Responding To The Ummah's Pain By Rectifying Our Bond With Allah

The Ummah as One Body

At the same time, our deen also teaches us that when one part of the ummah is in pain, then we should also feel that pain.

(Sahih Muslim, Book 45, Hadith 84)

The Prophet ﷺ described this ummah like one body. When you have pain in your eye, when you have pain in your head, what happens? The entire body begins to hurt. But the pain is only in your head — you just have a headache — but now you are unable to do so many things that you would normally be able to do. That pain is felt by the whole body.

So likewise, when one part of the ummah, one country is in pain, the rest of the ummah should also feel that pain.

The Example of Umar and Amr ibn al-'As

There was drought in Madina Munawwara during the time of Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله عنه. So Umar رضي الله عنه wrote a letter to Amr ibn al-'As رضي الله عنه who was in Egypt at the time. He said, "O Amr, it seems like your heart has become hardened. It seems like you don't care. We are suffering here, we are starving here in Madina Munawwara. And you are enjoying the comforts and the luxuries of Egypt. Please assist us, please help us."

When Amr ibn al-'As رضي الله عنه received this letter, he trembled. Immediately he wrote back: "From Amr ibn al-'As to Umar ibn al-Khattab. O Ameer al-Mu'mineen, rest assured, your words have not fallen upon deaf ears. I have dispatched such a caravan laden with food — the first of which will be in Madina Munawwara, and the last of which will still be here with me in Egypt."

This is when the hearts were soft. People took effect. They saw a crisis, they saw something happening — immediately they got up and they did something.

Today we are seeing not one, not two, but hundreds of thousands. Mothers who are worrying about their children. Children that are being starved to death. We are seeing families when they don't know where one another is. Husband doesn't know where the wife is. Wife doesn't know where the husband is. They don't know where the children are. How many women have become widowed? How many children have become orphaned? But what have we done? What change have we enacted in our lives? This is a question that we need to ask ourselves.

Rectifying Our Connection with Allah

There can be nothing better that we can do for ourselves and for the entire ummah than to rectify our connection with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. In the first khutbah that the Prophet ﷺ gave, when he came into Madina Munawwara, he said:

(Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah, Hadith 34472)

That individual who will rectify his relationship with Allah, who will ensure that his bond, his connection, his ta'alluq with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is strong — Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will take care of all of his problems, all of his challenges, all of his difficulties. For Allah it is nothing.

For Allah to resolve the challenges of the ummah, it takes a blink of an eye, a split of a second — very, very simple, very easy for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And it is only Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala who can resolve the crisis that we see. Whatever challenge, whatever ahwan we face, it is all from Allah ta'ala. And the one who can resolve it, the one who can solve these problems is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

So when we will turn as an ummah to Allah ta'ala, when we will be regular, when we will be punctual in our salah, when we will regularly call out to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala from the depths of our heart — this is when you will see the divine help of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

The Salah of the Prophets

Let us look at our salah. Our salah — this is the means by which we can draw directly from the treasures of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is how we will get the divine help of Allah ta'ala. If we want to know what type of relationship we have with our Maker, then let us look at our relationship with our salah.

Look at the galaxy of anbiya alayhimus salam. Allah ta'ala speaks in the Quran in various places about their connection, their attachment to salah.

Ibrahim ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﺍﻟﺴﻼﻡ

Look at the Prophet Ibrahim عليه السلام. He leaves his family — not in the Mecca of today, but بِوَادٍ غَيْرِ ذِي زَرْعٍ عِنْدَ بَيْتِكَ الْمُحَرَّمِ — the Mecca of many hundreds of thousands of years ago was just a barren desert. And as he leaves his family, what does he say? What du'a does he make?

"O Allah, make me, and make my progeny, from amongst those who are regular in performing and establishing the salah." This mindset, this fikr, the worry and concern of the father — you see it in the sons as well.

Ismail, Ishaq, and Ya'qub ﻋﻠﻴﻬﻢ ﺍﻟﺴﻼﻡ

Look at Ismail عليه السلام. How does Allah ta'ala describe him? Allah ta'ala praises him and says that from amongst his qualities was that he used to command his family to establish the prayer. You look at the other son, Ishaq عليه السلام, as well as his son — the grandson of Ibrahim عليه السلام — Ya'qub عليه السلام. How does Allah ta'ala describe them? One of their defining characteristics was that they used to establish the salah.

Musa ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﺍﻟﺴﻼﻡ

You look at the Prophet Musa عليه السلام. When Allah ta'ala introduces Himself to Musa عليه السلام, immediately after, Allah says: "Establish salah for My remembrance."

