Bilal Philips – The Best In Islam #33

			Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh. I'd like to welcome you dear viewers to another in our
series, the best in Islam. In this series, we're looking at what Allah and His Messenger have
identified for us as the best from an Islamic perspective in all aspects of our life. And in this
episode, we're looking at salah, and what is the best prayers that we can do.
		

			That is the form of prayers we called salah.
		

			And we find the Prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him, as narrated by even Omar who
quoted the Prophet sallallahu sallam was saying after the Salawat and the law salatu sushi yomo Juma
hottie fija Ma. The prayer which Allah considers best is the Friday morning prayer in congregation.
The Friday morning prayer we know as slotted Fajr or sober, they refer to it. Also, this is the best
prayer of the week that the Prophet Muhammad wa sallam identified of our obligatory prayers this
morning prayer on Friday, in congregation he didn't just say the morning prayer. So it means just
simply doing the morning prayer, but doing it in congregation. This has been identified for us as
		

			the best prayer for the week. This one basically we shouldn't miss. If we have been missing prayers
of Fudger in the morning, throughout the week, at least tried to make Friday morning Fajr on time,
if we're able to establish that, then
		

			it is possible for us then to extend that to the other prayers. But of course praying the five times
daily prayer, that's the basic obligation.
		

			But human beings being weak. Among the most difficult prayers to catch in its proper time is Fudger.
The morning prayer, because we've been sleeping all night, making that prayer is very difficult,
getting up from our sleep, etc. You know so many people miss that morning prayer. So the Prophet may
God's peace and blessings be upon him knowing that this is something that people would struggle
with. He gave special emphasis to the morning prayer on Friday, Friday being the best day of the
week. We already looked at that, you know, one of our previous sessions, the best day of the week is
Friday. So that morning prayer on that best day is the best. And if we're able to establish because
		

			really the rest of these prayers become properly established, when the morning prayer is
established, if you made that Fajr then the her answer, Margaret Asia will follow. But if you've
missed it, you're gonna find you're going to miss one or other of the other prayers of the day. So
we want to start that day off, right so especially Friday, we make sure we catch Fajr. And if we
manage to establish that at least every Friday we make sure we make that prayer on time, not only on
time, but in the masjid and in congregation, then as the prophet may God's peace and blessings be
upon him. I told us before that among the deeds most pleasing most beloved to Allah, are those which
		

			are done consistently.
		

			So we tried to establish this as a consistent practice. And he said, even if it is a small deed, so
this is small in relationship to all of the prayers of the week, all the different other Friday,
prayers of the month, etc. We try to establish Friday morning prayer that will help us to establish
Saturday morning Sunday morning and the others. Moving on.
		

			With regards to the form of prayers we also have Zeytinburnu sabbat.
		

			Quoting the Prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him as saying of the Lucilla to come.
		

			feeble you to come in late October. Your best prayers
		

			Are those done in your homes? Except for the compulsory ones? What does that actually mean? The best
prayers are those done in our homes except for the compulsory and for men. Normally we go to the
masjid and we pray there. We don't pray in our homes. unless we've missed the prayer. That's the
norm. But that's not really what the prophet make us peace and blessings be upon him advised us. He
advised us that we should pray. Our Sunnah prayers are recommended prayers in our homes. That's the
best place to pray them. Praying in the master is acceptable. You get reward for it. But you get a
greater reward for praying the Sunnah in the home.
		

			Why is that person may ask? We're encouraged to be in the mosques, spend more time in the mosque. So
why would we want to start praying at home? Well, because we want to establish as the heads of the
family, the father,
		

			the husband, we want to establish that prayer in the home also, when the children see you praying,
then it becomes something natural for them. They have an idea in their mind that praying is
something that we should do. If they're not seeing us pray in the home. They're thinking of prayer
as just being okay. You just do it in the mosque. You know, other than that, there's no prayer. But
no, prayer can be done anywhere,
		

			at any time, except for certain forbidden times. It should be a part of our life, not just the
compulsory prayers, but the voluntary prayers. Were we only praying in the masjid even though we're
praying voluntary prayers along with the compulsory prayers, it seems to be one, it seems to be one
set. Whereas praying in the home and praying in the masjid, you know, we're establishing prayer in
both locations, as an example to the rest of the family, motivating the wife to also establish her
prayers, the children see you praying, this is the better prayer. So this is something that most of
us are unaware of. And we don't practice it. We will need to struggle with it. To now change our
		

			pattern to pray whenever the other than goes because of course if we go and pray in the home before
going to the masjid, if we have delayed the prayer, then if we pray at home we will miss the prayer
in the masjid and we know that the prayer in congregation the master this is has the greatest
reward. So for us to be able to pray at home the Sunnah before going to the masjid, it means that we
have to start preparing for the prayer earlier.
		

			Yeah, have to start preparing for the prayer early we cannot afford to delay it once the design has
been given. So once we hear the plan, we start the process of making will do you know and preparing
ourselves, make the prayer in the home, then we go everything falls in place. And that's what is
best as we said before, the best prayers, as the Prophet Musa Salam had mentioned, were those done
at the beginning of its time are those done in the proper time. So this is a general practice we
want to establish and establishing our Sunnah prayers at home helps us to do so. Moving on with the
prayers, as was mentioned earlier, when we spoke about the night prayers that were encouraged to do
		

			in Ramadan, but which represent night prayer tahajud throughout the rest of the year. And this is
among the best of the prayers we spoke about it before. We now have a narration from Abu Huraira in
which he said that the Prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him and said, of the loose
allottee by the tuba as Salah to fee JioFi Lail but after the CM by the Shari Ramadan, sha Allah al
Muharram. The best prayer after the compulsory ones is that which is done in the middle of the
night. And the best time to fast after the month of Ramadan is the month of Muharram the first month
of the Islamic calendar. So the best prayer is that done in the middle of the night, and we said
		

			this is called tahajjud called tarawih during Ramadan but tahajjud is the basic name. This prayer is
		

			The best after the obligatory prayers. This is a Sunnah prayer, it is not obligatory. Some people
mistakenly think that that midnight prayer is obligatory, but it's not. Or Witter, which is
associated with that midnight prayer is obligatory, but it's not that prayer is a recommended
prayer. But of all the recommended prayers, it is the one with the greatest reward. Why? We said
before, that it is of the greatest reward because of the fact that when a person gets up from his
sleep, that's an effort. First and foremost, you get up from sleep,
		

			and you pray in the middle of the night, when nobody can see you. Nobody's watching, nobody knows
what you're doing. This is just between you and Allah. If you're not sincere with prayer, you can't
do this, you're not going to be able to do it, you're only going to be able to do it if you're
showing off, showing off to others, trying to make an impression on others. But to do it
consistently, or to even do it at all. For most people. It's not possible if one is not sincere in
one's faith and in one's prayers. So it's of the greatest reward, because of the fact of this
highest of sincerity level.
		

			Even in relationship to the compulsory prayers, the sincerity level of night prayer is higher. But
because the compulsory prayers are what have been fixed by Allah on a regular basis and obligatory,
then its reward is greater. But
		

			when we get to Ramadan, and we pray Taraweeh we must remember that this prayers are to encourage us
to establish at least once a week, once a month, from time to time to establish that prayer in the
middle of the night to get the maximum reward. Another advice of the Prophet may God's peace and
blessings be upon him which addresses again the best with regards to Salah we have Java ribbon
Abdullah quoting the Prophet sallahu wa sallam was saying of the Salah T. Toulon connote the best
prayer is the one with the long standing. We're going to look at that in more detail after the
break.
		

			So I'll see you shortly.
		

			Slava dayco Well, welcome from the break. As we said, Before the break,
		

			the prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him, had said that the best prayer is the one with
long standing here refers to long recitation within the prayer itself. And also, this is connected
with all of the different prayers that we make supplications that we make throughout the prayer, the
prayer which is reduced down to quick movements, quick statements, such a prayer, the prophet may
God's peace and blessings be upon him and some occasions referred to as not being prayer at all. On
one occasion, a man had come into the mosque and made two units of prayer before joining the
prophets circle. And the Prophet told him to go back and pray because he hadn't prayed. So the man
		

			came again, after going and making two units of prayer. And the Prophet told him to go back and pray
because he hadn't prayed. The third time. He did the same thing came back and the prophets was
telling him to go back. And he told the prophet at this point, I don't know any other prayer, tell
me what I'm supposed to do. So then the Prophet explained to him, that when you stand up, you should
stand until all of the bones of your body fall into place. Settle.
		

			Meaning that you don't stand up, and you start to bow right after that. We have some people praying,
they get up to pray, they've, by the time they say Allahu Akbar, they're bowing.
		

			This is not an acceptable prayer. When people are doing it, quickly running through, but this is not
an acceptable prayer.
		

			The ideal prayer is one in which we have taken our time
		

			we've reflected on what we're saying. We're conscious of what we're seeing. So that type of prayer
is going to be one which will take time. Similarly, when the Prophet may God's peace and blessings
be upon him, wanted to stress to us the importance and not from another perspective of taking our
time with our prayer, he said, Solu salata, Medine, pray a farewell prayer, try to make your
prayers, a farewell prayer, meaning that if somebody told you, this is the last prayer you can make
before you leave this world, you're going to die. This is the last chance you have one chance to
make one prayer. How would that prayer be? Like the one we talked about jumping up and making
		

			record? Of course not. Then that one we would stand with the greatest of reflection, and calmness
and focus, and we pray the whole prayer like that.
		

