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…in the month of shaban.  A short talk by Sh. Husain Abdul Sattar that everyone should have time to listen to.

…neither AbuS nor I have slept well all this week.  It’s taking me a lot longer then usual (which is normally way too long as it is) to fall asleep, I’m waking up in the middle of the night and before my alarm.  Dur.  So.  Freakin.  Tired!

In other news, it’s almost the 27th of Rajab!  This means digging out one of my favorite CDs – Al- Miraj: A Night of Advice - and once again contemplating salat.   Nothing profound yet, as I’m struggling just to stay awake, but maybe something will come

*doing a happy dance complete with a pot stir*

Allahumma baariklanaa fee rajabi wa sha’ban wa ballignaa shara ramadan

O Allah! Bless us in the holy months of Rajab and Sha’ban and make us reach the holy month of Ramadan!

Which means only 2 more months to Ramadan *it’s almost raaamadan, it’s almost raaamadan*

Time to amp up your fasting and get your prayers in order!

I have the most adorable little prayer rug that I keep at the office.  Correction, *kept* at the office.  I took it with me on the grand tour of Wisconsin and now I can’t find it. 

So I’ve been praying on a fed ex envelope on the hard linoleum floor of my file room.  Who knew that floors were so hard?  Totally not fun.  On the plus side, this is probably a good way to develop a prayer bump.

*note to self – get new prayer rug*

Greetings from the land of cheese, cheese and more cheese.  I am currently miserable, sneezing and dead tired.  I seem to have come down with a horrid cold, something that hasn’t happened in years.  Said cold prevented me from sleeping last night.

What a great way to start vacation, eh?

dur.

On the plus side, being a traveler means that I can combine my prayers.  This means I don’t have to stay up until 10:30 p.m. to pray isha!  Huzzah!  Theoretically, this means I could get more sleep, if said cold did not keep me up all night.

in which I indulge in some bad haiku

dawn approaches here
standing in front of Allah
peace replaces sleep

From Sunnipath, reproduced here to clear up the formating issues.  Excerpt:

The essence of Salat comprises three basic elements. It is composed of

a) Feeling of respect, reverence and awe in the heart totally,

b) Remembrance of Allah by tongue (word),

c) Showing bodily (physical) respect and reverence to Allah at the utmost degree.

Full article below the cut

Read the rest of this entry »

 Jundub bin Sufyan (ra) reported: The Messenger of Allah (saws) said,

“He who offers the dawn (fajr) prayers will come under the Protection of Allah. O son of Adam! Beware, lest Allah should call you to account in any respect from (for withdrawing) His Protection.”

(Muslim)

Umm Adam has a post up with pictures (and video!) of her recent umrah and family vacation to Makkah.

Check out the video of people waiting for fajr prayer.  MashaAllah, can you imagine praying fajr with so many people?

Oh Allah, please allow us to visit your house soon and to follow in the footsteps of Adam, Huwa, Hajar, Ibrahim, Ismael, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon them all) and millions of your slaves in hajj and/or umrah!  Ameen.

…for myself as much as for my readers:

Allah (swt) says in the Qur’an:

“Guard strictly As-Salawat (the prayers) especially the middle Salat.” (2:238)

Ibn Mas`ud (ra) reported: I asked the Messenger of Allah (saws): “Which act is the best?” He (saws) said, “As-Salat at their fixed times.” I asked, “What next?” He (ra) said, “Being dutiful to parents.” I asked, “What next?” He (saws) said, “Jihad in the way of Allah.” [Bukhari and Muslim]

Jabir (ra) reported: The Messenger of Allah (saws) said, “Between a man and disbelief is the abandonment of Salat.” [Muslim]

Jabiru (ra) reported: The Messenger of Allah (saws) said, “The similitude of the five Salat is like a river running at the door of one of you in which he takes a bath five times a day.” [Muslim]

Here’s my first crack at muslim lolcats.  They’re nowhere near as hilarious as Mr. Moo’s, but give me some time

FYI, when a person prays alone, they can set an object out in front of them known as a sutra.  Anyone passing in front of the praying person should pass in front of the sutra.

