 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله رب العالمين ثم صلاته والسلام على أشرف الأنبياء محمد وآله الثيبين الطاهرين اللهم صلى على محمد وآله محمد دير بيورز السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته once again it's an honor to be amongst you discussing the holy verses of Quran and we ask Allah سبحانه وتعالى by the blessing of أهل البيت عليهم السلام and the shrines of Imam Hussein علي السلام أنا بالفضل عباس عليه السلام to bless us insha'Allah to learn more from Quran and to enlighten our hearts with the teachings of this holy book insha'Allah as you have followed us we have started Surah Al-Baqarah we talked about بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم ذالك الكتاب العريب فيه خدا للمتقين and then we mentioned that the book of Allah سبحانه وتعالى it's a guidance for the pious individual what are the characteristics of those pious individuals we start listing them we discuss about الذين يؤمنون بالغيب those who believe in the unseen ويقيمون الصلاة ومن ما رزقناهم ينفقون and they maintain the prayer and spend out of what we have provided for them we started this discussion within the previous episode insha'Allah we will get into it more and we will discuss it because Salah and Zakat basically Salah and Zakat which is both mentioned in here it needs good 1 to 2 or maybe 3 episodes because of the importance of Salah we can summarize the mission of the prophets starting from Prophet Adam وعلى نبينا وعلى سلام all the way to our Prophet Muhammad we can summarize their mission into 2 objectives all of them came with all the little details and all the teachings that summarizes into 2 objectives 1 constructing and rectifying the relationship between man and his Creator all about and believing in oneness of Allah all that relates to this it comes under the category and under the umbrella of constructing and rectifying the relationship between man and his Creator the 2nd objective is constructing and rectifying the relationship between man and other men basically between the people and how we should treat one another this is what is the teachings and the religion especially the religion of Islam if we look into it we see either the actions that we have been obliged to act upon them categorizes and wants to again construct or rectify some relationship between us and Allah سبحانه وتعالى as our Creator or Originator and other for example زكات which we will mention it is about relationship between other fellow human being so the manifestation and the epitome and the embodiment of this relationship in the Quran which is between man and his Creator it is symbolized and the embodiment of this relationship comes into be called prayer what we do and the daily basis 5 times a day so that's the embodiment and the manifestation and the epitome and embodiment of the relationship between man and other fellow human being it's considered under زكات and giving and looking after others need so this is the general idea شاء الله first of all we start الذين يقيمون الصلاة before we talk about صلاة and then we come to يقيمون صلاة in the Arabic language صلاة before Islam the meaning was as a prayer not as a dua supplicating blessing someone was considered the definition of the word صلاة but after Islam the meaning transferred from general dua general prayer to these specific actions that we undertake on a daily basis 5 times a day so for example if we go with the general meaning we see in chapter 9 verse 103 where Allah says to Holy Prophet صلى عليهم إن صلواتك سكن لهم والله سميعهم عليهم pray for them do dua for them your dua your prayer your blessing is comfort to them and Allah is all hearing all knowing so again that's the general meaning of the word صلى the second verse that also talks about the general meeting is chapter 2 verse 157 where Allah says أولائك عليهم صلوات من ربهم ورحمة وأولائك هم المحتدون it is they who receive the blessing the dua of Allah and His mercy and it is they who are the rightly guided so in these two places that صلى has been mentioned it has the general definition which is the dua supplicating blessing someone however as we mentioned after Islam the usage of this world changed to a specific act which we take every day 5 times in the morning تورك أه ضغر تورك أه عصر فورك أه مغرب ثليرك أه فورك أه and the way that we do صرات الحام ده ركوع and سجود this is this then after Islam the meaning changed to what we do as we said is the bridge and is the connection that an individual connects himself to his Creator and it is a continuous connection it's not once in a lifetime or maybe once a year connection no on a daily basis this Creator this bliss the blessing that we have upon us amongst a countless blessing from Allah سبحانه وتعالى that He has allowed us and He has given us a form and a structure of how to play to Him how to communicate with Him how and why and what He wants us to say for us to communicate with Him so it has many lessons in it so number one it is the continuous connection with the Creator every day in the morning noon time مغربا أشاطه and then it teaches us that we should bow down and prostrate to the Creator and no one else and we should not prostrate and bow in front of the idols nor any tyrants nor anyone who is an oppressor this gives us the feeling that we are above other creators we have this honor we have this blessing of communicating with Allah سبحانه وتعالى and that by itself should discipline us that by itself should elevate us that by itself should bring our demeanor and our characteristics in align with what Allah سبحانه وتعالى wants us to be with those two people who already been on the right path as the example comes from the البيت عليهم السلام where they example Salah as basically a well back in the