Just doin it aint enough!

[Nur]

Sisters and Brothers

 

 

As we have performed another prayer today, ( depending on your location on the globe) I want to discuss the last file that we Muslims have sent to the heavens in our last prayer, or the last good deed folder transmitted.

 

Every time we pray, we read the Fatiha in which we make the following statements:

 

1. Thee alone do we serve (ibadah)

2. From thee alone do we seek help (in order to serve you )

 

As reported by the Prophet SAWS, our prayers are not automatically accepted, they go through an appraisal process in which a checklist of requirements are cross examined and as a result a percentage of our prayers are accepted. For some people a quarter of the prayer is accepted yet for others a tenth and so on..

 

My concern in this thread is that most people that I know, including myself, feel relieved that we have prayed, but little do we worry about the final grade on the file that goes up for evaluation at the end of the day on the state of our prayers.

Now let us look into some of the metrics that matter in the acceptability of our prayers.

 

1. Understanding what we say

2. Believing what we say

3. Meaning what we say.

 

For an exercise, let us apply the first verse above on the three metrics above.

When we pray, do we understand what IBAADAH means? because a failure in the understanding of the meaning of Ibaadah, can manifest itself negatively in our lives.

 

For example we may say this word while in effect we are serving other than Allah and are in a clear Shirk situation. So when we do not understand the meaning of Ibaadah, we may not be consistent in making it exclusively for Allah, in reality sometime, we may do it for Allah, other times, we may be doing it for others without being aware that we are stretching the truth in our prayers.

 

When we pray are we convinced that we are in reality making Ibaadah for Allah, or do we know that we are in reality making Ibaadah to others, but conveniently say the prayer as a habit. in other words do we really mean what we say.

 

Another point to think about is:

 

are we serving Allah, making ibaadah in our Prayer only, or are we in Ibaadah 24 hours a day, 365.25 days in the year?

 

The meaning of "thee do we worship" according to Quraan and Sunnah is that we are meant to be in a continuous state of Ibaadah, from the time our intelligence software is loaded in our mind up until when we are broken down to our original components. In that sense, anything we do that does not conflict with Allah's commandments can be an ibaadah if so we make our intention( you could be jogging in the park and still be in ibaadah if you make dhiker while running".

 

The prayer, fasting and Hajj are called (Shacaa 'ir_ Tacabudiyah) meaning, symbols of Ibaadah, NOT THE IBAADAH itself. So, you can visualize your prayer as the envelope that bundles a periodic amount of Ibaadah work to be delivered to Allah when you say ( Iyyaaka Nacbud, thee alone do we serve) .

 

Because in the course of the day, everything you do is being recorded to see if you are indeed telling the truth when you say ( Thee alone do we serve) . If what you do the rest of the day are NOT representative of what is approved by Allah SWT, and NOT formatted according to the protocol the prophet SAWS has standardized called Sunnah, chances are that your communication with Allah will be rejected outright for not meeting the goal of ( Ikhlaas) and the Protocol of ( Sunnah) for the acceptance of any deed.

 

So do not just transmit to heaven an empty Datagram (envelope) for a lifetime and expect that you have a good bank account waiting for you after you die. Allah says ( Wa an leysa lil insaani, illaa maa sacaa, wa anna sacyahu sowfa yuraa) .... Meaning, ( Mankind has nothing in store except for his efforts, and his efforts shall be duly appraised)

 

Also, if your envelope ( Prayer) is full of good deeds with ( Ikhlaas) , but not formatted according to the Sunnah protocol, again, your work may not be graded, because, the grading procedure calls for and invokes specific fields, if not found, the entire good deed document is discarded. Which makes it imperative that you make your prayers Sunnah compliant.

 

 

Moral of this write-up; There are two things we need to pay attention to when uploading a file to heaven:

 

1. Doing the right thing ( Ikhlaas)

2. Doing things right ( Sunnah)

 

 

If the above two conditions are met

Your file will be transferred and graded. If not, you may have to redo the process, but before you die.

 

 

Nur

 

 

2004 e-Nuri Communications Old Editions

Connecting People To Their Creator

[Haashim]

Thanks, Nur, this kind of Da'wa is what we need in this IT era. The Hyper D'awa

 

Thanks again and keep up

[Raxmah]

Salaams

 

Nur jazakallah khair for this topic on salah.

 

"Out of all the ways through which My servant gets closer to Me, Salah is the dearest to Me." (Bukhari)

 

Whenever I start praying this hadith comes to mind on how imporatnt salah, and each prayer I perform is step forward getting closer to allah.

 

Nothing worries me more than not completing the correct process for salah. Here is my problem I worry so much, that there are times I start my prayers over and over again becuase I might have pronounced something wrong or or wasnt attentive enough. Any ideas on how to reduce this level of waswaas. Any ideas on how to stay attentive in prayers.

 

 

Thanks in advance

[Nur]

Raxmah sis

 

You ask:

 

" Nothing worries me more than not completing the correct process for salah. Here is my problem I worry so much, that there are times I start my prayers over and over again becuase I might have pronounced something wrong or or wasnt attentive enough. Any ideas on how to reduce this level of waswaas. Any ideas on how to stay attentive in prayers."

 

 

Dear sis

 

Jazkellahu khairan, you also speak for me and many others.

 

Since our prayers get us closer to Allah SWT, guess who has a stake in keeping us away from Allah and his path?

 

You guessed it right, yes it is SATAN, a ctearture who has an access to navigate in our inner realms, the very location in our minds and hearts wheredecisions are made, so by logging on our operating system, SATAN can take control in redirecting traffic of our thoughts away from Allah and toward things that are worthless in comparison.

 

The way to fight back is not to worry much about the mechanics of the prayer as much as the content of the prayer itself, paying attention everyword that we say and to imagine that we are standing in front of Allah the One and ONLY, Sovereign, imagine being standing at his courtyard surrounded by angels who are taking note as you carry on a discourse with your maker, so when you say:

 

Alhamdulillah

 

Allah SWT says : My servant thanked me

 

When you say:

 

Rabbil alamin

 

Allah SWT says:

 

My servant glorified me

 

When you say: Ihdinaa siradal mustaqeem

 

Allah SWT says: My servant is granted his/her request

 

 

And so on

 

So by paying a close attention of our prayer we can stay focused on our goals to succeed.

 

 

I hope that helped.

 

 

Nur

 

Thanks in advance

[N.O.R.F]

Jazakullahukhara brother Nur, a very informative reminder on the importance of our intentions not just in prayer but to consider throughout our lives.

 

May allah reward you for yr truthful and well intentioned posts,,,,ameen

[StarGazer]

Rahma...sometimes I ask myself how in the world I finished my prayer...b'coz my attention was somewhere else ie.running late for class/work, or sleepy during fajr. It's a constant battle with Nafs& Satan. I try to think about every meaning of what I utter during salah and mean it while I say it. That way, I finish my prayer truly satisfied and feeling closer to Allah....not feeling like "aahh I got over with my obligatory salah"

 

Nur, as always, Jazakallah.

[Nur]

Socrates and Tamina

 

Well put, this a problem that I suffer from al the time and the only way to face it was through this thread, how do you all face it and get focused? please share your methods.

 

Nur

[Salafi_Online]

Innalhamdulillah...wa Salamu alaykum...

 

I, too onces suffered from the above mentioned delemma...however i learned that those were not the problems..the solution to ur problems can be summoned up in one Hadith...'Pray As you See me Praying." Until our methods Corresponds with the Sunnah...we Shall never find true Success in Our Salah...Learn the correct way..Ie where to place your hands..your feet...where should your Eyes be...Sutrah, does anyone one know what that is and the importances of having one? how to rise and lower your body? if one is not aware of the Correct way to Establish Salaah...Then how can our Salah be accepted...Its like one fasting on the Month Muhaaram and not Rammadan!

[Arwa]

you wrote:

 

this a problem that I suffer from al the time and the only way to face it was through this thread, how do you all face it and get focused? please share your methods.

____________________

 

The Prophet sallallahu alayhe wa sallam said: "The worst thief among men is the one who steals from his prayer." When his companions asked, "O Messenger of Allah, how does he steal from his prayer?", he replied, "He does not complete its rukoo (bowing) and sujood (prostration)." In a related report, the Prophet, observing a man not completing his rukoo properly, and pecking in his sujood, warned that if the man were to die in that state, he would die on a faith other than Islam.

 

Subxaan'Allah but most muslims fall into this description, the issue of salaat became like what Tamina has stated (feeling like "aahh I got over with my obligatory salah")

 

I think that its important for a person who's performing Salaat to know what he/she is saying and that does not come unless you understand Arabic or have knowledge of what this prayer your establishing mean.

 

Even understanding arabic with lack of knowledge and humility is a preventing factor from salaat being established the right way.

 

Salaam

[LuCkY]

Nur first of aLL thanks for posting this.

 

Second of aLL i wanted to bring up ur first point which Kynda brought up.

 

Now let us look into some of the metrics that matter in the acceptability of our prayers.

 

1. Understanding what we say

How Can One Understand What ONe Says If There Is Language Barrier?And Its kinda hard to swaLLow that ALL of my Prayers MAY have NOT been accepted because I didnt Understand(fuLLy).So Can You Touch ON this Issue a Bit more?

 

Yes I too have probLems compLeting my prayers due to waLbahaar and waswaas.Is there remedies for this?

[Salafi_Online]

Innalhamdulillah...Wa Salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah

 

Brothers and sisters...if you are among those who desire to shun your bad habits and looking for a cure...May I suggest you go and read one of my post on Salaat...It was an Advice By Imam Ahmed Ibn Hanbal...guaranteed it will increase ur iman..Inshallah.The Post is entitled: Come read it it will increase ur iman!Guaranteed!

 

Try it out!

[Br. Nur]

Nomads

 

Did you know that:

 

1. That every Sujuud, prostration in prayer, ascends you one degree higher to heaven, erases a sin.

 

2. That prayers are the key to getting rich, " And enforce prayers in your household, and bear with that responsibility, We do not ask you to sustain (them), We sustain you, and the good ending belongs to the piety.

 

3. Prayers relieve stress

 

4. Prayers make you balanced, when you are in trouble, you do not despair,and when you are doing well, you share.

 

 

Nur

[Nur]

Lucky Star

 

You ask:

 

" How Can One Understand What ONe Says If There Is Language Barrier?And Its kinda hard to swaLLow that ALL of my Prayers MAY have NOT been accepted because I didnt Understand(fuLLy).So Can You Touch ON this Issue a Bit more ?"

 

 

The Faatiha is the heart of our prayer ( Salaat), the word Salaat, has the same root for Silah, which means connection, thus our prayer is a session and a protocol that connects us to Allah SWT.

 

It was repsored that our Messneger SAWS said that we earn a share of our prayers, a fourth, third a half and so on, depending on the quality of our commucincation, the quality in turn depends on many aspects such as khushuuc, serenity, present mind, and understanding of your own words, so if we understand the meaning of the words of the Fatiha, we are more likely to benefit from our prayer, if not, we may not. My advice is that you make an effort to at least understand the Fatiha well in your native language.

 

 

Nur

[Maymuunah]

Nur I have a problem of waswaas.it seems whenever my mind is occupied with somthing else i forget if i made two sujuud or one. and i know that as everyone said you have to clear your mind of everything but it happens to me. so what do you think i should do when i am not certain how many rakas I am prayed or if i forget to make the middle ittixiyaat. I sometimes wonder weather allah accepted my prayer or not because of too much waswaas.

Oh god ilaahow noo dambi dhaaf.

[Nur]

Maymouna sis

 

Your problem is very common, most of us can not remove our minds from the worldy preoccupations that we are indulged in, for that reason, it is important that we prepare before the Salat to have clear minds through a regimen of Dhiker ( reminders of Allah), and the Sunnah prayers which serve as warm up activity for the Obligatory prayers.

 

Our prayers are the key to our success in the next life, the more we connect with Allah through prayers, the firmer our feet on faith.

 

So, my advice for you and me is to approach every Salat as the last Salat, that way, youcan not daydream or wander beyound your core responsiblity.

 

Nur