The Unborn: Surah Ikhlas – Pt. 3 (Salat 101)

September 23, 2008 – 10:12 am

Bismillah walhamdolilah wasalatu wasalam ‘ala Rasool Allah

Asalamu ‘alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatahu,

First and foremost, Ramadan Kareem! May Allah azza wa jal give us all the opportunity to take advantage of this blessed month and to make it a means of us attaining His Paradise. Ameen.

Due to Ramadan, I’ve found myself to be quite busy. Nonetheless, I do apologize for not having written anything for the past few makes. Please forgive me for my shortcomings.

The last few posts we were discussing the explanation of Surah Ikhlas. We got through the first two verses and we explained that Allah azza wa jal has the Most Beautiful and Perfect Names. Of these Names that He attributes to Himself is al-Ahad. We mentioned that a concise meaning of this name is that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is One and Only and He is Unique in His Lordship, His rights to be worshiped, and His Names and Attributes. Thus, it is the primary goal of the Muslim to make Allah unique in everything He does and to never ascribe partners with Him, Subhana because this would be contradictory to His Name al-Ahad. We also discussed that Allah azza wa jal is as-Samad. He is self-sufficient from any need and that includes our worship towards Him. He is not in need of it rather He is deserving of this worship and beyond that the worship we do towards Him is only of our benefit.

To continue, we will discuss the third verse of this beautiful surah:

لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ
He does not give birth, nor was He born

This verse is a continuation in explaining the extent to which Allah azza wa jal is al-Ahad. Many religions falsely represent God in human form by either giving Him human characteristics or human form.

(لَمْ يَلِدْ)

Allah does not give birth because there is nothing similar to Him, Subhana. A child made from protions (sperm and ovum) of the bodies of its parents which is why it is similar to its parents in form and characteristics. Now, If Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala

Allah tabaraka wa ta’ala has rejected offspring from the general perspective that it is not befitting, since that would reduce Him to the status of His creatures. Allah says: were to give birth, there would then be another God besides Him, something which He has already negated for Himself.

لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ وَمَا يَنبَغِي لِلرَّحْمَنِ أَن يَتَّخِذَ وَلَداً
But it is not suitable for (the Majesty of) the Most Beneficent (Allah) that He should beget a son (or offspring or children). [Surah Maryam V.19]

Truly, Allah is able to all things and thus some people may say that He should be able to have a son. However, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala has negated it based on the fact that it is not befitting His Majesty, as per the first verse of Surah Ikhlas.

(وَلَمْ يُولَدْ)

Relatively few people in history have believed that God was born, the question of God’s origin is often raised by skeptics and atheists. But, SubhanAllah, it is within the fitrah of mankind to know that there is a Creator of the Heaven and the Earth; it is this fitrah or innate consciousness that also gives almost all of mankind the certainty that God was not born. Abu Hurairah radhiAllah anhu reports that the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam said:

“Satan comes to everyone of you and says, ‘who created this and who created that?’ until he questions: ‘Who created your Lord?’ When he comes comes to that, one should seek refuge in Allah and avoid that thought.” [Sahih Muslim]

This verse also subtly rejects the notion that Isa (Jesus) alayhi salam was or is God because of the very fact that he was given birth to. For God to be born means He first must have not existed, which contradicts the basic divine attribute of eternal existence.

By Abd al-Ahad | Posted in Aqeeda, Ibadah, Islam, Qur'an, Salaah, Tafseer | Comments (1)

The Ones in Need: Surah Ikhlas – Pt. 2 (Salat 101)

September 21, 2008 – 10:48 am

Bismillah walhamdolilah wasalatu wasalam ‘ala Rasool Allah

Asalamu ‘alaikum!