My parents are coming for the weekend.  And for the first time, I’m going to pray with their knowledge.  In the past, I’ve snuck around and prayed when they weren’t paying attention, or just not prayed at all  (astaghfirAllah).

I told them when the various prayer times are, that we’ll have to make our dinner reservations for 7:30, so I have time to pray maghrib before.  That we’ll leave the zoo at 3, so I can get home and pray zuhr and asr at home (no way in heck I’m praying at the zoo alone with them). 

This is uber scary.  I can’t remember ever speaking about God or prayer with my parents.  It’s funny, because one of my first memories is praying daddy’s friend Dale who had AIDS (inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’oon).  But after that, prayer and God were for Sunday.  To openly worship God on another day of the week is just weird. 

I know they won’t understand.  And I’m not going to try to make them understand.  I’ll just make extra dua after each salat that Allah (swt) will open their hearts and give them some understanding.

Imam Shafi’i (ra) was asked, “Who is a fool?”

He replied, “He is the person who does not pray.”

by Deen-ul-HaQ

Via a post on Islamica, I’ve been reminded of a very powerful hadith.  I dare say that this hadith is one that has had the single greatest impact on my iman.  Seriously, we’re standing in front of our Lord (swt) 5 times a day, speaking to Him and we know HE ANSWERS!   He’s speaking to us, and giving us what we ask for in al Fatiha.  If that doesn’t make one stop and think about what they’re rattling off, I don’t know what will.

On the authority of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), who said:

“A prayer performed by someone who has not recited the Essence of the Qur’an (Surat al-Fatihah) during it is deficient (and he repeated the word three times), incomplete.”
Someone said to Abu Hurayrah: [Even though] we are behind the imam? ( i.e. standing behind the imam listening to him reciting al-Fatihah)

He said: Recite it to yourself, for I have heard the Prophet (may the blessings and peace of Allah be up on him) say:

Allah (mighty and sublime be He), had said: ‘I have divided prayer between Myself and My servant into two halves, and My servant shall have what he has asked for.

When the servant says:

‘Al-hamdu lillahi rabbi l-alamin’ (Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds), Allah (mighty and sublime be He) says: ‘My servant has praised Me.’

And when he says:

‘Ar-rahmani r-rahim’ (The Merciful, the Compassionate), Allah (mighty and sublime be He) says: ‘My servant has extolled Me,’

And when he says:

‘Maliki yawmi d-din’ (Master of the Day of Judgement), Allah says: ‘My servant has glorified Me’ – and on one occasion He said: ‘My servant has submitted to My power.’

And when he says:

‘Iyyaka na budu wa iyyaka nasta in’ (It is You we worship and it is You we ask for help), He says: ‘This is between Me and My servant, and My servant shall have what he has asked for.’

And when he says:

‘Ihdina s-sirata l- mustaqim, siratal ladhina an amta alayhim ghayril-maghdubi alayhim wa la d-dallin’ (Guide us to the straight path, the path of those upon whom you have bestowed favours, not those against whom You are angry, nor of those who are astray ), He says: ‘This is for My servant, and My servant shall have what he has asked for.’”

It was related by Muslim (also by Malik, at-Tirmidhi, Abu-Dawud, an-Nasa’i and Ibn Majah).

It’s that time of month, ehm, and I’ve got this weird feeling.  Drum roll please…

…I actually miss salat!  It’s like OMGosh, it’s time for asr, I gotta pray…oh no wait, dang, I can’t.  I don’t think I’ve ever felt this before.  It’s an odd feeling, and I would say I like it, except it makes me sad that I can’t pray.

ok now, inshaAllah ta’ala I can keep this feeling and start praying again once ttom is gone.

 

i.  suck.  at.  praying.  on.  time.

Dudes, seriously, the 40 grand is kicking my butt.  It’s goin good, I’m cruisin along, and them bam, I become complacent and miss a prayer.   It probably doesn’t help that I have the attention span of a nat with ADD either.  At this rate, it will take me until the 2009 subha to finish this thing.

Oh well, tomorrow is a new day.  And Eid is as good as any day to start over again, right?

