Ramadan Reflections (2025)
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How To Never Miss Sunnah Prayers Again | Ramadan Reflections
Dr. Omar Suleiman shares practical advice on keeping up with your sunnah prayers even after Ramadan.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.Tonight, Alhamdulillah Rabbil 'Alameen, we had a sister embrace Islam, Sister Lindsay. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless her and keep her firm. Yesterday we had, I believe his name was Ethan, who embraced Islam yesterday, Alhamdulillah. And, is he here? Okay. Who embraced Islam last night. And we often see people embracing Islam, and I want you to just imagine what life is like for them when you convert to Islam in Ramadan, you have to wake up the next day fast, and you immediately have to start praying 5 times a day. Or at least carving out the time while you're practicing and learning how to pray 5 times a day. Can you imagine how dramatic of a jump that is in terms of an immediate lifestyle change? I want you to just appreciate it for a moment insha'Allah ta'ala, then I'll come to the point. That's putting aside all the other factors of explaining to your family that you just became Muslim, and your friends asking questions and everything else. But can you imagine the jump from not praying at all, and not fasting, to suddenly having to fast and pray 5 times a day every day from now on. How many rak'ahs is that by the way, on a daily basis? 17. Good, I just wanted to make sure we all agreed on the number of rak'ahs in our Fardh prayer, the number of obligatory prayers. So there are 17 rak'ahs that I now have to carve out. And it's a dramatic jump in my lifestyle. So here's my proposition to everyone tonight bi'ithnillah ta'ala, just as they converted to Islam, I want all of us to convert to Sunnah. And I'm not talking about Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah here and what I mean by that. I'm talking about the mindset shift, that from now on, this will be the Ramadan in which I change my mind and I decided that I'm going to treat the Sunnah prayer as if it's Fardh upon me.
That I will pray every single one of the Sunnah prayers every day. You see, I'm a proponent of graduality when it comes to nawafil, when it comes to voluntary good deeds. But subhanAllah, one thing about the Sunnah prayers is that you will notice that there are two types of people in your life in regards to the Sunnah prayers. Those that pray the Sunnah and those that don't pray the Sunnah. You don't find people in between. It's a mindset that I treat the Sunnah as a part of my prayer and I pray it every single day. And the beauty of the Sunnah prayers, first and foremost, is that the Prophet ﷺ taught us that to pray 12 rak'ahs. And 12 rak'ahs is less than 17 rak'ahs. Your 17 Fardh. To pray those 12 rak'ahs, banallahu lahu baytan fil jannah. Every day you're building yourself a home in paradise. To pray those Sunnah prayers, when you meet Allah ﷻ on the Day of Judgment. How distracted have you been in some of your Fardh prayers? We all get distracted at times in our Fardh prayers. Imagine the moment where you breathe that sigh of relief. When Allah ﷻ puts your Fardh prayers to account. And all those moments that you got distracted and got lost and stopped thinking about it. And were thinking about your next meeting and thinking about your daily tasks. And you realize all the holes in your Salah. And then Allah ﷻ asks the angels, did my slave pray any Sunnah prayers? Did they pray any voluntary prayers? And if yes, imagine your relief as you watch the angels come and start to patch up your Fardh. With all of its holes, with all of the Sunnah prayers that you performed. It's a mindset that I will not miss these 12 rak'ahs a day. I want you to think just like the person that converts to Islam. And says from now on there's no ifs and buts about it. That's it. I have to pray the Fardh prayers. I want you to build upon that and to tell yourself, you know what, if there's one thing I take with me from this Ramadan, I will not miss the Sunnah prayers anymore.
And the beauty of the Sunnah prayers, subhanAllah, is not just their reward. It's that you put a buffer between your Fardh and your Sunnah. You know the one who prays Sunnah is not just patching up their Fardh. They're actually protecting it. Because if you only pray your Fardh, then it's only a matter of time before shaytan starts chipping away at that as well. You start delaying Asr and you pray it at Maghrib time for the first time. After delaying it to the last 30 minutes of Maghrib, the first time it becomes normalized that you pray Asr after the Adhan of Maghrib. And then khalas, like a new barrier has been broken. And then you start missing prayers. And you would never think that you're capable of missing prayers. You put a layer around your Fardh with that Sunnah. And you put a layer around that Sunnah with the other Nawafil. There's a reason why that distinction exists. See, it's a mindset. The Prophet ﷺ prayed his Sunnah and Rawatib regularly. These were the prayers that you always saw the Prophet ﷺ praying. And yes, they are not Fardh in terms of hukm. They're not obligatory. If you miss one because something happened, if you had to get back to work or you had a meeting, it's okay, you're not sinful. But the Nawafil are meant to be this expansive arena, like Salat al-Tarawih, where you can pray as many prayers as you want to get close to Allah ﷻ. Another thing that's beautiful about the Sunnah is that they're not as rigid in their rules and restrictions as the Fardh. What that means is that let's say that today, you can't pray all of your Sunnah of Dhuhr at the time of Dhuhr. That's okay, pray them later. Make them up at night. What if you have the mindset that every night when I pray Salat al-Isha, I'm gonna ask myself, how many Sunnah prayers did I miss today? And if I got six out of the way, I'm gonna bring it up to 12 every single night. Because some of the hadith, by the way, the Prophet ﷺ did not restrict which 12 rak'ahs are the ones that build you a home in paradise. He simply said 12 rak'ahs. Whoever prays 12 rak'ahs beyond their Fardh prayer,
Allah ﷻ will build them a home in Jannah. And so I don't wanna make this long. I'm actually giving you a challenge. And I want you to talk to your family, and I want you to talk to your friends. I want you to make a pact within your home. So you know what? Let's make this the Ramadan that we don't miss Sunnah. Khalas. From now on, we pray the Sunnah as if it's Fardh for us. Not because it holds the ruling of being Fardh, but we will treat it like Fardh. And this is where you start to find, as Imam Ibn al-Jawzi rahimahullah ta'ala mentions, that the hasanat of the wicked are the sayyi'at of the righteous, or the sins of the righteous. The person who says, yes, I pray Dhuhr today. And another person says, Astaghfirullah, I only prayed two rak'ahs of Sunnah with Dhuhr today. You see the difference? So up your standards this Ramadan. And wallahi, that will be more beneficial than taking just a really enhanced 10 nights or whatever it may be for something that you will leave with the month of Ramadan. Let that be insha'Allah ta'ala a page that you turn with Allah 'azza wa jal. So my message to you tonight is, convert to Sunnah. I'm not gonna take hands, but insha'Allah ta'ala, everyone can make that pledge with themselves and Allah 'azza wa jal. And have an accountability partner at home if you want to, insha'Allah ta'ala, that you know what? This is a new mindset shift in our families that we're going to make time for this, and that we will pray the Sunnah everyday. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us steadfast upon all of these acts of worship that bring us closer to Him. And may Allah 'azza wa jal forgive us for our shortcomings in our obligatory deeds as well as our voluntary deeds. Allahumma ameen. Jazakum Allahu khayran. Wassalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
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