Achieving Success By Following The Sahabah's Example In Salah

Modeling Success from the Sahabah

Success — with the most successful people that we know. For example, we're trying to create our own model, we're trying to fix our own life — this needs to go here, this needs to go here, I need to do this, I need to do that — to now reach my goal, which I think of as success. But if I already have a model of success in front of me, what's the need to reinvent the wheel? If I already have a model of success, then I should align my life with that model of success.

And we do have it in front of us. We know the sahabah رضي الله عنهم — they reached a pyramid of success in their lives. Such that Allah Ta'ala says about them:

That Allah in this world, while they were alive, already stated: "I am pleased with you." Imagine that. Their entire life — that we say as believers is for the sake of Allah, whether the reality of that is in our heart or not. At least we say it with our lips, that our path in this life, our purpose in this life is to worship Allah, is to please Allah, so that we can go into Jannah.

That's what we say. So being guaranteed that before you even pass away — what greater success is there than that? So when we look at the lives of the sahabah رضي الله عنهم, what did they do? We should analyze their life to see: what actions did they do? What were their ideologies? What took precedence in their life so that we can emulate the same thing in our own life? And there are many things — we can talk for hours about the sahabah رضي الله عنهم. In fact, just by taking one sahabi at a time, we could dive deep into their life and spend hours looking into it.

But from a broader perspective, looking at all the sahabah رضي الله عنهم as a whole, one of the biggest, most important things in their life was salah. Their entire life revolved around salah. All their actions revolved around salah.

Their meeting with their families, their jobs, their time with their kids — everything revolved around salah. We know that between the time of Asr and Maghrib you cannot pray any salah. So when the Maghrib adhan would be called, the sahabah رضي الله عنهم would rush towards the masjid, rush for pillars, so they could pray behind them before the salah actually began.

And what does it mean for their life to revolve around salah? Do you understand the reality of that? To truly understand what gravity salah played in their life, we need to view it in light of our own salah. Every single person needs to think, to introspect: how is my salah, and how does that compare to the salah of Rasulullah ﷺ, compared to the salah of the sahabah رضي الله عنهم?

Stories of the Sahabah's Concentration in Salah

Abdullah ibn Zubayr and the Snake

Let's give a few examples to put things into perspective. Abdullah ibn Zubayr رضي الله عنه — this story is mentioned in Siyar A'lam al-Nubala by Allama al-Dhahabi — was performing his salah at his house. And while he was praying, a snake came through a crack in the roof, started slithering down, crept up behind him, and began coiling around his son. The entire household began to scream — pandemonium broke out.

Now let's put ourselves in his shoes. If we were in that situation — we hear screaming behind us, our spouse is screaming, our family is screaming, we hear our child crying — immediately we would break our salah and see what's going on. In fact, even if we tried to concentrate on our salah, we wouldn't be able to, because that worry would be gnawing on us: what's going on behind me?

But Abdullah ibn Zubayr continued praying, as if nothing had happened, as if everything was normal. After the salah, his family told him: "Do you not know what happened? Your son could have been killed!" But look at his answer. He said: "I did not even realize what was happening around me. I was so engrossed in my salah, I was so concentrated in my salah, that I did not even notice what was happening."

This may seem far-fetched to us. That's not possible — there was screaming right behind him! But let's take an example. You have a middle school student, a high school student — he's playing video games in the basement. His mother is yelling at him from upstairs, calling him several times. His father is yelling at him. But his eyes are glued to the screen. His ears are functioning. His mom is yelling. His father is yelling. But he can't hear, because he's so engrossed in the game.

Someone who loves reading books — they're so drawn into the story that they don't realize what's happening around them. Someone sitting in class, daydreaming — the teacher is calling on them, but they don't realize. It's because they're so lost in thought that everything around them becomes secondary. It just fades into the background.

So this concept exists — that someone can be so immersed in something, so focused on something, that everything around them becomes irrelevant. But the sahabah were able to take this same capacity — which we apply to matters of this world — and apply it in their salah. And how were they able to do that? It's because they viewed salah as something which is important. They saw the value of salah. Because they saw a certain value in salah, they were able to give it such a high level of precedence.

Abbad ibn Bishr and the Arrows

Let's give one more example. Two sahabah were with Rasulullah ﷺ and the Muslim army, coming back from the Battle of Dhat al-Riqa'. On the way back, the Muslim army stopped for the night, and Rasulullah ﷺ stated that two or three people should stand guard through the night, watching the Muslim army in case any enemy or spy came. Two sahabah volunteered: Ammar ibn Yasir and Abbad ibn Bishr.