  Via Deenport:

 When I was little, my sister was the queen of sticker collecting.  She had thousands of stickers that she and her friends would spend hours arranging in little books and trading.  I had a sticker collection as well, although I wasn’t as hardcore.  I didn’t really like to trade, so they just sat in their special little sticker books.  I still have all those sticker books, and even now, I’m reluctant to use them.

So the sticker hording child in my delighted when I came across this new Muslim Sticker website this morning.  It’s aimed at parents and teachers, to encourage and teach Islamic behavior, but I’m seriously considering getting some things.  Check out this salat chart.  I already made a chart to track my 40 grand (which is not going so hot, although I think I’m on a roll now inshaAllah), but maybe the little stickers could motivate me more, lol.  Heck, while I’m at it, maybe I should get the Juz al Amma tree to motivate myself to get going on my memorization. 

Alas, I think that in the end, my nafs, my lazy, procrastinating nature will win over my good intentions and I’ll fall into a slump again.  ya Allah, give me the strength and motivation to do what it is that I have to do.

“Do you really believe that God expects you to show Him your respect by repeated bowing and kneeling and prostration?  Might it not be better only to look into oneself and to pray to Him in the stillness of one’s heart?  Why all these movements of your body?”

As soon as I had uttered these words I felt remorse, for I had not intended to injure the old man’s religious feelings.  But the hajji did not appear in the least offended.  He smiled with his toothless mouth and replied:“How else then should we worship God?  Did he not create both, soul and body, together?  And this being so, should man not pray with his body as well as with his soul?  Listen, I will tell you why we Muslims pray as we pray.  We turn toward the kaaba, God’s holy temple in Mecca, knowing that the faces of all Muslims, wherever they may be, are turned to it in prayer, and that we are like one body, with Him as the centre of our thoughts.  First we stand upright and recite from the Holy Koran, remembering that it is His Word, given to man that he may be upright and steadfast in life.  Then we say, “God is the Greatest,” reminding ourselves that no one deserves to be worshipped but Him; and bow down deep because we honour Him above all, and praise His power and glory.  Thereafter we prostrate ourselves on our foreheads because we feel that we are but dust and nothingness before Him, and that He is our Creator and Sustainer on high.  Then we lift our faces from the ground and remain sitting, praying that He forgive us our sins and bestow His grace upon us, and guide us aright, and give us health and sustenance.  Then we again prostrate ourselves on the ground and touch the dust with our foreheads before the might and the glory of the One.  After that, we remain sitting and pray that He bless the Prophet Muhammad who brought His message to us, just as He blessed the earlier Prophets; and that He bless us as well, and all those who follow the right guidance; we ask Him to give us of the good of this world and of the good of the world to come.  In the end we turn our heads to the right and to the left, saying, “Peace and grace of God be upon you” – and thus greet all who are righteous, wherever they may be.

‘It was thus that our Prophet used to pray and taught his followers to pray for all times, so that they might willingly surrender themselves to God – which is what Islam means – and so be at peace with Him and with their own destiny.”

~From The Road toMecca, by Muhammad Asad

SubhanAllah, may Allah (swt) help me to attain this attentiveness to prayer.

My father-in-law spent his last few weeks in this life asking every few minutes if it was time to pray. Much of the speech he was capable of in the days after his stroke in September was used to invoke the name of God and thank him for everything in his life that he could remember through his delirium. May Allah have mercy on him, forgive him of his sins and accept him into the highest levels of heaven. He passed away last night, Allah yarhamma.

His alarm went off at 3:30 this morning.

Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi rajioon

From Flickr

Yesterday, I was asked a question I had never pondered before: why does God obligate us to do all of that, ie, why does he oblige us to make salat the way we do?

After some reflection, I responded as follows.  Why do you think God oliges us to pray?

