 Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, alhamdulillahi rab-alameen wa sallallahu wa sallim al-barak ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi al-salim, rab-e sahbihi al-sadri wa salli amri, wahl al-uqtatim al-lisa'in, fqawqawli wa sallallahu wa sallim al-barak ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi al-salim, alhamdulillahi, salam alaikum, alhamdulillahi wa sahbihi al-barakati, alhamdulillahi, hope everybody is doing well. So inshaAllah we'll go ahead and resume these classes and we've been talking about practical spirituality and today it's a really, really important topic and the topic is on salat and on ritual prayer. What is, what exactly, why is ritual prayer and salat so important and what are the inner dimensions of ritual prayer? So we spent time maybe seven to eight weeks ago talking about how consistency in vicar and consistency in worship is really, really important and so now we're going to spend time talking about specifically the way somebody forms a connection to Allah swt via the prayer. So we'll go ahead and dive in. As everybody here knows the prayer is the first primary command after someone enters into Islam. Allah swt mentions in the Quran often establish the prayer. He's constantly telling us to establish the prayer and so somebody of course the first pillar of the religion is to take the shahada, to bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah and that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is the messenger of Allah and then from there it's about the prayer and the prayer cannot be emphasized enough that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was always talking about the prayer, the prayer, the prayer. He would tell people to not leave the prayer. He would tell people the importance of praying on time. He would tell people the importance of praying at the beginning of the time. He would tell people the importance of focusing in the prayer. He would tell people the importance of making sure the outward actions in relation to the prayer were correct and he would tell people to make sure that the inward actions in relation to the prayer were also correct, which is the focus. So the prayer has two aspects to it. There is the outward form. So you actually saying knowing how many units of the prayer there are let's say for Fajr, two rakat, two units of the prayer and then there's the form you say Allahu Akbar to enter into the prayer. You say the thana subhanakallahu alaykum wa bi hamdik, then you say the Fatiha and so on and so forth. You make the ruku and the sajda, all of those are outward forms. Those forms are not going to benefit somebody if they're not accompanied with the inward realities of the prayer. What is the inward reality of the prayer that we are standing before Allah and that he is watching us as it comes in a hadith of Sayyidina Jibril alayhi salam that he is conveying to the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi salam. So this is the archangel Gabriel telling the Prophet sallallahu alaihi salam and he asked the Prophet sallallahu alaihi salam about Ihsan. Ihsan is this idea of spiritual excellence. What is spiritual excellence? And the answer is that spiritual excellence is to worship Allah as though you see him. But if you do not see him to know that he sees you, that is spiritual excellence. And so the prayer is the vehicle by which the Muslim attains this state of spiritual excellence. You can be a Muslim your whole life and not even ever taste spiritual excellence. And someone can enter into Islam and immediately begin to taste spiritual excellence. It all depends on how many gifts Allah wants to give that person. But there are stages of Islam. You have the first stage called being when you submit to Allah at the basic level and it's called being a Muslim. And then you kind of essentially in a graduate you could say in a very, very basic way, right? To a mu'min, to a believer. And then you can go beyond that to being what's called a mursin, to being what's called a person of excellence, an accomplished person of spiritual excellence where now you start to think about, you start to have such a strong certainty in Allah that it's not just about the following, the specific motions. You actually understand the meaning behind the motions. You're actually tasting a relationship with Allah. You're actually experiencing a relationship with Allah. You're yearning for Allah. You are actually wanting to get closer to Allah, right? And then and when someone wants to get closer to Allah, Allah begins to know that you cannot desire to get closer to Allah. Allah does not desire to get closer to you. Impossible. Allah puts the thought in your mind first that I want you to become closer to me and then you say now I want to get closer to Allah. And so it's this beautiful relationship that someone begins, right? Where Allah is pulling them. It's like a magnetic connection. Allah is pulling them and pulling them and that person is moving and moving and they'll be slips and they'll be ups and they'll be downs. But at the end of the day, it's all part of this journey. And the vehicle to attain that state and the vehicle for that journey is the prayer. That's the vehicle of the Muslim, right? In addition to that, we have the other pillars, zakat and so on and so forth. But the primary vehicle is the prayer. You give zakat once a year essentially. You fast Ramadan and fasting is obviously critical for a month of the year. Somebody is praying five times a day at minimum 365 days a year. So you're talking 1000 plus prayers that they're doing throughout the course of a year. And that's again, if somebody is just doing the basics and not doing extra, most people at some point will have an extra prayer here and there for specific needs. So prayer is the connection to Allah. That is the connection to Allah. And Imam al-Hadad, he's emphasizing the importance of this connection. This is the meeting. God says, you have needs and I'm aware of those needs. But here's your meeting point with me, right? And now you get to express the needs during this meeting point that every believer gets to express the needs, the meetings, right? If somebody had, if the president of the United States were to set a meeting with somebody and say, hey, be here at this time, right? Let's say he gave you a window, be here between 2pm and 3pm and we'll have a meeting. Every single person, right? For or anybody else, they kind of in a position of authority, they said, and I'll give you whatever you want if you come to this meeting, they would show up like way early, they'd be prepared, they would wear their best clothing, they would make sure that they're very, very present, right? They might even bring a gift, they'll be there and then they'll have all their masks ready. And now this is the Lord of all of the presidents that there's ever been. This is the Lord of all the rulers that there's ever been and he wants to meet with his creation multiple times a day, more than once, five times a day. And he says, come to me, meet anything you want, you can have and follow these things, follow these instructions I've given you. This is how I want you to worship me, right? Just like if you are invited to meet the president or to meet some other famous official, there's a protocol someone has to follow, you don't just show up and, you know, wearing shorts and a t-shirt, that's not going to fly, they're not going to let you into the meeting. Everybody, there's a certain dress code and a certain protocol that's followed and then there's a certain etiquette of followed, okay, at what point does someone speak and even the way in which someone eats, there's a whole process that goes along with it. And we have no problem usually in these dunya circumstances, right, following that protocol, meeting with our boss, meeting with our, you know, officials, elders, whoever it is, we have a usually, we follow some level of protocol. Yet when it comes to the prayer, sometimes we tend to get very loose with it. Allah won't mind this, Allah won't mind that. No, Allah has set a protocol. Allah has set, this is how I want you to present yourself to me, right? In terms of the way somebody, you clean yourself beforehand, you