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How to Make The Most of your Salah | Khutbah
The five daily prayers have been described by the Prophet ﷺ as five daily baths. What exactly do they cleanse us from? And how do we make the most of this beautiful gift from Allah? Dr. Omar Suleiman discusses in this khutbah.
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Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. We begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for him. And we bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is his final messenger. We ask Allah to send his peace and blessings upon him, the prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him and those that follow in his blessed footsteps until the day of judgment. We ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen. Dear brothers and sisters, oftentimes we are looking for something special to provoke in us a connection to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that we feel like we have seen in others and that we envy. And so you'll have people that ask for this very special equation. You know, Sheikh, what's one du'a I can make so that I can quit this sin? Can you give me a wird? Can you give me something to read on a daily basis? And that way I can finally connect to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. What's something that can finally make me feel like I'm connected to Allah throughout the day? What is this amazing script? Find me this story that's buried in a book. Find me anything that can get me out of the situation that I am in. And subhanAllah, I want you to think about a person who would go to the doctor and who would receive a very specific prescription and that prescription seems almost too easy and too good to be true. There's no mystery to it and there's no shortage of its treatment and it is a hundred percent in its likelihood to cure you. And I want you to think about the thing that you do on a daily basis, but maybe don't appreciate so much. As-salat, five daily prayers, the most beloved of deeds to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And you know, maybe you don't appreciate it if you've been doing it your entire life or especially if you've been doing it your entire life.
But someone looks at you from the outside and says you really have to pray five times a day no matter what and pull away and find this corner. And to that person that's walking in the airport and that sees you next to a gate or that person at school that sees you on time praying and in the corner doing your ruku and your sujood, you look like a monk to that person. But to you, this is just another thing you got to get done throughout the day. And I want you to think about how special these five prayers are for a moment. That the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that they are ahabbul a'mali ilallah, the most beloved of deeds to Allah. As-salatu li waqtiha, aw as-salatu ala waqtiha. To pray on time is the most beloved of deeds to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. wa ma taqarraba ilayya abdi bishay. No one will come to me. No one of my slaves will come closer to me with anything. ahabba ilayya mimmaftaratuhu alayhi. With anything more beloved than that which I have prescribed upon them. Before qiyam al-layl, before this special du'a, before this amazing story, it's these five prayers that you have. When you talk about muhasaba and muraqaba, when you talk about self-accounting and observing the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala upon you. There is no deed more powerful than the one that you have been instructed to do five times a day. If you pray, right. If you establish the prayer, right. So I want to sit with this ayah for a bit. Where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in surah al-Ankabut, utluma uhya ilayka min al-kitab wa aqim as-salat. Recite that which has been revealed to you of the book and establish the prayer. inna as-salata tanha anil fahsha'i wal-munkar. Verily the prayer forbids. It stops you. It forbids you from falling into al-fahsha'i wal-munkar. Two categories of sins. The ulama have long, beautiful, powerful reflections on these two categories. If you read the English translation, it would say the major and the minor sins,
the extremely foul sins, and the sins that might be considered more consistent or more regular or amongst the overlooked sins. But the point is all sins fall under these two categories. And al-fahsha'i tends to represent in the sharia that which has a level of disgust, that which is qabeeh, that which is flagrant, that which represents a different stage in your distance from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That's why Allah azawajal refers to zina, adultery, fornication, and all types of sexual deviance with this term of fahisha. Because it's foul. It takes you so far away from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Wal-munkar, as the most subtle or most specific way, kullu ma'ankarahu ash-shara', everything that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has forbidden in his legislation falls under munkar in some way. The point is prayer is a guard against these things. And a person might say, well, how come I pray but I still commit these sins? Does that mean I'm not praying at all? And there is a hadith that's narrated in a tabarani that is extremely weak, but that gets quoted frequently that seems to indicate that much. Where the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, in this report, is said to have said, man lam tanahu salatuhu anil fahsha'i wal-munkar fala salata lahu. Whoever is not stopped from these sins, the major ones, the minor ones, the flagrant ones, the regular ones, by their salah, then it is as if they have no salah. Their prayer is not recorded for them. Now this hadith is problematic, not just in its sanad, not just in its chain, but in what it might indicate. There is a report from Ibn Mas'ud radiallahu ta'ala anhu and Abdullah ibn Abbas radiallahu anhuma, in their words, man lam tanahu salatuhu anil fahsha'i wal-munkar lam yazdad biha minallahi illa bu'da. It is a scary one.
That whoever does not find that their prayer takes them away from evil, obscene deeds, from sinning, then they did not get from their prayer except for distance. Salah is qurb. It is a silah. It's a connection to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that is meant to bear closeness, closeness. And here if you are treating your prayer like a chore or maybe even doing it just to get by, then it may actually be distancing you further from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And Allah can be said about this that if the most potent form of connection that you have to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does absolutely nothing for you, then at the very least there's a hardening of the heart that's taking place. Someone that comes into the religion for the first time and learns the salah for the first time might taste its sweetness quicker than someone that's been praying for so many years. And insha'Allah ta'ala the salah is documented for them, but the heart has not been softened in any way and the closeness to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is not being established. Now there are two incidents with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam that are very important in regards to this ayah, which is that there's a difference between a person who is praying and who is falling even in fahisha, even in deep sin, but that goes to their prayer and hopes that their prayer will cure them from that and seeks a connection with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but is at a particular point in their journey. See, a lot of times you diagnose two people wrong because you frame them based on the output in the exact same way. The munafiq could look indistinguishable from the struggling Muslim to the outward eye, but there's something of the heart. And so we find in an authentic narration that the companions came to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and they said, يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ إِنَّ فُلَانَ يُصَلِّي بِالنَّهَارِ وَيَسْرِقُ بِاللَّيْلِ
Think about this lifestyle. This man prays in the day or prays at night and steals during the day. Think about this. He prays during the day, he steals at night. He lives between salah and sariqa, theft. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam responded, he said, إِنَّ صَلَاتَهُ لَتَرْدَعُهُ That his prayer will one day bring him back. And another authentic narration from Anas sallallahu alayhi wasallam, he said, أَنَّ فَتًى مِنَ الْأَنصَارِ كَانَ يُصَلِّي مَعْ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمْ That there was a young man from the Ansar. And realize, no one was Muslim that long with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam because his entire mission on earth was two decades, alayhi salatu wasalam. And if you're an Ansari, that means that it's less than a decade. And so this young man used to pray with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. But look at his description by the companions. ثُمَّ لَا يَدَعْ شَيْئًا مِنَ الْفَوَاحِشِ إِلَّا رَكِبَهُ There wasn't a single one of the obscene deeds except that he was guilty of those deeds. فَوُصِفَ لَهُ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ حَالَ He was spoken about to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, described to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam in this regard. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said إِنَّ صَلَاتَهُ سَتَنْهَاهُ يَوْمًا One day his prayer is going to stop him. One day his prayer will bring him back. Look, the man has shut a lot of doors between him and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Don't shut the most important door that he has. And to all of the people in here that are struggling even with a major sin, don't diminish the major sin, but don't let shaitan get in your head and tell you what's the point of your salah if you're committing this sin. And Anas goes on to say subhanAllah that this young man repented to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala shortly after the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that. And so don't let the shaitan play you into thinking that at any point giving up the salah is necessary because you've distanced yourself that much from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But then it brings us back to the ayah. Then what is the ayah saying?
