 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم قد أفلح المؤمنون الذين هم في صلاتهم خاشعون الصورة is called المؤمنون when I opened the first page of the Qur'an I am looking at the index I see a sura called الكافيرون I don't want to be with them I see a sura called المنافقون I do not want to be with them but I see a sura called المؤمنون I say I want to be with them let me see what the criteria is for a mu'min notice Allah سبحانه وتعالى the first criteria He gives for a mu'min is what قد أفلح المؤمنون successful are the believers الذين هم في صلاتهم خاشعون those who achieve a level of concentration and humility in their salah notice Allah سبحانه وتعالى doesn't say those who pray every tom dick and harry can pray Allah سبحانه وتعالى says no those who achieve concentration to a level it brings them humility in there even those of you who have read the dua افت صلاة الحصور many of us read the dua اللهم اني اعود بك من نفس الله تشبه ومن قلب الله يغشه ومن علم الله ينفع ومن صلاة الله ترفع يا الله I seek refuge from you from a prayer that doesn't raise me I don't want to pray a normal prayer anyone can pray a normal prayer I want to pray a salah صلاة ترفع ترفع means what means something which is raised I want a salah that actually raises me that's why رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم you should always state الصلاة معرج المؤمن صلاة is the ma'raj of the mu'min we know that on the night of ma'raj the holy prophet he went to the highest of the heavens and above when he said صلاة is your ma'raj what did he mean he meant the same stations I saw to reach on that night your salah should take you near those stations as well but we find a problem because we feel when we look in the mirror that none of our salahs take us anywhere near there the reality is 3-4 minutes and we want to finish them as soon as possible and get on with our life there aren't many of us who could actually say that our salah we have reached moments in our salah where we reach the highest levels and that's why you find the scholars of spirituality divide those who pray into 4 they say the first group are those who are negligent of the laws of salah they make many mistakes in their salah the second are those who Shaytan whispers in their ears throughout salah that if you ask them at the end of a salah did you really understand what you were doing he'll say to tell you the truth I just went through it as quickly as I can the third are those who strive to a level where what where they are able to overcome Shaytan for most of their salah maybe if their salah is 5 minutes long like Salat in Fajr they are able to overcome Shaytan for 4 minutes out of the 5 the highest level are those who Shaytan does not come near in their salah that they reach a level where they see Allah before their salah they see Allah during their salah and they see Allah after their salah when the scholars looked at these 4 what did they say they said the first of these groups are punishable the second of them are accountable the third of them are striving towards Allah the fourth of them are godly human beings on earth therefore when we come tonight to examine how Amir al-Mu'minin reached a level of concentration in his salah the title of our analysis is what are the techniques we can learn which helped Amir al-Mu'minin achieve concentration in his salah hopefully these techniques if we begin from Fajr tonight you will see a change in your salah as it helped me in a change in my own salah let's examine you find that within the stages number one how important is our attitude when it comes to concentration in salah number two how important is it that we know the benefits of salah number three how important are the timings of salah to our concentration number four what was the appetizer before salah that Ahlulbayt focused on that their Shi'a are lazy on and that Imam Ali was struck in this fourth area is a unique area which we need to come to in a minute number five how do I stand in salah and how does it affect my salah and number six how important is it that I actually recognize that someone is responding to my words in salah when you go through these stages you'll find why Amir al-Mu'minin's greatest moment came in his salah