Bilal Assad – Amazing advise about prayer
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Brothers and sisters. Today, I wanna give a
short but valuable reminder about the second most
important pillar of Islam, As Salah. And I'm
going to refer to 3 verses from Surat
Al Mu'minoon. Allah
says in verse
12,
And also verse 9 Allah says
The meanings of these verses are as follows,
Allah says the believers
have truly attained success,
the ones who in their prayer
are humble. And then in verse 9, 1011,
Allah says,
and the ones who perform their prayers
all the time
or the ones who guard their prayers. These
are the ones who will inherit.
The ones who will inherit
the great paradise.
In it, they will live for eternity.
My brothers and sisters, Asalah.
In English, we say prayer,
but it doesn't give the full meaning of
the Arabic word, Asalah.
So Asalah has two meanings merged in one.
It means to isolate and seclude yourself with
Allah
and to connect with Allah. SubhanAllah. If we
don't have a connection with our creator, we
have no connection to anything else. Because everything
else in this world, although we may have
a connection to it, it's always temporary and
it'll run out and it'll
even betray us. This entire world will betray
us as the prophet
told us in Hadith al Qudsi that Allah
said to the dunya to this world,
Oh, dunya, oh, world,
serve those who serve me, who serve Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and turn away from those who serve you.
So my brothers and sisters,
Assalah is your connection to Allah. And Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala begins and opens this chapter
by talking about the believers that they are
the ones who truly attain success. It says
if Allah is replying
to someone to make a point. So you
have to know the background of this verse
actually. This,
ayah from Surat al Mu'minun came down when
the non Muslims of Makkah, Quraysh, the enemies
of the prophet
the disbelievers,
they began to,
take pride and become arrogant and boastful
over the accumulation of material possessions they had.
And that they started to use this,
societal,
norm which they made up that people's success
and their,
importance or their value is based on how
much money they had, how many assets they
had and properties, how many camels and lands
they had. All of this is what they
use to measure the person's value and importance.
But Allah gave them the reply by saying,
oh, no. The truly success for ones are
the ones who have chosen to believe in
Allah, follow Allah's
guidance, the king of the all the world,
the owner of everything in this universe and
beyond, and to follow his messenger Muhammad salallahu
alayhi wasalam, obey him and follow his sunnah.
These people who are the believers, the true
success for ones, not only in this world
but also in the hereafter.
So brothers and sisters, those who are who
can attain that level and have that connection
with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala at first, you
must believe in Allah in your heart and
truly
have that faith with certainty.
Psychologists have talked about,
extensive studies
that relate to people who have a better
mental health condition in this life and they
looked at,
prayer and meditation.
Of course, this is without the Islamic side
to it. They just looked at it purely
from a human perspective and they found that
people who have a connection with God or
a higher power, some of them were delusional
and others of them had a good mental
state. The ones who were delusional are the
ones who did not have certainty
in what they believed in. They had doubt.
But then they said the ones who have
certainty, which in the Quran is called Yaqeen,
by the way, which means absolute certainty in
their faith. In Islam, alhamdulillah, we have the
truth, we have the Quran, we have the
sunnah, and it challenges anyone to prove the
Quran wrong anyway, alhamdulillah.
So we have certainty in Allah and what
he has promised, then suddenly you'll find your
mental state, your spiritual state, and everything about
you, alhamdulillah, becomes
serene, becomes in a state of tranquility no
matter what odds or evens, ups and downs,
good and bad happens to you in your
life. So Allah says the believers are the
ones who are truly successful in this world
and in the hereafter. Then Allah
mentions a few things. We're going to talk
about just the salah part now. He He
says, they are the ones who are in
their prayers humble. When you believe in Allah
truly and you truly follow his guidance, then
you will also connect with the one that
you love. If you love someone, you wanna
communicate with them and connect with them. If
you love Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, there's also
a way to connect to him. You don't
just neglect him and turn your back on
him. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in
the Quran that if he says, if my
servants ask you about me, I am always
close.
I am always close. I respond to the
person who calls upon me when they call
and can if they continue to
to call, so let them respond back to
me and let them put their trust in
me and their belief in me in the
hope that they find successful guidance. So salat
is the first thing in the first way,
brothers and sisters, we must never neglect. Allah
tells us not just any type of salat,
any type of prayer. He says those who
perform their prayer with humbleness. The Arabic word
is
or And is something
that is loosely translated as humbleness,
tranquility,
to be present in the moment, to focus,
to concentrate, and it's not an easy feat.
