Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Riyd alSlihn The Virtues of Prayer 11152028
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AI: Transcript ©
It's a chapter regarding the virtue of the
prayer of the salat.
Like we mentioned from before,
the salat is the highest
and most powerful of the that the prophet
gave to
the of Islam,
in their spiritual progress,
and then they're traveling the path to Allah
the spiritual path.
And Allah most high says, indeed, the salat
will
stop or prohibit a person from indecency and
from
sin.
Is that that act
that,
is ugly,
that there's it's shameful that a person would
wish to,
hide from
and a a a normal person would feel
shame from.
And so the the the the,
of the,
of of the deed
are,
those things that are oftentimes,
involve some sort of sexual perversity.
And the of speech,
are those sins in which bad or
excessive
speech is involved.
Someone who's fashish in their speech. Fashish is
has
a meaning that,
involves
going beyond like some sort of natural normal
limit in something.
So,
Allah says that, the stops a person from
the successiveness
and from,
are the other,
the other infractions of sharia that are normal
sins,
that are lapses in a person's,
upright and moral character and conduct.
And so there's a hadith
of the prophet
that
that that person that their salat doesn't stop
them or slow them down from,
from from indecency and from sin.
That salah, it doesn't increase a person
in their relationship from Allah
except for a distance.
That that salat actually distances a person from
from Allah
which means what? The salat in and of
itself is not gonna do anything until and
unless you allow it to help do something
for you.
You have to work on it. You yourself
have to think about,
and focus on your salat and your and
your humility in front of Allah Ta'ala and
what your
what your, relationship is with Allah Ta'ala. You
have to feel regret, for your sins.
You have to put in front of you
the greatness of Allah when you're praying,
and then and then that that,
that salat will be a benefit to you.
And that salat in which a person is
only heedless,
without even trying. That salat only pushes a
person away from Allah,
which is a very grave and serious,
very grave and serious disclosure from the prophet
because many people don't think too much about
what they're doing in their salat.
But on the flip side,
for those who are trying,
they may be caught in some sort of,
middle,
in some sort of middle space where they're
praying and they're trying, but they're still not
able to, or they still haven't been successful
in giving up their their sins and their
indecencies.
And,
the,
Rasulullahahu
alaihi wa sallam, his Mubarak words in regards
to that person,
That, it was said to the messenger of
Allah
that so and so, he prays at night,
and then when he wakes up in the
morning or when the morning comes,
he steals.
The messenger of Allah
said, the thing that you mentioned will prohibit
him.
And so this can mean either way without
further looking at the commentaries.
This could mean either way. Both of the
meanings are valid. That either if he keeps
stealing, one day it will stop him from
saying the prayer. Or if he keeps saying
the prayer, one day it will stop him
from stealing.
And the difference between the 2 of them
is very subtle.
The person who hates the stealing
and,
loves the prayer and works on the prayer,
one day he'll give up his stealing. And
the person who loves the stealing and hates
the prayer and is only, you know, doing
it because of some other reason, that day
one day his staff is going to stop
him from praying.
And so the choice is not anybody else's,
but it's yours. A lot of people are
stuck in a lot of difficulty,
and they, don't own up or take responsibility
for for their situation.
And, that's really that's really problematic.
So we know we know as a matter
of we know as a matter of that,
Allah to Allah, he has written a fate
for everybody. He's divinely predestined things. His knowledge
pervades all things. He knew everything that was
gonna happen before it happened. His desire is
the reason that you and I have a
desire, and what our desire is is accord
in accordance to what his desire for us
was. So we know all of these things.
But then also, we know,
from ourselves that,
we have our own desires, we have our
own choices that we make in life, and
generally, there's some connection between the choices that
we wish for and the the things, the
outcomes that happen.
And both of those realities are true at
the same time.
And, there are many people who,
like,
throw everything on Allah to Allah,
that, oh, well, it's his choice anyway. Well,
what if it's his choice that you go
to Jahannam?
You know? Is that something you're happy with?
And if you're indifferent or you're happy, then
that's a sign that, you know, that may
be where a person is ending or gonna
end up. And if you're not happy with
that,
and if that doesn't please you, then and
you ask a lot how to make that
not your ending, then maybe you were predestined
to go to Jannah.
You let the allata do the allata part.
You do your part. Your judgment is not
gonna based on his be based on his
knowledge. It's gonna be based on yours. It's
not gonna be based on his desire.
He's not gonna judge you based on his
desire. He's gonna judge you based on yours.
He's not gonna judge you based on his
choices. He's gonna judge you based on yours.
So let him keep being Allah, and you
keep making the the the the choices that
that you need to make. At any rate,
bringing this back to the relevance of the
salat, the salat will benefit you as long
as you keep,
pushing it,
and keep desiring for it to benefit you
in these ways. And, it doesn't have to
be something happens one day. There are people
who've been praying salat for their entire lives.
And,
I remember there was
a a Turkish sister who went to,
the University of Washington. She's a PhD student
in some some one of the humanities or
whatever. So she said, my father was a
great,
and I remember some of the things he
used to say. He says I only prayed
namaz in my life,
once or twice.
Meaning what? That he felt like, you know,
he everything was practiced, practiced, practiced, and what
it should have been. It was only once
or twice. The fact of the matter is
that's all you need.
That's all you need. A person imagine, like,
this is a hadith of the prophet write
about the the veterans of the battle of
Badr that what do you know about the
people,
who showed up at on the day of
Badr that Allah didn't look inside of their
hearts and say to them, after this day,
do whatever you wish to, you're forgiven.
