Sulayman Van Ael – The Divine Names 10
AI: Summary ©
The importance of having knowledge and acceptance in society to connect with God and receive guidance is emphasized in the shaping of behavior. Prayer is a result of faith and lack of faith, not just praying. The importance of having a thorough eye and practice to connect with God is emphasized, as it is a reflection of one's belief and faith. Prayer is a duty and a pleasure, and the importance of praying for the natural presence of Shaytan and finding connections with the Prophet a.s. is emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed
Satan, in the name of Allah, Most Gracious,
Most Merciful.
May the peace and blessings of Allah be
upon our Master Muhammad and upon his family
and companions.
We ask Allah, the Exalted in His Names,
the Most Beneficent and the Most High in
His Attributes, to make us and you among
the listeners of the speech and the followers
of the best of it.
Indeed, He is the Protector of that, and
the Powerful over it.
With the will of Allah, we will continue
with our journey through the names of Allah.
And if we were to gather people here
to explain them how to make a million
bucks in five minutes, the mosque would be
plenty of people, there would be plenty of
people.
If we were to gather here and tell
people how they would be able to build
a villa in two weeks, halal, made out
of diamonds, and with rivers in front of
it flowing, made out of milk and water,
then the mosque would be jammed.
But when we talk about Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala very often, this is not the
case.
And this is because the closer we get
to the end of times, the less people
we will find that are interested in the
Deen.
And when I say interested in the Deen,
I don't mean quick fix classes where you
quickly receive an injection, you say, oh that
was beautiful, like you were watching a movie,
then you go home and you forget everything.
I'm talking about people who want to invest
their time to study and to become people
that live up to their knowledge.
And this is one of the biggest problems
today.
We have people that are interested in knowledge,
but we don't have sufficient people that live
up to their knowledge.
And we can see that at the end,
those very often who disgust people are those
with the most knowledge.
It is very often the people who have
a lack of patience, a lack of generosity,
a lack of open-heartedness or however you
call it.
And very often it is the people without
knowledge that surprise you in the way they
talk, the way they walk, the way they
sit, the way they treat people.
So having knowledge is no longer a sign
of God-consciousness.
That's long gone.
And that which is a sign today of
God-consciousness is two things.
If we want to know what shows if
someone is really, truly close to Allah SWT,
then this is reflected in two ways.
One is in his or her connectivity with
God, and two is in the way that
he or she treats people.
That's it.
And very often we find either this or
that.
What we want for a Muslim to do
is to complete his deen by being good
to people and by being good towards God.
There are two things.
And connectivity to Allah SWT is through prayer.
And being good to people is by knowing
how to treat people.
And this is divided into two categories.
Ethics and Fiqh.
Ethics and Fiqh.
Moral standards and values and Fiqh.
And without knowledge of these two things, one
will not treat people correctly and justly.
Because we, like Imam al-Ghazali RA mentioned
in his book of Usul al-Fiqh, he
clearly stated that it is impossible for a
human being to know the details of good
and bad.
They know in general what is good and
bad.
You don't need to study to know that
lying is bad.
That not keeping promises or not holding on
to what you have promised is wrong.
But when it comes down to the details,
then this is only found in the books
of Fiqh.
Is that clear?
Everybody is with me?
Okay.
So how do we behave with people?
One, through Fiqh.
And this is in need of knowledge.
Like signing contracts.
Like marrying, divorcing.
Like taking care of your children.
Like running a business.
Paying Zakat.
How you need to move.
All these things are found in Fiqh.
And the majority of Muslims today never looked
at Fiqh in anything they do.
And then we say, why is the Ummah
such a mess?
Why do people don't treat each other very
well?
Well, they don't have knowledge.
If they were to have knowledge, then they
would have treated one another in an entirely
different way.
But if we are honest now, when did
we go back to Fiqh?
When?
When did we sit down and say, okay,
is the way that I'm doing, what I'm
doing, correct or wrong?
Your heart doesn't matter.
It is about Fiqh.
It's about the rule of law.
And this is the first thing we need
to do.
So you as a Muslim should start by
studying Fiqh, in order for you to connect
to people in a way that God wants
you to connect to them.
Because it's too often what I think, what
I believe.
People tell you, you should have done this,
you should have done that.
What do they know?
They look at what you do from their
perspective, but not the perspective of Fiqh.
And the closer that we will go to
the end of times, the more corrupted minds
will be.
So at the end, someone doing good will
be perceived as someone as a fool.
Or as someone who doesn't know what he
or she does.
So no.
You don't have to listen to people.
You have to listen to Allah SWT and
His Messenger SAW.
Then the second part of behaving well with
people is what we often call ilmus sunuk.
The knowledge of etiquette, Islamic etiquette.
The knowledge of spirituality behind your actions and
deeds.
This is the second thing.
And this is also something which people don't
study.
So their behavior might be very dry and
Fiqh-y, but there is nothing spiritual behind
them.
So if we don't have the combination of
Fiqh and spirituality, then we will be like
Imam Malik RA said, like Imam Ibn Ajiba
mentioned in Iqad al-Himam, that if you
have Fiqh, but you don't have spirituality, that
you will most likely be a fasiq, a
criminal.
Meaning someone committing a lot of sins.
And if you have spirituality, but you do
not have Fiqh, you will most likely turn
into a hypocrite.
So you need to be balanced.
So one is your behavior with people through
Fiqh and through spirituality.
Spirituality back in the days was called tasawwuf.
And tasawwuf was not what we understand today.
Tasawwuf was a branch and a science which
would teach people how to behave.
It was a study.
And this has been described by Imam al
-Munawi RA in his book Fayd al-Qadir,
where he said, Meaning
you are wearing old clothes and you are
saying, here I am a Sufi.
This is not what tasawwuf is about, he
said.
He said, The Sufi is the one who
purified him or herself during the days.
If you would only understand.
So tasawwuf back in the days didn't have
this negative connotation that we have today.
It was like, you are saying, I am
studying hadith, I am studying tafsir, I am
studying tasawwuf, I am studying Fiqh.
And a person that would have achieved something
in the knowledge of tasawwuf, which would be
reflected through his actions, would be called a
Sufi.
But as today, when you say Sufi, all
of the things go through our mind.
And at the end we even see that
Ibn Taymiyyah, who is a trendsetter within the
Salafi circles, you will see that even he
in his collection of fatawa, of religious verdicts,
he has a volume which is called kitab
tasawwuf.
It was something very normal.
So now to come back, we have on
the one hand, behaving well to people.
So if you want to be a pious
person, today, one, behaving well, a good character.
Then two, we said connectivity to Allah SWT.
Connectivity with God.
Meaning, the first way to connect to God
is through your prayer.
If you want to know how strong your
connection is with Allah, then you need to
have a thorough look at your prayers.
I mean, if you say that Allah is
your king, if you say that Allah is
your provider, if you say that you do
believe in Him, and you do not want
to connect to Him, so how strong is
your belief then?
How strong is that which you are claiming?
How strong is the reflection of deen in
your actions?
You have nothing left.
If you don't pray, you don't have a
proof for your deen.
You don't.
So this is why the sahaba radiallahu anhum,
they used to say, that we used to
consider nothing in the time of the Prophet
salallahu alaihi wa sallam, to be kufr, meaning
amongst deeds, to be kufr, apart from someone
leaving prayer.
And this is exactly what we are heading
for.
An ummah that doesn't pray.
And it doesn't start with not physically praying,
but shaitan comes slowly but surely by taking
away the sense of presence of God during
our prayers.
We pray now, our bodies pray, but our
minds and souls and hearts are absent.
And this is what we call prayerlessness.
Prayerlessness, meaning there is no prayer either going
on at all, or either not going on
in your heart.
So this is prayerlessness.
The sense of absence of God in our
prayers.
So we need to be those prayer warriors.
Those prayer warriors who struggle with prayer.
Nobody said that praying is easy.
Nobody said that climbing the Mount Everest is
easy, but yet here we are.
People climbing as high as they can because
they want to reach the climax of their
existence.
Well, if you want to reach your climax
of connectivity with God, Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala, Wa alaikum salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,
with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then this
will be through prayer.
So prayer is your connection to Allah.
Without it, you don't have any form of
submission to God, even if you pretend to.
But now, prayer is a result of something.
Not praying or not being focused during your
prayer is not a lack of skill.
It is not a lack of being organized
or disciplined.
It is a lack of faith.
Not praying is a lack of faith.
You can say, I love Allah, I need
Allah in my life, I believe that He
is my provider and my king, I believe,
I believe, I believe.
But at the end of the day, there
needs to be a proof.
And the proof for this is prayer.
So now, we are going to connect to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala through prayer, but
when we very often look at these beautiful
prayers from the people that preceded us, like
all these prayer warriors, like Uthman ibn Affan
radiallahu anhu, reading the entire Qur'an in
two raka'at every night of his life.
Every night, two raka'at, entire Qur'an.
This is incredible, isn't it?
And then you had Abu Hanifa, rahimallah, doing
exactly the same thing.
Every night, in two raka'at, the entire
Qur'an.
And so would Imam al-Shafi'i read
all the Qur'an in one night, or
the half of the Qur'an.
So when we look at this, and then
we compare their prayers to our prayers.
Look at Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, who was
imprisoned for some time by the Martazila.
And when he came out of prison, his
son Abdullah said, now my father has weakened,
he became weak.
They said, why?
He said, well, before he was imprisoned, he
used to pray 300 raka'at, extra raka
'at a day.
He said, and now that he came out
of prison, he only prays 150 extra raka
'at a day.
He said, now he's weak.
Before prison, 300 extra raka'at.
And after prison, only 150, my father is
weak now.
You see?
Abu Huraira, radiallahu anhu, like Imam Ahmad, and
the previous thing I've mentioned is in Seer
al-Alam al-Bala of Imam al-Zahabi,
rahimallah.
And Imam Ahmad mentions in Kitab al-Zuhd,
that Abu Huraira, radiallahu anhu, used to pray
2 raka'at every time he used to
either leave his house, enter his house, and
go from room to room.
And the first third of the night, he
would pray.
The second third of the night, his wife
would pray.
And the last third of the night, his
children would pray.
There was no moment during the night that
there was not being prayed at all.
That there was no prayer going on in
his house.
So now, when we come back, we see
that being connected to Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala is through prayer.
And without this, we do not have a
proof.
But now, as I said, we look at
these prayer warriors and their state, and we
say, uh-oh, this is too high.
I can't reach this level.
I mean, look at them.
They used to say, if God wouldn't have
empowered us during prayer, we would have died
out of joy.
They say, what we find and experience in
prayer, these mystical gardens that we are wandering
through during prayer, if God wouldn't have empowered
us with an extra strength, then we would
have died out of joy.
Because our bodies couldn't, wouldn't be able to
take this, to be connected to the sustainer
of the universe and the king of kings.
How will we, tiny little human beings, be
able to get connected, plugged into, figuratively speaking,
you know, the unseen?
So now, when we look at these prayers,
what we very often forget is that this
was the result of decades of prayer.
It was not their first day that we
read about.
That wouldn't be interesting, is it?
You read about a prayer warrior saying, oh,
I was absent-minded, I didn't experience anything.
You will look at it and say, Alhamdulillah,
I'm good, I'm well off.
So we look at the result of their
prayers.
Like one of these prayer warriors saying, for
30 years I was carrying myself, dragging myself
to prayer.
30 years, I was dragged.
Do you really think that all these saints
became saints just like this?
That they didn't have to go through what
you are going through?
The only difference is that they didn't stop
in the middle of the road.
We do.
And that's why we don't get there.
But they said, I am not going for
less than anything, than everything.
So they made a choice, they were steadfast,
and they never gave up.
