Go to the mosque and say, ‘I’m sorry, I’m unable to come to the mosque for fajr prayers.
So please come to my house to offer fajr prayers instead of the mosque’.
People might beat you up for this.
Well, won’t they?
They will say, ‘You’re already not coming to the mosque
and you’re distancing us from the mosque too?’
Nobody from that mosque will come to your house.
So, you will have to gather those worshippers around you
who shall participate in every salah with you.
Praying in Congregation Even When You're Alone
If you are unable to pray in congregation,
it means that you are unable to go to the mosque. Right?
There could be a reason
why you’re not able to go to the mosque.
So, there’s only one solution
and the solution is to bring the worshippers home.
What do you think?!
Bring the worshippers home and pray in the congregation!
Now, do you think this is a joke?
Go to the mosque and say, ‘I’m sorry, I’m unable to come to the mosque for fajr prayers.
So please come to my house to offer fajr prayers instead of the mosque’.
People might beat you up for this.
Well, won’t they?
They will say, ‘You’re already not coming to the mosque
and you’re distancing us from the mosque too?’
Nobody from that mosque will come to your house.
So, you will have to gather those worshippers around you
who shall participate in every salah with you.
16 of those worshippers are dormant within you.
All you need to do is revive all of these ethereal spirits and sub-spirits
then offer salah alone at home,
the 16 spirits will emerge from within you and it shall become a congregational prayer.
This is the method.
Forget missing fajr prayers, you shall never miss any [congregational] prayer again.
The salah that shall then be established will be such
that even if you never pray, you shall have prayed.
Even if you never pray, you shall have prayed.
These spirits will emerge from within you and begin praying as soon as it is time for salah.
One man in Dubai said to me,
‘I have never seen you offering salah’.
So I immediately stood up and said, ‘Alright, look’.
He began to laugh
and said, ‘Well, no…’
I said, ‘You live in Dubai, I live in London. What are you saying?
Have you ever seen my neighbour praying?’
He said, ‘How would I know what your neighbour is doing,
he lives in London’.
I said, ‘I also live in London, dummy.
So how would you see me?
If you’re able to see me then you should be able to see my neighbour, too’.
He said, ‘But he lives in London’. [I replied] ‘Do I live in Dubai then?’
So then I explained to him that there is a type of salah that is never missed.
The Holy Qur’an states, ‘aqeemas salah’.
What does ‘aqeem’ mean? To establish.
Now, for ‘aqeem’ to mean ‘to establish’
is the understood translation
when in fact it actually comes from ‘iqaam’ which means ‘to raise’.
It means ‘iqamah’ which means ‘residence’.
‘To stand’ is another meaning
and ‘to make residence’ is also another meaning.
When you apply for a visa for Dubai, it says ‘residence’ on the form.
What is ‘residence’ in Arabic? Iqamah.
Meaning, permission for residency.
So there is one salah that is performed by a momin.
What is the salah of a momin?
His spiritual heart is revived with the divine light
and so whatever his tongue and his body engage in,
the divine light generated shall be delivered to God by the spiritual heart.
This is a momin's salah.
He must stand and perform the salah.
This is the True Salah.
And then there is the Salah of Ishq.
Listen carefully.
There is the Salah of Ishq.
The spiritual heart is present in the salah of a momin,
whereas, in the salah of an aashiq, he must be present there himself.
In the salah of a momin, he is not required to do anything,
his spiritual heart is present and that is the salah.
But the spiritual heart does not suffice for the salah of an aashiq,
he must be present himself.
This is why Bulleh Shah said,
‘When I learned about the Salah of Ishq,
I forgot all about worship places’.
Because this salah is not performed in the mosques,
it is performed in the Empyrean of God.
When it is time for salah, you simply close your eyes,
your spirits come out and reach that location.
The aashiq himself is present in his salah
whereas it is the spiritual heart that is present in the salah of a momin.
And what if you are always there?
Why would you need to be present then?
You’re already there.
And if you’re then told to be present,
you can say, ‘I’m already here! I’ve been here’.
In the era of Mujaddid Alf Thani -
- he was a regular mosque-goer.
So, he went to offer Zuhr prayers at the mosque
and noticed a man sleeping.
Now, he was a saint
and the saints keep a positive conjecture about everyone.
For example, if somebody is standing outside the house,
you would begin to worry about their intentions.
If there are young women and girls in the house, people will assume he has come to harass them.
And if the owner is a wealthy man, he will think [the man outside] intends to steal from him.
This is in the nature of human beings
because human beings are impure.
If a man is standing outside, you will never think positively about it.
But those who become saints,
their conjecture becomes positive
and even if someone is standing outside, they walk past and think,
‘Maybe he’s there for a reason. It has nothing to do with me’.
So, Mujaddid Alf Thani
saw the sleeping man in the mosque and thought,
‘He must have fallen asleep after praying’.
So he didn’t think anything of it and left.
Then he came to offer the Asr prayer and saw the man was still asleep.
He was shocked but made use of good conjecture,
because the saints are not in the habit of harbouring grudges.
So he thought, ‘He must have fallen asleep after praying’.
But the Lord explained that Mujaddid Alf Thani would spend the time between the Asr and Maghrib prayers in the mosque.
So having offered the Asr prayers, he sat down as per usual
and he observed the man continue to sleep as the time for Maghrib prayers approached.
This angered him
because now he was certain the man had slept through three prayers.
When it was time for the Maghrib prayer,
he roused the man and said,
‘Either wake up and offer salah or leave the mosque’.
The man loudly called out to the Imam, saying ‘Hold on, Imam!
He intended for the Zuhr prayer and offered the Zuhr prayer
then he intended for the Asr prayer and offered the Asr prayer
and the Sun returned to its position
and then he offered the Maghrib prayer along with [Mujaddid Alf Thani].
And he said to him,
‘You have spiritual sight.
You could have seen before you woke me, that I was with the one to whom you pray!’
There are such people, too.