Continuing in our journey of understanding the 112th chapter of the Qur’an, Allah says:

اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ

Allah, the Self-Sufficient [Surah Ikhlas V.2]

Recall, the greatest name of the Lord of the heavens and the earth is Allah. This is the name that He has chosen to name Himself with, and it is the grand name to which all His other Names and Attributes are attributed to. This is seen in the saying of Allah:

هُوَ اللَّهُ الْخَالِقُ الْبَارِئُ الْمُصَوِّرُ لَهُ الْأَسْمَاء الْحُسْنَى يُسَبِّحُ لَهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ

الْحَكِيمُ

He is Allah, the Creator, the Inventor of all things, the Bestower of forms. To Him belong the Best Names . All that is in the heavens and the earth glorify Him. And He is the All-Mighty, the All-Wise [Surah Hashr V.24]

And so, of the Names which belong to Allah is as-Samad. Ibn ‘Abbas radhiAllah anhu is reported to have said in regards to meaning of as-Samad:

“He is the Master [as-Sayyid] who is perfect in His sovereignty, the Most Noble [ash-Shareef] who is perfect in His nobility, the Most Magnificent [al-‘Azeem] who is perfect in His magnificence, the Most Forbearing [al-Haleem] who is perfect in His forbearance, the All-Knowing [al-'Aleem] who is perfect in His knowledge, and the Most Wise [al-Hakeem] who is perfect in His wisdom.”

Since Allah is as-Samad, Self-sufficient, free of any need, it naturally leads to qualities and characteristics which are absolutely perfect. If we ponder about this, we realize that this name of Allah leads us to ponder about the purpose of our life. Allah says:

وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ

And I have not created the Jinn and the Human beings except to worship Me [Surah Dhzariyat V.56]

And so the purpose of our life is clear. However, some could and do argue that if Allah has made the purpose of life to worship Him, that means Allah is in need of our worship. This is completely false for many reasons:

  • Allah’s name as-Samad makes clear that He is self-sufficient; He does not need us to worship Him
  • Our minds are not the final authority in matters of religion, rather it is the Speech of Allah and the sayings of our beloved Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam. People make up stuff (i.e. Allah needs us to worship Him) and take is authority over the Qur’an and Sunnah which is completely wrong.
  • The statement of Allah azza wa jal in the next verse:

مَا أُرِيدُ مِنْهُم مِّن رِّزْقٍ وَمَا أُرِيدُ أَن يُطْعِمُونِ

I seek not any provision from them (i.e. provision for themselves or for My creatures) nor do I ask that they should feed Me [Surah Dhariyat V.57]

And thus we come to know that our purpose of life is to worship Allah azza wa jal not because He is in need of it, rather because it is why we were created; we worship Him because He is worthy of it; we worship Him because it only brings benefit to ourselves.

Just in the first two verses of this surah we see the completeness of tawheed. Allah begins by stating and making clear that He is unique in all aspects; in His Lordship, His rights to be worshipped, and His Names and Attributes. There is no comparison to be made with Allah and anything else because Allah is unique, the One and Only. Then Allah says He is self-sufficient, making clear that He is not in need of us. Rather, since He is al-Ahad it also means He is as-Samad and thus has qualities of perfectness which only belong to Him. Since He is al-Ahad and as-Samad it leads one to think about the purpose of life and if one understands that Allah is the One and Only, Unique in all aspects, not in need of creation, characterized by Names and Attributes of Beauty and Perfectness it should lead them to worship Him alone.

Inshallah we will go a bit deeper into this concept next week. May Allah azza wa jal give us the ability to comprehend what we have read and to inshallah make it a means of attaining greater concentration and closeness to Allah during our salat.

By Abd al-Ahad | Posted in Ibadah, Islam, Qur'an, Salaah, Tafseer | Comments (1)

A Command Like No Other: Surah Ikhlas – Pt.1 (Salat 101)

September 19, 2008 – 10:29 am

Bismillah walhamdolilah wasalatu wasalam ‘ala Rasool Allah

Alhamdolilah. We started this initiative to bring people closer to their salat and by the grace of Allah azza wa jal the numbers are increasing and so are the results. May Allah continue to shower His Mercy into this project and make our hearts humble towards Him.

This week and inshallah for the coming weeks we will concentrate our efforts in attempting to understand the surahs we often recite in the salat (i.e mainly surahs from the 30th juz of the Qur’an). Allah azza wa jal, the Most Wise, the Most Knowledgeable knew that these would be the most memorized surahs and thus made them short and easy. However, SubhanAllah…within these small and shorter surahs there is so much benefit that we can derive from them…its just amazing!

Lets begin with the 112th surah of the Qur’an entitled Surat al-Ikhlas. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says:


قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ

Say: “He is Allah, One and Only (or Unique)”

(قُلْ)

Allah tells the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam to convey to the people of Quraysh, “He is Allah…” It is a command from Allah and it is a response to the question posed by the pagans, “What is the lineage of your God?”

