Lauren Booth – 2 ways to improve your faith practise right now

			As Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Peace be upon you. One day, I was in a mosque in
Manchester. And I saw the sister next to me through the corner of my eye come up from bending down
from the Rikku. And then she did this.
		

			So I thought, Oh my God, I've missed a vital part of the prayer, I need to start doing this. For the
next couple of months after every Rikku every bending, I would do this bend and come up, hold my
hands. Here we go. Now, sometimes I'd literally go deliver today, because I didn't know the words
and I was promising myself that in the future, I will learn the words. But some of the time, I guess
that it was a prayer asking Allah for something. So I would say, perhaps, oh, God, Oh Allah, please
bless me and my family and help the Ummah until one day, I was praying at home, and my youngest
daughter, who is eight at the time, and she must have looked at me out of the corner of her eye. And
		

			at the end of the prayer, she turned to me and asked me two incredible questions that stopped me in
my tracks. And I'm going to put them to you right now. And these are things that we should ask
ourselves, in every act that we do for Allah to Allah, she asked me, What are you doing, Mum? And
why are you doing it? And I was so embarrassed because I had no idea. And all I could say to her
with my cheeks read feeling like a real idiot was I saw a woman in the mosque do it is that how we
learn things?
		

			So we must have knowledge and we can't do without it. Because in practice, our happiness in this
world and the hereafter depends upon it. Know this, those who worship but have no knowledge can end
up receiving more harm from their worship them benefit would we learn to drive a car in one lesson,
and then stop learning? Because we thought, well, I'm now a safe driver, how many a worshiper has
tired himself out in worshipping while persistently committing a sin, which he believed to be an act
of obedience, or at any rate, not a sin? Maybe we're artistic, we're spiritual in our character. For
those like us, the technicalities of Fick too complex, too challenging. Prophet Muhammad said,
		

			seeking knowledge is an obligation upon every Muslim knowledge makes you aware of what is a duty,
what is recommended, what is forbidden, how to perform your duties, and recommended acts, and how to
avoid what is prohibited. This doesn't mean everyone has to become a scholar. This means knowing and
implementing the acts, which we must do as believers every day, it doesn't take long to get to know
the absolute basics of the what and the why, of the obligations that we as Muslims must do every
day. In fact, it's been said by the great scholars of Islam, that for a good student, just two hours
with a scholar, a student of knowledge is enough to really nail the water in the way of what we do.
		

			And one day I promise you By Allah's grace, you will just wake up in the night, and a voice will say
to you go and pray a fetcher or go into a night prayer. That's the aspiration. There's a blessing as
more blessings to be had. But you'll be having lunch one day, and you'll be eating everything and
the boys will say to you, Have you prayed for her yet? And then the sun will go down? You'll go, oh,
gosh, I haven't got long for Maghrib I know it seems like a big ask right now. And maybe you haven't
prayed for a long time and maybe you've never prayed and you're just starting. Put the time in and
don't give up. Allah loves the servants who makes efforts. Take one step towards him and he'll come
		

			running towards you, Santa Monica rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh