah?
Because
an individual can't worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
properly
and correctly
and perfectly and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
properly and correctly and perfectly and to the
best of his ability except with the help
of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And this is why
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
You alone we worship and you alone we
ask for help because without your help of
Allah, we won't be able to worship you
properly.
You know, when it comes to the ayat
of Allah,
it just sometimes it takes a bit of,
tadabur, a bit of contemplation
to really understand the depth and what Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is telling us and why
he says the things that he says in
the Quran in specific surahs, you know, it's
I really encourage the brother to read it,
you know, read the tafsir
of surahs that we
read every single day because sometimes
we read them and we don't really understand
or contemplate what we're reading.
And I don't wanna get into, like, you
know, tafsir,
but there's many things that a person can
learn simply by reading
the of the Quran. For example, Surah Lahab.
A Surah we all
know. Allah says,
he says,
the in this ayah
the in this ayah has 2 different meanings.
It can be a question
and it can also be a negation, it
can be a negative.
It can be a question,
how has his wealth benefited him?
How has he benefited from his wealth and
from what he has profited from? Talking about
Abu Lahab. But it can also be a
negation.
When I say for example, I'm not going
to go. It's a negation. It's a negative.
It can also be a negation.
His wealth
hasn't benefited him.
His wealth hasn't benefited him whatsoever.
So it has double meanings.
So anyway that was just, you know, a
side point, but the point is that a
person needs to understand and contemplate the Quran
when he's reciting the book of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
And dua is another
way of asking or dua is another way
of making sure that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
gives you in the prayer and strengthens your
while you're praying to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And there are certain times when a person's
dua is accepted,
you know, for example
between the and the between the and the
of the salah.
After the salah, when it rains,
when it's raining, it's a time it's an
opportunity for a person to make dua. Alhamdulillah,
you know, we're living here in England. You
know, it's raining most the time, so it's
a good opportunity for us. You know, we
should take advantage of it. Look on the
bright side. You can make dua at that
time. The last 3rd of the night is
a time to for a person to make
dua and supplicate to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So dua one of those ways a person
can,
increase
or maintain his in the salah itself.
Those are things that a person can do
before he's actually started the prayer in order
to maintain his
How many things have we
mentioned so far? 5. Five things.
Who can go through the all of them?
Yeah. Don't rush to the masjid.
Do you will do perfect? You will do.
Okay. Appropriate clothing.
Yeah.
Correct intention and making dua to Allah that
he increases your
in the prayers.
Okay. So that's what you can do before
the salah. That a certain thing that a
person can do during the prayer to maintain
his
and to keep his, you know, this this
quality of having peace and calmness and tranquility
in the salah.
Six things altogether,
during the prayer that you can do to
maintain your kusho. The first thing that a
person can do is right at the beginning
of the prayer. What's the first thing that
a person does in the salah? It's takbiratulikhram.
When raises his hands and he starts the
prayer. And this when he raises his hands
for the first time and he starts the
prayer is called And why is it called?
Haram? Haram, you might have heard the word
before. You know, when a person goes for
Umrah of Hajj and he wears,
he's in a state of Haram. You know,
he wears the 2 white garments and he's
called being in a state of Haram. Why
is it called Haram?
Because certain certain things
are haram for you. Certain things are forbidden
for you. When you're going for umrah or
for Hajj, you're not allowed to cut your
nails. When you're in the state of Haram,
you're not allowed to cut your head, you're
not allowed to put perfume on. Certain things
are forbidden for you. When a person
makes now certain things have become become forbidden
for him. He can't move around. He can't
walk around. He can't talk,
you know, to other people. It's forbidden for
him because now he's in the presence of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And also, it's interesting that we make
when we start the salah,
but we don't make
and we don't make
We say subhanallah.
And we don't say
when we start the prayer. And we don't
say
Why do we say Takbir?
Why is it Takbir at the beginning of
the salah? Why isn't it something else? Why
isn't it the Shahada?
