brothers and sisters today I want to give a short but valuable reminder about the second most important pillar of Islam Salah and I'm going to refer to three verses from Allah says in verse one and two [Laughter] and also verse n Allah says the meanings of these verses are as follows Allah says the Believers have truly attained success the ones who in their prayer are humble and then in verse 9 10 and 11 Allah says and the ones who perform their prayers all the time or the ones who guard their prayers these are the ones who will inherit the ones who will inherit the great Paradise in it they will live for eternity my brothers and sisters assah in English we say prayer but it doesn't give the full meaning of the Arabic word soah has two meanings merged in one it means to isolate and seclude yourself with Allah and to connect with Allah Subhan Allah if we don't have a connection with our creator we have no connection to anything else because everything else in this world although we may have a connection to it it's always temporary and it will run out and it will even betray us this entire world will betray us as the prophet sallallahu alhi wasallam told us in that Allah said to the to this world oh World serve those who serve me who serve Allah subhah wa ta'ala and turn away from those who serve of you so my brothers and sisters is your connection to Allah and Allah begins and opens this chapter by talking about the Believers that they are the ones who truly attain success it's as if Allah is replying to someone to make a point so you have to know the background of this verse actually this Ayah from came down when the non-muslims of mecah of quray the enemies of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam the disbelievers they began to uh take pride and become arrogant and boastful over the accumulation of material possessions they had and that they started to use this uh societal uh Norm which they made up that people's success and their uh importance or their value is based on how much money they had how many assets they had and properties how many camels and lands they had all of this is what they used to measure the person's value and importance but Allah gave them the reply by saying oh no the truly success ones are the ones who have chosen to believe in Allah follow Allah subhana tala's Guidance the king of the all the world the owner of everything in this universe and Beyond and to follow his messenger Muhammad Sall alaihi wasallam obey him and follow his Sunnah these people who are the Believers the true successful ones not only in this world but also in the Hereafter so brothers and sisters those who who can attain that level and have that connection with Allah first You Must Believe In Allah in your heart and truly have that Faith with certainty psychologists have talked about extensive studies that relate to people who have a better mental health condition in this life and they looked at uh prayer and meditation of course this is without the Islamic side to it they just looked at it purely from a human perspective and they found that people who have a connection with God or a higher power some of them were delusional and others of them had a good mental state the ones who were delusional are the ones who did not have certainty in what they believed in they had doubt but then they said the ones who have certain certainty which in the Quran is called y by the way which means absolute certainty in their faith in Islam alhamdulillah we have the truth we have the Quran we have the Sunnah and it challenges anyone to prove the Quran wrong anyway alhamdulillah so we have certainty in Allah and what he has promised then suddenly you'll find your mental state your spiritual State and everything about you alhamdulillah becomes Serene becomes in a state of Tranquility no matter what odds or evens ups and downs good and bad happens to you in your life so Allah says the Believers are the ones who are truly successful in this world and in the Hereafter then allaha mentions a few things we're going to talk about just the Salat part now he says they are the ones who are in their prayers humbled When You Believe in Allah truly and you truly follow his guidance then you will also connect with the one that you love if you love someone you want to communicate with them and connect with them if you love Allah wa T there's also a way to connect to him you don't just neglect him and turn your back on him Allah tells us in the Quran that if he says if my servants ask you about me I am always close I am always close I respond to the person who calls upon me when they call and if they continue to call so let them respond back to me and let them put their trust in me and their belief in me in the hope that they find successful guidance so Salat is the first thing in the first way brother and sisters that we must never neglect Allah tells us it's not just any type of Salat any type of prayer he says Those Who perform their prayer with humbleness the Arabic word is and is something that is Loosely translated as humbleness uh Tranquility uh to be present in the moment to focus to concentrate and it's not an easy feat and I want to tell you and and put you at rest inshallah tal by saying that the majority of the scholars have agreed that or this this form of humbleness and focus in Salat is not a condition of your salat's correctness or incorrectness however in order to have the minimum that a person has to do is to be aware of what they're doing and to when they come to their prayer they take a few moments and they refocus and hone into what they are doing and that is their Salat and facing Allah then to make your Salat with ease with