Zakariya and 'Isa ﻋﻠﻴﻬﻢ ﺍﻟﺴﻼﻡ

You look at the Prophet Zakariya عليه السلام. When the angels called out to him, what was he doing? What action was he engaged in at that time? He was in his chamber performing salah. You look at the Prophet Isa عليه السلام — as a baby in his cradle, when he spoke to the people, from amongst the things he told them, he said: "Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has instructed me to be very punctual, to be regular in performing my salah."

Our Beloved Nabi ﷺ

And then you look at our beloved Nabi ﷺ. Allah ta'ala tells him in Surah Taha:

"O Prophet ﷺ, command your family, instruct your family to establish the salah. Be very regular, very punctual upon performing, upon establishing salah." And hence you see throughout the entire life of the Prophet ﷺ, he never ever left his salah — up until the final illness.

Imagine — he was going through an extremely high fever. He had become very, very weak physically. But even at that time, in the final weeks, as he was going through his illness, his sickness ﷺ, he continued to come to the masjid, he continued to offer the salah.

Nabi ﷺ passed away on a Monday between Fajr and Dhuhr salah. Up until the previous Thursday, Salatul Maghrib was the last salah that he performed in congregation with the Muslims. After that, at the time of Salatul Isha, he tried to come, but he fell unconscious.

When he regained some sense of consciousness, the first question the Prophet ﷺ asked was:

"Have the people performed their Salatul Isha?" They said: "No, they are waiting for you to come and lead them." Nabi ﷺ said:

"Okay, this bowl over here — can you put some water so I can make wudu and then go lead the salah." As he tried to get up to make wudu, again he fell unconscious. After a while when he regained some sense of consciousness, again he asked the same question. "Have the Muslims performed their salah or not?" Same answer. And this happened multiple times.

Finally Nabi ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 664; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 418)

"I'm not able, I don't have the physical strength to even get to the masjid. So tell Abu Bakr رضي الله تعالى عنه that he must lead the Muslims in the salah." So Abu Bakr رضي الله تعالى عنه led them for Isha salah on Thursday, the five salahs of Friday, the five salahs of Saturday, the five salahs of Sunday, and Fajr on Monday morning. 17 salahs did Abu Bakr رضي الله تعالى عنه lead the Muslims in during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ.

But the reason I brought all of these ayat was to show you how much importance the anbiya, the Prophets عليهم السلام, gave to their salah — for they realized this is how they will strengthen that connection, that bond with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

The Warning Against Neglecting Salah

If a person doesn't even perform his salah, then what else is left?

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 22987)

Umar رضي الله تعالى عنه had written to his governors during his time:

(Muwatta Imam Malik, Book 1, Hadith 6)

He wrote to his governors: "The most important thing — the thing that I'm worried about the most — is not your position, is not the amount of money we are making. No, no, no, no. The thing I'm worried about the most is whether you are regular in performing your salah or not." فَمَنْ حَفِظَهَا وَحَافَظَ عَلَيْهَا فَقَدْ حَفِظَ دِينَهُ — The one who will be regular, punctual in his salah will be regular and punctual and particular with regards to the rest of the aspects of deen. وَمَنْ ضَيَّعَهَا فَهُوَ لِمَا سِوَاهَا أَضْيَعُ — But the one who is negligent towards his salah, Umar رضي الله عنه said, he will be negligent towards the rest of the aspects, the rest of the tenets of this beautiful religion of Islam.

Two Messages: Taking Salah to the Next Level

My dear friends, I want to leave you with two messages today.

Message One: Elevate Your Own Salah

Whatever level of salah we are currently at, let us make an effort to take it to the next level. If we are not in the habit of performing our five daily prayers, then from today, let us make this firm niyyah that going forward, insha'Allah, we are not going to miss a single salah. Wherever we are — at school, at work, at a coffee shop, at the airport — it doesn't matter:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 335; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 521)

From amongst the gifts that Allah has given this ummah is that regardless of where we are, we can always put down our sajadah and offer our salah. We should never, ever be afraid. Alhamdulillah, we live in a country where we have the freedom to offer our salah wherever we want. We live around people who respect individuals who uphold their values, who uphold their identity. No one is going to laugh at us, no one is going to mock us. And even if they do — who cares? If our relationship with Allah ta'ala is strong, who cares about the rest of the world? A time will come when Allah will make those very individuals happy and pleased with us.

So if we're not regular in performing our five times salah, from today on, let us make this niyyah that we are going to perform our five times salah.

And if we are already performing our five times salah, let us take it to the next step and make this niyyah that we will start offering as many salahs as we can here in the masjid. Especially Salatul Isha and Salatul Fajr — alhamdulillah, Fajr time is a bit later now and Isha time is also a little bit earlier, so it's not as difficult as it was a month or two back. So now, let us make this niyyah that every day, at the very least, our Salatul Isha and our Salatul Fajr, we will perform here in the masjid.