days where Imam says if a person had a well outside his house because you know back in the days they didn't have the luxury of having running water within their house and pipes and so on and so forth they had to commute maybe every block or every 15 to 20 to more or less they had one well people used to come and take well to their houses for their washing and so on and so forth Imam says imagine if you had a well outside their house and every day you would wash yourself 5 times in that well would you be dirty anymore again think of this back in the day in Arabian Peninsula with the dirt and the dust and so on and so forth so Imam brings example keep that in mind 5 times you are cleansing yourself and 5 times you are purifying yourself not physically which is very very important but emotionally your soul is being cleansed and we see it very very important especially starting the day I listened to a lot of TED talk for example and all of these or other talks that they talk about the western speakers that they talk about self-improvement and motivational speakers they try to enhance people's behavior and for them to achieve higher goal the always majority of them if we don't say all of them unanimously they say that you should start your daily routine with 5 to 10 minutes meditation whatever they say whatever religion you have start with some kind of meditation well 1400 years ago when nobody thought about it Allah سبحانه وتعالى starts your day with a meditation you go throughout the day with a lot of challenges come again meditate again you go through a lot of challenges and difficulties and you might be deviated you might have done something come back again meditate come to yourself be present and communicate with me ask for me and I will provide so we need both cleansing the beauty of it has the prerequisite of it is a physical cleansing that we have to make sure we are tahr that we don't have any of the naja'as on our body washing our face washing our hands wiping our head wiping our feet make sure the place that we pray so it's all about cleaning physically and then when we start بضو by itself not only clean cleanse our physical body also it cleanse our soul and then when we start the same thing so that is as far as the word and then insha'Allah we'll talk more about the importance of Salah and what we learn and how should we look toward Salah in Quran let's go to the the word before Salah which says يقيمون الصلاة the pious people where Quran is guidance for them after believing in the unseen which an example of one example the best example of which is Allah SWT which a believer a pious person believes in that unseen which is Allah SWT the second characteristic is ويقيمون الصلاة they maintain and they establish prayer we don't see in the Holy Quran where Allah SWT says صلو or يصلون or اقرأ الصلاة read صلاة no establish صلاة يقيمون is something completely different than okay go ahead and pray no establish and that again a person if he prays once in his lifetime or once a year maybe some people when they remember Allah SWT time that they remember Allah SWT is the month of Ramadhan and when it comes the night of Qadr the night of power okay let us pray it's only once a year maybe during the month of Ramadhan maybe one night that he feels good about and he prays he is not يقيم والصلاة he is not اقام والصلاة he is not maintaining and establishing صلاة rather he is a moussald he has prayed once but Allah SWT says those who maintain and establish prayer which is very very important that we see prayer and our perspective toward the prayer should not be as a burden some people as soon as they finish prayer they say okay let me just move on with my life no if we see within the life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad SAW he states when the time of Adhan comes he calls say our Salah is our comfort when we go through the difficulties and challenges the time that we are at peace the time that we are comfortable and the time that we gain that tranquility as a time that we are praying so we have two perspective one perspective that we see as a burden time comes okay let us pray and move on other perspective is I keep looking at my time okay I schedule my meeting everything around the time of Salah episode we'll talk about it how can we make it as a culture for the importance of Salah as a culture rather than something that we must do and if we don't do it we've been said when we were kids if you don't pray you might be destroyed there's no such thing as being destroyed physically if you don't pray so we have to start having the culture of the importance of Salah that we wait for the time of Salah comes why because that's the time again we communicate with Allah سبحانه وتعالى how to concentrate in our Salah that's the question that I have received every city every state every مسجد حسيني أمان بارغة every gathering that I have been youth adult people ask me how can we concentrate in our Salah we need consultation we see as soon as we say Allahu Akbar our minds go when we were right and left and we think of everything else suddenly we see ourselves as we say السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته we pray and so on how can we gain that so for us to be concentrated in our Salah it will be in the next episode we will conclude this episode with praying for the for Allah سبحانه وتعالى سبحانه وتعالى أجل الله which again it is the most important that we must continuously and sincerely genuinely ask Allah سبحانه وتعالى بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم اللهم كل وليك الحجة ابن الحسين صلواتك عليه وعلا بائه في هذه الساعة وفي كل ساعة ولين وحافظة وقائدا وناصرة ودليلا وعينة حتى تسكنه وردك طوعا وفيها طويلة برحمتك يا أرحم الرحمن