Literary Gems Of Prayer

Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah Allah Allah He was Safi

Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.

All right. Okay. So for those of you who might have a conference program,

if you look in the back of it, the description of the sessions, you'll actually see that the description for this session is titled meaningful prayer. All right. Now, because of that, I'm going to ask this question. There's actually a course there's a seminar, there's a weekend long course that I teach, titled meaningful prayer. And because this is based off of that same topic, that same subject, that's why I'm asking this question up front. Is there anyone here who has taken that course or class with me before? Oh, good, gracious, all right. Okay, hunger, love, that's good. So about half the people in the room, handle another problem. A reminder or view is always beneficial

inshallah. And nevertheless, we'll try to put something into our discussion today that will, inshallah be new material for you as well.

So it's going to build off of that same premise, about what the seminar is based off of. And what I'm going to do is, first introduce what this topic and what this subject is entirely about. All right, I'm going to talk to you about the most difficult the most trying the most arduous period of the lifetime of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, and that was the 11th year of prophethood. All right, everybody, repeat what your prophet everyone, the 11th year of prophethood. So this is about a year and a half before the migration to Medina, before the prophet SAW Selim was commanded by Allah to move to Medina at that time, so I want you to picture this for over a decade, the Prophet ceylonese

home has actively been preaching and teaching his message.

And he has been met with

he has been met with

opposition, rejection, denial, oppression, aggression, and even violence. That is that is what he has been facing for over a decade, in the process of teaching and preaching his message. So it's been an extremely difficult process up to this point. But what I'm talking about right now is the greatest personal tragedy of the lifetime of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, and that was his wife, Khadija, the Allahu anhu, he passed away. Now, I always tell my own community, one of the greatest tragedies of our time, is that we treat the Koran and particularly the life of the prophets, Allah Hmm, we treat it either as a form of entertainment. And what I mean by a form of entertainment is,

you don't know if you watch an episode of a sitcom once an episode of a sitcom and you saw it once. When it comes on again, do you watch it again a second time.

Now, let's just say it was really great. It was really fun, it was one of the best episodes they ever had. So then you watch it a second time, you end up watching it a third time.

Let's just say you have absolutely nothing else to do you were completely bored. Alright, so then you sat there and you watch it a third time? Do you watch it a fourth time?

Hopefully not all right. Because then it could be an indication of a different problem, one that I can't help you with. All right. So that's how entertainment goes. You don't sit there and read go over into you use heard it once you saw it, once you read it once you read an issue of a magazine once, what do you do with it, then?

Yeah, you line your birdcage with it. It's done and finished. helaas. Right. What do you want me to do with it? Right. So that's how entertainment works. And that's Unfortunately, many times our approach to the life of the Prophet tells him as well. We hear the story and we just next next next move on our second approach that you find amongst people today about the life of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, which is a such a tragedy is you find a very Wikipedia bullet point type of approach. Just bullet points. All right. And in the 11th, year of prophethood, the wife of the Prophet Khadija died next.

And then the next. That's it, you just click next, next, next, next, next, and you just keep moving on and whatever, who cares.

Right, so that that's Unfortunately, our approach to the study of the life of the beloved messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. All right, so what I wanted what I want us to do here just for a few minutes, by the way, I'm doing this the short version of this, alright, because we don't have a lot of time on our hands. What we are striving to do here is to change that viewpoint, to look at things differently, to try to really understand from a human perspective, what it must have been like for the prophets a lot he said them to have to lose his wife Khadija de la Mancha. So Khadija de la Juana passed away at this time, she was the wife of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam for over 20

Five years,

he was married to her for over 25 years, raise your hand if you're under the age of 25.

Pretty much everybody in this room, I hate all you people. All right. I'm an old guy now. So

pretty much everybody in this room, majority of the people in this room are under the age of 25, I want you to think about that. Imagine being married to someone longer than you have been alive.

That's a lifetime.

Imagine spending a lifetime with someone.

That's, that's a big deal. That's a big deal. 25 years of your most intimate private moments you shared with someone you shared your life with someone. And then to lose that person. Think about how much that must have hurt. how difficult that must have been, how heartbreaking that must have been, I want you to just picture that.

Alright, and then.

On top of that, this is just from the perspective of verbing, his wife, Khadija being the wife of the Prophet ceylonese. Now I want you to picture now I want you to understand, she was also the mother of his children, the mother of his children. So I want you to imagine what it must have been like the next day to have to look into the innocent eyes of your children, and have to explain to them have to tell them that your mom's not coming back.

how difficult that must have been how heartbreaking that must have been.

Then on top of that, he's the Messenger of Allah, the prophet of Allah. So he's got the greatest mission that any human being has ever had. correct or not everyone? Yes. All right. So now that's a difficult task in and of itself. And guess who was his strongest supporter, his best supporter, his greatest supporter? It was his wife.