Ibn al-Qayyim rahmatullilah alay has said that [qul] also afirms the fact that the Prophet sallalalhu alayhi wasalam was nothing more than a Messenger, he was one who conveyed the word of Allah to the people, and he did not speak from his own desires. Rather he only spoke that which was revealed to him.

(هُوَ)

Allah is genderless. The pronoun “it” does not exist in the arabic language and everything, living or non-living, is referred to using male or female pronouns and adjectives. So, the term [huwa] does not imply gender in any sense in the arabic language and we should understand it as the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam and the Sahabas radhiAllah anhum understood it.

(اللَّهُ)

Allah is the name of the Lord of the heavens and the earth. It is the name our Lord has chosen to call himself and it is said to be His Greatest Name.

Allah says in the Qur’an:

هُوَ اللَّهُ الَّذِي لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْمَلِكُ الْقُدُّوسُ السَّلَامُ الْمُؤْمِنُ الْمُهَيْمِنُ الْعَزِيزُ الْجَبَّارُ الْمُتَكَبِّرُ سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ

“He is Allah , other than whom there is no deity, the Sovereign, the Pure, the Perfection, the Bestower of Faith, the Overseer, the Exalted in Might, the Compeller, the Superior. Exalted is Allah above whatever they associate with Him”

Allah uses the name ‘Allah’ when describing His Names and Attributes. It is a proper name denoting the true God who exists neccessarily, by Himself, comprising all the attributes of perfection.

(أَحَدٌ)

al-Ahad is one of the infinate Names of Beauty which belong to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. This name implies uniqueness, independence, singularity, and indivisibility. Allah is al-Ahad; He who has no other to share in His Lordship, in His rights to be worshipped, or in His Names and Attributes. This is a perfection of tawheed, which is the basis of our life, the basis of our testimony of faith, and the greatest reason for us to enter into Paradise. For an amazing lecture series on this topic, please click here.

Another Name of Allah which is similar to ahad is waahid. They both basically mean, “one”, however there is a subtle difference between the two in usage and meaning. For example, when one says: maa fil bayti ahadun (there is no one in the house) it absolutely negates the possibility of anyone else being in the house. However, if we say: maa fil bayti waahidun (there is not one in the house) it leaves open the possibility of their being more than one person in the house; it does not negate absolutely. Thus, the name al-Ahad makes clear that there is nothing like Allah, He is the One and Only, He is Unique. It absolutely negates the possibility of their being any other ‘God’ besides Allah, the Most High; it negates the possibility of there being any other thing or person that is comparable to Allah — in His Lordship, in His rights to be worshipped, and in His Names and Attributes.

I ask Allah azza wa jal to place a love for this surah in our hearts. I ask Allah to give us comprehension of this ayat of the Qur’an and I ask Him, Subhana to bless us with the opportunity to increase the quality of our salat as we recite this beautiful surah.

By Abd al-Ahad | Posted in Ibadah, Islam, Qur'an, Salaah, Tafseer | Comments (4)

Praise of Beauty (Salat 101)

September 17, 2008 – 10:09 am

Asalamu ‘alaikum,

Bismillah walhamdolilah wasalatu wasalam ‘ala Rasool Allah.

Rifa’ah ibn Rafi’ said: We were praying behind the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam and when he raised his head at the end of the rak’ah he said:

“Allah listens to him who praises Him”

A man behind him said:

“O our Lord! To You belongs all praise, abundant good praise, inherently blessed”


When he finished he asked, “Who was the speaker just now?” The man replied, “I was.” He, sallalahu alayhi wasalam said, “I saw over thirty angels racing one another to be the first to record it.” (Bukhari)

For clearer text of the arabic, please click here.

This adhkar that has been accepted by the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam, thus it is a part of his sunnah (for more information on the details of sunnah click here).

We’ve already talked about the concept of hamd — the absolute height and perfection of praise which is reserved for no one except for Allah, the one who is deserving of all praise. To Allah belongs praise, an abundant praise because of who He is, because of the fact that He is the King of all Kings, The Most Forgiving, The Most Just, the Majestic, the Most Merciful, the Most High, and all the other beautiful names and attributes which befit His Majesty. All goodness we ascribe to Allah (alhamdolilah) and we reject all evil from Allah (subhanallah).

We see the importance of this remembrance because the Prophet of Allah sallalahu alayhi wasalam tells us that the Angels, the creation of Allah, ran in numbers to record it. The Angels are a creation of Allah that have been created for the sole purpose to worship Him, subhana. There is not a hand span of four fingers in the sky where there is not an Angel in worship of Allah. These Angels will rise up from a life-time of prostration to Allah and will say, “Glory be to You! We have not worshiped you like you deserve” (for more details about the amazing creation known as Angels click here). And it is the same creation of Allah, the sinless Angels, who raced for the honor of recording this specific remembrance. Make note of this importance, because you don’t hear the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam informing us about the Angels acting in a similar manner to other remembrances uttered.

May Allah azza wa jal give us the ability to put these small remembrances into our practice and give us greater concentration in our salat

By Abd al-Ahad | Posted in Ibadah, Islam, Salaah | Comments (0)

Varying the Supplications (Salat 101)

September 15, 2008 – 10:08 am

Bismillah wa’lhamdolilah wassalatu wassalam ‘ala Rasool Allah

For the most part, or at least from my personal experience, from childhood salat was always made to seem very rigid; one way of doing it, no variation, very systematic. And since we were never taught these variations, salat just ended up becoming a thoughtless set of actions, repeating the same things over and over again. However, as I grew older I realized that there is a lot of variation in salat, a lot that we can do to really build that relationship Allah throughout our salat.

The Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam would commence his recitation with many kinds of supplications in which he would praise Allaah the Exalted, and glorify and extol Him. He in fact ordered “the man who prayed badly” to do so, saying to him: No person’s prayer is complete unless he says takbeer, praises Allaah the Mighty and Sublime and extols Him, recites of the Qur’aan what is easy for him …

From this we gather that the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam would start his salat with a variety of different supplications…not just one!

The most common supplication that is recited is the following:

You are Glorified, O Allaah, and Praised; Your Name is Blessed;
Your Majesty is Exalted, and none has the right to worshipped but You

However, do you know there are other supplications that can be made? Using different supplications will allow you to build a closer relationship with Allah and it will definitely make salat more enjoyable for the believers.

Try some of these other supplications from the traditions of our beloved Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam:

Allaah is the Greatest, very great. Praise be to Allaah, again and again. Glorified is Allaah morning and evening

One of the Companions commenced with this, to which the Messenger (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) said: Wonderful for it is that the doors of the heavens were opened for it (Muslim)

Praise be to Allaah, many, pure, blessed praises. Alhamdolilahi hamdann katheeran tayyiban mubarakann fee

Another man commenced with this, to which he (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) said: I saw twelve angels competing as to which of them would take it up (Muslim)

And there are many more supplications which can be found in traditions of our beloved Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam. I recommend memorizing a few and inshallah switch up the use of them so you can take your prayers out of the same monotonous routine.

All of these supplications are taken from Shaykh Albani’s book entitled, “The Prophets Prayer Described” which can be viewed by clicking here.

May Allah give us the tawfeeq to understand, implement, and teach others.

By Abd al-Ahad | Posted in Ibadah, Islam, Salaah | Comments (0)

SubhanAllah: A Pure Negation (Salat 101)

September 13, 2008 – 10:50 am

Bismillah walhamdolilah was-salatu was-salam ‘ala Rasool Allah sallalahu alayhi wasalam

Continuing in our discussion of the oft-repeated words and phrases in our salat, this week inshallah we will focus on looking at: SubhanAllah

This is another word that is very common in the Muslim’s vocabulary. We all have heard the word, we all say it in our prayers daily (inshallah), yet how many of us truly understand its meaning?

Commonly this word is translated as, “Glory be to Allah” or “All Glory is to Allah”. I’m not going to say these definitions are wrong but I do think there is a lot depth associated with saying SubhanAllah which is not captured in the above translations. A better translation or meaning of the word would be, “far above is Allah from that which they associate to Him”

وَإِذْ قَالَ لُقْمَانُ لِابْنِهِ وَهُوَ يَعِظُهُ يَا بُنَيَّ لَا تُشْرِكْ بِاللَّهِ إِنَّ الشِّرْكَ لَظُلْمٌ عَظِيمٌ
And (remember) when Luqman said unto his son, when he was exhorting him: O my dear son! Ascribe no partners unto Allah. Lo! to ascribe partners (unto Him) is a tremendous wrong [31:13]

And so the greatest transgression, the great act of disbelief, the greatest act of disrespect, the greatest of all sins, the most disgusting of all acts one could do is to associate partners with Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.

And so saying SubhanAllah implies the following:

  • All Glory is due to Allah
  • Allah is the One who is far above the partners people associate with Him
  • This phrase is a negation of shirk (associating partners with Allah; to learn more click here)
  • It encompasses the greatest act of goodness (negating any partners to Allah)
  • The negation of shirk leads you to affirm His Oneness (tawheed; to learn more click here)
  • Forgiveness for our sins

Allah said: “…O son of Adam! If you bring forth the earth full of errors, then you meet Me while you do not associate anything (or anyone) with Me, I will bring forth for you its full of forgiveness.” [At-Tirmidhee (Shaikh Albanee rendered it as Hasan)]

Allah’s Apostle sallalahu alayhi wasalam said, “Whoever says, ‘Subhan Allah wa bihamdihi,’ one hundred times a day, will be forgiven all his sins even if they were as much as the foam of the sea.” [Sahih Bukhari]

How is it that just by saying a simple phrase like SubhanAllahi wa bihamdi we can have all our sins forgiven? Because in it is a negation of shirk (the worst of all acts), which leads to the affirmation of pure tawheed (the greatest of all acts).

My dearest brothers and sisters, next time you’re in sajood and you say Subhana Rabbi al-’ala or Subhana Rabbi al-adzeem let yourself ponder about its meanings…let yourself taste the sweetness of salat by pondering over that which you say and recite.

May Allah make us amongst those who establish our prayers with full submissiveness and concentration.

By Abd al-Ahad | Posted in Arabic, Gems, Ibadah, Islam, Salaah | Comments (4)

A Praise of Perfection (Salat 101)

September 11, 2008 – 10:47 am

Bismillah walhamdolilah wasalatu wasalam ‘ala Rasool Allah

Asalamu ‘alaikum,

There are certain words and phrases which we pronounce in our salat repeatedly, yet more than likely we do not know what they mean. This is the state of our salat these days…nothing more than actions of the limbs. O Muslims! Remember faith (eman) is belief in the heart, statements upon the tongue, and actions of the limbs. All three are required for a completeness of faith. Inshallah, we will look at some of the oft-repeated words and phrases in our salat and analyze them to give us a deeper understanding and a deeper connection with our Lord.

The word I want to look at this week is: Alhamdolilah

Allah says in the most recited surah of the Qur’an: “All praise is to Allah…”

Hamd means praising orally regardless of you being benefited by it. It is doing something, a favor or anything else, without the expectation of some reward or a statement of kind words back. This is different from shukr (thanking), in that you expect some reward or a statement of kind words in return.

Ibn al-Qayyim writes that hamd denotes qualities of love and respect; its connotation is of a special nature.

In the word Al-Hamdu, the prefix al has been used to include all forms of hamd. Thus, the perfect degree of hamd is only reserved for Allah.

And so you stand in front of Allah, the one who has the most perfect degree of hamd, and you recite:

“All the praises and thanks be to Allah, the Lord of the ‘Alamin (mankind, jinns and all that exists)”.

You recite this knowing that He is Allah, the One who is worthy of all praise, the One who has created the heavens and the earth, the stars and the sky, the sun and the moon. It is Allah, the one who deserves all hamd, who created life and death; it is He who has given you life and it is He who will cause you to die. It is Allah, who is deserving of all hamd, who brought you into existence and gave you the honor of worshiping Him. Thus, you stand in front of Allah, recognizing these bounties and acknowledging the fact that surely Allah is worthy of all praise…and you recite: “All praise is to Allah…”

Immerse yourself in the greatness of Allah. Stand in front of Him…knowing He is worthy of all thanks, all glory, and all praise and knowing that it is He who is your Lord and the Lord of all the worlds.

By Abd al-Ahad | Posted in Gems, Ibadah, Islam, Salaah | Comments (0)

A Home away from Home (Salat 101)

September 9, 2008 – 10:41 am

By dear brother and sisters in Islam, Asalamu ‘alaikum wa rahmatullah

In this blessed month of Ramadan, it is only beneficial to us to increase our worship of Allah azza wa jal. Surely, this month is full of blessings like no other. O Muslims! Take advantage of this month, because the reality is we don’t know if we will see another one.

