Judgment Day: Deeds That Light The Way
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When He Asks About Your Prayer | Judgment Day: Deeds that Light the Way Episode 11
Salah is the most important deed we can fulfill for our Creator. Standing trial on that Day, the first thing Allah will ask you about is your prayer. Will Allah show you His mercy, or will you be forgotten?
Note: All depictions are purely conceptual and only vocals were used in the making of the soundtrack.
“Closed Caption is provided by Muhsen”
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. The first thing that rises to protect you in the grave is your salah. And then the first thing you ask about when you're sat up in your grave is your salah. And the first thing you're going to be asked about on the day of judgment is your salah. So you want your salah to be in the best state when you meet your Lord. The Prophet ﷺ said, When any one of you is engaged in prayer, you're holding an intimate conversation with your Lord. And if you pay attention to the salah, immediately after you praise Allah for His mercy, you affirm that he is what? Maliki yawm al-deen, master of the day of judgment. And there is no day that you're going to need His mercy more than on the day of judgment. The salah is the time when you are closest to Allah. And it's the time when you're most frequent in remembering the day of judgment, even if it's just by the mention of it in the beginning with Surah al-Fatiha, or in the end when you're seeking refuge in Allah from the hardships of the resurrection. So the best salah is the one in which your heart is most present with Allah, and you're also longing towards that meeting with Him on the last day. And as Ibn al-Qayyim said, There is no way that you demonstrate yourself to be a sabiq, to be a forerunner, more so than when you are diligent with praying on time. Praying on time is one of the most beloved of deeds to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And subhanAllah, you'll rarely find that someone is insistent on praying in the early window of salah, yet is negligent with the other deeds. And just think about how it is in dunya, when you leave the gathering to go to prayer with your Lord.
And now here you are on that day, you're being called from the gathering to meet your Lord, like you always used to do, except now it's the time of your accountability. So the Prophet ﷺ gives us the scene. He says that after Allah sorts out the people on the day of judgment, he then calls his servants forward as individuals. And this is just one example of those servants. So think of the scene of being called forward from the crowd to be addressed directly and individually by your Lord. So he brings his servant forward and he says, Oh so and so, didn't I honor you? Didn't I make you a leader? Didn't I give you a spouse? Didn't I put at your disposal all sorts of means of transportation? I mean, I gave you all of these blessings. Do you acknowledge them? And he would say, yes. And then Allah says to him, didn't you think that one day you were going to have to meet me? And he would say, no. So Allah would respond to this particular abd and say, so I shall forget you today as you forgot me. Now, if you notice here, Allah reminded him first of his blessings upon him and then blamed him for his forgetfulness of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. Why? Because the grateful one remembers Allah most because every single blessing leads that person to remembrance and worship. And this is deeply connected to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam saying, Inna awwala ma yuhasawu bihi al-abdu yaum al-qiyamati min amalihi salatuhu That the first thing that you're going to be asked about from your deeds on the day of judgment is your prayer. Because the salah is connected intimately to how you remembered Allah overall
and how you thanked him for his blessings. In fact, if you pay attention to the context of salah in the Quran, firstly, Allah says, aqim as-salata li dhikri, establish the prayer for my remembrance. So this is the opposite of the one who forgot Allah. And Allah also says, balillaha fa'bud wa kun minash shakiri So worship Allah and be amongst his grateful servants. And how would the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam respond when he was asked why he prayed so much at night? He would say what? Afala akunu abdan shakura? Shall I not be a grateful servant to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala? And that's why in one profound narration, Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said something very interesting. He said, man hafidha alaiha, whoever guards it, meaning the salah, kanat lahu nooran wa burhanan wa najatan yaum al-qiyamah That it's going to be a light for him, a proof for him, and certain salvation for that person on the day of judgment. But listen to what he said on the other end. He said, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, wa man lam yuhafidha alaiha lam yakun lahu nooran wa la burhanan wa la najatan Whoever does not guard his prayer will not have light nor proof nor salvation. And then he went on to say, wa kana yaum al-qiyamah ma'a qaruna wa fir'auna wa haamana wa ubayy ibn khalaf And on the day of resurrection, he's going to be with Qarun, with Fir'aun, with Haaman and with Ubayy ibn Khalaf. He's going to be with the tyrants. But why? What about those that say, you know, ana basalli fee qalbi, I pray in my heart. I'm not one of those tyrants. I'm a good person. So we know in our deen that salah is the distinguishing factor between the believer and the disbeliever. And it's the ultimate decider of what your day of judgment is going to be like. But what is the connection between those horrible men and salah? And the answer is they forgot Allah. And when they forgot Allah, they became arrogant. So they didn't recognize his blessings upon them, nor the truth that he sent to them.