Salat is actually one of the reasons I converted to Islam. It’s a form of worship that muslims believe has been given to us by God, and that has been perfectly preserved. I guess I have never asked why we pray – it is just something that seems natural to me, that we praise the Most High, the One who created us. That’s what I went looking for in a religion.One of the things I love about salat is that it’s an intimate conversation with God that we have 5 times a day.
Quote:

Quote:

Praying 5 times a day has a lot of benefits for me – it is a reprieve from the helter skelter of the day, where I can take a break and focus on God. It also brings me back to God several times a day, and reminds me of Him, so that my life can be focused around Him. Salat is also a chance to wipe away our sins and to refocus our dedication to God. God gives us this great chance 5 times a day.

Quote:

The husband and I talked about this last night, and he likened salat (and the other things God asks us to do) to going to work. On Friday, can we go up to our boss and demand a paycheck, if we didn’t come in to work? Likewise, at the end of life, can we stand before God and expect a reward if we didn’t do what our boss has asked of us?

If any of you could spare 10 seconds, could you please make dua for me?  inshaAllah ta’ala I am starting the 40 Grand today, and I need all the help I can get.

It’s funny (in a kind of ironic way, not ha ha funny), but one of the main reasons I am muslim is because of salat.  It’s a form of worship given to us by God, validated by God, ordered by God, unlike the liturgy/mass/service of the christian churches.  It’s remained unchanged since it was given to our Prophet (saws).  Allah (swt) told the Prophet (saws) that his ummah should pray 5 times a day.  What’s so funny about that, you may ask?  It’s funny because I struggle so hard to make my salat.  I can’t think of a single month since I converted where I’ve prayed all my salat, astaghfirullah.  I get on a roll, then bam, that time of month hits and afterwards, I’ve lost all my momentum.  Sometimes I struggle back up to that level, and sometimes, it takes months to motivate myself again, astaghfirullah.

But this time, inshaAllah inshaAllah inshaAllah, I’m going to do it.  It may take me a year, but I’m going to finish 40 days of salat come hell or high water. 

Please make dua for me.

 

from flickr

1045. Abu Hurayra reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “The five prayers, and Jumu’a to Jumu’a is expiation for what is between them as long as a man has committed no major sins.” [Muslim]

On the authority of Abu Qatada (ra) he said, “The Messenger of Allah (saws) said: ‘If any of you enters the Mosque, let him not sit until he prays two rakats.’” [Bukhari & Muslim]

Alhamdulilah, the long copy and paste nightmare is over! Courtesy of transliteration.org, I now have a word document that consists just of the Qur’an as translated by Yusuf Ali and a transliteration of the arabic into roman letters.

A common site at taraweeh prayers (at least at the masjids I go to) is for the congregants to hold little booklets containing one juz (1/30th) of the Qur’an, so that they may follow along with the imam during the prayer. Unfortunately, all the ones I’ve come across are simply in arabic, and since my arabic reading and comprehension skills are sorely lacking (one day inshaAllah!), I decided to make my own quran for taraweeh this year.

I copied and pasted the transliteration and translation from the website listed above into a word document. I plan to print it out, 3 hole punch and put it all in a large binder. Then, each night during Ramadan, I can take out one juz, stick it in a smaller binder and read from that during taraweeh. I think if I stick my backpack in front of me, during sujood I can stick the book on it so that the quran is not on the floor.

If anyone would like a copy, please leave me your email address, and I’ll email you a copy inshaAllah. It’s kind of long at 600+ pages, and not very pretty format wise, but it’s functional.

Alhamdulilah, only a month until Ramadan!

ps – It’s valid to read from a quran in the shafi’i school, so long as you don’t fidget with it too much I believe. inshaAllah will look in my fiqh books when i get home to post the specifics

Riyad as-Salihin (The Meadows of the Righteous) – 193. Chapter: On the command to persevere in the prescribed prayers and the strongest prohibition against abandoning them

1081. Abu Hurayra reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “The first action which the slave will be called to account for on the Day of Rising is his prayer. If it is in order, he will have success and win through. If it is not in order, he will be disappointed and lose out. If any of his obligatory prayers are lacking, the Lord, the Mighty and Exalted, will say, ‘See if My slave has any supererogatory actions and use them to complete his obligatory prayer.’ Then the rest of his actions will be assessed in the same way.” [at-Tirmidhi]

Abu Hurairahu (ra) reported: I heard the Messenger of Allah (saws) saying, “Say, if there were a river at the door of one of you in which he takes a bath five times a day, would any soiling remain on him?” They replied, “No soiling would left on him.” He (saws) said, ” That is the five Salat. Allah obliterates all sins as a result of performing them.”

[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

To watch for later. Work is cracking down on watching videos.

A word of advice:

Never make up a dozen prayers in a row and then go out for a run. My thighs still hurt 2 days later.

Making up missed prayers according to the Shafi’i madhab

Calculating how many missed prayers I have to make up

How to Offer Makeup Prayers

One can offer make-up prayers at any time, even at times when prayers are normally forbidden.

Nawawi on making up missed prayers: scholarly consensus

Make up prayers of a new convert

My mind works in weird ways.

I wish I had read this piece from Umm Zaid that has the most important piece of advice a convert can ever get. Astaghfirullah, being regular with salat is not something that has come easily to me. But, alhamdulilah, I finally buckled down last night and calculated all the prayers I need to make up. If you’re not regular about prayers, sit down and figure out how many you missed. You’ll probably be shocked at how quickly they add up.

So, after maghrib, I made intentions to make up one missed maghrib prayer. After that one, I was starting to get in a groove. So I did another…and another…and another…

And this is where my mind starts working in weird ways. After quite a few rakat, I was starting to feel a burn in my legs. After the prayer, I headed off to the Y to run for awhile. While I was chugging along, I thought “I wonder what kind of exercise benefits we have in salat? It’s a little bit of strength training and stretching, with all the prostrating. I wonder how many calories one burns?”

I tend to obsess about things. My current obsession is fitness for the love of fitness. So naturally, I’m now obsessing over how many calories one burns while making salat, lol.

My legs are really tender today. I know it’s not just from running, since it hasn’t hurt like this since waaaay back when I first started running in 05. The combination of salat and running was an excellent workout. What a wonderful extra benefit we get from worshiping our Lord!

Nermin Abd El-Moniem at IslamToday

Prayer is the second pillar of Islam. The Arabic word for prayer (salâh) derives from the word (silah) which means “a connection”. Prayer is the best way that we can make contact with our Creator and seek His guidance and support. Essentially, prayer is our main route to attaining Allah’s pleasure, and it is the first thing we will be asked about after death.

Since Islam is the religion of all humanity, it encourages us to be successful and ambitious and to work hard in order to achieve the best for ourselves, our communities, and for humanity as a whole. Also, Islam urges us to better ourselves in the various aspects of our daily lives, including our worship of Allah. On the Day of Judgment, Allah will ask us about our deeds, and we will be punished or rewarded according to the quality of those deeds.

Allah says: “To any of you that chooses to press forward, or to follow behind – Every soul will be (held) in pledge for its deeds.” [Sûrah al-Muddaththir (74): 37-38]

In light of this, all Muslims are obligated to try to be proficient and successful in their various walks of life – as students, workers, doctors, craftsmen…etc. Moreover, we should remember that we do not seek success for our worldly lives only, but also for our lives in the Hereafter. Likewise, we have to try hard to attain higher degrees of excellence in our worship.

Accordingly, the five daily prayers are not just a duty or a habit for Muslims, but they are a daily and direct connection between us and Allah. In other words, they are our helpline that we use five times a day to give our hearts and souls the guidance that they need.

It is not easy for me, or for any of us as Muslims, to train ourselves to wake up daily before dawn in order to pray the Fajr prayer. It is also not easy to drag ourselves away from life’s hectic schedule so we can always pray the rest of the five prayers on time. Yet, do we ever ask ourselves if Allah has accepted our prayers or not? Do we ever ask ourselves how we might improve the performance of our prayers?

In fact, I had never asked myself any of these questions until after reading the following words of Imam Ibn al-Qayyim (rahimahullâh). He writes:

Mankind, with regard to the performance of their prayers, are on five levels:

- The First: This is the level of one who is negligent and wrongs his soul. He is the one who falls short in performing wudû’ properly, performing the prayer on time and within its specified limits, and in fulfilling its essential pillars.

