Journey to Allah - Formatted Khutba

We have to pay attention to the construction of Allah's statements. In this ayah Allah says وَمَا خَلَقْتْ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ Allah begins this ayah with a sort of negation.

That means that for example, I can say when I talk about purpose, I can say that the purpose of my trip to New Zealand was to give a lecture today.

But that may not be the only purpose. Maybe another purpose of my trip to New Zealand was to take that amazing drive. Maybe another purpose of my trip to New Zealand was to see a friend.

Another purpose of my trip to New Zealand was to give a lecture tomorrow. So to say that my purpose of coming to New Zealand is so-and-so, I've opened it up for other purposes as well. Allah is saying that we have created jinn and human being.

Rather we have not created jinn and human being for any other purpose. And then Allah introduces the one purpose. That purpose is (عُبُودِيَّة - ubudiyyah)

Allah says وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ We have not created jinn and human beings. And then Allah introduces the only one purpose which is (عُبُودِيَّة - ubudiyyah) worship Allah.

Except (عُبُودِيَّة - ubudiyyah). What does it mean to fulfill (عُبُودِيَّة - ubudiyyah) to Allah? First we have to look at the word (عَبْد - 'abd). Every single one of us is a (عَبْد - 'abd).

The Concept of Being Abd (Slave) to Allah

And when you become a (عَبْد - 'abd) willingly to Allah, what does that mean? How do you normally translate the word (عَبْد - 'abd)? Slave. But there's something very interesting about being (عَبْد - 'abd) to Allah. Because what do you think of when you think of the word slave? You think of a person who's chained, oppressed, right? Not free, right? This is the concept of (عُبُودِيَّة - ubudiyyah) right? Of (عَبْد - 'abd), typically as in slave.

But here's the thing about being a slave to Allah. A (عَبْد - 'abd) of Allah is actually the free person. The reason is that when you become a slave to Allah, when you become (عَبْد - 'abd) of Allah, you have freed yourself from the servitude to anything else.

You have freed yourself from the servitude, the slavery to anything else. So you become free. Now in this path to Allah, we said that we came down to this earth.

How to Survive in This World

The thing about being on this earth is that as the angels pointed out, it is going to be a place of struggle. It isn't going to be like Jannah was. So how do we survive? I guess this is a question a lot of people want to know.

How do we survive? How do we survive the loss? How do we survive the struggle? How do we survive the pain? How do we survive? Allah, when he sent Adam down to this earth, he told him how to survive. He said when he sent him down, go you down, all of you. And if there comes to you as there will a guidance from me, whosoever follows my guidance, no fear will be on them nor shall they grieve.

So you see we have been sent down to this place where yes there will be struggle and yes there will be some spilling of blood and yes there will be some spreading of mischief. But Allah has given us the secret of how to survive and so that we don't have to be afraid or fall into despair. And that is in the guidance of Allah.

The Source of True Happiness

It is in the remembrance of Allah. Allah tells us:

Indeed in the remembrance of God do the hearts find peace and satisfaction.

There's one thing that everybody wants. What's the one thing that everybody wants? Christian, Jewish, Muslim, atheist, agnostic, what does everybody want essentially? Say it again? Happiness. Isn't that what everybody's seeking? The problem is they seek it in the wrong place sometimes.

But we all want the same thing. We all want happiness. But where is happiness? Where do you find happiness? What is happiness? Allah tells us that happiness, true happiness can only be found in his remembrance.

And you can look for it anywhere else. You will never find it. In fact Allah says:

Whoever turns away from my remembrance, for him will be a miserable narrow life. You know this this idea that happiness is in physical pleasure or happiness is in money or happiness is in status. That's not happiness.

Animal vs Human Happiness

That's the happiness of cattle. Because what does an animal need to be happy? Only thing an animal needs to be happy is to be fed and to have its physical needs of all different types satisfied. The animal is happy.

That, if the human being is like that, if the only type of happiness that the human being is looking for is physical happiness, you know I eat, I sleep and I satisfy my physical desires so I'm good. That's the same as an animal. That becomes, that human being becomes no different than an animal because that's the same thing an animal needs.