perform the wudu, there's a freshness to the person. Ideally someone's in, they're nicer clothes if they have them, right, wearing better clothes when they're standing before Allah. And then there's a way in which Allah says, now this is how I want you to communicate with me. The belief, the Muslim and humanity can communicate with Allah throughout the day and that whatever format they would want, right, just talking to Allah, making du'a and so on and so forth. However, when it comes time for the prayer, there is a specific communication where God says this is how I want you to communicate to me, right? And you present yourself and he says, now you recite the Fatiha and the Fatiha is the opener. Fatiha, right? It means the opener. And Allah is al-Fatah, the one who opens. And so Allah, through the Fatiha, will now open up the door for access to him. Which is why the Fatiha, the Surah of the Fatiha is some of the most beautiful verses that we have, called the seven oft-repeated verses. And they are so powerful. And you'll see the people of Allah, they're always reciting the Fatiha. They'll do a du'a and they'll end it with the Fatiha. They'll begin something, they'll start it with the Fatiha and so on and so forth. And Allah, because Allah begins the prayer with the Fatiha and he began the Quran with the Fatiha, right? And so you and I start the prayer and we now, the opening begins. And when the opening begins, now the conversation with Allah begins. And even the way of the Fatiha, we're not getting into, obviously, into specific like tafsir here, but if you notice in the Fatiha, it starts by you praising Allah, Alhamdulillah, that all praise be due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. And then you mention more of his amazing qualities, Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim. Start of course with the Bismillah, Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim, in the name of Allah, the most merciful, the most compassionate. Alhamdulillah, Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim, you're praising him still, right? And mentioning his mercy. And then, you're mentioning what? Malik Yomeddin, that he is the owner of the Day of Judgement. Allah wants to remind you, all right? This isn't the life, it's not just about this life. So when you're caught up and we're caught up in our work, and we're caught up in our dunya, and we're caught up in all this, we come to the prayer, and remind ourselves, Malik Yomeddin, there is a Day of Judgement, there is a whole end to all of this, right? That's going to come. Then, you start in this kind of third person, where you're talking about Allah, and now you enter into direct dialogue with Allah. You alone we worship, you alone we ask for help. And so, the prayer begins in this beautiful praising of Allah, and now the direct dialogue begins, and now you begin to ask Him things, right? And you begin to say, you're the only one we worship, you're the only one in reality that we ask for help. Nobody can help us except Allah. And ask all the human beings in the world for help. They might be able to to make dua for us and so on, but they're ultimately only Allah can be the one who provides assistance. And then we ask Allah for help, with the most important aspect of help with it, which is to guide us to the straight path. And so this is how the prayer begins. And now all of these these these phrases and meanings and what not that we mentioned, we say these all the time, and I mean I'll be the first to admit we very rarely reflect on them. We just kind of just kind of quickly go through the motions, just so we can get it done, or because we have to move on to something else, right? And now the goal and what Imam had done in this chapter is trying to remind us too is hold on, hold on, the prayer is your vehicle to God. You got to you got to be careful, right? You have to, if someone is just like driving very very quickly, they're not going to observe every single thing that's going on around them. Right? There is a beauty in the journey and it's not just to try to finish, it's to try to now engage experientially with Allah. And this is where focus in the prayer comes. Khushu, it's called concentration and an awe inducing focus that somebody will try to have as they engage in Allah's worship. And so that's the first point, right? The prayer is our connection to Allah. It is our meeting point, it is our chance to express and to discuss and to express our needs. And when someone finishes the prayer, you and I get to sit and we get to ask Allah whatever we want. Right? And it's not a good idea to just quickly finish and just leave. How could you do that when you just finished, now Allah says, ask me your needs. Right? We know that comes from very Hadith, that dua, this is one of the times when we're supposed to be making dua, when we're supposed to be making a very general supplication for whatever we want after we finish the prayer. Right? And so salah is one of the ways in which we first express our humility, there's a lot of bowing, there's a lot of sajdah and then we express, we ask our needs before Allah. We literally hold our hands up like this and we ask Allah. And Allah is too generous that somebody has gone through this entire process and that he won't get. It's just on us though, are we going to engage? Are we going to do, are we going to follow the process? Right? Are we going to do what it is that Allah wants us to do? Or are we just kind of, kind of always be in a hurry? So the main thing then that we need to keep in mind is that the prayer is the most important thing that we can ever do in our life. There is nothing more important in our daily life, I should say. Right? Then praying to Allah. And Allah says it's more important than sleep. There's literally an adhan, part of the adhan of Fajr is a salah to khaydom in a nom. That prayer is better than sleep. Allah is like, I know these people are going to be sleeping and they're going to be tired and they're not going to want to wake up. It's in part of the adhan where we're told that prayer is better than sleep. Right? And so it's better than sleep. It's better than everything else that we might have to be, to do at the time. And Allah calls us, when he calls us to prayer, when he says, he also accompanies it with the khayyalal falah. It come to prayer and links it with falah, which does anybody know what falah is usually translated as? Success. Right? And this is an all-encompassing success. This is not only linked to success in the grave or success on the Day of Judgment, which would be sufficient if it was just that. This is all-encompassing. That you want success in this life. You want success with your goals. You want success with your health. You want success with your family. You want success with your social life. Every single thing you want success with, it's, you won't have it truly without the prayer. All of the quote, unquote, success that we see going on around us is empty if it's not linked to iman. It's not true success. The definition of success is success that is linked to iman. It's linked to belief. Right? It's all, otherwise it's vacuous. It's a vacuous type of material success and whatnot, but a lot of people, they have a lot of material success, but the heart's not content. They're not content. They're depressed or have significant amounts of anxiety and so on and so forth. Then there's people who don't have that much, but they pray and they trust in Allah and they're content or they at least have a very clear path towards contentment. So one of the types of success that someone will get is an inner contentment through the prayer. That the prayer is a means a la bi dhikr illa tats ma'inil quloob that verily in the dhikr of Allah is a contentment for the hearts. Calms everybody down. Okay. This is the dhikr of Allah. It will make somebody feel relaxed and will be in a state of tranquility. So then we kind of go on to if prayer is so important and it is the first path on the path of spirituality, then we have to wonder, okay, how important is it in our life? Do we prioritize it? Now what does it mean to prioritize the salah? It doesn't just mean to get it done, but that is the first step. We start with the first step to get it