Seek to Obey - Sheikh Abdul Nasir Jangda
By Abdul Nasir Jangda | 2026-01-19T07:14:11.435398+00:00 | Topic: General
Seek to Obey - Sheikh Abdul Nasir Jangda
Opening
"[In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.]"
Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Raheem. Al-hamdu lillahi rabbil-alameen, was-salatu was-salamu ala ashrafil-anbiyai wal-mursaleen, nabiyyina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajmaeen.
Introduction: The Foundation of Obedience
The topic that I have is seek to obey. Becoming more obedient to Allah and His Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم). And what exactly it means to be a Muslim. But I'd like to give that conversation some structure.
Rather than get up here and, you know, quote the ayat that very honestly speaking, most of you all are probably familiar with:
"O you who believe! Obey Allah and obey His Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and those in authority among you."
We're familiar with that, we know that. But I'd like to create some perspective.
Because a lot of times it's not necessarily the lack of information that prohibits somebody from following or being obedient. But it's a lack of depth and understanding of that information. Or sometimes there's a lack of environment that encourages and facilitates the implementation of what you already know.
The Historical Context: The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah
Background: Six Years in Medina
So I'd like to take us a little bit further back in the timeline of the life of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) to a landmark moment, a profound turning point in not just the life of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) but what I would venture to call human history. The Prophet of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) had migrated from Mecca to Medina. He had left his home in Mecca along with hundreds of companions, Muslims, and they had moved to a small farming town called Yathrib, now referred to as Medina, the city of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). They had been residing there for six years.
After six years of living here, and those six years involved dozens of skirmishes, small issues, small little fights, if you will, between the people of Mecca and the Muslims of Medina. There were three major epic battles. The Battle of Badr in the second year, the Battle of Uhud in the third year, the Battle of the Trench which he alluded to in the fifth year.
So there were three major epic battles sprinkled in between dozens of skirmishes. So it had been a very contentious and difficult relationship.
The Unprecedented Strategy
At that point in time, you know, we really don't oftentimes explore some of the just profound and really mind-blowing strategy and philosophy of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). It is unprecedented that there are two enemies that are that severely in conflict with one another.
And what does the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) do? While there is very much of an ongoing war between these two communities, he tells 1400 Muslims to go into a state of Ihram. Anyone who has been for Hajj or Umrah is familiar, or at the very least you kind of know what it's like, you've read a book about it, seen it on TV, watched a video about it. Particularly men, when they go into a state of Ihram, you're basically just dressed in two sheets of clothes, two white garments, two sheets.
It's like you're wearing two large towels, that's it. And the Prophet of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) tells these 1400 companions to go into a state of Ihram, not armed to the teeth, not put on their armor, not load up all the artillery, but basically go for worship, and we will march towards Mecca. We will march towards Месса.
Why? To go and perform Umrah, to go worship. So two warring communities, and all of a sudden abruptly he says, we're just going to go there and pray. Very unprecedented move.
The Journey to Hudaybiyyah
And he's doing it to kind of force the issue, that how long are we just going to keep going back and forth, fighting with each other. So they march out and they go in the direction of Mecca, until they're really close outside of Mecca, at a place called Hudaybiyyah, which alhamdulillah earlier this year, we had the Qalam Umrah group, we went, Ustad Murphy, myself, Mufti Kamani, and we had a bunch of people, Farhan's parents were with us, mashallah, that we ended up visiting the place of Hudaybiyyah. And at that place of Hudaybiyyah, when they reach there, they're cut off.
And what ends up happening, is that the Meccans, they send their people, saying, stop right here. You do not have clearance to enter into our city, our territory. This is a no-go zone, a no-fly zone.
You can't come in here. Okay? The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) sends Uthman bin Affan, to negotiate on their behalf, in Mecca. They go in there, he goes into Mecca.
The Bay'ah ar-Ridwan (Pledge of the Tree)
This is a long story, I'm going to kind of summarize it. Basically, somebody spreads a rumor, that they murdered Uthman. It was bad enough that they would murder one of the people of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). But on top of that, even based on tribal law, that he was an emissary.
And the killing of an emissary, is a declaration of war. So even though they didn't have a lot of equipment with them, even though they didn't come ready to fight, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) assembles and gathers all the Muslims, where that tree was, where he sat down under the shade of a tree, we went there. Umar bin Abdul Aziz (رحمه الله) one of the later Muslim rulers, had a masjid built at that place.
