Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Riyad alSalihin Virtues of the Congregation 12062018
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So
So yesterday, we talked about or not yesterday.
Last week, we talked about the
the virtues of walking to the masjid from
from one's home and how that's a separate
sunnah,
than just getting to the masjid.
The actual superiority of walking on your own
2 feet
rather than,
rather than living close to the masjid
or coming in a car or whatever, that
it's actually itself a
separate act of worship that has its own
rewards.
Today, we'll talk about something that was mentioned
in the previous chapters as well,
which is also an act of worship that
people have neglected,
which is a Babu Fabbi,
in Deidar salah, waiting waiting for the salah.
So the idea is this. Right? This is
something that everybody should know whether or not
even you're Muslim, which is what? If you're
early, you'll be on time, and if you're
trying to be on time, you'll always be
late.
If you're if you wanna be on time
to something, you have to be early. If
you try to be on time to something
as it's itself a goal, you always be
late. And so people say Muslim standard time,
Muslim standard time. This is not something I
don't really like.
I don't like people using that that phraseology.
I mean, there's a 100 haram with people
eating machine salted chicken and skipping their prayers
and this and that. So I'm not you
know, a person wouldn't make a big deal
out of it in an I'm setting because
of priorities,
but
this is a Hashem Majlis. This Majlis is
not like, you know, the Jummah Khotwah. This
is a Majlis of people who wish to,
try the spiritual path and and and better
themselves. So it should be mentioned in a
in a like this that being late for
things is not the sign of, of being
a believer. If it's not worth doing right,
it's not worth doing at all.
Instead of doing a 1,000,000 things, like, haphazardly
and instead of doing a 1,000,000 thing haphazardly,
do a couple of things well.
A person who does a couple of things
well, for that person to do more things
well is easier than a person who does,
like, a, you know, a whole bunch of
things,
me with mediocrity,
to get them to do,
to teach them the skill set to do
a couple of things well. It's that's a
much more difficult
operation. The first lesson a person should base,
you know, everything that they do, whether it's
in the spiritual path or in life, is
that they should do few things, but they
should do those few things with
with with quality.
And this is something that, you know, if
you look at,
look at the the the
way of doing things in
the Farangi system and the way of doing
things in the,
in the old tradition of the Muslims, they're
they're they're turned backwards.
So in
the Farangi system, what do you do? When
you're in elementary school, you learn a little
bit of everything.
When you're in middle school, high school, bachelor's
degree of general,
education,
elective type courses that you have to take.
And then as you go further and further,
progress further and further with your,
with your studies and your understanding,
it leads to a type of specialization.
Whereas the, the traditional system of the Muslims
is what? You specialize in something. Literally, the
first thing a child learns is alif, baa,
taa, taa. There's no p e. There's no,
arts. There's no none of that stuff.
You learn how to read the letters and
then you learn how to read the Quran
properly and then you memorize the Quran and
you have mastery and the ability to be
able to recite it. As you go on
with your studies further and further, the more,
the deeper that you go, the more you
start to synthesize different things. You learn different,
different, and then you start to synthesize them
together into a holistic,
worldview.
And, each of them,
will lead to a certain type of outcome.
One is limited and the other one is
broad.
And so
the idea is that,
you know, the the whole
the
the the the the whole, like, package of
how to do something well.
If you don't teach it in the beginning,
it's really difficult for pick people to pick
it up later on.
So the salat is the first of the
of the deen that a person should do.
So there are all these sunan that are
there,
that that that are there to help a
person be able to do their salat well.
So if you want to pray your salat
on time, you have to be early.
And if you're early, you're gonna have to
wait. Now people think that the waiting is
a waste of time. The is
saying it's not a waste of time. It
didn't of itself is a separate act of
worship. It has its own
separate,
and virtues, its own separate rewards, and it
bequeaths you with something some separate benefit.
So we, start the chapter on
that the say saidna Abu Hurair
narrates it, the messenger of Allah
said,
one of you will
continuously be in prayer,
as long as the next prayer is what
what what holds them from from leaving. Meaning,
if you come into the Masjid, you could
pray and bounce,
but the reason you're waiting is the congregation,
then the reward for that is as if
you're continuously praying.
And,
the condition is what is that? The only
thing keeping a person there is the
salat? Like, they could go out and return
to their family or return to their home
or return to something more comfortable, but the
only reason that they're not leaving is is
the salat itself.
And this is one of the okay. We'll
we'll get through
So
say, Abu Hurair
also narrates that the messenger of Allah
said, the angels will
continuously invoke God's blessings on one of you,
as long as that person stays in his
his place of prayer, in his.
And this is a typo in the
in the text,
that they wrote a and
more inexplicably, they wrote a a they wrote
the wrong in it as well. That as
long as
a person stays in in there,
that they prayed.
Means the place that they they they said
their their their previous prayer.
As long as that person doesn't break their
as long as they stay in in.
And so those angels will will will continuously
invoke
god's blessings on that person
saying, oh, Allah, forgive him. Oh, Allah, have
mercy on him.
And the you know, what's the speciality of
the the the prayers of the
angels?
It's that they're accepted because they're not they're
they don't sin.
So you see a pious person, you say,
make dua for me. The angels themselves,
they their dua, when they make dua for
a person, what does that mean? Because the
angels themselves is a point of they
do not,
they do not negate or or go against
the commandment of Allah.
So for them praying for you, that means
that Allah wants you to give the he
wants to give you that thing that they're
praying for, which is what?
