 So insha'Allah, in this session, we're going to look at reverence, khusur, and presence of heart in the Salaat. And we're going to look at Imam al-Ghazali's section on the merit of reverence, of having khusur. And it's important to understand a little bit of the context of the Ihiya ulum ad-Din, and that people did not really, before Imam al-Ghazali, one of the amazing contributions that he gave this ummah, is that he was able to really merge people's understandings of the outward and the inward sciences. And as Sheikh Yahya said previously, that really this is a science because of the systematic way that he actually details the spiritual path and explains it in a way where he's able to break down various elements and sub-points that are all interrelated. So one of the things that's important is that people were focused on the outward validity of the Salaat. Is that if the Salaat is valid according to the fuqaha, which is important, then the Salaat is considered valid. And Imam al-Ghazali is highlighting for us that if the whole purpose of the Salaat is to draw close to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and as we're going to see wa aqim al-Salaat al-i-vikri, the first verse that he mentions is that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran and established the prayer for my remembrance, is that the prayer is not actually truly established if it does not contain the remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So he says if someone is in the prayer and they don't know what they're saying and they're not, they don't have this reverence, they don't have khushur and presence of heart and the various inner states that Imam al-Ghazali mentions that Sheikh Yahya covered in session two, then really it's just movements and emptiness internally. And that's not what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants from us. So he's also speaking to certain people who might not consider khushur and presence of heart as a condition for the validity and acceptance of the Salaat. So he's coming at it from this angle. And I think for our purposes we already understand the importance of that. So he begins with the verse that I mentioned. Wa aqim s-salata li dhikri established the prayer for my remembrance is to remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And the goal of all acts of worship and the goal of all that we do in order to seek nearness to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is to have presence of heart. So if we are in Salaat, we want to have presence of heart because that really is the indication of coming closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and truly remembering him. When we avoid what is haram, we do so because we have presence of heart and we have an awareness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and that he sees us and has forbidden us from that thing. So we avoid it. When we engage in charity or we seek knowledge or we attend the gathering of dhikr, the goal in that is to have presence of heart. Wa aqim s-salata li dhikri established the prayer for my remembrance. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in another verse of the Qur'an, And do not be of those who are heedless and neglectful. Do not be of those who are heedless and neglectful. So Imam al-Ghazali says if someone makes an oath that they're going to speak to the king or they're going to engage in a particular verbal statement, I swear that I will say this particular thing, and then while they're asleep, they actually talk in their sleep and they say what they swore that they were going to say. He says they actually haven't fulfilled their oath because they were not conscious of it. So even though they might have said unconsciously what they swore that they would say because they were not conscious when they did it, it doesn't count. So the same can be said about the salah. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in another verse of the Qur'an, La taqrabu s-salata wa antum suqara hatta ta'lamu ma taqulun. Do not approach the prayer while you are intoxicated until you know what it is that you are saying. And Imam al-Ghazali says how many a person who's engaging in the sada has not consumed alcohol or is not intoxicated but does not know what they are saying in the prayer. So he says okay that part about while you are drunk or while you are intoxicated does not apply to the generality of believers and people avoiding that act that is haram, but then he says the condition that's associated with it still applies. Hatta ta'lamu ma taqulun until you know you're aware of what it is that you are saying. So Imam al-Ghazali says if a person is praying and they're unaware of what they're saying, and that applies to the presence of heart and understanding that Sheikh Yahya covered in the previous session, then they still fall within this category. Do not approach the prayer in that state. So you have to be aware of that. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wasallam he said in a hadith, and their nefs does not you know you are not you are not listening or giving the opportunity to your nefs to speak to you about things of the world. The reward for having that level of presence in Nasada is that Allah forgives your previous sins. So once again Imam al-Ghazali is saying this is critical for the prayer to be accepted to be of those people that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when they establish a true prayer they're transformed and they avoid al-Fahshat wa al-munkar in decency and wrongdoing by being present in the Salat by not giving into the insinuations and the internal conversations of the nefs that take us into the dunya and what we're going to look at shortly is how to identify those outward and inward distractions and how to deal with them. We'll get to that insha'Allah ta'ala. But if a person has that level of presence their previous sins are forgiven. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wasallam he also said in another hadith The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wasallam said in a hadith narrated by Abu Dawudan al-Tirmidhi that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made the prayer an obligation and commanded the Hajj and the circumambulation and the various rights of worship associated with the Hajj for what purpose in order to establish the remembrance of Allah the Exalted in order to establish the remembrance of Allah the Exalted. So that's an indication once again that the khushur is the life of the prayer and Imam al-Ghazali then gives us another very useful way of understanding how we get into that mindset. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wasallam we might sometimes hear sometimes the Imam when leading the prayer will say this pray a farewell prayer that the messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he's the one who said If you pray then pray the prayer of someone who is bidding farewell Imam al-Ghazali says there are many layers of meaning to this farewell what does it mean to bid farewell? Imam al-Ghazali then says this is not part of the hadith that a person is saying farewell to his own nefs farewell to your insinuation Imam al-Ghazali then says this is not part of the hadith that a person is saying farewell to his own nefs farewell to your insinuations and your desires and your love of the world farewell to the nefs farewell to one's passions they're not thinking about those things in the Sala ideally and then he says farewell to one's life and they say that as if you're bidding farewell that this is the last prayer that you will pray before you meet your Lord if that was the case that would be a transformative prayer if someone knew let's say for example may Allah protect us that there was someone oppressive who said you know I'm going to execute you and take your life you have one last prayer that you can pray what would be the state of that prayer before you know that you're going to meet Allah SWT it would be full of khushoor and full of hope and full of fear and asking Allah SWT for the most important things and not being distracted by anything there is nothing what am I going to think about the world for when it's done so the messenger of Allah SWT is telling us that when you have that mindset that is the way you are supposed to pray that's how you truly access the khushoor in the Salat La ilaha illa Allah you know I'm one of the highest predecessors and this relates to what Imam al-Ghazali said previously he said yabna Adam or son of Adam or human being If you want to enter into the presence of your Lord without permission without a formal invitation you know the kings of the world special time special you have to talk to the right person you might have to pay people some rives you might owe some favors and all of that type of stuff in order to get to the people of the dunya if you want to get to Allah SWT he's saying if you want to enter his presence without even a formal invitation or permission you can do so he said how so he said you make your wudu and you enter into your mihrab and then you enter into the presence of your Lord without any formal permission and you get to speak to him without any translator like it's that level of nearness and intimacy you know someone will at least have a representative or someone who's going to keep the time you can only speak for this long in these formal settings of the people of the dunya Allah SWT left the door open whenever you want in dua, in salah, in turning your heart to him the door is always open Sayyida Aisha, she's telling us here about the state of the Prophet SAW and how this relates to Khushur the complete focus and priority he would give the salat that she said, and you know she's the wife of the Prophet SAW so she knows some of these private details and intimate details that maybe other people might not have been privy to or might not have witnessed so she says the Messenger of Allah SAW when he was at home he would speak with us and we would speak with him that we would have these family conversations and he would listen to them and they would say things about what was interesting to them or their day or what they were going through and the Prophet SAW would listen and then he would also talk to them and this is actually a beautiful sunnah that not many people are really aware of is that the Messenger of Allah SAW he would speak to the Sahaba about whatever they wanted to talk about it's all Messenger of Allah my camel is kind of not feeling well really what's going on and he would engage and entertain whatever was important to them and his heart is with Allah SAW but look at the mercy and there are many beautiful examples of that and I'm reminding myself and all of us especially with these devices and kind of being having our attention always scattered is that when you're with someone it's a sunnah to give them your full attention and even physically the Messenger of Allah SAW when he would turn to someone he would turn to them with the entirety of his body to give them the full attention if that is the consideration that he gave to other created beings out of his mercy and his noble character imagine when it's time to stand in the maharam imagine when it's the time that he SAW yearns