 Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala ashraf al-anbiya'i wa al-mursaleen. Sayyidina wa maulana wa habibina Muhammad. Sallallahu alayhi wa salam. Wa ala alayhi wa sahbihi wa salam tasliman kathira. Salamu alaykum everyone. Alhamdulillah. It's good to be back here with all of you on this blessed day. The second day, official day of Rajab. Alhamdulillah. The blessed month of Rajab has entered. I pray to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala that all of you are doing well and are keeping safe, inshallah. So we're going to just pick up from where we left off for those of you who are joining us. We are reading from agenda to change our condition. It is a text. Alhamdulillah. And last time we met with two weeks before we finally finished chapter three. So today we get to start on chapter four. I'm going to go ahead and screen share inshallah so that we can have some slides to look at and we'll go from there. So bismillah. Give me one moment. I will do that. Alhamdulillah. All right, there we go. So here we are chapter four. Now this is the chapter four as it stated exercises for attaining taqwa. So we covered taqwa earlier in the book just defining it and that was in I believe it was chapter one. It was taqwa, it's definition and benefits. But now we're going to talk more about the practical application how what we can do to attain taqwa. So let's go ahead and get started with the slides here. So this is just a summary of what the what this chapter is going to cover and actually I'm going to read more from the text today. I don't the slides are going to compliment what I'm reading, but there's a lot of text in this chapter. So I'll be reading quite a bit, but here right away in the beginning it says what follows which is this chapter is an agenda which is Latin for a set of things to do. So they're going to introduce a series of exercises designed to help achieve taqwa practically through protective vigilance of the eight inroads of darkness to the heart. And this this includes prayer, tongue, eyes, ears, the stomach, private parts, hands and feet. And so there are sections throughout this chapter where we're going to inshallah as we read along will get to but for the first part before we even talk about those inroads we there's just a lot of commentary here. So I'm going to go ahead and read from the book after they mentioned these eight inroads. They say that the duration of each exercise is 40 days. So basically practical exercises to do but you have to commit to doing them every day consistently for this period of 40 days. And this is based on the verse of the Quran in which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala promised to meet Musa alaihi salam after 40 days. This respite of 40 days enabled Musa alaihi salam to prepare for that August meeting in his commentary. Imam Asawi states that the complete service of the servant toward his Lord and the gifts that result from his Lord are completed in 40 days. The meaning of this comes from the following hadith. The Prophets like some said that the completion of vigilance on the borders or that is 40 days. So these inroads are at the borders of the heart and this technique has proven effective for many people if done for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala it will benefit the one who uses it to achieve taqwa. So we know there's a lot of you know self help books and programs that also emphasize the importance of committing to a practice for some say a month some say 40 days some say longer than that. So there's definitely an idea that if you want to create new habits you want to change bad habits or get rid of bad habits that you have to commit to doing something for a long period of time and this is also one of the great benefits of Ramadan. Of course we know Alhamdulillah whether it's 29 or 30 days just having a consistent practice every single day of fasting. InshaAllah we're doing all of our prayers we're reading extra Quran and doing the vikr and maybe inshaAllah we're doing other charitable good deeds throughout that month. What we arrive at by the end of the month is that it's quite possible to do because we've done it and so that will help you inshaAllah whenever you get those thoughts and ideas from your nafs or shaitan that you know you can't commit to something or it's it's too much of an effort I don't have time. These are a lot of common things that people will say to excuse themselves but once you actually do something for a consistent amount of time it helps to overcome those weak points and inshaAllah take on really good practices. So they go on to say read through the eight exercises and look deep within your heart of hearts to determine your areas of weakness. All of us of course are on different paths so everybody is going to have different things that they need to focus on for instance you may not be disobeying a law with your feet or your private parts if that is the case and there's no need to do the exercises corresponding to those areas however you should maintain vigilance and continuing to guard them. So inshaAllah if you if that's just let's say you're married you're inshaAllah in a good relationship you don't have that fitna of you know the many people are tested with and you're in a committed relationship so in that case inshaAllah you're safe from from that from from that fitna you don't have to do those exercises however continue to of course do whatever you've been doing to guard yourself right. If you find that you have weakness in the other five inroads then determine which is the worst for most it will be the tongue and that's really important for most of us you know again if you look at the slides here you know it includes the eyes the ears the hands the feet the stomach but here they're emphasizing that for most of us likely the one that we have the biggest problem with is the tongue and of course there's many hadith that also confirm that what gets most people in trouble and actually takes them to the hellfire is what is between the private parts and the tongue essentially the mouth lips right so these two areas are what gets most people in trouble and many other hadith that also confirm the same so then they go on to say make the commitment to guard all of these inroads but take the tongue as your first exercise and commit to mastering it every day for 40 consecutive days. The reason for practicing only one exercise at a time is the