When he came back on that blessed day from the capable paid off with the first revelation, he was shaking and trembling and overwhelmed, deceitful Nizami loony Cover me up, wrapped me up in a shawl in a blanket.

And he was afraid and he was nervous.

Khadija the alarm was the one who held his hand

and gave him strength and gave him confidence and said, No, you're an amazing person, Allah would never waste somebody of your caliber and your quality. And then he said, Fine, honey, I understand what's happened is true, and it's a blessing. But who's gonna take this message, who's going to accept this message? She said, you're worried about people accepting the message, eyeshadow, La ilaha illallah wa shadow Anika, Rasulullah. I bear witness that there is no one worthy of worship of Allah. And I bear witness that you are the Messenger of Allah she believed accepted Islam right then and there on the spot. The first person to accept the song.

She was the rock, the strength of the prophets, Allah de Sena, she was his greatest and strongest supporter. And imagine losing that person from your life. how difficult that must have been. And you know what tells us about how much the Prophet system used to love Khadija

by how much he used to how he used to remember her long after she had passed. About five years after the passing of Khadija the loved one, it was the Battle of brother. And in the Battle of brother, they were prisoners of war. And what they arranged was that ransom was accepted for the release of those prisoners of war, a very nominal amount of money or supplies would be accepted for the poor people of Medina and this prisoners of war would be released. So one of the prisoners of war was the son in law of the prophets allottee center. So his daughter zeyneb sent a necklace as ransom when this necklace was coming put in front the prophets Allah He looked at and started crying.

started crying, a grown man crying

Sahaba got extremely nervous and worried like, Is everything okay? Is everything all right?

And the prophet SAW Some said yes. What makes you cry on messenger of Allah. He said, this is Khadija his necklace.

She gave it to my daughters enough as a gift. And just looking at it

reminds me of her. And it brought tears to my eyes.

That's how much he loved her.

Another situation was many, many years later. Later on in Medina, some of the most some of the Muslims who had accepted Islam later who are who are younger, who never knew Khadija or the loved one have personally had never met her. The one time came to the process. And they said, We hear so much about her mother Khadija, but she was so amazing. Can you tell her something? Can you tell us something about her?

And you know, when somebody has such an has had such an impact on your life has been such an amazing person in your life, that you just feel the overwhelm just by thinking about that person. You can put in words how you feel about that person. You're at a loss of words. That's what happened to the Prophet system. He started telling them about Khadija and he says in Ghana, what can it

she was in she she just was

mean you had to be there to see how amazing she was. I could never tell you how amazing she was. You got to know her

You have to meet her to witness her, her just what an unbelievably amazing person she was.

And that's how she felt about her years later, literally a decade 10 years after she had passed away, a tribe came to accept Islam came to Medina came to the prophets a lot he set up, they came from Yemen. And there was some very expensive famous type of shawl or cloth that was made exclusively in Yemen, it was like a luxury item. So the leader of the tribe had sent this shawl this very expensive garment for the prophets a lot. He said them as a gift.

When the profits all of a sudden received this gift,

he called when the young boys used to run the errands or the Prophet says that we need to take this shot and go give it to that old woman that lives down on that tree.

So he said, okay, the boy grabbed it and took it and ran off.

One of the wives of the profits a lot he said, um, said, What was that all about? That didn't make any sense?

And so what's wrong? He's, she was like you, you receive this extremely expensive, luxurious, lavish gift, and you send it to some random old woman's house, that you have no direct relation to what's that about?

And the Prophet sallallahu Sallam said, she is one of the old friends of Khadija.

And I still till today like to appreciate her for all those years of friendship.

That's how much he loved her.

Now, the reason why I mentioned this, I want you to imagine what the pain must have been like the day he lost her.

Not just that,

not just that Allah subhanaw taala. Use the Prophet system as the ultimate exemplar, the ultimate example, three to six months later, depending on the different narrations, three to six months later, after the passing Khadija, the uncle of the profits, a lot of autonomy passed away.

Now again, you might hear that you might say,

Uncle passed away, okay, that's kind of sad, but life goes on.

I'm being very honest. Right? I've had an uncle who passed away, and it definitely made me sad. But it wasn't the end of the war. It's not like your mom or your dad dying, right?

It doesn't just destroy you emotionally.

But what you have to do is you have to contextualize you have to understand what this uncle meant to the prophets a lot. So I'm going to ask you guys a few questions, and you will answer them.

Notice, I did not ask you to answer them. I said you will answer them. Thank you very much. Okay.

When did the father of the prophets a lot he sent and passed away?

Before he was born, before he was born, so he never knew his father. Okay. When How old was the Prophet salani? Someone his mother passed away?

Six years old, how old everybody? Six years old? Whose care Did he go into at that time? His grandfather,

his grandfather started taking care of him again. All right, that's pretty normal. In the sense of there are many people that ended up being being raised by their grandparents. You know, my, my parents are very prominent people in the lives of my children. So there's a strong connection there with grandparents. All right. How old was the prophet SAW someone whose grandfather passed away, eight years old.

