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The Other Side | Barzakh and Beyond
The Most Important Prayer of Your Life | The Other Side: Barzakh and Beyond Ep. 21
The dead with regrets have one wish in regard to this world: to return to it and make just two more rak'ahs of prayer.
The dead who have communicated their joy to us testify to the same source of joy, over and over: salah. Prostration. Worshiping Allah in the depths of the night. So often overlooked in this life, prayer is a gift from Allah. And when we prioritize it the way we prioritize the trivial aspects of our days, then the reward will be not just bountiful, but infinte.
NOTE: All depictions of Barzakh are purely conceptual and only vocals were used in the making of the soundtrack.
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This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
Prayer is life, even after death. How many times have you skipped over an opportunity
to pray an extra prayer? You might wake up 10 minutes before Fajr but decide to go back to sleep instead of praying that short tahajjud. You might have a few minutes before needing
to go out to work, but instead of praying two rak'ahs of duha, you think it's not really worth it. You regularly pass up on the sunnah after the obligatory prayers, when
you really didn't need to rush back to whatever it was you were doing.
It seems like in this dunya, extra prayer is at the bottom of the priority list. It will only get done as long as I have nothing else to do at that time. But in the barzakh,
it's the most precious of provisions. If the dead could speak, what do you think they would say? We actually know the answer and it's surprisingly a very specific one. The
Prophet (ﷺ) passed by a grave and he said to the companions, who is the occupant of this grave? And they said, so and so. He said, you see this man?
Two rak'ahs are more beloved to him than everything of what remains of your worldly life.
In another narration, the Prophet (ﷺ) said, two light rak'ahs, which you regard as insignificant,
but which this person could have added to his deeds are more beloved to him than everything that remains of your worldly life. If you look at most of the dreams of the salaf where they were asked what they wish they could do now that they're dead, it's pray two
rak'ahs. And the emphasis on the khafifatani, the light ones, is that the Prophet (ﷺ) is not talking about these long qiyam nights. It's the two rak'ahs that take a few minutes
and that's really all it takes. Think about the sunnah of the Prophet (ﷺ) before Fajr. It was so short that the companion said it seemed like he was only reciting Al-Fatihah
in both rak'ahs. But the Prophet (ﷺ) said about those two rak'ahs that they are khayrun minad dunya wa ma fiha. They are more beloved to me and better than this entire world and
what is in it. Our Prophet (ﷺ) used to treat those voluntary prayers like they were once in a lifetime opportunities. And if you treated your prayer that way, you might feel the same.
And Imam al-Muzani said, if you want your salah to benefit you, then say to yourself before every prayer, perhaps I will never pray another prayer in my life. And I want
you to think about how the people of Gaza pray literally between bombs, not knowing if they're going to live to see the next salah. Imagine how much khushu' you have in a tent
of a refugee camp when your death is that near. And imagine how much peace it gives to the heart of someone who has nothing and no one else but Allah. But if you know your
prayer enough, even if you have everything else, salah is still what your heart and soul crave. Remember how the Prophet (ﷺ) would say, arihna biha ya Bilal, comfort us with
the prayer, O Bilal. What if the prayer is still comfort in the grave? The scholars say that prayer was more beloved to the Prophet (ﷺ) than even his food and drink. So even
though he and the other prophets don't have to pray in the barzakh anymore, they still want to. So when the Prophet (ﷺ) was on the journey of al-Isra' wa-l-Mi'raj, he passes
by the grave of Musa (عليه السلام) and he says, I saw him qa'imun yusalli, I saw him standing up and praying in his grave. What was that salah? The scholars say that that salah is not one
that's meant to increase your record because you can't do that anymore when you die. But it's actually part of the reward for some of the righteous that Allah lets them still in the grave. So for example Thabit al-Bunani (رضي الله عنه) was seen in a dream praying
in his grave. And it was mentioned that he used to make du'a for the ability to be able to pray salah in his grave. And while we may not want to pray in our graves as a form of
reward, if we're accustomed to never missing salah, it's the first thing we'll think about when we wake up in our graves. The Prophet (ﷺ) said that when a dead believer is sat
up in his grave, he will see the sun looking like it's about to set. So the first thing he's going to say is, let me pray. And the angels will say, you will pray, but first
we need to ask you these questions. Now think about the disoriented believer waking up in this dunya and thinking, did I miss Fajr or did I miss Maghrib? Nothing else matters to
him until he prays. And in this case, he's not even thinking about who these two creatures are in front of me. Just don't let me miss salah. But even though this believer realizes
that he hasn't missed any obligatory prayers, he's still going to wish he prayed more in this dunya, especially the voluntary prayers at night. One of the salaf said, I saw Salama
ibn Kuhayl (رضي الله عنه) in a dream. And I said, which deeds have you found to be superior? He said, nothing availed me more in this life than my qiyam. When Musa
al-Hamdani (رحمه الله) died, a relative of his saw him in a dream and his forehead resembled a shining star. So he asked him, what is that that I see on your forehead? He said, that's
light from the dust of my sujood on earth. So he asked him, and what is your position in the next life? He said, it's the best. I'm in a garden in which we will never die nor be forced to leave. And as you're thinking about the groups of believers that are crowding
the houses of Allah, especially in these last 10 nights, Kathir ibn Murrah said, it appeared in a dream that I entered into an upper level of Jannah. So I began to walk
in amazement. And as I was walking, I reached a group of women who appeared to be in a masjid. So I asked, how did you get here? They said, through our sajda and our takbirat, through
our prostration and our proclaiming the greatness of Allah. So we find the moments that people in the barzakh value the most in their life was their head on the floor in the depths
of the night. Remember how the Prophet (ﷺ) said that a skin with the Quran would not be touched by fire? The same is true for the place of sajda on your forehead.
Allah has forbidden the fire to consume it. That was the portal to your soul's ascension, not a mark of pride, but a mark of humility. The closest you are in your prayer is in your
prostration and the greatest act of worship to connect to Allah with is your prayer. But sometimes the greatest way for Allah to connect you to him is through a difficult trial.








