			So that's the prayer that we should be praying all the time. That's the one that we should strive
for, and that one will have a long standing, because the longest of things that we have to say in
the prayer is while we're standing, so when the Prophet SAW Selim talked about the Salah, with the
long standing he was talking about what we recite in Fatiha, how we recite it, is it Alhamdulillah?
I mean, or do we actually go and say Alhamdulillah hear of Bill Alameen or rock man Rahim bit by bit
verse by verse, and then after, after we have recited the Fatiha what do we decide after that? Most
of us we just say Kamala Harris
		

			finished even the surah Han who Allahu Ahad or Surah Nicholas, also known as Torah Tauheed, this
surah if said, properly, like the salah that we spoke about the farewell Salah it will even take
time in spite of being one of the shortest chapters of the whole Quran, it will take time. And the
longer we spend in are recitation and reflection, the greater the reward. So this is what Prophet
may God's peace and blessings be upon him, was advising us and directing us towards again concerning
salah
		

			and the best in Salah. We have a narration from Ibn Abbas, in which he quotes the Prophet sallahu wa
Salam is saying, PR O come, and ye Newcomb, mana Kiba his Salah, the best of you are those who have
the softest shoulders in prayer. What does that mean? The soft shoulders.
		

			What it means is that when we're praying together, and the Prophet may God's peace and blessing be
upon him and told us that when we pray, we should pray shoulder to shoulder, feet, two feet, so our
shoulders should touch, and our feet should touch this is the proper prayer. I know. Some of us may
be taught that when you pray, you pray without touching the people on either sides. And your feet
are close together, so you don't touch the feet of others. But really, that is not the prayer of the
Prophet, may God's peace and blessings be upon him. His prayer, the prayer that he taught was
shoulder to shoulder. That means the person on your right is touching his shoulder with yours, on
		

			your left is touching his shoulder with yours are female. Same thing, there's no difference between
the prayer of the male or the female. And similarly, feet are also touching. Now, that means that
when we're praying, we're praying like one body
		

			that has unified us. No gaps in between because gaps then allows one to go ahead and one after. But
when we're linked up like this, then we pray as one body and that's what the Prophet SAW Salem wants
us to experience. We in prayer are like one body we're led by a leader, the prayer leader, the Imam,
and we all follow together. That is the prayer which is
		

			most preferable. Now when we are coming together praying shoulder to shoulder feet two feet. Now the
space that's there, you know maybe one which with people place their hands this way. Then this one
will be pushing the other one and he will be
		

			His shoulder will be pushing against the other one. So you bring your hands closer, then this
pressure from your shoulder area is less. So you're able to fit in, people are in contact without
one hurting or pressurizing the other. Same thing with feet two feet, some recommendation was that
it was ankle to ankle. But for a lot of people's feet, if you try to put ankle to ankle, it becomes
very strange, you end up twisting your feet in uncomfortable ways. So it's enough just to be feet,
two feet, but even feet two feet, some people may be pushing their feet, you know, against yours
until your foot is hurting you. Some people in trying to make feet two feet, they also are too harsh
		

			and too rough with it. So in the same way, although the province was Salah was spoken about soft
shoulders, we should also have soft feet. So that the prayer is not one where we feeling pressure on
us. You know, your brain is thinking, you know this person is hurting me. They're your brain should
be focused on Allah, on worshipping Allah. Moving on. We also have
		

			our last Hadith concerning Salah that we'll be covering in this episode. And this hadith is from
Abdullah bin Omar, He quoted the Prophet SAW Salem as saying LATAM narrow Nyssa ACOEM al masajid
Prabhu to Hoonah highroller Hoonah do not prevent your women from attending prayers in the mosques.
However, praying in their homes is better for them. Do not prevent your women from attending prayer
in the mosque. This for a good portion of the Muslim world unfortunately, has been lost. We have
masjids in places like India and Pakistan where there's no place for women at all. If a woman wanted
to go in the masjid, they would stand at the doors and block her from entering the restroom. And
		

			we're even seeing that it on the news in the UK where some women decided to challenge this. And they
tried to enter mustards in the UK. And sure enough, the men were there at the door blocking them
from entering the masjid. And of course, this was put on the news. And it made Muslims of course,
look in a very bad light. But the reality is that those people are doing that are ignorant. They're
thinking that women should not be in the mosque. The mosque is only for men. And of course this is
not true at all. The mosque is for the worship of Allah. Both men and women are welcome. The women
around the Prophet Muhammad Salah Salem, his wives, etcetera, they came to the prayers, especially
		

			Fajr and Asia. They especially those two prayers, beginning of the day, end of the day, they used to
pray in the masjid, along with the Prophet sallahu Salah before Allah subhanaw taala men and women
are equal before Allah subhanho wa Taala and the mosque, the place where we establish that
relationship with Allah communication with Allah on a formal basis that is open and should be open
to both males and females. Who that their viewers would like to thank you for being with us in this
segment of our program, the best in Islam, and we hope that you will continue to follow this program
throughout its coming episodes. Till then we bid you farewell. Salaam Alaikum Warahmatullahi
		

			Wabarakatuh