done at least and that means to get it done in its time. So we start with, okay, if we're not praying or not praying enough or we're missing certain prayers, we all know, hey, some of us might struggle with fajr, we might be at work during doha or whatever, and we might be missing things. Now the first step for the believer is, okay, how do I just get my prayers down? And until this is like the advice that the scholars give here is devote all of your spiritual energy to figuring this out before doing anything else, before reading any fancy books on spirituality and all these other things that the people of the nostics and the spiritual people experience, for all any of that, get the prayers down. That has to be the first step because Allah emphasizes it so much and we're not going to get into all of them right now because we want to kind of keep it uplifting, but there's very severe warnings for what happens when someone misses a prayer. Like the warnings are severe. That's such that the Prophet's Islam said, let the one who doesn't pray, they might as well and I'm paraphrasing the hadith, but what differentiates the Muslim from the Christian and the Jew is the Salah. They might as well be from a different faith if they're not praying. Right, the warnings are significant on what happens when someone doesn't pray and the first thing someone is asked about, right, among the first questions is about the prayer. Did you keep up the prayer? And so there's a lot of, sometimes conversation, well, someone, you know, I'm not going to pray, but like I give a lot of charity and I do this and I do that all the prayer, the prayer, the prayer, the Prophet's Islam emphasized the prayer. Shahada, Salah. All right, the pillars, this you start with the foundations, you and I cannot build a house of spirituality without the foundations being right. It doesn't mean that we negate all the other things, Alhamdulillah. If somebody is doing a lot of other good and they haven't gotten the prayer down, we work on helping ourselves and helping them get the prayer down. But we definitely do not live, we definitely try our best to not live a life where we deemphasize the importance of the prayer. We trivialize it, right? And sometimes that does happen in these days where the prayer is kind of trivialized and pushed to the side. I go, I have work, I have to go to a, you know, it's my wedding day, I don't have to pray, you know, it's too difficult, a lot of stuff going on. It's on my birthday, I have something else to do. I get just like a lot of things, oh, I don't have to pray today because of XYZ reason. No, those are the days the days of importance when someone should be thanking Allah because for some people, the prayer is a means of asking and saying, Allah, I need this and this but for the greater ranks, it's a means of just saying, thank you to Allah. Ya Allah, thank you for everything that you don't owe me anything and yet you gave me so much and this is the least I could do to just say thank you, at least just to follow what you have asked me to do and actively at the end, thank Allah for his blessings, right? And so someone will travel through the different stations until they get to the point where they thank Allah and they pray extra to thank Allah. This happened to the messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, where one time that he was he was resting and he was with, I say, the Aisha, radiAllahu anha, our mother, the wife of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and that he asked her that, you know, is it okay with you if I, you know, spend some time with my Lord? And he's the Prophet, peace be upon him, he doesn't need to ask anybody permission but he has adab and he's asking, he wants to show us his Akhlaq, right? That he is his Akhlaq, I should say rather because the adab at the end of the day is that he is the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, but he has this beautiful character. And so she says, of course, Yadusullah, I wish to be near to you, I wish that you and I are close, but of course, you may, you may, you know, do what it is that you're seeking. So it's mentioned, he goes and he makes a light wudu and then he prays and prays and prays and he just, until he's just weeping and weeping and weeping and weeping and this isn't that the Hajj prayer, this is the night prayer. This is happening now, we're talking like, literally in the middle of the night, right? The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would pray this long night prayer and she asks Yadusullah, why are you weeping when Allah has forgiven all like everything it is that you have ever done? And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam can't make, he can't sin, he can't make these types of mistakes, but just like any spiritual travel that he went through and lower spiritual stations that he might have had before he attained the higher ones, Allah has quote unquote, forgiven all that overlooked everything it is that you might have done. And what's going to come in the future? Why are you crying and praying so much? And he said, that should I not be a grateful servant? And Olam Yaqun abdun shakura, that should I not, shall I not be a grateful servant? And his whole prayer was just expressing gratitude to Allah, that he was weeping and weeping, expressing gratitude to Allah for all of the blessings Allah had given. Right? And so again, this is among the higher stations that somebody will reach is that they want to pray simply out of being grateful to Allah. And so yes. And he asked her if, you know, yes, a permission if he could do some prayer. And she answered. She said, I want you to do as much as you can on this. Right. Right. And so she was, she was supporting him in this. This is the way the Prophet ﷺ is showing us the spousal relationship that they should, you and I, that we should assist each other, assist our spouses and the spouse should assist the other spouse in helping them get close to Allah. Right? Reminding first and that becomes at the first level, making sure, hey, there are the prayers going on. Right? That a relationship that's not rooted in the prayers where both people discourage each other or don't encourage each other is not going to be a relationship that ends up in a positive spiritual light because the foundation is missing. The foundation has to be the prayer. So then we understand kind of what how important it is and how important it is to make sure we do it. Right? To just get the prayer done at minimum. Then he mentions that the Prophet ﷺ mentions the importance of praying not only in its time but at the beginning of the time. And so that he comes in a hadith that the superiority of the beginning of the time assigned to each prayer over its end is like the superiority of the hereafter over this world. It's amazing that praying at the beginning of the time, let's say a doher comes in like 12, 20, 12, 30 and it goes to right about 3 p.m. that praying in that early 12, 30 to 1, 30 window is is like at versus complying right at the tail end of the door. Right? Post 2, 2, 30, 3 o'clock as you get really, really close to ussar is like the superiority superiority of the hereafter over this world. Now the whole Quran is full of all these amazing descriptions about the hereafter compared to this world. Right? Jannah and all these amazing descriptions of heaven and compared to this dunya. Right? Allah is constantly trying to encourage the believers to come to the hereafter and to think about the hereafter. And we know that this world doesn't mean much at the end of the day. But that's how that's how important the beginning of the time is. Now you could take a subtle indication that the one who is prioritizing praying at the beginning of the time is prioritizing the hereafter over this world. Right? Now there may be times obviously you have to adjust your schedule and whatnot and there is a window Alhamdulillah. It's not like the minute prayer comes in someone has to be ready to do it but they're except for like a prayer like Maghrib it's there's a short window. It's not like a very, very long window. For the sunset prayer but otherwise that we try to now prayer. So someone gets their prayer down. They understand the importance of the