Allah's forgiveness and Allah's mercy.
As long as that person is waiting for
the salat and as long as that person
doesn't
break their wuhu.
Muhammad. Said Anas ibn Malik
narrates that the,
Messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he delayed
the prayer,
the Isha prayer, 1 one night until, nearly
half the night had passed.
Then he,
turned to us with his
after he prayed,
and he said,
that some people, they prayed the salat, and
they already went home. They went to sleep
already.
Meaning what? There are some people who just
prayed at home. They didn't come to the
masjid at all. And there are some people
who who waited as long as they could,
and then they prayed and they went home.
So the prophet said some people prayed and
they already,
they already,
went to sleep.
And you who stayed,
all of you, you were, in Salat, as
long as you were waiting.
As long as you're waiting.
And this brings up another another point. People
people are very self serving when it comes
to principles.
So when the principles of Dean
are in their favor,
they they get real self righteous and up
on other people about those principles.
And when they don't serve their,
then they they they pretend like they don't
know what they're what they're talking about.
Pay attention here.
They pretend like they they pretend like they
don't know what's going on. So
what is what is one of the principles?
One of the principles is to be on
time. Now in the masajid, the the sunnah
of the prophet
is what? The sunnah of the prophet is
that the adhan was called,
and the people would come and they would
pray their sunnahs and they would sit in
their place. Someone would pray more. Somebody would
read Quran. Somebody would make. Somebody would sit.
There are number of there are number of
modes of as well. Right? The the you
don't have to, you know, be sitting there
Allah Allah, like, out loud in front of
everybody all, you know, at all at all
times. In fact, you probably shouldn't.
The the most easy form of is what?
Is that a person just sit and think
about good things?
Think about the recitation of the Quran, how
much you love the recitation of the Quran.
Think about if you had, you know, like,
money, what good things you would spend it
on. Think about just good things that that,
that that
by itself is a mode of zikr. It's
a sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. It's extremely easy to do. Even a
person is laying in bed waiting to go
to sleep, a person can do That's also
a Masloon act of worship,
that's transmitted from the prophet
just mentioned in the beginning of the. I
mean, there are literally a hadith about it.
So whatever it is, if you're not, like,
you know, if you're not, like, in the
zone with your, like, super, like, maxed out
zikr or whatever, you can do something as
simple as that. But the the sunnah was
what? That the adhan is
called, and the people come make the those
who have come to the masjid. Those people
who don't have make the come to the
masjid. They pray their sunas, and then they
wait. And they wait in some sort of
mode of worship for for what? For the
imam to come. That's the sunnah. The sunnah
is not that, like,
at
3 o'clock.
In Janab, when, like, the clock strikes 3,
everybody gets antsy, and then they start to
get up on the imam and, you know,
like, you know, someone will stand in the
place of the imam and all of this
other nonsense. This is why, by the way,
this is why everybody in the Ummah is
like as,
except for those who Allah is very, you
know, special.
This is why the is in the the
the complete,
like, chaotic state that it's in.
Because the way that they go to the
that reflects through and the way they do
everything else. Anyone who's been at imam in
a masjid before knows that. Like, if you
show up, the is at, like, 3 and
you show up at 301. Right?
You know, like, the the Jamat will already
have been stood, and they'll already be in
the second raka.
You're, like, wondering, like, did they start the
prayer early on the day that I was
on the day that I was one minute
late?
And what happens when they lecture the imam,
like, oh, what kind of Islam is this?
I heard in Rial Salihin, you're supposed to
be on time to everything and blah blah
blah and the other thing, you know, the
other thing, and they're gonna get up on,
on the imam about that. No. Actually, the
actual sunnah is to wait until the imam
comes.
And if your imam is not a person
that
that's that's worth waiting for,
then what does that tell you about the
way your masjid is run?
And if there's nobody in your community that
people respect enough that they would wait for
them, what does that say about your whole
community? There's some systemic issue. There's something systemically
wrong there. And the fact of the matter
is most of our masajid, they're
the people leading the prayer, you know
you know, like,
sir, you're entitled to your opinion. You're not
entitled to your
own. You're entitled to your own opinion. You're
entitled to your own preference of what flavor.
You're not entitled to your own version of
deen or to your own version of tajweed
or to your own whatever freestyle or whatever.
And people people don't don't don't respect the
imam. And what is it? You have all
these other mechanisms in place in order to,
compensate for this,
problem to compensate for this,
you know, deficiency in the in the way
things are run, which is definitely not according
to the sunnah of the prophet.
And the fact of the matter is, yes,
the whoever the imam is, they should come
on time. They shouldn't mess with people for
no reason. That itself is a a sign
of a person being a bad leader. But
at the same time, you know, there's equilibrium
between people. If you wanna be together, part
of the Jama'a existing is that there needs
to be Imara in it, and it's give
and take. Sometimes a person in his position
of leadership has to do things that stress
the people, and sometimes,
the people should also,
should also
accept that from the leadership.
As a as a matter of fact, there's
no, you know, there's no day of the
year in which every day has good weather.
There's seasons for everything, things happen. That's how
the will stay together. The doesn't stay together
only in good times, and then in bad
times, everybody separates. That's not unity at all.