Now, I want you to connect the dots. I want you to put the pieces together. By the age of eight. The prophets, a lot of them had lost everyone in his life. His mother, his father, no biological siblings, and even his grandfather.

an eight year old, what is an eight year old? an eight year old is a child.

an eight year old is a child.

All right, there's a lot of teenagers here. So you guys have younger siblings. So when I say this, not everyone's gonna agree. But an eight year old is an innocent child. You're probably thinking about my little brother. He's not innocent at all. You don't know him. Right? But an eight year old is an innocent child.

Imagine being eight and not having anyone,

nothing around you.

Not a single person to call family.

I want you to think about that.

The person that then took him in and took care of him was his uncle level daughter.

And you know, we have that little phrase. Whenever you talk about a scenario with someone took in or took an orphan into their home or into their care. They say that he treated him like one of his own. Right? We say that it's like a it's like a phrase. It's a figure of speech. He treated him like one of his own.

Right, I will call him did not treat the profits or something like one of his own, he treated him better than he treated his own. And as if that seems impossible, emotionally impossible. How do you treat somebody else's kid better than you treat your own kid? I will totally prove that you can do it when you're sincere. There are books of history that talk about that. You know how city councilman or the student government at your university, they have an office. Right the SGA has an office. Similarly, the City Council of McLean

The Chiefs of Quraysh, they had offices they had basically at seats, little corners where they had special seats reserved in the huddle. And they would go and they would sit there for a few hours every day and people would come to them and ask questions and bring their complaints, etc, etc. All right, I thought it was the chief of police. So he also had a specially reserved office, if you will. And the people of Makkah say, we used to see Muhammad sallallahu alayhi salam sitting in the lab or sitting next to Abu Khalid, more than we would see him even with his own children.

Because he would never let him out of his sight. He would always be taking care of him. When he would travel on business outside of Makkah, you would leave his wife and his kids, he would leave them behind. But he would be extremely nervous about leaving the profits a lot. He set them up like I worry about him all the time.

He loved him so much he cared for him so much. He essentially became the parent of the profits a lot. He said he was the family of the prophets a lot he so he was the man who raised the prophets of Salaam. Now I want you to think about how much he must have meant to the prophets, Allah.

Three to six months after the passing of the Prophet isms wife, the mother of his children, his biggest and first supporter,

he lost his family, he lost his parents, he lost his uncle.

And there's another tragedy embedded within the death of him. And that was that Abu Talib died without accepting Islam. He did not become Muslim before he passed away.

He supported the cause, but he didn't accept a song. When the processor heard that. He was on his deathbed, he is dying. The process of rushed to his bedside,

rushed to his bedside, went there and held his hand and he said Uncle, please,

Uncle, please. You don't talk to a brother or talk to a sister, who is a convert or revert somebody who has accepted Islam taking Shahada. And if their parents or their family members have not yet accepted Islam, ask them what is the last law they make at night before they go to sleep and what's the first of all they may make when they wake up in the morning. And they'll tell you they make law for their family members to accept Islam. I have a friend, a very close personal friend, who is the new mom. He's a new mom of a community. Until today, his mom has not accepted Islam. And whenever he's like, and he does it very regularly, almost once a week, every other week. He does something

really, really nice for his mom. You know, you'll take her out, sightseeing, take her to the mountains or you'll take her with the kids to a picnic or to a park. And you'll he'll do all these nice types of things for his mom, because that's his mom.

Right? But Subhanallah whenever he's doing going out and doing something nice with his mom, I always get a text message from him early in the morning when he's heading out still till today after all these years I get a text minister that Salaam may go abroad that today is the day

make daughter Today's the day

that today she picture how that shakes up to song.

So the prophet SAW said I'm I want you to imagine his pain. He's giving Dawa. He's preaching and teaching all of humanity. And the man who raised him who is his family has not accepted Islam yet. It was tearing him up inside. So he rushes to his bedside on his deathbed. He holds his hand and he says uncle please, please just once. Say it once Abu Jamal and the other leaders of Qureshi who are against the message against the prophets of Salaam. They don't want to accept Islam here. So they're already in the room. And Abu jahl started screaming as loud as he could at the top of his lungs. I will tell him Don't forget the religion of your forefathers

started screaming really loudly like obnoxiously so that Abu Talib couldn't hear what the prophets of Salaam was saying is an old man. So he's trying to disrupt the conversation. So the hubby's actually mentioned that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam put his blessing mouth up to the ear of Abu Khalid

like he touched his mouth to his ear and whispered inside of his ear.

Please just once

just one time this whispered into my ear.

These guys don't have to hear it. Just whispered in my ear. I'll be a witness on the day of judgment

that you said it please.

For me, just please just do it.

I will call it finally refused the request of the Prophet says I'm saying dear nephew, you know how much I love you.