Abbad ibn Bishr said to Ammar: "You sleep for the first half of the night, I'll stand watch, and then we'll switch for the latter half." In his shift, he decided to begin praying his tahajjud. And while he was praying, he didn't notice an enemy creeping up behind him. The enemy crept up, saw him praying, knocked an arrow into his bow, and shot. The mark was true — he hit Abbad ibn Bishr. But to his astonishment, Abbad just continued praying, as if nothing happened.

Confused, the enemy shot a second arrow. Again the arrow lodged in his body — two arrows sticking out of him. Imagine the excruciating pain, tearing through skin and flesh. He continued praying. The enemy shot a third arrow. Only then did he break his salah. He broke his salah and woke up Ammar. Ammar looked at him in bewilderment: why did he not wake him up earlier? And Abbad said: "I did not break my salah because of the pain. Rather, it was a responsibility that Rasulullah ﷺ placed on my shoulders. That is the one thing that drove me to break my salah and wake you up. If it had not been for that, I was experiencing so much pleasure, so much happiness, such a strong connection to Allah in my salah, that I did not even want to break it."

The Hadith on Salah: The First Account on the Day of Judgment

When we see this, we realize the sky-and-ground difference between our salah and the salah of the sahabah. There is no comparison. And what led them to have this type of importance in salah? Because they realized what salah is. They knew the virtues behind salah and they realized salah for what it truly was.

When we're praying to Allah, when I'm here for Jumu'ah, about to pray two raka'at — what is going on in my salah? When I'm going to ruku', when I'm going to sujood, what am I experiencing? Rasulullah ﷺ clearly stated in a hadith:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 4, Hadith 979)

"The closest a slave of Allah can be to Allah in any scenario of his life is while he is prostrating — while he is in sajdah."

Now let's think about my own sajdah. It's not a simple action — though we view it as one. I'm placing the most honorable part of my body, my face, on the ground where people walk. If all these windows were to shatter, immediately the first thing I'd do is cover my face, save it from the glass shards. And yet this same honorable part of our body, I'm putting on the ground — not for anyone sitting here, not for the imam, not for my teacher, not for my parents — but it's supposed to be for Allah.

But how can it be that when I'm in sajdah — when I'm putting my head down, in what should be the closest moment I can have with Allah — I'm physically here, but my mind is still at home, my mind is still at the market, my mind is still at the store, my mind is still wherever I'm going to go eat afterwards? We're praying our salah, but there's no weight, no value, no haqiqah to that salah.

Why Salah Is Not Fixing Our Problems

Oftentimes we hear about what salah can do, the wondrous things salah can do. Allah says in the Quran:

Allah is giving us the key, the map to stay away from all types of sin and lewdness. Allah says in the Quran that indeed, salah will stop you from any type of lewdness, salah will stop you from anything which is prohibited. But when I'm praying my salah, it's not fixing those issues. Any sins that I'm involved in, I'm still involved in them. I'm still steeped in the same sins from yesterday, a year ago, two years ago. The same mental problems, depression, financial problems, physical problems — I'm still going through the exact same issues. Why is the salah which Allah has promised will take me out of those sins not working?

Because although I may be fulfilling the obligation — I'm coming to the masjid, I'm praying at home, I'm praying at work — the salah has no weight to it. There's no connection with Allah in that salah. The imam is in the second rak'ah and I don't even remember what he prayed in the first rak'ah. In fact, when I myself am praying, I'm in the second rak'ah and I can't even remember what I prayed in the first. It's like autopilot — when I start my salah, I begin another train of thought, and I just start reading:

If this is the state of my salah — that in those 5–10 minutes which I'm supposed to dedicate solely for Allah, and Allah is asking us for just that 5–10 minutes to focus on Him while we have all this time to go to work and spend time with our families — if I can't even give that, then why am I surprised when those same problems I'm begging Allah to lift don't get lifted?

And we know that salah holds an immense value in our deen. The hadith we mentioned at the beginning of the khutbah:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 413; also reported in Sunan al-Nasa'i, Hadith 465)

"The first thing every single one of us will be asked about on the Day of Judgment from our deeds will be our salah. If it is found to be sound, then that person will be successful. But if it is not found to be sound, then we are destroyed."