And the remnants, the ruins of that masjid, are there still today. And so we went to that particular place, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) sits down under the shade of that tree, and he tells the Sahaba to start approaching him, one after another, after another. And he starts giving them, taking an oath of allegiance from them, that we will fight to the death, we will avenge the death of Uthman.
We will fight every single one of these people, to seek justice from them. And if we die in the process, then so be it. And they all give this oath of allegiance, ready to lay their lives on the line for what's right, and to defend what's right, and the rights of the people.
And he takes this oath of allegiance from 1400 people, until finally he puts his own hand in his other hand, and he says, this is the bay'ah of Uthman (هَذِهِ يَدْ عُثْمَانَ)
And after that, they're basically ready to go.
Right as they're wrapping this up Allah (جل جلاله) reveals the ayah as well, that God is pleased with the people, who gave the oath of allegiance, devotion and dedication, to the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم). And as they're wrapping this up, guess who walks back in? Uthman arrives. And he says, no, I'm safe and sound. They had kind of like, they had imprisoned me, but they didn't kill me.
And they have sent some negotiators with me, they have certain terms they'd like to negotiate. Okay, let's sit down and have a seat. They sit down, start to negotiate.
The Difficult Negotiations
Now when they start to negotiate some of the terms, first and foremost, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, they say, no, remove that. We don't agree with that. We don't say it.
Sahabah are very offended. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) says, remove it. Then Ali bin Abi Talib (رضي الله عنه) who's being dictated the terms, who's writing on behalf of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) writes, Muhammadur Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم). And again they object.
They're like, objection, remove that. Because if we agreed to that, then we wouldn't be sitting on opposite sides of this table. So remove that.
And again, the Sahabah are very offended. I'm not going to erase it. I can't.
He doesn't refuse the request of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) to erase it. He says, I don't think I'm physically capable of doing that. Like, I don't think I can handle it.
And so when Narisha mentions the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), he just kind of licks his thumb and he just wipes it out. And he says, he tells the other person, write Muhammad ibn Abdullah. Muhammad Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم). So insult upon insult.
The Terms of the Treaty
Now the terms of the treaty. The terms of the treaty say, first of all, I know you all came, ready to go, ready to worship, but you don't get to come into Mecca this year. Even though you came all the way, you're only an hour outside of Mecca.
You've traveled for a week. We don't care. You will go back home.
And then you will come back next year, and we will let you into Mecca for three days maximum. After which you will leave again. And you will not bring any weapons into Mecca.
And on and on and on and on. And the Sahabah are like, mm-mm. And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) says, agreed.
And they're like, what? Why are we agreeing to this? Then the next term. The next term, they say that if someone from Mecca, even if they're Muslim, they leave Mecca and go to Medina, you have to return them back to us legally. That's the contract.
We don't care who it is. We don't care why they're leaving Mecca. We don't care who they got in Medina.
Doesn't matter. Somebody leaves Mecca and goes to Medina, you have to return them back to us. But if somebody leaves Medina, and comes to Mecca, we will not return them back to you.
Unless we don't want them, then we'll give them to you. You ever tried to work out a deal with somebody who's basically setting, giving themselves like eight options, and you have zero options? Right? What do you do with that type of a negotiation? You get up and you walk away. So you don't end up slapping that person.
Right? Like, are you okay? Are you for real? And again, they're dictating these terms, and the Sahaba are like, okay, alright, looks like this is where this is all gonna fall apart. Good, Alhamdulillah. We don't wanna work things out with these people.
Look at them. They're just a bunch of jerks. And to their bewilderment, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) says, agreed.
Umar's Questions
And that's when the Sahaba could not even believe what they were hearing. And Umar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله عنه) who comes to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) unable to just kind of hold it in, and he says:
"Ya Rasulullah, O Messenger of God, don't we have the truth and don't they have falsehood? Are we right and they're wrong? Yes or no?"
And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) says (نَعَمْ يَا عُمَرُ - Yes, O Umar)
And he says: أَلَيْسَ إِنْ قُتِلْنَا فِي الْجَنَّةِ وَإِنْ قَتَلْنَاهُمْ فِي النَّارِ؟
"Isn't it that if we die we go to paradise, if we die and they go to hell?"
