The Virtues of the Prayer - Ustadh Aqeel Mahmood

The Souvenir from the Heavens

I want you to imagine, brothers and sisters, that you've been working or you've been studying for a whole year. And you've had no rest. And you're in this fast-paced lifestyle that we have here in the West.

And after this year, you're tired of all the study and of all the work. And you want some rest. You want to go on holiday. You need a vacation. Spend some time with yourself and your family. So you decide to go somewhere — whether it's for Umrah, or whether you go to Pakistan, or any other place to enjoy yourself. And to rest and recuperate after a long, hard year of work or study.

And so you travel to this place. And you enjoy everything this place has to offer — whether it's the people, or the food, or the things that you can see in this place. And you're living in the best of hotels. A five-star hotel. And so you're there with your family, for one or two weeks. And you enjoy yourself. And you've recharged your batteries. And you're ready to go for another year back in this fast-paced world that we live in.

But before you come back from your amazing holiday, from this beautiful holiday that you go to, there's one thing you want to do before you come back. You want to buy a souvenir. Something that's going to remind you of this beautiful holiday that you had. This beautiful vacation that you took. Something that when you see it on your table at home, in the dining room, or on the mantelpiece — or some item of clothing — whenever you see this, it reminds you of the beautiful holiday that you had. Or some sort of picture that you hang on the wall that reminds you of this beautiful vacation. Some type of souvenir.

And so you buy this souvenir. And you come back home. And you put this souvenir on your table or on the mantelpiece. Or you hang it up on the wall if it's a picture. Or you put it in the wardrobe if it's an item of clothing. And every time you see this, it reminds you of the beautiful holiday that you had. How amazing this experience was. How happy you were when you went on holiday. And this souvenir stays with you for the rest of your life.

Now what if I told you, brothers and sisters, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ himself also had a souvenir? What was this souvenir? And what trip, and what vacation, and what holiday did he take that he brought back this souvenir from?

The Night Journey and Ascension

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ, as you all know, in the famous trip that he took from Mecca to Jerusalem, as Allah mentions in the Qur'an:

Glory be to the One who took His servant on a night journey from Masjid al-Haram to Masjid al-Aqsa. And then from there, after leading the Prophets in prayer, he was raised up and he went through an amazing journey. A journey that we can only imagine. And he saw things from the heavens, from Paradise, that no eye has ever seen and no ear has ever heard. And he met the Prophets of Allah — from Yusuf ﷺ to Nuh ﷺ and other Prophets of Allah. And he saw amazing things in Paradise — palaces made of gold and silver and the rivers of Paradise.

So you can imagine how amazing this journey was. Nothing like what we see in this world, from the places that we visit and the beautiful scenery that we see. And not only does he see all these amazing things, but he has a one-on-one with Rabb al-'Alamin, the Lord of Mankind. And he speaks to Allah Himself. And he is in the company of the King of Kings, in the company of Malik al-Muluk.

The Gift of the Prayer — the Salah

So imagine how amazing this experience must have been to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. But what did he bring back from the heavens to earth when he came back? What souvenir did he bring back?

As you all know, Allah Himself gave the Messenger of Allah ﷺ directly — without any intermediary, without Jibreel ﷺ, the Angel of Allah — ordering him and obligating something upon him. It was something which was given directly to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ from Allah. And this, as you all know, brothers and sisters, and it won't come as any surprise to any of you, is that it was the prayer — the Salah — which was given to Muhammad ﷺ.

And as you all know, it was 50 Salawat — 50 prayers — in the day and night. And when he was given 50 prayers, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ didn't complain. He didn't argue. Why? Because he was on this amazing journey. He couldn't believe what he was experiencing, what he was seeing. And when he was in the company of Allah, he was happy to take anything from Allah, regardless of what it was. And so he took these 50 prayers, and he was coming back down to earth with 50 prayers, brothers and sisters — 50 Salawat in the day and night. Can you imagine?

And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was coming down with them. But alhamdulillah, we thank Musa ﷺ for meeting the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on the way. And you all know that he asked him what had been given by Allah. And he told him 50 prayers. And Musa ﷺ said: go back, for this is too much for your people to handle. And this kept on happening until it was reduced to 5 prayers in the day, of which the reward is equivalent to 50 prayers.

No other act of worship, brothers and sisters, was given to Muhammad ﷺ by Allah Himself, directly. And this is just one of the many virtues of the prayer. One of the many blessings that we have when it comes to the prayer.

Prayer as Tranquility and Expiation

Something that we take for granted, and even something which we think is a roadblock in our lives — something which we have to overcome, something which is a hindrance in our lives, something which causes problems and gets in the way of our daily lives. But in fact, it's the opposite, brothers and sisters.

Inna al-salāta sakanun lahum — Verily, prayer is a tranquility for them. It's something which makes them tranquil and peaceful. If only we knew the barakah of the salah, the blessing of the prayer.

