Asalamualikoum wa rahmatollahi wa barakato.
Welcome to Allah Loves.
So we talked about consistency and if you take the idea of consistency, the methodology
of consistency as being the most beloved quality of good deeds, you then have to pair it of
with the most beloved of good deeds.
And we know the Prophet (pbuh) said the very first thing you will be asked about on the
day of judgement is your prayer, al salah.
The Prophet (pbuh) as he was passing away, he said "asalato asalah, wastaoso bi nesaa'
khayra" your prayer, your prayer and treat your women well.
So prayer is the most fundamental practice pillar of Islam after a person enters into
the fold of Islam with the testimony of faith.
And the Prophet (pbuh) taught us pair off consistency with this fundamental pillar.
This hadith that we are going to cover today is from Abdullah bin Masood, may Allah be
pleased with him, he said, 'I asked the Prophet (pbuh) "ayo amaali ahabo illa Allah"' which
actions are most beloved to Allah, the Prophet (pbuh) responded 'al salato ala waqtiha'.
Prayer on time.
In another narration, the Prophet (pbuh) said 'asalato li awali waqti" a prayer at the beginning
of its time.
It sounds really simple but lets talk about this for a moment.
A lot of times when you're talking about qiyamul layl, taraweeh prayer, and all of the sunnah
prayers and these different extra deeds we can do, we forget the bare basic prayer.
The first thing we will be asked about, the obligation, the most important part of our
religion, which is five daily prayers.
Praying them on time, guarding them, making sure that you're following all of the pillars
of the prayer itself.
Making sure that you aren't omitting anything, neglecting anything.
That is the most beloved thing that you can do for Allah.
So even thought we should be talking about the night prayer, and we should be talking
about the sunnah prayers, because those serve as a cover for those prayers, realize that
this is the core of it all.
And thats why the Prophet (pbuh) said on the day of judgement, when a person comes and
they have deficiencies in their obligatory prayers, then Allah says 'where are the voluntary
prayers' and Allah starts to fill in the missed obligatory prayers, or the deficiencies in
the obligatory prayers.
So the voluntary prayers are meant in many ways to cover for the deficiencies that you
have in the obligatory prayers and we obviously have thoughts that take us away from our prayer,
things that happen in the prayer, distractions.
All of these things that happen.
But lets focus on this for a moment, prayer at the beginning of its time.
What makes it so beloved to Allah.
And this is the case for all of the prayers, except for salatol isha.
Isha prayer, in which there is preference in delaying it a little bit.
Now what makes it so special?
It shows Allah that when you hear "hay ala al salah, hay ala al falah" come to the prayer,
come to success that you are longing for Him as you come to the prayer.
Ibn Ibn Al Qayim, may Allah be pleased with him, he said, come to Allah "bi qalben moshtak"
with a heart that is longing for Him.
With a heart that is in anticipation of Him.
The Prophet (saw) used to say "arehna biha ya Bilal" comfort us with the prayer o Bilal.
He said the prayer was the coolness of his eyes.
So prioritizing the prayer shows that you are prioritizing Allah in your life.
Now Allah understands that there are things that get in the way in terms of career, school
and sometimes travel and things that will cause you to have to push prayer to a later
time within the boundary, and of course if you are traveling, combining those prayers.
But still on your normal day on your normal time, how early do you pray the prayer once
the window enters of that prayer.And you'll notice suhanAllah that at the end of the day
you are going to pray the same five prayers, it is just a mindset that you have.
Some people wait until five minutes before the next prayer, some people do it five minutes
within the first prayer.
At the end of the day, you're still praying the same five prayers.
But its in the attitude, the mindset that you have with Allah.
And Allah says in the Quran about the hypocrites, 'wa itha qamo illa salati, qamo qusala' when
they get up for their prayer they get up lazy.
They don't feel like doing it.
Its just ah, they're dragging their feet.
They barely caught it.
Allah also tells us about the nations that came before.
'Fa khalafa min baedehim khalfoon ada'o al salah" that there came after them a people
that lost the prayer, 'wa taba'o al shahawaat' and they followed their desires.
And so because of that they would find punishment.
And Omar Ibn Alkhatab commented on that, he said, first of all 'ada'o salat' they lost
the prayer means they started to delay the prayer beyond its permissible time.
So they would pray the equivalent of Asr prayer at the time of Maghrib instead.
And that, if you delay your prayer enough, habitually, eventually you're going to start
going into the next prayers.
Eventually you're going to start missing prayers altogether.
Its just a natural regression that takes place.
And then they followed their desires.
In the ayah that came before that verse, Allah mentions in Surat Maryam that there was a
group of righteous people when they heard the verses of al Rahman, when the heard the
verses of the Most Merciful, 'karo sujjadan wa baqiya' and then they fell on their faces
in prostration and crying and Omar had a very beautiful way of explaining this verse.
He said that, that verse where Allah mentions the righteous, they had 'khodoo' which to
humble yourself in bodily fashion, stand before Allah in the proper way to guard the physical
elements of your prayer.
So they fell on their faces in prostration and they had 'khoshoo', humility which is
the internal discipline that caused them to cry.
This next generation lost the physical discipline and they lost the internal discipline.
So outwardly they lost their prayers, inwardly they longed for other than Allah (swt) and
I'll end with a very powerful narration from Ibn Al Qayim, rahimAllah, on this idea of
prayer.
He said 'itha dakhala abdo illa al salah' that when a person, when the servant of Allah
enters into prayer 'thoma ltafa" and he turns away from Allah.
Not a physical turning away from Allah but internally he turns away from Allah.
"Qala Allah azwajal" Allah says to that servant 'ya abdi illa ayn ila khayran mini" oh my
servant where are you turning to, are you turning to better than me, have you found
something better than me, more worth it than me.
So again, start with the basics, and especially in Ramadan.
If you can get anything right, if you can get your five prayers done on time, and make
it a habit to start praying it early in the time so that you don't start missing the prayers,
then that would be a blessed task with Allah (swt)and the Prophet (pbuh) said when a person
comes on the day of judgment having prayed their five prayers on time, not omitting anything
out of them, understanding their importance, then they have a promise with Allah that he
will enter them into paradise.
We ask Allah to enter us into paradise and forgive us for our shortcomings and to make
us amongst those who long for Him.
Allahoma Ameen, jazakoumAllah khayr wa salamualikoum wa rahmatollahi wa barakto.