And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) says (نَعَمْ يَا عُمَرُ - Yes, O Umar)
Kind of like, what's your point? And then he's like, why are we agreeing to this? We gave you an oath.
We told you we'll fight till every single one of us, every single last one of us has fallen. We're here. Why are we doing this? And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) says that:
"O Umar, I am the Messenger of God. Allah will not ruin me. Allah will not allow me to suffer and to make the wrong decision. Have faith, have trust."
Sit down. And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) agrees to all of their terms. Stamps, seals, the contract.
The Moment of Shock and Trust
The State of Ihsar
This is called the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, Sulh Hudaybiyyah. And they hand it over. And now they have a predicament.
And the predicament is that they are in Ihram. Now as Farhan was explaining a little bit about Hajj, that the rules of Ihram in that sacred state that you are in, is that the way you fulfill it is you have to fulfill whatever is obligatory and mandatory on you. Unless, and this is the incident where we get the rules of Ihsar, which is a chapter within the issue, the fiqh of Hajj and Umrah.
Ihsar means, you are prevented and obstructed from fulfilling your Hajj or Umrah. Then in that situation, what do you do? So you do whatever you can do. And that is, that you sacrifice your animal, you shave
your head for the brothers, not sisters please, okay? So you shave your head or cut a little bit of your hair and you come out of the state of Ihram.
And now it's mandatory on you to make it up. And that's why they came back the next year and they made up their Umrah and it's called Umratul Qadha, the makeup Umrah.
The Companions' Shock
Anyways, so what they have to do now is they have to sacrifice their animals and they have to shave their heads. And then they can remove the Ihram and then head back to Medina. So the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) goes back to the Muslim camp and he says, listen guys, this is what we're doing. We will be back next year in order to perform Umrah.
For now I need everybody to sacrifice their animals, shave their heads, remove their Ihram, go ahead and clean up if you need to, and then we're hitting the road, we're going back to Medina. And the Sahaba are just in a daze. They would never dare disobey the Messenger or ignore the Messenger.
We know that they wouldn't because God vouched for them:
"Allah was pleased with the believers when they gave their oath of allegiance to you under the tree"
But they were in such a daze, in such disbelief at what had actually just happened. They were so shocked by what was going on that they were just traumatized.
So they were sitting there kind of without response, just in a daze. So the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) had never seen this before because literally a couple of hours ago, the negotiator who came from Mecca, he actually mentions, I have been to the courts of kings and I've never seen such devotion and dedication as Muhammad's companions have for him. He said that when the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) says a word, everyone hangs on every syllable that comes out of his mouth.
When he tells them what to do, before he's even done telling them what to do, they've already done it. If he tells them not to do something, they will never, they swear it off. So much so that when he made wudu, they rushed to catch the water dripping off of his face and his arms, to catch that water in their hands and rub it on their own face.
I've never seen such love and devotion. So from a couple of hours ago to now here, they're just sitting without response, without reaction. It was very shocking.
Umm Salama's Wise Counsel
Again, longer story, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) goes into his tent, consults with his beloved wife Umm Salama, who is a genius. And she tells him, they would never disobey you. They're just in shock.
You need to understand their situation right now. So she says, that go ahead and you start doing what you have to do, and they'll see you and start doing it. They're in so much shock right now, they don't hear.
But they'll see you. And so the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) goes out, sacrifices the animal, starts shaving his head, and everyone gets up and starts helping him, and everyone starts doing it as well, and everything happens. And once they're done completely with the whole routine and the ritual, and then they pack their bags onto their animals, and they get onto their rides, and they start to move on the road back to Medina.
The Divine Revelation of Victory
Umar's Embarrassment
As soon as they start making their way on the road to Medina, Umar ibn al-Khattab, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) used to always travel at the back of the army, to keep an eye on everybody. Umar (رضي الله عنه) says I was even behind the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). So I was kind of like out of line, out of rank. And the reason was, I didn't want to be in the line of sight of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). Because I had kind of lost control of my emotions, and I had kind of like spoken out of turn, out of line, and I was so embarrassed by it.
So you know kind of like when you're in trouble with your parents, and you're just trying to like avoid like they're directly looking into their eyes, especially your mom because you'll melt, right? Like I can't make eye contact with my mom when she's angry, because I'll just start to melt, right? And so Umar (رضي الله عنه), he said that, I was just kind of riding behind the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), so that I wouldn't get in trouble. And he says that, I saw the head of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) kind of go lower. And I recognized it.