Why isn't it the Halil saying saying there's
no god but Allah
Why don't we say that instead? Why do
we say Takbir? Why is Allahu Akbar?
Akbar in the Arabic language,
it can mean greatest
and it can also mean greater.
So if I said, Muhammad Akbar min Abdullah.
Muhammad
is bigger than Abdullah. He's older than Abdullah.
So Akbar can also mean greater.
So when a person starts his salah, he's
saying takbir and he's raising his hands because
he's declaring and he's reminding himself that Allah
is greater.
Greater than what?
Greater than everything else.
There's nothing which is more important than Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, nothing which is greater than
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, nothing which is as
relevant or as important as Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala at this moment in time before he's
about to start the salah or even after
the salah. Allah is greater than anything and
everything else in existence.
And this is why he says Allahu Akbar.
Allah is the greatest.
So he's putting himself in that frame of
mind where nothing else matters. My job doesn't
matter. That can wait.
You know, my
My salah is more important. My relationship with
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is greater than everything
else.
And so he he has this in his
mind when he's making this first takbir, and
he raises his hands.
He raises his hands when he starts his
salah. Why does he raise his hands?
You know, when somebody comes to us and
he wants us to do a chore,
okay, and you don't want to do it,
you're not interested, it doesn't interest you. It's
not something fun.
And so when he tells you to do
this, you're like, you know what? I don't
wanna know. I'm not interested.
You know, and you make that whole motion
with your hand. I don't wanna know. Forget
about that. I'm not interested.
When we start the salah, we're raising our
hands because we're saying nothing else is as
important
as the salah itself.
So we raise our hands
up to our shoulders or up to our
ears, and we say nothing else is as
important as the salah. Everything else is secondary.
Everything else is unimportant right now except for
my conversation and my worship to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. And this is why we raise
our hands.
So it puts the person in the right
frame of mind. He's now ready to have
this conversation with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So that's the first thing that a person
can do during the salah.
The second thing a person can do
and
the 7th thing altogether
is
when you're reciting the Quran or when you're
hearing the imam recite the Quran
to focus
and pay attention
to every single that the imam is reciting,
every single word that the imam is reciting,
and every single letter that the imam is
reciting. Because if you're paying attention to every
single letter that the imam is reciting, then
it's not possible for a person to
become distracted. It won't be
salah because he's paying so much attention to
what the imam is saying. And part of
this is trying to,
you know, understand
what the imam is reciting.
And many many of us we don't give
ourselves,
you know, enough
credit
with regards to the book of Allah and
with regards to understanding the book of Allah.
Sometimes we think, you know what, for for
those who who aren't Arabs, we say, you
know, I don't know Arabic, so I don't
really know what the imam is saying. I
don't understand.
But there's a lot of things that we
understand
in the salah,
and maybe it's something which we didn't even
think about, we didn't even realize.
You know for example,
how do you say heaven in in Arabic?
Jannah.
But how many times do we hear jannah
in the Quran do we actually think about
heaven? Do we actually think about paradise? Do
we actually think about the rewards of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala? The rivers of milk and
honey,
you know, the the house is made of
gold. How many times do we think about
that?
How many times when we hear the the
Arabic word for hellfire, Jahannam,
do we think about hellfire and the fact
it's gonna be 70 times hotter than the
fire of this world. We all know the
names of the prophets and messengers.
Adam alaihi salam, Ibrahim,
Musa. Musa the prophet who is mentioned most
in the Quran.
Yusuf alaihi salam. How many times when we
hear these names of prophets in the Quran
do we actually think about their stories and
their trials and the things they went through?
And the problems that they had and how
they were tested by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
How many times do we actually, you know,
think and, you know,
ponder over these over these these prophets when
their names are mentioned and when these other
words are mentioned?
You know, Kitab, for example, the book.
When that word is mentioned, how many times
do we think of this miraculous book of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?