And this is what turned them into these
beautiful people.
And so, when we look at their prayers,
this is what we need to say.
The prayers that we are looking at, when
we describe Uthman ibn Affan, Uwais Al Qarni,
and all these other people, RadhiAllahu Anhu Najma
'een, that, okay, this was the result of
their actions.
So you don't need to get discouraged.
It should encourage you, like, alright, this is
possible.
This is what I want to head for.
This is what I want to go for.
This is what I want to reach for.
And Umar ibn Khattab, RadhiAllahu Anhu, he knew
this very well.
When he said, if I would only know
that Allah would have accepted one unit of
my prayers, or two units of my prayers,
this would have been more beloved to me
than the entire world being given to me.
You see this?
So even Umar, RadhiAllahu Anhu, was doubting.
He's like, okay, I'm no one.
I'm just, even if one prayer is accepted,
that's good for me.
So now, we need to connect to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala through these prayers.
The Messenger, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, said, Prayer is
light.
Allah says in the Qur'an, The light
is apparent on their faces, thanks to their
sujood, through their prayers.
Some say that it's the small mark of
sujood on your forehead, but this isn't true.
The strongest opinion is that it's the light
of faith.
As-salatu noor, meaning that prayer will enlighten
your heart and your character, your vision, even
your comprehension of knowledge.
It will give you a correct perception, or
it will create a correct perception of life.
And it will be a light in your
grave.
Like Ibn Rajab, Rahimallah Azawajal, mentioned in his
book, Jamil Ulum Al-Hikam, that an angel
will come to your grave when you die.
Even though this is a weak hadith, Ibn
Rajab mentions it, so we can use it.
And an angel will come and it will
be told, smell at his feet.
And he will say, I found that he
used to pray during the night, he or
she used to pray during the night.
Then it will be said, smell his heart.
I find the Qur'an in his heart.
Say, smell his mouth.
I find fasting, Qur'an, and praying.
And then the angel will say, I have
no way, no possible way to go against
this person, to harm this person.
He preserved himself while he was alive, so
now that he died, Allah preserved him.
So the power of prayer is an all
transformative power.
If you are looking for a reason why
you don't think a lot about Al-Akhirah,
well, look at your prayer.
Not meaning it's just for people that don't
pray, even for people that pray.
The Messenger of Allah s.a.w. stated
very clearly that if you pray, pray like
someone who won't pray again.
Think about death, he said a.s. when
you pray.
So in prayer you find everything.
You find the Al-Akhirah, you find the
connection with the Prophet a.s. by doing
the deeds that he told you to do,
and so much more.
So we said, if you want to be
a God conscious person, then you need two
things.
Be connected to God, to Allah s.a
.w., and be connected to people in a
correct way.
Connected to people is through Suluk or what
we call Ilm Al-Tasawwuf and Wal-Akhlaq,
and is also through Fiqh.
And being connected to Allah s.a.w.
is through prayer, that's one.
But praying is a result.
If you love someone, you are not going
to wait until you are commanded to do
something.
You are going to do it before you
are asked to do it.
Isn't that clear?
Isn't that so?
If you know that someone likes something, like
sometimes I come home, and I really feel
like eating pancakes.
And I come into my home, and the
pancakes are there.
And I didn't ask for pancakes.
Because I know that my wife, Inshallah, loves
me.
So she will do things that I love,
without me asking for it.
So I come home, oh pancakes, oh biryani.
No, I don't like biryani.
For me it's French fries with chicken and
mushroom cream sauce.
So anyway, now this is exactly what these
prayer warriors used to say.
They said, for 30 years, 3-0.
For 30 years, the call to prayer wasn't
made unless I was already in wudu, waiting
for prayer.
You don't want to wait until Allah calls
you.
You want to say, Allah, I'm ready.
Like someone says, come here, I'm already here.
This is what we mean by connecting to
Allah s.a.w. through prayer.
It's not something that you feel that you
are dragged to.
It's something that you feel you are attracted
to.
There are two different things.