rest with relaxation with comfort and to take your time in your movements so for example when you say allahar take your time and when you recite Al F take your time for example when you make which is bowing take a bit more time when you stand up take a bit more time when you go down to Su take a bit more time and so on and don't rush it like the picking of a rooster as the scholars used to describe so brothers and sisters there was once a man a sahabi a companion who was learning about Islam and learning about prayer the Hadith is in Muslim andari agreed upon AB says a man once came into the Masid when the prophet peace be upon him was in there and he prayed two so the probably the the uh greeting of uh the the Masid when you enter Allah's mosque he prayed it and then he came and said the greetings of Salam to the Prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam The Prophet PE be upon Him replied and the proper face be upon him said to him of course with kindness and wisdom and without embarrassing him he said go back and pray again you have not really prayed so the man went back and prayed in the way that he understands a second time the prophet peace be upon him told him go back and pray you haven't prayed he's prayed a third time and then also said to him you haven't prayed that's when the man said by the One messenger of by the one who sent you as a messenger in truth this is the best I know in how to pray what he was doing was that he was rushing it he was not standing properly he was not going into bowing and and prostration on the floor enough he was pecking it very quickly so the prophet PE be upon Him taught him and said when you come to make Salat and prayer first of all make your W properly secondly when you stand stand and face the and take your time then when you say allahar recite Al with tranquility and care then he said go to bowing and take your time with bowing then stand up from the Bowing until you are straight and wait there then go down to prostration on the floor and do it and take your time then sit and take your time then go back to prostration and take your time he said and like this the rest of your prayer and this is the way the man started to understand and a lesson for all of us that prayer must be prayed with Tranquility so when you do those activities you are in all you have to do is minimum take your time in your movements and be aware of what you're saying alhamdulillah you would have Tranquility the more you practice this the better it becomes so I've given uh I sometimes give people a formula I call it uh 4 by 5 so basically it means you need to spend 4 minutes at least on every two raas so let's say it's four then 8 minutes spend 4 minutes on every two and when you go into your bowing and prostration on the floor say subh and bowing five times instead of three and in your prostration on the floor say it five times subh instead of three uh a person when they come to do their Salah uh they are secluded with Allah and what it means it doesn't mean that you have to be in a room that is closed you we we pray in congregation we pray in front of people but what it means is that you practice in on uh isolating the sounds that are around you from paying attention to them and just allow them to be as noises and then focus on what you're doing between you and Allah subhana wa taala is it difficult yes is it doable of course and it takes time inshal brothers and sisters when a person prays and does their Salah one of the things which some people uh dislike about it is that they have to face the truth so when you start praying and you calm down and you relax in Psychology they they teach us that in the mind there is the conscious mind and the subconscious mind and of course in Islam we are also taught that there is Al which is the inner real self of you your heart and your inner subconscious that's the true nature of who you are and what you have fed your heart on the outside there is consciousness which means thoughts that come and go when you relax and hone in and focus and be present in your Salat and take your time the thoughts that come on the surface of your conscious come and go and they don't just stay even if they come along don't be afraid of them don't think that your Salat is going to be ruined because you get thoughts everybody goes through that it's very normal but it does H into your subconscious mind and the more you practice it the more you will see inall things change in you some of the tips that I teach people about Salah to get better at it is other than taking your time uh number two change the suras that you read everybody recites for example even if you take two or three other verses minimum three the scholars say other verses from any other Surah you don't have to read the whole Surah you can say for example and that's it you don't have to recite the whole thing of course if you know it all it's better also in your bwing uh did you know in your bowing and prostration did you know that there are other words of that you can say other than the common one that we know subh there is a book called Fortress of the Muslim you can download it as an app and in there uh there are many uh different z words that you can say in your bound there's at least three or four different ones I'll give you an uh one one of them one of them is so when you pray all these movements that you change you refocus again rather than just standing still for such a long time you do lose focus so then you move and you refocus again when you change the words that you're saying then you refocus again because now you have to put the effort in saying something new rather than automatically saying you know sometimes our tongues get very go into autopilot and automated sort of uh activity so these are some of the hints that I can give you uh moving on in the last verse inah in verse number 9 Allah says and those who go who guard their prayer this means that you pray all your five daily prayers the five compulsory prayers it is an obligation and to leave one of them is a major sin and there is a minority view of the scholars which uh some great Scholars did say they considered that if you left one of the prayers deliberately without a reason or an excuse you just didn't want to pray it then it could be on the verge of even disbelief of course the majority of the scholars said that it is a major sin so long as you still believe in Allah and his messenger but you can see that it's quite severe because Allah loves compulsory things and the compulsory things which he loves he made them upon us because they are the ones that will save you and make you successful inshallah so the times of the prayers are obviously begins at uh Dawn at the break of dawn until sunrise that's the timing uh for example starts at the with when the Sun rises to the to the middle and uh until time so for example from 12:30 till about 3:30 and it keeps changing of course finishes at or if you can pray at 10 minutes before M Sunset M finishes at about 5 minutes before the there's a difference of opinion from when it begins until midnight some of the scholars said based on the Hadith the prophet am to pray before midnight some of them took it as an obligation and some of them said it is preferred to pray before midnight but of course we uh the view that I take of the scholars is that you have all the way up to F but it is better to pray before the midnight why did I say this some people confuse the Hadith of the Prophet peace be upon him which says that uh a person should not delay their prayer and that the most beloved prayers to Allah are the ones done on their time what does it mean to do it on its time I had a brother the other day who asked me if I was say watching FY or soccer or soccer or was doing some kind of hobby of of my own and then one of the prayers you know kicked in and I delayed it a little bit am I doing shik am I making partners with Allah or am I a hypocrite am I or am I sinful and the answer to that brothers and sisters all the scholars unanimously agreed on this is that it is neither sinful nor is it shik in fact you are permitted to delay your Salat from the beginning of its time uh even without a reason so long as you do not pray it outside of its designated time and the evidence for that is at least two authentic Hadith one of it is in which is authenticated by albani that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said uh the prayer in the first in the beginning of it so let's say the third I'm just adding the third so in the beginning of it it is Allah's full pleasure and if you pray it in the middle of the time then it is Allah's Mercy and if you pray it at the end of its time it is Allah's pardoning so I'll give you an example starts let's say at 12:30 p.m. and ends at ass time which is say 3:30 p.m. if you pray it between 12:30 and about you know 1:00 it's the best between 1:00 and uh 2:00 let's say or 2:30 it is Middle Ground and between 2 or 2:30 until just before 3:30 it is still an acceptable Salat and a valid one but it takes the pardoning of Allah and each one is better than the other the other Hadith is in sah Muslim where the Prophet Sall alaihi wasallam explained to a man about the timings of the prayer and he said to him these are their times between here to here and he explained every Salat beginning when and ending when so you can pray any time during that time uh if you're praying congregation and Jama in the mosque it's the best thing especially for men uh joining the JAMA and congregation far outweighs praying by yourself at home by 27° and the scholar said that if you're going to a Jama congregation the congregation happens to be a little bit delayed from the beginning of the of the Salah time say for example 12:30 they prayed at 1 then it is better to pray with the J with the congregation at 1 rather than at 12:30 by yourself sisters something to be very careful about is stealing from prayer and let me tell you there is a Hadith from the prophet Sall alhi wasallam which is narrated by IM Ahmed and and others where he said the worst types of people are the thieves the one who theve and steal from the movements of Salah they steal from the Bowing they steal heal from the prostration which means people who barely go into bowing they get into bowing don't even wait there in their back up and when they stand they barely stand up and they go back down to suud when they go to suud and prostration they barely even spend some time in suud some of them even their nose doesn't even touch the ground or some of them their heads don't even touch the ground you have to have eight parts of your body in prostrations and they are your forehead your nose your palms both your knees and even both your toes and the toes have to be uh on the ground with your feet upwards as you can see with your toes on the ground and you have to relax until you do them so hurrying them up and rushing them like the pecking of a rooster is thieving and stealing from your Salah do not do that finally I just want to say the Salat is the first thing that we are going to be questioned about on the day of judgment the prophet peace be upon him said that the first thing a person a Muslim a Believer is asked about is there five daily prayers if it was good then the what comes after is going to be good inshallah and if it was bad what comes after it is also