Similarly, an animal doesn't ask before it eats the plant, is this halal? Right? The animal doesn't ask before it reproduces or before you know it it you know if an animal, if two animals are reproducing they don't ask is this halal. Are we married first? Let's go you know do nikah first, right? Animal doesn't doesn't go through that process. Animal has an urge, animal follows urge, right? There's no in-between pause to ask is this allowed? Is this halal? Are we married? Is this okay? Right? Animal wants, animal takes.

Do we have human beings who act like that? Yeah, we have human beings who act like that. I'm attracted to you, it doesn't matter if I'm married to you, doesn't matter if you're the same gender, I'm attracted to you. I feel, I obey.

I feel, I act. There's no question of morality for an animal, right? But when a human being acts that way then we become lower than the animals because an animal doesn't have the ability to look at morality whereas we do, whereas we do and if we aren't using that ability we become lower than the animals and if we do use that ability we have the potential to be better than the angels. You know why? Because remember what we said about the angels.

We said the angels don't have a choice, right? The angels don't have a choice in worshipping Allah and you do. So if you use that choice you have the potential to be better than the angels but you also have the potential to be lower than the animals. It's in the remembrance of Allah that the hearts find peace.

It is not found in physical pleasure, it is not found in the physical world. It can only be found in the remembrance of Allah and in following His guidance. To try to seek it any other place you will never find it.

Practical Guidance: How to Return to Allah

Now I'm going to inshallah just end with some practical you know sort of prescription. How do we get through this path? How do we get back to Allah without stumbling, rather without drowning along the way? Because we do all stumble but as long as we get back up and we keep going we'll be okay. First is we have to hold tight with every ounce of our self to the remembrance of God.

1. Establishing Prayer (Salah)

First and foremost this is in our prayers because the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) told us that the very first thing that you and I will be asked about on the Day of Judgment is our prayers and he says that if your prayers are okay then everything else will be okay that you will have succeeded and if your prayers are not then you will have failed. Sometimes we put a lot of effort into other things in our life but if our prayers aren't in order we won't be able to be successful. This is very clear and in fact and this is something I want you to really reflect on.

There are a lot of sins that a person can commit right? But do you know that there are no single scholar who says that if you commit, if you steal, there's no scholar who says if you steal you're no longer a Muslim. There's no scholar who says that if you commit fornication or adultery you're no longer a Muslim. There's no scholar who says that if you drink alcohol you're no longer a Muslim.

Even the taking of life and yet there are scholars who say based on a hadith that if you don't pray you could be considered no longer a Muslim. Yet we take our prayer very lightly. We can point fingers at someone who's clubbing and drinking and doing these things and yet we take our own prayers lightly.

Although in the eyes of Allah which is a greater sin. A person you know some scholars say that a person who purposely leaves their prayers like out of you know just to disobey that this can actually be considered something that makes you no longer a Muslim.

There's a hadith that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) says:

(Muslim hadith 82)

"The difference between the Muslim and the disbeliever is in the salah."

So the first thing we need to focus on in this path back to God is our prayers. So many times people say you know I want to get closer to God but I don't know how. What do I do? Where do I start? This is where you start.

You start in solidifying and rectifying your prayers and you become firm in them. Meaning that no matter what situation you're in you never give up your prayer. It also means that you take the prescription as it is prescribed.

The Medicine Analogy

So when you go to the doctor doctor gives you a medication. Suppose you need antibiotics for a very bad infection and doctor says you need to take this three times a day at specific times of the day. You need to take it once in the morning once in the afternoon and once in the evening before you sleep.

What happens if you say you know what forget about that doctor. I'm gonna take the medicine whenever I feel like it. You know some days I won't take it at all. Some days I'll take two pills and miss one and some days I'll take all three right before I sleep. Okay what's gonna happen? Well either it's not going to work and you'll get sicker and sicker or you could actually overdose and kill yourself right. What do we do with our prayers? Well we say you know I'll take it you know whenever I feel like when I have time.

Would you do that with medicine? Would you do that with medicine? I don't have time right now so I'll just take it all before I sleep. We wouldn't do that with medicine because we're very it's you know we're very careful to take care of our body. We're very careful about our body.

Would you ever go a few days without eating anything? Not unless you're trying to kill yourself right. Would you ever go a few days without drinking anything a week? We are very keen not to starve our bodies. We are very keen to take care of our bodies and to give our body medicine when it's sick.

We're very keen to clean our bodies but we completely neglect our soul. We completely neglect our hearts. We don't feed our hearts properly. We don't take the medicine properly and we don't clean it properly.

The Gym Analogy

Now how do we do these three things? You know with our bodies if you want to get in shape what do you do? You eat healthy and regularly. You don't skip meals you know for days at a time and then you work out and when you work out does anyone say okay I want to get in shape you know I want a six- pack or whatever and so I'm gonna go and I'm gonna work out one day for like eight hours straight and then I'm not gonna work out again for two months.

Is that gonna work? It doesn't work right? Everyone knows that doesn't work. Is it better for you to go and work out for eight hours straight and not go for another month or two or is it better to do even 25 minutes every single day? Which one is better? You're gonna see results with 25 minutes every day but you are not gonna see results with the eight hours and nothing right? So we see this in the physical reality. It's the same exact rule in the spiritual world.

The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said:

(Bukhari hadith 6464)

"Allah loves the deeds which are constant even if they're small." You see what that means? It means that this whole I'm gonna read the Quran five times in Ramadan and then not open it for another whatever many months that doesn't work. That's like the person who goes to the gym for eight hours and then doesn't work out for another few months.

You can't eat a really really big meal and then say okay I'm good now for the next two weeks right? It doesn't work. Allah is the same one who created the system of our physical world as the one who created the system of the spiritual world. You understand there's only one designer.

The same designer who made the physical world and designed the rules of the physical world also made and designed the rules of the spiritual world. What works in the physical world works in the spiritual world and what does not work in the physical world does not work in the spiritual world. But we've become so blinded that we only follow you know we don't understand that.

Feeding and Cleaning the Heart

We understand the physical laws very well. You and I understand that if you don't eat you starve right? But we don't seem to realize that if we're not feeding our hearts with the remembrance of God our hearts also die. A dead heart is a heart that doesn't see or feel properly.

A sick heart is a heart that can look at black and see it as white. Who will actually see the haram and it looks like it's something good and look at the halal and see it as something bad. The reason that happens is because the heart is sick.

The heart is dirty. The heart is dead and it's your heart with which you see the world. Don't think that you see the world with your eyes because Allah in the Quran he talks about the heart and he says that it is not the eyes that become blind but it is the heart inside of the chest that becomes blind.

You could be able to see with your eyes but your heart is completely blind and in the hereafter Allah puts us in that physical state that we were in this life in a spiritual sense. For example, Allah says:

So Allah says that the one who turns away from my remembrance will have a miserable life in this life and then when he's brought back to Allah he's brought up to Allah blind. Allah says that he's actually brought up blind and that person will say oh Allah why did you make me blind when I used to be able to see? What's happening here? He used to be able to see with these but he actually was blind inside so Allah made him blind outside on the day of judgment.

It's a physical manifestation of his internal state as it was in this life because he forgot about the signs of Allah in this life Allah says so today you will be forgotten. This is true blindness.

Understanding True Poverty

You know we talk about poverty right? Poverty we think is the person who doesn't have money right? That's not poverty.

That's not poverty. There are a lot of celebrities out there they have a lot of money but they are completely poor. Poverty is the poverty of the heart, the poverty of the soul.

It's the soul or the heart that is disconnected from its creator. Simply put that's poverty. We shouldn't feel bad for the one you know we should always help the poor right? But our problem is we only think that we need to help those who are poor financially and somehow we don't see the real poverty.

The one who may have money but is really poor. We cry when someone dies right? But when someone dies what's really dying? The body. It's the body that disintegrates but what happens to the soul? It moves from one realm to another realm right? We all know this it goes to the grave and the barzakh, the time in the grave.

But we cry because the body is gone. But what about the people whose bodies are still alive but inside they have died? There are a lot of people walking around and their bodies are just fine but inside they have already died. The one who doesn't know his creator has already died inside.

That is the heart that is dead and the heart that is dead feels nothing of the reality of life. That's the heart that only cares about material things, only cares about dunya but doesn't have any connection with its creator. That's truly the heart that's dead.

Praying on Time

How do we prevent this from happening? How do we make sure that our heart doesn't die? First we said the remembrance of Allah right? And we said it's specifically the five daily prayers because this is the first thing we'll be asked about and not only you know sometimes we're like yeah I'm gonna pray when I get home right? It's that person who's taking all three pills before they sleep. But I have a question for you and I want you to think about it for yourself. See I want to clarify something.

It's not only a sin to miss prayer but it is a sin to pray outside of the time of prayer and it's a major sin. So when Allah says Fajr is to be prayed in a certain time interval which we know right? It must be prayed in that time interval. When Allah says that Dhuhr is supposed to be from Dhuhr until Asr, it must be prayed in that time interval.

Asr, He gives us the time between Asr and Maghrib. Maghrib, He gives us from Maghrib till Isha and Isha from Isha until some say midnight some say Fajr. The point here is we have an interval of time.

Now a lot of people come and say I can't pray it on time because of XYZ reason. Some of those reasons are I'm busy at work or I'm busy at school or I'm in a meeting or I'm at the mall or I'm watching a game or I'm watching a movie or I'm at a party whatever it is. But the question we have to ask ourselves is this and this is a very just sort of it's it's sort of a comical question but it's very real and that is imagine that you're in the most important meeting of your life.

You're in the most important exam of your life. You're having the most comfortable sleep of your life and you need to use the bathroom. It's it's it's it's inevitable.

It's gonna happen right? And you need to use the bathroom. So my question to you is what do you do? You take your leave then you go to the bathroom. But what if it's a really important meeting? What if it's a really important exam? What if it was the most comfortable sleep of your entire life? Are you really gonna get up and use the bathroom? Yeah.

Who says you know what I gotta finish this exam so I'm just gonna take care of my business right here where I'm at? Does anyone do that? Yeah not since you were five. Not even five. Right? Or you're sleeping and you're like I'm way too comfortable.

Who cares? Right? That's like right four-year-old maybe five-year-old but not since. What do you do? You get up no matter how tired you are.

You get you step out of that meeting no matter how important it is. You get up away from the exam no matter how important it is and you go and use the bathroom. Am I right? Okay so my question to you is where there's a will there's obviously a way because you have made it a priority. Why do you do that? Why do you say no matter what I'm gonna go use the bathroom? No matter what it is that you're gonna have to sacrifice the potential humiliation of taking care of your business where you're at far outweighs any other consequences.

Am I right? So your professor's not gonna like it. Well sorry. I mean I'm sorry. I gotta go. Right? You're in bed. You're comfortable. I'm sorry. I gotta get up. So don't you think it's strange that we put the needs of our body over the needs of our soul? Don't you think it's actually tragic? Because our body is passing away anyways.

Our body is gonna end up in the dirt and it's our soul that lasts and it's our soul that we're stuck with. You know however you took care of your soul you're stuck with it. You're stuck with it forever.

Forever. Can you imagine that? Whatever condition you you left your soul in that you made your soul in you're stuck with it and you can't escape it. You can't go back and say no let me purify.

Let me clean it up a little bit. You're stuck forever. Whereas your body you get a new one.

You know what I'm saying? It's going. It's changing. It's passing away and yet our focus in life is take care of my body.

Take care of my bodily needs. Take care of my physical needs. I want.

I take. My desires command. I obey.

But we neglect the soul that's lasting and that's returning to Allah and then you're stuck with it. In whatever in whatever state you have have have built in whatever however much you've purified your soul and your heart that's what you're stuck with forever.

2. Feeding the Heart with Remembrance

We need to feed our hearts. We need to feed our souls with the remembrance of God. First and foremost our prayers. If you can leave your exam or your class or your meeting or your comfortable bed to use the bathroom you can leave to pray.

Because if you make something a priority you'll make a way for it. Our problem is it just isn't a priority. Let's be real.

It just isn't. It just isn't. If you make it a priority you'll do it.

We need to feed our hearts with the remembrance of God through his book. We need to connect back to the words of Allah. The Quran is the words of our Creator.

We need to connect back to that and feed our hearts with that remembrance. Zikr, the food of the heart. Think of zikr.

So here's how I want you to think about it. The food of the heart is the remembrance of God and the remembrance of God comes in many forms. We said salah.

The first thing we're asked about on the Day of Judgment. Quran, the words of Allah. Dua, talking to Allah, asking from Allah.

This is how we feed the heart. Adhkar, supplications. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) if you look at his sunnah you'll find that there's a supplication for every action of life.

You know there's a supplication for leaving your house. There's a supplication for coming back. There's a supplication for driving.

There's a supplication for traveling. There's a supplication for starting to eat. There's a supplication for finishing eating.

There's even a supplication for intimacy. There's a supplication for entering the bathroom. There's a supplication for leaving the bathroom.

You understand what this is doing? What's it doing?

"Those who remember Allah standing and sitting and on their sides."

They're always remembering him. It isn't just remembering God on Juma at the prayer.

It isn't just remembering God on Eid when you go to the khutbah. It isn't just remembering God once in a while. It's all position of life.

You can be remembering him and you can transform everything you do into an act of worship. When you're a good wife or a good husband or a good mother or a good father or a good neighbor or a good student or a good employee, that can be an act of worship if it is done with two things. One, the proper intention.

Make it for God. Make it for Allah. Make it with Allah in mind.

And please be conscious of your intention. Purify and renew your intention with each action and it can be an act of worship and a good deed for you. Even something you normally would do anyways.

But if your intention is for God, it can be a good deed for you, an act of worship. Second, it needs to be done in the proper way. So according to the Sunnah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) those two things.

Feeding the heart with the remembrance of Allah. Remember that the one who does not remember Allah, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said:

(Bukhari hadith 6407, Muslim hadith 779)

"The difference between the one who remembers Allah and the one who does not is like the difference between the living and the dead."

Simple.

You don't remember God, you're starving your heart. When you starve something, it dies. Simple.

3. Cleaning the Heart Through Repentance

We need to increase in our remembrance. Make it a daily part of your life that you're saying these supplications, that you're connecting to the book of Allah, that you're rectifying your prayers. They're prayed on time and as many times as we were commanded by the ultimate doctor.

Second, we need to clean our hearts. How many people say, I don't need to take a shower today because I took a shower last month. We always have a very strong reaction to that statement, right? Why? Because if you don't take a shower regularly, you build dirt.

I mean dirt builds on you. Sweat, you smell bad. You're covered in dirt.

Do you know that the heart is the same? Do you know the heart also, that same thing happens to the heart? Because the dirt of sin is building, building, building, building. And when you don't clean it, your heart is smelling bad. Your heart is dirty.

We clean our body but we forget there's something else we need to be cleaning. How do you clean your heart? The first thing I talked about, repentance. We have to be repenting to Allah and we don't just do it once like the one who takes a shower and says I'm good for the next month.

It's consistent. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) used to make istighfar, repent, say astaghfirullah at least 70 times a day and some narrations say a hundred times a day. Istighfar, astaghfirullah.

You have to be cleaning the heart. Tawbah, returning to Allah, cleaning the heart.

4. Protecting the Heart

And then finally, you need to protect the heart.

Guarding the Senses

One of them is what you look at. What enters your eyes goes to your heart. When you look at the haram, you're pouring poison into your heart.

Because there are openings to the heart and they are our eyes, our ears, and our tongue. What we see imprints on the heart. When we hear of the haram, imprints on the heart.

Or of the halal, whether it's haram or it's halal, it's imprinting on your heart. What you're listening to, what you look at, and what you say. So guarding these openings to the heart is how you guard the heart.

You have to guard your eyes. There's a reason Allah says to lower the gaze. The lowering of the gaze is not for Allah, it's for you.

It's for your own heart. You're protecting your own heart when you lower the gaze. Guarding your ears and guarding your tongue.