This miracle of Allah
So my point is
jinn, you know, that's another word. Many of
us know. And how many times when we
hear the word jinn, do we actually think
about the jinn? Do we actually think about
the the the unseen?
You know,
angels.
There are certain words
that we know the meaning of them. We
understand them. But it's about being in the
right frame of mind. If you are not
paying attention in the first place, any words
that you do understand,
you won't be able to pick up because
you're not paying attention in the first place.
So you have to be in the right
frame of mind, you have to be paying
attention to the imam and what he's reciting
in the first place so that when a
word comes along that you
pick up and that you hear you're able
to think about it and, you know, contemplate
that aya or that word that's being recited.
So thinking about those aya's those aya's, focusing
on what the imam recite or what you're
reciting in the Quran.
The 8th thing that a person can do
is
to have tranquility
in the salah, and to be at ease
in the prayer and to not rush the
salah when you're praying. You all know the
story of the man who went into the
messian and started to pray, and then when
he finished praying, he went to the messenger
of Allah salallahu alaihi wa sallam and the
messenger of Allah alaihi wa sallam, he said
go back to the
messenger of he said,
go back because you haven't prayed.
And then he prayed again, he came back
a second time, and he told he was
told the same thing, and then he came
back a third time.
And then the messenger
he told him how to pray.
And
in the hadith, when he describe when he's
describing how to pray, he's talking about how
we near in in every single position that
you're in in the salah, you should have
it. You should have tranquility.
You should be at ease in every single
position.
Until you're at peace and at ease
in you have
ease
in.
So having ease, being at ease, taking it
easy, not rushing the salah is one of
the ways in which a person can maintain
his. You know, if you're rushing the salah
because you just wanna get it over and
done with, you're not gonna have that hushu
in the prayer. You're not gonna be able
to focus on this this conversation you're having
with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You won't taste
the sweetness of the prayer because there are
other things on your mind. It's all about
a mental it's it's all about being in
a mental state of mind in the right,
you know, in the right state of mind.
If you're thinking about other things, if you're
trying to rush the prayer to get it
to get it over with, then you're not
gonna feel that that benefit that you should
be feeling from the salah. So a person
needs to take it easy, not rush in
any part of the prayer.
And sometimes a person, subhanAllah,
he doesn't pay no attention to his salah,
and he prays his prayer, and then the
time for the next salah comes for asr
prayer for example, and he's thinking to himself,
have I prayed dhor?
Did I pray dhor?
Even though he's prayed dhor, but because he
didn't pay attention to the salah, he's not
focused on the salah, and he rushed the
salah. It wasn't something which is his primary
objective, it wasn't something which he's thinking is
important in his life, it's a secondary thing.
When the time for the next salah came,
he he can't remember whether he prayed it
or not.
And that really shows you how if that's
happening that show that that, you know, alarm
bells should be ringing because that means that
you're not taking it as seriously as you
should be taking it. If you can't remember
whether you did it or not,
then that means that you're not really taking
it seriously
because people usually when they forget over the
when when they're not sure they did something
or not, it's usually something which is small,
it's something which is, you know, not it's
not important, it's something which is, you know,
minor. It's a minor thing.
You know, whereas if you prayed it and
you you you prayed it with tranquility and
you were focused in the salah, then you
wouldn't forget whether you actually prayed or
not. So making sure that you take your
time in the salah. Don't rush the salah.
Be at peace and at ease in every
single part of the salah. It's not a
form of exercise.
Okay? And
unfortunately nowadays that that's what it's become for
some people. You know, it's like they go
up and down, they're doing squats while they're
praying, and they're up and down, and like
as if, you know, it's not an act
of worship for them. It's just, you know,
as a form of exercise that they just
wanna get over and done with, and then
they're out of breath after the salah because,
you know, they've been going up and down
so quickly. But that's not the point. You're
supposed to be in conversation with Allah
If you are being hasty with your boss
and you want to get out of the
room and didn't wanna talk to him or
didn't wanna talk to someone you loved, someone
you respected, someone who you you liked and
you, you know, looked up to them, he
would think how disrespectful is this person? Doesn't
even wanna talk to me.