But why is it that one action is dictating the rest of all our actions? Why is one action considered to be the cornerstone for everything else? It's because this time in salah is supposed to be dedicated solely towards Allah. If I cannot even uphold that — if I cannot concentrate in my salah, if I can't uphold the most important action in our deen — then what will be the state of my other affairs? They'll be even worse.

So salah can be two-sided. Our salah can either be something which is completely tossed away and ruins our akhirah. Or it can be a means of fixing all affairs in our life — whether our deeni affairs, whether it's in terms of fixing our actions. And it can have the further effect of relieving any problems we're going through. Allah says in the Quran:

Allah is telling us in the Quran that it is through the dhikr of Allah that our hearts can find contentment. If I'm sitting here going through depression, mental problems, unable to cope with different challenges in my life — financial problems, physical problems — Allah is saying that dhikr is the answer for that. And salah is just dhikr. In every single motion — whether standing in qiyam, in ruku', or in sujood — we are doing the purest form of dhikr to Allah.

But the reason it's not taking effect goes back to what we mentioned: there's no weight to that dhikr. I'm saying الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ — "All praises to Allah" — but at the same time I'm uttering those words, I'm thinking about something else. It's just parroting, it's lip service. The words — the belief — don't go beyond our tongue. It's not in the heart. So it will never take effect.

How to Improve Our Salah: Practical Steps

So how can we switch this up? How can we change our salah to make it even a little bit similar to the salah of the sahabah, to the salah of Rasulullah ﷺ?

Number one — the salah needs to be worked on as a whole package. Anything which is deficient needs to be worked on. We should not view salah as a single unit — just those two raka'at we are praying. Rather, when I'm driving to the masjid, that five or ten minute drive, I should automatically begin doing what I would be doing in salah: I start closing off my mind from everything else, I start focusing solely on Allah. While I'm making wudu, as the water drips down my limbs, I should imagine the sins falling off my body — because Rasulullah ﷺ stated that. And when I come to salah with two minutes left, instead of looking at my phone or talking, I should spend those two minutes focusing on Allah — so that when I start my salah, I've already filtered out those thoughts that would normally intrude.

And we should pre-plan what we're going to read. Many times when we start our salah it's just autopilot — a person reads Surah al-Falaq, Surah al-Nas, whatever surahs he knows. Read a longer surah. For the sunnah prayers, read Surah al-A'la, Surah al-Ghashiyah, Surah al-Nazi'at. If you don't know the longer surahs, then read the shorter ones — but read them with understanding. If you don't understand Arabic, open a tarjumah of the Quran, open a translation of the Quran. Learn one verse per day, learn the translation of one verse per day. Now while you're praying in salah, you'll begin to understand what you're actually reading, what you're actually saying to Allah.

And one final point: if we have many missed salahs in our account — if I have 100, 1,000, 2,000, 10,000, 20,000 salahs that I've missed — then missing one more Fajr, missing one more Isha', it won't seem like a big deal. It'll be like swiping a fly off my shoulder. But if I start making up those qadha salahs, then the importance of salah will come back into my life. I'm actively trying to remove that debt. So now I'll be hesitant to miss any other salah, because I'm already making up the ones I missed.

And even if a person is thinking — I have 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 salahs to make up; how am I supposed to do all of that? — at least it will give us an answer to Allah: "O Allah, even though I did not pray for 10, 20 years, at least I died trying. I died trying to make up those salahs."

Building Love for Rasulullah ﷺ

Number two is to attack the core aspect which is lacking — and that is a fundamental weakness in our own iman, in our own belief. I may say that I love Rasulullah ﷺ, I may say that I love Allah. But Rasulullah ﷺ himself has already set the bar for what true love for him means:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 15; Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 70)

"None of you can claim to be a true believer until you love me more than your own families, more than your own sons, more than your own daughters, more than your own self." How many of us can truly claim that we are able to push down our own desires when they are not in conformity with the way of Rasulullah ﷺ? How many of us, before we do anything, ask: is this something Rasulullah ﷺ would have done? Is this something which is allowed in the deen? And if the answer is no, do we actually stop? If not, then can we honestly say we love Rasulullah ﷺ more than we love ourselves?

If our love for Rasulullah ﷺ is deficient, our love for Allah is deficient, then the same actions told to us by them will also be deficient — because we don't have that driving force behind those actions. If my son, my wife, they tell me to do something difficult, I'm ready to do it. I'm ready to spend thousands of dollars on them because that love is there. I'm ready to do anything for my parents because that natural love is there. Something difficult becomes easy for the ones you love. But if the love is not there for Rasulullah ﷺ, then all the actions in the deen will seem difficult. But once that love is brought, then every single action in the deen will become easy.

So how do we build that love? Number one, we cannot build love for Rasulullah ﷺ without knowing who he is. We should recognize who Rasulullah ﷺ is. Read books of seerah. There are so many books of seerah out there. Every single day — if I have a family — ten minutes after Isha', five minutes after Isha', whatever time my family is free, we sit down and we read the seerah of Rasulullah ﷺ.

Navigating the Challenges of Our Time

Another thing is that when we're trying to implement the sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ, it doesn't seem easy in today's world. For example, the sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ says: respect your parents. And Allah Ta'ala directly states in the Quran:

After the most important command in our deen — do not ascribe partners to Allah — Allah Ta'ala immediately follows it up with: show excellence towards your parents. On one side, the deen is telling us to do that. On the other side, being raised in American society — a society of liberalism, atheism, and whatever other isms are out there — those same parents who brought you up from a tender age, you are expected, when you grow up, to throw them into a nursing home. We see this dichotomy between all aspects of the deen and the society we're living in today. How are we supposed to navigate these issues?

Yes, we might build a love for Rasulullah ﷺ, but it might still seem difficult to act upon. So for that purpose, we need to recognize what problems we're going through today — the onslaught against Islam, whether it's academic or spiritual. We need to recognize the ideologies that are out there so that we can defend against them.

The Annual Retreat at Dar ul-Salam

And alhamdulillah, this weekend at Dar ul-Salam — starting from today at Maghrib until Sunday around Dhuhr time — this will be the theme of this year's annual retreat. The annual retreat will be focusing on scholars who went through similar problems in their time, where Islam was spiritually attacked and academically attacked. But those scholars were at the forefront defending Islam. They navigated the murky waters of their time, and they led the Muslims out of those problems — so that we can learn from their lives, learn what they did, and implement those same things into our own life.

We have so many people coming from around America. People flying in from California, Florida; people driving from Philadelphia, Baltimore. People are coming from all over the US. But this is our own backyard, this is our own home. How sad is it that I, being 5–10 minutes from Dar ul-Salam, can't even spare 1 hour, 2 hours, 1 day to come and benefit from the talks which people all over the US are flying in for, driving hours for? So I encourage everyone — first and foremost myself — that we see this as an opportunity. This is a ni'mah from Allah that we have so many scholars concentrated in one place. Let us come and try to benefit from the programs that have been provided here.

I ask Allah to grant us the ability to perform salah as we ought to pray, and I ask Allah to grant us love for Rasulullah ﷺ, love for Allah, and grant us the ability to practice the deen in its full capacity.

Second Khutbah

Narrated by Abu Hurayrah رضي الله تعالى عنه, he said: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 413)

Announcements

Please pass the donation boxes from left to right and donate generously. You can also use the kiosk outside in the lobby. Sadaqah wards off calamities and draws the mercy of Allah Ta'ala.

The annual retreat at Dar ul-Salam, as announced, will be starting today and continuing until Sunday. The retreat includes programs for the entire family — parallel programs are available for sisters, children, the youth, and even a separate program for the scholars. We are honored to host a number of esteemed scholars from across the world to speak alongside our respected scholars from Dar ul-Salam Seminary.

A few summer programs:

• Tarbiyah for Tots — for boys and girls ages 4–5.
• Quran, Islamic Studies, and Sports Camps — for boys and girls ages 6–13, Monday to Friday, June 25th to July 17th.
• Tamheed Program — a six-week immersion program guiding students through a transformative journey to understand and appreciate the core principles of Islam. The program consists of two components: the Deen-Intensive and Arabic Essentials.

For more information, please visit masjidyes.org/summer.

Weekly programs:

• Tuesday Tafsir — continues after Maghrib Salah.
• Seerah Program — with the imam after Maghrib Salah.
• Saturday Team Fajr — program continues per the retreat schedule.
• Sisters' Parallel Program — Seerah Series (bi-weekly), Seerah & Salawat with Alima Khadija, and weekly onsite Sisters' Tafsir on Thursdays 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM.