﷽
السلام عليكم
I pray you're all well and in the best of imaan. Where do i even begin with this. This is something that needs to be spoken about because so many of us have neglected salaah to the extent where we're not even praying anymore.
Understand this, you will not see success or find peace with yourself until you aren't consistent with salaah. I don't wish to give away too much of my past, but the reason i'm writing this is because i was the same; it's not like i've been praying all my salaahs from the get go. I was very weak in them, didn't pray much, and didn't know what i was saying, and looking back, because of that, there was a part of me that was missing and i felt so lost with no sense of direction. I never want to experience such things again, hence why, i want to reach out to you guys and help because i was also in the same boat.
I feel like i understand why a lot of us struggle to pray, and it's usually because from young, we've been brought up firstly at home, but also in mosque, just being nagged at to 'pray or you're going Jahannam if you dont', or constantly pestered with 'pray pray, go pray, have you prayed'. We've never actually been educated with the true gems of salaah. We've never created that love for it, which is why we've now reached that age of adolescence and adulthood for some, that we're either missing our salaahs here and there, not punctual with them, or even not praying at all, Allah save us. However, that's still not a valid excuse for us to not be praying. We've been educated with it and given the right upbringing to pray, so it becomes incumbent upon us to fulfil that act. In fact whether we've been introduced to it or not, being a muslim, we have to pray regardless. We all know the status of salaah in islam. First of all, it's an obligation upon us all, once reaching the age of puberty, and secondly, it's the second pillar of islam. It comes straight after imaan. It holds such a lofty status, that without salaah, there's no imaan; because we're told, the only act that distinguishes a muslim from a kaafir (disbeliever) is salaah. If we're not praying, for whatever reason, what does that make us? It's said that salaah is not even excused on ones death bed, so what about all the pathetic excuses we make day in day out?
By Allah, if we're making excuses then seriously we need a wake up call. Are we saying we don't have time for the one whose created us? Who sustains us? Provides for us? How selfish have we become. Allah doesn't deserve this from us. He simply wants us to turn to him and pray to him. We all know how it feel to do so much for someone, for them to simply not appreciate us. It stabs you right in the back. Now imagine that same thing we're doing to our Lord. Even that, it's no where near similar, but it's just something for our small minds to understand.
Think about it, the one thing that cast shaytaan out of the heavens was his rejection to do one sujood to Adam (as) when Allah ordered him to, just one. So what about us, rejecting multiple sujoods everyday. There's a Hadith to the nearest meaning which says, 'salaah was the first and foremost thing to be ordained by Allah, and it shall be the first and foremost thing to be reckoned for on the day of judgement.' Knowing it'll be the first thing we'll be questioned for, how can we even think about missing one?
You know, there's more to salaah than fulfilling a fardh. It's a conversation between us and our creator. It's an opportunity for us to humble ourselves, submit, prostrate. When we fold our arms, we're standing in front of Allah like a prisoner, we're his slave, worth nothing. Pushing the world behind us and telling Allah he's worth all our attention at this time. When we bow down, we're submitting to Him, saying i am nothing compared to you o Allah. When we fall onto the floor in prostration, with our head on the lowest part of the ground, the earth that we walk upon, the soil that we came from, and the soil that we'll return to and get consumed by, we're humbling ourselves, again signifying we are worth nothing and o Allah all praise is for you. You'll find that when you do this day in day out, you'll become a lot more selfless, and slowly begin to understand Allahs grandeur, even though we'll never completely be able to.
Allah Himself has told us that the only reason He's created us, is for His worship. Nothing else besides that. So if that's the case, then why are we doing everything else besides what we've been created to. It makes so sense.
وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ
And i did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship me.
Until we don't see our sole purpose in life to be that of worshipping Allah, we'll never be able to prioritise deen over dunya. You know, it always amazes me that so many of us don't see the importance of praying anymore. We've lost that real connection with Allah and Islam. We want to live certain lavish lives, but at our own expense. Im sorry but how do we expect to see success if we're not turning to the one in whose hands lies our complete success?
حي على الصلاة
Rush to salaah
حي على الفلاح
Rush to success
Just look at the words of whats said in the adhaan. 'Rush' to salaah, 'Rush' to success'.
We're quite literally called to success five times a day, but we'd rather turn our backs on it and find our own success. Quite foolish in my opinion. But the best part is, we're being guaranteed success this way. Nothing else in this world is guaranteeing us success. Allah is telling us, establish your five daily salaah, and i will make your sustenance easy for you, i will sort everything out for you. But we like to make life harder for ourselves and say to Allah, o Allah, i don't need your help, i'd prefer to do it myself. Allah wants to make everything easy for us, and then when something goes wrong, and don't go our way, we start complaining to Him saying, 'why did you have to do this to me.' But Allah didn't do that to us, we done it ourselves. We truly are so lost.
