Salah: Prioritizing Allah, Securing Success on Judgment Day

The Importance of Salah

Every moment to perform the salah — وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ — أَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ، حَيَّ عَلَى الصَّلَاةِ، حَيَّ عَلَى الصَّلَاةِ — this is an announcement which is made in hundreds and thousands, millions and billions of places throughout the world. And if you look at it, perhaps at every single given moment in time, throughout the world, an adhan is being called out to the worship of Allah. It is such an important and integral part of a believer, of our faith, that Rasulullah ﷺ in a hadith mentioned:

That Islam is based upon five things. You have five pillars that are holding up the institution of Islam. Without any of these things, وَاللهُ أَعْلَمُ whether a person can be considered an upright Muslim or not. Only Allah knows.

And one of those things — in fact, the very second thing after testifying that there is no one worthy of worship besides Allah and that Rasulullah ﷺ is His messenger — the very next thing is salah:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 8; Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 21)

The very next thing. It is so important that Rasulullah ﷺ has mentioned that the very first thing a person is going to be asked about on the Day of Judgment is going to be his salah.

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 413; Sunan al-Nasa'i, Hadith 466)

The very first thing that a person is going to be asked about on the Day of Judgment is his salah. And if his salah is intact, then everything else will go easy — then he is successful. Because a person who is particular about salah is a person who made Allah a priority in their lives. And if you made Allah a priority in your life, then you're going to be living according to how He wants you to live.

Reflecting on the Meaning of لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ

Imagine if we truly understood what the kalima meant. We say it, and we believe it, and we invite others towards it:

There is no one worthy of worship. But have you ever thought — we should reflect about this when we're even performing our salah — why am I bowing down on the ground? Why am I prostrating? Why am I taking out time of my life to come and pray my salah? Think about the greatness of Allah and how there is truly, truly, truly, truly no one or thing worthy of worshiping besides Allah. If you think about how useless everything else is in the world, and how finite it is compared to Allah, who is not bound by time or place, who is the end all and the be all, the one who is in charge of every single aspect of our life, the one who is helping us in our moments of need, the one who is facilitating for us all of our things — then very quickly you'll realize: there is no one or thing worthy of bowing down to, and taking out my time, and actually abiding by and listening to His instructions and commands, other than Allah.

If we truly internalized that, would there be anyone who does not perform their Fajr salah in the masjid? If we understood — the King of all kings, the one who is in control of everything, the one who is making the entire world function so smoothly, and the same one who is in charge of sending all of the various different tests, and the trials, and the difficulties, and natural disasters — if we knew that He is instructing us, حَيَّ عَلَى الصَّلَاةِ، حَيَّ عَلَى الْفَلَاحِ, "Come pray, come to success," if we knew who is calling us, then would we ever delay? Would we ever neglect it?

And we can ask ourselves — every single one of us — we have so many different scenarios in our lives where there are people that we look up to, people that have shown kindness upon kindness upon kindness to us. And if they ask us anything, or they ask to meet with us at a particular time, or there is a very prominent person with whom we have set an appointment, then do we miss that appointment? No. In fact, if we value that person, we do our best to ensure that we are not just there on time, but rather well before time.

If there is a flight that we have to catch — because we understand the importance — it doesn't matter what time of the day, what time of the night, we are going to wake up. And you'll find some people, they ensure — forget about three hours before going to the airport for an international flight — some people have to go five hours before, even though the gate is not even open yet. But because they understand the importance, they cannot miss the flight. How agitated they get. And regardless of the hour of the day or the hour of the night, they are awake. So we have to adopt a similar attitude when it comes to our salah.

Our Deen is Not a Deen of Convenience

Salah shouldn't just be something in the back of our mind — "if it's convenient for me, then I will do it, and if it's not convenient, then that's okay." Our deen is not a deen of convenience. It is a deen — a complete way of life — wherein there is so much convenience. If we are to submit and live our lives as Allah wants us to live, as taught to us by Rasulullah ﷺ, we'll find there's so much convenience in it. But it's not a deen that, whenever it's convenient, we decide to do it. If that's the case, there'll be nothing left of Islam.

There is an incident — a funny story — just so that we understand that our deen is not one of convenience. When we are in it, there is much convenience. But it's not such that when it's convenient to us, we carry it out. Otherwise our deen will be lost.

There was one occasion, an individual — a very righteous man — he went to the masjid. And as he was sitting in the masjid, the scholar gave a very fiery speech that shook him to the core. Everyone was quite emotional and they were changed. He was a very dynamic speaker, masha'Allah, with much ikhlas, and it affected him greatly. And he was speaking about ensuring that we keep our trousers — our pants, our lower garments — above the ankles.

So he was so affected, he went home. And when he went home, he decided to approach his spouse. He said, "Oh my lovely, beautiful spouse, you know, I went to this lecture and it was so amazing. My pants, unfortunately, are always below my ankle, and I can't really do anything to change that. I don't know how to sew. So maybe if you have time, can you please hem up my pants — just fold them up a bit and sew it?" She said, "Can't you see I don't have any time? I'm so busy doing this, I'm taking care of the children, the food, this and that. Why don't you go ask someone else? When I have time, I'll do it."

So he felt so bad, so disheartened. "My wife, my closest individual, she doesn't care about me." So he was like, okay, let me go to my mother — she was looking after me my entire life, let me go ask her. He went to his mother and said, "Oh my dear mother, you were so kind, you're always there for me. Would it be possible for you to hem up my trousers?" The mother was also like, "Can't you see I'm so busy? I'm taking care of this, I'm taking care of your father, I'm taking care of your sister's children. I even got you married to someone and they're supposed to help you out. I don't have the time. If I have the time later on, maybe I'll try to do it. Right now, I don't have time. Why don't you go ask your sister?"

So then he said, okay, fine, let me go ask my sister. My mom discarded me, my wife doesn't care about me. We were always there for one another through thick and thin. So he approaches his sister: "Oh my lovely sister, how are you? How is everything? You know, I heard this amazing lecture, and I really want to implement it as soon as possible. You were always there for me through thick and thin — any issue I had, any issue you had, we always took care of one another. Do you think you can be of a little bit of assistance? Can you hem my pants?" "Can't you see I'm so busy? Go ask your wife, go ask your mom, go ask someone else. I don't have the time. When it's convenient for me, I'll take care of it."

So then, the bechara — he was so sad. He decided, you know what, just forget everyone. He decided to change his clothes and take a nap. He was so tired and frustrated. So, to get out of everything — you know, people when they're depressed sometimes they sleep extra — he decided, let me go to sleep. At least maybe in my dream I'll have pants that I can wear.

Then, the wife started feeling bad. "Oh, my lovely husband. He really wanted to only do good and change his life, and he could have asked his mom, he could have asked his sister, but he loves me so much and he has so much confidence in me. He came and asked me. Now I have the time — now it's convenient for me. Let me go get his pants." So she went to the hanger, took the pants, hemmed them up, and put them back on the hanger.

Then, later on, the mother thought, "My poor son. I was looking after him his whole life. He could have asked his sister, he could have asked his wife, but he loves me so much and has so much confidence in me. Now I have the ability and the time — it's convenient for me. I think I should go help him out." So she went, she did the same thing, and put it back on the hanger after she was done.

And now the sister thinks, "Wow, my brother — he could have gone to his wife, he could have gone to my mom, but he knows that I'm the best at doing this. So let me help him out too." So then she also takes the same exact pants and rolls them up again.

Now when the man wakes up, he puts on his pants — all of a sudden, subhanAllah, there are no longer pants; now he has a whole bunch of shorts. And that's what happens, unfortunately, if we treat our deen like a deen of convenience. Whenever it's convenient for me, whenever it's a suitable time for me to pray, then I'm going to pray. If that means missing my Dhuhr salah, or missing my Maghrib salah, because "it's not possible," then khalas — it just goes out of our brains. We don't even bat an eyelid; everything else comes first. But this is not how a believer is supposed to be. This is not how we expect to build a relationship with Allah.

True Love Requires Obedience

When a person truly appreciates someone else, then they obey them. In a very famous poem, Imam Shafi'i rahimullah, he says:

"You claim to love Allah and you're telling everyone else, 'I love God.' But then your whole life you're disobeying Him left and right. Hādha muhāl — that's impossible. How can you love someone and not obey them? How can you love someone and not fulfill what they're asking you to do? That's so illogical. If you truly had love for Allah, you would have obeyed Him. Because one who loves someone else, they obey them; one who loves someone else, they're always there for them." So if we loved Allah, then we would also take our salah seriously.

