 O servants of Allah, I remind myself and I remind you to have taqwa of Allah. To have taqwa of fear of Allah and taqwa in leaving the outward haram and the inward haram and in fulfilling the obligations outwardly and inwardly, that's complete taqwa. Allah SWT says in the Qur'an, فَوَيلٌ لِلْ مُصَلِّينَ Allah says in the Qur'an, woe to those who pray. Who are these people that Allah SWT is talking about? It's not the people that He orders to pray, multiple times in the Qur'an, describing the believers as those who pray in orders, أقيموا الصلاة. How many times do we see that? The description of the believers is that they establish the prayers. And remember this, establish إقامة الصلاة, not just pray, إقامة الصلاة. When Allah SWT in the Qur'an describes the believers, He describes them as the people that in their prayers, they are دائمون, they are consistent in their prayers. But in describing the منافقين, the hypocrites, He says فَوَيلٌ لِلْ مُصَلِّينَ He says woe to those people who pray and are forgetful of their prayers. Are forgetful of their prayers وَنَعُوذُ بِلَّا. Brothers and sisters, we are now in the month of ربيع الثاني. In the blessed month that comes after the month where our beloved Prophet was born in ربيع الأول. He was born in ربيع الأول. And many of us celebrated his birth in whatever way we did, whether it was increasing صلاة and سلام upon him, صلى الله عليه وسلم. Or thinking about his seal of more, or whatever type of celebration it might be. But what we have to be careful of is celebrating him only in a cultural way and forgetting his sunnah. And forgetting his sunnah in the light of the prayer, the صلاة. Allah SWT in the Qur'an is describing us as the believers. We are those who do iqama of the salah, establish the prayer, not just pray. The Munafiqeen pray. And they are forgetful in their prayers, but the believers establish their prayers and are consistent in their prayers. And the Prophet SAW, not only was he born on the 12th of ربيع الأول. He made his hijra on the 12th of ربيع الأول. And, صلى الله عليه وسلم, he passed away on the 12th of ربيع الأول. And this magnificent prophet that the entire creation was waiting for, that there wasn't a single prophet except that he told people about the coming of the Prophet Muhammad SAW. And that Allah told that prophet that if you were to be at the time of the prophet, you have to follow him. And that goes for all of the messengers. This is the Prophet SAW that so many people traveled, سلمان الفارسي رضي الله عنه who traveled all the way from Persia, all the way to أرض الشام in a long journey that we should all read about his life in searching for the Prophet SAW. And finally he was taken to Madinah. All of these people that were waiting for him. And then we are blessed to be from his ummah, to come after him. What was the last thing he told people on the 12th of ربيع الأول? Over 1400 years ago in this month that just passed. What was the last thing that he reminded us of? الصلاة. وما ملكتي مانكو. The prayer. This messenger of Allah, صلى الله عليه وسلم, that the entire creation was waiting for, that Allah saved the best for last. And did so much to prepare for the best of the messengers and the best ummah. The last words, his departing words out of this dunya was the prayer. That's what he was telling us. Now we know we're living in very turbulent times, very politically turbulent times. Whether for the Muslims in the non-Muslim lands or in the Muslim lands. But we also look at the time of the Sahaba and after the Sahaba and the Tab'een. There's always been politically turbulent times. But did the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, tell us as his departing words, beware of the political turbulence? He told us about that and he told us how to deal with it. But the parting words were the prayer. The prayer, the prayer and those who your right hand possesses. Meaning the bonds people. So let's think about the prayer. Are we really fulfilling the final wasiyyah, the final bequest of the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم? It's good to celebrate his birth. But the real celebration of the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, is in following his sunnah. And at the head of that sunnah is the prayer. Let's all do a self audit of ourselves. Now and every day and for days gone by. Are we establishing the prayer? Another story, a final wasiyyah. عمر رضي الله عنه. After Abu Bakr Al-Saddik, he is the greatest person after Abu Bakr Al-Saddik, رضي الله عنهما. When he came to Subah prayer on the next to last day of his life, he came to Fajr prayer in the Masjid. And there was a man named Abu Luqlua, who was a Persian slave in the hands of somebody in Medina. And he was complaining of the treatment that he was receiving as a slave. And he was an artisan. He came to عمر رضي الله عنه to