tradition of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam who said this religion is accommodating and no one attempts excessive strictness in it without it overwhelming him. And again such a beautiful and hadith that really we have to internalize and understand the wisdom in it. Shaitaan some people for example they assume that Iblis only inclines us to evil which of course is true but he also knows our nature and he's aware that we burn out quickly so sometimes he may overwhelm us with wanting to do too much so having too many goals all at once can also be something that he inspires us to because he knows it's like the pendulum right you're going to swing one way really fast you'll you'll you'll go back the other way and so we have to take heed of this advice to not overwhelm yourself to take your practice easy and rather than trying to do all of the exercises simultaneously to really thinking of it more like incrementally like once I once I you know master this part and I can be consistent then I go to the next and the next just for again ease inshallah and to be motivated and to prevent that burnout from happening they'll go on to say that announce to your friends that you are committing to this path and that you need their help. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says he says we'll help one another with righteousness and taqwa and do not help one another in wrong doing and aggression and this is in chapter 5 verse 2 so again a really important reminder here that if you wanted to be serious about your commitment to your spiritual ritual your spiritual path your ritual practice but sometimes you do need to send those little memos out to friends and family like listen I I'm going to be doing this and I really need support encouragement please don't when you're around me for example you know don't do this and you can get into specifics depending on your relationship or you can just keep it pretty general and just say I will be working on some really intense spiritual you know endeavors or efforts and I need support and help and then you know at that point inshallah they should hopefully respond with encouragement and be there for you so that you don't feel like you're doing it all by yourself. They go on to say we must take this verse seriously and express a deep desire to better ourselves and true friends will support us initially we are shocked to find out that it is very difficult to break bad habits of many years but rest assured it is possible Allah does not ask of us more than we are able to bear we can conquer these bad habits and destructive tendencies many great men and women of the past and present have gone down this road and arrived at its destination in a medic entitled his book on what the the well trodden path if others can overcome their bad habits we can as well and should derive from their examples of strength and courage once we've mastered the first exercise we must be vigilant and maintaining it and move on to the next most troublesome trait it may be for instance the eyes or the ears we should practice each exercise until we are ready to commit to the next and again the advice here is that start with the tongue but then go in look at the list and figure out what is next and if you know we're being honest with ourselves especially now in quarantine most of us are likely not going to places where there were inshallah we're engaging in Haram because we really can't go very far but so that might not be something you're being tested with right now but remember we have these devices what we're using right now all of us to be tuned into each other to connect with one another that is a portal to the entire world so even though our feet are not walking to different places we are still able to navigate this thing called the Internet and access a lot of things that obviously go through our eyes and our ears so paying attention to what we're consuming via those inroads right and then also extending that to other media that you're listening to or watching if you're on your televisions a lot Netflixing or watching you know different shows and programs or films or YouTube accounts or you know tick tock I know it's very popular and a lot of people spend hours and hours on there or Instagram if you're just consuming all of those things you have to take inventory of what are you consuming isn't beneficial knowledge are you looking at images of people in inappropriate clothing and I think again in our society some of us have become so desensitized to just seeing skin that we may not think of that as being harmful but if you're watching for example programs and shows where they are dressed you know inappropriately or revealingly and you're consuming that it is affecting you or if you're listening to anything that has foul language or just ideas that are also problematic then that's also affecting you so taking inventory of those inroads is probably more relevant right now as we're in quarantine then then again the feet and the hands of course we can also talk about what are we doing with our hands that may be problematic you know if there's any violence I mean would be the first thing that comes to my mind may Allah protect us in our homes and our families but if you have a habit or a problem of striking anyone in your home this would certainly apply because our hands are not meant to harm that there are a lot of you don't harm people so we have to really fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and if you have at the habit and many people because these things are usually cyclical they find that you know homes where this type of abuse or just physical you know abuse occurs is usually because individuals were also victims of abuse so they just repeat those cycles but you can break the cycle inshallah and with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's help by just realizing this is not there's immense accountability and punishment for harming innocent anything anyone innocent and we can go into more detail about that maybe another time but just the point I hope is clear that if you really are paying attention to yourself and taking that inventory you can determine what are you doing with these limbs that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given you these gifts that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given you that you shouldn't be doing and for everyone that's going to look differently right so then