There are undoubtedly many of the Sahaba who
already reached reached that mark before even the
battle began.
That's all it is. In some cases, it's
just one act of person does because of
which they're forgiven, because of which the seal
of Allah to Allah is his pleasure with
them is cast on them. And then everything
that they do good after that day is
just and
everything that they do after that day.
That's bad. Allah will forgive them
because he chooses to forgive them. Now, obviously,
through Wahi, we know about the Sahaba, certain
ones amongst them that reach that Maqam. It
doesn't mean just because they're gone that there's
no one anymore.
Rather,
we don't know through Wahi. So those people
are there, but
sometimes we don't know who they are. Sometimes
they themselves don't know who they are. Sometimes
the people know who they are, but they
don't know themselves.
Sometimes the the they know who they are,
but nobody else knows.
Sometimes everyone knows, they know themselves. Sometimes Allah
keeps that person as a secret for themselves.
That that person's state is so beloved to
Allah if it was to be divulged. It
would have been like imagine like a person,
shameless person,
you know, to you know, takes the picture
of their
bride on their wedding night that's all made
up and everything. She's her beauty was only
supposed to be for her groom, and he
takes a picture and puts it up on
the on Facebook or whatever, which unfortunately is
a really
silly thing people do nowadays. But at any
rate,
some some some people, their beauty is such
a secret that Allah will not spoil it
by showing the people or by showing them
them themselves their own nafs. Rather, that beauty
is saved so that it can be intact
on the day of judgment, and that person
can have the maqam that they want. But
these things, they still happen. They still happen.
There are our history is replete with people.
They'll see dreams and in which Allah to
Allah will, convey either to the people or
to them themselves their their,
their their their their station.
These things happen. The point is is that
that I'm trying to make is that, whether
it happened with a particular individual or not,
a lot knows best. Right? But it does
happen, and,
it's
one of those things that we should all,
shoot for, aim for.
And so,
that if you say he prays, it will
stop him from his theft. Or if you
stay, he steals, it will stop him from
the prayer. 1 or the other. It's a
it's a at the end of the day,
there's a very subtle difference between the 2
of them, and it's a secret between the
slave and between Allah to Allah. Nobody knows,
and nobody has a choice in that except
for that choice is like a rope. One
hand of it one end of it is
in your hand, and one end of it
is in Allah's hand.
Obviously, he pulls it out of your hand.
You don't have enough strength to keep it
in your hand. Whereas,
you know, on the on the flip side,
Allah to Allah, you know, if he gives
it to you, it's yours. But you have
to want it as well. This is the
the system Allah has made. That you you
you you you you know, generally, if you
wanted that those are the people who get
it. There are very rare exceptions
where a person doesn't want it and gives
it to them anyway, or someone wants it
really badly and they don't get it. But,
the the weak mind focuses on the exception,
the strong mind understands the rule. And so
the rule is what is it? You have
to you have to want it. And that's
what you have to see in your salat
that every day the salat that you're given
is an honor from Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
It comes in the hadith of the prophet
The 5 times daily prayer was given to
the prophet Do you know when?
In the when the prophet was raised up
to Jannah,
And Allah ta'ala,
gave to the prophet
that,
that
and that station that no one ever else
no one else was ever given.
So the poet says about Musa alaihi salam
that Musa was Musa because he tried to
see Allah and it changed his life forever.
Imagine what was his life from before and
what did it turn into afterward. So then
imagine what's the who actually saw
Allah
that the heart didn't,
lie about the thing that it saw. So
Allah in that one moment of that one
moment of the divine
proximity in a station that even the angels
weren't given before. What was given to the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam? It was the
salat
and the
Rasul sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
He
his
conversation with Allah
at that at that time,
the say that that this is a good
possibility. This is what the the
the the
Alright?
Means an Arabic greeting. And so we don't
say tahiyyah to alaikum, we say
Why? Because is, you know, if you say
greetings, that doesn't mean anything.
I mean, it's greetings, but it doesn't have
any deeper meaning.
We say because is one of the names
of
is wholeness, safety, security, peace from from from
difficulty or from from violation.
Whereas if a person is going to greet
Allah,
then you're not gonna say
to the one who himself is a salam.
So,
the the the hikaya
is according to this explanation that
is the greet that there are also some
some said greeting to Allah
That all, all,
pure things and all,
good things and and,
all
prayers
are directed toward Allah
And then Allah responds,
Peace be upon you, O Prophet,
and the mercy of Allah Ta'ala and his
blessings.
And the Rasul Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, this is
one of the signs of his being
the and being a person of good conduct
and good character and a good human being
on top of being the most excellent of
messengers is
is that he didn't leave his homies behind.
Right? People, old people, even children, you know,
from from from but, like, raised properly.
They know if someone, like, if someone were
to give one of the kids, like, a
a a candy,
they would either take it home and split
it with their brothers and sisters, or they
would say, like, you know, if I can't
get one for all of my siblings, I'm
not gonna take one myself.
Whereas now kids, they're smart. They know how
to, quote, unquote, smart. They kinda know how
to hide and eat it so that the
others don't get jealous or whatever. Right? That's
not that's not good character. Rasulullah,
what did he imagine?
Said
to
him. Right? That's like better than any candy
that Allah If Allah says
that does that mean you're gonna ever gonna
go to Jahannam?
No. Because he's not gonna say something good
to you and then throw you in the
hellfire.
It's his choice. We say
to people. Who knows where they're gonna end
up?
Right?
But,
we say to one another, and who knows
who's gonna end up where? Because it's not
our choice. Whereas,
Allah himself, he says
to you,
then what's gonna happen? Are you gonna go
to Jahnem?
Absolutely not.
So he says to him
What did the messenger of Allah sallam according
to this explanation reply? He says,
peace be upon not just me, upon us.
Who is the us here? It's the entire
Ummah.
And who is
So every person who believes in the deen
from the from the time of the say,
in Adam alayhi sallam until the, Yomukriyama.
And then it says,
I bear witness that there's no god except
for Allah alone and without any partner,
and that say Muhammad
is his servant and messenger.
And people are actually asked strange questions. They're
like, did the prophet actually say all those
things about himself in the 3rd person? A
lot knows best. Maybe he did. Maybe he
said it in the 1st person. Maybe he
said it in the 3rd person. One thing
a person should remember is that even Rasulullah
him being believing in himself being a prophet
was
also on him. It was also a pillar
of his iman as well. And it's really
interesting.
Best,
but, it's possible that that,
according to the some of the way that
he reacted to first receiving the wahi,
that his own humility, it was like awkward
for for his own humility for him too.
You know, for him to operate
being the messenger of Allah
and that's something we mentioned last time as
well. Right? That the the the prophet said
that there's a in
Jannah
known as the the
who?
That there's a station in Jannah
that is called the Wasila,
and,
it's not it's not it's not there for
anybody except for one of Allah's,
slaves.
And I hope that it's me.
And whoever asks for the me ask Allah
for the for me, Allah allow me to,
intercede on that person's behalf. So that shows
what? That's not it. It's not normal for
him even to say all these things that
he there's a hadith
I am the the the the the
the the leader or the foremost from the
the progeny of
Alaihi Salam, and I don't consider this to
be a boast. I'm not saying it to
boast.
Rather, these are
these are these this is like
that those those those meanings and realities that
are conveyed to him
by,
revelation
and that are,
Allah made
obligatory on him to
convey them. There's so many things in the
Quran. If you look at the hadith of
the prophet, he
never used to talk like that.
Right?
Like,
literally, a lot of times, like, mocking people.
Never spoke like that. They're really,
etcetera, that type of harshness. For those of
you who know the Arabic language, that type
of harshness is not there in, in the
prophetic speech.
It's so different.
It's a a completely different model. And the
messenger of Allah, salallahu alaihi wa sama, he
himself, it was difficult. It was difficult, not
in the sense that he struggled with whether
he's gonna do it or not. He always
knew what his job was, and he did
it. But sometimes you know what your job
is and you do it, but it's also
not easy thing to do. You know? It
was difficult for him, for him to do
that. So at any rate, the the, coming
back to this, this,
the the so the, you know, Allah to
Allah, he also obliged
the
to believe in the things that we're also
obliged to believe in. So I don't find
it far fetched that even he if he
had to say those things in his own
salat, his own prayers, send salat and salaam
on him. That's
also
a a a a a a way for
him to receive the
as well just like it works for us,
and he probably, in fact, he definitely did
it better than
us. So the the the that in that
occasion of
the Mi'raj, the messenger of
Allah
that's when he received the prayer.
And so there's
a narration about
Saidna Musa Alaihi Salam asked that
did Allah give you? He said he gave
50 prayers. He says, look, I've been in
this business,
you know, from before you were born. It's
not easy. They don't listen. And if Allah
made something obligatory on them and they don't
fulfill it, they're all, you know, gonna get
punished for it.
It, which is kind of unfortunately, it's sad,
but now we live in a time that
that's that's very true. We see that people
will will destroy the prayer. They'll skip the
prayer,
all the time.
And that's not I don't think it's a
normal situation
for,
for large swaths of the ummah throughout large
swaths of its history.
So,
he mentions about how he was not a
pious man in his youth, and,
his, like, lack of piety was what? When
he was out up all night, basically partying
with his buddies,
they would go to the Masjid. He says,
I was such an impious person that the
Imam for Fajr would start reading some long
Surah, and I would just think to myself,
man, I wish he would just read
and, like,
and
just get the salat over with. You know?
Meaning what?
Even if he was out partying with his,
like, friends, just like a young man,
it didn't occur to them, like, that they
would skip the salat in the in the
Masjid.
You know? Because that would just be dumb.
Why would you wanna cut off your your
tie ties with Allah Ta'ala? So it doesn't
mean that people in the past were were
were were sinless or were even,
particularly pious people, but they had a type
of common sense about them that's gone now.
That seems not to be so common anymore,
which is what, you you know, no matter
what you do, it's just stupid for a
person to cut their ties off to Allah.
And, you see that, like, for example, you
go to Hajj. Okay? Anyone here been Hajj
before?
Right?
When you go to Hajj, you see the
the a relatively pious cross section of the
Ummah, but it's still a cross section of
the Ummah.
So whatever problems the Ummah has, everyone in
Hajj has those problems. Whatever issues the Umma
has, everyone in Hajj has those issues,
you know. So you'll see people doing some,
you know,
pardon pardon my saying, you'll see some people
doing some pretty dumb things in Hajj.
I'm not saying that about everybody
and even those who are doing dumb things
inshallah accepts from them and and uh-uh
forgives them but
that doesn't make dumb things not dumb.
So people will be cutting, people will be
jacking stuff, people will be, you know, the
the people will, like, stone on the 1st
day of, of Arafat, and the first thing
they'll do is, like, cut their beard off
as if, like, it's some sort of curse
or whatever. And, you know, they'll be hot
and high fiving each other, you know, clean
shaven coming out of the it's like the
sunnah of the prophet. So I'm like, you
don't have to even if you wanna shave
it, you don't have to be so excited
about that. You know? Like,
at least while you're on Hajj. You know
what I mean? But, like, you see people,
you're like, yeah.
