 Alla ma baalik ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salim Rabi Shahi Saderi wa Salli Amri wa alaqtat ala Mithani Afqawqauli As-Sallallahu Alai wa Sallim wa Baalik ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salim Wa Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen Alhamdulillahi Alright, cool, sorry guys you're having a little bit of issues with this mic Umm Yeah maybe that's what's one of these, anybody knows Maybe shorten it too, I don't know if there's a way to do that So inshallah for today we're gonna be Yeah just like a little bit up here, yeah Perfect Did I say it? No, it keeps falling Yeah There, that'll help, that'll help Yeah, there we go JazakAllah, Allah bless you Alhamdulillah, so we'll do a quick recap inshallah and then we'll go ahead and dive into our discussion for today So we're continuing this conversation that we've been having on practical spirituality And we're going through this text known as the book of assistance by Imam Abdullah ibn al-Haddad This is the text for anybody who Uh would like to get it and we might have some extra copies at the at the mosque If anyone's interested So we've been chatting about different things that we can do on a daily level on a weekly level or a monthly level To help us improve practically improve our relationship to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and really the main thing to keep in mind here is that spirituality is a Mainly a consistent amount of things done at a daily level Sometimes that are very very enjoyable and sometimes that can get a bit dry But they're done consistently and they make regular regular impact On someone's heart such that someone then gets closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala It's not something that's like okay now just once a month or once a year Someone is going to really get in the zone and then there's no practice outside of that Right, it really has to be consistent and that's the main point that we've been kind of discussing right is like what are the different consistent Activities the consistent rituals the consistent practices that we can get and these are the most important Practices for the believer to be focused on The believer should ideally after getting down their basics their part of the activities Right they focus on the quality of those And making sure that they have more concentration and we that we have more depth and then we focus on the Quality or increasing our other Supragratory activities are not fill activities right and we start to add more and more to that So that's kind of what we've been covering and what all of this will allow us to do Is it will allow us to have an increased amount of yakin an increased amount of certainty And the more certainty that someone has in Allah the more Powerful really your faith becomes because you can have various levels of faith And we've all had different moments of life where our faith feels we feel weak feel like you know, I don't really know I'm I'm trying but I don't really I'm not really sure like you you don't doubt But it's not necessarily with strong certainty And then there's people who you meet who they send they have such Strong conviction that all of this is not only real But if you do certain things certain benefits will result and really the ultimate goal of our spiritual efforts The ultimate goal of our spiritual efforts is To improve our Spiritual yakin that's really the ultimate goal right and it doesn't matter at the end of the day How much Quantity somebody has The main thing is quality right the main thing is quality And the main thing is your personal relationship with Allah you don't do it for other people You don't do it for show You don't do it because You know you want to tell someone look oh look at how much I pray or how much Quran I read or whatever at the end of the day None of that matters it matters that Allah is there Allah is watching right and Allah knows how much effort Someone is putting in Allah knows how sincere someone actually is and so that's really the main Um the main thing for us to to keep in mind right we don't we don't do this for People and for you know attention and end of that None of that stuff matters really the only thing that matters at the end of the day as Allah says in the Quran That it will be a day that neither wealth nor children Benefits you and really you can extrapolate that to mean all the things of this world will not benefit you Except the one who comes to Allah with the kalb salim with the sound heart A sound heart a purified heart. That's what's going to benefit the person right and so All of the other things that pull us away From getting a sound heart they essentially irrelevant the debates the arguments the Problems back and forth between people Mocking people making fun of people so on and so forth all of that comes from a heart that is not yet sound But a sound heart is a heart which emanates light And a heart that emanates light is a heart then that people you feel good being around that person Or you will be the person who people feel good being around People feel guided around that person people feel like that person is uplifting their faith and so on and so forth And and and there was no better example of this of course in the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam That he had the purest of hearts and that around him guidance literally emanated And so now what we're going through here all of that is really just just for us to cover What we're going through here is we're going through the Rituals the activities the spiritual Exercises the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam wanted us to to do And at a consistent level so we're going to start today with the How exactly someone should get the most amount of benefit while they're in the mosque while they're in the masjid Right so like literally right now. Alhamdulillah. We are swear. We have the blessing to be sitting in the masjid now The mosque is known as the masjid is known as the house of Allah They are lived in one of the houses of God right Allah has many many many houses of which the masjid are his houses And then you have the main what's the called the