going to be bad of course this is in general cases meaning that people who pray all the time are less likely to do too many sins later on and those who don't pray their pray prayers properly or neglect them then most likely after it they're going to be filled with sins because a Salah has its special effect on a person and even a person who prays and does sins uh even major sins they may do them they are very shy and embarrassed of them and they feel guilt and sensitivity about them and they repent inshallah tal very quickly or soon so there is a big difference between a person who has a connect connection with Allah and one who doesn't so let's say for example that uh you are uh on the day of judgment and your prayers your five daily prayers are brought some people they pray them better than others and I want you to imagine Salat like uh imagine a lever or or or you know a tube with with liquid in it and it's got um levels and and measurements uh each Salat that you pray during your life some are better than the others they're at different levels in that measurement so on a day of judgment imagine your Salat your compulsory prayers are measured some of them are high some of them are low some of them are not complete to the best so then Allah says to his angels does my servant have any voluntary prayers does he have for example the 12 sunnas that used to pray such as the two before F four before two after two after and two after in some schools of thought there's four before plus maybe the Witter plus maybe which is from uh after 15 minutes after Sunrise until about 10 minutes before the Sun reaches its zenth meaning is called and many other prayers like the night prayer or any kind of salad that you offer then the angel said yes y they say our Lord they they do have these voluntary prayers so Allah says add them on top of the compulsory prayers and it completes it so brothers and sisters don't leave the voluntary prayers out it's not a sin to leave them out but it is a huge loss of the enormous rewards that come with it one of the hadiths which is also authentic says that whoever prays the 12 sunners of the day will have a house or a Palace built for them in Paradise imagine that every day Subhan Allah in your paradise and your garden if a person is praying out in the park or on a farm or somewhere far let's say and you cannot get to for example a mosque or a place to pray uh whether you're uh alone or with people most actually when you are alone and a time of prayer comes in then the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said and the uh the Hadith is also authentic in he said if a person prays in a field and they're alone and they pray without making thean or the then they are praying by themselves they receive the reward for themselves but if they make the then his two angels they pray with him and if he makes the aan just by himself in this field or this park and the and then prays many angels pray behind that person in Rose and another Hadith uh he said as far as the East is from the West behind that person Subhan Allah this is how the Angels they love Salat and so long as you are in Sal and when you stay after Sal you make a and everything the Angels also make Dua for you to forgive you and to Pardon you and so on in relation to our sisters I mentioned that if a person is out in the field and makes thean and the angels pray behind them well does this apply to women as well should they also call out thean and the in the field Allah knows best butan and is for men however if a woman a Muslim woman is in the field or in the farm and she intends she wants that reward but obviously she uh respects the dean and what the prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam taught us then inshallah God willing Allah will give her also that reward because of her intentions inshallah tal uh furthermore some people ask me well what about women should they pray in congregation in Jama in the mosque and will they miss out on a 27 reward since the men get it well sisters yours a little bit different you've got something special for you Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said that the best place for a woman to pray is in her house in her bedroom we're talking about the five daily prayers of course but also praying in the Masjid is virtuous for her as well the prophet PE be upon him for example said don't even prevent your wives your women from going to the Masjid at night because men used to say to them don't go out at night if you have no need for you know for them there's no real reason why a wife needs to stay at home then going to the Masjid at night uh is virtuous so I want to say that for women Subhan Allah if your intention is because you want the great reward like the men get that reward then you have a free reward just by having that intention and that desire so whether you pray at home or you pray in the Masjid with that intention inshallah tala I hope some of the scholars said that you will get that 27° and Rewards but of course praying at home the reason for that is uh Islam always encourages uh to always encourages us to have less um mixing or seeing each other even though it's not Haram for men to see the women at the mosque or for them to see the men at the mosque however it is there's always something that is better so pray your salad my brothers and sisters make it your food and drink in your life teach your children and be patient with it and you'll see inshallah God willing a change in your life and in your family's life and most of all in the Hereafter may Allah make us among the may Allah make us among those whom Allah says Believers are the ones who have truly reached success