And I want to tell you and give
and put you, at rest
by saying that the majority of the scholars
have agreed in it that khushu or this,
this form of humbleness and focus in salat
is not a condition of your salat's correctness
or incorrectness.
However, in order to have khushuah, the minimum
that a person has to do is to
be aware of what they're doing and to
when they come to their prayer they take
a few moments and they refocus
and hone into what they are doing and
that is their salat and facing Allah. Then
to make your salat with ease,
with rest, with relaxation,
with comfort, and to take your time in
your movements. So for example, when you say
Allahu Akbar, take your time. And when you
recite Al Fatiha take your time for example.
When you make Ruqur which is bowing take
a bit more time. When you stand up
take a bit more time. When you go
down to Suzhou, take a bit more time,
and so on.
And don't rush it like the picking of
a rooster as the scholars used to describe.
So brothers and sisters, there was once a
man, a sahabi, a companion,
who was learning about Islam and learning about
prayer. The hadith is in Sahih Muslim and
Bukhari
agreed upon. Abu Huraira says,
a man once came into the masjid when
the prophet, peace be upon him, was in
there and he prayed 2 rakas. So the
probably the tahiyat masjid, the,
greeting of,
the the Masjid when you enter Allah's mosque.
He prayed it and then he came and
said the greetings of salam to the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam, the prophet peace be upon
him
replied, and the prophet, peace be upon him,
said to him, of course, with kindness and
wisdom and without embarrassing him, he said, go
back and pray again. You have not really
prayed. So the man went back and prayed
in the way that he understands. A second
time, the prophet, peace be upon him, told
him, go back and pray. You haven't prayed.
He's prayed a third time and then
Rasuul Azadam also said to him, you haven't
prayed. That's when the man said, Wallahi, by
the one, oh Rasuulullah, Messenger of Allah, by
the one who sent you as a messenger
in truth, This is the best I know
in how to pray. What he was doing
was that he was rushing it, he was
not standing properly, he was not, going into
bowing and and prostrations on the floor enough.
He was picking it very quickly. So the
prophet, peace be upon him, taught him and
said, when you come to make salat and
prayer, first of all, make your wudu properly.
Secondly, when
you stand, stand and face the qiblah and
take your time. Then when you say Allahu
Akbar recite with
tranquility
and care. Then he said go to bowing
and take your time with bowing. Then stand
up from the bowing until you are straight
and wait there. Then go down to prostration
on the floor and do it and take
your time, then sit and take your time,
then go back to prostration and take your
time. He said, and
like this the rest of your prayer. And
this is the way the man started to
understand and listen for all of us that
prayer must be prayed with tranquility. So when
you do those,
activities, you are in khushua. All you have
to do is minimum,
take your time in your movements, and be
aware of what you're saying,
You would have tranquility.
The more you practice this, the better it
becomes.
So I've given,
I sometimes give people a formula, I call
it,
4 by 5. So basically it means you
need to spend 4 minutes at least on
every 2 rakas.
So let's say it's 4 then 8 minutes.
Spend 4 minutes on every 2 rakahs and
when you go into your bowing and prostration
on the floor say subhanAllah bill 'azim and
bowing 5 times instead of 3. And in
your prostration on the floor, say it 5
times
instead of 3.
A person when they come to do their
salah,
they are secluded with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And what it means it doesn't mean that
you have to be in a room that
is closed. You we we pray in congregation,
we pray in front of people, but what
it means is that you practice in on,
isolating
the sounds that are around you from paying
attention to them and just allow them to
be as noises and then focus on what
you're doing between you and Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. Is it difficult? Yes. Is it doable?
Of course. And it takes time, insha'Allah.
Brothers and sisters, when a person prays and
does their salah, one of the things which
some people,
dislike about it is that they have to
face the truth. So when you start praying
and you calm down and you relax, in
psychology, they they teach us that in the
mind, there is the conscious mind and the
subconscious mind. And of course, in Islam, we
are also taught that there is alqal, which
is the inner real self of you, your
heart and your inner subconscious. That's the true
nature of who you are and what you
have fed your heart. On the outside, there
is consciousness, which means thoughts that come and
go. When you relax and hone in and
focus
and be present in your salat and take
your time, the thoughts that come on the
surface of your conscious come and go, and
they don't just stay. Even if they come
along, don't be afraid of them. Don't think
that your salat is going to be ruined
because you get thoughts. Everybody goes through that.