Even when it comes to things such as exams; we're staying up all day, all night making notes, revising, memorising, stressing ourselves out, whilst neglecting Allah. WHO do we think is going to give us success in that exam? Do we really think we're going to get good grades through our own efforts? And it frustrates me, and upsets me so much when people only pray when they need something. Allah is worth more than that. He isn't just there for when we need something, and then we can forget about Him once we get it. He's there for us all the time and deserves to be worshipped all the time. Make Him your best friend. Confide in Him whenever you need something, anything, even to the extent of a shoelace.
Without finding Allah, there's always going to be emptiness inside us. Guaranteed. We complain about feelings such as emptiness and pain, when Allah calls us five times a day but we turn the other way. Allah even said;
أَلاَ بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ
"Verily in the remembrance of Allah, do hearts find rest"
You know, when you read about the salaah of some of the previous companions and sahabah, they were so engrossed in their ibaadah, that it puts us to shame; this one gets me every time, that it is said of a pious man, that once, he had a sore on his foot. According to the opinion of the surgeons, if his foot was not amputated, then the sore might prove fatal. His mother proposed that the operation should be done whilst he was absorbed in salaah. This was done and no pain was felt by him. (from fazale a'maal). By Allah just look at the devotion they had in their salaah. But us, and i say this for myself first and foremost, we start scratching, itching, yawning, getting fidgety in our salaah; all because our heart aren't present at the time, just our body. There's a Hadith to the nearest meaning where the Prophet (saw) said; 'When a person stands for salaah, the gates of paradise are let open and all the veils between him and Allah are lifted (provided he doesn't spoil his salaah through yawning, coughing etc).'
The veils are: 70 veils of red pearls, 70 veils of yellow pearls, 70 veils of green pearls, 70 veils of a mixture of light and fire, of darkness, of cloud, ice, hail, and the azmat and grandeur of Allah. This is Allah. His beautiful religion. That's what we're experiencing when we're raise our hands to stand in front of Him. Are we really saying our useless trivial activities are more important than experiencing such a relationship with our creator?
Back to my original point, that's not all. They really and truly relied upon Allah for their success. He fed them, clothed them, sheltered them, gave them success in battles. All because of the devotion and love they had for salaah. And thats what i'm trying to explain. Once we do our part, and submit to Him, then leave the rest in His hands, and i promise you, you'll see the way your life will fall into place.
Have we come that far, that we see our efforts to only be through our own hands? Have we never thought about it; Allah is the one who's allowed our heart to beat for another 24hrs, gave us hands, legs, eyes, ears, a brain, an able body, in order for us to carry out those acts, but most importantly, he gave us that strength. Without being blessed with any of those things, we'd struggle to even accomplish anything because we'd be void of Allahs mercy. So if that's the case, then why are we still not turning to the one who's blessed us with such bounties. Why are we not praying to him, submitting, humbling ourselves in front of the one who's given us so much. That's the same when we don't pray, we think life is still fine and we're getting through, but we don't have Allah by our side by not praying. Despite all that we've been given, He's testing us. He wants to see whether we will turn to Him, or away from Him.
You know, if your life is going smoothly and you're not praying, then fear for yourself because maybe Allah is giving you this world rather than the hereafter. We often get really deluded when we see our life going perfectly well; good grades, lots of money, happy healthy family, etc, but what we don't know, is that maybe Allahs giving us all in this world, at the expense of attainting Jannah. Which one do we want? But let me tell you, you can have all of the above, without compromising on your hereafter and five daily salaah. Not one a week, not two a day, not one a month, but five a day. When you find Allah and prostrate to him, the rest of the above will fall to your feet. Trust me.
Also, by not praying, we think we're happy, but truly, we're void of Allahs mercy. We're missing that inner peace, solace, ease. You know, coming out the other end and seeing the effect salaah has had on my life, i can't begin to explain how important it is for us to be praying 5 times a day. It's like your worries just disappear. You start to feel this unexplainable ease and peace within you, and you feel this personal connection with your creator. Slowly over time, you create this love for islam and you begin to forsake sins only for His sake. For me, it was more the punishment for neglecting even a single salaah which got me praying, but i know for a lot of people its that same thing that often scares them away. (I'll create a separate post on this).
But for some reason, and it's so sad, that we now see salaah as a burden, when it was ultimately given to us as a gift. On the night of Mi'raj, Nabi (saw) went up to the heavens, where he met all the Prophets and made salaam onto them. Thereafter, Allah prescribed the gift of fifty daily salaah, and on returning, Nabi (saw) met Musa (as), who asked, "What gift have you brought from the Mi'raj?" Whereupon He (saw) replied, "That of fifty prayers". So Musa(as) said "Go back, your people are not going to be able to observe fifty salaah. Request for a lighter obligation for i had tested my people before you." So Prophet (saw) went back to get a reduction and still came back with quite a lot. So Musa (as) kept sending Him back, until he came with 5, which was said even that is too much but Nabi (saw) was too ashamed to go back to Allah to get something less than that. But the most beautiful part of it all is this; As Prophet (saw) was going, a voice called out and said "I have executed what i have made obligatory, and have made things light for my servants." (although five daily prayers are prescribed for the Ummah of Nabi (saw), yet the reward will remain unchanged, at fifty prayers-)
There's two things to take from this.
One is that;
لا يكلف الله نفسا الا وسعه
Allah does not burden a soul beyond that it can bear
Really and truly, Allah only wants ease for us. If He wanted, He could've left the salaah at 50, He didn't have to reduce it to 5. But for the sole purpose of 'making things light for my servants', Allah reduced it to five. If we're struggling to pray just this much, then imagine what fifty must've been like. Which leads me onto saying, the second thing, is that we're still getting the reward of praying fifty, because that was the original obligation, and we're not even praying anywhere near close to that amount. But this is our Lord. This is His mercy. Seriously we don't deserve half of the stuff we've been blessed with.
This is the same Allah that we turn our back on. The one that has given us everything, and cares for us at every moment. The one who says even if your sins are as much as the foam on the sea, i will still forgive you. That same Allah who allows our heart to beat even during times of disobedience. Our friends and acquaintances do nothing for us in comparison to what Allah gives us. Yet we seem to worship our friends and desires more, over the one who deserves our worship.
Theres the example given of a mother and her child. Imagine you're this mother who's held her baby for 9 months in her stomach, given birth, looked after, nurtured, fed, sustained and provided for your child, only for them to turn around and say no to you when you need something. Or they ignore you. Imagine how you must feel. Heartbroken right. You'd be thinking how dare my child have the audacity to turn their back on me after everything i've done for them. Yet thats what we do to Allah day in day out when we sin, and neglect his salaah. YET, that same Allah is willing to forgive us, so long as we turn to him asking in repentance. Seriously, when are we going to start to appreciate Him. We feel so over whelmed and attached to people who do stuff for us in this world, surprise us constantly with gifts, then what about Allah who we could never repay in the slightest? You know, looking around, we've literally become slaves of our bosses and such institutions, it's shocking; your boss says be at work for 9am, you're there for 8;50. Your boss says do this, you do that. But when Allah tells us just turn to me and pray at these five times in the day, and i will sort your rizq out for you, then all of a sudden our lives are too hectic and we're too tired. The one who has given us everything, the one who has to be asked permission for our heart to beat. The king of all kings, yet we don't have time for him. But instead, we'll choose to work our backsides off for our bosses, all for such a pathetic low wage. Seriously, we've lost perspective.
I just want to say, please don't feel as though you can't pray because of your sins. Please don't feel like you'll be deemed hypocritical, or that you've missed so many years worth of salaah in the past, so what's the point of even starting now. These are all thoughts from shaytaan. Truly once you start fixing your salaah, you'll find you'll abandon sins for the sake of Allah. You have to start somewhere, so start with salaah. Even if youve missed so many in the past, still pray now. You will have to make qadhaa of those salaah at one point, but for now, start on being punctual with your 5 daily ones. We owe it to Allah, we seriously do.
All my beautiful souls reading this, salaah is your key to Jannah. Prophet (saw) has told us that any part of the body that touches the ground in salaah, will not burn in the fire of Jahannam.
Salaah expiates our sins, it takes us away from Allahs wrath, it earns his pleasure, it abases the devil, and so much more.
There's an incident where it was Autumn and the leaves were falling. So Nabi (saw) caught hold of a branch and shook it, and the leaves began to fall in large numbers. So at this, he remarked, "When a muslim offers his salaat to please Allah, his sins fall off his body just as these leaves are falling off this tree." We all sin in different ways, but praying to Allah conscientiously can erase us of those sins. Even from the get go; from the time of whudu, our sins are being washed away. But that's only if we truly want it.
If you're one who's not praying all your salaah, be gradual. Don't throw yourself in the deep end. This is how i was taught. Start with your fardh only. Pray just your fardh for all your five salaah, for however long it takes you to feel like you're secure with them. Once you know you're not going to miss any, then slowly add your sunnah's. It'll take time, especially if you've not been praying often, but truly, once you start, the guilt that you'll feel for even attempting to miss one salaah is unexplainable. Allah can see our efforts, He knows if we're finding it hard. But it's that same struggle that will double our rewards and be a means for us to enter into Jannah one day Insha'Allah.
On the other hand, Alhumdullilah, if you're one who's punctual with their salaah, then are you truly concentrating and pondering on what you're praying? As most of you may know, i really love the 'love of Allah' salaah book which has all the meanings to what we pray, and it's been super helpful. If you'd like the pdf version drop me a message on my insta.
I pray this was beneficial for us all, for myself first and foremost, and i hope we can truly understand the beauty of salaah. It's an obligation we owe to Allah, and won't get away from being questioned. Start today, not tomorrow. We may not live to see tomorrow.
O Allah, please make us from amongst those whom establish their salaah, who's ibaadah is accepted, and who find the true peace from their salaah.
آمیـــــــــــــن یارب العالمین
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I'm more than happy to talk, i'd love to know if this was helpful.
Lots of love xxx
Remember, the world is like the wilderness, and salaah is our tent for protection against all evils...
Aameen 🤲 ❤