kaaba right which is on earth This is the house of God on earth for us to worship not like God is literally there of course We don't believe that and in that but we do believe that this is what how Allah wants us to worship And so when you enter into a mosque, there's a lot of secrets now someone opens themselves up to what does that mean You're entering into God's house right and you can't come if you haven't been invited And how's it how are you going to go you can't just force your way into the house No, God invited us to his house and you enter into his house And now there's a certain etiquette that someone has to behave with while they are in his house in order to reap the most amount of spiritual benefit in order to reap the um The most amount of spiritual blessings And so the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam he said that the mosque is the home for all of those who have taqwa That means That taqwa in this case are god consciousness if you're mindful of god, right? Then you will desire to be in god's mosque You will desire to be in god's house because uh in the masjid because you are Uh conscious that oh this is where I will have access to a significant amount of spiritual blessings People who have desire for other things if someone is like really really desirous I want to you know clothing or cars. They're going to be at the mall or at the car dealer or wherever it is Right wherever wherever thing you love the most is where you're going to spend most of your time Or where your heart's going to desire to be even when you're not there, right someone who is really really into You know certain types of uh That their desires have gotten the best of them. They're going to spend more time to clubs They're going to spend more time at the bars, right and you have people who literally would have spent Decades in those places and then they convert or they revert to islam And they find islam and then they're spending way more time in in the mosques And it's a beautiful thing and that can only happen with allah's assistance It's it can only happen with allah's assistance But it has an etiquette for someone to get the most amount of blessings And as allah says in the quran that the only the people who attend God's houses are those who believe in allah and the last day that these are the people who will be In allah's in allah's houses that you have to have some type of belief, right? That's like otherwise For someone who doesn't have any belief It's like why am I going to quote unquote waste my time, right? And you usually see people who have weaker weaker weaker belief or As we know about the the monotheistic and the hypocrites that they didn't want to spend much time in in allah's homes In allah's house because It's like what's the point for them, right? I can just kick it here. I can do this I can hang out with my friends I can hang out with my family people who have belief It's like no I actually want to build this relationship with allah and that can be done anywhere But especially it can be done in in the houses of In the in the house of allah So there is there are certain Benefits also To somebody who is attached to the mosque among those is that on the day of judgment, which is going to be a very difficult day for For humanity that in on the On the day of judgment is it is not is it not uh, can't hear Yeah Uh, okay. I think the volume might need to be adjusted in the back. Maybe that's what it is. Yeah That's good And so what ends up happening on the day of judgment is it's it's very very difficult and is it better now? A little better. Okay. I'm gonna and so it's it's difficult and as a result of that um, or among the difficulties is that The sun is literally One mile away roughly from humanity That means humanity is sweating humanity is struggling and There's no shade on that like literally there's no shade There's no water no access to this except the shade of allah's throne And allah's throne is obviously magnificent So whoever he wants to put in under that that the shade of that throne He'll put among the people who have the shade of god Or the shade of allah's throne are the people who their hearts are attached to the masjid their hearts are attached to the mosque Right and so that that doesn't mean you're always present in the mosque It means that you desire to be in the mosque Right and it could mean various various other things allahu alam But one of those is that somebody actually has a yearning for the masjid. I want to be there I want to be actually present and I want to be uh I build my relationship with allah at the mosque Right and trying to be there for the prayers or for you know gatherings or whatever else it is types of things, you know Classes and and if thars and these types of things that will take place right that that that is is present And so there's manners right as we know and there's etiquettes and that that will take place And so among those etiquettes is that somebody Has The best manners that they have they have in the mosque the mosque is not the place for arguing It's not the place for being rude No place is the place for arguing and being rude But especially when you're in god's house, you don't want to be doing that right you want to be in a state of Of mindfulness you're here to worship. That's the goal for all the other stuff. We leave right? It's like, hey, I'm gonna go outside and have this conversation Or I need to have an argument with somebody or whatever it is But that's not the place the mosque is not place. Unfortunately in our time today Muslims we do a lot of other things and a lot of Negative conversations will take place such to the point where people will sometimes get aggressive with each other Because they disagree on something that's all from the devil. It's all from shaytan. He wants to make people He wants to pull them away from each other right The second thing is that it is not a place of just fluff conversation right like it's you know, you know as as they the colloquial Kind of you know shoot the ish like right that's not the place the mosque is not the place It's the place of someone is going they're gonna you can ask how someone is doing and and so on