Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Khutbah Speak With Allh Through the Prayer ICC 11222019
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AI: Transcript ©
All praises to Allah.
May His peace and blessings be upon His
servant and messenger, Sayyidina Muhammad
The salat
is the appointment that Allah
has set between
the slave and between the Lord.
It's a hadith of the prophet
that the salat is the covenant between the
slave and between the Lord. So whoever leaves
this salat,
let them not expect anything from the other
side.
It
is mentioned by the ulama, and it's also
narrated in the athaar from the prophet
that
the person who is praying,
he
is entreating the Lord.
The exact wording used in Arabic is, al
musali yunaji rabbahu.
The one who is praying, he makes
as Lord.
Doesn't
only mean talking.
It means to intreat somebody from from nearby.
So if I'm standing in the pulpit screaming
at everybody in the masjid, this is not
munaja.
Munaja is what? If I come so close
to you that you can,
you know, you can feel my breath, that
you can feel the warmth of my body,
and I whisper something close to you in
your ear, this is what it is. That
the person who is praying, he comes so
close to Allah
that Allah
is as if as if Allah
is the nearest thing to him in the
world, and indeed he is. It's like the
without getting into
Ilmukklam discussion with regards to lokas to Allah
but there's a meaning that everybody understands
from this, that Allah
says in his book. He says,
Allah
created insan,
and he knows the whisperings,
of a human being between him and himself,
and he is closer to his, slave than
the carotid artery. The carotid artery being the
artery that takes blood from the heart to
the brain.
Allah ta'ala is close. It's a hadith, a
qudsi of the prophet
that's also it's also narrated that it was
something said to Sayna Musa alaihis salam as
well.
Sayna Musa alaihis salam asked
Oh my Lord, are you close so that
I should whisper when calling upon you? Are
you far away that I should cry out
when calling upon you? He's asking Allah what
is. And Allah says to say to Musa
alayhis salam like he said to
the
prophet I am the I am the, I
am the companion of the one who mentions
me. Meaning whenever you mentioned me, I'm with
you.
And this is a great it's a great
glad tiding for the slave that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala should mention this. And in the
narration that's narrated by the prophet,
he says,
I am with my slave as long as
my slave has two lips move with my
remembrance.
And there was a time in there was
a time in that we saw that this
is the the the sign of the righteous,
that their
lips were always moving with the remembrance of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
I have seen our elders
from amongst
them, those who will make dhikr with so
much,
regularity
that when they're eating their dinner between their
bites, you would see their lips move with
the dhikr of Allah Ta'ala.
From my masaiq, I've seen those who literally
you can see them making dhikr while they're
asleep. One might wonder how do you know
if they're making vicker while they're asleep. Literally,
I've seen from the messiah that those who
will be in such deep sleep that their
heads will be cocked back and they'll be
snoring, And I'll see their lips moving, and
I'll see their fingers moving like this.
It's not something that you can, fake,
and it's not something that,
it's not something that happens,
just by coincidence.
So at any rate, the the the description
of the prayer is what?
Is that the one who is getting ready
for the prayer,
he
is there to
meet with the Lord, and it is a
private meeting. It is a close meeting.
It's not a meeting if someone were to
say that, okay. Fine. The, you know, the
Sultan of Congo is gonna come, and this
is your big chance to meet like some
sort of celebrity or whatever. So the messenger
will be filled with a 1,000 people, and,
you know, you just can see you saw
him from a distance, and then he leaves.
No. This is something like imagine if,
you know, anyone from this dunya
was to say that I wanna meet with
you alone for 10 minutes, 15 minutes,
for 12 minutes, for a minute, for 2
minutes.
What does that mean? You know, what does
that mean
when you go to that meeting?
When we have a court date,
we wait for the judge in a particular
way.
When we have a class, we wait for
our teachers in a particular way.
When we have,
a a job,
you know,
we wait for our boss in a particular
way.
And even then, oftentimes, we don't get a
chance to say what we want or to
ask for what we want. Rather,
the
meeting is governed by a type of transactionality
and a type of,
etiquette
that is very restrictive.
And the meeting with
Allah
is quite the opposite.