It's very normal, But it does hone into
your subconscious mind. And the more you practice
it, the more you will see inshallah to
hide that things change in you. Some of
the tips that I teach people about salah
to get better at it is other than
taking your time,
number 2, change the surahs that you read.
Everybody recites, for example,
Even if you take 2 or 3 other
verses, minimum 3, the scholars say, other verses
from any other Surah. You don't have to
read the whole Surah. You can say, for
example,
and that's it. You don't have to recite
the whole thing. Of course, if you know
it all, it's better. Also, in your bowing,
did you know in your bowing and prostration,
did you know that there are other words
of dhikr that you can say other than
the
there is a book called Fortress of the
Muslim. You can download it as an app.
And in there, there are many, different zikr
words that you can say in your bound.
There's at least 3 or 4 different ones.
I'll give you an, one one of them.
One
of
them
is
So when you pray all these movements that
you change, you refocus again rather than just
standing still for such a long time. You
do lose focus. So then you move and
you refocus again. When you change the words
that you're saying, then you refocus again because
now you have to put the effort in
saying something new rather than automatically
saying, you know, sometimes our times get very
go into autopilot and automated sort of, activity.
So these are some of the hints that,
I can give you.
Moving on,
in the last verse in Surat,
Al, Al Muminuwin in verse number 9, Allah
says, and those
who
got who guard their prayer. This means
that you pray all your 5 daily prayers,
the 5 compulsory prayers.
It is an obligation,
and to leave one of them is a
major sin.
And there is a minority view of the
scholars which,
some great scholars did say they considered that
if you left one of the prayers deliberately
without a reason or an excuse, you just
didn't wanna pray it, then it could be
on the verge of even disbelief.
Of course, the majority of the scholars said
that it is a major sin so long
as you still believe in Allah and his
messenger. But you can see that it's quite,
severe because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loves compulsory
things and the compulsory things which he loves,
he made them upon us because they are
the ones that will save you and make
you successful, insha'Allah.
So the times of the prayers are obviously
Fajr, Lohr, Asr, Maghrib B'neisha. Fajr begins
at,
dawn, at the break of dawn until
sunrise.
That's the timing.
Lhuhr, for example, starts at the zen when
when the sun rises to the to the
middle and, until Asar time. So for example,
from 12:30 till about 3:30 and it keeps
changing of course. Asar finishes at Maghrib or
if you can pray it 10 minutes before
Maghrib sunset. Maghrib finishes at about 5 minutes
before Naisha. And Naisha, there's a difference of
opinion from when it begins until midnight. Some
of the scholars said based on the hadith
of prophet
to pray before midnight. Some of them took
it as an obligation and some of them
said it is preferred to pray before midnight.
But of course, we, the view that I
take of the scholars is that you have
all the way up to fajr, but it
is better to pray before the midnight. Why
do I say this? Some people confuse
the hadith of the prophet, peace be upon
him, which says that, a person should not
delay their prayer and that the most beloved
prayers to Allah are the ones done on
their time. What does it mean to do
it on its time? I had a brother
the other day who asked me, if I
was, say, watching
footy or soccer or or soccer or was
doing some kind of hobby of of my
and then one of the prayers, you know,
kicked
in and I delayed it a little bit.
Am I doing shirk? Am I making partners
with Allah? Or am I a hypocrite? Am
I or am I sinful? And the answer
to that, brothers and sisters, all the scholars
unanimously agreed on this is that it is
neither sinful nor is it shirk. In fact,
you are permitted to delay your salat
from the beginning of its time,
even without a reason. So long as you
do not pray it outside of its designated
time. And the evidence for that is, at
least to authentic. This one of it is
in, Darqutni,
which is authenticated by Sheikh Al Bani that,
the prophet
said,
the prayer
in the first
in the beginning of it. So let's say
the 3rd. I'm just adding the 3rd. So
in the beginning of it, it is riddle
riddle Allah's
full pleasure. And if you pray it in
the middle of the time, then it is
Allah's mercy. And if you pray it at
the end of its time, it is Allah's
pa pardoning.
So I'll give you an example. Zuhr starts,
let's say, at 12:30 PM and ends at
Asar time, which is, say, 3:30 PM. If
you pray it between 12:30 and about, you
know, 1 o'clock it's the best. Between 1
o'clock and,
2 o'clock let's say or 2:30
it is middle ground. And between 2 or
2:30 until just before 3:30, it is still
an acceptable salat and a valid one, but
it takes the pardoning of Allah, and each
one is better than the other. The other
hadith is in Sahih Muslim where the prophet
explained to a man about the timings of
the prayer and he said to him, these
are their times between here to here. And
he explained every salat beginning when and ending
when. So you can pray anytime during that
time.
If you're praying congregation in Jamar in the
mosque, it's the best thing, especially for men.
Joining the Jamar in congregation
far outweighs praying by yourself at home by
27 degrees. And the scholars said that if
you're going to a jamau, a congregation, the
congregation happens to be a little bit delayed
from the beginning of the of the salah
time, say for example 12:30 they prayed at
1, then it is better to pray with
the jamaw, with the congregation at 1 rather
than at 12:30 by yourself.
Another thing I wanna say is a lot
of people may have,
very busy schedules and sometimes you're not able
to pray your prayer even within that designated
time. Well, there is something called,
arroosa,
and that is a type of exemption,
where if a person is truly busy, let's
say at work or anything,
then they are allowed to
combine some of the prayers. So you're allowed
to combine luhr and asr together. So for
example, you may do luhr and asr together
at luhr time or Luhr and Asr together
at Asr time. You have to have the
intention of combining them. Or you can do
Maghrib and Aisha, either Maghrib time together, or
you do Maghrib and Aisha at Aisha time
together.
That's in some cases
when you are genuinely and truly busy or
caught up with with something then you make
that intention to join them. So this is
a concession from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to
make life easier
and so that we don't miss our salat
and our prayers Insha'Allah.
Brothers and sisters, something to be very careful
about is
stealing from prayer. And let me tell you
there is a hadith from the prophet which
is narrated by Imam Ahmad and Tirmidhi and
others where he said the worst types of
people are the thieves, the one who thieves
and steal from the movements of of salah.
They steal from the bowing, they steal from
the prostration,
which means people who barely go into bowing,
they get into bowing and don't even wait
there and they're back up. And when they
stand they barely stand up and they go
back down to sujood. When they go into
sujood and prostration they barely even, spend some
time in sujood. Some of them, even their
nose doesn't even touch the ground, or some
of them their heads don't even touch the
ground. You have to have 8 parts of
your body in prostrations, and they are your
forehead,
your nose, your palms,
both your knees, and even both your toes.
And the toes have to be,
on the ground with your feet upwards,
as you can see with your toes on
the ground. And you have to relax until
you do them. So
hurrying them up and rushing them like the
pecking of a rooster
is thieving and stealing from your salat. Do
not do that. Finally, I just wanna say
salat is the first thing that we are
going to be questioned about on the day
of judgement. The prophet, peace be upon him,
said that the first thing a person, a
Muslim, a believer is asked about is their
5 daily prayers. If it was good, then
the what comes after is going to be
good insha'Allah. And if it was bad, what
comes after is also going to be bad.
Of course, this is in general cases, meaning
that people who pray all the time are
less likely to do too many sins later
on. And those who don't pray their prayer
prayers properly or neglect them, then most likely
after it, they're going to be filled with
sins because a salah has its special effect
on a person. And even a person who
prays and does sins,
even major sins, they they may do them.
They are very shy and embarrassed of them,
and they feel guilt and sensitivity about them,
and they repent, insha'allah,
very quickly or soon. So there is a
big difference between a person who has a
connected connection with Allah and one who doesn't.
So, let's say for example that, you are,
on the day of judgment and your prayers,
your 5 daily prayers are brought. Some people
they pray them better than others. And I
want you to imagine salat like,
imagine a lever or or or or, you
know, a tube with with liquid in it
and it's got,
levels and and measurements.
Each salat that you pray during your life,
some are better than the others, they're at
different levels in that measurement. So on the
day of judgment, imagine your salat, your compulsory
prayers are measured. Some of them are high,
some of them are low, some of them
are not complete to the best. So then
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says to his angels,
does my servant have any voluntary prayers? Does
he have, for example, the 12 sunnahs that
used to pray such as the 2 before
Fajr, 4 before Luhur, 2 after Luhur, 2
after Maghrib, and 2 after Ishaat.
In some schools of thought, there's 4 before
Asur,
plus maybe the witter,
plus maybe,
Salatul Duha, which is from,
after 15 minutes after sunrise until about 10
minutes before the sun reaches its zenith. Meaning,
Adhur is called Salatul Duhah, and many other
prayers like the night prayer or any kind
of salat that you offer. Then the angels
said, yes, You Rabb. They say, our lord,
they they do have these voluntary prayers. Allah
says add them on top of the compulsory
prayers and it completes it. So brothers and
sisters, don't leave the voluntary prayers out. It's
not a sin to leave them out, but
it is a
huge loss
of the enormous rewards that come with it.
1 of the hadiths, which is also authentic,
says that whoever prays the 12 sunnahs of
the day will have a house or a
palace built for them in paradise. Imagine that
everyday, subhanAllah, in your paradise in your garden.
If a person is praying out in the
park or on a farm or somewhere far,
let's
say, and, you cannot get to, for example,
a mosque or a place to pray,
whether you're,
alone or with people. Mostly, actually, when you
are alone.
And the time of prayer comes in. Then
the prophet said, and the,
the hadith is also,
authentic in in.
He said, if a person prays in a
field and they're alone,
and they pray without making the adhan or
the iqama, then they are praying by themselves
and they receive the reward for themselves. But
if they make the Ikama,
then his 2 angels, they pray with him.
And if he makes the Adhan,
just by himself in this field or this
park, and the Iqama,
and then prays,
many angels pray behind that person in rows.
And another hadith,
he said, as far as the east is
from the west behind that person, SubhanAllah. This
is how the angels, they love Salat. And
so long as you are in salat and
when you stay after salat and make a
tzbeh and everything the angels also make dua
for you to forgive you and to pardon
you and so on. In relation to our
sisters, I mentioned that if a person is
out in the field and makes the Adhan
and Iqama,
the angels pray behind them. Well, does this
apply to women as well? Should they also
call out the Adhan and Iqamah in the
field? Allah
knows best, but Adhan and Iqamah is for
men.
However, if a woman, a Muslim woman, is
in the field or in the farm, and
she intends she wants that reward, but obviously,
she,
respects the deen and what the prophet
taught us then insha Allah God willing Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala will give her also that
reward because of her intentions
insha'allah.
Furthermore,
some people ask me, well, what about women?
Should they pray in congregation in Jamaa' in
the mosque? And will they miss out on
the 27 reward since the men get it?
Well, sisters, yours is a little bit different.
You've got something special for you.
Prophet
said that the best place for a woman
to pray is in her house in her
bedroom. We're talking about the 5 daily prayers,
of course, but also praying in the masjid
is virtuous for her as well. The prophet,
peace be upon him, for example, said, don't
even prevent your wives, your women from going
to the masjid at night because men used
to say to them, don't go out at
night. If you have no need for, you
know, for them, there's no real reason why
a wife needs to stay at home then
going to the masjid at night,
is virtuous. So I wanna say that for
women, subhanAllah, if your intention is because you
want the great reward like the men get
that reward then you have a free reward
just by having that intention
and that desire. So whether you pray at
home or you pray in the Masjid with
that intention Insha'Allah
ta'ala, I hope some of the scholars said
that you will get that 27 degrees and
rewards. But, of course, praying at home, the
reason for that is,
Islam always encourages,
to always, encourages us to have less
mixing or seeing each other even though it's
not haram for men to see the women
at the mosque or for them to see
the men at the mosque. However, it is
there's always something that is better.
So pray your salat, my brothers and sisters,
make it your food and drink in your
life, teach your children, and be patient with
it, and you'll see, Insha'Allah, God willing, a
change in your life and in your family's
life and most of all in the hereafter.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us among
the mussalene. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make
us among those whom Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says believers are the ones who have truly
reached success. Ameen, wassallallahu wa ta'ala wa sahih
jamaein, wassallamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.