Hosai Mojaddidi – An Agenda to Change Our Condition (Session 15)
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AI: Transcript ©
Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim Al hamdu lillah wa salatu salam O
Allah adjectival MBE will mursaleen say that our Mowlana
Where have you been on Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam while
he was Sofia salam to Sleeman Kathira Salam aleikum, everyone Al
Hamdulillah. It's good to be back here. With all of you, on this
blessed day, the second today official day of Rajab
Alhamdulillah. That blas advanta project has entered, I pray to
Allah subhanaw taala, that all of you are doing well and are keeping
safe in sha Allah. So we're going to just pick up from where we left
off. For those of you who are joining us, we are reading from
agenda to change our condition, it is a text of the law. And last
time we met, which was two weeks before we finally finished chapter
three. So today, we get to start on chapter four. I'm gonna go
ahead and screenshare Inshallah, so that we can have some slides to
look at. And we'll go from there. So Bismillah to give me one
moment, I will do that.
hamdulillah All right, there we go. So here we are chapter four.
Now this is the chapter four as it stated exercises for attaining
kappa. So we covered that earlier in the book, just defining it and
that was in, I believe it was chapter one, it was shut up of
what its definition and benefits. But now we're going to talk more
about the practical application how what we can do to attain. So
let's go ahead and get started with the slides here. So this is
just a summary of what the chap what this chapter is going to
cover. And actually, I'm gonna read more from the text today, I
don't the slides are going to complement what I'm reading, but
there's a lot of text in this chapter. So I'll be reading quite
a bit. But here right away in the beginning, it says what follows,
which is this chapter is an agenda, which is Latin for a set
of things to do. So they're going to introduce a series of exercises
designed to help achieve the club practically, through protective
vigilance of the eight red inroads thorough of darkness to the heart.
And this, this is includes prayer, a tongue, eyes, ears, the stomach,
private parts, hands and feet. And so there are sections throughout
this chapter where we're going to Inshallah, as we read along, we'll
get to but for the first part, before we even talk about those
inroads, we, there's just a lot of commentary here. So I'm gonna go
ahead and read from the book. After they mentioned these eight
inroads, they say that the duration of each exercise is 40
days. So basically practical exercises to do but you have to
commit to doing them every day consistently for this period of 40
days. And this is based on the verse of the Quran, in which Allah
subhanaw taala promised to meet Musab, they said I'm after 40
days, this respite of 40 days enabled, Musa lays that out to
prepare for that August meeting, in his commentary, Mm hmm. So we
states that the complete service of the servant toward his Lord and
the gifts that results from his Lord are completed in 40 days. The
meaning of this comes from the following Hadith, the prophesy Sam
said that the completion of vigilance on the borders or Tibet
is 40 days. So these inroads are at the borders of the heart. And
this technique has proven effective for many people. If done
for the sake of Allah subhanaw taala it will benefit the one who
uses it to achieve Taqwa. So we know there's a lot of you know,
self help, books and programs that also emphasize the importance of
committing to a practice for some say a month, some say 40 days,
some say longer than that. So there's definitely an idea that if
you want to create new habits, you want to change bad habits or get
rid of bad habits, that you have to commit to doing something for a
long period of time. And this is also one of the great benefits of
Ramadan, of course, we know hamdulillah whether it's 29 or 30
days, just having a consistent practice. Every single day of
fasting and shallow we're doing all of our prayers, we're extra
reading extra Quran and doing the wicked and maybe, inshallah we're
doing other charitable good deeds throughout that month. What we
arrive at by the end of the month is that it's quite possible to do
because we've done it and so that will help you Inshallah, whenever
you get those thoughts and ideas from your knifes or shaitan that,
you know, you can't commit to something or it's too much of an
effort. I don't have time. These are a lot of common things that
people will say to excuse themselves, but once you actually
do something for a consistent amount of time, it
It helps to, to overcome those weak points. And and and inshallah
take on really good practices. So they go on to say, read through
the eight exercises and look deep within your heart of hearts to
determine your areas of weakness. All of us, of course, are on
different paths. So everybody's going to have different things
that they need to focus on. For instance, you may not be
disobeying Allah with your feet, or your private parts. If that is
the case, and there's no need to do the exercises corresponding to
those areas. However, you should maintain vigilance and continuing
to guard them. So inshallah if you if that's just let's say, you're
married, you're in Shaolin, and a good relationship, you don't have
that fitna of, you know, the many people are tested with, and you're
in a committed relationship. So in that case, inshallah you're safe
from from that from, from that fitnah. You don't have to do those
exercises, however, continue to, of course, do whatever you've been
doing to guard yourself, right? If you find that you have weakness in
the other five inroads, then determine which is the worst, for
most it will be the tongue. And that's really important. For most
of us, you know, again, if you look at the slides here, you know,
it includes the eyes, the ears, the hands, the feet, the stomach,
but here, they're emphasizing that for most of us, likely the one
that we have, the biggest problem with is the tongue. And of course,
there's many Hadith that also confirmed that what gets most
people in trouble and actually takes them to the Hellfire is what
is between the private parts and the the tongue essentially that
the Mouth Lips, right. So these two areas are what gets most
people in trouble, and many other Hadith that also confirm the same.
So then they go on to say, make the commitment to guard all of
these inroads, but take the tongue as your first exercise and commit
to mastering it every day for 40 consecutive days. The reason for
practicing only one exercise at a time is the tradition of the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam who said this religion is
accommodating, and no one attempts excessive strictness in it without
it overwhelming him. And again, it's such a beautiful, and have
you thought really, we have to internalize and understand the
wisdom in it shaytaan some, some people, for example, they assume
that he believes only inclines us to evil, which of course is true.
But he also knows our nature, and he's aware that we burn out
quickly. So sometimes he may overwhelm us with wanting to do
too much. So having too many goals all at once, can also be something
that he inspires us to because he knows it's like the pendulum
right, you're gonna swing one way really fast, you'll you'll you'll
go back the other way. And so, we have to take heed of this advice
to not overwhelm yourself to take your practice easy and rather than
trying to do all of the exercises simultaneously, to really thinking
of it more like incrementally like once I once I you know master this
part and I can be consistent then I go to the next and the next just
for again ease inshallah and to be motivated and to prevent that
burnout from happening. They are going to say that announce to your
friends that you are committing to this path and that you need their
help. Allah subhanaw taala says, he says we help one another with
righteousness and Taqwa and do not help one another in wrongdoing and
aggression. And this is chapter five, verse two. So again, a
really important reminder here that if you want to be serious
about your commitment to your spiritual ritual, your spiritual
path, your ritual practice, that sometimes you do need to send
those little memos out to friends and family, like listen, I am
going to be doing this and I really need support,
encouragement, please don't when you're around me, for example, you
know, don't do this and you can get into specifics depending on
your relationship or you can just keep it pretty general and just
say, I will be working on some really intense spiritual, you
know,
endeavors or efforts and I need support and help and then you
know, at that point, inshallah they should hopefully respond with
encouragement and be there for you so that you don't feel like you're
doing it all by yourself.
They go on to say, we must take this verse seriously express a
deep desire to better ourselves and true friends will support us.
Initially, we are shocked to find out that it is very difficult to
break bad habits of many years. But rest assured, it is possible.
Allah does not ask us more than we are able to bear. We can conquer
these bad habits and destructive tendencies. Many great men and
women of the past and present have gone down this
rode and arrived at its destination ematic entitled his
book on water, the well trodden path. If others can overcome their
bad habits, we can as well and should derive from their examples
strength and courage. Once we've mastered the first exercise, we
must be vigilant in maintaining it, and move on to the next most
troublesome trait. It may be, for instance, the eyes or the ears, we
should practice each exercise until until we are ready to commit
to the next. And again, the advice here is that start with the
tongue, but then go and look at the list and figure out what is
next. And if, you know, we're being honest with ourselves,
especially now in quarantine, most of us are likely not going to
places where there were inshallah we're engaging in Haram, because
we really can't go very far.
But so that might not be something you're being tested with right
now. But remember, we have these devices, what we're using right
now all of us to be tuned into each other, to connect with one
another, that is a portal to the entire world. So even though our
feet are not walking to different places, we are still able to
navigate this thing called the internet and access a lot of
things that obviously go through our eyes and our ears. So paying
attention to what we're consuming via those inroads, right. And then
also extending that to other media that you're listening to or
watching if you're on your televisions a lot that flexing or
watching, you know, different shows and programs or films or
YouTube accounts or, you know, tick tock I know is very popular.
And a lot of people spend hours and hours on there or Instagram.
If you're just consuming all of those things, you have to take
inventory of what are you consuming? Is it beneficial
knowledge? Are you looking at images of people in inappropriate
clothing? And I think if again, in our society, some of us have
become so desensitized to, to just seeing skin that we may not think
of that as being harmful. But if you're watching, for example,
programs and shows where they are dressed, you know, inappropriately
or revealingly and you're consuming that it is affecting
you. Or if you're listening to anything that has foul language or
just ideas that are also problematic, then that's also
affecting you. So taking inventory of those inroads is probably more
relevant right now as we're in quarantine, then then again, the
feet, hands of course, we can also talk about what are we doing with
our hands that may be problematic, you know, if there's any
violence, I mean, we'd be the first thing that comes to my mind,
may Allah protect us in our homes and our families. But if you have
a habit or a problem of striking anyone in your home, this would
certainly apply because our hands are not meant to harm like I don't
know what I did, or we don't harm people. So we have to really fear
Allah subhanaw taala. And if you have a habit and many people,
because these things are usually cyclical, they find that you know,
homes were this type of abuse or just physical, you know, abuse
occurs is usually because individuals were also victims of
abuse. So they just repeat those cycles, but you can break the
cycle in sha Allah, and with Allah subhanaw Without his help by just
realizing this is not there's immense accountability and
punishment for harming innocent anything, anyone innocent. And we
can go into more detail about that maybe another time. But just the
point, I hope it's clear that if you really are paying attention to
yourself and taking that inventory, you can determine what
are you doing with these limbs that Allah subhanaw taala has
given you these gifts that Allah's Prophet has given you that you
shouldn't be doing? And for everyone that's going to look
differently, right? So
then they go on to say,
Excuse me, I lost my space here.
In no way should we completely ignore the others while focusing
on one. Allah commands us to guard all of our limbs at all times. But
in order for us to keep from being overwhelmed, we should focus on
one exercise at a time. If we focus on one at a time it enables
us to be more vigilant about the others. Obviously our bad habits
stem from our own heedlessness. Therefore as we become more
conscious of our behavior in one area, we will do so in others as a
result, if all of us had that a wills we will see the results
immediately but we should take heed ashray thought increases his
efforts in proportion to ours.
is also a really good point to be mindful of, the more we make a
concerted effort to correct ourselves to get closer to Allah
subhanho wa taala, the more Shavon will try to attack us and bring us
further back. Because obviously he doesn't. That's his ultimate
objective, right? So he's not going to sit back and just watch,
he will try to persuade you to go back and default to your bad
habits to give up, it's too much, or possibly even push you into
something worse, just because he overwhelms you. So you want to be
very careful not to overwhelm yourself. And that's really the
gist of that advice.
If we focus on one at a time, it enables us to be more vigilant
about the others, obviously, I'm sorry, I already read that. If
Allah wills, we will see the results immediately. But we should
take heed a shape that increases his efforts in proportion to ours.
He will work on our hearts and try to instill pride in us for our
efforts, he will attempt to make us think we are better than others
for struggling with ourselves. We must not succumb to these whispers
and we will hear them. That's also another important point. So
there's two directions this could go he could try to dissuade you
from continuing your path. By just making things seem way too harder
than they are. Or he could fill you with this pride and arrogance.
Because now that you're taking on the spiritual practices more
regularly, you suddenly start to feel more superior over others. So
to be very mindful of our thoughts.
The path of self effacement for the sake of Allah demands that we
view everyone is better than us. The Muslim should never elevate
himself over anyone in creation. Even if we maintain humility, we
must remain vigilant because shaitan will endeavor to make us
feel pleased with being humble. The path to Taqwa has many
pitfalls. According to the Quranic narrative, shaytaan swore an oath
regarding this path. And he says, I shall lurk in ambush for them on
your straight path, then I shall come upon them from before them
and from behind them and from their right sides and from the
left sides. And you will not find and you will not find most of them
grateful. And this is in chapter seven verse 16, to 17 Subhan
Allah. So you know, this is he's laying it out, he's laying out his
plan on how he'll attack us. And then that last point, he you know,
he's very firm in his opinion that we are ungrateful, which is what
he says here
which is, excuse me, let me just read that again. I don't want to
misspeak here, either. And you will not find most of them
grateful. Yeah, I'm not sure if that's actually the words of of a
bliss speaking or if Allah subhanaw taala is just making that
comment clear that we because in other verses, this is also
repeated that most of us are ungrateful. So just, yeah, I'm not
sure about that. I can look into that for next time. But for now,
it's a pretty clear I mean, he's, he's laying the plan out right?
Then notice that he says that he will lurk in ambush on the
straight path, and he's unconcerned with the Wayfarers on
a crooked path. Moreover, he does not say that he will come from
above or from below. The secret in this is that revelation and
guidance come from above and by maintaining a state of humility,
and keeping our foreheads to the ground. We open our hearts to the
guidance from above. Allah has not given shade on authority over the
guidance of the Prophet salallahu Salam or his humbled servants who
follow that guidance. So somehow he's he's quite weak, he cannot
overcome if you're truly committed to the path and following the
process and and he cannot overcome. He has no authority over
that guidance. Right, Pamela? This is the ancient hero's journey. And
success is by Allah, not by deeds, but by grace alone is this
achieved, we must see our progress as Tofik providence from Allah,
which means our gratitude must increase the spiritual growth
occurs. It cannot be done without effort. But it is not effort
through which it is done. Subhan Allah, that's really important. We
can't arrive at these destination, spiritual destinations without
putting in the effort, but it's not our effort that takes us
there. It's really is from again, the providence of Allah. That's
Tofik Allah's giving us success. He's facilitating he's drawing us
closer. Use bifocal vision to see paradoxical truth and submit to
let us keep our eye on the goal ahead. Let us constantly remember
our mortality and know that we will be considered among those who
reached the goal before us. Even if
We die before reaching them. This is why we pray, we're unhappy, I
need the slot machine cause me to reach the righteous. And this is
chapter 12 Verse one to one. So that was the commentary before we
even get into the next section on attaining Taqwa. So there's a lot
to digest there. But a lot of great advice about basically
pacing ourselves, being aware of our thoughts, making sure that we
don't let ourselves get too carried away, where we start to
get prideful of any progress we make and that we attribute our
progress to Allah subhanho data as success only comes from him on how
did he learn.
So now I'm going to change the slides here, inshallah to the next
section, which is exercise one, when this is on guarding the
prayer, and likely because the section is quite long.
We're going to stay on this until for the rest of the evening,
because it's a pretty long section before we get to exercise two
which is guarding the heart, the tongue, excuse me, so on guarding
the prayer, of all the actions that a Muslim will do in his or
her life, none is more important than the five prescribed daily
prayers. It is the central pillar that supports the entire edifice
of Islam. The Quran defines the believers as follows Alladhina
Umino and I believe you were up Mona saw that there were me merasa
Panera whom you and your cone. Those who believe in the unseen
and established prayer, and from what we provide for them they give
out. Thus prayer is mentioned immediately after belief. It is a
believers expression of gratitude to his Lord for consciousness
itself, the gift of life and awareness, a divine tradition
which is heavy pudsey, related by Imam and Hakim, on the authority
of the shadow the Aloha and has states there are five prayers that
Allah has ordained for His servants, whoever dutifully
undertakes them without belittling the right. They embody in any way,
he has a covenant with Allah that He will enter him into paradise.
Commenting on this hadith Imam Al Munna always states the use of the
definite article in the in the prayer indicates that what is
meant is the complete prayer, which fulfills the pillars near
integrals confirmed Sunday, recommended matters and all the
other conditions of the prayer. There is no doubt that the one who
fulfills this will be a true believer. He is someone who would
avoid the prohibited matters and fulfill his obligations. He would
engage his soul in the obedience of his Lord. Indeed, Allah says in
his book that was revealed to His ennobled servant. Surely prayer
prevents anything foul or indecent. That's chapter 29 Verse
45. Anyone who possesses this state is worthy of being spared
from the punishment of Allah and of being given the garden without
any accounting and Allah knows best. So that was the commentary
from from emammal Minelli, on this hadith, pudsey about this covenant
that Allah Subhan Allah has made with those who pray and take
seriously their prayer and our dutiful to their prayer, that he
that they will enter paradise Subhan Allah, may Allah accept all
of us in that, amongst that group in sha Allah, Allah also says in
the Quran, surely prayer has been prescribed for the believers at
specific times. This is chapter four verse one or three. He also
says, seek assistance with patience and prayer. And surely it
is a difficult matter except for the believers. That's in chapter
two verse 45. So all of this I mean, it's pretty clear, right?
We're talking about guarding the prayer, and how do we guard the
prayer, we have to first and foremost prioritize the prayer. I
was just in another event prior to this halacha. And I just shared
some words and reflections. I also shared a quote that I'll read a
moment from this text. But I spoke just about the importance of
really having the mindset that I was we were all created for one
purpose and one purpose only, which is to worship Allah subhanaw
taala. So nothing else should precede the prayer. The prayer has
to be our top obligation or our top objective every single day.
When you wake up, or when you're planning your day. If you're not
factoring in your prayer, you're not setting alarms, for example,
for budget and then you wonder, Oh, I'm struggling with budget.
Well, if you're not setting an alarm or doing your due diligence,
if alarms aren't working, let's say you know, you have a phone
alarm and it's not working you still you know
Did snooze and then it's then you need to get creative and figure
out something else. Maybe it doesn't need to be right by your
phone about by your bed. There's many people who that's been
effective just moving the phone and keeping the alarm super loud,
but away from the bed which forces you to get up, right? If it's
right next to you. It's very tempting, you know, to just hit
snooze and go, Okay, five more minutes. And then how many times
this has happened to all of us, right? You do that to trigger
shade on and all of a sudden, it's two hours later, and it's bright,
bright and broad daylight outside. And you're like, what just
happened? I just woke you know, I swear it was the alarm was is
ringing. know, when you're in that state, you're, you're not of your
mind. So you have to think before and plan ahead. And that's why
just a simple adjustment with you know, getting a new alarm system
or having some sort of a plan with your family member who maybe they
have an easier time waking up for a budget, or they can help you or
a friend if you live by yourself, but you gotta just show your
sincerity to Allah subhanho data, I've talked to many people who
they just kind of act like, you know, it's Fudger is really hard
for me and they'll say, comments where it's like, they've given up
already, and they've just accepted that. That is the prayer that is
just too difficult for them. They cannot do it. But that's not
showing real real sincerity, you're not guarding your prayer,
if you're gonna give up like that. You got to really go to the
whatever lengths you have to to fix the situation. And of course,
ask ALLAH SubhanA wa furtopia throughout. So that's the most
important thing prioritizing your prayers making sure that before
you schedule something,
you know, there's times people want to meet you. There's times
you have appointments for like, the dentist or the doctor, I have
to go pick up this medication I have to go do this run this
errand. You have to factor in the prayer first before you make those
plans. Otherwise you how many again times have people fallen
into this trap of letting life like living their life? And then
the day of when they're out the door? Oh, no, I don't have will do
Oh, no, I don't know where to pray, Oh, it's okay. I'll just
pray it when I get home. That's what is that doing? That's not
showing any responsibility. And I used an analogy recently to just
talking about if any of us got wanted to get a job and we applied
for a job or we got hired, let's just say we got hired for a job.
And the job description was very clear. Like this is your task, you
have one task, you know, let's just say you know, you're an
accountant, okay, and you have to, you know, just do the run the
books, right? Every single day, sit at your computer from this
time to this time, but this is your job, you have no other job.
Nobody wants you to do anything else. Don't fax, don't print,
don't email, people just sit and do this, right? If that was a
clear description of your job, but then you're not doing that job and
you're doing everything else, right? How long would we last in
that position, we likely wouldn't last at all. We'd like to be fired
pretty quickly. But the last part that I have is generosity is
giving us time and time and opportunity opportunity to keep
fixing ourselves. So waking up to not getting distracted by life,
and forgetting what we were created to do. And so you gotta
have to look at that here. We are created to worship Allah but how
many of us fail in fulfilling the most basic obligation and not
basic as in I mean, basic as in this is the most important
fundamental thing that we have to do. We're not fulfilling it, but
then we're doing everything else and we make excuses. Well, I had
to take this, you know, had this appointment, I had to do this for
work, I did this for school, my child needed me I need to talk to
my kids teacher and we make a lot of excuses, not realizing those
are not part of your job description. Right, your job. as
insane as a human being is to worship Allah subhana wa Tada, and
nothing should get in the way of that. So really having that
paradigm shift where prayer really is my my priority in life. And if
I don't, I'm not going to worry about hurting other people's
feelings or being, you know, or anything else. I'm going to
schedule my prayers and then everything else can fall in into
the schedule afterwards, but I don't put everything else in and
then go Oh, yeah. What about prayers, that's not the right
priority. Right. So that's, you know, the the most important
message from this first section and then, you know, emphasizing
the importance of time of understanding that prayers have
times that are set out and spread out through the day. When there's
incredible wisdom in that. We are very forgetful, and I mean
Subhanallah we forget a lot of important things.
It's just human nature to be forgetful. And so ALLAH SubhanA,
knowing us, he knows that we need reminders to remember our job, our
purpose, our function. And that's what prayer is set to do. And it's
also an opportunity to remember to call on him that this life is
difficult, we're going to be challenged, we're going to have
health problems, we're going to lose people we love, we're going
to have tribulations that come maybe from places we just wouldn't
expect them. People are betrayed all the time in this life, from
the closest people to them, and it's very painful, and it hurts.
But if you know that you have this consistent, something consistent
for you that your heart is attached to, and it's never failed
you and it's always been there. And it's always been a refuge for
you the prayer, it makes life easier because people will fail
you people will disappoint you point you people will hurt you,
but also happen to doesn't ever do any of that. And so that's one of
the most important reasons to also understand the wisdom of him,
giving us these prayers throughout our day so that we're reminded
you're not alone. You have a refuge, ask right almost panda
wants us to ask him. And so they mentioned again, the importance of
respecting the prescribed times right of the prayer. Now on the
next page, for those who have the book, I'm on page 44. At the top.
We have a some more commentary here in Charlotte still on the
prayer. It is one of the extraordinary insights of Imam
Malik that the first section of his mawatha, which precedes even
the section on ritual purity is on the times of the prayer. So before
he even talks about will do, he's talking about the times of prayer.
Now let's see why. It is the times of prayer that obligate purity.
Observing the times of prayer is the first thing we do when we wake
and the last thing we do before retiring to bed. It is done in the
middle of the day and it is and in its decline. It is an unrelenting
reminder of to whom we belong, why we are here. And where we are
going Subhan Allah so beautiful. I mean that's it think about you
know, when we wake up in sha Allah, we're thinking about fajr
prayer, when we go to sleep, we've just prayed Isha and more,
hopefully setting our alliance our alarms for Fajr prayer. So we're
constantly mindful of times, Inshallah, we're praying all of
our prayers on time. But I love the beautiful, eloquent way with
which, you know, he described why it's this unrelenting reminder,
right of to whom we belong, Subhan Allah, we belong to Allah. And
that is why we are placed on this planet. And this earth, we are
placed here to worship Him, in my medical continued, and he wrote, I
heard from Nafi, who heard from him, and that might have been a
lot, Deborah de la and wrote to all of his governors, saying, The
most important of your affairs, in my view, is the prayer, whoever
protects it and observes it carefully is protecting his
religion, while whoever is negligent about it will be even
more negligent about other things. Subhanallah I mean, that's just
such a perfect advice, that if you don't prioritize your prayers,
everything else will just, you know, it'll, you'll fall through,
you'll fail, because you're not even prioritizing the most
important thing you were meant to do. So how would you be
responsible in other areas, right, you'll just kind of start becoming
negligent about a lot of things about paying your cat or just, you
know, eating the Hella and or your fast making up prayers that you
missed. Just other responsibilities that we all have
in our homes, to our parents, to our children, to our loved ones,
to our teachers, we just start getting really, it was slack off,
right. And this is the nature of the human being, you get into bad
habits, and it just kind of starts to have this ripple effect. And
unfortunately, that just becomes you know, who we are. So we want
to seek refuge in Allah from that. And so he's giving you this advice
that get the prayer, right, and he's writing to his governors. And
to me, that's really also a really important point. Because, you
know, most of us, we have our, you know, our families that we, we
pretend we were in charge of and we protect and we take care of and
then we have our work and maybe some extended family members. So
it's like, you know, small into it in, in, in contrast to someone
who's in a public office position, right, a governor. I mean,
consider how many people are under their care
Not just their own families, but you have entire cities or states
or what have you. So for him to give this advice that, you know,
he's saying very clearly the most important of your affairs, in my
view is the prayer. He's telling them that, you know, don't
prioritize your work. And this is a good message for workaholics out
there, or mama holics, or data holics or whoever brother holics,
whoever it is that you are prioritizing, you know, and we do
this subconsciously, sometimes, you know, you're up at night
working on your project for work, and you're so stressed out, and
you issues and but you're too tired, you're just like, it's
okay. You know, no, you can't prioritize your work projects
above worshiping Allah subhanho data. And so, again, this advice
is for, for all of us to remember that nothing precedes our worship.
So don't make excuses. I have deadlines. I'm, I'm worried about
this XY and Z pray and inshallah watch, how Allah subhanaw taala
will facilitate your affairs for you. But if you don't, then be
prepared for a lot of failures, may God protect us.
So we're still on page 44. They go on to say this is advice from the
man who they're talking about and said, I'm, for the law home, home.
So this is advice from the man whom Satan completely avoided. So
if our mother went down a path shaytaan would take another route.
And we know that right, he was afraid of him, surely remaining in
a state of purity, and being regular in prayer will keep
shaytaan away from us. And this is also, you know, the advice that we
have about keeping your will do, being consistent in your will do
does attract the angels and repel the shouting. So that's just
another, you know, little side note there. But it's important to
keep in mind because in order to facilitate your prayer, you also
have to, you know, think smart, not hard, you know, you sometimes
people think of, they don't plan in advance, they don't really
think about how to make the prayer easier. For example, keeping your
will do as a rule or trying to always maintain although no matter
what, and especially before you leave your house like that should
be a written rule somewhere in your mind's eye at least, that you
know, I don't leave the house without Luke. Because then if you
happen to find yourself in a situation where you forgot to
pray, and Hendra, you don't have to worry about scrambling around
trying to find a bathroom to make your will do and, or, you know,
thinking about oh, no, it's so dirty in public bathrooms, we know
are just not clean most of the time. So you're removing that
burden by keeping this rule that I don't ever leave the house without
will do. And also be mindful of how much you're drinking. If you
do leave the house. That's also a personal rule of mine. I tried to
be very vigilant about how much I'm drinking because if I'm going,
for example, my family and I would like to sometimes go two day trips
to San Francisco and other local, beautiful sites. And when we get
in the car, sure the kids will have little snacks and we'll you
know, I'll have our drinks. But I always am mindful to remind myself
and them to slow down. Don't drink too much because we need to keep
our will do. We don't want to be out and about and oh, I have to
again use the restroom. And now Now I have to worry about well
though for the next pair because likely we're not going to be home.
It just gets too complicated. But if you make these little practical
adjustments and rules for yourself, you're making it easy
and inshallah you won't have problems you'll be able to pray,
and everybody everything will be fine in sha Allah but it takes
that type of effort and mindfulness and practice to get
there. So
the ritual prayer is the believers protection and connection with his
Lord. The prayer is a science and an art that takes many years of
serious and vigilant practice. In order to arrive at its true
reality. The first and most important matter is to learn its
form. This involves studying a valid text from one of the
canonical schools of Islam with a teacher who is licensed to teach
the section of the rules of fiqh jurisprudence. So when seeking a
teacher keep in mind the Hadith related by Imam authority, and
others that the great scholar have been sitting said sacred knowledge
is the essence of religion. So let each of you examine Well, whom he
takes his knowledge from. So finding a teacher, that's the see
how there you need to learn how to do the prayer correctly. So
studying the fifth of prayer, and of course, we know there's four
schools of thought in this Sunni orthodox Islam. And so we have,
you want to find a qualified teacher who studied the fifth the
jurisprudence of one of the four schools and ask them to teach you.
The next stage is to be vich
To learn about ritual purity and will do and hustle, and about the
avoidance of urine and any other impurities, now Jassa Be sure to
study both the section on impurities and the section on
purification, according to the great scholar and Reviver of the
last century, and I'm Hamid mo luda, Jacobi. The rules of prayer
should be reviewed every six months in order to keep them
fresh. Somehow, that's advice for all of us to take. Some of us may
have learned these rules, when we were younger, when we were
children, or maybe later in our adolescence or young adult stages.
But as we grow the mind, of course, we know can be for you
know, we can forget. And so it's important to renew our whatever
we've learned, and to, to go over those rules just to make sure that
we're not forgetting.
Finally, let us all heed the advice of the great Moroccan
scholar, Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al after he who says in his text on
the prayer, and so now this is going to be a quote from him I
went after the, the prayer contains a vast spiritual light
that radiates in the hearts of those who truly pray, but it is
only obtainable by one who has humbly submitted Himself. Thus
should you come to the prayer. Empty your heart of the ephemeral
world and what it contains, and occupy yourself with vigilant
awareness of your master, for whose sake you are praying. firmly
believe that your prayer is humility and a basement for the
sake of Allah. exalted above attribution is he by means of
standing, bowing and prostrating more over it is a form of
reverence and magnification of him by means of saying Allahu Akbar,
Subhana Allah and other general remembrances. This guard your
prayer, as it is the greatest of all acts of worship, do not allow
shape onto Play with your heart and preoccupy you during your
prayers to such an extent that he blinds your hearts eye and
deprives you of the pleasure of the spiritual lights of the
prayer, therefore have constant humility in it for surely it
prevents you from committing foulness and misdeeds because of
that very humility in it, seek help from Allah for surely he is
the best of those whose help is sought. So that was the quote of
even from the villa, so many gems and beautiful points there. But
really, just to remember, what is the point of the prayer, the point
of the prayers to connect us to Allah subhanaw taala, to show our
humility to Him, and to really rid ourselves of the filth of this
dunya to stand before Him in abject humility and to ask His
forgiveness for our, you know, our misdeeds and our sins and all of
our
transgressions and to ask for guidance. So there's so it's a
process, it's not just a robotic event that takes place five times
a day where we get up and speak in a language we may not be fluent in
or know. And we're thinking about, you know, our day to day
activities. And that if that's your experience, that's normal
people we all struggle with, with intrusive thoughts during prayers.
This is very normal. So it's not you know, we're just speaking
about the ideal the ideals that we want to pursue in prayer, the
perfection of prayer, is to stand before Allah's paddock totally
focused, aware of him, and really in that impoverished state,
because that is the point it's to show our reverence our need of Him
our just complete.
You know, we're lost without all of us have had that. And that's
what the prayer should reflect is that you're aware of that you need
him. And so,
Marshall a beautiful description there. The duration of the
exercise for the prayers, 40 days, we should stipulate with ourselves
that for 40 consecutive days, we will pray all five prayers at
their respective times without missing one, while fulfilling each
prayers, conditions, pillars near integrals, and recommended acts.
If any of the prayers is not prayed on time, then we must start
the 40 day period over SubhanAllah. That's, that's
intense, but this is again, this is the purpose of this whole text.
It's changing ourselves. It's transformation. And so you want to
look at it like that's, that's a pretty big, you know, goal, but
it's definitely attainable. And there's people who've done this
and so how should you do it? You know, do you have a journal? Do
you have a record? Do you have some way of keeping score so that
you can see Did I do my prayer on time? Did I fulfill all of the
requirements
have this 40 Day Challenge. And if not, then you're you reset, you go
back to day one. So I think it's really great. You know, because
human nature we are forgetful. But at the same time, when the
consequences are so severe, we tend to be more mindful. So the
fact that you're aware of having to go all the way back to the
starting point by one misstep, one missed prayer should be Inshallah,
the reason why you have so much more presence and are so much more
aware, and inshallah will succeed. So I think it's a really brilliant
way of doing this, the exercise may take,
the exercise may take a long time to complete, but this is the
struggle of the believers, so we should never despair. For a man
This exercise is preferably performed in congregation and
preferably in the mosque. But due to the fact that many people in
Western countries do not live near a mosque, that is not always an
option. If one can pray at least the dawn prayer and then I pray in
a mosque, then the reward is greater. A family is counted as a
congregation. Therefore, it is important for a husband wife and
children who are seven years of age and older to pray together in
the house if congregational prayers are not held in your area.
So I think that's really great general advice, but also really
does apply to all of us now, we most of us are still not able to
go back to our local masajid. And so or if we are the times are,
there's a lot of restrictions there. So this is a really good
advice about just starting to do these congregational prayers in
your home, with those conditions of children being seven or older,
and making that the habit and this, you know, it's really,
again, it's just it's relevant because so many of us this could
apply to and it's easy for us to ensure that people are working
from home. I know with my family and from dinner for the most part,
we tried to do our prayers always together.
Because it's we're all here and it's just makes sense that way so
from to do that.
The Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu sallam said, if people knew what
was in the congregational prayer, they would attend it, even if it
meant they crawled Subhanallah
let's just visualize that for a moment. You know, people crawling
to the masjid just because they want the reward, because they're
aware of the reward. Right? But we were, we're not told that that
specific reward, but in many ways, we are told the reward just by
virtue of these words, we can understand that there is immense
reward in going to prayers, Inshallah, that our congregational
in the masjid, and this is, you know, more so forth. For men, it's
certainly
required more than for women. The early companions also said that if
someone did not attend prayers in the mosque regularly without a
valid excuse, they considered him to be a hypocrite of Allah. A sure
sign of hypocrites is that when the prayer time comes in, they are
lazy and procrastinate until the time is almost out.
Oh, the villa, may Allah forgive us, right? And you know, when we
hear these words, I know they can sometimes you know, be jarring,
because you don't ever want to think of yourself as a hypocrite,
you know, and many people are really trying their best. And so
sometimes we fall short. And these words, we shouldn't take them to
shame to shame to you know, to make us feel bad and socially
shamed of ourselves that we don't even think there's any point. No,
that's from che fine. It's just a matter of, we expect we, you know,
we should do better, we can do better. So it's really a matter of
trying to encourage all of us to do better, right?
So this is chapter four, verse 142. If they get up to pray they
do though, they do so sloppily. Right? So that's stuff little
again, the sign of someone who has any fat boys. They don't pray with
that, you know, this is I have to do this or I live that resolve
isn't there, they kind of dragged their feet to the prayer. So we
should be mindful. Is that how we approach the prayer where it's
like, as if we're being tortured out of the lab? This is a meeting
with ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada. And yes, maybe physically, we're tired
or exhausted where we just want to sit around and do nothing. But
the prayer is not that you shouldn't target the prayer with
those feelings, right? That's the it's not the fault of prayer
coming in that you should feel that way towards the prayer. It's
that you are maybe need to readjust your schedule. Maybe
you're not sleeping enough. Maybe you don't have the time management
so that when a prayer comes in, you feel burdened by it, but if
you were more organized, you would just see it as something you have
to do and that you want to do.
You and inshallah you don't have that attitude towards it.
Let me see the time here. And last we have a 50 Okay, so I'll read.
Okay, I'll read the last section, just one page, and then we'll stop
for questions and, and inshallah we'll be ready next time for
exercise to guarding the tongue. So, this is the remainder of this
section, the three prayers that require special vigilance or the
dawn. So the mid day ASA and sunset, so the dawn is also a
budget right? Some people miss the dawn prayer out of laziness or too
much activity into the early hours of the morning. It is similar to
retire at night after the night prayer is performed. And there is
great wisdom in that practice, as in all of the prophetic
traditions, the midday prayer is probably the middle prayer that
the Quran warns us of when Allah subhanaw taala says, Be vigilant
about your prayers, and particularly of the middle prayer.
And that's in sort of Bacara for chapter two verse 238. So Mr.
Malik, following the opinions of ideas of the law on inhibit
investment, you're considered the middle prayer to be the dawn
prayer. So the Fajr the Hadith, and I've already mentioned the
midday prayer as the middle as the middle prayer, and in some ways,
the middle prayer is like the Night of Power, it is hidden
within the prayers. So we should be vigilant about all of them.
Subhanallah so you can see the all the scholars on it, I had
different opinions about which prayer does this verse apply to
right? Be vigilant about your prayers, and particularly of the
middle prayer, it's like a little credit as its as the text
mentions, we don't quite know which night of Ramadan is like a
little harder, we have an idea. Some people assert certain things,
but we really don't know. So in the same way, this verse about the
secret or you know, the superiority of the middle prayer
is also unknown to us. But mashallah, there's great wisdom in
that because, and to me, it makes perfect sense. Perhaps it was, if
it was revealed, we would, we would only focus on that prayer
and then not do well and the other prayers, right, somehow a lot or
not, or kind of slack off on the other prayer. So I think there's
just immense wisdom and it being a secret, that's something we should
pursue inshallah. So sorry, I'm just checking my messages here. I
have a message from Brother son man who want to make sure I'm not
missing anything. One moment please. Okay.
So, then, we have the next section the sense that prayer has a very
short time in which it must be performed. Whereas the post
Meridian prayer and the night prayer have longer valid
timeframes and are more flexible for people schedules should people
need to delay them, which is also another mashallah such great mercy
from almost Pathan knowing that the daylight times when people
work and so he's given us these longer windows right. Upon
faltering in an exercise we need to levy a self imposed penalty to
discipline the knifes such as spending and charity or fasting it
is also better to do this with others as a way of enjoying each
other to righteousness and Taqwa. So if you are doing this practice
of trying to commit to your prayers for 40 days, and let's say
you miss a prayer, in addition to having to go all the way back to
step one, they're suggesting that you set up another system of, you
know, sort of a penalty for yourself so that, you know, not
let your enough's get the best of you again, you can do that by
yourself or with a friend. Once we're performing the five
obligatory prayers with regularity, then it is certainly
worthy. It is certainly worthy, worth our efforts, excuse me, to
begin increasing extra prayers, especially the late night prayers,
the 100 late night prayer is one of the defining qualities of Asana
have a righteous person, also called a woody, a friend of Allah.
Regarding the late night prayers, for there'll be an IED said that
if a man was unable to do them, it was due to his wrong actions
during the day. May Allah make us befitting to stand before him here
and in the hereafter. I mean, I mean, I mean, so somebody
wonderful, just like I said, gems throughout this portion, and of
course, throughout the book, but that last point about you know,
really trying to perfect our prayers because again, people who
are tuning in maybe a different level. So if you've arrived at
that place of really taking your five daily prayer seriously, then
this is the next level, which is committing to the 100 prayers. And
also, if you're consistent with your tahajjud prayers, and you
miss them, then you should certainly take yourself into
account what did you do during the day that Allah subhanaw taala
withheld that the hedges prayer from you? I
As in some way a you know a bit of a punishment right or a penalty
What did you do during the day so, everybody is at different levels
but I think this really speaks to all of us that when shall we have
to find a where we are in this
you know, in trying to fulfill this this exercise and in trying
to perfect and garner prayers inshallah and and do what we have
to do so may Allah is probably gonna give us also FIP and
Hamdulillah that was the end of section one or exercise one on
guarding the prayers in two weeks time we will go over exercise to
which will be guarding the tongue and the other sections that
follow. So just like more when I'm going to see a brother, someone
told me a couple of minutes ago there were no questions, but maybe
now that I've opened it up or I'm opening it up, I should say there
will be so I'll just wait for him or let me actually stop the
screenshare and I can also check comm to do that.
So let's see we have a few minutes so inshallah we can hopefully
address anything that needs to be addressed. I'm on Facebook. I
don't know where you are brother, son, man, if you are on YouTube on
Facebook, I don't see I just see my awesome Salaam. Thank you. Ben
Jetta Harrison, emotional Samaniego, icumsa them and
actually I want to say are a key I don't forgive me if I'm
pronouncing it wrong, but thank you for your setups of Hamdulillah
I don't see any questions there and but it's not the man is also
telling me no on YouTube as well. So it's a quiet night. Maybe?
Did I thank you for tuning in everyone. It's always a pleasure
and an honor to to do these gatherings with all of you and 100
we're getting we're making way through this text or inshallah
we'll hopefully be getting through it or to the end of it soon. But
thank you for your patience and just I can walk in and thank you
thank you so much. LaTonya Thank you aneko Salam Aviagen I see some
lovely comments Thank you. Shana has just like a Lafayette and
mashallah You guys are so kind to leave comments and doors and mean
to all of your thoughts. Thank you so much. We'll go ahead and end
into our inshallah and we'll see you in two weeks Subhanallah
humble Be humble hamburger Chateau and ala l Anthony software
according to what you make. Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim when
asked to enter in Santa Fe hawser Illallah Nina Amendola, Amina
Swati hottie with US Open happy whatever. So this summer, I mean,
I mean, which ranges that come a little hit and again, everyone
have a wonderful remainder of your evening inshallah and we will see
you in two weeks.