That Allah most high,
he he is there to hear the entreating
of his slave.
The
slave
makes
the slave and treats the Lord privately.
So let him prepare for that entreatment.
And your best clothes mean something different for
every single one of you. Brother Eunice,
and our friends,
maybe they'll wear something like this
because that's their culture and their customer. It's
also like, Rasulullah
used to wear
as well. It's a a sunnah in that
sense, but it's not from the sunnah albudah.
Rasul salallahu alaihi wa sallam didn't come in
order to give the people fashion advice even
though fashion is the best of fashion
But,
for one poem, it will mean one thing.
For another poem, it will mean another thing.
But the idea is you yourself, whatever you
consider to be formal inside of your heart,
wear the best of your clothes, wear the
cleanest of your clothes. Make your
with mindfulness.
Make your with mindfulness with the intention that
your sins are being washed away and being
cleansed,
with every action of the wudu. The sins
of the eyes,
with your washing of the face, the sins
of the hands with the washing of the
hands, and the limbs respectfully respectively 1 by
1 after that. Let a person come to
the salah a little bit early.
Let a person not say that, okay, if
Fajr at 6:30 and the imam usually
prays for, 12 minutes, then I'm going to
arrive
at, you know, 6:36
and I'll still catch the first rakat.
Rather let a person come early and wait
for the the salat. Why?
Because these are the etiquettes of the meeting
with Allah
The first thing we said in this talk
was what?
Is that there is
a meeting that you get with Allah, and
you get to ask Allah what you need
through that meeting.
If you show up to the meeting late,
it's like showing up to a job interview
late,
will the employer think that you're interested or
take this job very seriously?
No.
If you show up on time, it doesn't
mean you're gonna get the job, but if
you show up late, there's a very good
chance you're not gonna get it.
If you go to a meeting, you have
a meeting with the president.
What an interesting thing that would be, wouldn't
it?
He'd be, you would meet with him and
then he would say, you know,
I think Usama is a, you know, a
tremendous,
person. Very great, very wonderful, and say something
like, if you name remarks like that.
If you want something from him, you have
to ask him.
If you say, I want to get the
zoning for the sidewalk to be expanded in
front of the ICC, and the city of
Parma Heights is not helping me with it.
I don't I mean, I bet they're very
helpful people. But just to 'ala salaamu alayim
almatazzi as an example. If you don't ask,
you're not gonna get anything.
In fact, it's not only like that in
the dunya.
If you don't ask, you're not gonna get
anything. It's like that with Allah Ta'ala himself.
Asking Allah ta'ala is a form of worship.
A dua
mukhul ibada. It's a relief that the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to ask. This is
the very core. This is the very center
of a person's worship.
So if a person is late to the
prayer, if a person doesn't pray at all,
if a person is late to the prayer,
if a person is ill equipped for the
prayer, if a person is not even paying
attention during the prayer, all of these are
critical failures.
All of these are critical failures. They will
render the prayer to be,
to be
lacking in the objective, in the the purpose
of the prayer, which is what?
The purpose of the prayer is from amongst
a number of things. It is a vehicle
that Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, has instituted
for the slave, for him to get what
he needs from from his needs from from
this world and the hereafter from Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
It's a great vehicle. It's a great help.
It's not a punishment.
Imagine if there was no salat.
Imagine if there was no salat. Go ahead
and live your life. You never have to
worry about running from here to there, or
praying, you know, on a sidewalk, or in
a hallway in school, or in the break
room at work, or whatever.
You have no way of asking Allah Ta'ala
for your needs. You don't have an appointment
to ask, and
you thereby receive no
possibility for your
petition to be accepted,
you'll become a nobody with Allah
You'll become a nobody with Allah
Forget about Cleveland and Parma and America and
all of these things. Do you think that
Islam would have left the streets of Makkah
Mukarama?
This salat is
a means Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given
a gift Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given
to this Umma. In order to benefit from
this salat, you and I need to know
what the point of it is first, and
then how to do it, how to use
it, how to benefit from it. There's a
great amount of training that the messenger of
Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam gave to his
companions in this regard.
This is why from the companions, radhiallahu ta'ala,
anhum, there were those who it was known
if they were to pray 2 raka'as and
raise their hands and ask Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala for something, it would have been given
it given to them.