Drawing Closer to Allah Through Salah

In a very beautiful hadith, Rasulullah ﷺ has mentioned that Allah Himself has said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6502 — Hadith Qudsi)

"Whoever wages war against — whoever harms — a friend of mine, then I have declared war against that individual." That's why we have to be very careful about how we deal with others. We don't know who is truly the friend of Allah. And if we are not careful and we offend someone, we could — may Allah protect all of us — have actually declared war against Allah.

Then He mentions: "No servant of mine will be able to come closer to me and develop a relationship with me through anything better than those things which I have obligated upon him." And our salah is at the top of that list. The best thing through which we can come closer to Allah is something so simple as our salah. And this is something that we have to take seriously.

The Key to Paradise

In another hadith, Rasulullah ﷺ gives us a recipe for success — a simple formula for direct entry into Jannah. He mentioned very simply:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 4; Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 23524 — graded Hasan by Imam al-Munawi)

The key to paradise is prayer, and the key to prayer is purity. And the muhaddithun, they mentioned that any person who is very particular about their salah — as in the very first hadith we mentioned, if everything is intact, فَقَدْ أَفْلَحَ وَأَنْجَحَ — he will be successful. Because if he cares about Allah, then he'll care about his salah. And if he performs his salah, that shows he cares about Allah, and everything else will also fall into place. But if he doesn't, then it's a very slippery slope.

And the muhaddithun, they mentioned that this second portion of the hadith is so obvious — everyone knows you can't pray salah unless you have wudu. But why was it mentioned over here? Because just like it's impossible for a person to pray salah without wudu, it's also impossible for a person to enter Jannah without being particular and worrying about their salah.

In another hadith, Rasulullah ﷺ mentioned:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 257)

That the only thing stopping a person from falling into shirk and disbelief — from becoming an atheist, from leaving the fold of Islam — the only thing that's preventing him, is his salah. And if you look at almost every single person who has left the fold of Islam and you were to examine their lives, you'll see that for a period of one to two years, they were not praying their salah. Allahu alam. I haven't met anyone who has left the fold of Islam who was particular in the institution of salah.

Jannah: A Treasure Beyond Imagination

مِفْتَاحُ الْجَنَّةِ الصَّلَاةُ — the key towards paradise is salah. Imagine you have this huge treasure. Rasulullah ﷺ mentioned that Jannah is so beautiful, so amazing — it's something that we don't even have the ability to think of; it's beyond our intellect. He said:

Such beauty the eye has never seen. Such amazing things are waiting in store for us, the likes of which the ears have never ever heard of. Nor has the thought of such amazing beautiful things ever crossed a person's heart. Imagine what is truly in store for us — only Allah knows, we can't even imagine it.

The key towards that treasure is salah. If you have a huge treasure chest and you had a key, but you took the key and inserted it upside down — is it going to open the chest? It's not going to open. If you took the same key and maybe it's broken in half and you try to insert it — is it going to open? No. If you took the key and some of the teeth on the key are broken — is it going to work? It's not going to work.

Similarly, we have to ensure, number one, that our keys are intact — that all of our salah, we are performing it. That if we are only doing one salah, from today insha'Allah we make it five. It's five for everyone. But if we're not performing our five daily salah, then from today insha'Allah we can start.

Rasulullah ﷺ also gives us more hope. He says that Allah addresses a person — if He checks the salah first and it's intact, all is well. But if not, Allah says:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 413; Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 864)

"Look at my servant — does he have any extra voluntary prayers that he performed?" That he can patch up this key of his. So then if there are extra voluntary prayers, that will be a means, insha'Allah, of being able to patch up the key. If we don't already work towards fulfilling all of those prayers that we missed, we should also do that. And also be particular about our sunnah prayers — all of our prayers will insha'Allah be held accountable for.

But if our key is broken, then how are we going to expect to enter that treasure? If some of our key is damaged, how are we going to do that? If we are performing salah contrary to the practices of Rasulullah ﷺ, how do we expect to enter Jannah? It's like if you have a crumpled-up bill and you put it into a vending machine — what happens? It completely rejects it. Because it's so crumpled up, it doesn't even recognize it. So if we're going to perform a salah completely contrary to the teachings of Rasulullah ﷺ, it's as if we're taking a key with broken teeth and trying to insert it, or inserting it upside down.