He was receiving divine revelation. And he said, I started to think to myself, Oh no, it's about you. The ayah is gonna say, Umar will go to hell, right? I was so worried.
And he says that, as soon as he lifted his head back up, and I stopped breathing at that moment, and my worst nightmare was realized. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said, where is Umar? Right? I would like lose my wudu at that moment. Completely, right? I would be done.
The Great News
And Umar (رضي الله عنه) came up and he said, I'm right here, right? And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said:
(Congratulations, O Umar)
Allah has revealed the ayah:
"Indeed, We have granted you an open victory"
The Philosophy of Sacrifice and Victory
Understanding True Victory
And so one of my teachers, when explaining this to us, (رحمه الله تعالى), one of my teachers, Mufti Atiqur Rahman, when explaining this to us, he explained, he said, what was the victory here? And what exactly, why did Allah reveal this at this point? He said, because see the problem, the issue of the Sahaba was, you asked for us to sacrifice our lives. And we did it. In Makkah, in torture, in Badr, in Uhud, we sacrificed.
You asked us to sacrifice our wealth, our money, our property, in Khandaq, and for years, and we did it. We've given you our lives, we've given you our wealth, we've given you everything. And still, we have to accept defeat from an enemy? When do we get the chance to win? And Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) asked them, for one last sacrifice, which is the highest level of sacrifice.
You can give your lives, you can give your money, but can you sacrifice your dignity if that's what Allah asks you to do? Can you give up your pride if that's what God wants you to do? You are in the right. You're saying, I have Allah on my side, I have the Prophet on my side, I have Islam on my side, I am willing to fight for the truth. But what if Allah is telling you, lower your head, and turn around and walk away.
Because I'm telling you to. Even though you're right, and even though you can fight, but I'm telling you to walk away. And your enemy will point, and will laugh, and will taunt you, and you'll be able to hear them.
Look at them go with their tails between their legs. Now who's boss? We taught them a lesson, and you'll hear them saying that. Keep walking.
If you can do that for Allah, now you are ready for victory. Now you deserve victory. Now you won't abuse your power, and your victory.
The Core Principle: Willingness to Obey
The Real Challenge
And so, I realize it might not seem connected to my topic, but there is an underlying thought, in a philosophy, in our religion that I'd like to share with you here. And that is, the willingness to obey. We know what Allah wants us to do, and what he's commanded us to do, and what he's prohibited.
Maybe we need a little bit more information, but you don't need me to stand here, and tell you that, in 30 minutes. You can pick up a book, and read that for yourself. The information is not difficult to get, about
what to do, and what not to do.
It's the willingness. And that sometimes will feel, like defeat. That sometimes will feel, like you have to sacrifice, more than you'd like to.
But that's exactly what you have to. That's what you have to do, and that's what you have to be willing to do.
The Hadith of Priorities
The other thing, before I kind of wrap up here, I wanted to share that, I think it's really important, for there to be more discussion, and discourse on this within our communities.
The hadith of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), that was specifically kind of mentioned, I'm not sure if it's in your session description as well. But there's a hadith of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) from Bukhari and Muslim, narrated by Abu Huraira (رضي الله تعالى عنه). He says:
(Bukhari 7288, Muslim 1337)
"What I have forbidden you from doing, stay away from it. And what I have commanded you to do, then do it to the best of your ability."
We have a principle within our religion that this hadith teaches us. If you want to work towards self- improvement and development, first focus on cutting out the bad things, then focus on continuing to build in a good and a solid direction.
Before you begin to implement very heavy and detailed and long and strenuous regimens of voluntary worship. I'm going to recite five juz everyday. I'm going to memorize the entire Quran. I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. That is very good and start at some level, absolutely. But don't crush yourself under the pressure of that, because the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is saying, first and foremost, stay away from the bad things.
And there are a handful of bad things. There are literally, you can count on your two hands, what Allah has absolutely prohibited. And that's it.
Just clean out the filth. And then start building according to your capacity. And don't overburden yourself.
Understanding Differences of Opinion
The Destructive Force of Excessive Questioning
Then, people are confused by the next part of this:
(Muslim 1337)
"Because what destroyed the people that came before you, was excessive questioning and their differing in regards to their Prophets."
Now, I'd like to talk about this issue of their excessive questioning. And the session description as well, talked about the differences of opinion. I'd like to share with you something philosophically.
I was just talking about it in the bazaar as well. That when we talk about difference of opinion, and (اختلاف) in the community, and differences within the community, we need to have one thing very, very clear. Shah Waliullah (رحمه الله تعالى) explained something about the philosophy of our religion.
What is Conclusive vs. Open-ended
He says that there are certain things that are absolutely conclusive in the religion. I was just giving the examples. Is there any difference of opinion about how many prayers are mandatory in a day? How many prayers are mandatory in a day? Answer the question please.
How many prayers are mandatory in a day? Alright, very good. Alright, number two. Is there any difference of opinion about the fact that you have to fast in the month of Ramadan? Any difference of opinion? No, it's mandatory.
Alright, so some things are very clear. And they're absolutely conclusively said by Allah and the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). They didn't leave any room for difference of opinion.
But some issues are not that conclusive. They were left open-ended. And here's the tricky part.
Pay attention. They were left open-ended intentionally. Think about it, think about it.
Because if there's an issue that has a difference of opinion, what language should the Jumu'ah khutbah be in? There's a difference of opinion. But there's not a hadith or an ayah that absolutely clearly says, it has to be done like this. But if you treat the issue that it has to be done one way, then you're basically saying Allah or the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) made a mistake because they were supposed to tell us that it's supposed to be like this, but they forgot to.
(والعياذ بالله). Now you have a much bigger problem. You have a much bigger issue.
And we are creating this type of philosophical quandary within the community because we take things that were left open for us and we try to narrow them down. What Allah left open-ended will remain open-ended. And no scholar, no madhhab, no school of thought, no organization, no institute has the right to narrow and close that issue down.
When the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) left something open-ended, no mufti in the world can narrow that down and close that issue off. We need to understand that about our deen and religion. Now that we
understand some things are supposed to be left open-ended, now you know what that does? That basically eliminates about 90% of our problems within the community.
The Balance in Questioning
Because it's done. People are, sometimes students as well, that like study with us, they're very like almost weirded out, for lack of a better word. They're puzzled by my approach initially.
Because they're like, what about this issue? Some people say it has to be like this and some people say it has to be like that. And I answer the question by saying, yes. And he's like, wait, no, which one is it? Yes.
And he's like, so which one is correct? Yes. And they're like, what are you doing? And the problem is, I failed to see a problem. There's not a problem.
It's completely valid. I asked them, is there an ayah about this issue? No. Is there an authentic narration that gives one answer on this issue? No.
Okay then. Then what? And eventually they kind of get it. But that eliminates 90% of our problems.
Number two is that, yes, the hadith of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم says: كَثْرَةُ مَسَائِلِهِمْ "Excessive questioning." The Qur'an talks about the cow of Banu Israel.
Understanding Malicious Questioning
But understand, understand, I need to explain one thing here though. That is talking about malicious questioning with malicious intent.
With evil intentions. Where you're asking a question to undermine the authority of the one who is answering your questions. You understand the difference? How many parents are in the room? Raise your hand if you're a parent.
You know exactly what I'm talking about. Yeah, everyone's like, yes. Yes.
Alright. So, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The difference between when your kid really asks you a question and when a kid is trying to be a smarty pants.
Right? When they're trying to like undermine your authority a little bit. Oh, why does it have to be like that? It's like it has to be like that because I'm wearing a shoe that comes off very easily. Right? Right? My slipper is actually a boomerang.
Right? So, but it's... So you understand when somebody's asking a legitimate question when somebody's not asking legit. It's talking about the question that is illegitimate. Malicious.
The Heart's Intention
Now, I have a question. That's an issue of what? Intention. What's in somebody's heart? Do you see inside somebody's heart? Can you? No.
I cannot see inside someone's heart. You can't either. So, when someone's asking a question, you don't get to decide whether their question is good or bad.
Right or wrong. Especially when we have the state of our community the way that it is, that very fundamental, very basic and fair questions have not been answered legitimately by the leadership of our community. Either due to an absence of vacuum in leadership or because of, you know, not fulfilling our responsibilities or trust or being overwhelmed.
Whatever the case may be, a lot of very basic, legitimate questions have not been answered. So, we don't get to decide whose question is right or wrong. That means, there are two different instructions being given here by Allah and His Messenger, by Islam.
The instruction to the one asking the question is do not excessively, maliciously, inappropriately ask too many questions. But the instruction being given to the one answering the questions is you have to answer each and every single question to the best of your ability. And this is how balance is created in a social dynamic.
Creating Community Balance
The Example of Hospitality
This is how community is created. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم told the Qur'an, Islam teaches the guest. It teaches the host.
So, I invite brother Farhan, actually works the other way around. So, I go and stay at brother Farhan's house. He has a room in his apartment that is called my room.
Me meaning my. I just won't refer to myself in the third person because that's not right. So, I go and I stay at brother Farhan's house.
Now, when I go and stay at his house, Islam tells him as the host:
(Bukhari 6019)
"Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should honor his guest"
It is a reflection of his iman and his faith, how he treats me as his guest. How he treats me as a guest will reflect how good of a Muslim he is. SubhanAllah.
That's huge. But Islam's instruction to me as the guest is, do not overburden your host. Leave as soon as possible.
Don't make too many requests. Don't get in their way. Don't invade their privacy.
I can't even just, because I'm staying at his house, I can't just open the door and walk right in and barge into his house. I still have to knock and take permission before I enter. And then when I go in my room, the room that I'm staying in, I can't just walk out of that room, right, and walk into the kitchen and get myself some, no, I have to get permission.
So, it's teaching the host, be as hospitable as possible. It's teaching the guest, do not be a burden. What ends up happening in the middle, you have a beautiful interaction and relationship.
I feel like he treats me like a king and he feels like I did not trouble them at all. I was a pleasure to have. MashAllah.
Say mashAllah. Thank you very much. JazakAllah khair.
The Perfect Balance
So, that's how the perfect dynamic is created. Allah is telling the community, us, do not inappropriately and maliciously ask too many questions. But it's telling the person who is being asked the question, answer people's questions.
"Go ask questions. And answer people's questions when they come to you."
So, yes, we need to obey.
But the problem right now is, give people a reason to obey. If I can mention one thing to you and I'm gonna wrap up with this. I'm done in 60 seconds.
The Practical Application: Prayer
The Universal Challenge
One of the big issues and problems that I dealt with growing up in the community and one of the things that I saw constantly that the youth in my community, brothers and sisters in my own community struggled with. I have younger siblings. I'm a parent as well.
I've been an Islamic school teacher. I've taught Sunday school. I've been the imam in the community.
Like this is an overall problem. For men, for women, for children, for everybody. That one of the biggest and most fundamental and foundational obligations we have is the five times daily salah.
And at the same time, one of the most difficult things that people have to do is the five times daily salah. It's the most important thing and it's also the most difficult thing for a lot of people. But when you
hear stories of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم that he loved prayer so much.
When you hear stories of the companions that they loved prayer, they looked forward to prayer. They wouldn't want to move from prayer to prayer because they just enjoyed it so much. And it almost kind of sounds like we're talking about people from a different planet.
That who are these people that enjoy salah that much? Who enjoys salah? They must have not had television, right? So there's this whole issue that people have.
The Solution: Understanding and Connection
So I came up with the solution for myself. And then I implemented that solution with my own classroom, my own community.
And eventually I started teaching this material as well around the country. And that solution was give people a reason to pray. Give them some motivation to pray.
That right now people don't feel like praying because they don't know what the experience of salah is. They haven't experienced the beauty, the power, the magnificence of prayer. Let them taste some of that sweetness.
And then they'll come back for prayer themselves. So alhamdulillah there's kind of a curriculum where we go through the meaning of each and every single word that we recite within the prayer. And inshallah that course is conducted online.
If you go to meaningfulprayer.com inshallah you can find the material there and sign up. It's something very beneficial for you, your families, your children, your friends. So inshallah take a look and share it with others.
Closing
Rabbana atina fi'd-dunya hasanatan wa fi'l-akhirati hasanatan wa qina 'adhab an-nar "Our Lord, give us good in this world and good in the hereafter, and save us from the punishment of the Fire" (Quran 2:201)
May Allah سبحانه وتعالى grant us all the ability, the insight and the wisdom to obey Allah سبحانه وتعالى.
Subhan Allah wa bihamdihi, subhanaka Allahumma wa bihamdika ashhadu an la ilaha illa anta astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk
Wa akhiru da'wana anil-hamdu lillahi rabbil-alameen
JazakumAllahu khayran