for the most to be with Allah SAW so Sayyidina Ayesha is saying that he would talk to us and we would talk to him but when the time for the prayer entered the adhan goes off it's time for Salah it's as if he didn't know us and we didn't know him there was nothing else in the world except responding to the call of Allah SAW and just imagine that he would say give us what brings us comfort give us what brings us comfort and that was the adhan because it was the initiation or the beginning of entering into the Salah the Prophet SAW said that Allah does not look at a prayer in which a person's heart is not present with their body and what does that mean? it means that they are present in the Salah when they say that your heart is present like where are you? someone might be here because their heart is somewhere else their mind, their imagination is somewhere else you have to be here with Allah that your heart is present with the rest of your body it's not just the movements in the Salah which is once again an indication of acceptance from Allah SAW Imam Al-Ghazali mentions that Prophet Ibrahim Al-Khalil SAW he said when he would enter when he would stand up to pray they could hear the intensity of his heart beat from two miles away that his heart would beat with such power and there was a reverberation from his heart beats that people could hear from two miles away because of the magnitude of standing before Allah SAW the Prophet SAW he saw a man playing with his beard in the Salah a man playing with his beard in the Salah and he was praying and the Prophet SAW said if this man's heart had reverence and this awe before Allah his limbs would follow suit and be in awe of Allah SAW I remember hearing our teacher Habib Omar commenting on people sometimes they have like if you have a redal or a shmah and he said every couple of seconds a person's fixing was on their headgear and they're moving things around he said how can someone do that while standing before Allah SAW and so you have to be careful even to the extent that they say if you're wearing for example like it's a sunnah to wear a reda to wear like a shawl that when a person is praying if they feel that it's going to move around and fall around and flap around that they put it on the ground in front of them so that it doesn't distract them so if a person's heart has khushur the limbs will follow suit and it's not something that is kind of this synthetic like this manufactured fake way of having khushur a person just goes like this and they kind of overdo it physically but it's a balance everything is a balance and it really is yes if your heart is present with Allah maybe there might be an impact on the way that you stand or the way that you move but the asal is to begin with the heart and to have just the sunnah balanced way of standing and having moderation in all things and if someone feels a particular verse I remember one of the most amazing things I ever experienced and I was young I was like 22 at the time when I first was blessed to go study in Hadhramot in Yemen at Dar al-Mustafa and it was Ramallah and there were just so many things that happened where it was like wow this deen is real like you know it's but then there's like things that happened this deen is real you know you see it lived at that level it's different so I remember we were talking about prayer and this is really you know this is just kind of a beautiful example especially in today's world there are people like that today where I remember it was the first night of Ramadan if I'm not mistaken it happened multiple times on multiple nights but the Imam was reciting the Qur'an in Salat Al-Tarawih and it was very majestic the way he recited the first night of Ramadan it felt like you really we always feel it Alhamdulillah many people really notice that when Ramadan comes in there's like this shift in the cosmos something has changed so it was intensified because being in the company of such people and then there was a man that I heard you know somewhere to the left or behind wherever he was standing and as the Qur'an was being recited and it was intense he said Allah Allah Allah and he passed out you know and I'm praying and I'm just kind of like like I can't look back and see who I never saw who it was and just SubhanAllah and I was like this teen is real like you hear about the Sahaba being bedridden for days and weeks from the Qur'an you know and it's like the Qur'an here is not just somebody with a nice voice who recites it and there's inshallah good in that but it was like this is the Qur'an you realize if it was revealed to the mountain the mountain would crumble underneath the weightiness of the Qur'an like there are people whose hearts you know are present with Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala and once again you can't fake that level of presence how is someone of a special state with Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala but it goes to show that there are still people experiencing these really powerful realities of the Salat inshallah and then Imam al-Ghazali tells us a few stories of people who had such a high level of khushu' inna sadaa that they were totally unaffected by their surroundings but that's a very high level and as Imam al-Ghazali is going to tell us shortly when he talks about the way to have presence of heart that is a very select few of people who attain that level where for example Sayyidina Ali Zayn al-Abelin was praying and one of the pillars in the masjid broke and there was a large you know sound and a crash that happened when it took place and after he was done with the salat they asked him what