There were those who would pray 2 raka'as
and raise their hands, and ask Allah for
rain, and it would rain.
Forget about the companions radiya allahu anhu. I
know people like that to this very day.
I know people like that to this very
day. They don't live in Makkan and Madinah,
maybe many of them do. There are people
who live in this America that are like
that.
I remember, sir, California recently went through great
drought. My,
my my colleague and friend, Imam Tahir Anwar,
who I think maybe has visited this city
before,
he,
he
was part of the arrangement
of prayer for rain in California
on the heels of a epic drought.
And the Muslims got together and they prayed
for rain,
and it rained the next day.
Allah
says, curse beyond the one who talks garbage
about you behind your back and in front
of your face.
Some of our, ill guided,
fellow countrymen,
who don't like Islam for whatever reason,
they publicly said, oh, these guys just saw
the weather report and they, made up this,
this hocus pocus type of event in order
to make
this hocus pocus type of event in order
to make themselves look good. And a brother
literally screenshotted the weather report,
the day of,
and it showed 5 solid you know, 5
day weather forecast, 5 solid days of sun.
I've seen this happen here in America. I've
seen it happen in other places. The companions
used to do it in every generation from
that time until this time. I did it.
I harangued my friend. I said, don't you
know Imam Abu Hanifa didn't consider salat unless
this father be salat anyway from amongst the
imams? He He said, really? I said, yeah.
Go look it up. I go, but still
Look at the of this ummah.
That Allah
whether there's a separate salat for rain or
not,
That the people of this Umma, he says
to them,
Seek forgiveness from your Lord for your sins.
Indeed, he was the one who always love
to forgive you.
Seek forgiveness from your Lord for your sins,
and he'll send down the rain from the
heavens
in droves.
Brothers and sisters, this salat, the the
experience of the people of the ummah, not
just in the first part, that we dismiss
as legendary, and we think that these people
were not human beings like human beings like
us.
This Ummah that's still alive to this day.
There are people who know how to use
the salat and receive what they need from
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Forget about imams and scholars.
Think about people with corporate jobs.
Think about people with businesses.
People whose businesses are running. I've heard the
businessmen say,
I stood in front of the Kaaba and
grabbed its, covers, and pleaded with the Lord
to make such and such shop,
successful. And now look now look how successful
it is. I I've heard it with my
own ears. And I laugh at the person.
I said, you should have asked for jannah.
That was your one,
that you could have gotten answered. And like
now you have a really nice store. I
hope that Allah forgives you on the yomotiamah
as well. I'm not saying bad. I mean
it's it's it's beautiful that somebody should ask
Allah and Allah should give them. And the
one who Allah gives one time to give
again, inshallah.
But the idea is what? Everybody has their
own disposition.
The one who wants to run a business,
that's how they run it. I know a
brother who's a computer programmer.
He gets paid $500 an hour to fix
other people's code,
And when he gets to it and whoever
here is a programmer knows that writing code
is hard enough for yourself. Fixing someone else's
code is a nightmare.
And he says that that I I will
get a job and I have no idea
how I'm gonna fix it. And when I
get stuck, I stop and I pray 2
rakas
and I asked Allah to Allah to save
me and to help me from this conundrum.
I stuck myself into it. He says the
entire problem opens itself for me. I'm getting
paid $500 an hour. It's not a bad
gig. I know you guys don't have a
job yet but it's you know, you could
get you could be doing worse than life,
mashallah.
If this is the way it is for
people who are just working jobs
or people who are running mundane businesses,
Imagine how much more it will be for
a person who is trying to do what's
right. For a person who's trying to speak
what's right. For a person who's struggling in
order to provide for himself and for his
wife and for his children. It's not easy.
Imagine how much more it will be for
the person who's trying to survive.
It's not easy.
It's not easy to survive. It's not easy
to want to survive.
We see all of these nonsense reports. They're
put in the news. They say, oh, so
and so European nation is the happiest country
in the world. Alhamdulillah Mubarak to you. We
have no reason for any to want a
new to be sad from God's creation.