complain about his master and his being mistreated as a slave. And رضي الله عنه gave him advice to be patient with your status, meaning your status as a slave. The man was furious. Here is عمر رضي الله عنه, who was at that time a beacon of justice that everybody knew they could go to him and seek justice. He went to him seeking justice and he felt like he wasn't getting justice served. عمر رضي الله عنه had the intention to speak to the slave master. But he was giving each one person the advice that they needed to hear. He was telling the slave, be patient with your state. And then in his heart عمر رضي الله عنه was going to speak with the slave master. In the meantime, the slave became furious. Abu Luqlua became furious. And he took a dagger and he poisoned it. And the next day in Fajr prayer, while عمر رضي الله عنه is leading the masjid. Picture this. Imagine this. This is عمر رضي الله عنه. And think of all of the stations that he attained and his status amongst the Sahaba. And him being the second best after the second best, only Abu Bakr, Sadiq, رضي الله عنه, proceeding him. And Abu Bakr, Sadiq, if his iman and the iman of the entire ummah was weighed, Abu Bakr's iman would weigh out and hears عمر رضي الله عنه. Coming right after Abu Bakr. Standing in the Fajr Mehrab, Abu Luqlua came and began the assassination attempt. He stabbed عمر رضي الله عنه. Now, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala preserve us all from something like that, from happening. But what would the last thing be that we're thinking about at that time? عمر رضي الله عنه as he's falling. Now he has mortally inflicted wounds. He has wounds that he's not going to survive from. He falls and he tells the people, tell عبد رحمان بن عوف to finish leading the prayer. And then he goes unconscious because of the blood loss. The first thing he's thinking about is the prayer of the Jama'a. He's been stabbed multiple times. He's thinking about the completion of the Jama'a. What would we do if something even less of a situation happened? Would the entire Jama'a just break their prayer? عمر رضي الله عنه was that serious about the importance of the Jama'a? You have to complete it. He went unconscious. When he came to, what was the first thing he asked about? What would be the first thing we asked about? If we were in a situation where something bad like that happened, a car accident or some sort of accident, when we come to, what are we going to ask about? Are we going to ask about, are my kids okay? Take care of my kids. Are we going to ask about, where's my wife? Where's my accountant? I need to do some final things before I go. When عمر رضي الله عنه came to, he said, did they finish the prayer? Did they complete the prayer? They said, yes, عمر رضي دي. He said, لا صلاة لا إسلامة لمن ترك الصلاة. There is no Islam for the person who leaves the prayer. Now this is metaphorically speaking, because even if a person leaves the prayer, according to the overwhelming consensus of أهل السنة والجماعة, a person that leaves the prayer is still a Muslim. Even though there is a hadith that says من ترك الصلاة فقد كفر. Whoever leaves the prayer, he has done كفر. He has done disbelief. The majority of علماء have understood this hadith to mean it means he's acting like a person in كفر. But أحمد بن حمبل رضي الله عنه who said that this hadith is literal. If a person leaves the prayer, they leave Islam. Now that doesn't mean that we're going to take this opinion and go and point to people and say they have left Islam. But what it should do is motivate us to be sure to not leave the prayer. But it does not take a person out of Islam to leave the prayer. But عمر رضي الله عنه who was reminding us of this hadith when he said لا إسلاما لمن ترك الصلاة. There is no Islam for a person who leaves the prayer. How can we be Muslims if we're leaving the prayer? The عماد الدين, the backbone of the Deen, the prayer that the first thing that Allah سبحانه وتعالى will ask us about on the day of judgment is the prayer. And if it's in order, then everything else will be in order. And if it's not in order, then everything else will be out of order. عمر رضي الله عنه, did they finish the prayer? لا إسلاما لمن ترك الصلاة. Then what was the now? Remember, before he goes unconscious, finished the جماعة. When he comes to, did they finish the prayer? What's the third thing that he asks? Bring me water so I can redo my وضو and finish فجر prayer. How many of us would be thinking about the صلاة? If something like this happened to us, if we're in an accident, and there's a wound there that we're not going to survive from. Are we going to be thinking about making that prayer before we pass? Or are we going to think about trying to live? It's interesting that ibn al-Hajj in the Madhhal, he mentions that even if a person is drowning, and may Allah save us from that, but even if a person is drowning and he has a prayer that he owes, he still has to pray it. Because if you can't stand, then you sit. If you can't sit, then you pray laying down. If you're laying down, if you can't move, then you just pray moving your head a little bit. You do whatever it takes to make that prayer, but we never leave the prayer. So ibn al-Hajj is saying, even if a person is drowning, you do the motions of a person, whatever you can, to signify sujood, and you do that prayer and then you drown. How many of us would have the tawfeeq? Would have the success to be thinking about the prayer as our last thing? The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam reminded us about the prayer in his last words. Umar radiya allahu anhu reminded us in his prayer, about the prayer in his last words. And now a third story, aliyya radiya allahu anhu, who was also assassinated in the masjid, by a sword wound. The first thing that he did is he asked for a piece of paper to write his wasliyyah, to write his dequest, what he wants his children and those who come after him and those who read to know about. And he wrote, he said a letter to my sons and all of those who read this letter. And then he lists out the important things that they should be thinking about. He's not saying this is my wealth and give this person this and give this person that and this is what else. These are the deaths they are. The first things that he's doing is the prayer. And your zakat and your soul, that's what he is reminding us about. So when we look at this, the status of the prayer, there's a secret in the prayer. Why would the last words of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam be about the prayer? The last words of Umar radiya allahu anhu be about the prayer and the last words of aliyya radiya allahu anhu be about the prayer. If we look at the prayer, the greatest obligation that we can fulfill as a Muslim is the salah, is the prayer. So much so that if we have a choice between the prayer and Hajj, we give precedence to the prayer over Hajj and I'll show you what that example means. The ulama have said that if a person's only route to the Hajj will cause him to miss a prayer, whatever it was, something will happen. You know, we all ride airplanes in those days when they're talking about, they're talking about riding ships and they said the situation of the ships might not be conducive to allowing a person to get a prayer or because there wasn't sanitation in those early ships so it might cause a person to have najasa on their clothes. The ulama have said that if on the journey to Hajj, if it causes you to get that ship is going to be so filthy and that's the only way you can get to Hajj but it's going to be so filthy that you're going to have to pray with najasa on, you leave the Hajj and you stay at home and you pray with no najasa, no impurities on your clothes. And that's for a person that doesn't even leave the prayer totally. He's still praying but there's so much filth, he can't avoid the najasa. So they said precedence is for the prayer. They even differed, they said, this is a hypothetical situation but it shows you how important the prayer is. They said if you were to miss Arafah because of praying Isha prayer, you have a choice. You either pray Isha because Fajr is about to come in or you get up to Arafah and you get the standing of Arafah even for one instant because everything else in Hajj can be made up but not the standing of Arafah. If we miss the standing of Arafah, we've missed the Hajj. Everything else can be made up. But they said if you're in a situation where it's either pray your fard on time or get to Arafah, you forego your Hajj and you pray Isha on time. That's the importance of the prayer. Allah SWT gave obligations, made things obligatory upon us and he did most of them while the Prophet SAW was in the earth. Actually all of them. The Hajj was made an obligation while the Prophet SAW was on earth. Walking along the earth. Zakat, the same thing, the order came down, he's on earth. Zakat, Hajj, Ramadan, all of those orders came down while he's on earth. Where did the obligation for the Fard Salah come to the Ummah? It came to the Prophet SAW when he was on Isra'ul Mi'raj. There's a number of wisdoms and special things that happened on that night but one of the things is that Allah SWT wanted to show all of creation that this Prophet is so special that I'm going to give him revelation at the highest point in creation because he doesn't need the Prophet SAW to be to give him revelation. He gave him revelation while he's on the earth. He gave Yunus A.S. Jonah revelation while he's in the belly of the whale at the bottom of the ocean. Allah SWT does not need a person to be at a particular level in the creation but he wanted to show people the status of the Prophet SAW in the same way he wanted to show people, show all of us the status of the Salah that I'm making this obligation a Fard upon the Ummah at the Sidrat Al-Muntala. No other Fard has that. We also see in the Quran that the description of the believers are those people one of the descriptions look at those ayahs that talk about the descriptions and use it as a self audit. Look at that and say all of these descriptions wherever Allah SWT is describing the believers look at those descriptions and you'll always see the prayer, the prayer, the prayer and when you look at the descriptions of the non-believers and the people that are in the Hellfire one of the things that's mentioned is they'd left the prayer. They didn't pray. So we know the importance of the prayer. Now how do we implement that in our lives? We're either praying or we're not praying or we're praying some of the prayers or we're not praying them properly. How do we do to change that? One of the first things actually the first thing that we have to do is we have to actually learn the prayer. We have to learn the prayer and not just think that just because we saw people doing the prayer or we read something that we know how to pray. One of the signs of the end of times is that people will leave the prayer. Tarkh al-salah. They will leave the prayer. One of the Ulamas said this is not only people that will outwardly leave the prayer. They're just not praying and we see that. How many times do we go to an area with a lot of Muslims? Especially in a Muslim country you can see this. And that comes and the time comes in and goes out and you see a group of people they never even got up to pray. We see this. People have left the prayer. It didn't used to be like that in the early generations. People would pray but the fact is now that it's epidemic that people in the Ummah are leaving the prayer. But the Ulamas said it's not only an outward leaving of the prayer. They said there will be 50 people praying in a line and not one of their prayers is accepted. Because they didn't perform it properly. So they said the sign is not only for those people that leave the prayer outwardly. It's also for the people that it's as if they're leaving the prayer because they're not praying properly. And when we look at it it's actually more of a delusion to the person who's praying but not praying properly than to the person who's not praying at all. Because at least the person who's not praying at all he knows he's doing something wrong and he has room for Toba. He says I know I should be praying. I'm not right now. I hope to one day. Whereas the person who's praying improperly he says I don't have to improve anything. I'm already doing the prayer. So we have to go back and learn the prayer. One of the first things that we have to learn is the times of the prayer. Imam Malik considered it so important that he made the first chapter in the Mu'attah, the times of prayer. And they said this would be the first knowledge that the ummah loses. When does the prayer actually come in and go out? When does the prayer, each of the prayer times, when does it come in and go out? So now once we learn the prayer and we learn Pahada properly, we learn the purification. Now we're ready to pray. Now we know the importance of prayer. We know how to pray properly. We've studied it. Now we got to get up to pray, to do Ikama of the Salah, to establish the prayer. Not like the Munafiqeen who that if they get up to the prayer, Qamu Kusala, they get up lazily. You know if there's a meeting that you don't want to go to, how you get up in the morning. And if there's a meeting that you know that you cannot miss, how do you get up in the morning? And that's also similar to the way the true believer gets up for Salah, whether it's out of sleep or out of work or whatever he may be engaged in, he or she may be engaged in. It's also true of the person who just gets up lazily for the prayer, whether they're asleep, whether they're at work, or I'll pray them at home, I'll just make them up, I'll do Qada, he gets up, he gets up lazily. And we ask Allah SWT to save us from that. And to make us from the people who do Ikama to Salah, to establish the prayer properly and follow the Sunnah of our Prophet SAW, that when he would get up for the prayer, it would be like a lion jumping on its prey. That's how we should be getting up to prayer. That's how we should, the desire that we should have for the prayer. And we ask Allah SWT to give us the Tawfiq, SWT, to be from the people that do Ikama of the Salah. Bismillah. We begin in the name of Allah and send the Prophet, we ask Allah, send him prayers and peace. And I remind myself and I remind you to have Taqwa of Allah SWT in public and in private. The Salah should become the central aspect of our life. Until we make the Salah, the central aspect of our