The the Ummah has their issues. It's not
because, like,
you know, because of, like, science and technology
or any of these other things. The issues
that Ummah has, you can see, is very
clear. Like, they have issues for certain bad
habits that they have that have nothing to
do with, like,
you know, anything with regards to the deen.
But, the the
the the point is is this is that
if you wanna make tawaf, you wanna make
tawaf close to the Kaaba,
if you want to
go to the mataf when it's not crowded,
if you want to, you know, touch in
the black stone is difficult, but at least
get get to the or to the whatever.
What's a good time to go go on
1 at 1 in the morning? Why? Because
no one's there. And so oftentimes, American groups
will be like, yeah. Let's just go at
1 in the morning. Why?
The reason it's crowded during the day is
because people are there for the 5 daily
salawat.
And our people are are so accustomed to
not praying the 5 daily prayers in congregation.
It doesn't occur to us that you'll get
more reward for praying your 5 daily prayers
in the congregation
than you will for the novelty of being
able to enter the Hijra or touch the
walls of the Kaaba or touch the
or touch the the door or the moltazam
or the black stone or any of these
things.
It's a kind of common sense. It's almost
kinda like left us.
And forget about, you know, forget about the
I'm talking about just praying 5 times a
day, then forget about praying in the congregation,
which has almost become like a folklore,
to the community of Muslims in America, except
for, like, a very hard fringe
fundamentalist, like, you know,
a group of people that everybody else considers
to be crazy. But, you know,
some some some some types of crazy are
not so bad,
once you once you taste them. So the
prophet, he got good advice from said the
Musales. He said that they're not gonna they're
still not gonna all do it. And so
the,
at that point, he tells him go back
to Allah and ask him for for, more
lightning,
lightning the load more further.
And so at that time, the of Allah
comes to both of them that, Allah
says
that when I give a commandment,
it doesn't change. It's immutable,
which is part of our part of our
that is not subject to time and space.
And so that the that
that when I give a command, it's immutable.
It doesn't change. And he said that I'm
the one who decreed that every good deed
will be rewarded 10 times as worth. And
so when I said 50 prayers,
I I meant that these 5 prayers that
you're going to end up with, that these
are the they're going to they're going to
bear the in the station of 50 prayers
with me. And so
whoever whoever, prays them, then x y z,
I'll give to them. And all of the
the, many of the benefits were then mentioned
in the hadith. But the point is is
this is that that thing that Rasulullah alaihi
wa sallam received
his at the time of the the the
greatest Purb to Allah Ta'ala.
Obviously, it's going to be important. But what
are we excited about?
We're not excited about the salat.
We're not excited about making.
We're not excited about the.
We'll get excited about Hye Jin, then we'll
say which, like, hotel are you staying at?
Which group are you going with? Is it
the VIP package or the VVIP package?
Those people may be, like, you know, to
Allah to Allah, you know, he may buy
and sell those people, like, for a dime
for the ton,
compared to some of the people who are
not important in the eyes of the people,
but they're important in the eyes of Allah
to Allah. What do we get excited about?
Right? So there's this whole controversy with regards
to the celebration of the mawlid of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Is it a
bidah or not? But even, you know, without
talking about the issue, like, if you're more
excited about it than you are about
any of the other things that are actually
legislated by the prophet if you look forward
to going to, like, like, a molded party
more than you go look forward to,
more than you look forward to any of
the salawat much less the
the the the Friday prayer or something like
that. Something is out of place.
Those things,
they're fine. I mean, I personally and,
I personally in the the the the Madhab
I follow,
and and those of the Hanafi Madhab that
that I studied, under the of the Hanafi
Madhab as well. The considered
their celebration of the prophet's
birthday on any specific day or month of
the year. They considered it to be a
a bidah.
The only day that is from the that
that that that that's specified for the celebration
of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's birthday
is,
is is Monday, so that a person should
fast on Mondays. Rasulullah Sallallahu wasallam was born
on a Monday.
Saidna, mentions
that Abu Jahl himself will receive a break
in the fire for because he's freed a
slave girl on Monday in in celebration of
his birth when he saw how happy his
father was. Abdul Muttalib was was for the
birth of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Salam is because
of that. Even Abu Lahab, I'm sorry, will
receive a, like, a discount from his punishment
on for in the hellfire on Mondays because
of that.
So that's fine. Celebrate the every day of
the year, and,
I'll come and celebrate with you as well.
But the point is is that the the
the the the thing the salat people, if
they knew what it what what was in
it, they would be excited about it. The
literally taught the
on whom to fulfill their needs from Allah
to Allah through this salat,
and the person who knows how to pray
correctly, they'll get a lot done through it.
I've been in a lot of weird situations,
and I'm not the guy who's like, you
know, who's gonna say, like, yeah. My, relationship
with the is so tight that I just
I'm doing what I'm supposed to anyway and
stuff happens on its own. Sometimes a person
should have been praying and they don't, and
Allah will send you such a problem that
confounds you. And then you're like, yeah, Allah,
I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been I should
have been doing this all along, but, you
know, please help me. I'm in a jam.
And, you know, guess what? It works. It
helps.
And so I mentioned this in the in
the
as well. Maybe a lot of the things
that I mentioned are mentioned there,
and it's because the pieces of the puzzle
fit together. You know? Your shouldn't
be segmented. Your your
should fit with your
apida. Otherwise,
something's wrong.
But,
I mentioned that that the salat, the the
the the Sahaba
through 2 rakaz of salat used to
many things used to happen.
He
he he used to tell his commanders that,
look the night before battle,
in the tents, who is who is reading
Quran, who's making vigor, and who's praying.
And the one who's, like, sleeping or is
heedless, kick them out of the army
because it's there because of them that you're
gonna lose the battle tomorrow. Now if it
was someone one of us, we could all
be praying the the whole night. We're still
we're gonna lose for other reasons.
But those people knew what they were doing.
Did Sadanomor lose battle?
Did he ever send an army and they
got they got repelled and ran back to
Madinah,
defeated, or,
they got cut to the ground and
buried in the in the battlefield?
Absolutely not. They never lost.
They never lost.
And so there was something they knew that
they were using
in that that he used to say that
that that was his thing. He didn't say,
you know, get a full night's sleep because
the battle's gonna be harsh or difficult. No.
He said, you know, get get your people
in that zone. Get your people in the
zone with Allah. Allah will take care of
everything the next day. And they literally perform
superhuman feats.
And, it's everything. It's not just that. It's
as a mother for her children. It's a
person for their other needs in in their
life. There's a programmer.
A brother was a programmer
who, now he's a consultant and actually makes
far more money than he used to, but
he I met him. He was in Seattle.
He used to, he was a a consultant
for Boeing. When Boeing was designing
787, the Dreamliner,
they they,
they designed the whole plane on,
by computer first before building anything.
So as to work out,
work out issues
all electronically without having to actually invest in
in,
in in material stuff, you know, to for
efficiency purposes to save money. So one can
imagine that that
that
that design is or so that design software
is, like,
remarkably sophisticated.
So this brother, his job was what?
His job was to look through other people's
code when the software wasn't working properly
and in order to fix where their code
went wrong. And so that's nobody very few
programmers like doing that.
Why? Because you have to get into someone
else's head, understand their logic, and then see
where they themselves weren't able to apply their
own logic improperly.
It's a very tedious job. But he would
get paid $500 an hour to do that
which, you know, sounds a pretty sweet gig.
You know, that was 2,008, so inflation and
stuff like that is probably more, you know,
more like, whatever, 6, $700 an hour now.
He he had that job. I said, you
must be some kind of genius. He's a
sheikh. I'm not I don't know anything except
for I got the job somehow. And so
they'll send me something, and I'll look at
it up, down, left, right, go through the
whole thing, and I'll become
frustrated that what am I gonna do with
this?
And then I'll go and pray 2 rakahs.
I'll make Wulu, pray 2 rakahs, and then
I'll go back at my workstation, and then
the thing will start opening up to me.
And so, you know, everybody's, like, whenever I
tell that story, everyone's, like, oh, yo, dude.
I'm gonna read some namaz now, man. $500
an hour is pretty sweet.
So imagine if that's what Allah gives a
person in this world, you know, the the
real reward is.
So that's
that's what that is.
He he Sayidna Abu Huraira, the who narrates
that he said, I heard the messenger of
Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam say. So Sayidna
Abu Huraira is saying that I'm not transmitting
this from another Sahabi.
Rather, I myself heard the messenger
of Allah
say,
have you not seen
If a river was flowing in front of
the door of 1 of you.
And so this is what this is, the
messenger of Allah
saying to the the the Peninsular Arabs.
There's no rivers flowing through the Arabian Peninsula.
There's, I guess, a a couple of them
in the extreme southern tip, and there's some
in the extreme north. But the part of
the the the Arabian Peninsula that they're in,
for 100 of miles around, there's no river.
So it must have been amazing for them.
And people used fight and kill each other
over wells for centuries even after that. So
imagine,
imagine
what what does that mean that a river
is flowing at your door. What would it
have meant to them? We have, like, running
water in the house,
so it's a little bit, less dramatic.
But, people, for example, people used to die
in Hajj. They used to die from
from thirst. Just walking between, like,
not not just coming and going through the
peninsula. That's hard enough. Just walking through the
monastic,
the rights of Hajj while Hajj is going
on itself, they would die of thirst.
So much so that there's you can see
that when you guys go, you can see
there's, like, a tour. There's a old,
medieval,
aqueduct system that was built by Zubaida, the
the wife of
the pious wife of Haruna Rashid. And when
she heard that people would like die of
thirst and Hajj,
she,
basically
spent all the money that she had,
in in,
her own personal money. She spent it, and
she hired a team of engineers from Iraq
to find what's the closest source of water
and build the aqueduct system that ran only
on gravity,
that would that would run across from Makkamukarama
to,
to the,
Arafat, which is, you know, it's like a
8 mile, 13 mile something like 13 miles
away or something like that, I think, from
the from the Kaaba.
There should be an aqueduct system that runs,
and it has, like, every every every so
often, there's, like, a spigot that you can
open it up and get get water out
of it.
And
that, that that system, she paid her engineers
and workers to to do that piece by
piece as she got the money from the
income from her properties. She would she'd pay
for part of it to be complete. I
think it took something like 13 years or
something like that to to complete.
And it said a long, long, maybe it's
like a rhetorical flourish with the storytellers that
at the end of it, the chief engineer
of the project, he prepared an expense report
over all of those years, how much everything
cost and how much, you know, like,
for oversight purposes that he prepared the entire
report and gave it to her. And,
she said,
that, she said she took it and she
didn't open it. She threw it into the
river, and she said, will read this report
on the day of judgment.
So
that's how people used to do things,
in the Ummah.
Bring people
who do things like that again.
So he said that so that this is
a a very incredible thing, you know, for
him to mention to the
that he said that they,
have you
do you not see if a river were
to be flowing in front of, in front
in front of the door to one of
your homes, and you bathed in it, 5
times every day? These are people that, you
know,
oftentimes,
is the only time that they they took
a bath. And even that that was difficult
for them to get the water and things
like that. It was something they did as
a matter of deen.
It wasn't easy for them. So that person
was bathing once a week,
some of them,
for them to think about, like, bathing 5
times a day,
it's it's very difficult for them to think
about.
That,
if a person like were to bathe, 5
5 times daily,
would that person would there be any? Would
there be any grime or grit or dirt
left on that person?
And they said no,
none of that person's grime would no no
grime would be left on that person.
And he said
that that's the likeness of the 5 prayers.
Allah ta'ala
through them will efface
a person's sins.
Or vast,
running river,
that that crosses the, the the threshold or
the door of 1 of you, and you,
bathe in it, 5 times daily.
It's just narrated by by by Muslim. And
so that river, it doesn't just mean cleanliness.
There's so much in it. It's a it's
a river of what?
It's a river not only just a cleanliness.
The cleanliness is part of it. Water, the
only what you do with water is more
than just clean yourself. You drink it,
and it it,
you know, it it gives you life.
And so like that, the first effect of
the prayer is the forgiveness. Then afterward, there's
you receive,
you're infused with with the divine help, with
the divine aid,
through that, through that,
through that prayer. That's what you're getting your
help from Allah through.
And a person should this is one of
the one
of the meditations that a person should engage
their mind with and engage their heart with
when they're prayer praying. That through this salah,
through this prayer,
the the the the the the faith is
coming from. The word faith is actually used
a lot in the discourse
of the the the sufia,
and by the time it gets to the
subcontinent, it turns into fable like Adnan
fable. Helped him in his studies.
But it's
literally means, like, for something to outpour to
flow.
Right? Faith means for something to pour out
into, you know, to to flow. So that's
what the is. The has its own faith.
It has a spiritual outpouring of the divine
grace that a person receives from it. But
again, if you lock the doors to your
heart,
you know, the river can be running,
the river can be running,
in front of your door 5 times daily.
If you lock the door and sit inside
of your house, you can be, you know,
you can be the dirtiest,
dog in the on the street,
and it's not gonna help you. You have
to open your doors,
to your heart and let that let let
that fade in. Let it flow through you
and clean
whatever is there. And, you have to bathe
in it, you have to drink it, you
have to imbibe it, and take the from
it. But a person should feel that when
they when they pray.
Part of it is what? Is that like
I like I said, that the river is
there. That's the hard part. So many people,
their door is there, but there's it's all
just barren. The river is there. Now you
have to open the door, and you have
to you have to bathe in it. You
have to drink from it yourself. So that's
what a person should imagine and not imagine
as in, like, fake make up something fake,
but as in that that's how they have
to set their mind up and their heart
up is that they should also
accept that that and and behold,
bear witness to that,
that that outpouring
and effluence of divine grace that happens in
the salat
as a point of iman, that this is
helping me more than anything else is helping
me.
This is helping me more than my studies,
more than my money, more than my job,
more than my my passport, more than any
of these things.
And that's something, I guess, people have taken.
People
have been become very and very, deceived by.
And,
I forgot what what it was. 1 of
the someone sent a quote that one of
the said that, person, if you wanna know
what they worship, look at what they when
they're in trouble, what's the first thing that
they think of?
Like, should I grab my wallet? Should I
call so and so, you know?
So,
so this salat, you should have a tasoor
inside of your heart that this salat is
a great vehicle of help from Allah
If you don't believe that about the salat,
then you're just crippling your salat.
You're just crippling it. You're cutting it off.
You're you're you're cutting yourself off from benefit
from it. Otherwise, there's supernatural amount of benefit
that a person can get from it if
they if they accept it and they embrace
and they embrace what what it is. Obviously,
if you're gonna get a supernatural amount of
benefit from it, you're not gonna you know,
if you have that mindset mentality,
you're not gonna pray, like, you know, like,
you know, is just like you do a
quick hat trick and then run back to
work. You're thinking about
your, job and you're thinking about this and
that while you're not gonna do that. Right?
So that's where the Khushu comes from. The
Khushu is not like, I'm I'm I'm I'm
I'm not super pious yet, so I can't
be that humble in the prayer. No.
All of us need it. The pious ones
are not the ones who are like perfect
angels and then they pray and then their
prayer is pious. Rather the person who's most,
beholden to their need and at the same
time most beholden to the the the benefit
of the prayer, that person in their prayer
is gonna be pretty pious prayer. Whereas a
person who in that sense, sinners are at
an advantage because, you know, if you've done
a lot of dumb stuff in your life,
then you're you're beholden to your need even
more than than than another person is. And
some people, this is a problem that if
they're so pious, then they have a difficult
time, being humble.
So that's a lot that I gave us
a leg. Up. People like me, we got
a head start on this because, yeah, we
have a lot to feel, we have a
lot to feel humble humble about.
So,
uh-uh, Sayyidina Abdul Abin Musrood
who narrates that the Messenger of Allah
said
that a
man had stolen a kiss,
from a woman, and from the siak of
the hadith, she's not his wife.
Obviously, none of you gentlemen would ever do
something like that,
but,
this man, he kissed a woman that he
was probably not supposed to and then he
felt really bad. He went to the prophet,
salallahu alayhi, said I'm gonna ask him what's
going on. So from the from the from
the siak of the hadith also, it's not
it was something consensual. It wasn't
like he, you know, whatever.
He forced himself upon her. But a man,
a woman, you know, they were into each
other so they kissed one another
and, then he felt really bad. He felt
real crummy about it because he knew he
wasn't supposed to do it.
And again, present company is obviously far too
pious for these things, but you'd be surprised
people come with, like,
you know, like, oh, Sheikh, you know, I
did this and now what am I gonna
do? I'm going to * blah blah blah.
And so this is one of the beautiful
things about the Sahaba
They were real people.
And so when these things happened to them,
if you read through the hadith and you
read through the narrations of the Sahaba, even
after the prophet passed away, that they had
to deal with these things as well. What
are we supposed to what am I supposed
to do?
I I I stole a kiss from from
from a woman
that I wasn't supposed to,
and,
you know, what do I do now?
And,
it was at that occasion that Allah sent
down
the following verses that
established the prayer and the two sides of
the day,
meaning, before the sun rises and before the
sun sets.
Established the prayer in the two parts of
the day and some some moments of the
night.
Indeed, good deeds will drive away,
drive away evil ones.
When a person does something bad,
everyone does bad things from now now and
again,
like not listening to your mama, etcetera.
When a person does something bad,
then, if you want Allah's forgiveness and if
you want Allah to set your life straight,
then do something good. So this this man,
he kissed a woman that he wasn't supposed
to kiss. And so, Allah asked he asked
the prophet
what what should I do? And it's the
same job for both of them, the man
and the woman
that,
established the prayer,
in the two part sides of the day
and some some moments in the night. So,
indeed,
good deeds will drive away and cast out
evil ones.
It's good.
Repay your salat. Pray some some,
your your sunnahs. Pray some
made these these things for those. And this
is this is this is
this is we'll read it in the context
of the next hadith as well. But this
is a great blessing and mercy from Allah.
If someone does something bad, then they should
do something good. So it should at least
balance it out in the scale pants,
as an intermediate way of coping with sin
before you can give it up.
The ideal is to give it up and
make and repent for it, but this is
also part of the the stepping stone to
getting to that point because that's that point
is not that easy for everybody.
Certain sins are are are you can give
them up very easily.
But the ones that are that you can't,
at least you should counterbalance them with some
good deed that if someone does something,
you know,
that they should they should do something else
in in exchange for it. Especially those things
that are addictions and things like that that
are not easy to get get rid of
so fast, bad habits,
at least a person should be constantly thinking
about how to balance them out in the
scale pans as an intermediate step toward getting
rid of them. But this, salat is also,
in that sense, a great vehicle of help
from Allah.
In
order to
in order
to, get to the point where a person
can give the sin up and counteract its
its evil,
its evil qualities.
And in that sense, the salat is,
again, another,
sense that in in which it's a great
gift and blessing from
Muslim.
That the salat,
who narrates the salat,
the 5 daily prayers, and from 1
to the next
is a an expiation
for those sins that are that that come
between them, meaning between each of the 5
prayers
and,
from to
as long as a person is not,
a person is not
engulfed by the major sins.
So the major sins are those sins that
are mentioned in the Quran
that,
are they're they're mentioned with emphasis in the
Quran or in the hadith with emphasis or
with the threat of a particular punishment or,
mentioned again and again.
Those sins are like murder,
theft,
lying,
backbiting, etcetera.
So other than those, there are a number
of sins that are considered to be from
the that their sins against Allah. A person
knows that they're not right,
but they're not necessarily they're not necessarily,
those sins that are repeatedly mentioned in the,
in the book of Allah mentioned with such
emphasis like transacting
that a person should take the notice of
war from Allah and his Those
are
the Those are the major sins. There are
a number of sins a person doing something
that they know that they're supposed to not
do,
or they have a feeling that this is
not the I shouldn't be doing this or
I shouldn't be behaving this way.
Those sins are are are forgiven through the
salat when it's when it's when it's properly
performed
and from Jumah to Jumah and from Ramadan
to Ramadan and Hajj, etcetera.
As for the
as for the the major sins there, the
a person has to then repent from them.
But in the repentance from the major sins,
a person will have the minor sins forgiven
as well.
And if a person doesn't repent from the
major sins, then the minor sins also they
stay on the docket that a person is
eligible to be punished for them. And so
the idea is that the minor sins are
all they're minor in in the sense that
they're not
mentioned as much, but they may be the
greater portion of a person's sins. They're forgiven
from salat to salat.
And if a person has find themselves involved
in one of the major sins and let
them repent from it so that the minor
sins are again eligible for forgiveness through the
prayer.
And so this is comes back to something
that we mentioned with regards to the the
previous hadith,
the,
Qubla,
the the person the person who stole a
kiss from from a woman,
which is what like, for example,
in general. Right?
The actual act of * obviously is a
major sin, but there are many
there are many,
things that are like a prelude toward it,
in escalation
from things that are pretty
much not leaving a whole lot to the
imagination between,
the 2 partners,
all the way to just, you know, kind
of flirtatious exchange of of of words or
texts or whatever,
Whatsapp or whatever people do nowadays,
that
the modern sensibility is what is that these
are victimless crimes.
That what if 2 consenting adults,
participate in these things, then they're victimless crimes.
And we'll say what? We'll say, look,
the creation has a right and the creator
has a right. Just because the creation waives
their right doesn't mean that the creator's right
is waived.
And so that's the the idea in this
is that that, the reason I clarified that
it's that the the kiss was
from the of the Hadith is consensual.
Why? Because a person actually, like, forced himself
on another woman. The the sin becomes qualitatively
different.
The salat is not gonna get that forgiven.
A person did something like that, they forced
themselves or they abused another person, whether it's
a man or a woman, and whether the
abuser is a man or a woman.
And, unfortunately, in our community, we've seen examples
of all of those permutations
that in any one of those cases, the
salat itself is not going to get it
forgiven.
Rather, if it's consensual, then it will be
forgiven.
Through the salat so long as a person
doesn't, you know, doesn't
habitually return to it. Because the mentioned that
even those
those minor sins that a person makes a
habit of or certain a person casts off,
it becomes a kabira. It becomes a major
sin through a person taking it lightly.
And then if it actually becomes some sort
of or if there's an element of abuse
in it where one person
abuses another, and takes away their half of
their right,
then then it takes on other dimensions that
not only it it requires to Allah,
it also requires restitution.
That that person either you has to forgive
you explicitly
or,
or, some sort of,
if they don't forgive you on their own,
if they forgive you on their own, then
it it stops right there. If they don't
forgive you on their own, then some sort
of court or criminal proceeding
or arbitration has to happen, whatever judgment comes
down through that, that judgment comes down. Even
then, sometimes the judgment comes down. For example,
a person accuses another person of abuse,
And because of a lack of evidence, there's
no conviction there.
In that case, a person shouldn't think that,
oh, look. I'm off scot free because I
wasn't convicted for it. That case then gets
kicked to the court of the hereafter.
It's in all of
our best interest to settle these things in
this world
because there is no,
there is no,
punishment
in this world which will rival the punishments
of that that side.
There are punishments on that side that for
relatively minor sins that a person will think
it would be been easier just for me
to get the death penalty in the dunya.
And that doesn't have anything to do with,
those things that are even even greater than
that in in magnitude.
So let
I I wanted to the I I I
skipped mention of this when we were talking
about the hadith of the because,
this this this
but I think, I think mama is there.
Go go sit with your sisters.
So the,
the idea is what is that, I skipped
the mention. Why? Because the mention of
is there in the next hadith. That this
is for those things, for example, of 2
consensual people did something that fell short of
and then they they they they didn't wanna
go or they they they realized that was
bad and they pulled back from from from
continuing it or from escalating it, that's the
thing that the will will will get,
will get forgiven. Not that you keep committing
and then just and praying my 5 daily
prayers. Why? Because that's a major sin.
And not okay. So I'm not committing. I
just kissed a girl. But, like, you did
it against her will or, like, you somehow,
like, you know, it's like some sort of
molestation or whatever. That's not what's meant by
it either. Just so a person just so
a person knows that they understand that they're
they're clear about that. So it's it's like
drinking alcohol and consuming pork. Is that
Consuming pork and drinking alcohol are the in
the.
So I don't wanna get into this issue
of what's and what's a because if I
start mentioning things, people are gonna be like,
oh, okay. Cool. You know? So and just
the thought of, oh, okay. Cool. That actually
will kick the sin into the Kabira bucket
anyway. Right? So the fact or so the
the the long and short of that issue
is what? Go attend to for that. If
you want to, you can attend Maliki Fiq,
the Fiq of Al Madina,
you know, with hadith of that a day
will come where the people beat the backs
of their camels in the east and in
the west, and they won't find anybody, has
no more knowledge in the Alim of Medina.
It's Balik.
So that's fine. Or if you want to,
you have all these big that
are teaching the wonderful, Hanafi Madhab that we
love so much,
that we really do love so much. And
you can go learn it from them or
any of the other, you know, the Hanbili
or the Shafi'i Madhub or whatever. Or you
can go study hadith and, you know, Arabic
and whatever for the next, like, 30 years
and excel in all of them, become
and then we'll come learn from you.
But, so you you can take all those
other. This is not necessarily a fit with
Dar, so I don't wanna get into it.
And I don't I don't want to mention
certain things because
people unfortunately, I know that what their disposition
is nowadays, they're gonna be like, oh, look.
That means x y z is not so
bad. And just the idea that anything
anything that you know a lot doesn't like
and to think, oh, that's not a big
deal. That actually will automatically make that into
that thing into a kabira, into a enormity.
Not necessarily because legally, it is an enormity,
but because you have,
made
that you made,
I should say
that you you've
somehow, like, reduced,
you know, what your,
the way you should be dealing with him
in his greatness and in his
majesty, which is highly problematic.
But, yes, drinking alcohol and eating pork are
are are,
kabair.
They're major sins. The last chapter, the last
hadith of the Bab Inshallah,
and
Rahu Muslim.
May Allah be pleased with him.
He said, I heard
the messenger
of Allah say
that there's no Muslim person,
man or woman, no Muslim person,
who,
the time of the
further prayer,
comes to.
And then that person will
make a beautiful
and
beautiful,
awe and reverence in their prayer, and they
will pray the in a beautiful way except
for,
that prayer will be an expiation for that
person,
for all the sins that came before.
As long as that person doesn't,
is that as long as that person isn't
performing major sins, the.
And
And that has to that that's all all
time. Meaning, you pray a salat now, and
it will expiate for all of your sins
that came before,
as long as as long as the person
was alive. But the exception is what? If
you're doing the major sins and you're not
repenting from it, then,
then then that deal is off.
That deal is off. Allah
give us,
to pray and give us forgiveness, and and
for us, those of us who are
and afflicted with the major sins, give us
the strength
to to leave it and give us something
better,
to console us,
for than what whatever we give up in
this world and the hereafter,
and,
close the doors to anything that will,
lose,
his love for us
from us.
Muhammad.