Doesn't even wanna see me. Doesn't even wanna
be in in my presence, subhanAllah.
And this is our attitude to, you know,
our conversation with Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, when
we're in prayer to Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So a person needs to understand
that when he's praying, he needs to take
his time. And,
you know, these things, they're not benefiting Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. Ultimately, they're benefiting ourselves. We're
the ones who are gonna benefit.
You know, and this is why Allah says
verily by the remembrance of Allah do the
hearts find peace and ease and tranquility.
It's something which is for our own benefit.
It's not for the benefit of anybody else.
It's not for the benefit of Allah.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doesn't need our prayer
and our sacrifices and our, you know, our
charity.
It's all for our own selves.
So making sure
that we have
ease and tranquility
in the prayer and we don't rush the
prayer while we're praying.
The next thing that a person can do
is trying to limit
and cut off and minimize
any distractions
that he might have
while he's praying.
So if there's a radio on for example,
if there's a television on, if there's something
which is distracting him in front of him,
you know, if for example he has a
mobile phone,
then turn your mobile phone off
before the salah, especially if you're in the
Masjid.
You
know, nowadays, you know, you're praying
and it might be the the the most
beautiful imam reciting the the most appropriate part
of the of of of the Quran
and you might be, you know, really feeling,
you know,
the the hushu in the prayer, and then
somebody's mobile phone goes off and he's got
some, you know, funky music on his phone,
and it just messes everything up. Really just
destroys everything,
you know, and
it just totally puts you off and you
get totally distracted.
So when a person is praying, make sure
your phone is off. And even Don't don't
even have your arm vibrate because, you know,
when we have our phones on vibrate,
sometimes you can feel the vibration in your
pocket, and then when your phone vibrates, you're
starting to think, who's that who has called
me? Why is he calling me now? I
wonder who it is. Maybe it's someone important.
Or if it's a text message, we think
who's texting me? Maybe it was a person
that I was waiting for a text message
from. You know, I called him, but he
didn't reply.
You know, I texted him before and he
hasn't texted me back. Maybe it's him. I
wonder what he's saying.
And so instead of focusing on the salah,
instead focusing on this conversation with Allah, this
act of worship, one of the greatest acts
of worship that we have, we're thinking about
other things because of this device that we
have in our pockets.
So make sure that your mobile phones are
switched off and make sure it doesn't distract
you in the salah.
Also, from the things that we can do
during the during the salah itself
is try and make sure that we don't
fidget.
You know, sometimes
we're about to pray and we're focused on
the salah. We're getting ready to pray. You
know, that we're waiting for the imam to
make
so we can start the salah, and you're
totally focused.
You're not worried about anything.
And then as soon as the salah starts,
as soon as you start your prayer, you
start thinking about anything and everything except the
salah.
And you're doing things that you wouldn't you
weren't even doing before the salah. You know,
you're adjusting your clothing and your shirt and
your hair and your cap and your trousers
and, you know, lifting your sleeves and folding
up your sleeves and folding them down, and
you're doing all kinds of things with your
clothing that you weren't even doing before the
salah. You were fine before the prayer. There
was nothing wrong with your clothes before the
salah. But when salah starts, all of a
sudden now it's, you know,
you you your sleeves aren't tucked in properly.
You'll there's some problem with your clothing, you
know, and you're worried about how you look
all of a sudden.
You know,
once a companion came to the messenger of
Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, and he said,
oh messenger of Allah,
the shaitan comes between me and my prayer
and my recitation.
He's distracting me. You know, when I'm when
I'm praying,
the shaitan comes and starts to distract me
just like what we have when we're praying
sometimes. We get these distractions. We start thinking
about anything and everything. You know, we start
thinking about what we're going to do after
the what we're going to eat, and where
we parked our car, and what we're going
to do, and who we who we're going
to see, and, you know, we start thinking
about anything and everything except the prayer itself.