life, that everything else goes around it, we haven't established the prayer. When we make our pastimes, give our pastimes priority over the prayer, when we give our jobs priority over the prayer, when we give our children the priority over the prayer, I just want to talk to him, I just want to spend some time with him. When we give our spouse priority over the prayer, when we give our nefs our sleep priority over the prayer, we have not truly established the prayer. We have to make our whole life go around the prayer. And this is a difficult thing, it's not easy. Especially for people living in the Bay Area, with Bay Area jobs, with Bay Area lifestyles, with Bay Area prices, it's very difficult. But where there's a will, there's a way. And where there is Taqwa, there is a way. Allah SWT says, Whoever has Taqwa of Allah SWT, Allah will give him a way out. If we make Azima, if we make a firm resolve to make the prayer the central aspect of our life, Allah will give us Tawfiq in doing that. Human beings are very resilient, even in the dunya they're very resilient. And we're problem-solving creatures. Allah SWT has made us as problem-solving creatures. He has given us the ability to live in the arctic, the middle of the desert, the high Himalayas, the Amazon rainforest, no other animal you can take all over and do that. But we can do that. If we can do that, then we can make the prayer the central aspect of our life. It might mean having to change our job schedule, tweak it a little bit. It might mean changing day care or whatever it is that's causing you to not be able to establish the prayer. Where there's a will, there's a way. And where there is Taqwa, there's a way and Allah will give us a way out if we desire to make the prayer a central aspect of our life. At that point things become easy. The prayer is easy, but we make it hard. People complain about not being able to pray on airplanes. It's difficult to pray. Well, there's ways around it. And we should study the fiqh of praying on airplanes and going on journeys and so on and so forth. There's ways to travel, but there's even when it comes time to purchase your ticket. Look at the prayer times of the place of where you're going from and where you're going to. And buy your ticket even if it means spending 50, 60, 70 extra dollars so that you're not in the predicament of losing a prayer on the airplane. When you're scheduling meetings, look at the prayer times and don't be in that situation where you can't leave that meeting but the prayer is going to go out. As long as we have that as our guiding force, that we want to make the prayer the central aspect of our life, things will come together and Allah will give us ease in doing that. We have to remember too, to make it easier upon us, that the prayer is a ni'ma. It's a blessing. A lot of people, when they think about the prayer, they think that it's a huge responsibility and it's a burden. As long as we look at it as a burden, then when we get up to prayer, we'll get up qamu kusala, we'll get up lazily like the munafiqeen. But if we look at it that this is a huge blessing, that we don't want to miss, we'll get up for it. Everybody or most people have had the experience of having an early morning flight. And you know what happens when the alarm goes off? You get up and you get ready. But what happens when the alarm goes off for fejar just on a random day? Do you get up as quickly as you did so that you don't miss that flight and you don't lose a thousand dollars or five hundred dollars or whatever it is? That same desire that we had to make sure that we get on the airplane, that we make sure that we get on to our interview, if we put that portion of our heart, if we put the prayer there, then we'll have that ability to get up. The prayer is a ni'ma. Musa, alaihi salam, in the story of Isra'ul Mi'raj, what did he tell the Prophet, alaihi salam, when it was originally 50 prayers? Your umma can't handle this. Go get it reduced. And he kept going back and forth, back and forth until it came down to five. And Musa, alaihi salam, said, they're still not going to be able to handle it. And the Prophet, alaihi salam, said, I'm too, I would be embarrassed to go back and ask again. But look at this. How many of us are able to pray five times a day and Musa, alaihi salam, couldn't even get his umma to do that? And he thought it would be too much for us. But we're doing it. We're doing it. We're praying five times a day that Musa, alaihi salam, didn't think that we could handle and we're doing it. That's a huge ni'ma. And on top of that, Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, put the reward of 50 prayers in those five prayers. If you count out the rak'as of the day and the sunnis that are there and salat al-duha and salat al-tarawih, when you put them all together, it comes out to 50. 