If it's not saying stop praying, if it's not getting you to stop these sins and not getting you to be more accountable with these sayyats, then what is the ayah actually saying? And this is the beautiful hadith from Jabir ibn Abdullah radiAllahu ta'ala anhu that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said, مَثَلُ الصَّلَوَاتِ الْخَمْسِ كَمَثَلِ نَهَرٍ جَارٍ غَمْرٍ وَفِي رِوَايَ عَذْبٍ The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said, the example of your five daily prayers is like a flowing deep river. A flowing deep river. And in one narration, عَذْبٍ which means it's sweet. Imagine a sweet flowing river. عَلَى بَابِ أَحَدِكُمْ That is right in front of your door. Now I want you to just think about what's being suggested here. Number one, the ulama say, you can take every word of the hadith and there's beauty. It's flowing so it doesn't stay still and it doesn't become corrupted at any point. It's like a flowing pure river. The second thing, it is deep. There is plenty of water for everyone to immerse themselves in. The salah is there as a cure for every single person that wants it. There's no shortage of it. You don't need to go anywhere necessarily for it. Of course, the masjid has its place. Saying in general, it's there for you. It is near to you. It is consistently available to you. And it is meant to immerse every single part of your body and it is sweet. And عَلَى بَابِ أَحَدِكُمْ It's right there. It's right there. You don't have to travel for it. And the Prophet ﷺ said, that the example is that a person bathes in that river five times a day. What type of filth would remain on a person as al-Hassan r.a comments on this, if he bathes five times a day? Think about a person who showers, shampoos, soaps up, conditions five times a day. Perfumes, everything. Physically speaking, can you imagine a person like that
that showers five times a day? Can you imagine a person like that that takes a real shower five times a day? What are they gonna smell like? What are they going to look like? How fresh will they be? The Prophet ﷺ is saying, imagine yourself spiritually bathing five times a day. And not all showers are the same. There's the sunnah. There are different brands of shampoo, different brands of soap, different fragrances, different ways in which you scrub yourself. Not every shower is the same. There is a two-minute shower and there is a 20-minute shower. Not every one of them is the same. But what the ulama say when they comment on this is that a true salah, if you immerse yourself five times a day, a person could achieve wilayah with Allah ﷻ, a friendship with Allah ﷻ, just through that alone. Why? Because just tasting the sweetness of that five times a day, how are you going to go from that to the rest of your day? And continue thinking the same way, continue speaking the same way, continue looking at the same things. And Allah ﷻ continues and He says, وَلَا ذِكْرُ اللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ And the remembrance of Allah is greater. And the ulama say this is loaded with beauty as well. Is the remembrance of Allah greater in the salah or greater as a deterrence? Meaning, عَنِ النَّهِ عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنْكَرِ As deterring you from these types of evils throughout the day. What is the extent to which this ayah is suggesting وَلَا ذِكْرُ اللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ And the scholars say a few things and we can reconcile them. Number one, can you imagine for a moment if in your prayer you were allowed to use your phone? And by the way, you're not allowed to use your phone in the prayer or in salatul jum'ah by the way. Can you imagine if in salah you were able to scroll through your phone? Can you imagine if you were able to have conversations during salah? I mean, you don't have to look further than tawaf and umrah and hajj and the types of conversations that are ensuing there. Between the selfies and the conversations,
I don't know how much dhikr some people can get in a matter of just seven rounds. Can you imagine if in your salah the one time of the day, the five times of the day that you come to the prayer where you have to at least, at the bare minimum, not talk about evil things, not say evil things, not listen to evil things, not look at evil things. Can you imagine if that was compromised? What a mercy from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that we're not allowed any of that. That is a rahma from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That's a huge mercy from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We're not allowed any of that. Alhamdulillah. Because Allah knows how distracted we'd be in salah. We're already distracted enough just by the thoughts for what came before and what comes after the salah. But on top of that, Imam Ibn al-Qayyim rahimahullah says, what is it that's going to prohibit a person from the effect of sin inside of them? It's the dhikr inside the salah. When your whole body is in a state of dhikr, five times a day, and you're remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and as Ibn Abbas sallallahu alaihi wa sallam says, and beyond that, if a person is in a state of remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala throughout the day, then they don't even have to wait to be pulled to a full immersion of dhikr five times a day. What greater way to protect yourself, to protect your eyes, to protect your ears, to protect your tongue, than being in a state of remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala throughout the day. You can't guard yourself around the consistent signals of evil today unless you have a consistent spiritual habit of connection to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's the only way. The more extreme those signals get, the more committed you have to be to those things that Allah azza wa jal put right in front of you. So what am I saying, dear brothers and sisters? Not all salahs are equal. But if you've been treating your salah, if you've been treating your five daily prayers as just an obligation you need to hurry up and get through and move on from,
