The Gift of Prayer
By AbdelRahman Murphy | 2026-01-19T10:29:45.200724+00:00 | Topic: Worship
The Gift of Prayer
Ustadh AbdelRahman Murphy
Opening
Khutbat al-Hajah (Opening Khutbah)
"[Who believe in the unseen, establish prayer, and spend out of what We have provided for them]"
Main Body
To the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), his wife Khadijah for over 20 years was everything. She was someone that would support him morally, would support him personally, financially even. She was the support of him, his mission, his emotional being. Whenever any issue came up, Khadijah was the one that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would turn to. And they had met earlier on in his life when he was just a young man and he worked for her as a salesman. And they actually admired each other so much and fell in love and got married. And it's actually kind of a rare sort of love story from that era in the sense that it was very natural - it was an authentic love, it was real.
And the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), when he first received revelation, when he first received revelation and he went through this very traumatic experience where he was shaken up, he was doubting what had just happened, he didn't know what had just squeezed him and ordered him to read "Iqra!" He had no clue. He went back to his wife Khadijah who was the one who reinforced him, who was the one who made him feel better about it, who was the one who gave his heart some rest after that whole experience.
And the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), after years of being together with Khadijah, after years of being in love with her, after years of having children together, one day Khadijah passes away - she dies. And when we read this in the history books, in the seerah books, that in the year so and so Khadijah bint Khuwaylid (may Allah be pleased with her) passed away, we just read it and we move on to the next line and that's it, we're done.
But imagine for a second what it means now to have your wife Khadijah, or your wife, or your spouse, your husband pass away. Imagine what that would entail - may Allah protect us - but imagine the details, the logical conclusion that would have to happen after that, that your spouse would pass away. So you would have to then prepare their body for the burial. This person that you spent so much time with, this person that you've invested so much into, whether or not you've had arguments here or there, that doesn't matter anymore because the love of your life, your soulmate, and if you're lucky enough to have 20 plus years with this person, is gone. That other side of the mattress that used to have some weight on it when you would sleep, that's not there anymore. You wake up in the morning, there's no one to say good morning to. You walk over to the kitchen, there's no one to eat breakfast with. You're leaving for work, there's no one to say have a nice day to. This is the Prophet Muhammad's reality.
Now add on to that kids. Add on to that the fact that if your wife or if your husband passed away, your kids come home from school, they have no clue what happened and you have to explain to them that now mommy's not coming home anymore, daddy's not going to be here anymore when you get home from school. The reality of what that would entail, how shattered a person would be.
I can be very honest with you guys because you're my community - I don't know what would happen if my wife passed away. I don't know what I would do, because to think about it even for a moment, you understand a little bit of what the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was going through, the pain that he was enduring, the heartbreak he was enduring.
Now add on to that, this message of Islam that he's preaching no longer has a benefactor, no longer has the backing financially that it used to have. He no longer has a CEO for the company that he used to work for. So not only is his personal life in a flux, but his financial and even the message of Islam is unclear at this point.
And so the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) does his best. He gets up and dusts himself off and does his best to move on with life. But Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) teaches us another lesson through the example of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).
Through his example, 6 to 8 months later, Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) teaches us another lesson by taking the life of Abu Talib. Abu Talib was the uncle, literally was the uncle of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), but more, in reality, was more like his father, his foster father.
Abu Talib, when the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was younger, Abu Talib used to take care of all of his children and the family. He used to feed all of them, so they would all have food together. And when the food was served, all the kids would run out and the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), because even from a young age, from his birth, he was someone who was shy and humble. He was a shy and humble kid. And so he would kind of wait off to the side, and all the other kids would run - kind of like Ramadan iftars, right? - all the other kids would run to the plate, get all the food, eat to their fill, and then when they were done, when they were stuffed, then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when they walked away, would slowly make his way over and would pick up whatever scraps were left.
And Abu Talib used to see this, and he loved the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) so much. Abu Talib had so much love for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that what he would do was he would pick out all the good chunks of food, all the good chunks of meat, and he would set it aside on a plate, and he would put it behind himself. So he would call the kids to come eat, and all the kids would come eat, and they would say, "Well, I guess we just don't have good meat today," and they would start eating. And Abu Talib would say, "Yeah, Muhammad, come here," and Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) would come and he would look and he would see this plate of food, and he would smile, and he would eat it with his uncle.
Abu Talib, whenever Abu Talib went on a business expedition or any kind of expedition, any kind of travel, he would leave his entire family at home - his kid, his spouse, his kids, his nephews - everyone would stay home. But guess who would come with Abu Talib? The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). There was so much love that Abu Talib had.
And even after the message of Islam came to the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), Abu Talib said what? He said, "I don't believe, but I will support you and I will defend you until my dying day." That "I don't believe in what you're bringing." This is from the family of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). He's saying, "I don't believe, I love you, I don't... I'm not going to accept what you're bringing, but I will protect you until I die."
And everyone in the city of Mecca, when they would try to harass the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), when they would try to torture him, they would do things here and there, they would rough him up here and there, but they knew that they couldn't take it too far because Abu Talib would be the person they would have to answer to. That in order to get to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), Abu Talib was there.
And then Abu Talib becomes very ill, very sick, and it becomes clear that these are his final days. And so the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) loves his uncle, his foster father. He has immense love for Abu Talib, and he goes to his uncle and he says, "My uncle, please," he said, "just accept the message. Accept that there is only one God worthy of worship and that I'm the messenger. Just say it. You don't have to do anything, you don't have to pray or do anything, just say it so I can take this little bit, this little statement you have, so I can take it on the court, in the court on the day of judgment and tell Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He), 'Ya Allah, I have, Ya Rabbi, I have this statement from him that he is Muslim. Forgive his sins and just give me something to work with.''
And Abu Talib is surrounded by all of his peers, his colleagues, and they're saying, "Ya Abu Talib, are you going to give up on the religion of your forefathers? Are you going to end it now? Right now before you pass away, you're going to cut off everything from your history, from your lineage, from your past? You're going to do all that?" And they're mocking him and they're harassing him.
But finally they get to Abu Talib, and Abu Talib tells Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), he says, "No, I can't accept it," and he dies - not only leaving the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) but leaving him shattered because he didn't accept the message of Islam in front of his own eyes.
So the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was so distraught that Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) had to reveal a verse:
That "Ya Rasulullah, I know you tried your best, but you are not going to be able to guide whoever you love. That's not how this works. You're not going to be able to just walk into the people that you love and say 'please accept' and they'll accept. Sometimes the people that you love the most are going to be the ones that hurt you."
Rather, Allah is the one who gives guidance to whomever He wills, to whomever asks for it, to whomever wants it.
This lesson in the life of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) - so imagine this: his wife passes away, his wife of 20 years, the mother of his children. Then 6 to 8 months later, his uncle passes away, someone who is basically his foster father.
The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) would cry when Fatihah Mecca came, when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) returned from Medina to Mecca. He would shed tears. There's a famous story that Abu Bakr As-Siddiq, after Fatihah Mecca, brought his father Abu Qahafa. Abu Qahafa was very old - they said everything about him was white: his hair, his eyelashes, his beard, everything was white. And he walked in, and this is the father of Abu Bakr, and he walked into the haram, and he went to the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and Abu Bakr As-Siddiq went to the Prophet and he said, "Ya Rasulullah, my father wants to take shahada with you."
And this is after a lifetime of work, a lifetime. Abu Bakr As-Siddiq is very old at this point, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is very old. This is after the conquest of Mecca. And so the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) starts to teach Abu Bakr's father the shahada. He starts teaching him the shahada.
And for those of you who maybe don't understand what a big deal this is, ask any convert in the room what it would mean to them if their parents accepted Islam, what it would mean to them, what it would mean to their heart and life if their parents... or ask anyone in the room who has relatives who are non-Muslim or family members, ask them what it would mean to them if one day their family member came to them and said, "I want to accept this religion," how happy they would be.
And so as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is giving Abu Qahafa the shahada, Abu Bakr As-Siddiq starts crying. And so the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) says what any of us would say - he says, "Your tears of happiness, right, Abu Bakr? Tears of happiness? Very excited for him?"
And Abu Bakr As-Siddiq replies, "Tears of sadness. I'm crying because I'm sad."
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) says, "Why are you sad?"
And he says, "Because what I would give, Ya Rasulullah, to replace my father with your uncle today. That my father, my own father who I would love to be Muslim, what I would give out of my love for you, because I know that you love... I knew that you loved Abu Talib so much. What I would give that you would have your uncle here today taking the shahada instead of my father. I would give it in a second."
So he was sad because he knew that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was damaged inside.
After this, we're talking about emotional damage. We're talking about the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) being put through stress after stress after stress, trial after tribulation, death of family members.
And you know what? Even after all this, you know what would happen to the Prophet when he would walk in the street? So his wife dies, and then his uncle dies, and then because his uncle passes away, all the young thugs of Mecca - not the older ones, because the older ones still have respect for Abu Talib - the young ones who didn't know Abu Talib would go and they would start physically abusing the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).
This is where you read the harshest stories. After the death of Abu Talib is where you read the harshest stories of how they used to beat up the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). The ones where they used to literally gang up on him, take sticks and beat him, and leave him bruised and bloody in the alleyway. This is after the death of Abu Talib, because the young guys didn't know who Abu Talib was. They didn't have that respect for him.
But when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would walk in the marketplace, dejected, hurt, not knowing where to go from here, not knowing who to turn to, not knowing who was his support anymore, the people would yell after him and say, "Huh! Who believes he's a Prophet now? Do you see? He's cursed! Everyone around him is dying!"
So on top of the family emotional trauma he's going through, now he's being ridiculed and mocked by his people because of those deaths.
Khutbah
I want everyone in this room and everyone in this masjid to listen to this khutbah to think for a second how heavy your heart would be to know that every day when you were about to venture out to go to school or work, because of the tribulation you've been put through, people would just start to make fun of you publicly and humiliate you publicly.
So what did Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) do? What did Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) give to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)? How did the situation become fixed?
Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) knew that nothing could cure the heartache of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) other than meeting him. And so Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) called the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to meet him on the famous journey.
But even more amazing is the gift, the medication that Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) gave to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) on this journey. He gave him prayer. He gave him prayer.
You see, prayer wasn't just a random assignment. Prayer wasn't just Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) saying, "Okay, start praying now." Prayer was a medication. Prayer was a therapy. Prayer was a prescription from Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) to help the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) deal with the struggles and the disappointments and the trials of everyday life.
And so only when the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) reached his lowest, that's when Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) said, "Here's the prayer. Here's my gift to you."
This prayer, brothers and sisters, throughout generations now has been transformed from a gift to a burden, to something that they used to want to do. You know, when things, difficulty would happen to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), you know what he would say? Everyone knows who the mu'adhin was - the famous mu'adhin Bilal. He would say, "Ya Bilal, give us some rest with it." What does that mean? It means call the adhan. Let us take a break from all this craziness in life, all the business and all the work and everything and all the fast. Let us take a break, ya Bilal.
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "The coolness of my eyes was given to me in Salah."
And I know that coolness of the eyes, we've probably all heard this before. Coolness of the eyes - Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) uses it in the Quran. He talks about how children are the coolness of the eyes, your spouses will be the coolness of your eyes.
You know what this means? This is an Arabic idiom. It's an expression. I want you to imagine - do you guys know how hot it is outside right now in Knoxville? They say it's a heat wave, but I mean, for those of us who have been overseas, this is like spring time, right? But imagine traveling in the desert. This is where this phrase came from. Imagine traveling in the desert. It's super hot, you're sweating, and not only are you sweating, but like when you sweat, the sweat dries and the salt from your sweat, the sodium from your sweat starts to crystallize on your face. And so you have a very dry face. Add on to that now the sand, the wind is blowing in your face. And now imagine how your face feels. Imagine how your eyes feel.
Now imagine coming upon a beautiful oasis in the middle of the desert, like a beautiful pool, some trees, and you go over and you take that water and you splash it in your face, and you splash it, then you drink some, and you splash it. That's the coolness of your eyes. How would you feel at that point? You feel so refreshed.
So the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said that "my refreshment was found in the Salah."
The reason why I'm bringing this up in Ramadan is because Ramadan is such an amazing time where everybody, mostly everybody, inshallah everybody who's fasting prays Maghrib and Fajr. And I've been talking to a lot of the young men and young women, and they've been saying that this is the first time that they've prayed five daily prayers in a long time, that they've made it to finish all the five prayers and that it's become something that's easy for them.
What that's telling us as a community is that prayer is not the coolness of our eyes. Prayer is not something that gives us rest, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said. Prayer is something that causes us anxiety. It's a burden. "Oh, I have to pray. Let me get it over with quickly. Let me finish it while it's still in the time," as opposed to saying, "Let me take a time out and just pray."