That's fake that's fake unity. What is the
the so you see this happens in the
sunnah of the prophet so many times that
sometimes the was
late. This is one of the good things
about the the Hanqa. In our Hanqa, the
the that that's the system used to be
that the Adhan was called. And the sheikh,
when he would come out from the, that's
when we would pray. And sometimes it would
be right away, and sometimes it would take,
some time, and sometimes it would take, like,
abnormally long amount of time, and people would
just be there and they would wait. I
mean, now we live in a in a
in a era where people don't read sunnahs
anymore anyway. Like, weeks, months will go by.
A person won't pray,
the their sunnahs even if they think that
they're a very pious person who's praying their
Fard prayer. But if you implement the sunnah
of coming at the time of the adhan
and waiting for the imam,
then what you'll see that you'll see that
that that people will then also have a
very normal and natural time for them to
pray the sunnahs as well.
And, this is one thing I have to
congratulate the graduates of the, the Madrasa and
Ry Wind in in in in Pakistan. They're
the whenever the ulama have have gatherings,
and the Adhan is called, you see that
the all the graduates of that particular madrasa,
they're all in the first row having had
wudu from before the Adhan is called and
having prayed their sunas. They're waiting, and they
get the first takbir,
as opposed to, some of the other people
who are stragglers.
We're have bad habits from years of not
implementing these sunan. So without speaking ill of
other people, but at least just to, like,
Harun Ferdowsi, he's here in the city. Right?
Him,
Moana,
Moana, Mufti Salim, Lakhani, his brother,
Moana Iqbal,
Moana Faraz from from,
this,
Minneapolis.
Right? These guys, they're like that. They're cracked.
They're on time,
and they're waiting.
Why?
Because that was part of their that that
this sunnah, the emphasis of it was made.
That what? That you wait. Those people who
spend time in the Hanukkah, they know that's
that's that's the way it's supposed to be.
Imagine that in the Hanukkah, some one day
the people got yelled at. Why?
Because they're they're getting into the salat, they're
making the salat in jama'a, but like joining
the 2nd rakkah and the 3rd rakkah.
And,
the the Nazim of the Hanukah, the the
the the person who runs the
management of the Hanukah,
at the behest of our Sheikh, he he
he yelled at everybody. He said if you
guys are going to join the salat in
the second raka'ah, imagine imagine that, like, if
we pray in congregation like we're super pious
people. He said if you guys are gonna
join the salat in the second raka, why
are you even here?
Go somewhere else. Go enjoy yourself. Go have
chai at the, you know, at the at
the chai stall. Go eat out. Go bowling.
Go to the mall. Why are you even
here?
Obviously, this is not like the the regular
masjid, and the regular masjid may be, inappropriate
to dress people down like that. But the
person who comes to the for their own
self betterment and
whatever, you know, why why are you here?
Why did you come here? Why did you
come all of this way?
What's the point? If you're going to join
the salat in the second
why
is he why is he the true faith
one? Because he didn't miss the the first
takbir in the masjid for, you know, for
his whole life.
Right? That's the whole that's the whole reason.
Why why is it that you say
moving from posture to posture in the salat
and you say
out of the coming out of the ruku.
What's
particularly
noteworthy with regards to the hukam of the
salat,
about coming out of ruku?
What's noteworthy is that the person who,
joins the salat,
before that point, that person has caught the
raka.
And whoever joins the the salat after that
point, that raka won't count for them.
So the the story is that Abu Bakr
Siddiq was was
against his habit. He was one day, as
every human being would be, was
caught up in some whatever part of the
dunya. I mean, being doesn't mean you don't
have to pay rent or that food doesn't
cost you money. You know? So he has
to do his things in the day, and
so he got caught up. And then he
realized salat and he darted to the masjid,
and he was afraid he missed the first
raka'ah. And when he, he he, said and
went in went into the ruku
and, he he said
he praised Allah. He didn't miss the he
didn't miss the the prayer. So Sayyidina Jibril
alaihis salam was present to witness this happening
and so Rasul salam heard him say Alhamdulillah
and so Najibreel said to the prophet
in the prayer
he
says
that Allah heard the one who praised him.
Allah Ta'ala heard the one who praised him
and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam repeated
those words
because Jibril alaihi wasallam would teach the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam to pray, so he how
to pray. So he said,
Allah hears the one who praises him. But
that's not about you and me. That's about
him,
uh-uh Radhiyallahu ta'ala Anhu. Allah Ta'ala hears the
one who praises him. And then when the
saydna Abu Bakr Siddiq heard the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam say these words, he said,
and both of these things become a sunnah
now in the prayer.
Right? Obviously, it's not you and I who
did it. We're the ones who benefit from
it. It teaches us the the benefit of
of of what? Of first, you know, someone
who knows a little bit of Arabic will
know that
means that Allah hears the one who praises
them, and then afterward, you praise after hearing
that so that Allah may hear you. But
the whole the whole institution of, of that
part of the prayer is what? It's a,
it's a gift from Abu Bakr Sadiq. His
fiqh of of of of
being there at the prayer, not missing any
part of it, which is something that we
take extremely lightly. You're not going to be
able to be a person who catches the
Takbir Ula,
the,
if you're if you're not actually waiting for
the prayer. If you know that the salat
is gonna be at, like, 7 PM
straight, you know, and you're trying to get
to the master at 7 PM, you're not
gonna get there. Why? Because there's gonna be
parking issues because some old person is gonna
be in the way and, taking their shoes
off, and it takes a 1000000 years. And
you're supposed to wait for them. You're supposed
to show kind kindness to them. That's another
reason for you to get reward. That's another
reason for Allah to have mercy on you.