prayer and they say okay I'm just gonna minimum first I'm just gonna start praying the five. If I'm doing two or three I'm gonna try to get to four. And then if I'm doing that I'm gonna try to get to five. Right? And this means in its time not making not the not the not the makeup not the makeup life anymore. Right? We you we move past the like okay I'm gonna make up my prayer when I wake up. Like am I gonna pray Fajr? I'll pray it at nine o'clock though when I wake up for for you know that's that's that is a very, very risky situation to be in beyond a couple years when we're young. Right? We as we go older that's risky if we're in that if we're still in that zone. Right? As we kind of continue in our years because as somebody especially as someone's hair starts to gray and starts to whiten it's supposed to be a reminder. And okay now the hereafter is closer to you. Death can come at any moment but if you believe that old age is very much linked to death which it is for many people that death is closer to you than your youth. And so now somebody should ideally be emphasizing the extra prayers the hajjud and so on and so forth all these extra prayers versus just getting the basics down. So if we don't have the basics down we got to work on it. Right? It's very, very important to work on it. And it's possible for everybody but it is an important important thing. And there is nothing, nothing, nothing more important than making the prayer on time. Nothing. There could be nothing. People will if we have a flight at six o'clock in the morning the majority of people will set their alarm for three thirty. They'll be at the airport at four thirty. You know and they'll they'll absolutely make sure that they make the flight. And yet there is a flight that everybody is taking. Allah has invited you to take a spiritual flight every morning. The fajr prayer is literally the prayer that welcomes the dates. Amazing prayer. The angels witness fajr as mentioned in the Quran. Literally there's a spiritual flight that's possible to take every day. And we miss it. But if there is a if there is a flight that we have to take to get to the airport we're usually very, very timely about it. So those are the questions you have to ask. Imam Hadaad he encourages the believer. He says ask one ask yourself that if somebody were offering you a giant bag of money if you showed up for the prayer at the time. He's referring in this example he's referring to Jumma. But let's say to Fajr to Doha. And he says, yeah, yo if you show up to this prayer you're going to get a million dollars. Would that incentivize somebody to show up? And if that would incentivize you and me to show up and yet we're not showing up right now we got to ask ourselves why is the money incentivizing me? Right in a very, very real scenario. Why would that be incentivizing me? And yet the fact that Allah has promised me all these amazing rewards and I know that Allah wants me to do this and I also know the warnings and the punishment. If I don't do this why is the money incentivizing me more than this? So those are kind of mental questions that we want to work through as we go through this. So pray as soon as the time comes and then we work on ourselves to slowly and slowly pray closer and closer rather to the beginning of the time. The more and more we can do towards the beginning of the time the better that it is. The window exists but for Salat al Fajr we ideally try to do it not close to when the sun is rising. Right so like right now sun is rising like 725 or so. Ideally pre-7 am we try to for a spiritual goal we set for ourselves. Today we try to be complete with Fajr at 7 right ideally. Though we try to play towards the earlier hour or hour and a half of it and right now it's winter everything is short and the times when times are long there's a little bit more of a window. Right same thing with Asr Maghrib already doesn't have very long time. Isha is the one Salat where there's a lot more room because literally you have right now Isha is coming at 6.30 p.m. and Fajr doesn't come until 6 a.m. Right so like somebody just prays anytime really before midnight and you're generally going to be going to be good but we don't want to be like praying Isha at like 4 a.m. Right that would be I don't think anybody really does that. Right so that's that now somebody will notice spiritual boosts in their life when they do this. They'll notice spiritual boosts in their life. 100% they'll notice it because Prophet ﷺ told us how important this action is to pray and then to pray at the beginning of the time. And you'll see you and I will start to notice. So that's the the the kind of third step right first is realize the importance of the prayer. Second is to make sure we're actually doing the prayers at minimum. Right and then the third is okay now I got the prayers down humbly like someone's consistently been praying and now they're like okay how how am I praying at the beginning of the time am I trying to pray at the beginning of the time. Right and they're kind of prioritizing that as much as possible and again while being flexible with themselves in certain conditions sickness and work and all these are obviously they have there's there's flexibility given for that reason. But it should not be the norm that we are delaying too much. Right and if we notice ourselves this is really important to remember if we notice ourselves for a long period of time that there's certain prayers which we always delay we just prioritize those those ones. Right that how can I work on these for most people it's fudger for most people if Hamdullah we're praying fudger that usually it's the one that's delayed the most towards the end. Right and so somebody now starts to ask how do I slowly start to pray this closer to the beginning or the middle of the time rather than delaying it and you know where the sunrise is literally about to be right after we finish the salam right we want to slowly work on that because fudger is a time of tranquility and tranquility doesn't work well with haste it doesn't really work when someone's in a rush doesn't work so you don't want to ever rush your fudger you want to make a nice calm slow fudger right but that's after somebody gets it down and in the time somebody still doesn't have the the basic down you don't worry too much about the slow methodical the focus right now should be just getting it right and then we go through the process so after this maybe I'll pause here for any questions anybody might have and then we'll go to the next the next section questions questions online but how early I mean it's you don't have to if fudger comes in at like 6.07 today you don't have to pray at 6.08 you know but but like for example at the masjid they'll pray about 20 to 40 minutes after the adhan right depending on how much time there is so they'll usually pray 6.30, 6.40 right but usually a while before sunset such as you have time to sit do zikr make dua and so on yes it's a hadith it's a hadith yeah so it's a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ where he said that you're talking about the superiority of the beginning yeah it's a hadith where the Prophet ﷺ said the superiority of the beginning of the time assigned to each prayer over its end is like the superiority of the hereafter over this world and I believe there's another hadith where the Prophet ﷺ said that the best action is prayer in its time but I might be I might be misquoting slightly yeah does that answer the question yeah any other questions Bismillah another question somebody asked okay I get up at 4 a.m. is that okay so yeah you can get up whenever and you can pray you know tahajjud and other do other zikr but you can't pray a prayer early that's also important to know never pray a prayer early just it's just as bad as praying it late right you don't want to pray it pray it before the time is coming in fact it's worse than praying it late because you have no reason to pray it early right so you don't like you don't want to do is like oh I'm going to the mall today I'm probably not going to get the prayer and I got to leave though because someone's waiting for me let me just pray like an hour before it comes in we obviously I think most people generally kind of have that so yeah if you would wake up early you would just do that you would do extra prayers can I do istihara for something so if something is mandatory something has been mandated in the religion you would not do istihara for that specific thing because it's already mandatory so for example you wouldn't do istihara on should I begin to pray fajr you wouldn't do istihara on that right you wouldn't do istihara on should I pay zakat you wouldn't do istihara on should I fast Ramadan this year right if someone like has diabetes you would consult with a doctor and a physician like can I fast from a health perspective and maybe you do istihara on what's best in that situation because for a diabetic person fasting could be very very dangerous but you wouldn't do istihara in this case on something that is obligatory you would just ask Allah for assistance if someone is struggling with an obligatory act that you would ask Allah for assistance to help us in fulfilling that obligation right rather than like should I do this obligation or not okay all right think that answers most of the questions here okay yeah what are the nephos so last we're about to get into that so so then after somebody gets this step down the next step is right there's the four there's the basic fard prayers right you just have just the absolute minimum which is two for fajr four for lohar four for asar three for maghrib four for isha and then there's the sunnah prayers now these are in categories okay so you have the first thing somebody would do now okay you've gotten the prayer down then someone has gotten to down to the point where they're starting to focus on doing it you know in the beginning of the time and the next place where you exert your energy where we exert our energy should be to add the sunnah prayers in what does that mean that there is categories of sunnah there's what's called sunnah moakkada an emphasized sunnah an emphasized sunnah is a sunnah of the prophet sallam that has that is a very very significant weight very significant weight that there's a lot of reward attached to fulfilling an emphasized sunnah and so that's the next step and you want to you and I want to think about the sunnahs as kind of like basically like force fields that are that are protecting us more and more right so the fard prayer there is a there is a force field that goes around somebody right and then you add in a sunnah and there's a there's another layer and then you add in another sunnah and there's another layer and then you add in extra thicker and there's all the more thicker somebody does and in line with what the prophet sallam would want them to do in line with the sharia the more protection somebody has the more force and why why would you and I need these why would we need for a force field and protection one there's a lot of dark forces and dark energy out there there's a lot of temptation out there there's a lot of fitnah out there right so someone you and I will notice that if we're not praying we're very susceptible to sin because Allah says in the salat that in the prayer is a kind of a guarding a guarding against sin that it literally repels sin right so in the prayer is a kind of repellent for sin you know like mosquito repellent put on a mosquito repellent to stop the mosquitoes if you ever go into place there's a lot of mosquitoes the prayer is literally a sin repellent you put the you and I are praying when you especially when you unlock all five it's like there's a certain there's a certain shield that goes around the person all five are there now and now someone is going to be much more block doing sin and I think all of us probably have experience with this in our life right where we know okay there's a day I missed a couple prayers it's much easier to fall into sin much here a word slips out the gaze slips someone is angry with somebody someone yells at someone and just the day is not as spiritually comfortable and to the to the point where someone stops praying altogether it's much easier to fall into sin right it's much easier to fall into sin it's one of shaitan's main goals he usually won't get the believers to worship an idol or something like that but he will he can get us to slip up on our prayers so the prayer will do the first level of sin that's the farth prayer the next level then is guarded against by adding the sunnah prayers the sunnah the sunnah moakada I'm going to share at least in the hanafi school and the other madhhabs are pretty similar that the sunnah moakada is the two before fajr and we mentioned this I think like eight classes though two before fajr absolutely critical never miss the two before fajr ever if you can while you're traveling doesn't matter try not to miss two before fajr it's just two rakats very easy to do it's probably some said that the two rakat before fajr are better than this world than everything in it better than all the wealth better than all the the fame all the rich everything somebody would want in this world the two rakat before fajr are better and they take they're not they're very quick like that usually probably some would pray I think many times the short surahs in these rakats right so two before fajr absolutely critical then there is after after fajr there's no sunnah prayer then you get to dohr the four before dohr there's four rakat sunnah that somebody would do before dohr in some of the madhhabs it's two so it's four or two depending on you know whatever is whatever madhhab someone follows and then there's two after dohr two after dohr these are emphasized sunnah so once somebody has the basics down now it's okay I'm going to add in let's say I'm just going to start with the two after dohr maybe the four before dohr is too much I'm going to add the two after dohr right and then before asr there's not any emphasized sunnahs there's four there's four sunnahs that someone can pray but they're not at the same category as the other ones are mentioning then maghrib there's two after maghrib that somebody would do and then there's two after salat al isha and then there's witsar salat al witsar which is three for some it's two and one and others is just three right depending on the school those are the ones so now someone adds them in slowly okay I got I got my five down I'm going to add in the two before fudger alhamdulillah okay I got that down I'm going to add in the two after dohr cool I got that down I'm going to add in the two after isha all right that's good I'm going to try to get the two after maghrib you get that down now there's a lot of protection there's a lot of force fields around somebody right that's going to really help someone in their spiritual travel ideally they're focused but that's the next step we'll talk about in a second so sunnah will also they'll take the gaps of mistakes in someone's prayer so is anybody like watch sports here oh what sport do you watch all right so before before they play a game what do the players usually do but like even before that like do they just show up to the court and then they just there's a practice and there's a warm-up usually a little bit of warm-up right there's a little bit of warm-up in baseball there's the batting cages right there's there's something though that you warm up before game time that's what the sunnahs are the sunnahs are a little bit of warm-up before the game time all right so you're getting in the zone you and I have been thick in the world whatever busy with our jobs busy with our families busy with our lives and before we enter the big the main fard prayer there's a sunnah there's a sunnah prayer to focus to orient someone right and then after leaving the fard prayer there's also a sunnah to keep the momentum going and also for a kind of like a extra credit to fill in the gaps we might have missed in our main prayer because we all have gaps in our prayer think about lunch think about this so think about something and shaitan actually comes to the believer like the sheyatina shouldn't you say shaitan the devils they come to the believer at the time of prayer as soon as you enter prayer they make you remember something you've never would have remembered they've forgotten something and then like all of a sudden you're in the prayer and then you remember it that that's them they're working they try to make you know did you remember this you distract it and they just try to distract us yes yeah so the tips so the question was focus in the prayer so the tips that the scholars recommend is first if someone recites before entering the prayer you in addition to doing the sunnaz and kind of getting in a little bit of a zone actually even before that the scholars mentioned the key to focus in the prayer is focus in wudu this one surprised me I was like I'm still like struggle very much struggle to implement this but this is a very very important one because somebody who's focused in wudu what is wudu wudu is the purification of everything inside that everything that is being purified on the outside is also to help us then stand before Allah and the prayer will purify everything that's on the inside so the focus in the wudu which is like okay Bismillah I'm making wudu I'm washing my mouth of the sins I might have done I'm washing my face my eyes of the sins every single time someone makes wudu all the minor sins someone is committed they fall off the list so the scholars recommend start with focus in the wudu then to try to do the sunnaz beforehand if possible right to get someone in a state of focus and then the very very practical thing before the actual for the prayer is someone to recite qul audu bi rabbin naas surah naas that they recommend so before you right before you begin the prayer and you make the intention you say Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem qul audu bi rabbin naas ma lakin naas ilahin naas min sharil wa swasil han naas that you're asking for protection against whispers against the waswasa of the shayateen the whispers of the shayateen are usually the things that impact us right and then when you actually get into the prayer they'll still come after you but that's where you just there's a jihad there's a struggle right where it's not like the entire prayer always will be the focus so the the the step after surah naas the second step the scholars recommend is to try to make sure you are reflecting on the meanings of something so we might not understand everything we're saying in the prayer especially if we're Arabic is not our native tongue and I don't think it is for the majority of people here right like we don't it's not Arabic it's not what we all what we learn growing up so it's hard to know the meanings but at minimum we try to know the meanings of at least some of the verses we're reciting so usually everybody here knows the meaning probably of alhamdulillah right and if we don't the meaning is all praise be due to God right like you're thanking God you're praising God so at minimum we reflect on a few of the meanings of the fatihah let's say and the meanings will the light of the meanings is so powerful they shove off all the dark energy that's trying to come at somebody because they're such powerful meanings and if somebody focuses more and more they just begin to traverse all these amazing secrets and all these amazing spiritual journeys just in the prayer there's been people who are so focused in the prayer they're literally a building with collapse behind them they had no idea they finished the prayer and they were like why didn't you leave the building they're like what are you talking about like the building just collapsed behind you why didn't you like I have no idea I was praying before my Lord I had no clue there's there's people that mentioned the salaf that the early generations that mentioned have this much focus one of them they had to get their leg amputated and before they had what is that anesthesia before they had anesthesia he said get my said amputate my leg when I enter the prayer because I don't feel anything because I'm so focused right so there are people like that but just to get the main focus is that the meanings began can't begin sorry for those following along this thing is being really difficult um so the meanings who are the focus right then as soon as the thought comes of like oh this distraction this distraction you actively fight the thought right you say in your mind I would be lemon shaytan energy that I seek refuge in Allah from shaytan from the devil the repudiated rejected devil and you try to shove it off and it'll come it will be a struggle it's not going to be like easy but it's a struggle it's a struggle it's a struggle and then you reflect on the meanings when you go into ruku I'm bowing before Allah SubhanAllah be Al-Adheem that glory be to the most magnificent right and then you go into the Sajda and that is a very very important time to just reflect on humility before Allah and so the reflection here and we'll talk about this more inshaAllah a little bit today and then more in the next session as well that what are all the meanings of the prayer Imam al-Ghazali who is one of the most amazing scholars of this religion that that Islam has ever produced that he has a whole section on all the inner meanings of the prayer usually you and I learn on the outward rules of the prayer there's also inward rules right so each of those meanings inshaAllah will go through that will help somebody get in a state of focus so those are a couple of the tips does anybody have any other tips that they want to share on how to focus isn't it oh yeah please yeah good so the question is in tarawih can somebody follow along at the the translation in English so the for my Allah but the majority ruling that I've heard is no you cannot so you are and when you are in the state of prayer you cannot bring something foreign to the prayer into the prayer right and even the following along in Arabic there's there's strong difference of opinion some of them perhaps permitted some of them don't don't permit having holding a must-have in the prayer right we certainly do not want to be like following along like on our phones and a text message comes and we like kind of read it right we got to be we want to be focused so in that situation in tarawih the goal would be that somebody you and I might not be able to know the meanings but there's a lot of reflection that can happen just by hearing the Qur'an so one thing to remember the Qur'an is meant to be recited and what it but the power of the recitation of the Qur'an in Arabic is so strong that literally it can bring somebody from a state of complete darkness to just weeping for Allah and the reason I mentioned that is you'll notice in tarawih when someone is praying in Ramadan just behind the the Imam listening to the Qur'an or in other salas where there's a fair amount of Qur'an recitation going on that you're over the period of Ramadan your heart begins to get softer and you begin to actually like just like somebody if you listen to music and you hear the music over and over again in your head right or someone listens to some like a theme song or whatever it is and you literally hear it over and the Qur'an will begin to play over and over again in your head and the Imam the voice of the Imam will begin to play and that is doing wonders to your spirituality like amazing aspects so it's actually meant to be heard and now the it's in addition to the listening to the Qur'an yes the reflection of the meanings is another benefit however it is not the only benefit and that's important to remember remember in in this time so your heart and your spirit you and I have and sorry I'm getting kind of deeper in this question about the finish of it you and I have various layers okay so we have what's called the Qalb the heart the spiritual heart you have what's called the Ruh the spirit a love flows the Ruh into into everybody right so everybody has a spirit the animating spirit that you and I have once it's taken away it's literally pulled out of your body that's it the body is remains but the spirit goes and returns right another layer of it it's called the Sir the secret and then there's another layer called the Sir a Sir the secret of the secret and all of these layers have different and these by the way for anybody asking these are all Quranic terms all of this is mentioned in the Quran these are all these are all mentioned in the in the books of Islam I'm just in case anyone's wondering where we're getting this from so Mama Ghazali he classifies all of these different terms so now there is a speech for each of these so for the intellect and I didn't mention intellect the intellect this speech is the speech that you and I have okay we're like your intellect will understand English or or do whatever it is but the heart and the spirit they have a different speech and the Quran is speaking directly to the heart and so you'll see that the Quran has an effect on somebody and why is it that all of these people like in let's say I'm from Pakistan right all of these Pakistani people like know the Quran they memorize the Quran they're weeping over the Quran they don't understand a word of the Quran like how does that work because the Quran is affecting their heart it's going to the core and of course you strive to understand it and the effect will be even more potent but it's going directly to the Qalb and then there's it's working wonders in all of the other ways and it's unlocking unlocking unlocking different parts of someone's spiritual different different spiritual experiences inside of somebody if that makes sense there's a huge benefit just to listen to the Quran and understand a word of what it's saying is all this benefit if that is that does that help yes yeah no that is that is mentioned the question was that you know listening to the Quran is kind of just like playing in the background versus one you know what should be done out of other when when you're focused so yes the the primary time that someone should be listening to it is when they're focused what you don't want to do is like Quran is like playing as background and like you go to like the the the groceries the Muslim grocery store and it's just like playing in the background there's people talking over it you cannot talk over the Quran playing so like if you're in an instance where there's a family gathering or there's a couple people in the family the vacuum is going off and there's just a lot of other noise or you're talking to people yes the Quran is not the the form somebody would listen to you can listen to a talk or a nashid or something but not not the Quran but if someone is like let's say let's say someone's like driving right Bismillah right me yeah you're like on the road and you can you need to focus but you don't have to be like so intently for you can also have the Quran on so it triggers reflection right or just it benefits but generally when someone is doing other tasks or conversations are going to happen it is not a good idea it's not recommended and someone is actually doing might someone might think they're doing a good deed but this is an example of where that someone thinks they're doing good but they're actually doing bad because they're they're having bad etiquette with Allah's Allah's words the Quran is the uncreated speech of Allah it's very very amazing yes I might be distracted but you keep bringing your after thoughts back to your ideas so like I'm very grateful to you Allah like Allah like you be patient Allah like grant me whatever is I'm praying for like Allah increase my focus right like maybe choose a primary thought that you can keep bring your mind back to in prayer that's one strategy and then the other one that I find really is really helpful is also understanding the physical meanings of the actual physical movements of prayer so like when you when you do that feed in right like you're physically pushing everything else behind you and you're like I'm standing for Allah like nothing else is important like when you're in Rukul you're in a really vulnerable position like anyone become and like push you slightly you can follow over a lot of vulnerable for you right so just thinking through what can these physical meanings mean and they might be different for everybody and just reflecting on that motion of your body a lot of these are also like mindfulness practices really which drive themselves from like learning to be present in prayer but those I find also helpful yeah no exactly like I for mentioning for those following along online it was mentioned that each of the movements of the prayer have a special significance to them so while we're in this journey of trying to figure out how to focus in the prayer right in addition to trying to reflect on the meaning let's say you don't know the reflection the meaning the meaning of the word to reflect on the movements of the prayer when someone says Allah Akbar they're literally tossing the whole dunya behind them and standing just before their Lord when somebody is standing right you are literally Allah one day will have all of us stand before him on the day of judgment so the reflection is I'm standing before Allah just like I will stand before him on the day of judgment right and I'm standing before him in a very you're very vulnerable when you're like you're in humble rather in a state of humility you're literally your hands are like this but you're not like standing proud before him right you're very much standing for him in a state of humility somebody enters in a state of ruku as was mentioned that you're in a very very vulnerable state and you're literally bowing and then of course Sajdah is self-explanatory prostration right where you are literally showing your humility before Allah that there is I'm putting my forehead to the ground there's nobody worthy of worship except Allah and then when someone is sitting before Allah as well again you're sitting in a very very humble state and so to reflect on some of those things and that just that that that was very very helpful to zaklaka that that the scholars have all these other like amazing meanings on what each of the movements mean so just knowing those it's like a lot to just reflect on right and so the whole the whole goal here is to just pause a little bit to try to make sure that we're present even if we're not present and remember shaitan will try to come at us and be like you're not even present why are you trying just that's what it's not about being 100% present it's about being 10% present it then it's about being 15% present then it's about being 30% present it's about slow improvements that eventually somebody works on themselves and they reach a state where Hamdullah they're getting to the point where there are some prayers where they're like 80% present they're like oh that was nice and they're 90% present they go back down to 40% some things on their mind and then eventually though somebody gets into a consistent rhythm where they're 9500% and it is possible because the spiritual faculties inside of us are just like muscles they can be trained they can be trained and somebody can attain them this state of presence where they like to pray they love it the Prophet ﷺ said is that the prayer is literally the the qura t'a'een what is that like the coolness of your eyes it's like he loved the prayer he loved it he absolutely loved to pray he would that there would be there would be a very reverential feeling that would come on they said that he would be with his family it would be with his family and then the adhan would go off and it's like he didn't even know them and like not in a rude way or anything but literally the adhan has gone Allah is calling me now right and now they make their way but it was a very very serious but also a beautiful thing right and to remember the prayer was a gift that Allah gave and it was a gift that he gave directly to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ everything else in this deen was given to the Prophet ﷺ the majority of things right that they were given to the Prophet ﷺ through the angel jibreel jibreel alaihi salam right the Quran was revealed to through the angel jibreel alaihi salam who then brought the revelation to the Prophet ﷺ however the prayer Allah invited the Messenger of Allah ﷺ directly to him in the the day known as the Isra'u al-Meraj the heavenly ascent the night journey he brought him directly to him and he brought him super close and there was a point that with jibreel alaihi salam wasn't able to go anymore jibreel alaihi salam was his guide he said I can go all the way up to this point then he got to this place called the low tree of the farthest limit said you can't go jibreel alaihi salam said if I go past this point I will burn this is only for you that's the maqam of the Prophet ﷺ he's he's the greatest person the greatest creation of Allah to ever be created and Allah brought him close and then Allah mentioned in the Quran he revealed to his servant what he revealed there was a special kind of like an intimate covering of of what that dialogue was between and then Allah gifted him the prayer and there wasn't five it was 50 but then there was a whole negotiation back and forth and we won't get into the whole story until Hamd Allah we landed on five but you get the reward of 50 for doing five prayers someone gets the reward of 50 and so that's the prayer is a gift and the prayer was given to the Prophet ﷺ directly in heaven while meeting Allah so it's a metaphor to show this is your route to to heaven right it's a route to attaining that that higher state Hamd Allah Hamd Allah Hamd Allah so we'll go ahead and and end here inshAllah it's any questions yes this is like a there's like books and books and books written on this I'm not really qualified to cover the statement like it's yeah so the oh yeah so the what's has a light opinion is that it's a creative speech but the belief of Ahsanao Jamaa in is that any of the attributes of Allah cannot be created because Allah is not created so all of his attributes then cannot be created and the Quran is the uncreated speech of Allah right because he cannot have something that that is an attribute of his that is then created Allah's actions and and whatnot would not be you know created so but it's a very very like expansive topic Imam Ahmad ibn Hamd literally fought and fought and fought for this to be the creed of the Muslims because there were deviant groups that were coming in trying to distract the Muslims and trying to come up with with alternative views but this is the view of the of the of the of the of the umma yeah yeah exactly Allah gave him him so this is this is the type of thing when someone studies Aqidah someone studies creed and belief that these beliefs are you know mentioned right this is the Muslim believes this and believe this and so on and so forth and then there's a reason why but all you and I have to just do we just have to believe it right we don't have to we believe it and we accept it right we don't have to know all the proofs and all the details and thank you city for bringing that up any other questions try to end on time here something i'm not very good at all right let's see if there are any questions online I usually pray Isha late at night is it okay it depends kind of what you mean by late at night I mean there's no Isha has ample time um but I would not recommend praying Isha at like 2 3 4 a.m. right like when you get into the a.m. you want to keep it in the p.m. let's just say that you want to keep Isha in the p.m. you don't want to do it too late all right so okay uh would God not answer prayer until you're completing certain obligatory acts would God not answer a prayer until you're completing certain obligatory act so answering and accepting are slightly different so we know that in order for the prayer to be accepted it has to be done properly right somebody's intention and sincerity and whatnot can be there but like if somebody just doesn't even try like let's say someone's learning and what is different but if someone doesn't even ever put effort in just like I'm just not going to pray according to the way God wants me to pray that would not be accepted according to our religious understanding however if someone is trying to do it in the obligatory way then that prayer inshallah will be accepted if somebody has the requisite rule they're following the requisite rules somebody asks okay okay I think those are all the questions and and we didn't get into the there's a lot of like communal prayers next so next time inshallah what we'll talk about is finish out the benefits of the prayer and and the inner the ways to focus in the prayer and then the discussion after that will inshallah be about we'll be about like how all the different ways in which we get presence right and that'll probably take us and then we'll get into congregation what is congregate how do you pray in a jama in a group and why is that so important and then we'll talk about the salat al jama as well which is known as the the congregational prayer of Friday right which has a huge secret and benefit to it there's a lot of benefits to to the Friday prayer that Allah has encouraged the command of the believers especially the command of the men at least to come to the Friday prayer and someone asked what time is the prayer Friday most mosques are praying around one one thirty okay great so we'll go ahead and end with a inshallah and just it's kind of last thing to remember that on this topic it's about consistency that's it it's about consistency it's not about overdoing it it's not about trying to solve all of it at once it's about consistency consistency consistency consistency the purpose of some of the best action that that's done is done something done consistently or he said something similar that's we just you and I do something consistently and it builds it builds it builds till it becomes a habit and then that habit improves and it improves and improves until it becomes a virtue and that virtue improves and improves and improves until it becomes a station and that station improves and improves and improves until you reach a very very amazing state with Allah and that's the the type of place that you and I inshallah want to be so we want to keep that in mind the prayers of utmost importance we try to pray ideally we get the prayers down and then once we have them down we try to pray at the beginning of the time and then once we have it at the beginning of time we continue to focus on praying the sunnahs and then we start to get into the focus right all of this can be done in parallel but at least in terms of how where our majority of our energy is directed in the majority of our knowledge seeking is directed hamedullah but then with the with the du'a Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim Alhamdulillahi rabbil alamin wa sallallahu wa sallam mabarak ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa alihi wa sahbihi sallam allahum aftahalina fatoora alifina tawfiqa salihin ya arham ar-Rahmin wa qulja al-haqq wa zahaqa al-baatil inna al-baatil aqqana zahuqa la ilaha illa anta subhanak inni kuntumina al-dhalimin ya Allah we ask that you accept from us and we ask that you forgive us and we ask that you pardon us and we ask that you allow us to have intimate communion and dialogue with you in our prayers ya Allah we ask that you give us the tawfiq to pray our all of our five prayers ya Allah at the beginning of their time ya Rabbil alamin ya Allah with focus and with khushu ya Allah and all of us who are struggling with our prayers struggling with focus struggling with any aspect of our Salat we ask that you assist us in it ya Allah we ask that you draw us near to you and we ask that you give us the inspiration to draw near to you and to draw close to you ya Rabbil alamin ya Allah pardon our sins pardon our all of the things that we do that you are displeased with ya Rabbil alamin ya Allah ya Allah we are in need of you ya Allah and we are your slaves and we are your servants ya Rabbil alamin ya Allah and we thank you for all the blessings that you have given us ya Rabbil alamin we ask that you protect us and our community and our loved ones in the world ya Allah from this disease of COVID remove it from us ya Allah ya Allah pardon us and remove it from us ya Rabbil alamin ya Allah we ask that you that you look inside of us in every need that we have ya Allah that is permissible that you grant it to us and that you remove our anxieties and our depressions and our problems and we ask you for everything good that the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had that he asked for and we ask you for protection from everything evil that he asked protection from wa sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ba'ala ka la sayedna Muhammadin nabi al ummi wa aalihi wa sahbihi wa sallam wa alhamdulillahi Rabbil alamin alhamdulillahi rabbil alamin subhanakAllah Alhamdulillahi rabbil alhamdulillahi Alhamdulillahi rabbil alhamdulillahi