So the question and the mission from this khutbah, because it's almost over, it's one minute left - the question, the mission from this khutbah is: what is different about Ramadan? What is different about this time that people will sacrifice two hours, even three hours when Laqadi was here to pray Taraweeh at night, but we can't sacrifice five minutes any other day of the year to get our Dhuhr prayer in or to pray Maghrib or Isha? What's different?
For every one of us, it's going to be different. We need to identify that. We need to pinpoint what makes us enjoy the prayer in Ramadan and how can I replicate that the rest of the year. Because we complain about a lot of things, brother. We complain about the political situation, the economic situation. We complain about being, you know, monetarily bankrupt in Muslim countries. But we stand here spiritually bankrupt because we're not communicating with Allah. We're not communicating with Him. Our prayers are absent, and then we wonder why our dua aren't answered, because we only come to Allah when we need Him. We don't go to Allah five times a day to check in and say to greet Allah and say, "Ya Allah, I'm so thankful for everything you've given me." Rather, we only turn to Him when there's a crisis.
And if you've ever been in that situation where people only come to you when they need something, then you know how that makes you feel. When someone calls you and they only call you when they're going to ask for something, you know how that makes you feel. But when someone calls you to check up on you and say "Salaam" and "Ramadan Mubarak" and "Eid Mubarak" and "congratulations on your child's graduation," you know how close you are with that person.
That's the closeness we want to feel to Allah, and that's what we achieve through the prayer. It's not a burden. It's not handcuffs. It's not shackles. It's therapy. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) received it after all this trial and tribulation.
Take all of your disappointment, all of your trial, and put it into the prayer. Pray like you mean it. Pray like every word you're saying you mean. And I promise you and I, we will feel this benefit of prayer.
I ask Allah to make us amongst the people who pray. I ask Allah to make us enjoy the prayer and to allow the prayer to fill our hearts and become something that we love. And I ask Allah to allow us to love the masjid and to love praying in the masjid.
I say this and ask Allah to forgive me and you and all the Muslims, so ask Allah to forgive. He is the Forgiving.
Practical Guidance
The action item or the homework from this khutbah - something to take away from this khutbah - a lot of people have been asking me how they can increase their khushu and prayer, that they want to pray but the fact that they don't have quality or focus or concentration in their prayer, how can they increase it? There's two ways I'm gonna tell you right now.
For Tarawih prayer, invest some time in reading what the imam is gonna read before the prayer, in whatever language you understand. In whatever language you understand, read the translation, read the tafsir, read a little bit, take 30 minutes and read a little bit.
That way when the imam is reciting and he says "jahannam" or "jannah" or "Allah," or when he says "alladhina amanu," you can think to yourself. Memorize those buzzwords and think to yourself, "what is he talking about now?" And reflect upon those concepts. Invest some time into it.
We invest so much time into everything else. If our kids walked in the house and said, "I failed an exam," we would smack them upside the head. But if our kids walked in the house and said, "I missed Fajr," we would say, "it's okay, tomorrow inshallah, you'll make it."
We need to invest some time in prayer. Invest some time in making quality of prayer. The second thing is start your journey learning the Arabic of the prayer.
You don't have to speak Arabic to anybody. You don't have to impress anybody at your Arabic dawahs or Arabic iftars. You just have to learn how to communicate with Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) through this language.
There's only 6,000 verses. Only 6,000, right? If you chip away at the vocabulary, you'll be able to understand majority of them inshallah. I ask Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) to give us that ability and to give us the desire to learn the language of the Qur'an and the desire to connect with Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) through the prayer.
Closing Prayers and Supplications
"Indeed, Allah confers blessing upon the Prophet, and His angels [ask Allah to do so]. O you who have believed, ask [Allah to confer blessing upon him] and ask Allah to grant him peace."
"O Allah, send prayers upon Muhammad and upon the family of Muhammad, as You sent prayers upon Ibrahim and upon the family of Ibrahim. Indeed, You are Praiseworthy and Glorious. O Allah, bless Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, as You blessed Ibrahim and the family of Ibrahim. Indeed, You are Praiseworthy and Glorious."
"Indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded."
"Establish prayer."
May Allah make us of them, Ameen