But instead, you put yourself in a position
where you're like, woah. Won't this old dude
like, won't this, you know, old woman, like,
get out of my way, and she's ruining
my prayer. No. You ruined your prayer. You
ruined your prayer through your carelessness.
If it was that important for you to
show up 5 minutes early. You know, you
you would have shown up for 10 minutes
early. You would have come at the time
of the adhan. You know? The person who
has love, that person will will with care
and love, they'll take care of these things.
They'll make these arrangements in order not to
be in that position. And then the person
who comes like a moron, they'll come into
the Masjid, then they'll push people out of
the way, and they'll they'll they'll try to
shove themselves into the first stuff, and they'll
destroy your prayer that you don't have literally
a place to sit. People try to shove
themselves into the prayer. I have, like, my,
one of my knees has, like, I had
the the same as you. Right? ACL reconstruction
surgery. I can't even sit properly. I need
a little bit of extra room on one
side. So if if I come early and
the person shoves themselves in, you know, either
either I just push them back or or
or or what? Like, try to be pious
and the person literally causes.
People cause to one another because of these
things.
If you do it the way manner in
the manner of the sunnah, it will increase
the world in beauty. If you do it
against the manner of the sunnah, that very
same thing that you think you're getting, for,
you're actually gonna you're actually gonna mess it
up.
So this is the sunnah. You wanna follow
the sunnah instead of getting up on the
imam for being, 30 or 45 seconds later,
even 5 minutes late.
Instead of that, you practice the sunnah of
coming when the adhan is called. Coming you
know, for example, some some of the massages,
they'll pray like Asr, for example, or Isha,
like, significantly later than when the is called.
That's fine. Come early then. Just come early.
You know, come 10 minutes early. Come 15
minutes early. That's what the sunnah is.
And and know this as well. Right? We
talked about the way the people pray is
a is a
manifestation of what the state of the is
in. Right? The the congregational
prayer look. You know, obviously, there are different
and things like that, but in the Hanafi
and the Maliki,
there's only 1 congregation in the Masjid. When
we talk about people who pray in the
congregation, that's there's only 1 congregation. When it's
done, it's actually it's actually to do a
second congregation in the Masjid. Masjid. Meaning what?
Meaning your prayer will be technically valid in
the 5th, but it's going to be devoid
of reward.
So there's no point grab another person
and make that and comment. There's no point
to it. You're literally, you'll get more reward
if you pray separately.
Why? Because the congregation was not the one
you want. It's the one Allah wanted.
It's not the one you want. It's the
one that Allah wanted.
That one's done already.
Which one is that? Is that the one
that's at 7 o'clock on the dot, or
is that the one that the imam leads?
It's the one that the imam leads. All
the they
they they mentioned this.
So if somebody else makes the and prays
at 7 o'clock and the imam comes at
705,
It's his prerogative if he wishes to that
the be called again and that the Jamafi
prayed and the one that receives the prayers,
the one that prayed with him.
So wait wait wait for the imam.
If the imam is not somebody worth waiting
for, that's a different problem. That's another problem.
Some of you know, the problems are not
like I have, like, a magic trick that
I could, you know, 1, 2, 3, read,
I have to, of course, and blow on
it, and it just makes everything better. There's,
like, a a number of layers of of
problems. So how do you deal with them?
You peel back one layer at a time
layer at a time. That's a separate issue.
That's a separate issue.
But the the the the the sunnah, if
somebody wants to know what the sunnah is,
is that that that congregation
that receives the reward, that's the one with
the with the imam Ratib, the the the
imam that is set by the that's set
by the,
by the imamah of of of the community.
So we say from saying,
well,
what if the Imara of the community is
corrupt? I said, they're corrupt because everybody worships
money. So we're the all all of us
are the idiots that said, I'd rather go
to the masjid that has a $100,000
chandelier in it, and so the people who
can afford the $100,000
chandelier, you took with them, and you're they're
leading you to wherever they're going, wherever they
end up on the
I hope you enjoy it there because you'll
be there forever.
If we didn't love the money, maybe there
would be other people who would follow,
and we would go to, you know, go
and be with them even if the the
chandelier wasn't as fancy.
But, everyone loves to blame, you know, everyone
loves to blame the king, and the president,
and the crown prince, and God knows what.
And, you know, their their their stupidity, and
tyranny, and cruelty wouldn't have been possible if
all of us didn't go along with it.
Someone says, what if I don't go along
with it, I'll get jailed and beaten or
whatever. Well, you know, you can at least
show up to the Masjid that has an
imam worth following. No one's gonna jail you
or beat you for that, at least not
yet in most places. There are some places
that it's gotten to that point now, but
those places also didn't get to that point,
except for that they passed through all of
these
that we're talking about in order to get
to those destinations. Allah protect us. This is
a hadith, the dua of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam that when when and we
read it in the rial of the salihin
also that, you know, one of the things
that he used to make dua for when
they were together, when when when their gathering
would disperse,
So
the Rasul
he mentions that one night,
the messenger of Allah
he delayed the salat until about half the
night passed.
And this is why this is one of
the the the
opinions of the the opinion in the Maliki
is that that it's to delay the salat
after 1 third of the night, But it's
a minority opinion
that that that that it extends all the
way to half the night, and this hadith
perhaps is one of the proofs for that
for that opinion. But this is that this
practice of the prophet may be
just to show that the prayer is still
valid that late. It may it may not
actually say that it's okay to delay it
like this as a as a habit.
