Safi Khan – Soul Food for College Students The Du’a Series Class 7
AI: Summary ©
The importance of the "will" of Islam, the timing of events, and sharing good food are emphasized. The speakers emphasize the need to be mindful of the timing of events and use it as a means to achieve personal growth. The importance of finding out who is making decisions and finding valid information is also emphasized. The speakers stress the importance of not rushing to pray and not feeling annoyed, and stress the importance of planting the name of Islam in one's mind and not shutting the door on prayer. They also emphasize the importance of being humble and considerate while praying.
AI: Summary ©
Alrighty.
We'll go ahead and,
get started.
How's everyone doing?
Everyone okay? Rough week. Right?
You know, there's been,
you know,
a lot of a lot of tests, right,
this week, including,
questionable weather, right,
you know, canceling of of classes and this,
that, all that stuff.
Some good, some bad.
But one of the things that's always interesting
to kinda reflect on and think about is
how so Hamillah, you know, Tuesday morning, I
believe, is, like, when everything went down. Right?
Like, so you can see around the campus,
like, half of the the trees that are
down are because of what happened Tuesday morning.
And
it really makes you think and reflect over
how,
we are so we're so weak and dependent.
Right? Power goes out for even, like, 2
to 3 hours. We start to worry. Oh,
what do I do? Oh my gosh. Like,
my phone my phone's on 20%, and, you
know, I I I I can't charge it,
or I can't do this. I can't do
that. You know, it's getting hotter in the
house all of a sudden. Right?
These moments of of inconvenience that we call
are merely just moments in which Allah
is trying to teach us how dependent we
are on him. Right?
And sometimes it takes a little bit of
a harder lesson. Right? Sometimes Allah teaches people
through their, you know, a little bit of
softness, but at the same time, you know,
teaching methods are are
are are sometimes, you know, they they vary
in the way that, you know, they they're
they're expressed. And so Allah sometimes teaches through
gentleness and and softness, and sometimes Allah,
you know, tests us and teaches us through
challenging times as well. Right? So this is
really important to kind of reflect over and
you know, not if everyone is safe and
generally everyone's okay,
there's so much to be thankful for. So
we were really grateful for, everything that Allah
has given us. So
we're going to oh,
Can we turn?
Yeah. Sorry. It's like background.
It's not a whole soundtrack to go to
the back of soul food.
So,
we're going to continue on with our,
weekly series on Thursday nights
where we're covering the
power of Dua, the elements of Dua, all
of the different components of Dua. So for
the past, you know, 3 to 4 weeks,
we've actually been focusing so much time
on the etiquettes and the mannerisms of what
makes du'a high in quality. And so today,
we're going to begin the next chapter, which
is the recommended times
for your dua. Okay?
And the author, he actually begins this chapter.
He says,
of the great mercy of Allah
is that he has favored certain times over
others.
Thus, he has distinguished these timings so that
the worshiper
can eagerly,
distinguish.
Right? They they can distinguish and eagerly await
these moments. Okay? And they can anticipate their
arrival. Alright? And thus, they pray earnestly
and sincerely.
So one of the the the blessings that
we take away from the initial idea of
Allah
giving us certain timings of the day
or the week or the month or the
year
that are pinpointed,
that are stated to have been moments of
acceptance of dua
is of the mercies of Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala. So I can guarantee you, if anybody
in here can kinda reflect over times of
the year where we experience blessings from Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, I can guarantee you people
can list off at least 3 to 4
to 5 examples
of these moments. For example, the month of
Ramadan.
Right? The month of Ramadan is unlike any
other time of the year and everybody feels
it. Within the month of Ramadan, there is,
you know, the last 10 nights of Ramadan.
And within the last 10 nights of Ramadan,
there's a night called Laylatul Qadr. And there
comes you know, in the next couple of
weeks, right, in the middle of June is
gonna come the 10 days of Arafa. Right?
Or sorry. The 10 days of Dhul Hijjah.
And in the 10 days of Dhul Hijjah,
there will be one day called the day
of Arafa.
And whoever fast on the day of Arafah
will have their sins expiated from the year
before and the coming year, you know, that
that's gonna come, you know, in in the
future.
And this all in all just proves
that Allah in
fact knows human beings better than we know
ourselves.
Why? Because he says, had all timings been
the same, the worshiper would not have the
exact same enthusiasm
and fervor that exists during more blessed times.
Now how many of y'all have ever, you
know, had the thought in your head, like,
man, I'm gonna miss Ramadan so much. I
wish Ramadan was, like, all the time. We
have those, like, this fleeting intrusive thought. Yeah.
I wish I could carry the the the
atmosphere of Ramadan through me with me throughout
the year. And the reality is if you
actually assess the the the essence of that
statement,
Ramadan in and of itself, if it was
every month of the year, it would actually
lose the special nature of why it's Ramadan
in the first place. If you tell somebody,
hey. You have one minute to gather all
of this cash in this, like, in this
in this in this glass compartment,
that person will hurry and try their hardest
to make sure that they can grab whatever
they can within that one minute of time
they have. Sixty seconds is precious. Every second
is precious.
But if a person says, well, you have,
you know, a year.
You have 2 years. You have 3 years.