Our beloved Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam has said:

“The prayer offered in congregation is twenty five times more superior to the prayer offered alone in one’s house or in a business center; because if one performs ablution and does it perfectly, and then proceeds to the mosque with the sole intention of prayer, then for each step which he takes towards the mosque, Allah upgrades him a degree in reward and crosses out one sin till he enters the mosque. When he enters the mosque he is considered in prayer as long as he is waiting for the prayer and the angels keep on asking for Allah’s forgiveness for him and they keep on saying: ‘O Allah! Be Merciful to him, O Allah! Forgive him’, as long as he keeps on sitting at his praying place and does not pass wind.” [Bukhari]

GEMS

  • There is no place more peaceful than the houses of Allah….so visit them frequently!
  • If you can…walk to the masjid. Use it to get yourself in the zone before you stand in front Allah…plus its a means of expiation for your sins! Subhanallah!
  • Twenty five times MORE reward + expiation of sins = GO TO THE MASJID AS MUCH AS YOU CAN FOR PRAYERS!!!
  • Thinking about the reward…thinking about the Mercy of Allah towards His slaves should humble us.
  • Lets think about the greatness of Allah, the mercy of Allah, and the love of Allah towards us before we stand to pray.
By Abd al-Ahad | Posted in Ibadah, Islam, Salaah | Comments (1)

Pure Forgiveness (Salat 101)

September 7, 2008 – 10:37 am

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam our beloved Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam has told us:

“The angels keep on asking Allah’s forgiveness for anyone of you, as long as he is at his mu’sallah (praying place) and does he does not pass wind. They say, ‘O Allah! Forgive him, O Allah! be Merciful to him.” [Bukhari]

Gems

  • Angels are a great sign of Mercy from Allah and how beautiful it is that Allah has given every single Muslim the ability to feel the mercy just by staying in his place of prayer
  • How great is it that the angels ask Allah for forgiveness for you? Subhanallah…amazing!
  • Take a moment to relax and feel that blessing and mercy from Allah. Between sunnah and fard…just sit for a minute or two.
  • How could it be that you will not be more focused in prayer knowing that angels have been asking forgiveness for you?
By Abd al-Ahad | Posted in Ibadah, Islam, Salaah | Comments (0)

A River of Purity (Salat 101)

September 5, 2008 – 10:34 am

The Prophet of Allah sallalahu alayhi wasalam has coined an amazing analogy in regards to salat. The analogy is depicted in a conversation between the Prophet and the Companions radhiAllah anhum, in which the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam said:

“Do you think that if there was a river by the door of one of you and he bathed in it five times a day that there would remain any dirt on him?” They answered: “There would not remain any dirt on him.” The Prophet of Allah alayhi salatu wasalam said: “That is how it is with the five prayers, through them Allah washes away the (minor) sins.” [Bukhari and Muslim]

GEMS

  • The prayer is spiritual cleanliness so don’t abandon it for anything
  • The mercy of Allah is that He has allowed people to pray to Him and receive forgiveness for their minor sins
  • Abandoning prayers is abandoning easy forgiveness from your Lord
  • With the mountains of sins we have engulfed ourselves in…can we afford to throw away forgiveness from ar-Rahman?
  • Knowing that Allah will wash away the minor sins is something to think about during salat…Knowing the Mercy of Allah will enhance the concentration

When you stand in front of Allah for salat know that He will forgive you of your minor sins. Ponder about it before, during, and after the salat and inshallah you will see the improvement!

In regards to monitoring the quality of your salat, there are a few things which you need to think about in respect to the different factors that you are working on:

  • Vision – What is your final destination? For example: Praying all fard salat in the masjid
  • Purpose – Why do you want it? Be specific about your purpose
  • Resources – list resources that could help you get to that destination; books, lectures, alarm clock, etc.
  • Steps – In accordance to your vision…what do you need to do to get there? List all the steps you need to take to get you closer to your destination
  • RPM – Are the results you expect specific and realistic? Is it time-bound? Is your purpose deep enough to push you towards your destination? Keep questioning your purpose. Do you have a plan to get the desired results? Make sure you map out a list of 10 things that will get you closer to your goal; pick the top 2 and implement them right away.
By Abd al-Ahad | Posted in Ibadah, Islam, Salaah | Comments (1)