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Friday Talks faheemfb@gmail.com

194

In the name of Allah most gracious most merciful. 

Factors for achieving humbleness in Prayers.

Written by:  Sk Subhi Al-Kattaf

Translated by: Dr. Faheem Bukhatwa

 

05  Thel-Qada 1438.

28  July       2017.

 

All thanks be to Allah the Lord of the worlds. All peace and prayers upon the most honourable of all messengers.

Performing daily prayers is one of the greater practical foundations of the faith. One legal requirement of doing the prayers is having a spiritual or a humbled or subdued heart during the prayer. On the other hand, Satan, the eternal enemy of son of Adam has vowed to misguide and tempt all mankind. In the Quran Satan says: {Then I shall come upon them from before them and from behind them and from their right hand side and from their left hand sides,} 7:17. One of the grater temptation of Satan is to distract people off doing their prayers in many types of methods. And coming into their minds and thoughts during the actual prayer so to deny them the beauty and joy of doing the prayer, and also to make them miss out on the reward and what they gain in return for it. The messenger ppbu said: {The first to be raised up (taken away) in this nation is humbleness and humility until you would never see a humble person}. What we all experience with our selves; in lack of humbleness and daydreaming (or absent minds) that happens to us during prayers; makes this talk is about the importance of humbleness and achieving humbleness during a prayer. Humbleness is the heart and spirit of a prayer; as well as the main reason or target hoped to achieve from doing a prayer. Allah says: {Successful indeed are the believers (1) Who are humble in their prayers (2)}23:1-2. Humbleness is a sign of success and it is a character of the faithful. They are humble during their prayers, meaning they are afraid, motionless or still. Humbleness is being motionless, relaxing, calm and respectable. But mostly is being afraid of God and Him watching you.  Allah says: {and stand up to Allah in obedience and submissiveness}. That is part of humbleness, God-fearing, wing retraction and the motionless of limbs. Stopping the head from turning right or left during prayer is part of God fearing and humbleness. It is due to humbleness and being God fearing that sins are cleared and evil deeds are forgiven, and the prayer itself is written into the scale of good deeds. The messenger ppbu said: {Any Muslim who when one of the compulsory prayers approaches him/her, they would do it’s ablution (a pre-wash Wado) in a perfect manner, and do its humbleness in a perfect manner; and its kneeling down or prostrating in a perfect manner then it would clear all sins which happened before it; unless he had committed a major sin. And this is the case the entire time}.

If a prayer is decorated with humbleness and if humility and feebleness and frailty became a firm part of its words and moves, as well as feeling the greatness of Allah then this prayer would prevent its performer from committing the wrong and the forbidden. His/her heart will fill with light, and would be cleansed, and his/her faith will increase, and the desire to do good deeds will grow and desire to do evil will diminish. Allah’s closeness to a slave during prayer is strongly related to the slaves humbleness during the prayer. The more humble he/she is the closer Allah gets to them. The messenger ppbu said: {Allah keeps on getting closer approaching a slave during a prayer as long as the slave does not look away. If he turns his/her face away then Allah moves away off him/her}. Humbleness is something, which has a great status, easy and quick to loose, and it is rare to exist especially in this time ours. Being denied humbleness of the heart is one of the greater calamities and diseases. The messenger ppbu said: {O Allah I seek Your help and support from having a heart which does not humble}.

Some Muslims have been inflected with weakness in morals; and deviation in behaviour because prayer has turned into a body without soul, turned into moves without humbleness. Dear Muslims, our situation with our prayers is real sad and strange. Many of us perform prayers with their body and limbs; they move their tongs and mouths to utter words. We bend our backs in kneeling position and drop onto the ground in a prostration, but our hearts does not move upward towards its creator. The bodies look humble on the outside, but the hearts are repelled. We read verses of the Quran without thinking or reflecting. We praise Allah and we are ignorant of what praise is. We have decorated our exterior and we have forgotten about our interior. We stand before Allah and at His house but in reality, we stand in front of the issues and matters that are on our mind, and we are standing with our soul at our homes. You would see a man who has bones grown old in Islam; and has performed prayers for many years and yet he may not have finished one single proper prayer. That is because he may not have done to a completion its kneeling, prostrating and humbleness. Whoever does this then they would not benefit from prayers. Consequently, they would do other deeds and actions, which would disagree with morality and religion. My dear brothers and sisters, this talk aims at re-evaluation and not for giving out or reprimanding. We need to stand with ourselves a truthful stand, so each one of us can see where they stand. Allah Himself reproves his slaves or somehow gives out to them by saying: {Is not about time for those who have faith for their heart to be humble and subdued to hearing about Allah and the truth which was sent down? and that they would not be like those who received the book in the past, but the term was prolonged for them and so their hearts were hardened and many of them are evil doers} 57:16.  The messenger ppbu said: {A man may leave after finishing his prayer and only one tenth of it is written for him, or one ninth, or one eighth, or one seventh, one sixth, one fifth, one quarter, one third and one half}. The messenger also said: {two men would do the same single prayer, and yet the difference between them in reward is like the difference between the heavens and the earth}. The share of the heart that is full with love, fear and admiration for Allah is not the same share of the heart that has none of that. Slaves of Allah, the heart is the place for humbleness, God fearing, and its fruits are in the organs and limbs. Organs follow the heart. If humbleness of the heart goes bad through forgetfulness and preoccupation with obsessions then worship done by other organs becomes bad too. Humbleness of organs without humbleness of the heart is a useless humbleness. The messenger ppbu said: {be careful of the hypocritical humbleness}. They asked: What is a hypocritical humbleness? He said: {it is seeing the body physically humble but the heart is not humble}.