So this companion, he complained to the messenger
of
about this. And the messenger of
he said that is a Shaitan
called Hanzab.
That is a Shaitan
called Hanzab.
And he said, if you feel him, if
you if you sense him, then seek refuge
with Allah from him.
Say,
and spit to your left dryly 3 times.
So it's a spit which is mostly and
little bit of spit a little bit of
spittle,
and then carry on with your salah.
And then this
companion he said that I did that and
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala kept him away from
me. So this is a Shaitan which
you know his job is to distract you
in your salah. That's what it that's what
he does. That's his occupation,
full time job. He comes to you in
the salah and he deliberately distracts you while
you're praying.
That's what he does.
And so if this ever happens to an
individual,
he should say
and speak to his left three times. And
don't worry about what other people are going
to say or what other people are going
to think because ultimately,
you're concerned about your own prayer. You're concerned
about
Allah accepting accepting this good deed from you,
accepting this salah from you.
And if anything, you're going to remind another
person who's praying
about doing the same thing. So you're gonna
remind someone about doing a good deed.
You know, a person shouldn't think, oh, if
I look to my left three times and
the guy next to me is gonna think,
you know, why is he looking at me?
And he's gonna say something and why is
he turning towards me? A person needs to
focus and think about, you know, his own
salah and his own act of worship and
it being accepted by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So this this is one of the ways
in which a person can make sure that
he's not distracted in the salah and he
can maintain his.
The
last thing that a person can do during
the salah
is to try and make sure that when
he's praying,
he's
he has a sutra
which stops him from
becoming distracted and which stops his eyes from
wandering off.
So for example, praying behind a pillar,
praying behind a board,
praying behind a wall.
You know, if you're praying,
out in the open for example and you
have a small sutra, a person might come
into the Masjid or he might come out
to the Masjid or he might go and,
you know, take a or he might talk
to someone and you can see it.
You know, and your eyes might wander off
and you might start looking at them and
thinking what are they doing and where are
they and who is he and, you know,
I know that person, you know, he owes
me some money and, you know, I need
to pray quickly so I can go and,
you know, ask him for for what he
owes me or something. So, you know, you're
distracted. You're not paying attention.
So if you have
something in front of you like a wall
or a board or a pillar, then it
will stop your eyes from wandering off and
looking at what's happening,
you know, around you.
And you're focused on the prayer, and you're
looking where you're supposed to be looking, which
is the the place of sajdah
on the ground,
you know. And, you know, you're focused. Nothing's
going to distract you in the salah if
you do this.
Now those are the things that a person
can do during the salah. There are certain
things that a person can do after the
salah to maintain, you know,
person can do after the salah to maintain
his
in the prayer.
But
if he's already finished the salah,
how does it help
him with maintaining his in the prayer?
Does that make any sense? How
he's finished the prayer now. What's the point
of him doing these things now after the
salah?
Who can tell me?
For the next salah.
So a person is already thinking ahead. He's
thinking about the next prayer, and he's going
to be in the right state of mind.
It's all about being in the right frame
of mind, you know. So there's certain things
that a person can do even after the
salah
to make sure that he has a level
of tranquility, a level of and
is preparing him for the next salah that
he's going to pray.
One of the things there's 3 things that
a person can do after the salah. The
first thing that a person can do is
don't rush off straight away.
Don't leave the salah straight away.
Make sure that you don't rush off. You
know, when a person's
working and he doesn't like his job, he
hates his job, doesn't wanna be there. You
know, he has a 9 to 5 job
and he can't stand working there.
And, you know,
while he's working, he's waiting for the, you
know, for the time to go and he's
trying to be busy with works that if
he's busy, time will go faster and he
won't before he knows it, it'll be it'll
be time for him to finish work and
leave. You know? And he can't wait to
clock out. And so when 5 o'clock comes,
you know, as soon as the
the hand reaches 5 or or or it
reaches 5 o'clock,
he's out of the door. He's clocked out
at 5 o'clock sharp. He doesn't even wanna
stay there for one extra minute.