take a step back and remind yourself that Allah azza wa jal just gave you the greatest gift in these five prayers. Treat them right. Honor these five prayers. You know, subhanAllah, there's a hadith and I'll end with this narration. It's a beautiful one and it's similar to one that we hear around Ramadan. And it's also authentic. About two brothers. And it's narrated from Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas radiAllahu ta'ala anhum, whose son narrates it from him. That there were two brothers in the time of the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. And one of them, هَلَكَ أَحَدُهُمَا قَبْلَ صَاحِبِهِ بِأَرْبَعِينَ لَيْلًا One of them died 40 days before the other. So just a little over a month before the other, one brother died before the other. And they were speaking in front of the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. And they were talking about the one who died first. One died 40 days before the other. So the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam is listening to them praise the first one that passed away. And then he says, أَلَمْ يَكُنِ الْآخَرُ مُسْلِمًا Wasn't the second one a Muslim too? You're talking about the first one. Wasn't the second one a Muslim as well? And the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam wants to make a point. They said, بَلَا يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ وَكَانَ لَا بَأْسَ بِهِ He said, yes, O Messenger of Allah. And he was all right. Like he was okay. لَا بَأْسَ بِهِ He wasn't as great as the first one. And the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam in this particular narration, he says, وَمَا يُدْرِيكُمْ مَا بَلَغَتْ بِهِ صَلَاتُهُ What do you know about what rank his prayer delivered him to? And the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam repeated that the salah, the example of the salah is like a flowing river in front of your homes, five times a day that you could bathe in it. And the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam says, فَإِنَّكُمْ لَا تَدْرُونَ مَا بَلَغَتْ بِهِ صَلَاتُهُ You don't know what rank his salah took him to. You don't know how much
that extra month of just the five daily prayers alone actually elevated his rank. You have no idea. Dear brothers and sisters, when you go to the graveyard, and you're seeing these people that are under the ground, and you ask yourself what it is they would want if they could have one more chance. It might just be that Salatul Asr and that Maghrib you just do on the side and you do it as a sense of burden, like I've got to get this out of the way. And for them it would be more precious than an entire lifetime to just come back and to get one more Salatul Dhuhr, one more Jum'ah, one more Asr. That's the gift that Allah Azawajal has with you right now. If they could say, give me one more chance, let me get one more Dhuhr, one more Asr, what are we doing with these precious prayers? And so it's worth it to immerse ourselves, to learn the words that we're saying, to add on the sunnah. وَلَا ذِكْرُ اللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ Dhikr is driven by love, to add on the dhikr after the salah and beyond, to remember Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala between the two. إِنَّ الصَّلَاةَ تَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنْكَرِ May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala prohibit us from the evil things that taint our souls, that darken our hearts, that don't allow us to perceive His greatness or the magnitude of the gifts that He's given to us anymore. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala connect us to Him in every way. May Allah Azawajal purify our deeds so that they are fully pleasing to Him. اللهم آمين. أقول قولي هذا واستغفر الله لي ولكم ورسالة المسلمين فاستغفروا إنه. الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله وعلى آله وصحبه ومن وله. اللهم اغفر المؤمنين والمؤمنات والمسلمين والمسلمات الأحياء منهم والأموات. إنك سميع قريب وجيب دعوات. اللهم اغفر لنا وارحمنا واعفو عنا ولا تعذبنا. ربنا ظلمنا أنفسنا وإن لم تغفر لنا وترحمنا
لنكونن من الخاسرين. اللهم إنك عفو كريم تحب العفو فاعفو عنا. اللهم اغفر لوالدينا رب ارحمهما كما ربونا صغارا. ربنا هبلنا من أزواجنا وذرياتنا قرة أعين. وجعلنا للمتقين إماما. اللهم انصر إخواننا المستضعفين في مشارك الأرض ومغاربها. اللهم أعز الإسلام والمسلمين وأذل الشرك والكاذبين ودمر أعداء الدين. اللهم أهلك الظالمين بالظالمين وأخرجنا وإخوانا من بينهم سارمين. عباد الله إن الله يأمر بالعدل والإحسان وإيتاء للقربة وينهى عن الفحشاء والمنكر والبغي. يَعِذُكُمْ لَعَلَكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ فَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهِ يَذْكُرُكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوهُ عَلَى النِّعْمَاءِ يَزِدْ لَكُمْ وَلَا ذِكْرُوا اللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلُمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ وَأَقِمُ الصَّلَاةِ In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate.
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