People will start taking their time, and think
about even a more relatable example. If an
if a professor says
that your exam
is in 2 days. Right? First of all,
you're gonna, like, make against the guy for,
like, the next 48 hours, but after you're
done making against him, you're going to start
studying like your life depends on it for
48 hours. Why? Because short notice. Right? You
know, there's, like, this idea of time.
But if your professor at the 1st day
of classes in August says, well, in May,
it's gonna be your final exam.
More likely than not, the tendency that human
beings fall into is, yeah. I'm just gonna
wait till, like, March,
April,
maybe,
like, May 1st. You know, if exam is
on May 7th, we'll we'll get 5, 6
days out of this studying situation.
That's what happens to human beings.
Why? So because we are people of sometimes
and and this is the reality is that
we are people who procrastinate.
We procrastinate a lot. So when Allah
gives us certain constraints in time, it's actually
for our own benefit.
And the same exists when it comes to
the idea of dua.
Du'a is is beautiful
year round all the time. There's no restriction
on du'a in terms of what time you
cannot make it,
but Allah gives us particular moments in which
dua is much more likely to be accepted.
And so, inshallah, we're going to go through
some of these duas. And he says that,
therefore, it is important that one that that
the one who desires that their du'a be
and be answered and utilized
and and and responded to by Allah, they
utilize these times of the year or these
times of the month or these times of
the day and ensure that his dua be
more frequent and sincere during these moments. Alright?
So let's talk a little bit about them.
We're gonna go over 8 of them today
because I I wanna split this up in
a way where it's beneficial for us so
that we don't get overwhelmed and we don't
get too too bogged down with, a lot
of the details. So the first example he
gives
is the example
of the dua in the last 3rd of
the evening. Okay? Now let's talk a little
bit about what the last 3rd of the
evening actually is. Right? Islamically,
we understand
that the day and the night are split
in terms of the times that you experience
the sun and the times you experience the
night. Okay? So for example,
the entire nighttime
in Islam
would basically be from when the sun sets
for the time of Maghrib
until
the rising of the sun the next day
at Fajr. That would be considered what the
evening is or the night is. Okay? So
for example,
if you have 9 hours between Maghrib and
Fajr, what you would do is you would
basically kind of divide that up into thirds.
Say, for example, it's 9 hours. Right?
You would take those 9 hours, and you
would divide it by 3, and the last
third of those 9 hours would be the
last 3rd of the night. Okay? So for
example, if Fajr is at, like, 4 AM
or 5 AM and you have 9 hours,
you would basically consider 2 to 5 AM
the last 3rd of the night. Alright? That
makes sense to everybody, logically? Okay. So he
says during this time, when most of creation
is in deep sleep,
the true worshiper
is awake,
earnestly praying to
Allah, reflecting upon Allah's creation, the heavens and
the earth. In fact, Allah mentions this in
the Quran. He says,
He says,
Sorry.
He says, and in the hours of the
dawn.
Okay. The hours of the dawn, ashar is
what's considered the hours of the dawn.
Before
and in the hours of the dawn,
They spend their time seeking the forgiveness of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Why is this so special? Because there's actually
a statement of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. It's very, very beautiful. When the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he entered Medina, there
was an incredible narration that was attributed to
him, alayhis salatu sanam.
He's there was a person who was not
even Muslim at that time. Okay. So check
this kind of, like, narration. It's a very
powerful one. Not even a Muslim at that
time.
And he said he saw the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam come into the city of
Madinah.
And when the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam came
into the city of Medina, it's the first
time he saw him in in real life,
in person.
You know, like, when that kind of moment
hits you, you never seen this person in
real life, but you finally finally now see
them for the first time physically. All these
ideas of who they were and what they're
like, all all of a sudden, they come
into fruition. Right? It's like going to, like,
a
like like like a like a basketball game,
and you you see these guys on TV.
Then you go and you see Luca in
real life, and you're like, wow. If that
guy can make the league, then I can.
I'm just kidding. I also make fun of
Luca Dossiers. But, like, as a sore as
a sore subject in Dalzis, I can't do
that.
But you go to them in person, you're
like, wow. Okay. Like, this is what this
person actually looks like in real life.
And so when he said he saw the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
he said, I did not see him.
I did not find him to have the
face of a person that would lie.
What does that mean?
That means that even from his, like, physical
behavior,
the prophet
was not a person he would say that
looked like he would tell a lie. Just
looks like very pure. You know? Like, he
looks like a very pure person.
This person doesn't seem like he lies or
tells lies or makes up anything. By the
way, this person that was saying this was
not Muslim. So, again, at the end of
the day, the the the narrative that's been
fed him is that, oh, this man's a
liar. This man's a liar. He's claiming to
be the prophet of God. He's claiming that
the the the word of God is revealed
through him.
So he must be a liar. So when
he saw him for the first time, he
said, no. No. No. The first time I
laid eyes on this man, it doesn't seem
like he he was a liar.
And he said
that he said 4 things to everybody. As
soon as he
came off of his animal, his camel that
he was riding, he said 4 things to
the community around him. He
says, the first thing was,
means what? Like, spread peace.
Be peaceful people. When you go around to
people that you don't know, spread peace by
introducing yourself. Greet people. Be kind to people.
Don't, like, go somewhere new and just stare
at your phone and check the weather out
for 20 minutes straight until you muster up
the courage to say hi. Right? When you
go to roots, go to sahba, grab your
drink, grab your coffee, and then go say
salam to somebody. You know, the reward of
a person who initiates the salam is extremely
exceptional.