50 rak'as. And so we get the reward of 50 prayers in five prayers and those five prayers are something that the umma of Musa, alaihi salam could not handle. We are handling it. As an umma, we're handling it. And that's a reminder to us that we are the best umma. Allah says in the Qur'an, kuntum khaira umma. We are the best umma. And at the central, the pivotal point of this khair is the salat. And we ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, to make the salat the pivotal aspect of our life. As a final story, Ibn Al-Qasim, one of the foremost, de-formal students of Imam Malik, who, if it was not for him, the medhab of Imam Malik would not be preserved. And if the medhab of Imam Malik was not preserved, if the four medhabs were not preserved, we would not have the sunnah. The sunnah of our messenger, sallallahu alaihi salam, is preserved through the four medhabs. One of those medhabs is Imam Malik's medhab. The medhab of Imam Malik is preserved through his student, Ibn Al-Qasim. Mainly through Ibn Al-Qasim. After Ibn Al-Qasim. So just think of his status as a scholar amongst the umma. And what Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, is going to give him as a reward for preserving the sunnah of the messenger of Allah, sallallahu alaihi salam. After he passed away, somebody saw him in a dream and asked him, what happened to you after you passed away? He said, wallahi, by Allah, nothing benefited me, all of those things that I did, all of that ilm and all of that knowledge and all of the teaching and the studying, nothing benefited me except for a few rak'az that I used to pray at night. It was the salah. That's where he got the benefit. Abu Bakr al-Siddique, we should all try to make the prayer regular and as best we can in Jama'ah and just as a final thing to show us and to remind us that even in our prayer is a reminder of Abu Bakr al-Siddique. Abu Bakr al-Siddique, radiallahu anhum, used to make it to the Salat al-Jama'ah to the congregational prayer with the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi salam and he would never miss a rak'ah. Not that he would not miss the prayer. He would be there for takbirat al-ihram. He would be there when the messenger of Allah, sallallahu alaihi salam says, Allahu Akbar. One day he was late. He came and he was walking to the masjid and his fear was not that he would lose the prayer entirely. He knew that he was going to catch the prayer. His fear was that he misses one rak'ah with the messenger of Allah, sallallahu alaihi salam. When he got to the masjid, he saw them still in ruku'ah. So what did he know? He said, I can still catch this rak'ah. What did he say? Alhamdulillah. Praise be to Allah. He got it. Before this story happened, before this incident happened, the Salah, we would go into the Salah. The Sahaba would go into the ruku'ah, Allahu Akbar. And they would come out saying, Allahu Akbar. Just like the rest of the prayer. Why is it in ruku'ah? We say something different than the rest of the prayer. Everything else, all of the motions is Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. But when the messenger of Allah, sallallahu alaihi salam, was in ruku'ah and about to come out saying, Allahu Akbar. Abu Bakr al Siddiq is standing there loving the fact that he has this blessing of being in that one rak'ah with the messenger of Allah. He says, Alhamdulillah. The revelation is given to the messenger of Allah, sallallahu alaihi salam. He comes up saying, Semi Allahu Liman Hamida. Allah heard the one who praised him. And from that point on, we no longer come out of our ruku'ah with Allahu Akbar. We come out with Semi Allahu Liman Hamida which has a general meaning but it's a reminder to us of Abu Bakr al Siddiq, radiallahu anhu. And his love for the Salah and his love for the Jama'a and his love for the messenger of Allah, sallallahu alaihi salam and for not wanting to even miss one rak'ah. So we ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, to make us from the musallim. To make us from the people that do iqama to Salah. And to not make us from amongst the people that go to the prayer kusala to go lazily. And we ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, to make the entire ummah from the people of the Salah. And we ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, to give us ease in getting up in the morning for the Salah. And we ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, to give us ease in making it to the Jama'a, to pray in Jama'a. We ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, to accept our prayers. And we ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, to make us from amongst those who pray and to make our children from amongst those who pray and to make our children's children's children Until the day of judgment from amongst those who pray