Layers of Defense: Fard, Sunnah, and Nawafil

So we should be very particular about our salah — about our fara'id salah, particularly the five daily prayers. This is the closest way that we can get to Allah. Secondly, if we are doing that, we should also increase and perform our 12 sunnah rakahs a day. Rasulullah ﷺ has mentioned that the individual who performs 12 rakahs of sunnah a day — two before Fajr, four before Dhuhr, two after Dhuhr, two after Maghrib, and two after Isha — then Allah builds for him a palace in Jannah.

Imagine — we live our whole entire lives and are not even able to buy one house. But here, you just perform 12 rakahs of sunnah, and Allah gives you a house, a mansion in Jannah. And then, over and above the sunnah mu'akkadah — the emphasized sunnah — we can also do extra voluntary prayers and come closer to Allah. As Allah mentions, after obligatory things come extra voluntary things.

May Allah grant us all the tawfiq. We don't realize that these are actually modes of defense. When an enemy attacks, they come from the outermost defenses. If you have three walls lined up — you're doing your nawafil, plus your sunan, plus your fara'id — and Shaitan comes, he's going to say, "Man, you're doing your fard five daily prayers plus your sunnah — just leave out tahajjud one day, it's okay, you're tired." Then you're going to leave out tahajjud, but Shaitan is not going to be able to attack your sunnah mu'akkadah because you're so consistent; you have the layers of defense, the outermost layer.

Then if you're only particular about your fard and your sunnah mu'akkadah, Shaitan is going to say, "Man, you did your five daily prayers — it's okay, the 12 extra rakahs in the day, just leave the four before Dhuhr, that's so much, just leave it out." But your fard will be intact. But if we're only doing our fard and nothing else, then that's our outermost layer of defense — and that is going to be compromised. So in order to set ourselves up against Shaitan and ensure our key into Jannah, we have to be very particular with regards to our salah.

May Allah grant us all the tawfiq. Alhamdulillah rabbil alameen.

Announcements

All the brothers can kindly stand up and insha'Allah come closer and fill up all the gaps before performing your sunnah. Please pass the donation boxes from left to right and donate generously. Sadaqah wards off calamities and draws the mercy of Allah.

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Please join our curriculum night, which is tonight after Asr salah. The Iqamah for Asr salah will take place at 6:30 PM. It's a very unique opportunity for parents and the community to learn about the Taqmeel 7-year Alimiyyah program and see what it takes to be a flag bearer of the deen. Why does it take 7 years to learn how to become an alim, or to learn about the deen of Islam? What exactly do you learn over these 7 years? This will be a prime opportunity for one and all to insha'Allah learn.

Also join us for our weekly programs. Team Fajr will continue tomorrow, Saturday. Fajr Iqamah is at 5:30 AM. Tafsir will also continue like normal on Tuesdays after Maghrib salah.

Registrations are open for the following programs. The Deen Weekend Islamic Studies program consists of 16-week semesters. One week has already passed — the fall semester began last week, August 19th — but you can still enroll and get the previous recordings. Saturday classes will cover the fiqh of salah, surahs of salah, and purification of the heart. Sunday classes will cover the history and development of fiqh, introduction to hadith sciences, and aqidah.

Sunday School for boys and girls, ages 6 to 16 years. This program is designed for youth to learn the essentials of Islam in an environment that seeks to nurture and develop a deep love and connection for Allah and Rasulullah ﷺ. For more information on all of these programs, you can visit the website masjidds.org.

Helping Hand is fundraising for the Syrian refugees in Jordan. They are trying to fundraise to build 16 new shelters within the next 2 months. Masha'Allah, they provide for many different families. Please stop by their table outside the archway entrance.

There is also a du'a of maghfirah request for Hafiz Hamza Wajid Khan of Canton University, Michigan, who has passed away. May Allah forgive him for all of his sins and grant him Jannatul Firdos bi ghayri hisab. May Allah grant his family sabrun jameel. There is also another individual, Shaukat Hussain, who has passed away. Make du'a also for his maghfirah.

Du'a

May Allah also cure all of those that are ailing and that are going through difficulties at this time.