But a person has to wonder how happy
are they really when those are the countries
that are the ones that are most keen
to pass laws about euthanasia,
legalizing suicide.
The struggle to survive even for one more
day.
Allah protect us and keep us in aafiyah
in this world and the hereafter.
If so many of you should ever come
to a point
where you're so sick,
where you're so ill, and the doctor has
already given the death sentence as if he
has the malakul mot, the angel of death
on speed dial.
To struggle to survive even for one more
day is a great act of payee. Allah
loves the slave who struggles.
Do you know how difficult it is?
Imagine in that situation if a person has
the salat and they know how to pray,
they know how to ask Allah to
person? They may not live forever,
but not you know, living forever isn't the
point of your existence and my existence.
You know, what are you gonna do, live
forever and work 5 days a week for
the next like 10,000,000 years
and and, cash a paycheck? There are bigger
things Allah ta'ala made for you.
Imagine the person who is in that struggle
when they ask Allah ta'ala what will Allah
give them. So this is a hadith of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. I read
it. We'll repeat it, inshallah right now. I
read it in the Arabic portion
that,
Rasool Allahu
alaihi wa sallam,
he mentioned the importance about the and
without
and,
mentioned that I heard the messenger will obviously
say with regards to this
that Allah blessed is he and most high
said that I've split the prayer between, me
and between my slave, 2 halves.
Half of it is for, me and half
of it is for my slave. And, thereafter,
whatever my slave asks me, I will give
him. The messenger of Allah salallahu alayhi wasalam
said that Allah said that you read,
the slave reads, Alhamdulillahi rabbilalameen.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the world.
And Allah ta'ala, after you read this ayah,
Alhamdulillahirahirahirahilameen,
Allah ta'ala will respond to you. My slave
has praised me.
Meaning what? It's not just something that's one
way and Allah ta'ala is busy like, you
know, making sure that like a volcano is
erupting somewhere else and he doesn't care about
what your prayers.
Rather, you stand for the salat for the
so Allah ta'ala also responds to
you. You say praise be to Allah, lord
of the world, and Allah ta'ala says my
slave has praised me.
You say, the the the
the inner
and emphatically merciful, the most merciful, and Allah
most high says, my slave has extolled my
virtue. You
say,
the master of the day of judgment, the
king on the day of judgment. And Allah
says, my slave has magnified me.
And the slave says,
you do we worship, and your aid do
we seek.
And Allah
says, this ayah is is is the relationship
between me and my slave. You do we
worship and you do we seek. Say my
slave who cast his lot in with me,
so this is the bond between me and
my slave. And whatever my slave asks for
hereafter,
I will give
him. And then the slave says,
So the slave says,
guide us to the straight path, the path
of those with whom you are pleased, not
the path of those which whom you're angry,
nor those who have completely gone astray.
And Allah
will respond, said, all of these things my
slave asked, I've given to him. And whatever
else my slave asked, I will give to
him.
This is what This is just a fatiha.
It's not the rest of the prayer. There's
a whole you know, ruku and sajdah reading
things, duas, adkar, etcetera etcetera. This is the
Fatiha, the first thing that a person does
in the salat after the Allahu Akbar.
And after it's correct and proper recitation with
intention and with tawajahu, with concentration with the
Lord, It opens the door that Allah says,
not only these things that you asked for
are granted, but everything else my slave asked
for is granted in salat.
So one should ask themselves I ask myself
and we all ask ourselves, we remind each
other with a reminder of the messenger of
Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Are we, are we, in treating the Lord
like you should be entreated? It's not rocket
science. It's not something impossible that the high
priest can only do on Yom Kippur. It's
something all of us can do. But are
we doing it? And if we, don't,
then do we have anyone else to blame
for, any lack of efficacy in our salat
than ourselves?
Allah
efficacy in our salat than ourselves.
Allah to Allah give us
to be the ones who stand on time,
5 times a day properly front of him
in a way that pleases him, in a
way that makes him happy, and in a
way that he has given to us because
he wants to
hear our prayers and he wants to answer
them in this world and the hereafter.
And may he not make our prayer proof
against us on the day of judgment
or, not allow us to show up for
the appointment
of
the
prayer,
at
all.