the juice you were in the masjid when the pillar broke and he didn't hear anything and there was a sahabi who had to have his leg amputated he said you know one of you is going to be intense it's painful he said amputate my leg when I'm in the sadaa these are the realities that the Sahabah had and they amputated it and he became aware of it after he finished his prayer now these stories are not meant to make us feel like oh I'm so terrible I can't even do one percent of that but it's a it shows us the potential and the possibility and when we hear about these great people it is meant to encourage us and inspire us not the other way around I thought I'm never going to be like that might as well you know pack my bags and just like I'm useless I can't do that no that's not what we want say insha'Allah the one who gave to them can also give to me subhanahu wa ta'ala the one who chose those people to be of the people of nearness to him can choose me insha'Allah to be of those people each and every one of us insha'Allah ta'ala and the fact that Allah has brought us together to study on how to pray properly is a sign that Allah has extended his mercy to us and we ask him for Tawfiq Ya Rabbi Al-Alamin Kana Ali ibn Abi Talib radiallahu anhu wa karra ma wajhuh Ida hadara waqtu al-salaa yata zalzalu wa yata lawan wajhuhu Sayyidina Ali ibn Abi Talib may Allah be well pleased with him and ennoble his countenance when the time for prayer would enter he would start to shake and his face would change color they said so what's going on O commander of the believers and he said the time has come to fulfill the covenant the trust that Allah presented to the heavens and the earth and the mountains and they refused it and were in fear of it and we are the ones who took it on indicating that that that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentioned in the Qur'an is the Sala so he the level of reverence the level of khushu'a and presence of heart of recognizing once again the significance of what we're about to engage in and stand in and then we'll end with this narration it's a really beautiful narration that this is a statement of Hatim al-Asam one of the great pious predecessors and someone once asked him about his prayer so he said when the time for prayer enters I performed the wudu well fully covering all the limbs and doing it with presence of heart and intentionality and recognizing that this is the key into the prayer and I came and I come to the place where I am going to pray and I actually sit there I'm going to talk about this shortly I sit there until I am collected then I become collected then I stand to prayer so then I place the kaaba and this is a way of using our imagination in a way that is useful and beneficial especially spiritually is to use the faculty of imagination for things like this he says then I place the kaaba before my very eyes imagining it it's as if I'm standing right in front of the kaaba and I place the siraat that goes over hellfire the traverse that goes over hellfire I place it at my feet it's as if I can see it at my feet and I imagine paradise to my right and I imagine the fire to my left and I imagine the angel of death standing behind me and I think and ponder deeply that this will be my final prayer then I stand and pray and I am between the state of hope and fear so I begin the prayer and I say Allahu Akbar and I recite the Quran with Tertil full recitation giving each of the letters it's right and reciting properly and with reverence and then when I go into ruku the bowing position I do so with humility and when I go into prostration I prostrate with reverential fear with this pushor and you know when I sit in the position I do so with sincerity and when I try to have sincerity of heart and when I finish the prayer I do not know has it been accepted from me or not even after all of that I still remain in a state between hope and fear is it accepted or not and Sayyidina Abdullah Ibn Al-Abbas radiallahu anhumah he said rak'atani muqtasidatani fi tafakkurin khayrun min qiyami laylatin wal qalbusahin he says two rak'as that you perform with you know well that you're not rushed and hasty in completing that but even muqtasidatani is that they're not very long and they're not rushed just even two moderate rak'as that are not very long that you pray while you are reflecting and pondering what you're reciting and thinking about your state with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and all of the things associated with the prayer is better for you than standing up the entire night in prayer and your heart is heedless just two brief moderate rak'as with reflection are better than an entire night where your heart is heedless so we have to have now the great salihin they have quality and quantity but for us sometimes people think that quantity alone is sufficient but you want quality we want quality and when we have when we focus on that then when we start to access the fruits of the sada then we want more of it and quantity starts to become very naturally accessible and desirable to us so now moving on to the section on the distractions and how we have presence of heart in the face of these distractions the outward and inward distractions so Imam al-Ghazali he says beautifully here the inner states of the prayer that sheikh Yahya covered that a believer has to be in a state of reverence for Allah the mighty and majestic in fear of him having hope in him having this shame before him for one's own shortcomings and that these states they are never totally separated from the believer according to the degree of his or her certitude and faith that there