It's incredible. The person who initiates it. Why?
There's so much reward for people who initiate
things because initiating something is not easy. It's
easy to respond to something. Right? When someone's
like, hey. What's going on? On? Thank God
you said something. Right? The person who initiates
this is really beautiful. I'm sure you guys
have also seen people, like, at fundraisers. Right?
When there's, like, literally crickets and and and
and and, you know, in in the crowd.
Who's gonna give $10,000?
You're like, oh god.
Well, I guess, time to wait to see
who the first person is. The first guy
raises his hand.
May Allah bless you and your family. Right?
Like, the imam always says the same thing.
But why is that person so amazing is
why? Because it's hard to be that first
person.
It's hard to go out of your way
to get out of your comfort zone. So
the first thing the prophet says is spread
peace with people. Go initiate conversation with people.
Then he says,
and feed people food.
Like, share share blessings in your life. If
you have food with you, share it with
somebody around you. Don't hoard the blessings of
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is, you know,
coming from so much of a prophetic tradition.
Prophet Ibrahim alaihi wasalam was notably have said
to have never eaten a meal by himself.
Never ate a meal by himself.
Always shared meals with the people around him.
Why? Because food is such a blessing from
Allah. I cannot enjoy it on my own.
I have to share it with the people
around me.
And there's a lot of love that spread
through eating together. Right? And y'all know this,
breaking bread, that term that comes, like, literally
from an an English maxim. When you break
bread together, Allah bonds people together.
Alright? There's so much in sharing food. How
many times have we been, like, hungry with
our eyes? Right? But then we sit down
and we're like, yeah. I'm gonna eat all
of this. And then you realize there's no
way you can eat all of this. And
so to initiate sharing food, right, there's, like,
4 pieces of chicken and, like, 5 people.
Oh, I got you. Don't worry about it.
Right? We're we're gonna share this thing. We're
not gonna hoard it for ourselves. Right? And
it teaches you a lot about mentality, by
the way. You know, the the the the
one time I really learned this lesson was
actually during COVID. Y'all remember COVID? Long time
ago. Right? Prehedra. Right? I'm just kidding. So,
like, you know, it happened so long ago,
it seems. But remember when when when COVID
first hit, what do people do when it
came to, like, groceries and, like, provisions?
They went to the store, bought out every
piece of toilet paper that they could find.
Every paper towel roll that they could get
their hands on, they would buy it. Everything
they they get hands on, they could they
could buy it. People at that moment
lost all idea of there are other human
beings that live around me. Forget about taking
whatever I need.
People took whatever they wanted
to the point where you would go to
the grocery store, and the grocery store people
had to tell you that, hey. One gallon
of milk
per person.
One, you know, thing of toilet paper per
person. 1 what one package of paper towels
per person. Right? I mean, it got to
that level.
But, you know, you think about this. And
when when you think about the prophetic community,
when you think about, you know, a community
that thrives upon the Islamic teaching,
people don't have to worry about every man
for themselves.
Because ideally, in an Islamic community,
a person would check on their neighbor to
make sure that they had dinner that night.
Right? Unfortunately, we've gotten so used to living
in communities that are so individually ran
that we have lost all ability to check
up on people. Forget about our neighbors. We
don't even check up on our friends. Right?
People who we know, people who we have
relationships with. We may know that they're going
through a difficult time, but we'd rather just
bask in our in our own comfort zone
and not have to go out and send
that text message. I literally will lie. You
know, it's crazy. I mean,
we say some absurd things sometimes. I I
I heard somebody say one time, I don't
wanna I I don't wanna I don't wanna
text this person because they always respond in,
like, a really engaging way, so I know
I have to have a conversation with them.
I'm like, man, like,
you know you know, like, the Nazi side
of me feels it. I'm like, I get
it because sometimes you're just not feeling an
extrovert. Sometimes you just wanna curl up under
a blanket and not talk to anybody.
But sometimes I my heart breaks at these
statements. I'm like, man, subhanallah. Like, it's not
even a phone call. It's a text message.
You can respond to it when you want
to, but you're so bothered by the fact
that, like, this person's gonna send something back
to you that you're like, I don't wanna
initiate.
The prophetic community was so on the opposite
side of this mess, subhanAllah, the prophet used
to to reach out to people in even
difficult times for himself.
Even difficult times for himself. I'll give you
guys an example of this.
After the battle of Uhud,
famous battle in which the Muslims had lost.
Right?
The prophet lost notable
people in his life in that battle. People
like Musa'abib bin Umer
Umair young Sahabi passed away in that battle.
His own uncle Hamza bin
Abdul Muttalib. Right? Hamza bint Abdul Mutarib, he
passed away, his own uncle. And so his
heart was shattered after that battle. But you
know what the prophet, there's a notable narration
that mentions that when the prophet
he arrived back in Medina,
he saw somebody, a child waiting for his
father knowing that his father had passed away.
There was a kid waiting for his father
to return from Uhud,
but the prophet knew that his father had
passed away in this battle.
And because the prophet saw his pain,
he went up to him. He kneeled down
in front of him, and he said,
is it okay
if auntie Aisha and I take care of
you for a little while?
Is it okay if, like, we you you
can come over to our house.
You can spend time with us. You can
sleep over at our house. You can eat
dinner with us.
Wasn't his heart also shattered that he lost
his own uncle?
But the prophetic teaching teaches you that your
problems are important. Sure. But there are other
people in the world that are also suffering
just like you.
And if everyone only cared about their own
suffering and their own difficulty, then what kind
of a world would we be living in?
It's only because, the
sunnah teaches us that through all of our
challenges, all of our issues,
we have a heart that can care for
more than just ourselves. Allah has made the
heart extremely merciful and selfless.
Don't make something that Allah has made selfless
into something that is selfish.
Allah has created the heart to be selfless.
Allah has created the heart to be generous.
Allah has created the heart to be merciful
and kind and forgiving.
Do not train your heart to be something
the opposite of what Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
has made it for.
Because Allah made a heart selfless, don't make
that heart selfish.
When Allah made that heart merciful, don't allow
your heart to be merciless towards other people.
Your heart has been created to be forgiving
of others. Don't create it to be a
heart or don't make it a heart that's
something that is not forgiving of anyone around
us. Right? And so then the third thing
he says is
meaning to keep the ties of kinship.
Make sure that, like, you you don't abandon
your family.
Keep your family close even through difficulty. There's
a reason by the way why Allah says,
keeping ties of kinship is something that's a
command from Allah. Why? Because it's difficult.
It's one of those relationships in your life
where you just can't leave it.
You can't get away from it no matter
how hard you try.
Even like a close friend
is, at the end of the day, someone
who is subjugated to the life experiences and
circumstances that you go through. You move away
from each other and, you know, sometimes friendships
drift apart.
But family is one of those relationships. No
matter how far you get, you're like,
How are you? Great. Like, you know, like,
you just can't get rid of them. But
there's a reason why because Allah
has honored that relationship in your life. So
keep it. Okay? And then the final thing
he says, this is this is in line
with our teaching today. He says,
and
pray
Pray in the evening when other people sleep.
Why is that so profound?
Because a person
who prays in the evening,
they are saying to themselves, I want to
separate
my standards
from the standard of everyone else that I
know.
I want to reach for the stars. I
wanna be I wanna be closer to Allah
than anyone. I aspire to be closer to
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala than anyone.
And the prophet said that because the regular
person will sleep.
Sleeping is not hot on, by the way.
Like, I don't want people to feel bad.
Like, oh, you sleep through the night. Wow.
Shaitan. No. No. No. Like, you can sleep
through the night. It's okay. Wake up refresher.
Like, but but okay. It's okay. 2 AM,
3 AM. No. Stay asleep. It's fine. It's
not impermissible to sleep at that time.
But the people who are exceptional,
the people who are exceptional human beings,
they will get up at, like, 3 AM
or 4 AM and say, oh, Allah, before
Fajr comes in, I wanna spend a little
bit of time with you.
Even if it's not asked of me.
Even if it's not asked of me. And
I want you guys to think about that
in any relationship that you have in your
life.
How many relationships are ever cultivated and beautified
by doing the bare minimum?
Right? Oh, I see this person at school
every day. Great. I see this person at
work every day. Cool. Awesome.
The friendships that are cultivated in beauty are
the ones where, like, hey. What are you,
like, doing, like, after class?
Right?
What are you doing after work? You wanna
come over for dinner?
You wanna go grab dinner together on Friday?
Those are the relationships that are beautiful. Why?
Because you're voluntarily
saying to yourself that I'm not only just
going to do what I'm gonna do because
I have to do it.
I see this person at work every day.
Yeah. Sure. I'm friends with this person.
But the friends in my life that are
worth keeping
are the ones who go out of their
way to see me spend time with me,
and I spend time with them
outside of just the bare minimum standard. Right?
And so
he says here not only that, but Allah
himself
comes down to his servant and opens for
him the doors
of mercy and forgiveness. Abu Harayra radiAllahu an,
he mentions that the prophet said one time,
our lord descends every evening
during the last 3rd of the night
to the skies of this world and asks,
who is making dua to me?
Who is making dua to me
so that I can respond to him?
Who is asking me
so that I can give them whatever they're
asking of?
Who is asking my forgiveness so I can
forgive them? Allah
is asking these questions. He was saying these
questions.
And SubhanAllah, you know, the the the the
incredible nuance of this hadith
is that Allah
does not have to do this.
Allah does not have to do anything. Allah
does not have to come closer to his
creation to get them to respond to him.
But Allah in the last 3rd of the
night
descends
down to the lowest heaven. And, again, you
know, we don't attribute these things to physicality
because Allah
is not limited by the physical limitations that
we have as creation.
But you can almost think of this as,
like, proximity.
Right? There in the Quran that mentioned, you
know, Allah is closer to
you. He's closer to you than your jugular
vein. Right? That, you know,
prophet when my servants ask of me, say
that I'm close.
Like, that that statement that I'm close, it
doesn't mean that Allah is physically. Right? Because
Allah is not limited by physical, you know,
limitations.
But you can think of it as Allah's
proximity in spirituality. Allah
is near.
And in the last 3rd of the night,
Allah comes down
to the closest that he is to creation,
and he says, who's here to ask for
me?
Who's here to to to to to seek
for me? Who's here to ask me for
forgiveness? And, subhanallah, can you imagine, like, a
person that we claim to love
we claim to love? Oh, I love Allah.