You know how much I love you but I'm sorry. I can't. I can't do what you're asking me to do. He denied his request and he ended up passing away without accepting the song.

The process of was devastated.

He was crushed.

The Sahaba say when he walked out of that room, his face was just like, like the color had gone out of his face.

And in the process of some was literally questioning themselves. You don't want to question yourself, he was questioning himself. Did I do what I could do? Did I say everything I could have said? was it was it was I approaching things right? Did I handle things properly? He was questioning himself. A lot revealed a verse of the Quran at that time in Nicoletta de mana. Allahu Allah consoled the prophets, awesome saying, stop beating up yourself about this, stop questioning yourself. You could not have given him a diet, you cannot give him a diet to those people who you love, because it wasn't in your hands to begin with. This is only and solely in the hands of Allah

subhanaw taala.

Now, my point of telling you all of this, so far, this has nothing to do with prayer. All right. But my point of telling you all of this is

I want you to view prayer differently. I'm not here to talk to you about you have to pray five times a day.

123 vote no, no.

I'm not here to do that with you. All right, you know how to come to five. All right. But the point is, I want how you view prayer how you feel prayer, what you think about Salah, the prophet SAW said I'm what I'm describing to you is the most personally trying time of the life of the process of the scholars of the life of the Prophet sallallaahu study his life spent their entire lives studying his life. They have dubbed that time period is

the year of grief and sorrow,

the year of grief and sorrow. We feel his pain when we talk about it when we think about it.

I want you to imagine how difficult that must have been for the prophets of Salaam the next day. I actually was giving this lecture one time. In a clip Ah, this is gonna kind of throw my talk a little bit off track, but I think you need to hear this.

I was explaining the same thing in football one time.

And after the football club gentleman came up to me. And usually after football, you know, people come and they give you compliments or feedback or whatever. Like a lot of thank you very much nice goodbye. And usually to try to protect your own humility. You say? Yeah, yeah, sure. Thanks. Thank you very much, and you get out of there. Okay. So

this one gentleman comes up to me and he goes, You know what you said, and it really hit home with me.

It just it personally affected me. You know, sometimes you meet somebody and you look in their eyes and their eyes or their face tell you that they have a story to tell.

It tell their eyes are showing you that they got a story to tell. And this gentleman had that look on his face. So when he said it hit home with me. I said, you know, if you don't mind? Can I sit down with you? And you could tell me how it personally affected you? He said, Yeah, sure, no problem. He sat down with me. And he told me that today was the first time that I've prayed in almost a year.

I was like, Really? So.

And he said, and it's not like, you know, I accepted a song A year ago or something like that. No, no. He said, I grew up in a very religious practicing home. I grew up performing Salah. I grew up around the masjid and prayer, but I had not I have not prayed in almost a year. And today was the first time I prayed.

I said What happened? He said a year ago, my life was at the point where things were working out. You know, everything. The plan was coming to fruition. All right, things were going my way. I was nearing the end of my medical residency, I was fielding offers from clinics and doctors and medical groups. Right. And I was you know, we had lived in a small little apartment driving a beat up car. I had a young wife, two small baby, two small children.

And now that I was about to, you know, get a real job. I was going to be making a lot of money. So we were house shopping and checking out nice neighborhoods and good schools for our kids. And we went minivan shopping and it just everything was Mashallah. It was amazing. Everything was working out. I had two beautiful, healthy children. I love my wife. My wife loved me. Everything was wonderful. And he says one afternoon I came home a little bit early and I walked in said Salaam I didn't hear anyone. But it was a time that my wife usually used to put the kids down for a nap. And she would take a nap herself.

So I decided, you know what, I'm gonna let him see him. I'm not gonna disturb him. So I ate a little something. I started reading something. After a while I started to hear some commotion from the room. You know, when kids wake up and they start to get a little fussy and you can hear the commotion in the room. So I started hearing the kids getting fussy. So I make my way over to the room and I opened the door and the kids are sitting up on the bed, they're awake and they're getting fussy one of them's crying. And my wife is just laying there still.

So being a doctor, I just jumped right in and I checked her and she'd been dead for a while now.

She's passed away in her sleep.

He said at that moment, I just completely fell apart inside.

I just I fell apart.

And he said that for the next two weeks. He said I did not leave the confines of my room. I sat in my

room in the dark alone by myself for two weeks. He said that for two weeks, I did not even hold my own children in my own hands.

My mom and my brother and everybody was taking care of my kids. I was just in a daze I nothing made sense to me anymore. I didn't even know where I was.

And he said, slowly, slowly, I started to recover. I started to get over this tragedy. But he said spiritually, I was still busted, I was still broken. And my brother, he said, who is very devout, very regular about his prayer. And he was there for me the entire time. He was telling me, he said, You need to pray. You need to talk to a lot. That's how your wound will finally heal up. What will close that wound on your heart is when you talk to a lot. You needed, Brother, you need it. Anyway, slowly, slowly, lightly been talking to me not pushing me too hard, because you knew what I'd been through. And eventually today, this morning, we woke up and he said, You're coming to the masjid

with me. You need to come listen to some Quran, listen to some of the hood about the talk of being and then pray in the congregation and you will feel better.