and so forth But it's not the place to like have immense catch-ups about our dunya and how our Finances are and so on and so that's not really that the book that it's like, okay This is the place from an etiquette point of view and again what we're talking about here are higher goals It doesn't mean all the other things are not allowed. It's just this is a higher goal to Try to attain to it. Someone is actually saying hey, how is your relationship with god? How are you doing? How's your iman? How are you know, how is your family and so on and so forth? These are all good questions to have and to ask but like You know to have a deep conversation about business and business transactions and whatever one time like Is it you know in a mosque and someone is like starting to talk to me about you know We really should invest in silver and all the benefits and resting in silver and I was just like Okay, thanks for the intel, but That's not really this isn't the place for us to have a deep conversation about the need to invest in silver That can be done at any point in other places right right here We came to worship god and let's not remember that or let's not forget that right. Let's really really keep that Keep that in mind and so this is Very very important to keep in mind And the other thing is ideally we make the intention that while we're in the mosque to focus on worshiping god Right, but that's that's the point we come here to pray We come here to build community as well, especially in where we live In the west, but there is an ideal emphasis on worshiping. Allah in his in his home So it is the masjid is the place Of sajda. That's why that's it's the same route there right that sajda is To prostrate to god and so the masjid is literally the place where one will prostrate and you come and you Express your needs before Allah and you worship Allah and you build that deeper connection And that can be done again outside of the masjid as well But specifically that is the one of the main goals Of the masjid. So those three things right someone has good manners Refrain from idle talk and argumentation and so on and third is to really really Utilize as much of the time as possible To worship Allah and then there's the very very practical again Elements of this right where there's a dua that everybody should say when entering the masjid This is from the sunnah of the prophet sallam that the dua is Where you are asking Allah you were first of all Saying in the name of Allah Then you send salutations upon the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Always good to begin everything with sending salutations upon him because had it not been for him You and I wouldn't know about Allah. We wouldn't know about Islam right the prophet sallam is that He is our messenger and he is the means for guidance for for the muslim And then you say Allah o Allah we ask that you open the doors of mercy for us Open the doors of mercy. You have the gates of mercy or the doors of mercy That's an amazing amazing dua that when you enter you're mindful and as we mentioned last time when you enter good places You enter with the right foot And when you enter bad places you enter with the left foot So you enter the good places with the right foot and you say Allah So someone does not know or cannot learn the arabic or is just learning about these things Then at least a minimum you try to do that that meaning in english and work your way work our way towards learning the Disapplication and the dua in arabic The second thing to do is that When you come in ideally we try to pray two Raka's of prayer two units of prayer. This is known as the Visitation prayer for the masjid right It's known as the visitation prayer for the masjid where you're just coming in and you're offering two raka of With the intention of uh visitation of the masjid basically now There are instances when someone won't be able to do this right there are times when it's forbidden to pray Where someone wouldn't do this forbidden meaning that if if uh, the sun is on its way setting Right, let's say someone comes in before maghrib Maybe 10 minutes before the the sunset 15 minutes 20 minutes sun is already setting It's forbidden islam to pray when the sun is setting It's also forbidden to be praying when the sun is actively rising Um, the prophet sallam told us and there's different opinion in the among scholars, but this is like generally speaking right Otherwise most times it's it's generally fine And so what somebody would do in this instance is to pray the two raka now There are other prayers which overtake this Someone has makeup prayers to do They don't spend time doing extra prayers. They spend time on their makeup prayers. What does that mean? But three years five years ten years Somebody was muslim But never but just didn't pray didn't pray or like they prayed half their prayers But they didn't pray the others because maybe just lazy or whatever else it is That would take precedent over these types of things. So someone would not do the visitation prayer. They would ideally Go and do their makeup prayers right if they have Whatever makeup prayers that they have to take now that they have to make up But otherwise in most instances, this is something that we should that we should do if someone cannot do it For some other reason Someone should say four times subhanallah. Well, thank you. I love you. I love you Well, I'll I someone would praise Allah and you say glory be to Allah praise be due to Allah And that there's no Deity worthy of worship except Allah and Allah is the greatest So you glorify Allah the goal of course is this glorification and magnification Of the first the preference is to express it in the prayer and otherwise to express it via this This this this sticker that we just set right And then you go about Conducting the mosque, you know, usually people are coming to pray one of the farth prayers other the other time That this you would not do this is if there is a prayer that Uh is going on obviously if there's a farth prayer going on you join the farth prayer If the farth prayer is about to start you join that Um and and so on if you have to pray the sunnah Before the farth and you don't have time to do both you would pray the sunnah before the farth in that instance because it's a higher rank prayer Right and so these are again These are like sometimes these come across as little things right? We're like, okay These are very but these are consistent. These some someone might visit a mosque A masjid multiple times a week or multiple times a month And then multiple many many many times a year and so these can and then many times in their lifetime These are things if we learn Every time we visit We get a lot of benefit a lot of spiritual blessing. We maximize the time that we're there, right? We maximize the time over there someone is going to meet with their Let's say someone is meeting with their the CEO of their company And they're told they'll come to my house, you know meet me at my house You put on their absolute best clothing And make sure that they look nice and make sure that they Have a pleasant scent and make sure they haven't eaten onions and so on and then they will Go and have that meeting in that conversation Right and yet sometimes we have a very different etiquette for what it is when Allah is inviting us to his home Right and we just like there's one thing if we just don't have the capacity or we're just not there yet But generally speaking we try to put in a little bit more effort that you know I'm going to god's house, right? I'm going to god's house and I want to make sure that I'm not Coming in a in a way or having conversations there in a way that would not be pleasing To the owner of that to the owner of that house Now there's a whole different side of this When someone is doing that one and inviting people to Islam, right? Because when you're inviting people to Islam someone is either new into Islam or someone is Kind of prospectively looking into Islam the etiquettes are different. They don't know right? So it's like hey, it's very very different You do you do not hold them to the same level of standard and the same type of conversations and the same Manners and so on and so forth because they're still we're still all on that journey of learning But this is the where we want to aspire to if that makes sense And then somebody would when leaving we would leave with our which foot Left foot and there's also a prayer which to do and these should be ideally for those who frequent the Massachit we should memorize these right so you leave with the And you say that Okay, so you say I seek Allah's protection against shaitan Right That That assist us with your favor assist us with your favor So there's a couple of narrations the one I actually Learned is different than the one that's listed here, which is why I was hesitating But in general a few different thoughts that one can say while leaving the masjid the main thing is that you Bismillah, and then you you say send blessings upon the Prophet of Islam and you That you seek Allah's protection against the devil and that you ask Allah to open up His doors of grace to you right as you're leaving now You're in a certain state of protection leaving that state and you want Allah's special protection As well Alhamdulillah All right So that is the the kind of the main thing and then the other the only other thing is when you enter Right, you'll enter usually at times where people are calling the adhan And the adhan is the call to prayer right Allah is calling It's what Allah wants us to use to call the believers to pray So when the adhan is going on there's a couple of etiquettes as well First etiquette is somebody repeats after the adhan and remains silent adhan is not the time Like someone's should I do we shouldn't be on the phone when the adhan is going off We should not be talking to other people whispering to them the adhan is a time when the call to prayer is being made and there's a high Magnification and avima of the adhan right The second thing is someone should we should repeat after the adhan So you say for all of the phrases of the adhan you repeat Until someone gets to And when somebody gets to You say That Allah is saying come to prayer And come to success. Hiya Allah salam means come to prayer And hiya Allah salam means come to success And you say at that moment you don't you say Allah There's no strength nor power only Allah can assist you and me in coming to prayer or in having that success right The amazing thing is that these are not just rituals that we do Because Which just kind of repeating them like parrots that's not the point point is somebody really deeply Gets to a point where they're like what does this actually mean if you reflect on every word the reason why we repeat it Is also so you can reflect upon it. Allah is the greatest Allah is the greatest You leave the worries of your life behind Allah is greater than all those worries Right and then you say I declare there's no god except Allah and you So you negate everything in your life in your heart That might be getting in the way of worship of Allah and then you testify that about on the Fact of the Prophet's Islam is his messenger And so now you remind yourself on the importance of following the sunnah Of the Prophet's Islam an example of the Prophet's a lot of salam right And then you call Allah is calling us to prayer right and you remember The importance of prayer and that only Allah can assist us in getting there and then Allah is calling to success to fallah Success in this life in the next there is no way to have real success in this world Or the next without the prayer all the other Success that people have for those who that that that success doesn't amount to much in reality Remember this is about reality. What the reality is is what the angels here are recording. That's reality It's not about the bank accounts not about the cars. It's not about the CEOs and the presidents and that's not that doesn't matter It's all That's all ephemeral. It's all going to go away. It's in reality is what's actually going to be there for your For our Book that in our book right and that is what we have to focus on And so hayyal al-falamin success in this world and the next inshallah and then again you That you mentioned the greatness of Allah and then you again testify that