Mustafa Khattab – Khush Being Focused and Humble in prayer
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In the name of Allah, the most gracious,
most merciful,
all praise is due to
Allah. We praise him and we seek his
forgiveness and assistance,
and we take refuge in him from the
evils of ourselves
and our shortcomings.
Whomever Allah guides, there's none to misguide him,
and whomever Allah believes to go astray,
there's none to guide him.
We bear witness that there's none worthy of
our worship except Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the
creator and the sustainer of the world.
And we bear with this that Muhammad
is the seal of the prophets and the
final messenger to all humanity.
Indeed, the most truthful word is the book
of Allah, the Quran,
the final revelation to humanity,
and we bear witness
that the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam is the best guidance
for all humans.
Indeed, every newly invented matter in this religion
is an innovation and every innovation is a
misguidance and every misguidance
is in the hifa.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in the
Quran,
Oh you who believe,
be mindful of Allah's of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala in the proper way,
and
don't die unless you are in a state
of Islam or full submission to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
Today's topic is very important
and is very crucial
for every
Muslim.
And I remember,
speaking about this topic a long time ago,
about over a year ago,
and some of the brothers have recently
asked me to repeat the same topic
because
we always have a problem dealing with this
topic.
And the topic is
how to
be focused in the salah, al Fushum wa
Fil salah.
And I assume that every one of you,
just like me,
has a problem when you stand in the
salah.
But let's first talk about the importance of
the salah, why it is very important
that you have to focus in the salah,
you have to humble yourself in the salah,
because if you know the importance,
everything else will become easy for you InshaAllah.
Number 1,
as we have said repeatedly,
salah is the only
act of worship, ibadah, in the in in
Islam that cannot be waived.
Namaz, salah.
The zakah can be waived. If you are
fakir, poor, you don't have to pay zakah
or salat.
If you don't have the money or the
means or the health
to go and make Hajj, you don't have
to make Hajj.
If you are unable to fast because of
old age and for the other reasons that
we mentioned before, you don't have to fast.
You can feed poor people and so on
and so forth. But salah is the only
act of worship that can't be waived.
Number 2,
since the salah is very important,
salah is the only act of worship that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
ordered
his prophet to do
directly.
Like for Hajj, charity, and all other acts
of worship, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would normally
send Jibril alayhi salaam to teach the prophet
salaahu wa salaam and tell him Allah tells
you to do this and this. But as
for salaam,
it was the only act of worship that
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala invited the prophet
to meet him and to tell him you
have to pray this number
of prayers.
If
you remember the story.
So, therefore, it has to be something very
important or otherwise, why
Allah
would
do
this?
Number 3, salah is the first thing that
you'll be questioned about on the day of
judgment.
It's the first thing.
Anything else comes later, but salah is first.
Number 4,
salah is the last thing the last advice
that the prophet
gave moments before his death.
Be mindful of the prayer. Be mindful of
the prayer before he died. Salah is
If you pray
constantly the 5 daily prayers, these prayers will
make up for the minor sins he commit
every day.
So the
prophet mentioned several things, and he said one
of them
is the salah. If you pray
the 5 daily prayers, then they would take
care of all the minor sins that you
commit in between
the prayers.
But as for major sins,
like stealing and lying and so on and
so forth, they require
a special offer
or effort from you for them to be
atoned for or for them to be forgiven.
In the salah, as we are told in
the Hadith of the prophet the
closest you can get to Allah
is when you are in the salah.
The prophet
said the closest you can get to Allah
is when you pray,
which means if you in your sujood, when
you prostrate yourself to Allah
you make dua'at,
most likely your prayers will be accepted.
And this is one of the times
when the prayers are most likely to be
accepted,
like the time between Adhan and the comma,
like when it rains, like the time upon
breaking the fast, and so on and and
so forth.
When you pray,
you're in actuality following the example of the
prophet, salaam,
seeking his guidance and also walking in the
footsteps of all the other prophets.
And
I've read
the the Bible and the way the other
prophets, the previous prophets
were described praying
is exactly like the prophet
prayed. Some prayed making rukuah.
Some people prayed making sujood.
If you read the story of Musa alaihi
salam, Harun,
Ibrahim, Raisa alaihi salam, this is how they
are described in the Bible. They just put
their face in the ground and pray to
Allah
So because this is the closest you can
get to Allah
If salah is is very important like this,
why do we lose focus when we pray?
So before we talk about
the meaning of fushuah or humility
in the salah or being focused in the
salah and before mentioning some of the tips
to help you focus in the salah, we'll
give some examples.
Why is it that every time you stand
for salah, you you start thinking about your
problems?
You start thinking about your bills, you start
thinking about paying your taxes,
you start thinking about the paper for the
and the other pro
professors.
Why do you always think about your problems
in the salah itself?
Before the salah, no problem. After salah, maybe.
During the salah, you think all the time
about your problems, about your bills, future plans,
and so on and so forth.
Why is it that the only or the
most or the greatest time you start thinking
about sleeping or yawning is when you start
the salah? Before the salah, you are fine.
After the salah, you are fine. Once you
stand on that carpet,
you start thinking about sleeping and nodding and
falling asleep.
Why is it that
you have no problem
watching,
a boring movie
like Matrix
or Pulp Fiction for a couple of hours?
No problem. But as soon as you start
the song, now you have a problem.
So watching a movie for 2, 3 hours,
no problem, but praying for 5 minutes is
a problem.
And I was thinking this morning
about the
salah, and
for some reason, I remember I remember the
James Brown.
He's
a very famous African American singer. He was
very famous back in the 19 sixties
seventies.
And the reason I remembered him is because
of
the
the imbalance
in our perspective on salah and watching movies.
Because when you watch movies for 2, 3
hours, you never blink,
and you recall James Brown's,
famous song, I Feel Good.
But as soon as you start praying,
you recall the other song by James Brown,
I got ants in my pants. I can't
pray.
So why is it so?
Why is it so that Shahidari gets hold
of you
in the salah
that you always forget? You think in the
salah about,
do I have wudu or not? Did I
violate my wudu or not? How many rakas
I have prayed?
How I prayed 2 or 3 or 10.
You always forget in the salah because salah
is at the shaitan is after you.
And as the way you told me to
say in Urdu,
shaitan behaut aqalman hey. Shaitan is very smart.
Shaitan is very smart. He doesn't want you
to get all the rewards.
He doesn't want you to get all the
blessings from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala because
he was offered the chance to get the
forgiveness and the blessings of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala, but he reject.
But once you stand in the salah and
get all the rewards, so the shaitan is
mad.
So he doesn't want you to get all
the rewards. He doesn't want you to pass
the exam which he had failed a big
time.
So Shaitan is after you.
What is the meaning of fashuah or being
focused in
the salaf?
Ibn al Qayyim Muhammadullahafi,
Madaraj al Saliqeen in one of his books,
In the footsteps of the righteous.
He said that means
humility when you humble yourself,
when your heart is focused in the salah,
when your heart is humbled in the salah.
And once your heart becomes humbled and focused
in the salah, everything else in the body
will be focused in the salah, your organs,
your brains, everything.
Because all these organs, they follow
the instructions
that come from the heart, and he says
that for sure, humility
and being focused in the salah come everything
comes from the heart.
So if the heart is focused, everything is
focused.
If the heart is messed up, then everything
else
is messed up.
That maybe
a serve one of the servants of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will offer salah,
and they only get 1 10th or 1
9th or 1 8th or 1 7th or
1 6th or 1 5th or 1 quarter
or 1 third or maybe half of the
reward.
So you get the reward of your according
to the time you focus in the If
you focus half the time, you get
half of the reward. If you focus 1
third, you get 1 third.
If you don't focus at all, then there's
no reward
as the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam says
in the hadith.
And believe me, every one of us has
a problem with kushuah and the salah
because
the Sahaba, the companions of the prophet,
they also had some issues with Khushua and
then salam.
I'll give you a couple of stories.
The first one, when this ayah from Surat
Al Ma'un was was revealed,
May the wrath of God be upon those
who pray, but they are reckless regarding the
prayers.
So the prophet
said,
and, he said that the meaning of the
people who are meant in this verse, those
who delay
the salah till the time is over.
Those who delay dukh until the the time
for us comes.
So this is what is meant by the
verse.
So the Sahaba and those who came after
him after them, they they were grateful that
Allah
said that those who are great reckless
regarding the prayers, and Allah didn't say they're
grateful that Allah didn't say those who lose
their focus in the salaam.
Because if Allah said this, then every one
of us is in big trouble.
So this is the first one, that the
Sahaba were concerned
about being focused in the salah and about
humility in the salah.
The second hadith or second story comes from
one of the Sahaba,
and I've read it or heard it a
long time ago. I'm not sure if it's
authentic or not.
The prophet
before the salah
promised one of the companions that will he
will give him a quote.
So after the salah the Sahabi, the companion
came to the prophet
and he said,
I couldn't focus in the salah for a
second because
I was always thinking during the 4 rakas
which codes you will give me.
The black one or the green one? The
small one or the big one? So my
salah is messed up.
We ask Allah
to show us the proper way to conduct
and to give us the best in this
life and the best in the life. Come
ask him of his presence.
How to be focused in the salah?
InshaAllah, very briefly we'll give some tips what
to do before the salah, during the salah,
after the salah, but,
there are a lot of, pieces of advice,
maybe inshaAllah if you come tonight for a
salaatul Isha we can discuss,
in detail.
But what you need to do before the
salaat, you have to get ready for the
salaat,
physically and spiritually and everything.