So he said, I said Bismillah. And I came with him. And then when you talk about the prophets of Salaam, and what he went through, and he lost his wife and his children lost their mother. He said, it solved my problem for me. Because now I realize I'm not alone.

I'm not alone. The profits a lot. He said, I went through the same thing that I was going through, he knew my pain. And if he was able to wake up the next morning and go out there and keep doing what he has to do, then so can I. And I'll be okay in Sharla.

You know, the reason why I tell you that story is for me, that was like the lightbulb moment. You know, sometimes you know something about the life of the prophet SAW Selim, or you know, an eye of the Quran, and then you meet someone you hear about an experience and it just, it hits you like a ton of bricks. And that's what happened to me. And so behind Allah, you know that it's been about two years since that meeting happened. And after some time, you know, time passes, and you lose the effect of that conversation. So Allah sends you another reminder, about a month ago, I was giving the same talk at a community when I get done giving the talk this one brother walks up to me.

And this brother says, You know what, you just the story you just told that same thing happened to me five years ago. He said, I didn't have small children. I had two sons, 10 and 12 years old.

But same thing, they were in their rooms, playing their video games doing their thing. And I came home from work and Salaam Salaam Salaam and I don't hear anything, I'm calling her name, I don't hear anything. I go into the bedroom, and she's passed out on the floor and check her she's been dead for a while.

She just died.

And he said five years later, now, my sons are 15 and 17 years old. And now I can stand before you and say, me and my boys have just now started to kind of get over losing the most important person in our lives.

Now I want the reason why I say this is I want you to think about the process. He lost his wife, his children lost their mother. And then on top of that he lost the man who was his family.

But the profitsystem had a job bid me and he had the most difficult job in human beings ever had to take the message of truth to all of humanity.

how good the prophecy is and wake up the next morning and do what he had to do.

Keep going out there keep teaching the message. Keep preaching the message. Because the last kind of italic gave him an outlet. Allah gave him a resource. Allah gave him something that healed his wounds that recharges this battery that reinvigorated His Spirit. And what was that that is what we call Salah prayer. Allah subhanho wa Taala at that point in his life took him on the journey that we call a straw with Mirage, the night journey in the ascension above the heavens and their last penny hotel I gave him the gift of the five times daily prayer,

the five times daily prayer

and that five times daily. Prayer is what charges the battery of the prophets a lot.

It's what allowed him to work through all this adversity and difficulty and all the other adversity and difficulty that would come later on. Later on in the life of the prophets a lot. He said I'm his youngest and last child Ibrahim died in his childhood.

Have you ever seen

the lifeless body of a child in person?

Anybody ever seen?

Right? Subhan Allah Subhana Allah

it's it's something that really honestly cannot be described in words. I still remember my first exposure to it. Man, salaam, Allah, I still remember this. I was 20. I was 20 years old.

I was studying in Karachi, in Pakistan. I was studying my advanced Islamic studies there.

My grandmother passed away. She was very elderly. She was very old. She had been sick for a while. My father hamdulillah she was she first got really ill and she was in a hospital for about a week. My father had to over immediately. I was sitting there so he flew over from the States. He was able to spend a week with his mother, and then she passed away and we have the janazah and everything.

Three or four days after janazah, my dad was flying back to the states flying back home for his business or whatnot. We went to the masjid to pray a lot. And then after that, we were gonna go home, grab the luggage, and we're gonna head out to the airport. We go to the machine first a lot of load. And there's a janazah there.

And there was a small little poor family that lived in the poor little neighborhood that was like the little shacks behind the masjid. And they had one of the families had a son, not older than four years old.

And he had been running a really high fever, he had gotten really sick, and he ended up dying.

And it just happened all of a sudden, they weren't very wealthy people, very influential people, they didn't even have a lot of family, small, meager humble, like strangers in the community type of people. So they came to them, they brought, you know, they washed the body in the house.

And they wrapped up the body in the coffin, the shroud, and they brought the body to the mustard. And there was literally maybe five or six people there for janazah. And the reason why, just like me and my dad were there and it broke our heart because humble up my my father and my uncles are very well known in our community, my uncle was one of the people who established the mustard. So my grandmother was very well known. And there were literally 1000s of people that my grandmother's janazah. And here you have the janazah of this child, that was literally five or six people. And so we were like, Who cares if we missed the flight, we're staying for this. And so we stood up and we

prayed the janaza the Imam of the masjid let the janaza prayer when the janaza prayer was done, it was time to lift the body and carry it. So you know, they usually like a bunch of others get together and they lift the body. This is the body of a child. And they didn't even have any enough advance notice or preparation to have that little casket carrying thing type of thing that they used to carry the body. It was a body of a child, you could carry him in your arms. But the father was literally like, he fell on the ground in front of us. When the janaza finished, he just fell on the ground. He couldn't even get himself up. He just lost his baby.