So they never prayed and they died in their pride. The first person called for hisab in the hadith is similar in that they didn't use their blessings to propel them to worship. And so Allah forgot them just as they forgot Allah. Now, it's not that you can ever really repay Allah with your prayers, right? I mean, you can never repay Allah period for his blessings. The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, he mentioned to us a man who prayed for 500 years and it didn't equal just the blessing of his eyesight. And on the day of judgment, we would recognize immediately that no matter how much we prayed, we could have done more and we could have done better. The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, he said an authentic hadith, law anna rajulan yujarru ala wajhihi min yawmi wulida ila yawmi yamut haraman fee mardaatillahi azawajal la haqqarahu yawm al qiyamah. He said, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, were a man to be dragged on his face from the day he was born until the day that he died, all for the pleasure of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, seeking Allah's blessings. He would consider that deed insignificant on the day of judgment. We could never repay Allah anyway. And we would be fortunate if Allah just didn't punish us for not praying or for having deficiencies and distractions with our prayer. But we know our Lord is merciful. Instead, what does Allah do? He forgives us for our sins through the prayer. He rewards us with goodness that will benefit us in the hereafter. And that's greater than any blessing that he could have given us for our prayer in this world. So now let's revisit what the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said. inna awwalana yuhasabu bihi alabdu yawm al qiyamahi min amalihi salatuhu The first thing you're going to be asked from your deeds on the day of judgment is your prayer. But then look at Allah's mercy. The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, fa in saluhat faqad aflaha wa anjaha If it's good, he has succeeded and he has security. wa in fasadat faqad qaba wa khasr And if it is bad, then he would have failed and lost.
But don't we all sometimes feel like some of our salah wasn't perfect? So after Allah looks at your prayer, Allah calls and says, hal li abdi min tatawwur? Does my servant have any voluntary prayers? Imagine Allah is the one who's holding you accountable and he's making excuses for you and finding ways out for you already. So Allah says, bring the voluntary prayers and patch up whatever deficiencies are left in that prayer. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, thumma yakoonu sa'ira amalihi ala thalik And that's how Allah is going to deal with all of your deeds. So when your Ramadan is brought forward, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, is there any voluntary fast? And Allah patches up your obligatory fast with the voluntary fast. And then your zakat is brought forward. And Allah says, does he have any sadaqa, any voluntary charity? And Allah patches up the zakat with the voluntary charity. And he does that with all of your deeds. Now, remember how those under the throne of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala are all al-muqarraboon, those who are close to him. The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said that Allah has said, wama taqarraba ilayya abdi bishay'in ahabba ilayya minnaftarattuhu alayhi wala yazalu abdi yatakarrabu ilayya bidnawafil hatta uhibbahu That my servant does not come close to me with anything more beloved to me than the obligatory deeds. And then he continues to come close to me with the voluntary deeds until I love him. So qurb, which is closeness to Allah, that we all hope would count us from the muqarraboon on the day of judgment and count us amongst those who are under his shade. Qurb is attained by first doing the obligatory deeds. Then it's the voluntary ones. And there is no way you're going to be able to claim closeness to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala if you're ignoring the call to prayer. And if you're tasting the sweetness of prayer, here's the beauty of it. You'll start to pray more than five times a day.
And the beauty of that is that every single meaningful prayer inevitably leads to the next prayer being less deficient. So less holes. And so your prayers are getting better. And you're doing more of them. So both the quality is increasing, which means less deficiency. And because you're enjoying your prayer now, the quantity is increasing more, which means that there is more to fill any remaining deficiencies. And on the day of judgment, every single one of them, the five prayers, the sunnahs, the witrs, the taraweehs, the tahajjud, they come forth as a form of light, as a proof for you, as beauty, and as salvation. So in this world, if you really understood, Hayy ala al-salah, come to the prayer, you're now witnessing the fruit of Hayy ala al-falah, come to true success. Because here is that success.
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