You have to prepare yourself for the salah.
You have to make wudu in the best
way as the prophet
says in the hadith that if you make
wudu properly,
if you go to the masjid, pray
with fushur, with humility, all your sins will
be forgiven.
You also need to
hope that Allah
will give you life till the next salat,
until the whole salah. And
as the prophet
says that if you
wait
for the next salah after you just have
prayed, then Allah
will give you a little word of the
time between the two prayers as if you
have stood in prayers
between the two prayers.
So this is something great. After you pray,
you hope that Allah will give you, at
least in your heart, you don't have to
say it in by your tongue, that maybe,
hopefully, Allah will give you life till the
next salah, so you will get the reward.
Number 3
of the things that you need to do
before salah, you have to
You have to free yourself of everything before
the salah.
Say for example, you are hungry
and you need to go to the salah,
you should eat first and go pray. So
you don't have to think about food
in the salah.
And all all that stuff in the salah.
And
if you need to go to the restroom
to relieve yourself, you have to do this
before you go to the salah
so you don't have to, you know, hold
yourself tight in the salah.
And these are not my words. This is
what the prophet salah al salah says in
the hadith.
If it is time for salatulashah
and the food is ready, dinner is ready,
then eat dinner before you pray
because otherwise, you'll be thinking about food all
the time in the prayer.
During the salah,
if you remember what we said last time
about the, knowing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, his
attributes, and knowing how to worship him,
once you stand in the salah,
you're standing before Allah
So if you keep this in your mind,
then everything else will be taken care of.
You're standing before
the king of kings.
You're standing before the lord of lords.
So you have to be focused. Imagine you
talk to your, your boss at work
and you are looking outside the window. You're
not focused in the salah. I'm telling you,
you'll be fired in a couple of minutes.
So when you talk to Allah, Subhanahu wa
ta'ala, when you pray, you need to be
focused
in your salah.
Number 2, you throw the world behind your
back, which means you don't think much about
the world because Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, whatever
you are concerned about, Allah
will take care of it.
He was asked
how can we focus in the prayer?
So he said if you want to be
focused, if you want to be humbled in
the prayer,
you have to do like this.
He said, when I pray,
I imagine that the Kaaba is right in
front of me,
and the world is behind me.
And Jannah is to my right, and the
hellfire is to my left, and the sarat
is under my feet, and the angel of
death is over my head ready to take
my life.
Then I humble myself in the salah. And
after I pray, I'm not for sure if
the salah was accepted or not.
So in a nutshell, this is how you
can focus in the salah.
When you cry, you shouldn't be moving around,
looking around. You should focus on the place
where you put your head as the prophet
salaam says in the Hadith.
The prophet salaam
also
advised us,
you have to slow down when you pray
because once you
your prayer is faster than light,
then most likely
your salah will not be, you know, done
properly.
You'll say everything fast,
you'll miss in your salah, you you lose
your focus in the salah. So and then
and we know the hadith of the man
who came and prayed, and the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, he was very fast. The
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam told him,
go pray back and pray back because you
haven't prayed. And he did it 3 times,
and every time the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam tells him,
go back and pray because you you haven't
prayed.
By Allah who has sent you with the
truth,
I can't do any better. This is my
best.
Teach me.
You cry with tranquility when you stand strand
with tranquility,
and humility when you make rakurah the same,
when you make sujood the same, with humility
and with tranquility.
Give Allah 5 times 5
minutes every time you pray
because
if you count the number of times you
go to the restroom every day and the
minutes you spend in the restroom,
many of us spend more time in the
restroom than they spend time praying.
So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala deserves
more of your time.
Then after the salah, when you have already
prayed,
you need to be consistent in making the
adkar and tasbih
and asking Allah to
help you.
I think you ask Allah
to help you. Be grateful to him, thankful
to him, and pray to him in the
most proper way.
And this is the only way you can
thank Allah
You have also to
offer the, nawafil or the optional prayers rakas,
before and after the salah. Because as we
know,
every time there's something missing in the obligatory
salah or salatul fount,
the optional prayer will make up for anything
you miss in the salah, as the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam
says in the hadith.
The last point,
you shouldn't listen to the whisperings of the
shaitan because the shaitan will come to you
and always say,
Your prayer is missed up. There's no
humility or there's no tranquility. You are not
focused on you are not focused in the
salah, so there's need no need to pray
because
your salah is not accepted. You are wasting
your time.
So if this is the case, you shouldn't
listen
to the whispering of the shaitan. You shouldn't
quit praying, but pray and ask Allah for
his help and assistance.
We ask Allah
to give us the best in this life
and the best in the life to come,
and to give us sincerity in everything we
say and do, and to forgive our sins,
and to accept our good deeds according to
the best of our intentions, and to forgive
us anything we have done by ignorance, mistake,
or forgetfulness.