And so the father was incapable of carrying the child and my dad is a very soft person at heart.

And so my dad went to he was shaking up himself being a father.

He looking at the men and he was there comforting the man. So they needed somebody to lift the body and told me go and so Hanalei lifted that child's body in my hands.

And it's been 11 years to the fact and I can never forget that experience.

I learned something about death that day.

And so I carried the body of that child all the way to the graveyard, was like a good 1520 minute walk with the Father standing next to me with a hand on the head of the child.

Unbelievable.

And the reason why I tell you this is the prophets, a lot of them went through that same experience.

Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam

went through that same experience. And he when he went through that experience, you know, what if there's if this wasn't painful and tragic enough, what was worse was that the opposition, the people who were against him in his message, decided to exploit this tragedy. And they started calling him discontinued. Cut off, no legacy, no more sons.

Look how unfortunate he is. He doesn't have anybody to carry his name on forward. And Allah subhanho wa Taala consoled him in the Quran in the outline, I can go through these say you have nothing we say you have a lot. They say you have no legacy we'll see who has a legacy on the day of judgment when you stand up the fountain of Gotham and you serve water with your blessing hands to hundreds and billions and trillions of all of your followers who ever lived in this world.

But then it was kind of what Allah gave him the remedy in the next ayah how do you solve the problem of the pain here? Because why Allah said Allah Patna Alamo Anika de casa de Luca be Maya Hulu and we know that it hurts your heart. Your chest becomes tight because of what these people say.

How do you solve that problem? How do you heal that pain? How do you make it go away?

For suddenly the

wild will drop back to what could mean a Saturday. worship your Lord put your head in such Tao keep praying to Allah. Salaam is the remedy. Salah was that gift given to Allah and that's what I wanted to explain to you here today. I wanted to share some actually literary gems about salon I'll try here in the last few minutes. But before I do that, if I just shared some cool things I guess what guys this word means this. Whoo. And this word means that Ah look, right. I pulled pulled like stuff out of my sleeves and stuff. Fantastic. That's great. I'm not trying to belittle knowing what to put on and what the tsunami is. No, no, no, but I just don't want to. We too often treat these types of

sessions, like a magic show or like a trick session. Like look what I just did to the meaning of this word.

Another no I first thing I need you to understand is, what is prayer? What does prayer mean to you? Prayer is not a responsibility. It's not a burden you carry around on your shoulders. Prayer is your way to solve your problems. Prayer is your means of talking to Allah. Prayer is your way of connecting to your Lord and your Master. That's what a lot is. And Subhanallah that's why the process of them said God enough, put it out to me for Salah, the coolness of my eyes has been put in Salah. Imagine being out in the middle of the desert, burning scorching heat, the burning sand blowing into your eyes in your eyes are itching and scratching and drying, they feel like they're on

fire. And then all of a sudden, you come across some cool clean water, and you take it and you splash it into your eyes. Think about how think about how invigorating and how energizing and How refreshing that would be.

The process of said when I stand up and I say Allahu Akbar, all my problems go away.

all my problems.

So now, we have 10 minutes left in sha Allah.

Let's go ahead and talk about some of the actual practical literary gems of the prayer. So I, before I do that, let me just segue properly. If prayer is so amazing, and prayer has so much to offer, many of you might be sitting here thinking, but you know what my prayer doesn't do for me what you're talking about? My prayer doesn't do that. For me. It doesn't solve my problems. I just don't find that emotional fulfillment through my prayer. What's missing? What's the issue? What's the problem? The problem is, there's one key ingredient in prayer that's needed to make it effective. And that is quality in the prayer, who should

quality in your prayer, we need quality in our prayer. And the best way to develop quality in your prayer, know what you read and what you say in your prayer. I always give people this ridiculous example. How many chairs this just completely preposterous example with you as well. All right.

anybody in the room room speak German?

Okay, hello. Good. All right. There's always one guy in the back of the room. Yes. It's like, No, I don't need a translator. Right. So nobody speaks German in the room. Now imagine if I would have prepared 30 minutes of German poetry. I found your book of German poetry and I prepared a recital 30 minute recital of German poetry for you. And that will be one of our session today. And I stood in front of you. And I started reciting German poetry to you. And by the way, I don't know a lick of German, I don't know of a single word means in German, and neither do any of you. How long before you guys would start to get bored?

Be There we go. That's an honest brother. 30 seconds.

30 seconds. All right. And it'd be to be honest with you, it'd be about five minutes before I get bored. And I'd be like, what, what's the point? It is this is stupid. Right? Because then your Facebook updates will start to pop up on my phone. Right? Some crazy dudes reciting German to us. Right? So

and so would be the point of that. There'd be no point of that, that that session that exercise, whatever you want to call it. It'd be pointless. as as as ridiculous as that example seems. And this is a part that's going to stink a little bit so I apologize in advance. How different are our prayers from the ridiculous example I just gave you.

We stand up in prayer time after time, day after day.

And we say Subhana Allah hum ob humbly go with avarcas from COVID. Allah did the Kabbalah. La VEDA. What does that mean? I don't know.

lillahi wa salatu wa salam Allah, what does that mean?

Probably an hour like Alhambra, Hamden Cathedral?

I don't know. But I got a pinata gang does email address. Right. So I mean, we don't even know what that means. Then it shouldn't be so shocking to us. You shouldn't be such a great mystery to us. Why we can't focus. Why do we don't have quality in our prayers, we don't know what it means. You have to know what you're saying in your prayer. I'm going to give you a few examples. I wanted to share a very lengthy example with you. I apologize. We weren't able to do it.

But I'll share a few quick examples with you. Allahu Akbar. I've taught this class twice in Chicago before so this is not the ideal setting. All right, nevertheless. Now let me use a different example for you guys. Let me just give you some some some a solid example with you guys. Sort of In fact, I won't get to do it in detail. But I'll do it kind of quickly with you guys.

Certain Fatiha there's a hadith could see.

Which means that the prophets of Salaam said that Allah has said

that when we stand up and we recite Fatiha in our prayers, and by the way, what is the status of Sultan Fatiha in the prayer of the common average Muslim? What's the position of Sultan Fatiha? It's a formality.

All right, I'm being really, really honest here. All right, gloves. I don't wear gloves. That's how I roll. All right. So

Surat Al Fatiha is the formality of the prayer is a formality of the prayer. I'll tell you why it's watch this.

Right? See if I can do it in one breath. Right? Even if Mashallah, you're a good person. And when you go to the masjid, you don't know what a lot of it means, but you try to follow along and pay attention to when demands reciting. So you go to the tarawih prayer, or you go to Southeast Asia, and you go there, and this manifestation is really nice. So you're like, I go pray there, because it helps me concentrate in my prayer. Right? So, you go and you pray there, and you stand up and the prayer starts Allahu Akbar, and the mom starts and hamdu Lillahi Rabbil aalameen. And then you just kind of tone out you zone out a little bit and you look at the wall. Pretty nice. That's a pretty

baller chandelier.

It's pretty awesome. Hey, there looks like Sophie Sophie's here. Yo, what's up shopping?

Right? And you just, it's all just in your head. All right, you know how to control yourself. It's in your head. You're just like, right? And then you see a stain on the carpet and a stain on the carpet has never been so fascinating to you before in your entire life. It's like, Oh, my God. What's the history of the stain on the carpet? Right? Right. Even though two weeks ago, you're the one that made the stain on that carpet. Right? So all this is going on and you're just as interesting on Sunday. You hear what I bought, and everyone goes, I mean, and then the mom says

hi, yeah, I saw this as like, Oh, yeah. Cool. So today Bujar time to pay attention. They grew up matira bigger Aveda. Who's Acharya now I'm going to pay attention to fat as a formality.

Everybody knows it. Right? Even my little my my three year old resets fight. Everybody knows it. Right? So no big deal. But Subhana Allah sudo Fatiha is the essence. It's the core. It is the primary experience of prayer.

It is the primary experience of the prayer. The prophets, Allah tells us that a lot has tells us that when we stand up for the prayer, and we recite total 349 our prayer, there's a direct conversation that we engage in with a lump

sum to salata, benei, verbena, Aberdeen strain.

Allah says, I have divided the prayer between me and between my slave into two equal halves. When the rbms are in for my Savers, whatever he wants, whatever he has asked for, he will get it for either I'll call it the when the slave says al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil aalameen. I'm gonna give you real quick summarize versions now, because it's crunch time here, all right, when the slave stands and he says Al hamdu, lillahi Rabbil aalameen which means that the ultimate praise at all times at all places, is due to a loss of what Allah alone exclusively, meaning Allah is worthy of praise at all times, at all places in all situations. Regardless of whether people are praising him or not, he

is still worthy of praise. And who is this Allah He has not been I mean, he is the one who created who sustained provided, maintained, protected and guided every single human being regardless of whenever and wherever they have ever existed. And you say all praises for him.

A last panel Atala. You don't just go on to the next I have a lot of response. And Allah says hamedan er be my slave has praised me.

My slave has praised me. You know what that means.

But that means I, the way I explained it, usually when I teach the class, I got a few more adults in the room, older folks, like parents and stuff, but you guys will be able to understand. All right, you know, when a child like I have a three and a half year old when a child makes something for their parents, like one time my daughter came to me, she handed me a sheet of paper, and she said, Abu I draw you

right? I boo I draw you and it looked like a horse. Right? So I was a little worried very thankful. Thank you much. Thank you very much sweet sweetie. Bye but at the same time I was a little bit nervous. Right she views views me as a four legged animal.

We're gonna have issues so

so as hideous as it is, right? And as demeaning as it is. Guess where that drawing went.

refrigerator

for for literally for a couple of weeks. I actually kept it on my nightstand by the side of my bed. I traveled with it. I traveled so I literally had it in my in my bag. The backpack I always have on my shoulder. I had it in there and I would pull it out. I took a picture of it

and kept it on my phone.

It was the most precious the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen in my entire life. And when somebody came over to my house or I met my friend I ran across brother socket. Right? And I met him and I was like, Look look look at my look my what my daughter is

For me, right? I'm showing it to him right? Because he drew from me.

When we praise Allah subhanaw taala he says hamadani on my sleeve has praised me. Alo showing off just like that proud parent shows off that hideous cup slash hat slash bowl slash ashtray. All right, you know what I'm talking about? All of you have made something like this for your parents. Right? Right. So, right, just like you put it up on the fireplace on display, right ruining the rest of your house. You put it there. And when people come over and you say, Look, my son made it for me. And the person sitting there thinking like, oh, man,

I don't want to say nothing about your son. Right? But it doesn't seem like he's the sharpest tool in the shed, you know?

But you're right. Just like that parents shows off. This is my son made that for me. My daughter drew this for me look at it didn't it beautiful?

When we stand in, in salon with Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen. Allah says hamadani Rp. My slave just praised me.

My slave just praise me.

On Rockman Ibrahim, the one who is Abundantly Merciful, the one who is constantly merciful. Allah responds again and says ethna Alejandra de

Sena concern the meaning of the word to fold something to fold something. All right. Let me give you guys a real quick example. How many layers is this everybody?

one layer when I fold it once. Now how many layers is it? Two, when I fold it again, now how many layers is it? Four. All right. As I continue to fold it, what am I also doing to the layers? I'm multiplying the layers and stacking it on top of each other. That's what folding does. You stack something on top of each other. All right, so the profits so Allah subhanaw taala when we say Rahmani Raheem, he says ethna Alejandra my slave keeps on praising me praise after praise after praise or for praise he keeps on stacking a praise on me look at the level of the generosity and the gracious instead of lost power Tata has with us when we pray, he's Rockwell Allah mean if he wants

in our lifetime would have paid some attention and just said Mashallah or so? Like, you know, look at my beautiful look at my blessings slave. He has praised me, that would be enough honor and distinction for a person right? But no, no, no, no look are generous and kinda is when we pray to Him. We said Alhamdulillah he Robin? I mean Rob Bilaal, I mean that's to our rock, man, that's three or Rahim, that's 41234. So what does Allah say, my slave keeps on praising.

He appreciates us even more. And then sort of Fatiha goes on and on and on. And this conversation continues between us and Allah, we got to wrap up the session here. But what I want you to what I want you to think about is this before I leave, two questions I want to put to you. The first question is, how tragic would it be? how tragic would it be to have gone for 2030 4050 years of your life, having recited Sultan Fatiha multiple, multiple times a day, every single day.

And having been completely oblivious to this conversation between you and Allah, effectively, having missed out on the greatest conversation of your life, you had the chance to talk directly to him.

Imagine realizing, after a lifetime that you missed out on that opportunity.

You'd never forgive yourself.

And then the last question, I always like to ask people at the end of a session on this type of a topic. All you ever got to ask yourself is when was the last time I experienced salon? Not prayed? Not performed? Not offered? Right. And When's the last time you experience a lot? When's the last time you stood up in Ukraine, and it changed your life.

It just was such a profound experience. It changed your perspective. it solved your problem. It took away your pain.

You connected with Allah. Once the last time you felt that, because if you haven't felt that, and don't worry, don't worry, if you haven't felt that you haven't had that experience doesn't make you some horrible human being. It doesn't make you hopeless. It just makes you aware of the fact that I'm not going to go another day without experiencing that for myself.

Make an effort to learn what the prayer means. Like I said, I've taught this class in this general community in the Chicago area twice before. There are probably plenty of brothers and sisters you can find I've had them raise their hands in the beginning of class, maybe sit with one of them talk to one of them. I think the nearest location where I'll be teaching the class next is next weekend in Michigan,

Lansing, Michigan.

I know it's a bit far away. But if this is something that is extremely valuable to you

You'd like to repair this part of your life, then please, you're more than welcome to join us out there next weekend inshallah. But nevertheless, it doesn't matter. It doesn't have to be begging. It doesn't have to be meaningful. Prayer doesn't have to be a vanadzor.

But just make sure that you find an experience within your soul. Mate last month, I give us all the ability to pray properly.

I mean,

all right. Shame on you people.

Say I mean, all right, no, no, no. So, all right, may Allah subhanaw taala give us the ability to pray. As a prophet SAW Selim instructed us pray as you have seen me pray just Akuma located on Santa Monica.