Guard what you say because whatever you say is also imprinting on your heart.

The Importance of Good Company

Another source of poison for the heart is bad company. Your friends, don't think your friends are irrelevant to the state of your heart.

Your friends are very relevant to the state of your heart. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said that the one who has good company is like the one who enters a perfume shop. You know when you enter a perfume shop at the mall or something? And when you go in there, one of two things happens when you enter a perfume shop.

Either you leave with some perfume or at the very least you come out smelling better, right? Because you might have put on a lot of samples. This is what the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said. He said that the good company is like a perfume shop.

That even if you don't leave with perfume, you come out smelling nice. Like your clothes smell nice. Just being in their company.

Those people who remind you of Allah. And the other way, the other side are those of bad company. And he said that bad company is like entering a blacksmith shop.

When you enter a blacksmith shop, what happens? You either get burned or you come out smelling bad. You know people might say, well I'm not doing what they're doing. But at the very least, know that it's affecting your heart.

Just being in that company is affecting your heart. And eventually it will, because what happens when the heart is affected, eventually you will end up doing those same things. This is the Sunnah of Allah.

Your company affects your state. Be very careful about your company. That's how you guard the heart.

Requirements for Accepted Repentance

Feed the heart, clean the heart, and guard the heart. So scholars say that there are certain requirements for repentance to be accepted. One of the requirements is the sense of remorse.

That you need to feel a sense of remorse in your repentance. And that's obviously something that's in the heart. It's not something on the tongue.

But inside you feel a sense of remorse. If you think about a person who goes and apologizes to another person, an apology that sounds like this, I'm really sorry okay, I'm sorry, isn't the same as I am so sorry, right. I feel so bad about what I did.

So when we repent to Allah, we need to, you know, feel a sense of remorse and sincerity in the repentance. It's not just, Astaghfirullah, Astaghfirullah, Astaghfirullah, Astaghfirullah. Second, you should stop doing the action.

It's not, you know, sincere repentance is that you feel bad about it and you stop doing it. Third, is you make the sincere intention not to return to that action, that sin. Now does that mean that you may never fall back into it? No.

But it means that you are sincerely intending never to return to that action. And then fourth, in the case that your sin involves dhulm or the rights of another human being, then you need to rectify that dhulm, that those rights need to be given to that person. For example, in the case of stealing.

Stealing is a sin against Allah, but it's also a sin against mankind, against people. Because not only have you sinned against God, but you've also taken something from someone that doesn't belong to you. So you've wronged another human being.

In that case, your repentance requires that you make amends, meaning in that case you would return what you had taken or something of the sort. So there is an amend that needs to be made for those things which involve the rights of people.

Now, how do you know it's been accepted? Allah says, I am as my servant thinks of me.

We should have hope in Allah. We should assume the best of Allah. Assume, you know, hope that you be sincere with all your sincerity and humility and then have hope that Allah forgave you and inshallah forgave you.

And one sign that some scholars say is maybe a sign that your repentance was accepted is that you really don't return to that sin.

Building Certainty in the Unseen

This is very true, that in order to embark on the journey to Allah, you must have belief in the unseen. In Surah Al-Baqarah, Allah says, Alif Lam Mim, Zalika Al-Kitabu La Rayba Fihi Hudan Lil-Muttaqin.

And then Allah goes on to describe who are those Muttaqin. And one of them, the description that Allah says, Al-Ladhina Yu'minuna Bil-Ghaib. The people who believe in the unseen.

It has to be, it's a requirement, of course. Is Allah seen? Can we see Allah? Can we see angels? Can we see hellfire? Can we see Jannah? No. So if you don't believe in anything unless you can feel it and taste it and touch it, then you're going to have a problem.

So you must have knowledge in the unseen in order to embark on, of course, in order to be successful in this journey. How do you build that? So the second question, I think, is how do you build that certainty in the unseen? And really the answer is in purification of the heart. In the same process we just spent the whole time talking about.

Because the heart, the more the heart is purified, the more the heart is fed, the more it will be able to see the unseen with the heart. Meaning, meaning, like we don't see things maybe with our eyes, but the heart sees. The heart feels.