He clocks out and he's going straight home
because he doesn't even wanna be there. He's
not interested
Because he doesn't like it, you know, he's
not interested.
But unfortunately,
some of us have the same type of
attitude with the salah.
And so straight after the salah, a person
gets up and he goes straight away. It's
like as if, you know, if person gets
up and he goes straight away. It's like
as if, you know, it's something which was
a burden for him. Obviously, sometimes there might
be exceptions. A person might need to go
quickly because, you know, maybe he's blocking someone
outside in the car park. Maybe, you know,
he has some emergency that he has to
attend to. There
might be some genuine reasons. But every single
time,
you know, for a person to get up
straight away after the salah,
you know, a person should shouldn't rush off
straight after the prayer.
He should stay and sit for a while.
One of the things that a person can
do after the salah
is remembering Allah, doing his alkar.
The messenger of Allah salalahu alaihi wa sallam,
he said whoever says
33 times
immediately after each prayer and says
33 times
and says 33
times and then to complete
the 100, he says
then his sins will be forgiven
even if they are like the foam of
the sea.
SubhanAllah.
So if a person stays after the salah,
makes his
says
and allhamdulillah
33 times each and then says to Halil,
after that,
then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will forgive his
sins even if they are like the form
of the sea. Meaning, if even if they
are even if they are many, even if
they are great in number.
So you think about this reward for doing
something which will take how long?
Few minutes,
3 or 4 minutes.
So the reward for an act like this,
it's invaluable.
It's worth
staying, you know, for a few minutes and
remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for.
Another benefit of
staying after the salah
is that when a person stays
in his place,
the angels
make dua for him.
The angels send prayers upon him. The messenger
of Allah, he said that the angels send
prayers upon one of you so long as
he is in his place where he prayed
his salah and so long as he doesn't
break his wudu. And the angels, they make
dua and they say, Allah.
Oh, Allah. Forgive him. Allah.
Oh, Allah. Have mercy on him.
So the angels continue to make dua after
you finished your salah and you're staying in
your place until you leave from that place
or until you break your wudu, they continue
to make dua for you. And if you
stay stay sitting there until the next salah,
they're gonna continue to make dua for you
until you get up or until your wudu
is broken, subhanAllah.
So you can see the the value of,
you know, this time that you have after
the salah. You know, it it's it's a
time when a person can get lots of
reward.
Finally, the last thing that a person can
do,
and we'll finish with this inshallah,
is for a person
to
pray
as if it's your last prayer.
Pray as if you're never ever going to
pray again.
What guarantee do you have brothers and sisters
that you're going to pray your Isha prayer
now
and you're going to
be alive for fajr prayer?
You're going to still be alive. What guarantee
do you have? What guarantee do you have
that you're gonna walk outside of this masjid
after the salah and you're going to stay
alive until morning?
None of us can guarantee.
We can't guarantee this.
So when a person prays, he needs to
have this in the back of it in
the back of his mind. The last thing
he wants to do is to rush his
salah, is to have a salah which wasn't
done properly, and then he dies and the
last deed he did was something which, you
know, he could've done a 1000000 times better.
He could've done a much much better.
You know, it's like for example an exam.
You You know, you do an exam
and
you didn't prepare properly,
and you do the exam, and then after
the exam you check the answers and you
you realize the mistakes you made, and you're
like, oh, why did I make that mistake?
It was so obvious.
If only I had, you know if only
I could go back and, you know, rewrite
the exam paper and answer those questions properly,
but it's too late.
If a person doesn't perfect his prayer, doesn't
pray as if it's going to be his
last prayer and then death comes to him,
he's going to have ended his life with,
you know, something
which wasn't done to the best of his
ability.
Even though he could have tried