If something happens, like, when you're traveling or
there's some need to delay it like that,
then it happens. It happens. But you shouldn't
delay the prayer beyond the 1st 3rd of
the night. If you divide the night into
3 sections starting from Maghrib and Tal Fajr,
that first 3rd should be the the the
last that you should delay the the the
salat al I sha.
So if you're at a party or you're
at home or you're whatever,
and you're even if you're not gonna make
it to the Masjid, you shouldn't delay it
until after that. Delaying it afterward
is,
meaning that you still have to pray, but
but by virtue of delaying it until after
that point, you destroy the the reward of
the prayer. Now you'll pray and you'll be
obviated of the punishment of having missed the
prayer, but you destroyed the
the the the the the reward of the
prayer.
And, a person you know, it doesn't take
rocket science. Someone's like, well, why? It doesn't
take rocket science to understand why. I mean,
if you everyone's done this. You go to
a party, everyone had fun, and you get
home at 1 o'clock in the morning. What
quality of what's the quality of your prayer
and your with her? It's like a speed,
you know, speed 4 plus 3,
you know, lucky 7 and just get done
with it. You know? It's it's not a
very high quality prayer,
even, you know, even by anecdotal experience.
So but at any rate, so the prophet
he came at when roughly half the night
had passed,
then he turned with his Mubarik priest
after he had prayed, he turned to us,
and he said, that that some of the
people have prayed and gone to sleep, and
you all
have been continuously
in prayer as long as you've been waiting.
This is a, the chapter with regards to
the
the,
the the virtue of praying
in praying in in in in in congregation.
So the the
of the prayer in the congregation is that
it is a a a a sunnah.
It is a a a a highly emphasized
sunnah
that approaches
close to being far, but is not actually
far,
for every free adult sane male.
That they should they should they should render
their salat in the congregation,
if they're able to. And then the discussion
of what that means will will come, shortly.
But there are a number of hadith that
indicate that, you know, that it's something that
that a person could be forgiven for thinking
that it's actually
a,
an obligation of deen.
That the prayer in congregation
is,
more virtuous than the prayer of a person
praying alone,
by 27
stations.
That there are 27 qualitative
stations that that that prayer improves and and
and,
becomes better
by.
So Sayna Abu Hurair
he narrated the messenger of Allah
said, and this is a explanation,
of that prayer that's 27
ranks higher
than than the prayer of a person at
home alone.
That that's not just that you made the
the the, like, in any way, shape, form
that you're gonna get that automatically.
Rather, there's a a science. There's, like, you
know, there's an addition, a type of arithmetic
that things add up in order to make
it like that.
And so as many of these things as
a person does well and with beauty,
that's how much better their salat will get.
And if they do the whole thing properly,
they'll be 27
ranks higher than the the the salat had
they not done any of these things and
prayed separately.
The messenger of Allah
said that the reward
of praying in congregation
is multiplied by by,
25 times when compared to the reward of
a person who prays,
alone in their in their house or in
their,
place of business.
People pray in their shops or they pray
at at work or whatever.
Those are valid, but making it to the
congregation is 25 times more reward. And that
25 times more reward, which is different than
the the the the the the qualitative difference
in ranking,
this has to do with the quantum of
reward, that's a qualitative comparison.
The 25
times more reward is for the one who
made wudu at home, and they made
well according to all of its, sunnahs.
It's duas, all of those things. They used
a small amount of water. They washed each
limb, three times, etcetera, etcetera, which we talked
about in the previous lessons. But the person
made the the wudu properly,
at home.
Then that person walked to the masjid,
then that person prayed the salah,
and they walked to the masjid. Why? For
the sake of going to the masjid. Not
there not on their way to something else,
but the the the
of of of leaving the home was to
go to the Masjid, not anything else.
That person will not take a step except
for
every step,
will be an increase in rank for them,
and a,
an offloading of their sins. And when they
pray,
the angels will,
will invoke God's blessings on them,
as long as that person is standing or
is is located in the place that they
prayed.
Meaning that the the salat and then afterward,
the duas and things like that. Right? So
the the
the the the the the the sunnah making
after the prayer and making after the prayer,
These are good things as well. People run
away from them because they're not, like, far,
quote unquote.
But what is it? It's like a person
set the table, and now this is the
time to eat. That the entire thing was
set up for you. Now the longer that
you sit there, the more you'll get out
of the without having having actually to be
in the itself.
So this is something that it would be
foolish of a person to just run away
from.
So that person, as long as they're in
that that,
the angels will continuously invoke god's blessings on
the person
and they'll say, oh, Allah,
your blessings rain your blessings down on this
person. Oh, Allah, have mercy on this person.
And that person will be with Allah, ta'ala,
counted as
being in the prayer as long as they're
waiting for the prayer.
As long as they're waiting for the prayer.
So hadith of Bukhari in Muslim, and this,
wording is from from
from
from
from
he narrates
a a a
very strange
ajeeb in Urdu means something different. Ajeeb in
Arabic means wondrous.
That's the and actually if you read, like,
in in the classical
Urdu, if such a thing is really exist.
But in classical Urdu, the the the Urdu
of the
that that were conversed in Persian and Arabic,
they the the word ajeeb is used in
the the the
as meaning, meaning wondrous.
