 We're going to speak in our sixth lessons, subject rather. Welcome, sheikh, are you? Thank you very much. Lovely to see you this morning. Alhamdulillah, Jazakillah. How are you? Fine, thank you. May Allah bless you. Thank you so much. Always pleasure to see you. Good to see you, sheikh. Alhamdulillah. So we have a question, and it's about maybe something that everybody at some point in their life goes through, praying Salah regularly and the struggles with it. So someone's question is, I am struggling to connect to Allah through my prayers. I easily miss them or delay them deliberately and then rush to complete them to tick box. I am considering to stop praying but sometimes something keeps stopping me. Maybe it is my own conscience. How do I start to see my Salah as less of a chore? Hmm. It's sad to see that this individual is struggling with his Salah. Salah, maybe according to what he sees it there, Salah is a burden. Sure, he says the word. Sure, yeah. Work, like his work. Yeah, and it shouldn't be like that. Salah needs to be enjoyed because Salah, when we talk about Salah, we call it prayers, Salah is a connection between me and my Lord. Why do I need to connect with my Lord? I need at least to say thank you to the one who created me. I became into who I am because of you. If someone does something good to me, even if I don't know him, I will always ask a question, who did this good to me in order for me to repay? Or at least to say thank you. Salah is there for us to say thank you to Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, on the basic level. And number two, Salah is there in order for me as an individual to be able to connect with myself. Myself, I need to connect with it because we are living in an age, modern life where we are so busy, sometimes we miss even to connect with ourselves. Imagine how many screens sometimes we are working on. My phone, my iPad, my Mac, and so on and so forth. And the TV is on. Big one. TV is on, even I don't hear what's happening there. This is a life which we are living in. And sometimes... Salah, can I do you mind if I interrupt you here? So the connection with the self, and we're saying about this distraction, is it best when we pray to switch the TV off? Make it quiet so that you're able to make that connection. It is necessary to do that. Otherwise you will be distracted. And the distraction is killing us. Distraction is causing many problems within our psychology, even within our physical being. Because imagine you can't concentrate, you are dividing your mind here and there. And you don't know even, you are not enjoying the moment. By switching off, you are going to switch on your inner sense when you are your own now with your inner sense, then you enjoy it. I like the sound of that. Switch off to switch on. Indeed. That's powerful. Thank you very much. Thank you. For example, many people, if you ask them the question, how many colors we see here? Just here we see. Have you noticed how many colors? They say, oh, no, I don't know. No, now they will start looking. Oh, there's this gray, that one, and this. I am starting to do that, actually. Alhamdulillah, why? Because we are not aware of our surroundings because we are not connecting with ourselves. But once you connect with yourself, then you can see the minute details which are surrounding you. You can enjoy them. You are building relationship with your creator, not only seeing even sounds, how many voices are here. When you connect with yourself, then you will be able to say, okay, I didn't notice that this is existing. So now you are enjoying the company of your surrounding. Is that when Imam Ali, alaihi salam, that's the state he was in in his prayer, switched off, and then he was injured and they had to pull out? Indeed, indeed. So that's another benefit of Salah. I think the struggle which this individual is facing is because maybe, maybe, the upbringing was a kind of wrong upbringing. If we force our children to pray, they will not like it. But if we nurture them to love the prayers, they will enjoy it. If we teach our children to know what they say, they will enjoy it. Most of us, unfortunately, we don't know what we say. It's Allahu Akbar, Sami Allahu Liman Hamida, and so on and so forth. What's the meaning of this? Sorry. So we need, in order for us to enjoy our Salah, to know the meanings of the wordings of Salah. And then to try to ask the question, why these actions? Why Qiyam standing? Why Ruku bowing? Why again standing? Why Sujood? Why these actions? Today when we try to find the similarities with other people, recently, for example, the discovery says that Muslims, when they pray properly, they will be kept away from back pain. Why? Because there is sort of an exercise of the back and so on and so forth. Maybe we didn't know. We just pray. So if we ask the questions, why and the benefits which we'll see there, nobody will stop praying. So when we hear stories, for example, this Imam used to pray thousand rakah per day. We wonder, how did he manage to do that? Of course, with Mustahabat on Islamic ruling, when we pray Mustahab recommended prayers, you don't need just to be in one physical position for you to stand and do Ruku. You can do it while driving. You can do it while mounting on a camel. You can do facing any direction. It's fine. You can even pray by just saying the words. So we need... How does that work then for people who don't know? Riding a camel. Yeah. For example, riding a horse, riding a camel, you are just going with your business. Then here you can imagine, okay, now I'm strutting my Salah Allahu Akbar. The horse, the camel faces different direction. Just continue. So it is kind of vicar. You are mentioning Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and remembering him. This will make you to be in constant communication with your Creator. I heard that there was a famous, well-known devout scholar, and he was exiled from his own country, so he was living in somewhere in Europe. But he had never lived in a society like that, where people dressed the way they did, the absence of hijab and the absence of modesty, male and female. So to protect himself spiritually, he would have his zikr beads if he had to go to the shop and he would be making Salah on his way to the shop or anywhere to do his necessaries and back, just as a protection. For him to be able to live. Continuous prayer. So these techniques are very important. Now coming back to the issue of Salah again, most of the time we see, especially the young ones, they may reject to pray, especially on time. They find it is a struggle. I think the parents need to come into their lives and to explain why they did ask them to pray since when they started praying, because of the benefits which will come afterwards. There is a belief which says when we die, many people will struggle at the time of death. But at the same time, those who are paying attention to Salah, they will find it easy. And at the time of death, it is the time when we need to find peace. So peace will come if I have lived myself this way, that I have made myself to pray on time, constantly remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. There will be no regret, because I will say that I have done what my Lord wants me to do. And finally on this particular point, we need to start teaching our children Salah when they are very young. The Holy Prophet says from age seven, ten when they become ten, then of course, for boys it becomes like wajib. It's not wajib until they go to the age of Bulu. The question here is why? When they start there, when they are very young, it will become easy for them. Sometimes even for those who observe fasting, you find a boy, young boy, a young girl, and then you know that they are observing fasting, especially in summertime. Then you wonder, how did you manage to do that? They say, well, I'm used to do it. It's easy for me. Why? It's because they started when they are very young. When children are very, very young, they love Salah. I remember my children when they were small, you know, they always want to come and pray and put down a mat. But when they get older, you know, take a little bit more gentle encourages. I think children get false hope that they're very young, right? So we have a call. Yes. Sister Zahra from London. Welcome Salamu alaykum. Wa alaikum Salam. So you have a question for us? Yeah. Thank you so much, by the way, for answering my call. I'm really loving the show. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. So I'm from a non-religious family where we're just Muslim by name. And I was never really fully taught the concept of Gusul because we never prayed. I mean, like the only thing, what did you practice we did was fasting. But I looked into Islam at the age of 20 and that's when I started fully practicing it correctly. But I fasted for all these years, but I didn't have the knowledge of Gusul. So does that mean that I have to do my fasts again? Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Yeah, Allah. Thank you very much, sister. This is one of those problematic questions. Amongst our scholars, they are those who say if you miss to do something correctly, which is connecting with your Salah, when your Salah is void, you have to repay all the Salah for all the period when you did something wrong. And there are those who say, well, it's fine. So long as now you know it, you can start from now to pay attention to the issue of Gusul, for example, this question from our sister. So to be on the safe side, what I can say here, sister, you need to refer to your marja. And when we say marja, we mean the person who is a jurist, you follow on your Islamic issues. And the jurist will come and say, OK, it's fine, or it's not fine, you have to repay, and so on and so forth. So this is to be referred back to the marja. That makes sense because it's quite a difficult situation, isn't it? The children aren't raising that environment, and then they learn later. It's very difficult. So I just wanted to ask about the mental side of Salah because there's outward actions which we learn from the textbooks which are taught by people that take the time to teach as a result of parents or somebody who's dowed us or whatever the scenario is. But there's an inner aspect of the Salah which is very difficult in terms of not thinking about my pin number and memorizing my shopping list and stuff. These distracting thoughts often come, and people talk about them coming into the mind. So it's praying outwardly is OK, but inward devotion, concentration, like maybe inwardly the soul isn't facing the qibla, the soul is facing the dunya, but the body is facing the qibla. How do we attack this? Very important point, and I think on the basis of the hadith from the Holy Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam where he says, As-Salaatu Mi'rajul Mu'min, Salah is Mi'raj. It's a sanction of a believer. It raises me from one level to another for me to be able to understand my Lord that he deserves to be worshipped. It's not jannah in na'arah, paradise and hell. No, he deserves to be served. He deserves to be worshipped. So once I come to know that then it will be like Salah, it's not for Allah. Salah is for me, and not only just for me. In order for me to be a perfect being in terms of my Salah, I need to pray, because otherwise it will not help me. So I need the way of achalak approach to this Masala Fikia. Some scholars say, Salah starts from the time when you perform your wudhu. When you wash your face to say, I'm cleaning my face in order for me to face Allah, I should also clean my heart from envy, enmity, hasad and so on and so forth. When I'm standing for Salah to say Allahu Akbar, it means that I say Allah is greater than anything else and I need to pay attention to that, not to pay attention to any other thing. Allahu Akbar, I pray to Allah, I'm facing towards Qibla, meaning that the whole dunya is back. It's only Allah who is in front of me. I don't pay attention to whatever is surrounding me, it is Allah. Sami Allahu Liman Hamida, oh I start with Bismillah and Surat al-Fatiha and so on and so forth. I'm conversing with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. If I understand what I'm doing, then nothing will be greater or bigger than Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. I will continue to pray. It will come to a point where I will say, I don't want to finish my Salah. I'm just going to ask you. So somebody who's a Mu'tmin, a true believer, what is their prayer like? So we hear the people that we relate to on what's on for dinner tonight, I've got to do this, all your chores, I have a listing on your hands. What is the prayer of a believer? Not even I'm a lay Salam, but an ordinary person who's a devout believer in Allah. Is their soul singing? What are they going through? What's the beauty of the prayer? I think the list I can say is that they enjoy the moment of Salah. One Alim said, if you come to a point of remembering that you are Musalla, the place where you are standing to pray, that this is the only thing I possess in this world. And always you remind yourself about that. Then it will bring peace of the mind, peace of the heart. You will not fight with anybody because this is what I possess. If I want anything, I'll come to my territory, this Musalla, for me to say, Ya Allah, give me this. Ya Allah, don't give me this. And when I say Alhamdulillah, it is only belongs to Allah. Who is Rabbul Alameen? So you will see that the true believers, when they pray, they enjoy the moment of their Salah. And number two, that awareness standing in front of Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, it makes them not to want to finish even their Salah. Few things can be seen from the believers that when they pray, you can see that there is something fresh from their faces, from their hearts, from the way they mingle with people. Why? Because Salah has changed them. And it is this kind of Salah we need to go into rather than to make it a mechanical issue and just to talk about Fiki issues. There is more than Fiki and mechanical issues to do with Salah and that is spiritual. Inna Salata Tanha Anil Fahshah Iwal Munkar Salah keeps us away from indecency and evils. Why we see now today many people who pray, they do a lot of bad issues. It means that they don't understand their Salah. Their Salah is not okay. Tanha Anil Fahshah Iwal Munkar If they pray properly, then there will be no other problems within the communities and so on and so forth. And this is what we need to end to. So just on that point Shaykh, because we're coming to a close, but just really wanting to get your take on this before we finish is that for those people who know how to pray, but are still as we're all a work in progress, we still can benefit from continuing to go back to mastering our Salah, to try and put some light in our face and keep us away from the shameful deeds. Indeed, Salah, even if we don't see the benefits of Salah in terms of changing our lives, we still need to continue. It's like when I come to your house, brother Bilal, I knock at the door one time and I wait. Can I just go and say, well, I knocked the door and he didn't open for me? I'll keep on knocking at the door until you come and say, okay, what can I do for you? With Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala He gives us moments. For us, we can go and knock at his door again and again until he allows us to be there as the guests of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. So we need to keep it up, continue pray, until the time will come when our maturity and our learning will make us to understand the Salah more than the way we understand it if we don't pay attention. So I was going to say about this particular person, so they should continue to pray, not to give it up, and pray that Allah gives them that response in terms of the peace and connection they may feel. Yes, indeed. And maybe just to add to what the brother has said there, he needs to try to understand the meanings of the words which he says in Salah. He needs to ask those who are closer to him, can you pray for me too? Because I want to enjoy my Salah, but maybe something is stopping me. Pray for me. If there is a mother there, he needs to go closer. Mom, please pray for me because I don't enjoy my Salah. The prayer of the mother is so important. If the father is there also, and mu'minin and mu'minah, he needs sometimes to give Sadaqah. These are for his own benefit. And he will be insha'Allah ta'ala rewarding. Insha'Allah. Wow, I look forward to having a little bit of this here. This was a powerful morning. Thank you so much. Thank you very much.