are people who are at higher levels and people who might experience it from time to time but it is never totally separated from a believer Imam he says and that's their state outside of the sada so then it is only taken away from them or it is only absent in the sada due to these passing thoughts that come that busy a person so if a person in the sada is not having these states that very naturally a believer should have and does have if they are not present as they should be in the sada it's due to these passing thoughts so the treatment in order to have presence of heart is actually rejecting and repelling these passing thoughts he says you cannot repel something or deflect that thing or push it away except by finding its root cause you have to get to the root of it and deal with that in order to truly do so so you have to come to know the reason behind them and the reason is that it could be either an outward cause or it could be something within the person internally inwardly so then he breaks down both as for the outward he says that these are the things that pass through the thoughts and what a person sees these are the things that a person might hear or see when they're in the middle of the sada you know like you're in the middle of the prayer you know we all have this and there's like a loud sound or your kids like start crying or they're hitting each other what's going on it takes up your thoughts the khawatr are now coming the passing thoughts are now whose fault was it and you start to go through that those various thoughts that are all interconnected and associated or you see something that person parked again in that parking spot and you start to be affected by those things and you take a person's focus and take them to a totally different place and that it just keeps going you know it's like down the rabbit hole there's just another passing thought that leads to another passing thought that leads to another passing thought and before you know it you're like how was I even thinking about where did this thought come from why am I thinking about this really random thing especially in the middle of my sada and I don't even know how I got there come on so then he says the treatment for that is so the way to treat that is that you cut off all of these kind of internal stimulations by being in a place where your site is covered that you're praying in an area that is closed off such that you're not seeing things from the outside world that would then distract you or that a person prays in their house and it's very dim or dark such that they're not looking around and seeing other things or he doesn't have something in front of him that would attract his senses oh this for example Imam al-Ghazali mentions that having a very colorful prayer rug that could be distracting having a very ornamented designed prayer rug can be distracting and in the commentary Imam al-Zabidi he says that one of the worst innovations is these extra ornate massajid with all these etchings everywhere overly ornamented he says one of the worst innovations that has taken place and it's actually not be fitting for having presence in the Sada and it's the Sunnah of the Prophet and this is a beautiful example to actually just have things very simple in the Masjid and some of the most amazing massajid that I've ever been to are very outwardly simple they're still beautiful they're very beautiful it's just white walls simple a prayer carpet and that's it place for the mustaf place for the copy of the Qur'an and that's it and you go in there and you say there's just a presence that brings you to be present with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then you go to another place and it's got all of these million dollar chandelier all of these things and it's overdone now, beautifying places is a good thing but it's really about having presence of heart and or that you pray close to a wall so that you're not able to see anything beyond the place of your prayer that you just look at the place of your sujud or you're not distracted you can't see anything outside of where you are praying and that's why the worshipers in a small Muslim house and this is why the people who dedicated themselves to worship they would often do so in a very small space that was dimly lit and if you've ever visited the khalwa places of many of the saliheen in many Muslim countries you can find places where great ulama and great saliheen and they're usually very tight they don't have all these windows and all these things coming in or if there is a window it's kind of covered with like a wooden covering or something just to get a little bit of light in and they're not distracted by anything of the world it's very simple and it's almost kind of cramped and how many people would actually go and read Quran and we hear of the saliheen who would dig their own grave and read Quran in their graves why? because it helps you have presence of heart this is I'm not distracted by anything in the world in a place like this or in a moment like this now so you found that many people in this ummah of the great saliheen they would engage in their ibadah in a very small and dimly lit place that was only big enough for them to actually engage in sujud that would be the most important because that place helped actually collect all of their focus and remain focused and determined to only be present in the prayer and those who were had a strength and a great ability even when they would attend the prayer in the masjid they would still keep their sight in the place of their sujud they wouldn't look around even those who had a certain level of experience and steadfastness in their ibadah even then they would be careful not to risk losing their presence of heart and the great saliheen they would consider it the completion or the perfection of the prayer is that you are so present in the sada and that you are not distracted by anything around you to such an extent that you don't even know who prayed to your right or to your left like let's say you know the person but once the sada is done you say oh that was you wasn't focused on that that person was present with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala these are the outward clauses and the treatment the treatment is simple is that you just minimize your distractions and even Imam al-Ghazali mentions and he's going to mention this in the inward distractions that we have to find ways of collecting ourselves before we enter into the salah and that's one of the great wisdoms of even having these sunnah prayers and superrogatory prayers before the falq prayer so that we are continuing to deepen our level of presence and prepare ourselves to stand before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and that we say ayatul kursi and various invocations before we enter into the salah to help collect ourselves and to be present with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so those are the outward distractions and how to deal with them and the treatment for them as for the inward distractions Imam al-Ghazali says this is even more difficult than the outward just turn off the lights be present turn off your phone don't think about anything else but the inward he said is more difficult so whoever's concerns are taken through the valleys of the various channels of worldliness they won't just be thinking about one thing alone a person might if they see something and say what's that noise and they think about that but if a person has an internal distraction they can be taken to all different types of places but that their thoughts are flying from one area to the next in terms of vastly different khawatlar and passing thoughts that might not come to them and Imam al-Ghazali is saying if a person even if they're in a place where there are no outward distractions that they're in a small room and it's dark that doesn't prevent them that doesn't save them from these types of inward distractions okay so he says so the way to deal with that is that the first thing is to force and this is a really beautiful and powerful word one of the names of Allah swt is the one who is overpowering and dominating that this is the word that's used here that a person dominates and forces the nefs to return back to contemplating and understanding the words that are being recited in the salah and to focus and to force it to focus on that over all other things and what helps a person do that is that they prepare before they enter into the prayer and that they remind themselves of the hereafter and that they will stand before Allah swt and the result of that judgment is significant so significant and dangerous that they need to think of that of the salah that it is such an intense Allah swt that the disbelievers on that day I just learned the meaning of this ayah recently that the disbelievers on that day when they see the scales and when they see the judgment they will be in such terror that they will look up and their eyes will be in such horror that they'll be wide-eyed and they won't even be able to blink for how many years will they be experiencing that where it will be so intense that they won't even be able to blink so you remind yourself of that in the salah what would I be like if I was true and I am but if the veil was lifted and I am standing before Allah swt what kind of edab and presence would I have so you remind your nefs of that so this is a really practical and beautiful reminder that Imam al Ghazali gives us and he says another practical thing you can do before entering the prayer is that if you have any anything that you're doing and you want to tie some loose ends you know that you have something in the oven something that you're waiting for there's something going on that is occupying your thoughts that you actually finish doing those things and that comes to an end before you engage in the prayer because then he says oh my alarm's going off it's gonna burn I'm waiting for this important phone call a person's constantly going to be thinking about those things in the salah that you try your very best to tie all those loose ends so that when you enter into the salah there's nothing on your mind one of the things that we have to do is put our phones on silent maybe even put it in a totally different room and just enjoy the salah when we meet Allah swt we will not regret oh that phone call I missed or that text message I missed and whatever it may have been for those moments that we are with Allah swt so just having practically taking the means available to us anything that's oh I have to write this email oh it's extremely do that and then engage in the prayer with presence of heart now so Imam al-Ghazari says this is how you actually calm yourself from all of these various thoughts and then he says how do you deal with it at the root so this is he's saying this is helpful for just having these passing thoughts that are coming through to kind of deal with them in the moment but then he says how do you deal with it at the root and he says you have to look at these things that are occupying your mind that busy you and you have to say where is the source from which they're coming from and Imam al-Ghazari says the things that busy you are the things that you find important you're not