there is no god except Allah What does that mean again? It's one is negating all of the things that have entered the heart You're preparing yourself for the prayer You and I are preparing ourselves for the prayer And the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam he told us the dua that after the adhan is done You Um, you do the dua Oh, Allah you are the lord of this adhan this call and this prayer Give the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam the intercession And superiority and resurrection to a praiseworthy rank as you have promised him as we as as We are taught that the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam on the day of judgment We'll have we'll give we'll be given this maqam al-maqam with this praiseworthy station But he will be the only one who will be allowed to ask Allah to begin the day of judgment That's his rank the the human beings will go to to most of the other Prophets many of the other prophets to the prophet adam He'll say nafsi nafsi to the prophet noah. They'll say it myself myself. I don't have this is not this is not my place Because the human human being will be they'll be tired. They'll be sweaty. They'll be thirsty They'll be struggling and they'll want the day of judgment to begin Then they'll go to moses alayhi sallam Then they'll go to and they'll eventually go to get make their way to isa to jesus peace be upon him And jesus will say this is the rank of Ahmad. This is the rank of This is the rank of of Ahmad, which is the name of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi sallam in the next life And then they'll go to the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam and he will say yes, this is my this is my Call and then he will Be inspired to make a certain dua that nobody has ever been inspired to make a certain prayer And then the day of judgment starts and he has given the highest station And he will be the intercede for people Right so the connection to the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam is very important because You and I can make some big mistakes But on the day judgment we go to the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam and say you are our prophet help me help me out And he will advocate on your behalf to Allah and say ya Allah forgive him forgive her They did their best, right? This is the dua that you are making this is why following the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam is so important Because people who love him and who follow his sunnah and who do a lot of salawat upon him will be very close to him on that day inshallah And we'll have this that special dynamic And then the there is the dua that somebody makes Between the aqama and the between the adhan and the aqama and this dua is accepted as we as is known in hadith So you have the adhan completed and then you'll do the aqama the aqama is what you do before the prayer actually begins right And the the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam told us that in between the two to make dua Right, so ideally you just sit and this is again not a time for conversations. It's time for your conversation with Allah though You just said you make dua you say ya Allah. I need this. Please help me with this Forgive me one of the most comprehensive du'as that he recommends here saying is allahumma inni asaluk al-afiha fith dunya wa l-akhira That oh Allah I ask you for complete well-being in this world and the next It's a good thing to do often is to pray for afya afya as well-being meaning complete health financial stability protection Mental stability all the types of things you could think of what that that that would be encompassed in as somebody who is in a state of well-being Alhamdulillah and so Those are the main things to to to consider Right when somebody is entering into the into the masjid or pause there Anybody has any questions that they might want to ask Yeah Yeah, good questions. So the question is on making up prayers. So how do you do it? So if you miss a prayer you do you do the full prayer again, right? So if you miss Doher You do four rakats of door right in the same way you would have done it But your intention is just that for a qada a makeup prayer Right, that's the intention that you make If you have a fudger though and you have to make up a fudger then you do the two rakats so what we're saying instead of doing the two rakats of The of the visitation prayer someone would do whether it's four rakats of door three rakats of maghrib Two rakats of fudger But if somebody has makeups to do the makeups take priority right versus this extra prayer that's not really As critical the makeups will take priority. Yeah, yes Good question. So the question was that Is it is it not good to make up prayers or is it prohibited to make up prayers during The time right before maghrib or the time after fudger so There is there is difference of opinion on this In that makeup prayers are emphasized to the point where even in the makhru times and the dislike times It's okay for someone to make them up Allah knows best I don't know the act the kind of exact answer the advice the general advice I would give that I've heard is to Try to make them up. So like after fudger you would be okay Right after fudger you would be to do makeup prayers You would be okay because those are so critical if it's literally right before right at the time of sunrise Right, like let's say sunrise right now 720 like you can stop 7 10 to 720 It probably doesn't make sense to do much right if that makes sense To do to do the prayers to do the makeup prayers because you're literally doing it as the sun is rising And that's the time where it's it's best to be avoided But if even if you were to do so there are opinions that believe that would allow you to do so At the time right before maghrib It's probably not best to do so, but you are allowed to if it's makeup prayers, right because they're so so so critical But it's it's it's if someone can do so beforehand Hour before so it's preferred. Does that make sense? Yeah No, no, you should pray those times for sure. So if someone is late for now we're talking here. So Name of us are is up until