they go on to say excuse me I lost my space here in no way should we completely ignore the others while focusing on one Allah commands us to guard all of our limbs at all times but in order for us to keep from being overwhelmed we should focus on one exercise at a time if we focus on one at a time it enables us to be more vigilant about the others obviously our bad habits stem from our own heedlessness therefore as we become more conscious of our behavior in one area we will do so in others as a result if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wills we will see the results immediately but we should take heed as Shreyfan increases his efforts in proportion to ours also a really good point to be mindful of the more we make a concerted efforts to correct ourselves to get closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the more Shreyfan will try to attack us and bring us further back because obviously he doesn't that's his ultimate objective right so he's not going to sit back and just watch he will try to persuade you to go back and default to your bad habits to give up it's too much or possibly even push you into something worse just because he overwhelms you so you want to be very careful not to overwhelm yourself and that's really the gist of that advice if we focus on one at a time it enables us to be more vigilant about the others obviously I'm sorry I already read that if Allah wills we will see the results immediately but we should take heed as Shreyfan increases his efforts in proportion to ours he will work on our hearts and try to instill pride in us for our efforts he will attempt to make us think we are better than others for struggling with ourselves we must not succumb to these whispers and we will hear them that's also another important point so there's two directions this could go he could try to dissuade you from continuing your path by just making things seem way too harder than they are or he could fill you with this pride and arrogance because now that you're taking on the spiritual practices more regularly you suddenly start to feel more superior over others so to be very mindful of our thoughts and the path of self-effacement for the sake of Allah demands that we view everyone is better than us the Muslim should never elevate himself over anyone in creation even if we maintain humility we must remain vigilant because shaytan will endeavor to make us feel pleased with being humble the path to taqwa has many pitfalls according to the Quranic narrative shaytan swore an oath regarding this path and he says I shall lurk in ambush for them on your straight path then I shall come upon them from before them and from behind them and from their right sides and from their left sides and you will not find and you will not find most of them grateful and this is in chapter 7 verse 16 to 17 subhanallah so you know this is he's laying it out he's laying out his plan on how he'll attack us and then that last point he you know he's very firm and his opinion that we are ungrateful which is what he says here or which is excuse me let me just read that again I don't want to misspeak here and you will not find most of them grateful yeah I'm not sure if that's actually the words of Iblis speaking or if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is just making that comment clear that we because in other verses this is also repeated that most of us are ungrateful so just yeah I'm not sure about that I can look into that for next time but for now it's a pretty clear mean he's laying the plan out right then notice that he says that he will lurk in ambush on the straight path and he's unconcerned with the wayfarers on a crooked path more over he does not say that he will come from above or from below the secret in this is that revelation and guidance come from above and by maintaining a state of humility and keeping our foreheads to the ground we open our hearts to the guidance from above Allah has not given shaitan authority over the guidance of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam or his humbled servants who follow that guidance so some how he's he's quite weak he cannot overcome if you truly committed to the path and following the process and he cannot overcome he has no authority over that guidance right subhanallah this is the ancient heroes journey and successes by Allah not by deeds but by grace alone is this achieved we must see our progress as to fiqh providence from Allah which means our gratitude must increase the spiritual growth occurs it cannot be done without effort but it is not effort through which it is done subhanallah that's really important we can't arrive at these destinations spiritual destinations without putting in the effort but it's not our effort that takes us there it's really is from again the providence of Allah that's to fiqh Allah is giving us success he's facilitating he's drawing us closer use bifocal vision to see paradoxical truth and submit to it let us keep our eye on the goal ahead let us constantly remember our mortality and know that we will be considered among those who reached the goal before us even if we die before reaching them this is why we pray cause me to reach the righteous and this is chapter 12 verse 101 so that was the commentary before we even get into the next section on attaining so there's a lot to digest there but a lot of great advice about basically pacing ourselves being aware of our thoughts making sure that we don't let ourselves get too carried away where we start to get prideful of any progress we make and that we attribute our progress to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as success only comes from him alhamdulillah so now I'm going to change the slides here inshallah to the next section which is exercise one and this is on guarding the prayer and likely because the section is quite long we're going to stay on this until for the rest of the the evening because it's a pretty long section before we get to exercise two which is guarding the heart the tongue excuse me so on guarding the prayer of all the actions that a Muslim will do in his or her life none is more important than the five prescribed daily prayers it is the central pillar that supports the entire edifice of Islam the Quran defines the believers as follows. Those who believe in the unseen and established prayer and from what we provide for them they give out thus prayer is mentioned immediately after belief it is a believer's expression of gratitude to his Lord for consciousness itself the gift of life and awareness a divine tradition which is hadith Qudsi related by Imam al-Hakim on the authority of Aisha radi Allah and has states. There are five prayers that Allah has ordained for his servants whoever dutifully undertakes them without belittling the right they embody in any way he has a covenant with Allah that he will enter him into paradise. Commenting on this hadith Imam al-Munawi states the use of the definite article in the in the prayer indicates that what is meant is the complete prayer which fulfills the pillars near integrals confirmed Sunan recommended matters and all the other conditions of the prayer. There is no doubt that the one who fulfills this will be a true believer he is someone who would avoid the prohibited matters and fulfill his obligations. He would engage his soul in the obedience of his Lord indeed Allah says in his book that was revealed to his ennobled servant surely prayer prevents anything foul or indecent that's chapter 29 verse 45 anyone who possesses this state is worthy of being spared from the punishment of Allah and of being given the garden without any accounting and Allah knows best so that was the commentary from from Imam al-Munawi on this hadith Qudsi about this covenant that Allah Subhan Allah has made with those who pray and take seriously their prayer and are dutiful to their prayer that he that they will enter paradise Subhan Allah may Allah accept all of us in that amongst that group inshallah Allah also says in the Quran surely prayer has been prescribed for the believers at specific times. This is chapter 4 verse 103 he also says seek assistance with patience and prayer and surely it is a difficult matter except for the believers that's in chapter 2 verse 45 so all of this I mean it's pretty clear right we're talking about guarding the prayer and how do we guard the prayer we have to first and foremost prioritize the prayer I was just in another event prior to this hadaqa and I just shared some words and reflections I also shared a quote that I'll read in a moment from this text but I spoke just about the importance of really having the mindset that I was we were all created for one purpose and one purpose only which is to worship Allah Subhan Allah so nothing else should proceed the prayer the prayer has to be our top obligation or our top objective every single day when you wake up or when you're planning your day if you're not factoring in your prayer you're not setting alarms for example for Fajib and then you wonder oh I'm struggling with Fajib well if you're not setting an alarm or doing your due diligence if alarms aren't working let's say you know you have a phone alarm and it's not working you still you know let it snooze and then it's then you need to get creative and figure out something else maybe it doesn't need to be right by your phone but by your bed there's many people who that's been effective just moving the phone and keeping the alarm super loud but away from the bed which forces you to get up right if it's right next to you it's very tempting you know to just hit snooze and go okay five more minutes and then how many times has this happened to all of us right you do that it's a trick of shaitan and all of a sudden it's two hours later and it's bright bright broad daylight outside and you're like what just happened I just will you know I swear it was the alarm was just ringing no when you're in that state you're you're not of your mind so you have to think before and plan ahead and that's why just a simple adjustment with you know getting a new alarm system or having some sort of a plan with your family member who maybe they have an easier time waking up for a fudger or they can help you or a friend if you live by yourself but you got to just show your sincerity to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala I've talked to many people who they just kind of act like you know it's fudger is really hard for me and they'll say comments where it's like they've given up already and they've just accepted that that is the prayer that is just too difficult for them they cannot do it but that's not showing real real sincerity you're not guarding your prayer if you're going to give up like that you got to really go to the whatever lengths you have to to fix the situation and of course ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for Tophir throughout so that's the most important thing prioritizing your prayers making sure that before you schedule something you know there's times people want to meet you there's times you have appointments for like the dentist or the doctor I have to go pick up this medication I have to go do this run this errand you have to factor in the prayer first before you make those plans otherwise you how many again times have people fallen into this trap of letting life like living their life and then the day of when they're out the door oh no I don't have will do oh no I don't know where to pray oh it's okay I'll just pray it when I get home that's what is that doing that's not showing any responsibility and I used an analogy recently too just talking about if any of us got wanted to get a job and we applied for a job or we got hired let's just say we got hired for a job and the job description was very clear like this is your task you have one task you know let's just say you know you're an accountant okay and you have to you know just do the run the books right every single day set at your computer from this time to this time but this is your job you have no other job nobody wants you to do anything else don't fax don't print don't email people just sit and do this right if that was a clear description of your job but then you're not doing that job and you're doing everything else right how long what would we last in that position we likely wouldn't last at all we like to be fired pretty quickly but all of us out of this generosity is giving us time and time and opportunity opportunity to keep fixing ourselves to waking up to not getting distracted by life and forgetting what we were created to do and so you gotta have to look at that here we are created to worship Allah but how many of us fail in fulfilling the most basic obligation and not basic as in I mean basic as in this is the most important fundamental thing that we have to do we're not fulfilling it but then we're doing everything else and we make excuses well I had to take this you know had this appointment I had to do this for work I do this for school my child needed to me I need to talk to my kids teacher and we make a lot of excuses not realizing those are not part of your job description right your job as as insane as a human being is to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and nothing should get in the way of that so really having that paradigm shift where prayer really is my my priority in life and if I don't I'm not going to worry about hurting other people's feelings or being you know or anything else I'm going to schedule my prayers and then everything else can fall in into the schedule afterwards but I don't put everything else in and then go oh yeah what about prayers that's not the right priority right so that's you know the the most important message from this first section and then you know emphasizing the importance of time of understanding that prayers have times that are set out and spread out through the day and there's incredible wisdom in that we are very forgetful and I mean subhanahu wa ta'ala we forget a lot of important things it's just human nature to be forgetful and so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knowing us he knows that we need reminders to remember our job our purpose our function and that's what prayer is is set to do and it's also an opportunity to remember to call on him that this life is difficult we're going to be challenged we're going to have health problems we're going to lose people we love we're going to have tribulations that come maybe from places we just wouldn't expect them people are betrayed all the time in this life from the closest people to them and it's very painful and it hurts but if you know that you have this consistent something consistent for you that your heart is attached to and it's never failed you and it's always been there and it's always been a refuge for you the prayer it makes life easier because people will fail you people will disappoint you point you people will hurt you but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doesn't ever do any of that and so that's one of the most important reasons to also understand the wisdom of him giving us these prayers throughout our day so that we're reminded you're not alone you have a refuge ask right almost probably wants us to ask of him and so they mentioned again the importance of respecting the prescribed times right of the prayer now on the next page for those who have the book I'm on page 44 at the top we have some more commentary here inshallah still on the prayer it is one of the extraordinary insights of imam manik that the first section of his muwatta which proceeds even the section on ritual purity is on the times of the prayer so before he even talks about will do he's talking about the times of prayer now let's see why it is the times of prayer that obligate purity observing the times of prayer is the first thing we do when we wake and the last thing we do before retiring to bed it is done in the middle of the day and it is and in its decline it is an unrelenting reminder of to whom we belong why we are here and where we are going subhanallah so beautiful I mean that's it think about you know when we wake up inshallah we're thinking about fadr prayer when we go to sleep we've just prayed Isha and we're hopefully setting our line our alarms for fadr prayer so we're constantly mindful of times inshallah we're praying all of our prayers on time but I love the beautiful eloquent way with which you know he described why it's this unrelenting reminder right of to whom we belong subhanallah we belong to Allah and that is why we are placed on this planet and this earth we are placed here to worship him imam manik continued and he he wrote I heard from nafi who heard from ibn umar that umar ibn al-Khattab radi allah on him wrote to all of his governors saying the most important of your affairs in my view is the prayer whoever protects it and observes it carefully is protecting his religion while whoever is negligent about it will be even more negligent about other things subhanallah I mean that's just such a perfect advice that if you don't prioritize your prayers everything else will just you know you'll you'll fall through you'll fail because you're not even prioritizing the most important thing you were meant to do so how would you be responsible in other areas right you're just going to start becoming negligent about a lot of things about paying your zakat or just eating the halal or your fasts making up prayers that you missed just other responsibilities that we all have in our homes to our parents to our children to our loved ones to our teachers we just start getting really we slack off right and this is the nature of the human being you get into bad habits and it just kind of starts to have this ripple effect and unfortunately that just becomes you know who we are so we want to seek refuge in Allah from that and so he's giving us advice that get the prayer right and he's writing to his governors and to me that's really also a really important point because you know most of us we have our you know our families that we we we we're in charge of and we we protect and we take care of and then we have our work and maybe some extended family members so it's like you know small in turn in in in contrast to someone who's in a public office position right a governor I mean to consider how many people are under their care not just their own families but you have entire cities or states or what have you so for him to give this advice that you know he's saying very clearly the most important of your affairs in my view is the prayer he's telling them that you know don't prioritize your work and this is a good message for workaholics out there or mama holics or a dad a holics or whoever brother a holics whoever it is that you are prioritizing you know and we do this subconsciously sometimes you know you're up at night working on your project for work and you're so stressed out and you issues in but you're too tired and you're just like it's okay you know no you can't prioritize your work projects above worshipping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and so again this advice is for it for all of us to remember that nothing precedes our worship so don't make excuses I have deadlines I'm I'm worried about this X Y and Z pray and inshallah watch how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will facilitate your affairs for you but if you don't then be prepared for a lot of failures may God protect us so we're still on page 44 and they go on to say this is advice from the man he's they're talking about and said now I'm on for the Allah and home so this is advice from the man whom Satan completely avoided so if our mother went down a path shaitan would take another route and we know that right he was afraid of them surely remaining in a state of purity and being regular in prayer will keep shaitan away from us and this is also you know the advice that we have about keeping your will do being consistent in your will do does attract the angels and repel the shaitan so that's just another you know little side note there but it's important to to keep in mind because in order to facilitate your prayer you also have to you know think smart not hard you know you sometimes people think of they don't plan in advance they don't really think about how to make the prayer easier for example keeping your will do as a rule or trying to always maintain will do no matter what and especially before you leave your house like that should be a written rule somewhere in your mind as I at least that you know I don't leave the house without Lou because then if you happen to find yourself in a situation when you forgot to pray and have that you don't have to worry about scrambling around trying to find a bathroom to make your will do and or you know thinking about oh no it's so dirty in public bathrooms we know are just not clean most of the time so you're removing that burden by keeping this rule that I don't ever leave the house without will do and also being mindful of how much you're drinking if you do leave the house that's also a personal rule of mind I try to be very vigilant about how much I'm drinking because if I'm going for example my family and I would like to sometimes go to day trips to San Francisco and other local beautiful sites and when we get in the car sure the kids will have little snacks and we'll you know I'll have our drinks but I always am mindful to remind myself and them to slow down don't drink too much because we need to keep our will do we don't want to be out and about and oh I have to again use a restroom and now now I have to worry about will do for the next pair because likely we're not going to be home it just gets too complicated but if you make these little practical adjustments and rules for yourself you're making it easy and inshallah you won't have problems you'll be able to pray and everybody everything will be fine inshallah but it takes that type of effort and mindfulness and practice to get there so the ritual prayer is the believer's protection and connection with his Lord the prayer is a science and an art that takes many years of serious and vigilant practice in order to arrive at its true reality the first and most important matter is to learn its form this involves studying a valid text from one of the canonical schools of Islam with a teacher who is licensed to teach the section of the rules of fiqh jurisprudence so when seeking a teacher keep in mind the hadith related by Imam at-Tirmidhi and others that the great scholar Ibn Surin said sacred knowledge is the essence of religion so let each of you examine well whom he takes his knowledge from so finding a teacher that's amazing to see how they're we need to learn how to do the prayer correctly so studying the fiqh of prayer and of course we know there's four schools of thought in this Sunni Orthodox Islam and so we have you want to find a qualified teacher who studied the fiqh of the jurisprudence of one of the four schools and ask them to teach you the next stage is to be vigilant about ritual purity Wudu and Hussal and about the avoidance of urine and any other impurities Najasa be sure to study both the section on impurities and the section on purification according to the great scholar and a reviver of the last century Imam Muhammad Maulud Ali Yaqubi the rules of prayer should be reviewed every six months in order to keep them fresh subhanAllah that's advice for all of us to take some of us may have learned that these rules when we were younger when we were children or maybe later in in our adolescents or young adult stages but as we grow the mind of course we know can be for you know we can forget and so it's important to renew our whatever we've learned and to to go over those rules just to make sure that we're not forgetting finally let us all heed the advice of the great Moroccan scholar Sheikh Abdulrahman Al-Aqdari who says in his text on the prayer and so now this is going to be a quote from Imam Al-Aqdari the prayer contains a vast spiritual light that radiates in the hearts of those who truly pray but it is only obtainable by one who has humbly submitted himself thus should you come to the prayer empty your heart of the ephemeral world and what it contains and occupy yourself with vigilant awareness of your master for whose sake you are praying firmly believe that your prayer is humility and a basement for the sake of Allah exalted above attribution is he by means of standing bowing and prostrating moreover it is a form of reverence and magnification of him by means of saying Allahu Akbar subhan Allah and other general remembrances thus guard your prayer as it is the greatest of all acts of worship do not allow shaytan to play with your heart and preoccupy you during your prayers to such an extent that he blinds your heart's eye and deprives you of the pleasure of the spiritual lights of the prayer therefore have constant humility in it for surely it prevents you from committing foulness and misdeeds because of that very humility in it seek help from Allah for surely he is the best of those whose help is sought so that was the quote of Imam al Akhiri alhamdulillah so many gems and beautiful points there but really just to remember what is the point of the prayer the point of the prayers to connect us to Allah subhan Allah to show our humility to him and to really rid ourselves of the filth of this dunya to stand before him and abject humility and to ask of his forgiveness for our you know our misdeeds and our sins and all of our transgressions and to ask for guidance so they're so it's a process it's not just a robotic event that takes place five times a day where we get up and speak in a language we may not be fluent in or know and we're thinking about you know our day to day activities and that if that's your experience that's normal people we all struggle with with intrusive thoughts during prayers this is very normal so it's not you know we're just speaking about the ideal the ideals that we want to pursue in prayer the perfection of prayer is to stand before Allah subhan Allah totally focused aware of him and really in that impoverished state because that is the point it's to show our reverence our need of him our just complete you know we're lost without Allah subhan Allah and that's what the prayer should reflect is that you're aware of that you need him and so martial beautiful description there the duration of the exercise for the prayers 40 days we should stipulate with ourselves that for 40 consecutive days we will pray all five prayers at their respective times without missing one while fulfilling each prayers conditions pillars near integrals and recommended acts if any of the prayers is not prayed on time then we must start the 40 day period over subhan Allah that's that's intense but this is again this is the purpose of this whole text it's changing ourselves it's transformation and so you want to look at it like that's that's a pretty big you know goal but it's it's definitely attainable and there's people who've done this and so how should you do it you know do you have a journal do you have a record you have some way of keeping score so that you can see did I do my prayer on time did I fulfill all of the requirements of this 40 day challenge and if not then you're you reset you go back to day one so I think it's it's really great you know because a human nature we are forgetful but at the same time when the consequences are so severe we tend to be more mindful so the fact that you're aware of having to go all the way back to the starting point by one misstep one misprayer should be inshallah the reason why you have so much more presence and are so much more aware and inshallah will succeed so I think it's a really brilliant way of doing this the exercise may take the exercise may take a long time to complete but this is the struggle of the believer so we should never despair for a man this exercise is preferably performed in congregation and preferably in the mosque but due to the fact that many people in Western countries do not live near a mosque that is not always an option if one can pray at least the dawn prayer and the night prayer in a mosque and the reward is greater a family is counted as a congregation therefore it is important for a husband wife and children who are seven years of age and older to pray together in the house if congregational prayers are not held in your area so I think that's really great general advice but also really does apply to all of us now we most of us are still not able to go back to our local misadjid and so or if we are the times there's a lot of restrictions there so this is a really good advice about just starting to do these congregational prayers in your home with those conditions of children being seven and older and making that the habit and this you know it's really again it's just it's relevant because so many of us this could apply to and it's easy for us to inshallah people are working from home I know with my family and from enough for the most part we try to do our prayers always together because it's we're all here and it's just makes sense that way so the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said if people knew what was in the congregational prayer they would attend it even if it meant they crawl subhanallah they just visualize that for a moment you know people crawling to the masjid just because they want the reward because they're aware of the reward right but we we're we're not told that the specific reward but in many ways we are told the reward just by virtue of these words we can understand that there is immense reward in going to prayers inshallah that are congregational in the masjid and this is you know more so for for men it's certainly required more than for women the early companions also said that if someone did not attend prayers in the mosque regularly without a valid excuse they considered him to be a hypocrite Audhu Billah a sure sign of hypocrites is that when the prayer time comes in they are lazy and procrastinate until the time is almost out Audhu Billah may Allah forgive us right and you know when we hear these words I know they can sometimes you know be jarring because you don't ever want to think of yourself as a hypocrite you know and many people are really trying their best and so sometimes we fall short and these words we shouldn't take them to shame to shame to you know to make us feel bad and and so ashamed of ourselves that we don't even think there's any point no that's from she thought it's just a matter of we expect we you know we should do better we can do better so it's really a matter of trying to encourage all of us to do better right so this is a chapter 4 verse 142 if they get up to pray they do they do so sloughfully right so that's stuff will again the sign of someone who has any factors that they don't pray with that you know this is what I have to do this or that resolve isn't there they kind of drag their feet to the prayer so we should be mindful is that how we approach the prayer where it's like as if we're being tortured all the time this is a meeting with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and yes maybe physically we're tired we're exhausted where we just want to sit around and do nothing but the prayer is not that you shouldn't target the prayer with those feelings right that's it's not the fault of prayer coming in that you should feel that way towards the prayer it's that you are maybe need to readjust your schedule maybe you're not sleeping enough maybe you don't have the time management so that when a prayer comes in you feel burdened by it but if you were more organized you would just see it as something you have to do and that you want to do and inshallah you don't have that attitude towards it let me see the time here so I'll read okay I'll read the last section it's just one page and then we'll stop for questions and inshallah will be ready next time for exercise to guard the tongue so this is the remainder of the section the three prayers that require special vigilance are the dawn sub the midday asir and sunset so the dawn is also fudged right some people miss the dawn prayer out of laziness or too much activity into the early hours of the morning it is sinna to retire at night after the night prayer is performed and there is great wisdom in that practice as in all of the prophetic traditions the midday prayer is probably the middle prayer that the Quran warns us of when Allah subhan that it says be vigilant about your prayers and particularly of the middle prayer and that's in Surah Baqarah chapter 2 verse 238. So Imam Malik following the opinions of Ali Rabiullah and Ibn Abbas and considered the middle prayer to be the dawn prayer so the fudger the hadith in Abu Ghraib mentions the midday prayer as the middle as the middle prayer and in some ways the middle prayer is like the night of power it is hidden within the prayers so we should be vigilant about all of them subhan Allah so you can see that all the scholars on them I had different opinions about which prayer does this verse apply to right be vigilant about your prayers and particularly of the middle prayer it's like a little clever as the text mentions we don't quite know which night of Ramadan is like a little we have an idea some people assert certain things but we really don't know so in the same way this verse about the secret or you know the superiority of the middle prayer is also unknown to us but mashallah there's great wisdom in that because and to me it makes perfect sense perhaps it was revealed we would we would only focus on that prayer and then not do well and the other prayers right subhan Allah or not or kind of slack off on the other prayer so I think there's just immense wisdom in it being a secret that's something we should pursue inshallah so so I'm just checking my messages here I have a message from brothers and I want to make sure I'm not missing anything one moment please okay so then we have the next section that the sunset prayer has a very short time in which it must be performed whereas the post meridian prayer and the night prayer have longer valid time frames and are more flexible for people's schedules should people need to delay them which is also another mashallah such great mercy from Allah's father knowing that the daylight and times when people work and so he's given us these longer windows right upon faltering in an exercise we need to levy a self-imposed penalty to discipline the nefs such as spending in charity or fasting it is also better to do this with others as a way of enjoying each other to righteousness and so if you are doing this practice of trying to commit to your prayers for 40 days and let's say you miss a prayer in addition to having to go all the way back to step one they're suggesting that you set up another system of you know sort of a penalty for yourself so that you know not to let your nefs get the best of you again you can do that for by yourself or with a friend once we're performing the five obligatory prayers with regularity then it is certainly worthy out it is certainly worthy worth our efforts excuse me to begin increasing extra prayers especially the late night prayers the Hajj late night prayer is one of the defining qualities of a saw to have a righteous person also called a wedding a friend of Allah regarding the late night prayers for the Iyad said that if a man was unable to do them it was due to his wrong actions during the day may Allah make us the fitting to stand before him here and in the hereafter I mean I mean I mean so so many wonderful just like I said gems throughout this portion and of course throughout the book but that last point about you know really trying to perfect our prayers because again people who are tuning in maybe at different levels so if you've arrived at that place of of really taking your five daily prayer seriously then this is the next level which is committing to the Hajj prayers and also if you're consistent with your Tahajjud prayers and you miss them then you should certainly take yourself into account what did you do during the day that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with held the Tahajjud prayer from you as as in some way you know a bit of a punishment right or a penalty what did you do during the day so everybody is at different levels but I think this really speaks to all of us that when Shala we have to find where we are in this you know in trying to fulfill this this exercise and in trying to perfect and guard our prayers inshallah and and do what we have to do so may Allah give us all to think that was the end of section one or exercise one on guarding the prayers in two weeks time we will go over exercise to which will be guarding the tongue and the other sections that follow so I'm going to see a brother Salman told me a couple minutes ago there were no questions but maybe now that I've opened up or I'm opening it up I should say there will be so I'll just wait for him or let me actually stop the screen share and I can also check come to do that so let's see we have a few minutes inshallah we can hopefully address anything that needs to be addressed I'm on Facebook I don't know where you are Brother Salman if you are on YouTube on Facebook I don't see I just see Mashallah salam thank you Benjetta Harrison Mashallah salam aleykum aleykum salam and ecchi I want to say or ecchi I don't forgive me if I'm pronouncing it wrong but thank you for your salams alhamdulillah I don't see any questions there and brother Salman is also telling me no on YouTube as well so it's a quiet night maybe alhamdulillah thank you for tuning in everyone it's always a pleasure and an honor to to do these gatherings with all of you and alhamdulillah we're getting we're making way through this text so inshallah we'll hopefully be getting through it or to the end of it soon but thank you for your patience and thank you thank you so much Latanya thank you aleykum salam Avion I see some lovely comments thank you shahnaz juzak ala khayran Mashallah you guys are so kind to leave comments and Dua's amin to all of your Dua's thank you so much we'll go ahead and end in Dua inshallah and we'll see you in two weeks SubhanakAllah huma wa bi hamdika shabwan la ilaha ila antara astaghfiruk wa natsubu ilayk Bismillahirrahmanirrahim wal'asir illa linsan ala fi khusr illa ladina amin wa amin asfali hati wa tawasaw bil haqi wa tawasaw bil sabr amin amin wajbain juzakum ala khayran again everyone have a wonderful remainder of your evening inshallah and we will see you in two weeks