Lesson 13 – Summary Notes

Knowledge & Patience

– Seeking knowledge requires patience and patience requires effort. Whenever the Shariah speaks of knowledge it is always synonymous to patience.

– When we work for Allah we are always being payed for our work with rewards in dunya and the akhirah.

– Shaytaan can cause us to doubt this and attack our sense of patience. This leads to a loss in motivation.

– When we don’t see the fruits of our labour now, we must remember that life is not only till the grave but beyond.

– Working for Allah should be motivating within itself.

– Imam alJawzi (r) wrote a book, ‘Tablis Iblis’ – add to your read list! Discusses the different ways Shaytaan attacks us.

– He explains in his book how love for position comes about when you come sad and dsiturbed when another scholar is given a platform and you haven’t.

– Check your intentions! You want to be a means of guidance for the world and so does he.

Seeking knowledge

-The Prophet(s) said, “Whoever treads a path seeking knowledge, Allah will make easy for him the path to Paradise.” [ibn majah]

So, the path requires ‘effort’ or treading.

-Patience entails dealing with imminent issues with wisdom, such as posting immediately on social media when difficult and testing issues happen worldwide. We need to focus on long-term, proactive solutions such as developing our salah and wudu, rather than do keyboard warfare on social media.

Long-term solutions

-We are not going to stop the bombs falling by protesting, or walking in the streets. We need to work on fixing the world fifty years from now by creating a voice for ourselves.

-The Prophet(s) took 23 years before removing the idols from around the ka’bah. Keep doing good, teaching good, focusing on the long-term.

-In our da’wah organisations, these events should inspire us to increase our studying and our proactiveness in our da’wah.

The benefits and purpose of salah (continued)

-To continue the topic of salah, “Surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the for Christians, and the Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last day and does good, they shall have their reward from their Lord, and there is no fear for them, nor shall they grieve.” [Al Baqarah: 62]

-“O you who have believed, indeed, intoxicants, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone alters [to other than Allah ], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful.” [Al Ma’idah: 90]

That’s why we say that from the benefits of salah is repelling shaytan, because shaytan only misguides us by keeping us busy in acivities that repel us from remembering Allah.

-As we mentioned in the last lesson, our salah can only improve us and keep us away from shamelessness and evil, only if it is ‘The salah’ i.e. specifically that salah taught to us by the messenger of Alah (s).

-“The angels keep on asking Allāh’s forgiveness for anyone of you, as long as he is at his Musalla (praying place) and he does not pass wind. They say, ‘O Allah! Forgive him, O Allah! be Merciful to him.” [Bukhari]

-“Whoever makes wuḍū’ at home and then walks to the House of Allāh to perform one of the five prayers, every step he takes wipes away a sin and the next step raises his status with Allāh.” [Muslim]

These ahadith teach us that our prayer raises our rank, and is a means of Allah forgiving our sins. Both, the prayer itself, and walking to it.

The Prophet(s) said, “When the worshipper stands up in prayer, all his sins are brought and placed upon his head and shoulders, so whenever he bows and prostrates, they fall from him.” [Bayhaqi, Tabaraani]

The Prophet(s) said, “When the imām says āmīn (after Sūrat’l-Fātiḥah), say ‘āmīn’ because if you say ‘āmīn’ at the same time the angels say ‘āmīn,’ then all of your sins you have committed are wiped away.” [Bukhari, Muslim]

– This is why we pray in congregation with others, our sins are forgiven.

– The best and most important thing to devote our energy to is salah, aren’t our sins a means of our retrogression?

Hence, we are not saying other initiatives are not important, but rather than salah is the most important of all priorities.

– “Make a lot of sajdah (i.e. make a lot of prayer) because for every time you make a prostration to Allāh, your rank is raised and your sin is forgiven.” [Muslim]

-Do not belittle the importance of salah. Many people use sarcasm when advised to pray and supplicate in response to problems occuring in the world. If our salah is not rectified, how will all our other issues be rectified?

-“The angels will pray for you as long as you are in the same position that you just prayed in and don’t break your wuḍū’. The angels say, ‘O Allāh forgive him. O Allāh have mercy on him.’” [Bukhari]

 

-The salah teaches us to be good followers, we can’t say ameen before the imam, or move before him. It teaches us respect for position in society.

-Salah teaches us not to speak over each other, to listen attentively and communicate effectively.

-We are not allowed to speak when the imam is reciting, and thus we have a place and time when we can speak.

-Salah teaches us to vary things so that we don’t become bored or inattentive.

-However, it also teaches us that parts of life should be constants; like reciting fatiha. That being static, our dynamic matters (that can change) should be more than our constant matters.

-Salah teaches us a subtle balance between static and dynamic.

-Salah teaches us the balance between rest and work; like when we sit between sujud. But it teaches us to be more active than passive.

For more subtleties of salah: