Sadullah Khan – Let not your religiosity be inconsiderate of others
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of praying in a way that is not negatively impacting your personal life and may not be as impactful as one might think. They give examples of people who have experienced misery and explain that it is a reflection of one's dedication to pray. The importance of not comparing one with the other is emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
As we journey through the life of the
prophet
obtaining
invaluable
inspirations
through
from profound lessons,
from his noble example.
We know that sometime
we, as followers of the prophet, in good
faith,
may consider
an expression of religiosity,
which may not be exactly
as we think it to be.
Sometimes
we know a part of the puzzle,
but not necessarily the whole picture.
And we may sincerely insist or argue about
something
from a religious perspective
without understanding the larger picture.
An example of this is this fear of
lengthening the prayer, for example, in in congregation
like Faruk Salah. I don't mean or
because you understand an entire Jews is recited
or the Hajj would come specifically for Lenten
prayer. But I'm talking about the,
like Jumah or Maghrib or so.
It is good to pray,
of course, and always good to pray long
and to read longer if you wish.
But don't think it is a better expression
of your religiosity
if you lead the prayer
and impose that lens
on people who are behind
you. If you pray your own prayer, you
pray how long you want to. You read
the whole of Yahseen in the first raka,
rakman in the second rakah, by all means
do so.
I have known people who have read the
entire Quran in 2 rakats.
Good luck to them. May Allah bless them.
But you can't do that in JAMA.
Because you may think it's religious and say,
'Bashallah, my iman is strong.' Then your iman
is strong. My legs are weak.
So you need to be very clear about
this. And it may sound funny, it may
sound irreligious, but it's not. And I'll give
you an example.
You see, it's not uncommon in some parts,
and may Allah bless all of us.
Where for example, an imam
may lengthen the Khutbah.
And they lengthen the Khutbah well beyond the
hours,
which is lunch hour.
And people work. Some of us imams don't
go back to work. Maybe that's the the
work we have.
Some people have to go back to work,
and they have a stringent time between 1
o'clock, a quarter to 1, and 2 o'clock.
So though people may have to go to
back to work, some people just lengthened. It
doesn't matter. And they feel the imam says,
well, Jumuah is more important than your work.
No. It's not. Jumuah is important.
And
to earn your living is also forb.
Don't compare one with the other.
That's forb and that's forb. You have a
time for Jum'ah, and you know the time.
It's different that you don't know the time.
You know the time, so keep to the
time. Rasul salallahu alaihi wa sallam's
longest lecture,
according to calculation,
according to how he spoke, his speed, and
so on. And the length of the text,
11 minutes. The longest lecture for Rasulullah.
So it can't be sooner to give a
2 hour lecture.
So a imam may say, look, prolong the
jummah.
It is as if you're putting the imam
on trial.
No. Is it more important to go back
to work or more important to make Jummah?
Tell your boss, you can wait. Jummah is
more important.
Your speech could be shorter, by the way.
And this is what you call misplaced religiosity.
Misplaced
religiosity.
This is not necessarily piety.
In fact, it's a reflection of your inconsiderateness.
And I'll give you reasons.
One is that let's take a snapshot and
example in the life of
Rasulullah
In Kitabul Adab of Sahih al Bukhari.
In the section
of Kitabul Adab in Salah for Imam Imam
al Bukhari.
Jabir ibn Abdullah reported
that Mu'adh ibn Jabal. Remember Mu'adh? The one
Rasul sent to Yemen? He was very stringent
after he cooled off a bit, but he
was very stringent initially. And Mu'adh ibn Jabal
would pray with the prophet. And then some
prayers, he'd go to his people, whichever the
area was, and he would pray.
So once
he was leading the prayer in Reh Surat
Al Baqarah.
Much of it.
So this person said no prayers too long.
Too long. So he broke off the prayer,
and he went on his own, and he
prayed and he went because he had to
do some work.
So Mu'adh ibn Jabal heard about this. He
said, the man has become a monafiq.
How can he break the prayer and pray
on his own? Which by itself is not
recommended,
but it's your inconsiderateness
that may have led to that.
So this man left the prayer, offered his
prayers separately.
He said, Rasulullah, you Rasulullah, the man came
to Rasulullah.
And he said, you Rasulullah,
I didn't tell you. I prayed behind Mu'adh
yesterday. And he prayed whole of Baqarah there.
So I cut it short, and I went
and I prayed by myself. And he said,
I'm a munafiq.
So Rasulullah
called
Are you trying to test the people or
make a trial of their faith through your
prayer?
Are you trying to make a trial of
them? And the hadith in Bukhali said,
he
asked him thrice, are you trying to make
a trial? This prayer, a trial of their
faith.
The soul said, read something
like 8 to 10 verses or something like
that. Don't have to read the 2
180 verses.
So now,
what we need to reflect upon this is,
Sahih Muslim
as to this,
that
somebody
was complaining about the lengthening of a prayer
of somebody.
And
he said, this is a consistent thing. Not
someone else.
So and
the the the the narrator says,
I've never seen the prophet more angrier in
his speech than I saw him on that
day. And no, the prophet very rarely showed
anger. He said, I've never seen the prophet
as angry as I saw him when he
said this. And what did he say?
You are causing the people to run away
from the religion.
You are causing people to run away.
So when you are leading the prayer, on
your own you pray, how long you want?
When you're leading the prayer, make it short,
make it light.
Because behind you are people. Some are weak.
Some are sick. Some are poor. Some are
in need. They may have to go and
do something. And the Rasul salallahu alayhi wa
sallam himself in a hadith documented the Sahih
al Bukhaal. He said,
when I enter the prayer sometimes,
I want to read the wrong piece.
I want to read the wrong piece. I
still want to read the wrong piece.
Then I hear a child crying in the
Jama'ah.
Then,
Then I shortened my prayer just there because
I know the difficulty and the stress the
mother goes through when the child cries.