Sometimes we get caught up in this life that we live in — with work and family and all the stresses that come with it. And we're looking for a way out. We're looking for something to relieve the stress. Something to take our mind away from work and from our families. Something to relax us, something to calm us. And yet it's staring right at us in the face. The salah in and of itself is something which will give us tranquility and peace — but only if a person makes the effort to pray the salawat properly.

And not only is it something which can give a person peace and tranquility, but it's something which expiates sins:

Verily, prayer keeps one away from the great sins and evil deeds.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said in a hadith:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 2, Hadith 14)

The five daily prayers, and the Jumu'ah to the next Jumu'ah — it is an expiation for whatever comes in between them. All the sins that you commit between the five daily prayers — whether it's the Fajr prayer and the Dhuhr prayer, or the 'Asr prayer and the Maghrib prayer — whatever sins we committed, whether we know them or we don't, whether we remember them or we don't. Because we don't remember everything that we said yesterday. If we were to write down every word that we said yesterday, most of us probably won't be able to do this. So the salah, brothers and sisters, if performed correctly and completely, is something which can erase those sins.

Standing Before the King of Kings

How many of us contemplate the salah and think about the importance of the salah and who we are facing when we face the qiblah and we stand for salah? And how many of us realize that we are standing before Malik al-Muluk, the King of Kings, the most merciful Allah — and how this is a meeting between us and our Creator, the one who provided for us everything that we have: from our jobs and our families, and all the things that are too many for us to enumerate, too many things that we don't know, and we won't be thankful for everything that we have been given — from our health and our wealth and other blessings that Allah has given us.

And this was the mindset of the companions, رضي الله عنهم — they understood the importance of the salah and the seriousness of the prayer, and how it's a one-on-one between us and Allah.

And how the closest that a person can be to his Lord — the closest that a slave can be to Allah — when is it? It's in the salah, in the prostration. The closest that a slave is to his Lord is while he is prostrating. And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ advised us to make many supplications in the sajdah.

(Sahih Muslim, Book 4, Hadith 215)

The First Account on the Day of Judgment

On the Day of Judgment — a day when a person's wealth will not benefit him, and the number of children that he has won't benefit him, and the amount of money that he has won't benefit him regardless of how much he has — the first thing, the very first thing that the slave of Allah will be asked about on the Day of Judgment before anything else will be the salah. As the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

(Sunan al-Nasa'i, Book 6, Hadith 463; graded Sahih by al-Albani)

The first matter that the slave will be brought to account for on the Day of Judgment will be the prayer. If it is sound, then the rest of his deeds will be sound. And if it is bad, the rest of his deeds will be bad.

And this is why the scholars say that the salah in and of itself is a key to Paradise. Because if his salah is good — and he has perfected his salah in this life and he used to perform the salawat five times a day every single day — then it will make it easy for him in the hereafter, and it will be like a key for him into Paradise.

But if his salah isn't something which he used to pay much attention to — and he neglected his duty to Allah in this life and he felt like he had other things to do, other things which he thought were more important to him — even though it was Allah who blessed him with these things: He blessed him with waking up in the morning and being able to open his eyes, and being able to hear the alarm clock, and to be able to smell the food that his family and his wife is cooking, and to be able to walk to work or to drive to work, and to be given the health that he has been given from Allah:

And if you were to enumerate and count the blessings of Allah, you won't be able to do so. So one of the reasons that we pray is to be grateful to Allah for everything that He has given us, for everything that He has done for us — from the blessings that He has given us, and first and foremost is the fact that we are Muslims, the fact that we understand our purpose in life and what we are supposed to do, and what our goals are and what our objectives are.

The Prophet's Love for the Prayer

So the Salah, brothers and sisters, will help us in this life and in the hereafter. Something which will give us tranquility and peace in this fast-paced world that we live in, in this rush-hour lifestyle that we have. And we all look for ways to relieve our stress — we may pay hundreds of thousands of pounds just to look for something that's going to relieve the stress, some type of stress reliever. But it's something which is right in front of us. If you were to take the time out to focus on the Salah, then it's something which will make our lives a lot easier.

And the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ would hasten for the Salah, and he would tell Bilal, may Allah be pleased with him, to hasten to make the Adhan when the time of Adhan came, because he would look forward to the prayer. And he said:

(Sunan al-Nasa'i, Book 36, Hadith 3940; graded Sahih by al-Albani)

What I have come to love from this world is women and good scent, but what is most soothing to my eyes is the prayer.

Closing Du'a

So we ask Allah that He gives us the same focus and khushu' in the prayer, and that He makes us steadfast when it comes to the Salawat, and that He makes the Salah the key for us to enter Paradise.

And we ask Allah to make us steadfast in our salawat — these things which are important in Islam, such as salah and zakah and other than this. And remind the believers, for verily the reminder benefits the believer. So we constantly need reminding about these issues and these things which are important in the salah and important in Islam.

And the remembrance of Allah is the highest, and the first, and the greatest — and Allah knows what you hear. Ameen.