[00:03- 00:50 speaking in Arabic]
Surely the believers have had success out here in the Arabic language. If [00:56 speaking in Arabic] is with a past tense verb, they call it [01:01 speaking in Arabic]. In other words, it's realizing, it's saying surely, definitely [01:08 Arabic] Believers this is in sort of the [01:12 speaking in Arabic], the 23rd song of the Qur'an [01:16 speaking in Arabic]. Surely the believers have had success. Many times, in the Qur'an it mentions [01:23 speaking in Arabic]. The most important reminder of Allah is in the Adhan and in the Iqamah and that says [01:32 speaking in Arabic].
What's the first quality that he defines the believers with?
[01:41 speaking in Arabic] Those people that have awareness of Allah in their prayer.
So, the Fallah, the very first sign of Fallah is Kooshoo in Salaat.
That's the very first sign. If you look at the Qur'an, Allah SWT, he mentions the prayer everywhere.
He relates it to [02:05 speaking in Arabic] except in one place. This is [02:10 speaking in Arabic] he says this. Everywhere you look at when the prayer is mentioned about the people who pray. It's the people who pray it's the more [02:20 speaking in Arabic]. When Ibrahim and he is the father of [02:26 speaking in Arabic]. I mean, the prophet proceeds him in the unseen world, but he precedes him in the seen world. So, this is the [02:34 speaking in Arabic]. We're following the Abrahamic way through his son, the [02:39 speaking in Arabic] even though it's the Muhammad in a way, in reality. Even if Raheem was on the way of [02:45 speaking in Arabic].
Many times, the son is greater than the father. So, when Ibrahim asks Allah what does he say? [02:57 speaking in Arabic].
"Oh, Allah, make me somebody who establishes the prayer." [03:08 speaking in Arabic] salah, not [03:10 speaking in Arabic] but [03:11 speaking in Arabic] salah and this is why even when we do the [03:16 speaking in Arabic] we say [03:17 speaking in Arabic] salah. The prayer is established. [03:21 speaking in Arabic] salah, the first thing you do is when the sun is actually to get up when the person who does the Iqama, when he says [03:30 speaking in Arabic] to a set of people, they get up. You rise to the occasion [03:35 speaking in Arabic]. means elevate yourselves. So, just by praying, you're elevating yourself physically and the meaning of that is there's a spiritual elevation. So, when you get up, you're elevating yourself physically, and you should be elevating yourself spiritually. But if you're not a [03:58 speaking in Arabic]. Allah make me the one who establishes the prayer.
What is the [04:05 speaking in Arabic]? The Qu'ran begins [04:11 speaking in Arabic] That's the first thing. After Imam what follows Imam? The first thing you tell people when they become Muslim, there's five prayers incumbent on you now. Before that, they're not there because once you believe in the unseen and the first belief is Allah, and then his messengers, his angels, because they come from the unseen. The books are from the unseen. They came into the seen world. The prophet heard the [04:43 speaking in Arabic] because the sound, it comes into the seen world from the unseen world. So, he heard the resonance. It's like a bell ringing. That's what he heard.
Emily Dickinson says,
"This world is not Conclusion.
A species lies beyond-
Invisible, as Music-
But positive as Sound."
So, you can hear the voice, but you can't see the voice. Unless you have some kind of machine then you can only see indications of the voice, but you can't see the voice. So, the very word, when it comes, it comes from the unseen world. Consciousness, when we speak, it's coming from your consciousness. Your conscious is not seen, it's in the unseen world, but when you speak, it's coming into the seen world. So, the prophet...
[05:34 speaking in Arabic]. It's coming into the seen world. These [05:47 speaking in Arabic] but it begins with that resonance and then into the letters, and then into the meanings.
The letters have meaning. We don't know what they mean. So, this is one of the great gifts of [05:59 speaking in Arabic] is the prayer. This is why all of our lives are punctuated with prayer. We have to stop five times a day, and we have to remind ourselves in [06:13 speaking in Arabic]. We came from God and we're going back to God. And then we have a debt. The word in Arabic for religion, din, it means debt. [06:25 speaking in Arabic] is when the debts fall due and that's why you're taken to account. What did you do to pay for all of your blessings? Because nothing's free in this world as they say. Nothing's free.
Everything comes with a cost. To be born you pay the midwife and then to die, you pay the grave-diggers and the funeral, and everything in between has costs. You can't come into this world without a cost and you can't leave the world without a cost and while you're here, there there's a cost. So, just as the person gives you his feature, he gives you the bill. Like this man he was cleaning. He's going to give us a bill for his time. Everybody's time costs. Allah gave us time. It has a cost and that cost is the din. It's the din that you owe God and that din the fundamental payment for that din is prayer. It's just saying, you're grateful.
Allah is not asking you for money other than like 2.5% of what you have extra. It's not even your income. It's just extra. At the end of the year if you have some extra, give me 2.5% of that. If you have animals I'm going to take a few because look, I'm producing them, not you. You didn't grow them. They just copulate and then you get free. So, just give me a little bit, not for me, Allah doesn't need it. For the poor people that don't have anything. If you're a farmer, you give a little bit of grain, 2.5 and even in zakat you don't take the best of people. You take the middle. You don't take the worst and you don't take the best; you take the middle. That's how generous Allah is. He leaves the best for you because you're going to make the most money on that. He's not even asking you for the best. [08:38 speaking in Arabic] and despite that, they give to Allah like they have rummage sale for the [08:43 speaking in Arabic] where you bring you the stuff you don't want anymore.
Amazing people. So, this is all a gift. You know, look at this. We're like in paradise right now. Perfect weather, beautiful, all these things. It's amazing and then there are all these people suffering in other places, but we're here in blessing. We have to count our blessing because if you're not grateful, when you have the blessing, the suffering comes, all the blessings get taken away. We're such ingrates, you know, the species. This species is ungrateful. [09:23 speaking in Arabic]. Very few of my servants are constantly grateful. They'll feel gratitude sometimes. They see a sunset they say, wow, you know, and they feel grateful or they have a good meal they feel grateful. But who is in a constant state of gratitude, few of his servants. That's what he said. Few of my servants are grateful.
When the prophet [09:46 speaking in Arabic] used to stand. He was elderly at the time. People that are elderly when they stand for very long times they get some venous stasis. So, they get the venous stasis. Then some swelling comes like when you're on an airplane. Even healthy people if you're on an airplane for a long time, you'll see that your ankles are a little swollen. That's from the venous stasis. That's why it's very dangerous. You are supposed to get up and walk because if you sit for a long time, you get this venous stasis. If you stand for a long time, the same thing. He used to stand in the [10:17speaking in Arabic] until there was swelling in his ankle. And I usually said, [10:27 speaking in Arabic]. Allah has forgiven you all. Everything that proceeded and his sins are our hizanat. His sins are like being preoccupied in a virtue when there's a more virtuous thing at the time.
That's the sin of the [10:48 speaking in Arabic]. She said, why are you standing all night in prayer? He stood, you know, half the night in prayer. Why are you doing it? She said, [11:00 speaking in Arabic]? Shouldn't I be a grateful servant. He said, [11:03 speaking in Arabic]. Shouldn't I be constantly grateful? This is a display of gratitude just to say, I love you. This is [11:15 speaking in Arabic]. That's what the prayer is. It's [11:17 speaking in Arabic].
When he knew that you get bored and tired, he made your [11:38 speaking in Arabic]. This is his [11:40 speaking in Arabic]. He made your [11:41 speaking in Arabic] all these different ways to get near to him. So, he asks every day, five times the prayer, and I'll get to the [11:53 speaking in Arabic], the [11:54 speaking in Arabic] in the prayer, but five times so that you don't pray all day long. He made you a prayer five times and then if you want to do extra, that's from love. This is the Fajr then you do extra. And then, so that's once a day, beginning from the time you get up until the time before you go to sleep and because the work see all the prayers are close together, except Fajr and Duhur.
The [12:22 speaking in Arabic] pray Duhur around 2:30 because from Fajr until that time is your work time. So, he left you to your work. He's not even asking you. Don't interrupt your work. You have work, you have your livelihood. I'm not asking you for that. But when you're done [12:38 speaking in Arabic]. When you're done with your work, when you're done with that preoccupation, do some worship. So, then he asked once a year. So, that's once a day, once a month. He asked one month out of the year. Once a year, he gives one month. Give me this month, the whole month. Give me the whole month. One month out of 12. The other 11, you can eat, drink, [13:12 speaking in Arabic] eat and drink but this month, no. [13:19 speaking in Arabic]. Fasting is mine.
Why is he telling us to fast? We now know there's a lot of benefits to fasting, health benefits. That's well known now. But why is he asking us to fast? Because he's asking us to be as close as we can to the highest of our natures. So, he's saying food and drink, the animals do that. You share that with the animals, but fasting that's divine. He said, [14:02speaking in Arabic]. In other words, I don't eat or drink. So, I want you to [14:07 speaking in Arabic]. He's merciful. I want you to be merciful. He's forbearing I want you to be forbearing. He's patient. I want you to be patient. So, he's asking us to take on the attributes that make God, God, so that we become closer to him. Because when you emulate the one you love, it's out of recognizing the superiority of that one.
When you see the [14:36 speaking in Arabic] you want to be like him. People that emulate all of these "stars " like they get tattoos. Why do they do that? Because they see the talent. They have this amazing talent. A lot of it's silly talent. You know, they can do amazing things with their bodies, or they have incredible voices, or they can do amazing things with music. So, people want to emulate them because they admire them. Ambulation comes out of admiration. So, when you admire the qualities of God, you want to emulate them. So, he's asking us to emulate that quality, which is giving up food and drink in order for your spirit, which needs no food and drink, in order for your spirit to rise.
Then he asks from your wealth from 200, he asks for 5%, that's all. From 200, 5% and then once a year, once in a lifetime time, he asks you to make the Hajj. That's it. Now, look at the prayer, because even [15:49 speaking in Arabic] says, [15:50 speaking in Arabic]. He knew that you have this [15:54 speaking in Arabic], you know, this kind of, it's a desire. Like you get bored easily and [16:00 speaking in Arabic] says [16:01 speaking in Arabic]. That desire leads to boredom which prevents you from getting to your goal which is to reach [16:17 speaking in Arabic] metaphorically. [16:22 speaking in Arabic]. So, he wants you for certain periods of time but the most important period, and this is what [16:34 speaking in Arabic] says immediately after that [16:37 speaking in Arabic]. So that your [16:44 speaking in Arabic] is to establish the prayer not to simply pray because, those who simply pray, what does Allah say about them? It's the only time he mentions salah without iqama or something that refers to iqama. [16:59 speaking in Arabic] and that's an [17:01 speaking in Arabic]. That's not part of an [17:03 speaking in Arabic], that is a whole [17:04 speaking in Arabic], that's a sentence. [17:06 speaking in Arabic]. Woe unto the people who pray. [17:13 speaking in Arabic]
Those who are heedless in their prayer. The prophet [17:20 speaking in Arabic] said, [17:23 speaking in Arabic]. It will only create further distance between you and Allah. So, you should at least have the [17:56 speaking in Arabic] to be present in your prayer. One of the great gifts of the prophet is he said, [18:01 speaking in Arabic]. Pray as you see me pray. So, he didn't say [18:09 speaking in Arabic]. Pray like I pray because not one of us, if you took the whole [18:15 speaking in Arabic] and took all the most righteous people, all the [18:19 speaking in Arabic] and you put all of that righteousness and [18:21 speaking in Arabic] in one person from all the [18:24 speaking in Arabic] of the world, you wouldn't get the prayer of the prophet. And so, he said, pray as you see me pray even the outward form, but you have to do it with love. You have to do it with love.
We're all forgetful. And that's why the [18:40 speaking in Arabic] say even if you have a moment of presence, look at the Qur’an. [18:45 speaking in Arabic] says, when you open [18:47 speaking in Arabic]. This is called [18:57 speaking in Arabic]. It's referring to something that's not present. [19:01 speaking in Arabic] and this is called [19:08 speaking in Arabic] where you move from one tense to another tense. So, you go from the present tense to the past tense. You go from the first person to the second person. You do this, it's switching because Allah has all perspective. So, the Qur’an uses this technique. Allah then says [19:25 speaking in Arabic]. When you say Allah [19:30 you're not [19:31 speaking in Arabic] yet. But as you move into the prayer, you come into [19:37 speaking in Arabic].
Now you're in the presence of God and so the prayer is entering into [19:42 speaking in Arabic] and that's why even [19:45 speaking in Arabic] says [19:49 speaking in Arabic] [inaudible]. The prayer will purify you of all of your sins, the [19:59 speaking in Arabic] said that the prayer for one of you is like having a river in his house that he bathes in five times a day. He said, do you think that person will have any [20:10 speaking in Arabic] on him? Will he be soiled if he goes five times a day into a river next to his house. He said you won't have any [20:18 speaking in Arabic]. You won't have any sin. And so, the prayer is that river. You enter into that flow that God has given you to become metaphorically one.
You're making one, you're making yourself one. You're forgetting yourself and you're remembering God.
So, yourself has gone and now there's only Allah without any [20:48 speaking in Arabic] and these silly things that some people misinterpret these things. So that is the prayer. And then he says with [20:56 speaking in Arabic], the prayer isn't unlocking to the door of the unseen realities. The prayer is heavenly, it's not of the earth. It has to go to heaven. It can't stay down here. Even your [21:18 speaking in Arabic] is more [21:20 speaking in Arabic] waiting to go up to heaven. These things can't stay down. Gravity can't hold them down because they're immaterial. Only material things can be held down. Gravity cannot hold them down. They're moving up. They have to go up and the way they go up is through righteous deeds. That's the way they move up to [21:39 speaking in Arabic].
So, [21:43 speaking in Arabic] made the prayer, imitate the planets. And this is why when you rise like the planet rises and then you reach the full of your thing and then you start descending and then you go into [21:57 speaking in Arabic] when you disappear. So, the planets disappear on the horizon, the prayer, [22:02 speaking in Arabic], the prayer follows the sun because everything's glorifying Allah and so he wants you to partake in this incredible universal glorification of him. The highest thing [22:16 speaking in Arabic]. We made you to be heavenly and even in English, they recognize this because desire if you look at the root word of desire, desiderare, it's to desire the stars. That's what the root word means in Latin. We desire the heavens.
We're not here. We're here for a time, a short time. We want to go home. That's why people are depressed. You wonder why people get melancholic because they know this isn't their home.
We call it homesick. You're homesick. You want to go home because this is not our home. This is a temporary abode. That's all it is and even the prophet, he was down. He had [23:10 speaking in Arabic]. He was a human being, but his [23:12 speaking in Arabic] was not because you know, you lost your job or your car broke down, or you got into an accident or you got sick. Those things didn't trouble him. He was yearning. He was yearning. He was yearning to be with the beloved because [23:34 speaking in Arabic] out of his desire. Out of this human desire to return back to our Lord, he's put all this beauty in the world just to make it easy for us to be here. To remind us because all of this beauty that we're recognizing is from the unseen world. [23:51 speaking in Arabic]. And he has [23:57 speaking in Arabic] because he has [23:59 speaking in Arabic] and he has [24:00 speaking in Arabic] and this is why [24:02 speaking in Arabic].
How does it end? How does it end? He says that the disbelievers, [24:12 speaking in Arabic]. The disbelievers do not have success. This is why at the end of this passage, in the Qur’an he says, [24:25 speaking in Arabic]. How does he end it? He ends this passage of a description of the people back with prayer. [24:31 speaking in Arabic]. So, say in [24:38 speaking in Arabic] when he sent a letter to all of his governors, what did he say? He said 24:43speaking in Arabic]. So, if you guard your prayer and you're vigilant with it [25:09 speaking in Arabic]. He separated the two. What is heaven? [25:14 speaking in Arabic] of that is just to, and this is why all the double bucket, even an army says, I have seen thousands upon thousands. [25:26 speaking in Arabic] but I've only seen five [25:30 speaking in Arabic] at a time of great Islamic.
So, this is a great gift. The prayer and then finally the Ramadan is returning to the Qur’an. So, if you don't have a relationship with the Qur’an outside of Ramadan start it now, today. This is Sawm, start your relationship with the Qur’an today. So, don't go back to, oh, now Sawm is out and I'll just go back to listening to shit. So, have a relationship with the Qur’an even if it's one page a day, even if it's one page a day or half a page. Even if it's an [26:14 speaking in Arabic], do something with the book of Allah. [26:18 speaking in Arabic].
What a blessing to complete the [26:38 speaking in Arabic] of fasting. The prophet [26:41 speaking in Arabic] province This is called [26:45 speaking in Arabic] so it's a joy that we're on the day of [26:49 speaking in Arabic]. The prophet [26:54 speaking in Arabic] and he has a joy when he meets his Lord. Those are the two [26:57 speaking in Arabic]. Even though he says don't think that the [26:59 speaking in Arabic] is about going back to eating. No, it's about completing the [27:03 speaking in Arabic], that you completed it and you fulfilled this incredible obligation to Allah. That's the joy because it's going to be [27:13 speaking in Arabic]. It's going to be set aside for you in the account of your payments for the debt that you owe to Allah. We're putting this in the bank of the [27:23 speaking in Arabic]. So, when you come you're not [27:27 speaking in Arabic], you're not bankrupt because there are people now going into bankruptcy.
There has to be bankruptcy, so you know what it's like to lose everything. The real loss is not here. Allah says, [27:43 speaking in Arabic]. Those [27:48 speaking in Arabic]. Those are the real losers, not what you lose here. You can lose everything here. They can't take away [27:56 speaking in Arabic] and prayer from you. You see people. I've seen Bedouin that have nothing in the world, and everything's taken care of. They're like the birds that go out hungry and come back. I have these birds at the house. They come every day and we put out food for them. Why? What's in our hearts to put out food for these birds. They come every day and the squirrels come and they eat and that's their provision.
So, Allah put it in our hearts to do that because they're not working. They don't have a 401k plan. They're not working. They just go and it's there because they trust. They go out knowing it's going to be there. They're not worried about it. They have no stress. All these people that worry. What are you worrying about? When did Allah ever deprive you of a meal, other than when he said don't eat for his sake, for your health as well. When? Some of us now are in our sixties, fifties, forties, thirties, twenties. When did Allah ever not give you a meal? And most of you are eating quite well. So, this is a time to be joyous that we completed this. The prophet [29:15 speaking in Arabic] said that there are eight doors to paradise, you know, to get into Jannah there are eight doors there. There are many ways to get in. Like he said, [29:24 speaking in Arabic]. He's given lots of colors to his obedience.
So, one of the doors is Baab Ar-Rayyaan which is for only for fasters. That's the door you get in. [29:35 speaking in Arabic] said, I saw all of the doors to God crowded. This is called [29:42 speaking in Arabic]. You know, they're all crowded getting in, fighting to get in like the [29:48 inaudible]. Have you ever tried to get there? Everybody's fighting because that door is there. Everybody knows that door. He said there was one door I looked and there was nobody there. The door of humility. He said I didn't see anybody there.
[30:05 speaking in Arabic] How are you elevated in this din? You're elevated through knowledge with humility, not ignorance with humility because you should be humble if you're ignorant. The danger is when you actually know something, then you have the danger of being arrogant.
Knowledge with humility and this is why the prophet [30:25 speaking in Arabic] said [30:27 speaking in Arabic]. He will face some people with this book and those are ignorant Muslims. And that's why our [30:38 speaking in Arabic] is very ignorant now so we are based. And then he will elevate Muslims with this book, those who learn it, and practice it.
So, this is our task to learn the book of Allah and to practice it. [30:50 speaking in Arabic]. What do you do in the prayer? You read the Qur’an [30:58 speaking in Arabic]. God forgive us. May he accept all of our fasting. May he forgive us for our negligence, our stupidity, our dysfunctionalities. May he forgive us all the things that prevent us from entering into those doors that he has placed there only to be knocked on and they are open.