What what what modern Urdu
the word that modern Urdu,
uses to describe ajeeb with, it's actually that's
the meaning of harib. In in the modern
Urdu, harib means poor, but that's not what
the what the actual dictionary meaning of harib
is nor is it in the the literary
meaning.
So,
Sayid
Nabu
Hurair
he
narrates
that,
a blind man came to the prophet
and he said, oh messenger of Allah, I
have nobody to guide me to the masjid.
So what does that mean? Like, imagine a
blind person who's outside.
If they if they don't have, like, now
they have, like, dogs that do this or
a person will have someone accompanying them or
whatever,
or they'll have the cane, and they'll try
to feel what's out in front of them.
Person could be crossing the street and not
see a a car. They could get hit.
They could trip over something and fall. And
when they fall, they don't know how to
brace themselves properly. It's dangerous.
This is not just like a convenience issue.
This is something like purse people will repeatedly
hurt themselves, you know, doing things because it's
just difficult. It's dangerous.
That a blind man,
he said, oh, messenger of
Allah, I have no one to guide me
to the masjid.
And so he asked the messenger of Allah
to give him permission
to pray at home. So the messenger of
Allah gave him permission.
And then after when the person was turning
to leave,
the messenger of Allah
called him and and asked, do you hear
do you hear the adhan?
He said, I do. He said, then answer
answer the call.
This is another, hadith narrated,
by a blind man. Said Sidna Abdulahi,
and it said Amr bin Qais,
the the one well known as
the
the of the prophet
who is, who is mentioned is immortalized in
the Quran,
That he is the Ama, he is the
blind man who is that's mentioned in
Surah
Surah
that he you know, being a blind person,
he said, oh, Messenger of Allah,
Madinah has
a great number of jinns and,
jinns and and and and
predatory,
wild animals.
So Halam is
maybe the the the the
the the translation of is wrong. The commentary,
Hama
is the name of a jinn,
but the,
but the meaning here is
like, it has a number of poisonous, like,
insects,
like,
scorpions and things like that.
So he's a blind man. He's complaining about
something that's, like, a legitimate,
like, difficulty.
And,
he said to the messenger of Allah,
he said to him, do you hear,
can you hear the in the
If you can, then then come.
Then then then then come to the prayer.
Now, I mean, both of these both of
these,
hadith
If a person is in genuine difficulty in
Haraj, there is the
will give you,
but the idea is that these are people
who are close to the prophet
and so he's gonna wanna do what's best
for them. And so
what was he saying is that don't miss
the don't miss the the the reward of
these things.
And, left a person, but it's important to
know to know that because, people sometimes are
enamored with their own excuses. Now as far
as the is concerned, right, if a person
is not in the ear shot of the,
then this,
this doesn't apply. What does the ear shot
of the mean without microphones or without whatever,
you know, Turkish style,
huge minaret with
3 levels, each of them blaring a beautiful
Adan and
depending on which time of the the the
the day it
is.
Without
without
without, reference to that, if the person threw
their voice, you know, whatever the ear shot
of the Adan is. So let's say at
least it's at least, like, half a mile
or so maybe.
That's the the ear shot, the regular ear
shot of the Adan. That people in within
that within that radius,
the
emphasis of coming to the masjid becomes so
much that, you you know, it's almost as
if a person is committing a sin by,
like, deliberately not
not going. So many of us live much
further than that. So in a sense, and
this is what I mean by saying that
doesn't like, you know, it's not the entire
dean. It's important, but it's not the entire
dean. In a sense, it may not be
it may not be as emphasized of a
sunnah for you to attend the prayer. But
from the the solo point of view, you
realize why why the the is the way
it is that a person it's it's really
horrible for them to miss it. It's because
of the sheer amount of reward. And so
for the person who wants to have that
reward, even if they're not even if they're
not
this, you know, such a such a duty
is not imposed on them through the law.
If a person wishes to make spiritual progress,
then this is where they're gonna find it.
And that's more the more the point that
that that's being made over here.
Because a person maybe, like, well, you said
all these wonderful hadiths. How come I don't
see you at the masjid 5 times a
day? You know? And,
you know, I'm guilty, so sharpen the sword,
Inshallah, you can execute me after the dars
is over. The point is this is that
the the the the, you you know, a
person may be clear in the 5th, but
you're losing, you're missing out if you don't
if you don't get those things. It's worth
putting in your time and your effort into
making them happen. And so one of the
solutions may be, like, you know, drive half
an hour for every salat. If you did,
it would be worth it, but not everyone's
able to do so. And the solution would
be to what? Like, to make a closer
to your house where people can meet together
in order to get that reward. Whether a
person implements any of it or not, the
ilm itself is a, is a is an
act of worship. A person should have that
knowledge. They should submit to it. That this
is the way the deen is supposed to
be. When a person does that, that's step
1 in order to go somewhere. By denying
that, you're not gonna do yourself any favors,
and you're not gonna benefit out of any
This is a very interesting hadith. I remember
the first time I heard this,
from our,
good brothers, from the jamaat
reward them and
make easy for them,
the proliferation of their work with the class.
I was myself, like, head on. Like like,
I was very,
surprised at at this hadith because it's uncharacteristically
harsh wording from the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. And those those are the ulama who
said that going to the Jamaat is is
Wajib. This is a proof for them.
This hadith is a proof that they use,
because the harshness of the wording of it.
And the that don't say it's Wajib, they
say that it's almost as if it's wajib
because it's hadith.
That Abu Hurair
who narrates with the messenger, Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam swears an oath. He says, by
the one in whose
hand my soul is.