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 656)

The Prophet ﷺ told us: if you perform your Salatul Isha in congregation, you will get the reward as if you have stood in prayer before Allah for half the night. And if you perform your Salatul Fajr in congregation, you will get the reward as if you prayed for the entire night. Imagine standing 9 or 10 hours at night in salah — very, very difficult. But this is such an easy discount that we have been given, that if we just perform our Isha and our Fajr with jama'ah, insha'Allah we get the reward for having performed salah the entire night.

And if we are already regular in performing our salah in the masjid, let us take it to the next level and try and perform all of our sunnah mu'akkadahs — the two raka'ahs before Fajr, four raka'ahs before Dhuhr, two raka'ahs after Dhuhr, two raka'ahs after Maghrib, two raka'ahs after Isha, and of course Salatul Witr after that.

Last night, I was sitting with one of my teachers, and he shared with me such a beautiful tafsir of Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنهما of the verse:

"Be punctual, be regular in performing all the prayers and the middle prayer." Generally the mufassirun say الصَّلَاةِ الْوُسْطَى refers to Salatul Asr because it is the middle prayer of the day. But it is mentioned that Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنهما used to say that الصَّلَاةِ الْوُسْطَى refers to all the fard prayers, the obligatory prayers. And الصَّلَوَاتِ refers to all of the sunnah mu'akkadahs. Because the sunnah mu'akkadahs sort of sandwich the fard prayers — you have the fard prayers, and then before and after you have the sunnah mu'akkadahs. So حَافِظُوا عَلَى الصَّلَوَاتِ — meaning the sunnah mu'akkadahs — وَالصَّلَاةِ الْوُسْطَى — all of the fard prayers.

And now if we are performing our salah with jama'ah and performing our sunnah mu'akkadahs, let us take it to the next level and try and come early for salah. Qari Amirul Hasan رحمة الله عليه had this practice that for many years, many decades, he would listen to the adhan inside the masjid. By the time the adhan would happen, he was already here, already present inside the masjid waiting for the salah. And there in India, the adhan didn't take place 10–15 minutes before like here — it would be half an hour before the salah. So imagine — half an hour before, he was already in the masjid waiting for the salah. These were people who had love for their salah, they had love for standing before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

So this is the first message: whatever level of salah we are at, let us try and take it to the next level.

Message Two: Encourage Your Children to Perform Salah

And number two, let us make an active effort to encourage our family, encourage our young children to also start performing salah.

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 495)

The Prophet ﷺ said: "From the age of seven, start encouraging your children to perform salah." What does a seven-year-old know about salah? A seven-year-old is not responsible, he is not baligh. If he misses his salah, he won't be sinful. But the idea is, you need to plant those seeds — you need to plant that love for salah in the child from a very early age.

If at the age of 15 or 16, all of a sudden you're going to tell your son, you're going to tell your daughter — "from today on you need to perform five salahs" — and they're not in the habit of performing five salahs, it's going to be very difficult. But if from that young age, slowly, slowly, you start encouraging them with love, with mahabbah — you're performing salah at home, you make them stand by your side — maybe they run away, maybe they perform a very quick salah — no problem. But the idea is to get the ball rolling. And from that young age, they already start to develop that love for salah, so that by the time they come of age, they become baligh, salah is something which is ingrained within them.

May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us the tawfeeq of being very punctual with our salah and also encouraging our children to do the same. Ameen, ya Rabb al-'alameen.

Jazakumullahu khairan. وَآخِرُ دَعْوَانَا أَنِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

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Sisters programs: We have the Sisters Seerah Series which will be continuing this Sunday at 12pm. The Sisters Part-Time Hifz Class — which is online, 4 hours per day — will be starting Monday, August 18th. And beginning August 25th, we will be starting the following part-time classes for sisters: Riyad al-Salihin, Quran Tarjuma, as well as Quranic Arabic. These will be taking place online as well as on-site.

Please save the date for our Annual Seerah Conference, taking place Friday, September 19th and Saturday, September 20th.

Darul Huda, located in Houston, is a growing institute dedicated to producing huffadh and ulama. They have grown from 3 to over 100 students in just 2 years. They need $145,000 by the end of September to buy 2.5 acres of land. After the salah, they have a table set up in the courtyard — as you are walking out, please visit them, see the good work that they are engaged in, and kindly support their efforts.

Du'a requests: Du'a of maghfirah for brother Muhammad Hamil Hussaini, brother Akif Hussaini's brother, who passed away earlier this week — his janazah salah was held here. Du'a of maghfirah also for brother Rana Abrar Ahmed, who also passed away. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant both of them Jannatul Firdaus, as well as all the marhumeen. Ameen, ya Rabb al-'alameen.

And lastly, please make du'a for the Muslims who are suffering all across the world. May Allah ta'ala grant them relief and ease. Ameen, ya Rabb al-'alameen.