- The Second: This is the level of one who guards his habit of offering his prayers on time and within their specified limits, who fulfils their essential pillars and performs his wudû’ with care. However, his striving (in achieving the above) is wasted due to disturbances in his thoughts during prayer that distract him and turn his attention to other preoccupations and concerns.

-The Third: This is the level of one who guards his prayers within the specified limits, fulfils their essential pillars and strives within himself to repel the disturbances in his thoughts and extraneous concerns. He is busy struggling against his enemy (Satan) so that Satan does not steal from the prayer. Because of this, he is engaged in (both) prayer and struggle (jihad).

- The Fourth: This is the level of one who carries out the prayer, completing and perfecting its due rights and essential pillars, who performs it within its specified limits and with his heart fully engrossed in safeguarding its rights and specified limits, so that nothing of his prayer is wasted. His whole concern is directed towards its performance, its completion and its perfection – as it should be. His heart is immersed in the prayer and in servitude to his Lord, the Exalted.

- The Fifth: This is the level of one who carries out the prayer like the one mentioned above. However, on top of this, he has taken and placed his heart in front of his Lord, looking towards Him with his heart in anticipation, filled with His love and His might, as if he sees and witnesses Allah. The misgivings, thoughts and preoccupations have vanished and the veil between him and his Lord is lifted. The difference between this person and others with respect to the prayer is greater than the distance between the heavens and the Earth. This person is busy with his Lord, delighted with Him.

The people whose performance of prayer is at the first level will be punished, those at the second will be held to account, those at the third will have their sins and shortcomings expiated, those at the forth fourth will be rewarded, and those at the fifth will be close to their Lord, because they will receive the portion of the one who makes his prayer the delight and pleasure of his eye. Whoever makes his prayer the delight and pleasure of his eye will have the nearness of his Lord made the delight and pleasure of his eye in the Hereafter. He will also be made a pleasure to the eye in this world, since whoever makes Allah the pleasure of his eye in this world, every other eye will become delighted and pleased with him.

From that time on, I started to ask myself: Where am I? Will I be punished or rewarded? How can I reach the 5th level?

I’m not too hot at praying my salat. I definately need this reminder.

From Sunnipath

Q. If someone I know used to pray regularly 5-times a day, but then over a period of time, started to get less and less motivated about salat to the point where they seldom pray, what practical advice could I give them that would help them pray regularly again? They get discouraged when they actually sit down and write down which salats they have to make up because the list gets so long. So what practical steps could this person take to start praying regularly again?

A. Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim:
It is good to “count one’s blessings” when one feels discouraged. Oftentimes the discouragement is not warranted and is lifted through certain mental habits that shoulder spiritual effects by permission of Allah.

Among these habits is to give thanks to Allah for creating us; to give thanks for creating us as a human being of sound mind and body; to give thanks for creating us as part of the last and best Umma; to give thanks to Him for cherishing and sustaining us at all times, even – or especially – in the depth of distress from which we call to Him.

Then to remember that this Religion is ease and good tidings. In difficulty, make istighfar and in ease give thanks. In other words, remember Allah at all times. The Qur’an calls the Torah and the sun a Diya’, while it calls the Qur’an and the moon a Nur. The Ulema said, this is because the Diya’ is a light that burns while the Nur is a gentle light. The Torah had harsh rulings while those of Islam are gentle and easy.

Another habit is to remember that a time may come when one’s salat and fast will become physically difficult or impossible, through sickness or old age or “man-made” preventions; and that one’s salat might be the last one, followed by death. What is the excuse for someone able, young, and strong who is offered millions of opportunities for success and happiness but insists on missing them all? We should strive not to be remiss then remiss then remiss before we face the grave. If we saw someone dear in such a situation we would shake them up by the boot-straps.

It is advisable to make istighfar so as to clear one’s mind of worldly ties. 100x Astaghfirullah daily. Give sadaqa to the intention of lifting difficulties. Invoke blessings on the Prophet. These devotions will facilitate the above mental dispositions insha Allah.

We should also examine our daily routines for acts or habits that are unadvisable to someone who is trying to change. We should put those away and try and stay away from the people, places, and/or times associated with them, for example: smoking; staying up late at night; spending hours on the phone chatting; working endless hours; anything vacuous done to mindless excess.

In fact, one should seek excellent spiritual company at all times but at least once every week or month, to remember Allah together with others whom one meets for no other purpose. Such gatherings are an essential part of recharging one’s spiritual batteries. The loner is an easy prey but the wolf keeps away from the group.

It is advisable to remember also that one is never the only person thus apparently afflicted. Tedium is a common and perhaps universal and necessary test. The Sufis use the terms “straitening and expansion” (al-qabd wal-bast) to refer to different states in one’s spiritual wayfaring to the Lord of all lords. Highs and lows are part of life for everyone so keep travelling. The Prophet would say, upon him peace: “O Allah, I seek refuge in you from helplessness and laziness.” “Whoever dies on the way is written among those who have arrived,” said Shaykh Muhyi al-Din Ibn `Arabi. The important thing is to keep moving, not to give up.

We should think also of the wisdom of difficulty and distress. They bring us nearer to our Lord by reminding us of our weakness. This is the illustration of the saying that “whoever knows himself” to be truly weak “knows his Lord” to be truly exalted and all-giving. Such are good times to turn to him and repent, even if this reaches seventy times a day. “Allah does not grow bored of giving, rather you grow bored of asking.”

It is advisable to not approach the Salat as a burden but as a new chance for gain, improvement, victory over the mediocre alternatives of the self – depression, distraction, despair. It is a connection to the everlasting world, the communication with the Creator, companionship with the angels and the best of human beings such as Prophets. This is true of Qada’ (makeup prayers) also, as every prayer is a fresh start. A contrite heart in Qada’ may be better than a proud heart in Ada’.

The Salat is not a chore but the soul’s nourishment and the weapon of the spirit. Do not deprive your heart and soul of its daily lights. Conversely, do not allow the enemies to roam at leisure by letting rust the practices that keep their harm in check. Imam al-Ghazzali said:
“The forms of the Salat which entail one bowing, two prostrations, specific numbers [of supplications], and specific Qur’anic utterances that are recited, at various lengths and times upon sunrise, noon, and sunset, have a specific effect in stilling the dragon (al-tinnin) that nestles in the human breast and breeds many-headed snakes [like a hydra] – equal to the number of one’s [bad] traits – biting and snapping at him in the grave. … Its harm extends to the soul, as indicated by the Prophet’s saying – upon him blessings and peace: ‘A dragon with ninety-nine heads is empowered over the disbeliever in the latter’s grave, doing such and-such etc.’ There are many such dragons in the human make-up, and nothing subdues them except Divinely-prescribed obligations.”

It is advisable to make the Salat brief so as to concentrate better and not think of anything else. A sahih narration from `Ammar ibn Yasir and Abu al-Yasar Ka`b ibn `Amr by Abu Dawud, Imam Ahmad, al-Nasa’i in al- Sunan al-Kubra, and others, states that `Ammar ibn Yasir prayed two rak`as and made them brief [deliberately]. `Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Harith said to him: “Abu al-Yaqzan, I see that you made them brief?” He replied: “I overtook Satan’s whispering with these two rak`as. Verily, I heard the Messenger of Allah say – upon him peace: ‘Verily, a man prays and it may be that nothing of his salat is recorded to his credit except one tenth, or one-ninth, or one-eighth, or one-seventh,’ and so forth until he reached the last figure.” No wonder many of the pious make their Salat – as imams and otherwise – brief.

It is advisable to pray at the very beginning of the time so that the rest of the time be blessed with the baraka of having discharged one’s duty. Being in the clear as much as one can is part of gaining strength in the Divine good pleasure and a way to feel the blessing of time since time becomes a friend rather than a judge. It defuses the burden of guilt that becomes unbearable under a heavy debt and which it is not the Divine design for us to suffer.

This is some advice that comes to mind from your sinful brother.

Was-SalamHajj Gibril–GF Haddad