I desire,
to command
that
that that that that fuel and fire,
the fuel of fire be brought.
And then I command that the
the the be called for, the be called
for the
and the be assembled, and that I, I
I leave a person to lead the prayer,
and then I go house to house to
the houses of those people who,
who didn't answer the call, and I I
I I I, burned the the houses down
on them.
And, this is this is, again, an uncharacteristically
harsh
statement of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
And, the commentators write that the the the
target of the
the target of this, hadith is the.
But when a person hears it and they're,
oh, good. Because I'm not a so I'm
clear. That I'm not a Monafiq is like
a sign that you may be a Monafiq.
That feeling.
If a person's like, oh my goodness, that
may be me then, Inshallah, you're not a
Monafiq. Inshallah inshallah.
But the idea is that what? That a
person that they feel that's somebody else, then
it may not be somebody else. It may
actually be you. Or maybe
protect us and forgive us. And, Omar
his
and he is, he is
the most, the most severe in prosecuting the
the commandment of the Lord, the commandment of
Allah from the Sahaba
if he's the one who was constantly afraid
that if there's only 1 Munafit in all
of Madinah, then it would have been me.
Then that's
fair to say it's an accurate description of
wilayah
of sainthood.
And,
the ones that are self assured all the
time,
those are the the that's the
then, that's that should make a person afraid.
And,
you know, also if you look at things
through the empirical
model. Right? You your PT. Right? Your empirical,
evidence based medicine.
Right? Empirical model,
is what? If the shoe fits, wear it.
Right? Here the Sifa of the Munafiqin is
what? That they're the people who should be
at the salaf and they're not there.
Why would the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam become so upset? Why? Because people
are deliberately the the fruit the the actual
benefit of the of the coming is right
there and people are still not taking it.
They're being obstinate. They're throwing themselves in the
fire. Their family's in the fire because of
their,
dogged insistence on not on not benefiting from
from the. This is problematic and it's frustrating
as well.
That you see a people, destroying themselves and
throwing themselves toward destruction and and and not
wanting to help themselves in obstructing other people,
this is this is highly problematic.
And so the fact that the prophet
would speak like this, and it's very rare
that he says this about anything, sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
He even doesn't speak about being jihad against
the enemies of
of Islam in such harsh terms.
So it means that this is an important
this is an important important issue. You know,
there are some people who are like, well,
how can you talk about salat all day,
you know, when there's no caliphate?
It's like, okay. Well, show me the hadith
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, you
know, like
that. And then then then then
even then you'll have all you have is
the admission that that they're equal.
But the caliphate is something that is by
the consensus consensus of it's
not on every single person, whereas coming to
the Masjid is a
I know there all the caliphate guys are
gonna listen to this and they're gonna say,
oh, don't you know the hadith of the
prophet, the person who doesn't have who dies
without bay'ah in their in their in their
neck, they die the death of Jahiliya.
That's when there's somebody to make bay'ah too.
And your dude who's sitting in a in
a, you know, in a in a masjid
in suburban America,
that that's not a person to make Baya
too. That's a joke. Let them bring sovereign
authority first, and then you'll see that the
and the pious ones would have beaten you
to it already.
Bring someone first and then talk about it.
Otherwise, you're just paddling in the air. It's
like a person who talks about the NBA
All Star team, you know, the elementary school
kid who talks about the NBA All Star
team. It doesn't mean that they're actually on
the All Star team. It just means that
they talk a lot of smack.
And said,
and
It's a a beautiful hadith narrated by Said
Abdul Abin Mus'
was from the fuqaha of the Sahaba
and the transmitters of the Quran and the
great the great scholars in the ulama of
the Sahaba people of knowledge. Not scholars in
the
in the in the in the formal sense
that's used nowadays, but meaning the people of
knowledge, the people who carry the knowledge of
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
That, he said whoever,
makes them happy to
meet Allah Most High tomorrow as a Muslim.
Meaning when you die that you should be
raised and brought to Allah to as a
Muslim.
Let them guard over these these prayers.
Let them let them let them guard over
these prayers, meaning let them let them be
protective of their prayers.
Let them guard over their prayers,
when they're called,
when they're when they're when they're called for
and in the places that they're called for,
meaning the For
indeed, Allah
made us a sacred law for your prophet
certain of guidance.
And,
this is later on the
this is this is me this means that
those that are part of the deen. They're
not like a cultural practice of the Arabs
and that's why the prophet did them, etcetera.
These are actually part of the deen.
And these prayers are indeed from the sunun
of guidance, from the sununas of guidance.
And if, you were to pray in your
pray in your homes,
like,
today's,
lazy person prays in his home, that then
you will have
left the,
sunnahs of your prophet. And if you leave
the sunnah of your prophet, you will go
astray. You'll be misguided.
And,
I saw
I saw us our condition, meaning the companions
of the messenger of Allah.
I saw our condition
that that there was a time when nobody
would no one would stay back from the
prayers
except for the that
everyone knew this person is a a hypocrite.
Everybody knew this is a hypocrite. And here
means what? Means this person is a inside.
They profess Islam outwardly and,
inside their heart there's nothing except for the
reality of Kufr.
And I I I I I in indeed,
it used to be that a man would
come to the come to the salat
and,
you you despite the fact that they were
so weak that they couldn't even stand, that
they had to put one arm on one
person and another arm and another person just
to keep them standing for the slot. But
despite that that amount of weakness, they'd still
make it to the they'd still make it
to the prayer. Imagine if we got together
and we plan to live a a a
life
like
that. Think about how many just in getting
to that point where we made a society
like that, how many of the issues that
people think are the quote, unquote real issues
of the Umma? How many of them would
have been solved from the from the get
go? Would we sell each other out in
front of other people? Absolutely not. Would we,
you know, backbite one another? Would we, curse
one another? Would we,
you know, behave like snakes and scorpions with
one another? Absolutely not.
That's where the the unity and cohesiveness and
the brotherhood of Islam starts from is from
from doing things like that.
I'm nothing but, just somebody who's repeating the
message. So if you see well, look at
you. You're not doing any of this either
yourself.
Okay. You sharpen the sword and kill me,
but after the darshal, at least you know
what what's,
what what what what what's right. You know?
Knowing what's right, it opens the door for
possibly getting there one day. Not knowing in
the first place, it means the door is
gonna be locked forever.
Ajib
and so Ajib, this hadith is narrated by
people in, like, a political context,
which is fine. The reality is that it's
true in that context as well.
But, they narrate in the political context and
they don't narrate it in the in the
actual native context that the prophet
said it.
That Abu Darda
or who was he he was the same
as, like, Ablobin Masood who
was sent to the people of Sham.
Mas'ud and the the through the halakha of
Abdullah bin Mas'ud. There are places the Hanafi
Madhav leaves his opinion as well.
It's not it's not just, like, like the
no. None of the Madahib are are the
are based around centered around the personalities of
people other than the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam.
But the methodology is his.
So just like that was sent to the
people of Sham to be their their the
the scholar of the people of Sham.
And so he he also mentioned just like
who mentioned before, that I heard the messenger
of Allah
said, there's not 3 people who are in
a village
or even in the in the, even, nomads
out in the desert,
except for,
the prayer should be established amongst them.
And, I remember this. I remember, like, growing
up in Blaine, Washington,
you know, being in a school where, like,
when the other brown kid moved to town,
you know, people would, like, call us by
each other's name because they can't because we
all look alike to them, like, level of
small town. Right?
So,
even then,
we tried to, make the the the congregation,
the jama'ah of the Muslims.
I guess all we can do is try
it.
Because I said that there's 3 there's that
that 3 people don't get together in a
village or or in a room in a
village or, in in the the the desert
nomads in the desert,
except for, the prayer must be established amongst
them. And if if they're not able to
do so, then Shaitan will overwhelm them.
Then Shaitan will overwhelm them.
So,
and the jama'ah, the congregation is an
obligation
over you,
and,
the wolf will only eat from thee, the
flock, the the the sheep that strays,
If the wolf attacks the flock, I mean,
like, a full grown male ram a ram
is a male, so that's redundant. But a
full grown ram,
you know, it's, it's it's like formidable,
has its horns. It's a big animal. It
can charge really hard and hit really hard.
And so,
it can hit the,
the wolf hard enough to
really irritate it, possibly injure it. And a
bunch of rams that hit the wolf can
kill the wolf.
So what does the what does the wolf
do?
The wolf will not attack straight into the
middle of the flock unless it wants to
get beat up and bruised or die or
it's, you know, has some sort of,
like, something's wrong with it. Usually, people like
pain. There's something wrong with them, but animals
usually like martialed Darwinian
mechanics basically weed those types of animals out.
So what happens is that the the wolf
is not gonna do that. The wolf will
watch the flock and it will wait for
the one that's heedless
and that's, like, straggling.
And so what will it do? It'll shoot
over. It'll kill it, and then it'll back
off real quick.
And what will happen is that the the
the the rest of the flock will be
like, well, there's nothing we can do with
it now. It's dead. They'll bite it in
the throat. It'll bleed out and whatever. The
wolf will hang out from far away and
wait for the rest of the flock to
move on because it's not like they're gonna
pick it up and take it with them
or whatever. Right? There's really nothing to do
at that at that point. It's a loss.
So they'll they'll move on, and then it
will it will come and the other wolves
will come and they'll they'll they'll start to
feast on it.
That's how one wolf is going to get
its dinner out of the the flock. So
that's what, Rasulullah, sallahu alaihi wa sallam, said
to the shaitan, the the the that that
that 3 people in nomads in the desert
or in the nomadic range
or, people in a remote village.
So it's hola for the people who are
in the city. That 3 people will not,
come together except for the congregation must be
established amongst them. And if it's not, the
Shaitan will overwhelm them.
Why? Because the wolf will always attack the
the sheep that strays,
far from the flock.
And again, this hadith is oftentimes quoted by
people in political context and it's true in
the political context as well.
But, you know, don't quote it with agenda,
put it in its native context. That if
the salat isn't straight, then the rest of
the things are not gonna be straight. So
in some sense, if the brothers of the
Jamaat and the brothers of the the Hizb
they got together
and they humble themselves in front of the
Nasus of Deen.
They would realize that if they did their
work properly, there would be no reason to
argue with one another because the the the
will be the tactic of the will be
there hand in hand. The only person who
sees that whole picture is the ulama.
Without them,
both of them are gonna spin off into
a different side of destruction.
But,
because people unfortunately
don't have those ties ties with the, they
haven't put their ties with the people of
knowledge,
and humble themselves in front of their knowledge,
then they, you know, they're busy paving the
road to * with their good intentions.
Allah protect us,
and give us a better way.