the minute maghrib comes in Okay, the time of fudger is up until the sun starts to rise So you have to make Let's say somebody wakes up like five minutes possible and to stand for the prayer and to ideally have already been in the rocket 4 and before the sun starts rising Right and then you would complete it the go the ideal thing though You should be the prayer should be complete before the sun rises, right? Um, and if somebody let's say got really delayed especially in the days where the days are short And it's about to miss us or and they have like two minutes before the sunset same thing You just got to pray right because uh, the prayer and it's still in its time If that makes sense, uh, you are not fada until you're not delayed until you literally missed it We're referring to right now makeup is like Like making up from years of prayers or let's say like all of three three weeks ago Someone just like had a tough time and they didn't do any prayers now You got to make all those up right and you just work your way towards those that that's what we mean night If that makes sense. Yeah Is that is that an answer question? Any other questions on this? I think okay, I'm gonna love See if there's any questions that have come in online one second here We can someone said we can can we make the ad during the sujud yet? You can make the ad during sajda. It's a good time to make the ad so When you were literally in the prostration It's a good time to make dua, but your dua in anything in the prayer has to be in Arabic So if it's in your mind, right, you're making dua in your mind That's one thing and you're like, yeah Allah Help me with this sickness and this difficulty and this problem But you don't articulate that out loud in English in the prayer you can finish the prayer It's not like I want to listen and then you raise your hands up in whatever language you want And you make that dua in the prayer the articulation while you're in sajda Cannot be in another language, right? So you're not going to be like oh, Allah Help me here. Help me here while you are in the sajda. Does that hope does that hopefully that makes sense? um That would be done in Arabic and so the best thing is you do subhanahu wa sallam and then the dua in your minds in our mind If it's in another language, right versus actually Moving the tongue in a different language What if the person wakes up after sunrise? What about fadr salla? So if somebody wakes up after sunrise then you Wait 12 roughly 12 minutes till the sun has actually reached It's a decent rising point and then you make up the fadr, right? So if someone wakes up, let's say at 7 21 and the sun just rose at 7 20 Wait till like you know go make wudu And then you pray And then you should also this is not required, but it's good etiquette to pray two extra Raka of asking Allah's forgiveness that yalla. I'm sorry. I delayed it like I missed it, right? It's it's as somebody becomes more and more Refined spiritually and closer and closer You start to every little thing becomes much more weighty Every little thing becomes much more weighty, right? Someone is like how could I miss there's there's people who for 40 years They've never missed a single prayer Let alone not even missed it. They haven't missed a prayer in the masjid In jama'a with the takbiyyat-e-ahram meaning they caught the first Allah Akbar Takbir like there's people who have were really really really So for them, let's just say if they were to miss a prayer, I'd imagine that person would be doing Who'd be giving away a lot of money and charity asking Allah for forgiveness would be Begging Allah's forgiveness for missing the prayer would Somebody is in a state of presence. That's the main thing, right? You are present and when If the akama is happening that someone actively realizes that they are about to stand in front of Allah They're already standing and now they're about to enter into the prayer So Among the etiquettes would be to avoid fidgeting Someone should obviously not be like on their phone It's not a time for conversation and joking in between people There's usually not not not conversation with the Imam ideally should be having after the akama and The main thing to bring to heart is when when you're saying katama this a lot that The prayer is established. You are literally establishing the prayer The more weighty one makes the prayer for them the more weighty inshallah the benefit will be remember You and I rewarded not only according to if we completed the prayer how quality how much quality was in the prayer How much quality how focused were we with Allah when we were actually praying That's very very important to keep in mind. It's very difficult very difficult to have focus in the prayer Possible. It's very difficult though with everything we have in our minds going on All of the issues with our lives and our families children Work and so on and so forth that you just be completely focused and to realize the meanings that one is Reciting it's not it's not easy. So you ideally start that with the akama that you established presence I am about to stand before Allah Try to focus right and then you enter into the prayer Among the edicts with the first allahu akbar you literally toss out or literally tossing out everything out of your mind except The focus of Allah That's one of the intentions to make when someone is doing allahu akbar You literally make this motion and you literally or like let me make that type of motion where everything Is no longer present except the one whom you are standing before that we are standing before As we know the prophecy some said one of the signs of ihsan of spiritual excellence is to worship Allah as though we see him If we don't see him know that he sees us. So a very very important sign of spiritual excellence To keep that in mind Anybody have any other Questions here on this topic We missed a couple here Questions questions So So inshallah with regards to the rest of the classes So we will we will not have class next week And we also will not have class the following week So a lot of people are traveling and holiday and so on and so forth and so No class on the week of december 26 27 Which would have been december 29th would have been the wednesday and then no class on january 5th We'll resume inshallah january Uh 12th or resume inshallah january 12th So just ask that for anybody who is you know traveling, you know Make inshallah Allah give you safe travels and uh, if you come if you are traveling and you are of course not feeling well After the travels to stay home and to watch and be at the live stream Um, and then to come to the masjid, of course when we're feeling better is given this whole, you know, covid situation um, but inshallah will resume then and The the main thing to focus on when we have some slow time Is to implement Implementation is everything knowledge is useless if it's just information in the head doesn't mean anything It's just facts facts and figures It's all about implementation How much etiquette will someone have how much character will someone improve how many How much worship is someone going to be able to do how much quality is going to enter their worship How much focus does someone have on building their relationship with Allah and their yin implementation, right? So that would be my advice to myself and all of us is that as we have time And as we get slow periods of time that that's a time to relax But it's a time to also implement what we've been learning Right implement what we have been what we've been learning and inshallah if we do that We will get immense immense immense special assistance from from Allah inshallah Someone says any advice people trying to subtly make changes into The religion like celebration of Christmas, etc For somebody who does not so the question is like I think it's around people who are Muslims and actively going out of their way to try to celebrate Christmas, right? There's two situations in this instance one is someone has a family They're not they are they're Muslim. It's converted to Islam The whole family celebrates Christmas and they want to partake in that It's very very different than someone's Muslim their whole family's Muslim And someone's just trying to do the whole Christmas thing in the first situation You've got if everybody has to figure out what's going to work for them What balance does someone have everybody and their families inviting them to dinner and so on and so forth And they want to build that those family ties and that's their intention But they're not actively associating a religious intention with that work with that with the holiday That would be considered fine But it's but it's as long as that religious association is not there right because if somebody's like hey My whole family's gathering together. I'm literally not going to have a chance and they're they're convert to Islam Their rest of their family is not Muslim to build that relationship The more of the problem comes when someone is a Muslim and they're like hey And then a whole family's mostly I like the tree. I like the lights. I like all this stuff And that would that's not permissible for us to do that that is considered Um, and there's quite a few reasons for this one is uh, we do not We are not supposed to innovate into our religion, right? So we're not supposed to add in things that are not part of our tradition number one As we know that the innovation is a very very strict concept And so the innovations that we talked about earlier on the idea of good innovations, right? let's say a good innovation is the introduction of The clock to tell you what time it is to pray because very promises. I'm didn't use that you used the sun Right, but you would not put Christmas and and so on into that in that category that would not fall under it the second thing to keep in mind is that Somebody has to make sure that they do not imitate the fault the practices of people of other religions That's that's not permissible for us to do to imitate the practices of in this case the Christians Right and you can have love for christians so on and so on and so forth It doesn't you just don't have to imitate their practice. So we should not imitate these practices um, that would be the second thing and uh, the third thing to keep in mind is that You you and I have to have a defined boundary at some point, right? That boundary has to be there if muslims decided. Hey, I like this and I like that and I don't like this And I don't like that I like kwanzaa. I like christmas. I like hanukkah. I like, you know I'm not really feeling eed like you you you make up your own religion at that point, right? But Allah has already defined and Allah says that Uh, that this is the day he has perfected for you the religion He revealed this ayah and surah ma'idah. I believe that the religion of Islam is already perfect Had Allah wanted us to be doing this He would have just told us hey, you should do this and would have gave the prophecy Some would have had a hadith about the tree and would have had would have told us to celebrate But that's not that's not the way of the muslim now if somebody is doing that It's not our job. Remember there's a place for everybody. It's not our job to go and to Harshly be like you You know call the name don't you know, this is haram. That's not the way to do something Don't you know it's a little bit it somebody should ideally say hey look If you are in a place to actually be giving advice to say Hey, you know, we probably shouldn't be doing this probably not the best thing to do But usually someone who is Practicing christmas and celebrating The faith is already weak in some way or another many times, right? Because otherwise you wouldn't need to go outside of the tradition if somebody's faith is strong There's everything is in islam everything is with Allah and his messenger You don't need to go outside But usually if someone is bringing in things from outside It's because something's off anyways And in that case you have to be very careful. Don't push them away further It's not the end of the world if someone is doing that Do not be the person who pushes them away if you are not if you and me are not knowledgeable people who are in that position who actually understand the intricacies of how to Enjoying good and forbid evil and have conversations. It's not our business People do what they need to do Someone knows how to tactfully with the sunnah give advice while being merciful and praying for them as well that yallah assist them And trying to help them right and not so they can be arrogant and be right and make them feel wrong A lot of etiquettes that are required here and a lot of Tackfulness then they're in the place where they can go and they can gently advise somebody. Hey, probably shouldn't be doing this But that's not that's not everybody's place and that's something to keep in mind So hopefully that answers the the question Would you say about Birthdays. Yeah, birthdays most of the many of the scholars have said that as long as someone is using the day of birth to reflect on their life and to To reflect on their life and to Take take a lesson from that that they have gained another year. Hamdallah. It's it's totally fine That you and I are not Going out of our way, you know But if somebody wants to have gifts and so on and so forth many of the scholars have permitted that It's not really like that that that the same as christmas. Yes It's a good question. The question was it about muslim going into uh into church And if somebody, you know has a family member or so on that's taking them with them so I need to look into that. I don't don't know the answer off the top of my head. Um, there is a Uh that actually going into the church is not haram from my understanding, right? That say the oma radi allah and he went into the church when he went into jerusalem, right? And he went into the church where um in in beth laham itself, right? Like one of the most critical churches of christianity But to associate in their acts of worship that can become potentially problematic This is what it's be it can be very very different depending on the situation context is really really really important religion It's always hard to have a blanket ruling right and the reason why I say context is important if you one example of this is that um We just went through a whole discussion on prayer not being allowed or ideal to do At a specific time, but if someone were to make the statement prayer is not allowed That would be a wrong statement, but in the context it's the right statement Right and so the reason I'm saying the context is because you mentioned a very specific family instance where it's your father and you are You know and he's christian and going into that situation and so Let me look into that inshallah and just just if you could follow up with me next time Definitely will do my best to have to have an answer. It's not recommended in general though that like Muslims are going to you know sunday service and mass and And and synagogues and going into their service. That's not generally recommended for us to do Yeah, that would not be good for us to I just go out of our way to seek that But again the context becomes very different when you have a parent involved in that. Yeah, go ahead Right Right Right, this is again where intention becomes very very important And the question was you know that someone has an elderly Grandmother and that you know She appreciates it and you maybe your intention is to help her and to assist her and to bring happiness to her It's where it becomes very dependent on the intention and the text right because you are not necessarily going out of your way to do it as a form of worship and you are not going to do it as a form of Following the practice you're literally going to assist your grandmother of who also has a right over you So again the context important. Let me but I'll look into this one inshallah. Yeah Um, if that makes sense Okay, just one other question. Let's see Okay I think that answers most of the questions Shallah, so we'll go ahead and end here now that we're at time anyways and we'll proceed to pray Isha We'll do a short short du'a. So just again no class next week. No class following week. We'll resume again on january the 12th. Yes, thank you so much Um, and we'll continue with it and then I think just we're about halfway through and we'll be trying to consolidate a little bit So we can get through inshallah If anybody has any feedback on ways we're doing things differently or better also, just please come up after let me know. Yes Yeah, so the book is called the book of assistance and the author is imam al al Haddad. Oh, yeah, sorry imam am al Haddad h a d as in dog d A d had Haddad exactly. Yeah, so that the book of assistance excellent excellent book Literally this book if somebody were to implement everything in here and just use this as a manual Right because it's extracted from the Quran and the son of the prophet's own And literally implement it and do what he's saying with regards to praying and building thicker and and and making relation with Quran And so on and so forth we would be set to achieve the highest stations possible in Nearness to Allah like literally it is a manual to achieve not just We're not just talking now at this point about being a believer talking about this is this is literally a path to sainthood We have a concept of sainthood very big concept of sainthood in our tradition called being a wali And to be a wali. This is this is what he's outlining in the book Um, so that's why sometimes the stuff might seem like oh, this is small This is small this is small but all the small stuff adds up and it's all critical in the path of In the path of sainthood or in the path of Islam Okay, we'll go ahead and Learn That you pardon us and that you forgive us and that you overlook our mistakes and that you relieve our Problems and that you assist us with our anxieties and that you cure our sicknesses and that you cure Our worries ya our hamar haimin and assist us in all of the issues that we are facing. Ya Allah Ya Allah and we ask ya Allah and we thank you for all the blessings that you have given us We ask that you pardon our sins and overlook our shortcomings and assist us in every aspect of our life And we ask you for everything good the process I'm asked for We ask you for protection from everything evil that he asked protection from us. Allah. Wasallam o barak ala sayyidina Muhammadin wa alihi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi