Nahela Morales – How to Feel the Sweetness of Prayer
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AI: Transcript ©
Do not give up but I got to welcome back to another episode
here and about Islam. We're just gonna give it a couple seconds for
people to connect. And today's topic is a very important one like
any other topic but today we were we are going to be speaking about
Inshallah, about the sweetness of sloth of prayer. So just give it a
couple seconds and we will share this out Inshallah, that way more
people can join and benefit.
We are currently in the month of Shawwal so if today is Monday, it
is a sunnah day to fast. So if you are fasting may Allah subhana wa
Taala accept your fast and we are almost at the end of the month of
Shawwal so you still have a few days and perhaps you're able to
complete your inshallah your your six days of shorewall So
just bear with us. We'll get started in a few seconds.
Just want to make sure that we share this out so other people can
actually benefit from this topic, which is the sweetness of prayer,
and that's what we're going to be talking about today. Inshallah. So
I pray that everyone is doing well, wherever you may be Salam
aleikum, everyone who is joining Salam aleikum, sister, Amanda,
and everyone else that is joining thank you for being here. Make
sure that you hit that share button.
so others can benefit from this chat today, Inshallah, and this is
actually a topic that we have spoken in the past perhaps not the
same, as we will be speaking about it today, but somewhat similar.
And so, one of the reasons why I like to speak about this because
is because,
you know, as a convert myself, so my name is the halal mirallas. And
as a convert myself, we go through different, different phases and we
go through different
our journey is different, every single one of us, our journey, our
struggles, our challenges are different, right? And so, we
obviously, some of us struggle with prayer, some of us some women
struggle with perhaps,
you know, implementing the headscarf the hijab, or perhaps
fasting. So every struggle, every challenge, every act of Ibadah
does not run exactly the same for everyone.
And so today, specifically, we are going to be speaking about the
sweetness of prayer. And so we'll get started. Now.
I will be like administrate energy Bismillahirrahmanirrahim
Subhanallah, he will be handy will show you a la ilaha illAllah. Wa
should do and Mohammed Salah again, welcome back and hit that
share button. And we'll get started
with today's topic, which really
hits my heart personally, as a convert,
aside from the headscarf prayer was something that I did not
understand until later on. I would sometimes and I say sometimes
because oftentimes, and I think it goes for both born Muslims and
reverts, it becomes burdensome, but prayer should never be
burdensome. On the contrary, once we understand the sweetness of
prayer, it actually should be the coolness of our eyes and our
hearts and our bodies. And it should we should take it as that
time. off that five times a day we kind of disconnect from dunya from
the world to recharge and connect with our Creator. That's that's
the essence of it. Right? That's in a nutshell. But today we want
to talk about a little bit more than that. Because it's important,
especially as we just came out of Ramadan. And you know, we were
very disciplined perhaps many of us look forward to Ramadan and we
start missing.
You know, the month of Ramadan, the month of worship once
once it's gone or it's about to leave because of the sweetness of
the month of the Sakina that we feel throughout the month.
The devotion that we have and obviously the conviction but we
can
actually also carry that on for the rest of the year. And that's
what we're going to be talking about today. How do we maintain
that spiritual connection for the entire year. And this is something
that a lot of the reverts that I actually mentor asked me, right,
because oftentimes, again, we, we mechanically know that we are
obligated to pray five times a day like we know that, especially if
you're entering the faith, we know the five pillars of Islam, and we
know that the second pillar of Islam is sloth. And so it's an
obligation, it's fun, it's not something that we put aside, even
if you don't know how to pray, it is still very crucial. It's very
important, and very critical for your spiritual growth and for your
journey, to put aside time to meditate to speak to Allah, even
if you don't know how to pray in Arabic. And so there is where you
will start building that sweetness of the prayer when you start
putting aside that time, and it become part of your day. And so
one of the main things that, you know, the scholars at the seer say
is that one of the those elements for us to get to that sweetness of
prayer is actually who Chu that concentration that
that conviction that we have,
when we are in front of Allah subhanaw taala, how many of you
and you ask yourselves and be honest with yourselves? How many
of you go into prayer, and all of a sudden, you start thinking about
everything that perhaps you have forgotten throughout the day? Or
perhaps you are thinking, Did I leave the stove on? Or you're
thinking did I pay that bill, or so the lack of who Chu is, is is
very low, I mean it like it's there, right? Like you're lacking
that concentration. And so that's one of the most important things
for us to be able to taste that sweetness of prayer. And the way
to gain that is to check our Amen. How is our faith? How is our
conviction? How is our relationship with our Creator?
You know, when we think of prayer, we think five times a day, and
perhaps, it seems like a lot, especially when you are entering
the faith and I'm speaking to my fellow reverts. And and, you know,
if you I'm going to share the story of prayer, actually, I was
gonna say, if you only knew Subhanallah
what our Prophet peace be upon him went through, to be able to only
be five prayers. So, you know, ALLAH SubhanA data, gave our
beloved Prophet peace be upon him the gift of salaat. And it's a
gift. And, you know, perhaps to us and to many of us, again, can seem
burdensome, especially if our days are very hectic. If we are either
traveling or we work outside in the heat now here in the West,
it's summer. And so it can be burdensome, right? But it was,
Allah Subhana Allah gave Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. So lot
as a gift to be able to escape from this world. And so
imagine that the
the love that Allah has for us, right, that he knows how hectic
life is. And so to be able to disconnect and taste that
sweetness and reconnect and recharge with our Creator, and
strengthen our relationship with Him through PRAYER through salon.
This is something that actually As believers, we need to make sure
that we don't ever detach from it, that we never lose that essence of
our prayer that that, that it becomes the most important part of
our day, aside from obviously waking up and thanking our creator
for another day and from waking up waking us up from the death right
so when we're sleeping, essentially we are practically
dead. And so we make a dua in the morning where we say Alhamdulillah
Hila Jana but the mama Tana will issue, you know, we think we
glorify Him for allowing us to wake up once again. And so after
that, we immediately you know, try to wake up early enough to do the
two records of sunnah and then go into our farm or to our obligation
of
Prayer. And so as as, as our journey continues, and as our
journey grows, something that we need to know is that
every single one of us will taste some type of calamity and we see
it in the Sierra in the story of our beloved Prophet, peace be upon
him. And when I said before that Allah subhanho wa Taala gifted him
Salaat that's exactly what he did. So lots of should feel as a
refuge, not as a burden. And so we know and if you don't, our beloved
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa salam peace be upon him, you know, he, I
mean, out of all individuals that walk this earth, he suffered the
most. He was, you know, an orphan, before he was even born. And you
know, his mother died when he was only six years old, and then his
grandfather died and his uncle Abu Talib died, and then his beloved
wife Khadija, the other one had died, and so his children passed.
And so he went through so much Subhanallah, right. And so, we
understand that,
that trials increase, also to test our faith, and that refuge, or
where we should be seeking refuge is actually in our slot. You know,
subhanAllah, if anyone was ever humiliated, was the prophet peace
be upon him, but he always found Salam as that gift from from
Allah, and he took it as that right? And, and Allah allowed him.
Allah allowed him to experience all this bitterness, in order for
him to be able to appreciate the sweetness of prayer, right, and
this is where it comes, that it is sweet. Because a lot actually
invited him to come and speak to him.
And talk to him about this prayer. And we know that Musa alayhis
salam was the one prophet that had regular conversation with Allah.
But when it came to prayer, Allah subhanaw taala invited, you know,
Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and had that conversation. And in
that conversation, he told them, that that's where he prescribed
the prayer, right, where he commanded the prayer for his ummah
to be 50 times. Can you imagine if we had to pray 50 times that day?
Well, it was thanks to Musa alayhis salam, that he told the
prophet peace be upon him. He said, Listen, I've been through
that route, it's not going to work. It's not going to happen. Go
back and ask to lower the number. And so the Prophet peace be upon
him did, he went and Allah subhanaw taala lowered it in half.
And he said, 25, he comes down and he tells Musa so what happened? He
tells them, he's like, No, that's too much. That's still not gonna
happen. Go again and go and ask. And he did. And he lowered it to
10. He comes back and most of us like, Listen, I'm telling you,
it's not going to happen. So go again. And he did. And so he
shortened it to five. And Musa was going to insist or he insisted to
go again. But the Prophet peace be upon him out of shyness. He
didn't, he just said, No, we are going to handle this and we are
going to be able to do this.
Now, the sweetness of all of this panela is that even though we only
pray five times a day, we get rewarded as if we pray 50 times a
day. So for every slot, you get 10 Hassanein, it's right to 1010
rewards. And so when you think about prayer, you think about it
being hard.
And we're human and there will be times where you know shaytan will
come and He knows our weaknesses. If any buddy knows our weaknesses
is shaytaan and he will come and he will whispering you will try to
deviate you and take you away and you know, for some odd reason,
every time we say Allahu Akbar and we get into prayer, we start
yawning.
There we go.
Sorry about that there's technical difficulties, and there's, there's
only so much we can do. So thank you for being patient.
And may Allah subhanaw, Taala reward you for for being here.
Anyways. So, yes, so we have five prayers. And I want to share a
couple of stories with you, you know, in my most recent travels,
and so I recently was in the East, in the Middle East.
And so one of the things that I always worry about, and I always
feel that Allah has so much mercy on us, and He loves us so much,
right, because he makes our faith so easy. Unfortunately, we
complicated and we complicated far too often. And so for those that
may not know, when we are traveling, our prayers can be
shortened. And what that means is that your
fajr prayer stays the same, right.
And
so it's two workouts, but then you have your Ducard, and you have
your acid and those become to record each separately. And but
they can be prayed at the same time. So you pray your to record
to prayer to record so. So you're able to taste that sweetness of
prayer, despite being travelling a traveler, despite being a
traveler, and so there's going to be a lot of distractions in our
lives such as travel, but even so Allah has made it easy, right. And
so I was recently
on a plane going to the Middle East, and it was a 16 hour flight.
And we departed around noon time locally in Texas. And so, you
know, it's it's difficult when you are, you know, crossing different
time zones. But one of the things like I try to be very focused when
it comes to salon and make sure I'm not missing, but even through
the travel, right, like I said, you're able to combine the minute
that you make that intention of traveling and you start traveling,
and obviously there's difference of opinions and say, you know,
certain amount of kilometers and what have you. Anyways, once in
the air, I'm a traveler. And so that's where I take full advantage
of making dua supplication, because we know from a Hadith from
our beloved Prophet peace be upon him that
the doer of a traveler is accepted. And so I take full
advantage of that. And I also take full advantage of being able to
pray on time while I'm traveling, because I'm able to combine so
there's no excuses, even though our lives are busy. And there's so
many distractions, we need to make sure that we find that sweetness
of prayer, even while we are, for example, traveling. So in my most
recent trip, I went back and I personally like to pray, I like to
feel the entire body I like to go and Riku and Jude and I, I just
That's me, I really love to go in through all the positions. And so
I normally find a small space in the back of the airplane, and I
did and I must share this story with you because honestly,
we just never know
who else benefits from even your worship, right? So I went into
prayer, and.
There we go. Okay, so we're back. Sorry about that. So, this
gentleman was staring, right and so Subhanallah
I, once I finished, I turned around and I greeted him and I
said hello. And obviously he was not Muslim.
But he was he was going to a Muslim country on vacation. And he
expressed himself first of all, he he congratulated me and he said,
you know, your devotion is very admirable.
I just couldn't
and stop, you know, observing you and I and forgive me if that's not
if I shouldn't have been doing that. And I said, no, no. And so
we had a very brief conversation, but he essentially
was looking at the fact that I was praying in a plane. And nothing
stopped me from worshiping, right. And so I saw it as a form of Dawa.
And also, it's important for us to, to acknowledge those around
us, whether it's by greeting or by a smile, or what have you. But we
had a brief conversation, and
he went on to tell me that he admired Muslims a lot, and so on
and so forth. And so
prayer is obligation upon every single Muslim. And it is
encouraged for us to pray when the prayer comes in. And obviously,
there's going to be circumstances where we aren't able to, for
whatever reason, especially if our safety is in jeopardy, but we
should try our very best to pray wherever that is, and it will take
some time to build that confidence. But it's important for
us to do to build it and to and to grow it.
And what I mean by that is, you know, when I came into Islam, I
was a very shy person, I really would never catch myself praying,
for example, in a public space, if I had to write,
especially if the prayers were already coming in, or I was going
to miss a prayer. So
like, many of my fellow reverts, I would wait until I got to a place
despite possibly, you know, joining prayers.
And so it took some time, but I am so grateful to Allah subhanaw
taala for granting me that who shoe that, that taste of that
sweetness of prayer of understanding that prayer is not
for Allah prayer is for us Prayer is our oxygen prayer should be
seen as something that you know, as the coolness of our eyes of our
heart of our soul, of, of, you know, that moment where you will
have whatever time it takes you, whether it's five or 10 minutes,
that connection with your Creator, you know, there, we will never
find happiness anywhere else. But through
that conversation that we have with Allah subhanaw taala that
connection that only can happen when we are concentrated in our
prayer, and we are speaking directly to him five times a day,
and just look at it this way. Subhanallah you know, you can be
having a really hard day you can be going through whatever they
whatever is it that you're going through, but to have that
comfortness
to have that conversation with our Creator. I didn't have that when I
was Catholic, right? Because maths was on Sundays and I was never
really encouraged to pray other than perhaps before eating and
before going to bed because I wasn't really
I do apologize. I'm not really sure what's what's wrong with this
internet. Anyways, it keeps interrupting us, I hope you got
the concept of the sweetness of, of prayer and that you're able to
have that connection with your Creator. And that you know that
Allah subhanaw taala he tells us in the Quran that he is closer to
us than our jugular vein. And so when we see Salaat our prayer, our
daily prayer as the fullness of our soul of our heart of our body
as a disconnection from this world and recharge of our Amen. Our
you know, trials and tribulations or whatever is it that we're going
through, you know, prayer comes in differently, it feels different.
And so it's important for us to start building
our our our
The wolf dial our trust in Allah,
you know, whether it's through your prayer,
and anything else or any other act of worship that you may be working
towards. And so the question was, and let me just go back to this
real quick. The question was, what can we do to feel strong
spiritually connected with Allah? subhanho wa taala. Right? And so,
I would say to, you know, start looking at your horseshoe, right?
And start checking your shoe, how is your concentration? How is how
is the moment you say, Allahu Akbar, and start there and then
you know, automatically your Eman will start building in a way that
I there's no words to explain because you ought to feel it and
it is simply amazing.
And just think, you know, it could have been 50 but it's five anytime
you're going through a hard time or it's a lot is just difficult
for you.
I would highly encourage anyone watching to focus on your Florida
before you start implementing your sunnah to you know, a try to
perfect your salon. Because as we perfect our salon, we are actually
also perfecting our relationship with our Creator.
And so, I sincerely ask Allah subhanaw taala to increase us all
in faith in taqwa and humbleness. When we are in in, in His presence
in prayer, and may He increases all in peace and serenity. And may
we all find that happiness and tranquility that we are all
looking for. Again, we will never find the happiness that we think
we want until we truly taste the sweetness of prayer. Thank you so
much for being here. I will see you next month. My name is Neha
mirallas. And let me just check Let me see. So I want to thank
everyone that is here. May Allah give us a Daya? I mean, I mean,
just like a hair, Wacom. I think we're pretty good. I thought I saw
one question one second.
Okay, I'm practicing and need help.
If you can help.
Sister Amina, yeah, you can go to my page, or leave or inbox here
and see you how we can help you Inshallah, and
may Allah grant you ease and success and comfort in your salon.
You know, just don't leave that prayer. This is the second pillar
of Islam.
And the first the first thing that Allah subhanaw taala is going to
ask us about on the Day of Judgment, so prayer is extremely
important.
And I will definitely keep you all in my duas in my supplications May
Allah make it easy for every single one of us to make our
prayer, the top priority of our day. Again, my name is Mahela
mirallas and I will see you next month just like a hair for being
here. Make sure to share this and make sure to support about Islam.
Until next time Salaam Alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.