going to think about things that are not important to you so he says and then you realize that those things that are important to you if they're distracting you in the salat and they're they seem more important in that moment than what you're actually in he says that those stem from your desires those thoughts stem from what's important to you what's important to you if it's getting in the way of your Salat it stems from your shahawat stems from your desires so then the way that a person disciplines the nefs is by cutting off those attachments is really trying to uproot those desires and cutting off those attachments and really that is freedom now even in a material sense people are talking about minimalism and things of that nature what you own owns you and not living like that anymore but actually realizing that there's so many more meaningful things even in a worldly sense more than all of these things that occupy us so you have to get to the root of it so because everything that distracts that person in his Salat is contradictory to his Deen and it is the soldiers of Iblis and one of his the Muslims enemies so holding on to that thing and he mentions the story of the prophet and this is for us to learn that the messenger of Allah said he had a ring and when he was giving the Khutbah he delivered the Khutbah and he would look at his new ring and then he said this ring distracted me and he gave it away to teach us how you break those attachments and if this is getting in the way I'm going to give it away I don't need it and that way I will be light before Allah SWT and then finally he tells us a few stories of some of the Sahaba so that Abu Talha he was praying in an enclosed place where he had some trees there so as he was praying he saw a little bird from the trees and he was impressed by the beauty of the bird so he said that his eyesight followed the bird so when he was done he mentioned to the messenger of Allah SWT the tribulation that he was afflicted with look at the level of the Sahama it's a bird flying but this got in the way of my Salah so this is one of my enemies and one of the things that is harming my deen so then he said to the prophet I give away those trees in that area that I was praying in that I own I give it away for the sake of Allah SWT I don't want it anymore he let go of it another man did the same thing and he gave it to Sayyidina Uthman Ibn Affan and Sayyidina Uthman Ibn Affan sold that garden for 50,000 dirhams or dinas he sold it for 50,000 it was very valuable he got rid of it because it got in the way of his deen so we have to really Imam al-Ghazali is going deep if you want to uproot the tree that is bearing rotten fruit you have to uproot it so they did that so they could cut off the source of all of these passing thoughts and also as an expiation for their shortcomings in the Sala so this is the medicine this is the treatment and it is bitter it is difficult but this is the treatment because what we mentioned about forcing your nefs to listen to what is being said in the Sala that is a temporary easier approach and it won't solve the problem long term okay so he says and that works for weak desires but if someone loves the world then they won't be able to do that and then finally he gives us this example he says it is like a man who is trying to focus and he just wants to reflect and he is sitting under a tree and he just wants peace of mind and every so often a bird comes and starts chirping above his head and flying in the branches and just takes a branch and hits the bird and it flies away and then it comes right back and the bird and it flies away now I can think the bird comes right back and then someone tells him you got to cut down the tree you got to figure out a way now when we are more environmentally conscious people don't like that but he is saying you have to cut down the tree of the desires so that the bird of these passing thoughts has nothing to come back to and then you can actually sit and think you know and he said all of these desires if you really get to the source of it and the heart of it it is love of the world and you have to really strive and struggle against that and he says nobody is perfect he said there are very few people who can have a prayer that is completely filled with presence of heart with Allah SWT says now that is from his humility someone like us doesn't have hope in that and even for us just to have half of it or a third of it safe from these insinuations and these whisperings even that is an improvement even that is an improvement he said at the very least we have mixed some good with our shortcomings but what he is telling us here is once again not to make us lose hope but rather to say that we have to work hard and we have to do better so he says it is like the love of the world and having presence of heart it is like one vessel and love of the world is like vinegar and presence of heart with Allah is like water which we are not ever going to mix but he said the more water you pour in the more it will eventually push out the vinegar and fill it up which gives us hope to say that wherever we are we just strive to do a little bit better and then a little bit better and a little bit better and it is about consistency and really seeking Allah SWT's assistance and support we ask Allah SWT may peace and blessings of Allah be upon our master Muhammad and his family and companions and praise be to Allah May Allah bless you and insha'Allah we will transition shortly to session 4 the inner meanings of prayer and this is really beautiful please this is kind of everything is leading to insha'Allah May Allah bless you