And this is why the Messenger s.a
.w. said, like in Al-Bukhari, he said
that of the seven people that will be
in the shadow of the throne on the
Day of Judgment, he said, a person, qalbuhu
mu'allakun bil masajid.
A person whose heart is attached to the
masajid.
Masajid, a lot of shurah, a lot of
those who explain the hadith, said, ya'ni,
is attached to prayer.
What do we mean?
When he or she finished praying, she's looking
forward for the next meeting.
When you love someone, or you go to
ask a woman's hand, for example, and you
go the first time, and you know you
need to come back a second time, will
you not be looking forward to the second
time?
To speak again and to discuss things?
Of course you will.
You went and now, oh, three more days,
two more days, one more day, two more
hours, one more hour, you see the clock
ticking and the only thing the clock is
telling you, your appointment is near.
What about people having the opportunity to connect
to Al-Wadud, the giver of love, subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
So this is why the sign of true
faith is that you look forward to these
prayers.
The Messenger, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, said, like
Imam Al-Munziri, rahim Allah azawajal, mentioned, in
a targheeb wa tarheeb, and Imam At-Tabarani
in the Mu'jam, he made clear that
Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, says, Look at
my servants, they just prayed the prayer, they
just prayed and they're already looking forward for
the next prayer.
Why?
Why don't we have this very often?
It's because our perception of what prayer is,
is wrong.
For us, prayer is a duty, I have
to pray.
Here I am, take the boxes of today,
Fajr, Duhur, Maghrib, Isha, Shukran, Ya Rabbi, I
did what I had to do.
If this is what prayer is for us,
then we won't enjoy prayer, we will just
pray.
But if you see prayer as a privilege,
that the moment you say Allahu Akbar, you
enter into a world unseen.
The mosque is no longer important, now it's
about you and Allah, it's about Allah, rather.
So if you change this perception about prayer,
and you say praying is getting connected to
God, it is not me choosing to pray,
this is another wrong perception.
It's not a choice, it's a duty, no,
it is doing what you were created for.
To worship Allah.
But now we said it's the result, a
good prayer is the result of something.
It's the result of what?
Of knowledge of Allah.
Those who know Allah more than anybody else,
their prayer is with more submission, with more
dedication, with more awe and concentration.
So the more you know Allah, the more
you will be inspired to pray, and the
more that you will enjoy prayer.
As I said before, the first thing we
say after prayer is Astaghfirullah.
We should ask ourselves the question, why?
Why do I say Astaghfirullah?
I just prayed.
Did I do something bad, Ya Rabbi?
I was just praying, saying Astaghfirullah.
Some scholars say the reason why you say
Astaghfirullah is because why?
If you pretend that you want to be
connected to God, then why did you stop
praying without a reason?
If your reason is work, normal, you have
to stop.
Your reason is you want to go out
with your wife and children, or your husband
and children, that's a reason.
But if there's no true reason, I stopped
praying because I wanted to look at Champions
League, I stopped praying because I wanted to
look at snooker.
Today, I don't know who is playing.
I stopped because I just want to watch
some series.
Why did you stop praying?
Why did you disconnect from the one you
claim wanting to be connected to?
Astaghfirullah.
Astaghfirullah.
Because we are human.
We have these wants and these needs.
We fancy some things, so we say, bye
Rabbi.
As-salamu alaykum, I'm gone.
Even though the Salam here is to the
angels of the people and so forth.
So anyway, how are we going to connect
to Allah?
One, through prayer.
Two, through knowledge of Allah.
This is the most beautiful knowledge, is knowing
Allah.
Like Utbah, Utbah, Rahimahullah said, like Imam
Abu Naeem said in Hilyatul Awliya, he said,
مَنْ عَرَفَ اللَّهَ أَطَاعَهُ وَمَنْ أَطَاعَ اللَّهَ أَحَبَّهُ
وَمَنْ أَحَبَّهُ اللَّهُ أَكْرَمَهُ وَمَنْ أَكْرَمَهُ اللَّهُ أَسْكَنَهُ
بِجِوَارِهُ فَطُوبَى لَهُ فَطُوبَى لَهُ فَطُوبَى ثُمَّ سَقَطَ
مُهْمًا عَلَيْهُ So he said, if you know
Allah, you will worship Him, you will obey
Him, if you know Allah.
So now you know the reason why people,
I think my son is crying because I'm
talking too loud, he isn't used to loud
voices.
So he said, مَنْ عَرَفَ اللَّهَ أَطَاعَهُ If
someone knows Allah, Allah will obey him.
Meaning that if we do not obey Allah,
it is due to our lack of knowledge
of Allah.
Is that clear?
So everybody you see disobeying Allah or ourselves,
it's because we do not have sufficient knowledge
of Allah.
So we know that if someone disobeys Allah,
then it's due to one thing, it's a
lack of knowledge of Allah.
This is something that we need to understand,
that we should not look for anything else.
Ibn al-Qayyim said, and every sin is
inspired by love.
What?
Every sin is inspired by love, by love
for the self, and by a lack of
love for Allah.
The moment we sin, our love for the
sin is bigger than our love for Allah.
The moment we don't pray, our love for
television, our love for Champions League, our love
for Instagram, is bigger than our love for
Allah.
We can't deny it, because if you love
something, you will do it.
And this is due to a lack of
knowledge.
So if you want to take care of
your weakness in faith, then there is one
thing, Get to know Allah.
Even if you have to study for 20
years, what will you lose out on?
Studying 20 years, 20 years of studying the
Divine Names, and how to connect to them,
how to live up to these Names, and
be transformed by these Names, what will you
lose out on?
The end of the road will be Divine
Gifts and Pearls and Diamonds that will take
you to higher levels.
So now, if we want to be God
-conscious, then we need to 1.
Connect to the people in a correct way.
How are we going to do this?
1.
By Fiqh.
By learning what the rights of people are,
and what our duties are, and vice versa.
We need to know this.
We can't carry on just living life without
asking ourselves, Is this according to what Allah
and His Prophet want?
Then secondly, through Ilm As-Suluk.
Through Ilm As-Suluk, that you are going
to learn the ethics and the moral standards
and values in Islam.
A way to treat people and live with
people.
And on the other hand, we want to
connect to Allah SWT.
How are we going to do this?
Well, Shukran.
How are we going to do this?
Well, 1.
We are going to do this through prayer.
And 2.
Through knowledge of Allah SWT.
Is that clear?
And this is what we are doing every
Tuesday.
Every Tuesday after Isha, we get together and
we just want to know Allah SWT better.
We know too much of the world.
People know everything about football players.
What they like to eat, what they like
to drink.
Reality shows of I don't know whom, these
stars.
You know what their names are, the names
of their children.
But when we ask, do you know Allah?
Well, the answer of the majority of Muslims
is, I know 5 names.
6?
You find someone who memorizes 20 names, that's
already very good.
And then if you ask, what do these
names imply?
What do they mean?
How do we need to live up to
these names?
Then they don't know.
So we need to revive connectivity to God,
Allah SWT.
And this is in brief what I wanted
to say about this.
So we are going to continue with these
classes once again.
Every Tuesday after Isha.
So it's not every 2 weeks, it's every
week.
We are going to look at the names
of Allah SWT.
And the first name that we are going
to look at is Al-Ahad.
Al-Ahad Al-Wahid SWT.
The one, the unique.
Are there any questions that you would like
to ask for now?
Are there any questions?
Yeah, he wants to ask something.
I think he wants to ask, which brand
of milk is the best?
So, is there any question you would like
to ask?
Allah Ibarak Feek Shukran.
Walaikum Salam.
I think we saw quite a lot in
a very short period of time.
Anybody?
Nothing?
Good.
So these classes will be about an hour
or ten minutes.
An hour and ten minutes, something.
So if you free yourself Tuesday, then InshaAllah
it will be beneficial for everybody.
Always after Isha, yes.
So that's about 8 o'clock.
10 to 8, 8 o'clock.
So the first name will be Al-Ahad
Al-Wahid Al-Awwal.
Yes.
Is that Shaytan?
That's not Shaytan, that's yourself.
Why would it be Shaytan?
If you remember a sin, that's not from
Shaytan.
Shaytan wants you to forget sins.
And this is why Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala says in the Qur'an لِكُلِّ أَوَّابٍ
حَفِيضٍ Like in Surah Qaf, Abdullah Ibn Abbas
Radiallahu Anhu said, like Imam At-Tabari, Rahim
Allah Ta'ala mentioned in his Tafsir, He
said, Al-Awwab Al-Hafid is the one
who sins and remembers his sins so that
he can repent from his sins.
So the last thing Shaytan will give waswasa
for is your sins.
He wants you to forget sins.
Because if you remember sins, you will remember
to repent.
So this was not Shaytan.
And this is why Hibatullah Al-Barizi, Rahim
Allah Ta'ala mentions in his book, Al
-Diraya Li Ahkam Al-Ri'aya, he mentions
that the khatarat, the thoughts we have can
be divided into three categories.
Shaytaniyya, Nafsaniyya, and Rahmaniyya.
That is, inspirations of Shaytan, inspirations of the
self, and inspirations of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala.
And it is through knowledge that we are
able to distinguish between these three categories.
So what you now mentioned is not waswasa.
Okay.
What did you miss, Inwaiter?
Okay.
What the scholars say, if you have waswasa,
you don't listen to your waswasa.
If you are a person who hasn't got
waswasa, and sometimes you doubt, then you correct
it.
But if you have waswasa all the time,
over and over again, you consider it not
to be true.
A person that never has waswasa, and all
of a sudden says, Oh, did I forget
something?
This person should listen to himself.
Because waswasa can be a compulsive thought that
comes back all the time, and then it
turns into a sickness.
And this is not from Shaytan, this is
from the nafs.
So one should not listen to it, or
submit to it, and rule it out.
Ignore it.
Ignore it, one hundred percent.
Like you make a wudu, and then every
time you say, Oh, I forgot my left
arm.
And every time it's the same thing.
You say, I'm a human being, I might
forget once, but not a hundred times.
So then you consider it not to be
true.
But if you are a person who never
has waswasa, then if you doubt, you say,
Oh, I think I forgot to wash my
face.
Well, then you're going to wash your face.
Because you are most likely not to have
waswasa.
We all have.
Everybody has waswasa.
But, I mean, we all struggle.
And sometimes we're stronger, sometimes we're weaker.
But we shouldn't immediately try to turn it
into something too dramatic.
Because at the end, as a Muslim, we
are taught that there is waswasa, there is
Shaytan, inspiration, and at the end it becomes
an obsession.
Sometimes we're far more focused on Shaytan and
waswasa, and being protected against Shaytan, than we
are focused on Allah.
Yes, it's an obsession.
Yes, exactly.
So this is why we need to know
Allah.
The more we know Allah, the more the
knowledge of His light will burn away waswasa.
So it means I have no need to
offer again?
No, no, your witness, inshallah, was fine.
Unless you tell me you prayed one rakat
with one sujood.
No, no, your witness, inshallah, was fine.
Ameen, ameen, ameen.
Better than me.
Ameen.
Somebody else has a question?
Yes.
Yes, yes, yes.
What we have to know is that the
people in the time of the Prophet, the
women and men, were far more busy than
we were.
I mean, they were very busy.
They had camels and goats, and pieces of
land, and they were in war, and they
had to leave their country, and they were
threatened, and they were thrown out of the
country, and then they were killed.
I mean, they were very busy.
And Imam Suyuti, he made clear that it's
not about the length of your prayer.
It is about the focus in your prayer.
So sometimes your prayer might be quick, but
it's a good prayer.
They say that Umar ibn al-Khattab used
to pray quite quickly.
And the same with Imam Suyuti.
And when Imam Umar ibn al-Khattab was
asked why, he said, because I want to
fight shaitan and not give him time to
do waswasa.
Now you're going like that.
Samurai prayers.
But this is what Umar ibn al-Khattab
used to do, you see.
And even Aisha said, sometimes before Fajr, the
two sunnahs before Fajr, the Prophet used to
pray so quick that I would ask myself,
has he even recited Surat al-Fatiha?
Yes, you look very happy, brother.
Yes.
Yeah, because on my birth, sometimes when Allah
SWT asked me to pray, because I'm in
my shape, so I offered, you know, just
quickly.
Yes, no problem.
And you know what is very good?
Learn the fiqh of prayer.
I mean, if you know the Hanafi fiqh
of prayer, then you will see what is
obligatory and what is not.
And then you can, like when you work
and you don't have this time, or you're
afraid to be seen, whatever, I don't know
in what situation one might be, then you
can just limit yourself to that which is
obligatory, to perform a correct prayer, you see.
So inshallah, maybe once we can talk about
this.
But anyway, this is what they used to
do.
So some of the sahaba, some of the
scholars, they used to pray quite quickly.
And yet, what we should know, it's like
Shaykh Ramadan al-Buti mentioned in his explanation
of al-Hikam al-Ata'iyah, and he
said that time doesn't decide how long something
takes.
It indicates how long something took.
And when we travel, we say, make the
distance, shorten the distance for us.
So the people that know Allah, they might
pray very shortly, but in their prayer, it's
like they were there for an hour.
How can Imam Uthman ibn Affan, and how
can Abu Hanifa, how can they read the
entire Qur'an in two raka'at every
night?
If it weren't for Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala giving barakah in their time.
So sometimes we are so much focused on
movements and timing, like, oh, my prayer was
three minutes.
I mean, that we forget about the essence.
That is that we are connected to the
one who is above time, and above creation.
The moment you say a real takbir, you
are disconnected from time.
Disconnected from time, because you are connected to
the creator of time.
Yes, so this is very important.
Shaytan comes in many ways, and many forms,
and with a lot of excuses.
And then he says, prayer takes too long.
Well, pray three minutes.
Just do what is obligatory.
If that is what is stopping you from
prayer, then pray.
So inshaAllah, this is another course about prayer.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Okay.
I can, of course, not give a general
verdict, or whatsoever.
But if a person is bounded to his
contract in such a way, with Maghrib and
Isha, which wouldn't be the same as Dhuhr
and Asr, but anyway, with Maghrib and Isha,
in that they do not allow him to
pray, then one thing which should definitely not
be done is praying too early.
So if Maghrib, for example, is at six,
or let us say at four, and you
pray at five to four, your Maghrib is
batila.
Praying too early is always wrong.
But about joining prayer for specific reasons, then
this is not a general fatwa that can
be given.
One needs to look into the situation of
these people, to see what the possibilities are,
and so forth, and so forth.
And only then can an answer be given.
But some people, some scholars, without any doubt,
would say that in this situation, one could
join between the prayers, as one has no
choice, and that the Salah would be accepted.
But that then, the prayer of Maghrib should
be taken to the prayer of Isha, and
not the prayer of Isha to the prayer
of Maghrib.
Don't mention names.
Yes, of course.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes, but inshallah, it's like I said, inshallah,
in general, scholars would say that in this
case, it would be allowed to join between
the prayers.
Wallahu Subhanahu wa ta'ala alam.
I prefer to look at every case separately
to be sure that all doors have been
closed before giving a general answer.
Wallahu alam.
Yes.
Somebody else?
That's it?
Okay.
Jazakumullah khairan.
Allah.
MashaAllah.
Well done.
That's good.
That means that he's becoming stronger.
Okay.
So, everybody back at home, it was very
nice to hear you.
I didn't hear you, but anyway.
Jazakumullah khairan.
Wa salamu ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala alihi
wa sahbihi.
Wassalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
So, oh, sorry.
Thank you very much.
Bismillah.