I love Allah. But whenever he comes down
to us, when he comes close to us,
we're, like,
knocked out.
And it begs to ask the question,
is the claim that I love Allah really
something that is valid?
If Allah comes to me
and Allah says, I'm asking, who's here? Who's
going to respond? Who's going to answer? Who's
who who's gonna say something so I can
answer them? And we're not there
we're not there to ask Allah, then can
we claim to really love Allah?
So a very, very important narration here that,
you know, we should all ask ourselves this
question of. Okay?
And, again, there there there are more, you
know, another wording, you know, there's a narration
that says that there's another person recorded this
that Allah will come down and say, who
is there that is making dua so I
can respond to him?
Who is asking me so I can give
to him? Who is there seeking my forgiveness
so I can forgive him? This is all
from Bukhari and Muslim. Okay? And this is
why there's a scholar in Adam, he said,
he is not a wise person or she
is not a wise person who is in
need of Allah, who has need from Allah,
yet they sleep away
through the evening.
Like, you're in need, then why are you
sleeping?
You know, subhanAllah, it's like a person who,
like, doesn't have a job. They're unemployed. Right?
I mean, you guys are majority of you
guys are college students.
So imagine, like, yeah. I graduated. I'm looking
for a job. I'm hustling. I'm trying to
figure it out. Right? I'm trying to make
some sort of money.
And if you're really I mean, in that
desperate of a need,
surely, you spend a majority of your day
searching for jobs.
If I claim to be a person that,
oh, yeah. I'm looking for jobs. I need
a job. I need some sort of sustenance
for my life, but I'm barely applying to
one job a day, then clearly, I don't
need it that bad. Right? One of my
friends, he told me, he goes, looking for
a job. If you're unemployed, you're looking for
a job is a full time job.
You seeking a job is your full time
job. So if you would be working 9
to 5, and you don't have a job,
then make your 9 to 5 looking for
that job.
And if you're really that desperate, you would
back it up by doing the actions that
indicate what you were desperate of,
But if you're not really that but but
if you don't back it up with action,
then are you really that desperate? You're really
in are you do you really feel that
you're in that need of Allah
Okay?
The second
time in which dua is accepted
is the prophet
says, 1 hour in the evening. And by
the way, 2 can 2 things can be
true at one time. And he says,
the prophet says that there is a night
in an hour. Okay. There is at night
an hour. No Muslim happens to be asking
Allah any matter of this world or the
hereafter except
that he will be given what he asks
for, and this occurs every single evening.
And the reason why I say that 2
truths can exist at the same time is
how the last 10 nights of Ramadan can
be the most blessed nights of the year
and Laylatul Qadr could also be the most
blessed night of the year.
Because Laylatul Qadr is one evening,
but
it could be in any of the last
10 odd nights. Right? So 2 of those
truths can exist at the same time. So
if you look at the previous point here,
it was said that the last third of
the evening is extremely blessed in terms of
your dua,
and there's one hour of the night that
is blessed in your dua in in terms
of response to the dua. So perhaps this
hour is within the last 3rd of the
night. Okay?
Number 3 and this is extremely cool. I
want you guys to really focus on this
one.
Number 3 is dua
when the adhan is called.
Dua when the Adhan is called why?
Why is Dua accepted when the Adhan is
called? The Prophet he says 2 duas are
never rejected.
The Dua
during the call for prayer
and the Dua during the calamity
when there's turmoil and difficulty.
That's when dua is also answered.
And
this particular one about dua when the adhan
is called,
he says that when when when the Adhan
is called, the doors of the are opened
and the Duas are answered.
Sentencing in in in Adhan.
Right? I mean so like you see the
wording in this in this beautiful event
because of the power of the words, the
the the heavens are open and Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala accepts these duas. And also
very powerful narration I want to read to
you guys.
It said that Jabir radiallahu anhu anhu reported
that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam he says
He says that whenever Saipan hears the adhan
whenever shaitan hears the adhan,
He flees.
He flees to an extremely
far place
because shaitan cannot handle the adhan being called.
Shaitan cannot physically handle when somebody calls the
adhan.
And this you know, some some some of
my teachers taught something powerful. He said
that the way that shaitan flees from the
adhan, ask yourself what your behavior is when
you hear the adhan.
Ask yourself what your behavior is when you
hear the because the Shaitani character is that
they run away from it.
Right? We're all hanging out, Oh, man. Joking,
laughing,
talking it up, you know, catching up with
one another. Then it's caught. Everyone's like, oh,
time to go home. Right? Like,
I can pray at home. Right? No. No.
No. Habibi, Adan's being called right here. Just
pray.
That's why the scholars, they say, when you
hear the Adan, it's it's actually
sinful to leave a place unless you have
a valid excuse, obviously.
Don't just leave a place after you hear
the event because hearing the event and leaving
is a trait.
So when you hear the event, what's your
behavior?
Be the opposite.
Wrap up whatever you're doing. Close-up shop.
I remember I told the story of, like,
the Dunkin' Donuts in Medina one time. When
I was in Medina, I was, like, really,
like I I had, like, a sweet tooth.
Right? It was, like, day 5, you know,
and I was like and I want something
sweet. I want something, like, trashy. So I
was like, you know what? Dunkin' Donuts sounds
just about right. And so I went down
from my hotel. I went down to the
lobby across the street, and I saw that
there was a Dunkin' Donuts right there,
and
Adhan just came in. So literally the Mu'azhan
called the Adhan from the Masjid literally just
like, you know, 3, 4 100 feet away.
And all of a sudden, I was literally
about to step into the Dunkin' Donuts. And
as soon as the adhan was called, shop
owner comes out,
puts the entire, like, little thing down.
The the the the bars come down. We're
closed.
So how did we know, man? Like, Adan
just got a call. It's okay.
You know? Like, I can enjoy my blueberry
old fashioned donut.
We'll still make it in time for salah.
Like, the actual iqamah doesn't go off for
another, like, 15 minutes.
He's like,
He's like, he's, like, telling me.
So, like, Shuhala, the mindset is incredible because
the that is not just something that just
signifies, like, oh, hey. Yeah. Prayer time is
coming up, so just think about it. No.
No. No. Then is wrap up what you're
doing.
Wrap up what you're doing. Allow yourself to
get mentally in the headspace of a person
who's a
and
allow yourself to enjoy the experience of salah.
Adhan is not just like this lip service
that we've now normalized in our society. Oh,
you hear the adhan. Great. No. No. No.
Adhan is a reminder. No. No. No. Stop
whatever you're doing.
Stop what you're doing. Give yourself a chance
to enjoy the salah.
Give yourself a chance to enjoy the salah.
Don't rush through it. Don't hurry through it.
Are you irritated
when the event is called? Oh, man. I
gotta stop.
I gotta stop what I'm doing.
I gotta stop studying. I gotta stop, you
know, hanging out with my friend. I gotta
hang up the phone call. Man, this is
annoying.
If that's the case, we have some serious
work that we have to do within our
hearts.
There's some serious questioning that must be that
must be done. Why do I feel that
way?
Do I feel annoyed? Why do I feel
annoyed? Is it because I'm so obsessed with
the dunya?
I'm so obsessed with my world
that I feel annoyed
when I hear Allah's name,
that I get irritated that it's time to
pause and pray? Like, is that is that
irritating to me? Is that annoying to me?
And a person who asked that question and
the answer is yes.
Am I okay with that?
Am I okay with being annoyed that I
have to pray to Allah?
Do I have to rush and get it
over with so I can go back to
whatever is more important? Pro tip here, by
the way. You know, a lot of people,
you know, they they they ask, you know,
how can we get, like, more in tune
with our salah?
And the tip that I always share with
people is
don't make your day don't don't sorry. Don't
don't plan your prayer around your day. Plan
your day around your prayer.
Right? Like a person who
and and you think about the subject of
the the sentence is important here. If you
plan your prayer around your day,
around your day is actually the focal point.
Oh, yeah. I I I plan my well,
if I can squeeze my prayer in between
this meeting and that meeting, if I can
squeeze my in between this hangout and that
hangout. No. No. No. What about, like, hey.
You know what? I wanna pray Isha before
I hang out
so that I can pray fully concentrating.
I wanna make sure that, like, we spend
time before,
and is like our thing. Like, we cut
it off with. And we do this, by
the way, our roots all the time. If
you ask myself for, we always do we
we always try to end with prayer. Look
at soul food. Look at heart work. Look
at 30 and up. Look at Sheikh Mikkel's
Wednesday night halakaz. Right? Every one of these
classes, they end with Maghrib. Why? Because we
want everyone to finish with salah.
Finish with salah.
Because Salah is the the goal. I remember
one time when I was, when I was,
like, a full time youth director,
I remember
I I was doing this, this program. I
was teaching this halakal, like, this teenage halakal
or something like that. And,
this mother
came, and she she was, like, really livid
about her, like, 15 year old son. She
was like, but our doesn't pray. You know?
You know? Like, calling him all these names.
And I was like, god, this is embarrassing.
And so, like, basically, lighting him up. This
brother was, like, getting lit up like like
like like a well done steak. And she
came she came in with all of these,
you know, like, oh, my kid is this.
My kid that doesn't pray. It doesn't do
this, doesn't do that. And now I heard
every time you do your halakah, he goes
out and plays basketball.
And I'm like, okay.
Like, what do you want me to do?
And she's like, I need you to tell
him to come and listen to you. I'm
like, wow. Great. Great sell. Right?
And and and and and and I was
like, well, you know what? Like, let's just
let's just see how he does. Like, can
you like, maybe he maybe he just loves
playing basketball. Let him play basketball. And
a week in,
this kid, by the way, just used to
come, didn't didn't do halakah, didn't do the
program,
didn't even use to pray. Like, he just
missed everything.
One week in,
I remember
I had, like, the biggest accomplishment of, like,
my imam career.
I saw him walk. He didn't he didn't
do halakk, by the way. He just he
missed the he missed the session.
But at time of,
he walked up. He was he was I
saw him because the the window of the
masjid, you can see, like, the basketball court.
As soon as the adhan was called,
he, like, looked at his ball, and he
looked up at the hoop.
He looked back at the ball
and he just, like, threw it. I was
like, dude, is this guy leaving his mom
here?
And I saw him walk into the masjid,
went to the bathroom. I'm assuming he did,
came out, and he joined us for salah.
And his mother came in that day and
she goes, same old, same old.
And I was like, no. And she's like,
what? He did the Halakkah? He's now?
I'm like, no. Relax.