So the more that the heart is polished, the more that the heart is cleaned, the more that the heart is fed, the more it will be able to see the unseen. Really believe, really know the unseen. That can only happen if the heart is healthy.

Only the healthy heart. So the answer there is increase in your remembrance and your yaqeen will increase and increase in the food, right, of the heart and the cleaning of the heart. And the heart will be more firm in that belief of the unseen.

Practical Q&A

Making Up Missed Prayers

The answer to this question, I'm glad you asked this question because sometimes we might accidentally miss or, you know, it happens where you miss a prayer time. The answer is you make it up immediately. Immediately.

So as soon as you realize that you missed the prayer, you pray it right then. This is the case with fajr. This is the case with any other prayer.

Sometimes, you know, something that I think happens to us as human beings is that suppose you're sleeping and you accidentally oversleep, you know, through fajr. And then you're laying there in bed and you open your eyes and you look out the window and you see the sun has risen, which means you missed fajr. And what happens at that point, and it may have been a complete accident, okay? So what happens at that point is shaitan comes and whispers, you missed it anyways.

So go back to sleep, right? Right? He doesn't have very, like, new tricks. He used the same thing with everybody. So he says, you missed it anyways.

So just go back to sleep, pray it another three hours when you feel like getting up. Wrong. Because actually the fiqh ruling is that if you overslept and it was an accident, then immediately if you pray right at the moment you become conscious, then inshallah it will be still counted as on time.

Because you were not conscious during that time. But it's that going back to sleep consciously that means that you really missed the prayer. Make sense? Similarly, you look at your watch, oh my god, I missed the fajr, I missed, and you say, oh, you know what, I missed it anyway, I'll pray it tonight.

Pray it right away. Especially, because if something's an accident, like you literally were not conscious or you forgot, the moment you realize it, if you pray it right away, inshallah Allah will count it as though it was on time because it wasn't deliberate. It was forgotten.

But it's that decision that I missed it anyway, so why don't I delay it? That's missing it. Make sense? So that's something we have to change. As soon as we realize it, we pray it right away.

As soon as possible. Basically you give preference to, so if the next prayer you're gonna miss it, if you don't pray that first, then you pray that first. So the preference is to pray your prayer on time.

If you have enough time to pray asr, then pray dhuhr, and then pray asr. But suppose you're afraid of missing the time of asr, then asr has a priority at that point.

Understanding the Khutbah

Whether or not we have arrogance in our heart, Allah knows. So that's a different question, but this, simply the issue that you want to be able to understand the khutbah does not mean you're arrogant.

It's great that you want to understand the khutbah, we all should be able to understand the khutbah. So this is actually, it's a problem when we're speaking in a language that is not the language of the land, because yes, people cannot benefit from that.

So it should be done in the language, you know, of course, I mean there's certain parts of the khutbah that are sunnah, you can follow those things, and then you can speak in the language of the land that you're in. So that's a very reasonable, I mean the whole purpose of jum'ah, of the khutbah, is to remind and to refresh the iman. But if you can't understand it, is it fulfilling its purpose? No.

The whole purpose is to bring us closer to Allah, you know, and it's a reminder weekly. So if it's not fulfilling, if it's not in a language you understand, it can't fulfill that purpose.

Achieving Khushu in Salah

Khushu in salah means, so khushu means humility or, you know, being able to really concentrate in your prayer and to be humble and focused.

So this person actually answered their own question, subhanAllah. Isn't that interesting? Sometimes you ask a question and you answer your own question. How can I have khushu in salah if I don't understand what I'm saying? Understand what you're saying.

Learn what you're saying. Learn the meaning of what you're saying. Even if Arabic is not your native language, understand what you're saying in salah, at least.

And that we can do. We can all do that. Regardless of what our language, our native tongue is, we can learn the meaning of fatiha.

And we must learn the meaning of fatiha, at least. We can learn the meaning of Allahu Akbar and subhanAllah. These statements that we say every day, again and again and again, at the very least, we should know what we're saying.

Because how can we claim that we want to build a relationship with God if we have no idea what we're saying to Him? Right? You wouldn't claim that with a person, would you? You wouldn't say, I'm trying to get to know so and so for marriage, but I have no idea what I'm saying to them. Right? I have no idea. I speak in Chinese.

Well, do you understand Chinese? No. Okay, well, how are you going to get close to that person? I don't know. How are you going to build a relationship? I don't know.

Right? It doesn't work. In order to build a relationship, you need to communicate. In order to communicate, you need to understand what you are saying and what they are saying.

So we should do our best, at the very least, to understand the meaning of our prayer. It doesn't mean you have to go overseas and get a degree in Arabic. It just means you can learn the meaning of your prayer. That's crucial.

Focusing Outside Prayer to Focus Inside Prayer

Another aspect of increasing your focus in salah is removing, obviously, distractions. But there's another very subtle point, and that is this.

The more you focus on Allah outside of your prayers, the easier it will be to focus on Allah inside of your prayers. The reason we can't focus in prayer on God is because we're not focused on God outside of our prayers. What do you think about in your prayers? Guess what? It's the same thing you were thinking about before your prayers.

Same thing you think about after. Same thing you think about all day. The idea is that we don't remember God throughout our day, so that's why we don't remember Him in our prayers.

You're worrying about what you're going to do in the evening, or your tests, or your studies, or your children, or your husband, or your wife, because that's the same thing that's occupying you throughout the day. So the idea here is you train the heart and the mind to remember God throughout the day, and it'll be a lot easier, and it'll be natural to remember Him in your prayer. Make sense? That training is in dhikr.

Dhikr. Remember we said that there is a supplication for every motion of life? Right? You leave in your house, you come back to your house. You start driving, you enter the bathroom, you leave the bathroom.

You start eating, you finish eating. You're always remembering God throughout your life, so it'll be a lot easier to remember God in your prayers.

Proper Prayer Etiquette

One other thing I want to add about salah is try not to be in a hurry. That's important. Try not to be in a hurry. The Prophet, one time he saw a companion praying, and after he finished praying, he said to him, go back and pray for you have not prayed.

So then he went back and he prayed again, same way, and he said to him again, go back and pray for you have not prayed. Do you know why? Because he was praying like, you know, a chicken pecks the ground. You know how we do that? Like, every motion was just so quick, he said you haven't prayed.

That's not prayer. The prayer needs to be something that you do with some, you know, slowly, so that you feel it. You're bowing in front of God.

It's not exercise. You're bowing in front of God. You're prostrating yourself, your head, in front of your creator.

It's not just some sort of physical exercise. So there needs to be part of the internal khushuah is that externally you have to have khushuah. By doing it slowly, not too fast, and by not fidgeting, like not too much motion, because that's not khushuah.

Khushuah is stillness. Wow, got really still. It's stillness.

So you shouldn't be fidgeting. You shouldn't be going too quickly. That's also part of building the internal khushuah, is by having that external khushuah.

Protection from Shaitaan

And then protection from shaitaan, because shaitaan comes and whispers to you when you're praying. So that's one way to protect yourself from shaitaan. And then there's another way to protect yourself from shaitaan, and it's also through your adhkar.

For example, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said:

(Bukhari hadith 6403)

"Whoever says, la ilaha illallah wahdahu la sharika lah, lahul mulk, lahul hamd, wahoo ala kulli shay'in qadeer - That statement, 100 times in a day, is protected from shaitaan for the whole day." So those types of things, if you do those things in your day, then it's going to be a lot easier to have better prayer, better quality, because you've just been protected from shaitaan.

And he's the one who's like whispering to you when you're praying.

Closing

Voice of Islam is a charitable trust dedicated to bringing the truth about Islam to all people. For more information about us and what we do, log on to www.voitv.org. Voice of Islam is a non-profit entity and relies on donations to continue its broadcasts.

We sincerely appreciate any financial contribution you can make to help us continue this dawah work. www.voiceofislamtv.com

Our Lord, give us in this world [that which is] good and in the Hereafter [that which is] good and protect us from the punishment of the Fire.