Dear Muslims, humbleness in prayers only happens to him who clears his/her heart only for prayers. And occupy themselves only with the prayers and nothing else. And only when a prayer is put ahead of all other matters. Only then, a prayer becomes a source of relaxation and a satisfaction for the soul.

Factors that help achieving humbleness are many. Some are: preparation for the prayer. That can happen by repeating the Azan when the call to prayer is being done. Also, making the approved supplication (duaa) after call to prayer (Azan), which is translated as follows: (O Allah, the Lord of this call, and the Lord of prayers performed, grant Muhammad the grace and the means, and resurrect him with the great status you promised). Also, making a supplication (duaa) between the call to prayer (Azan) and call to start the prayer (Eqama). In addition, doing a proper ablution (Wado) and starting it with the name of Allah, and after finishing it praise Allah and make a supplication. Also caring for the use of meswak, which is cleaning, cleansing and refreshing the mouth. Mouth is the means for reciting Quran and remembering Allah during prayer. Another factor is clothing and dressing cleanly and neatly. Allah says: {O Children of Adam! Look to your adornment at every mosque..} 7:31. Similarly, doing takbeer and sitting in-wait for prayers to start. Ensuring lines are straight and closely packed. Because Satan gets in spaces it finds in the lines. Also another factor is making sure to coming to a rest after each move or position during prayers. Each bone in the body should come to rest in its proper position after each move in the prayer is done before going to the next move. The messenger ppbu said: {The worst of the people is he who steal from his prayer}. They asked: how could anyone steel from a prayer? He said: {He who does not complete its kneeling (rokoo) or its prostration (sojood)}. Another factor that can help to achieve humbleness is remembering and thinking of death. The messenger ppbu said: {remember death during your prayers. A man remembering death is more likely to do a good prayer. And do pray like a man who thinks that is his last prayer in life}. The messenger ppbu also said: {Do your prayer as if you are departing or like your goodbye prayer}.

Dear Muslims, another factor in achieving humbleness during a prayer is thinking about and considering the meaning of the recited verses. Also thinking of the praising, thanking, and glorifying of God during prayers and interacting with it. Another factor is to keep repeating some of the verses outside the prayer. That helps understanding and rethinking of its meaning. The messenger ppbu once stayed up a full night repeatedly reciting the verse that says: {If You torture them; they are your slaves, and if You grant them forgiveness; You are the Mighty the Wise} 5:118. Another factor is the reciting slowly and intermittently when reading verses of the Quran during a prayer. The messenger ppbu used to read the verses and when he passed through a God praising verse then he used do praise Allah. And when he passed by asking Allah for something; he did ask, and if he passed through a verse that sought Allah’s help or support; he did ask Him for support. Some of the companions used to repeat a verse during a prayer example: Repeating the Ikhlas or Al-Ahad chapter an entire night of prayers. Something else helps achieve humbleness of the heart is to consider and contemplate the early Muslims in their prayers, and imitate them. Some, when they stood to do a prayer and started reciting Allah’s words, they imagined that he was at the moment when people stood at the hands of God on the day of judgement. His heart becomes so frightened and his mind is taken away.

During a battle, Ebn-Zubair while in a prayer would not realise a fire catching up to his clothes caused by a fire ball shot by a slingshot.

Malama Ebn-Bashar praying in a mosque when part of it collapsed while he was in sojood never moved or knew about it.

When prayer time approached, Ali ebn-Ai-Talib used to become unrested and changed in colour. When asked about what was wrong with him he used to say: Time has come for what was offered to the heavens and the earth and the mountains and they fearfully refused to take it, and I took it.

Saeed Tannohi, when he prayed his tears flowed non-stop over his cheeks and through his beard.

Amer Ebn Kase, his friends told him that they talk to themselves during a prayer about money and families. He said I would rather die than to talk to my self during a prayer with worldly matters.

Saad Ebn-Muad said: there are three situations where I feel that I am as I should be; otherwise, I feel I am just an ordinary man.

1) When I am in a prayer I never talk to myself with anything other than prayer related.

2) when I hear a hadeeth of the messenger; no doubt comes to my heart that it is the absolute truth,

3) and if I was at a funeral; then I think of nothing else other that what the dead says and what the dead is told.

Imam Ebn-Nasr did such a great prayer. Once a wasp landed on his forehead while praying. Blood seeped down his face and he did not move.

Imam Mohammad Akhram when flies landed on his ears; he never hushed them off. He never moved during his prayers.

Dear Muslims, compare those early Muslims with us and with what some of us do during a prayer. Some of us look at his watch, another would fix his clothes, and another will mess with his nose. Some of us conducts business (buys and sells) during a prayer. May be even calculates his money profits and losses. Some trace the drawings on the prayer mat or the walls or ceiling. Some try to identify who is standing on either side of them.

O Allah, we have no power and no well without You.

O Allah help us save what is left of our lives. And guide us to take a lot of supplies of goodness from this life.