I was like, your son prayed luhar for
the first time with everybody.
And she actually started crying.
And she said,
my son has never prayed salah in a
masjid before on his own,
ever. This is the first time I'm hearing
about this.
What a beautiful moment.
What a beautiful moment. Right?
Like, when a when a when a person,
you know, one one of my teachers' teachers
said something very beautiful. He said, you don't
have to do much to, like, get people
to love Islam.
You just plant the name of Allah and
his messenger in a person's ear, and you
just allow it to do its work.
You allow it to do its work. You
don't have to do much. You don't have
to, like, Sheikh Omar is great. I love
angels by your side. It's amazing series.
Right? Like, the Jannah series, great. Amazing.
But a person's
draw to Islam,
a part of it has to be their
own journey,
has to be their own journey. They have
to want it,
and everyone hits that at a different time
in their life.
I can guarantee you of the people that
are here right now, there are some people
in Masha'Allah that are extremely confident in their
relationship with Allah. There are some people who
are kind of getting there. There's some people
who barely began, and there are some people
who may be here that do not have
any idea who Allah is.
And that is fine
as long as there's a desire.
As long as there's a desire that I
want to get there at some point in
my life,
Just leave that door open.
Don't shut the door on Allah. Just leave
that door open.
And when you see someone around you
who's not at a high level yet of
iman or whatever you wanna call it,
don't be the person who slams the door
shut for them.
Because on the day of judgment, we're gonna
be the ones that have to answer.
This person Allah will say, this person was
this close to praying. This person was this
close to turning to me. But you, because
of the way you treated them, you shut
them away from me for the rest of
their life.
May Allah protect us from ever being people
like that. Aamin.
Okay? So
when the adhan is called, okay?
Then number 4 inshallah we'll be finishing soon.
This number 4 is
dua between the Adhan and the Ikama.
Okay.
Dua between the Adhan and the Ikama. The
prophet he said from a narration from
Nneumatic, the dua said between the Adhan and
the Iqamah is not refused therefore offer your
duas at this time. You know why?
Because
the time between the adhan and the iqamah
is a very, very mindful time.
Like I said, when the adhan is called,
you close-up whatever you're about to do. You
close-up what you were doing.
And when the is called, obviously, that means
what? You're literally about to start your salah.
So between the adhan and the iqamah, what
are you supposed to be doing?
Getting ready,
preparing,
doing wudu,
getting yourself in the in the headspace. People
ask all the time, what do I how
am I supposed to get excited for prayer?
Between the adhan and the iqama, think about
what you want to ask Allah in your
salah.
Have you guys ever thought about thematically breaking
down your prayers?
Fajr on this morning, I'm going to think
about this particular thing.
I'm going to think about this particular thing.
Asr, I'm
going to ask Allah
for this particular thing. You know, as Muslims,
I'll tell you guys one thing. One of
the greatest tragedies
of of of us as a community is
when we try to freestyle our our Islam.
And what I mean by freestyle is just,
like, go with the flow.
Just motion. Right? Let the waves take me
wherever it goes.
But as as as believers, we're supposed to
be cognitively mindful about everything that we do.
Even our wudu our wudu is something so
rudimentary sometimes to us. Man, like, did I
do my wudu properly? I don't know. Wanna
make sure that I do my wudu right.
Right
before the is called, I wanna offer my
my my my 2 rakatosunna.
I have time. Right?
Some people just like they pray and they
just abandon right afterwards. They don't care. There
are no sunnah.
No. No. Spend some time after. Do a
little bit of dhikr.
You know, one of the things I was
so proud of, somebody came up to me
and I said, what was your Ramadan goal
this year? You know, sometimes Ramadan goals are
lofty. Like, I wanna finish the entire Quran.
I wanna do this. I wanna do that.
I wanna memorize this and that. This one
person came to me and they said my
Ramadan goal this year was for me to
sit after my prayer and do my dhikr.
So were you able to do? He said,
yes. For every day of the 30 days
of Ramadan, I was able to sit after
each of my prayers and do a little
bit of the Put my phone away.
How's how long did it take? Every prayer
took me about
a minute and a half, 2 minutes.
If you do times 5,
10 minutes total.
10 minutes for Allah.
Is that too much? Subhanallah.
Right? So the number 5,
he mentions
the dua during the actual salah. Okay? Now
let's talk about this for a second. He
says this time is also one during which
dua
is answered and accepted by Allah.
Abu Harayr radiAllahu anhu he said the prophet
mentioned people will have to stop from looking
up at the sky while making dua during
their salah or else Allah will
punish them or take their eyesight away. This
is a very little bit of a difficult
narration to kind of discuss.
But he says that during your salah, this
is why one of the reasons you should
look down in your salawat. When you're praying
to Allah, look down because, again, at the
end of the day, you're engaging in something
that is so beautifully,
you know, commanded to you by Allah
that you wanna have some sort of modesty
and while you're doing it. So he says
here that some of the postures of salah
during which the performance of dua has been
narrated include the following. Number 1 is after
the initial takbir,
when the salah starts. So when the imam
says or
you're playing praying by yourself, you say
make a small little du'a right there. Okay.
Before the
and after one has finishing their they finished
their recitation of the Quran, but this is
only during the witter or the Qunut prayers.
Okay. So when you're praying witter or something
that is a little bit more voluntary, right,
then make your dua
before the ruku, after you're done reciting your
surahs.
After one has stood up from their ruku,
Abu Khaira
says that after the prophet prophet used to
go down for ruku and stand up from
it, before he went down for sajdah, he
would recite, oh, Allah
Allah is ever hearing to one who praises
him. Our lord, to you belongs all praise
the weight of the heavens and the weight
of the earth, the weight of anything that
you desire. Oh, Allah, cleanse me with with
water. Cleanse me of my sins and mistakes
as as white garment is cleansed of dirt.
He would make this dua, inshaAllah. You can
look this dua for yourself as in Baha'i.
Okay? Number 4 is during the ruku itself
for the purse for the for the prophet
used to say during it,
glorified
be you, oh, Allah. You are praised. Oh,
Allah. Forgive me. He would say this during
his ruku, on top of subhanahu rabbil alileen.
Okay? During the sajdah, and we'll talk about
sajdah in just a second, while sitting between
the 2 sajdahs. Think about this. Every moment
of salah is a time for for for
dua.
You go down for sajdah, subhanahu ru b'ala.
You go and sit back up. You're You're
like, alright. What do I do now?
Do I just stay here silently? No. No.
No. Ask Allah.
Ask Allah at that time. Okay?
After the final tashahood
and before the ending of your prayer. Right?
When you're sending your salawats upon the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. Right?
Make a dua.
Make a dua before you say your 2
salams.
Make a quick dua while you're sitting down.
Oh, Allah forgive me. Oh, Allah bless my
family. Oh, Allah bless me and my future.
Oh, Allah allow me to grow closer to
you. Oh, Allah allow me to get a
good job. Allah allow me to get a
good degree. All these moments are beautiful moments.
Okay?
And so
I wanted to now end
with this one.
While you're in your.
Okay? Dua while you're in your sajdah.
He says, this is the most noble
position that a worshiper can ever be in,
for it's the epitome of humility and submissiveness.
And how can it not be
when a person in prostration
lowers his or her face,
the most noble
and sacred part of the body.
Because we believe and by the way, this
is why, like, you know, not trying to
destroy anyone's MMA dreams, but, like, striking to
the face. Right? Like, it's questionable.
Why? Because Allah has honored the face of
a person.
And during your sajdah,
you are putting
literally your forehead, the most honorable part about
you,
the most sacred part of literally, like, your
appearance,
your identity,
you're putting it on the ground to the
dust,
seeking the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And this is why the prophet
he said, the closest any worshiper can be
to Allah is while they are in sajda.
So increase your duas while you are in
it.
Okay?
And, you know, one of the the the
the most beautiful
reasons as to why,
Of course, it's that literally you are, you
know, in you you are in a place
of of of submission to Allah. You're the
closest to Allah
But also at the same time think about
what you say. What you say in your
sajdah?
Right?
Means the one who is of the highest
position. Al A'ala.
Right?
And you
as an Abd
are at your lowest.
You are saying to Allah, oh, Allah, you
are the highest
position in my life.
There is nothing greater to me than you,
you allah.
And my relationship with you where I'm the
closest to you is when I'm
physically in my most humble state,
bowing down to you.
There's another really cool poem that was written
one time, and, again, I I I'll mention
this just kind of out of virtue, but
this is there's no, like, true authenticity to
this.
But there's a narration or a poem that
mentions that also when a person's in,
it's the first time in in in in
a lot of times where their heart is
actually above their mind.
So they're in a position in which their
heart physically is elevated above their mind.
So, truly, you are submitting to Allah
with your heart, and you're putting your mind
at a lower state.
How many times does the mind get the
better of a human being? Oh, I think.
I think. I think. I think. I think.
But if you actually just allowed your heart
to function with the the the the what
Allah gave you,
you would have been in a much better
state. Our mind sometimes is our own worst
nightmare. Do you guys agree with that?
Your mind sometimes gets the best of you.
Allow your heart to be the one that
speaks to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and give
your mind a break sometimes.
Right?
So inshallah, we will end with that one.
Next week, we're gonna Insha'Allah,
continue on with these moments reciting Sotul Fatiha
after reciting Surat al Fatiha, du'a before the
end of the salah, du'a after the salah.
There's a couple of more here. Dua, you
know, in terms of difficulty, an hour on
a Friday,
when waking up in the middle of the
night after performing wudu,
dua during Ramadan, all these inshallah, so inshallah
we'll talk about all of this,
inshallah,
next Thursday. So what I'm gonna do inshallah
with the remaining time that we have together,
like we do every single Thursday,
is I'm going to open up
the q and a
portal
for you guys. So y'all can
go ahead and,
go to the Slido,
website,
and y'all
can type in the code 240-6053.
And that way, we can do a little
bit of anonymous q and a. So I'll
give everyone about, like, a minute
to kind of submit their questions. And inshallah,
you can ask questions about anything you would
like to. Well, there's, you know, related to
dua, the the series that we're doing, or
anything related to spirituality or any advice inshallah
whatsoever, y'all can go ahead inshallah and, and
type in that that that code into slido.com
inshallah. So what I'm gonna do now is
I'm gonna say to our online community before
I get lit up for doing q and
a online,
We'll see the online community next Thursday, but
everyone who's here can sit and and relax
and and and get the QR code or
not the QR code, the code on the
screen, and we'll start answering some questions in
just about another minute.