We Begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and bearing witness that none has the right to be worshiped or unconditionally obeyed except for him and we bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam is this final messenger we ask Allah to send his peace and blessings upon him the prophets and Messengers that came before him his family and companions that served alongside him and those that follow in his blessed footsteps until the day of judgment we ask Allah to make us amongst them Allah I mean to brothers and sisters oftentimes we are looking for something special to provoke in US a connection to Allah that we feel like we have seen in others and that we Envy and so you'll have people that ask for this very special equation you know Sheikh what's wonder I can make so that I can quit the sin can you give me a word can you give me something to read on a daily basis and that way I can finally connect to Allah what's something that can finally make me feel like I'm connected to Allah throughout the day what is this amazing script find me the story that's buried in a book find me anything that can get me out of the situation that I am in and subhanallah I want you to think about a person who would go to the doctor and who would receive a very specific prescription and that prescription seems almost too easy and too good to be true there's no mystery to it and there's no shortage of its treatment and it is a hundred percent in its likelihood to cure you and I want you to think about the thing that you do on a daily basis but maybe don't appreciate so much five daily prayers the most beloved of Deeds to Allah and you know maybe you don't appreciate it if you've been doing it your entire life or especially if you've been doing it your entire life but someone looks at you from the outside and says you really have to pray five times a day no matter what and pull away and find this corner unto that person that's walking in the airport and that sees you next to a gate or that person that school that sees you on time praying and in the corner doing your record and your sujood you look like a monk to that person but to you this is just another another thing you got to get done throughout the day and I want you to think about how special these five prayers are for a moment that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said that they are Allah the most beloved of Deeds to Allah to pray on time is the most beloved of these to Allah no one will come to me no one of my slaves will come closer to me with anything with anything more beloved than that which I have prescribed upon them before this special before this amazing story it's these five prayers that you have when you talk about muhasaba and murakaba when you talk about self-accounting and observing the sight of Allah upon you there is no deed more powerful than the one that you have been instructed to do five times a day if you pray right if you establish the prayer rights so I want to sit with this Ayah for a bit where Allah says recite that which has been revealed to you of the book and establish the prayer verily the prayer forbids it stops you it forbids you from falling into al-fashion two categories of sins have long beautiful powerful Reflections on these two categories if you read the English translation it would say the major and the minor sins the extremely thousands and the sins that might be considered more consistent or more regular or amongst the overlooked sins but the point is all sins fall under these two categories tends to represent in the Sharia that which has a level of disgust that which is that which is flagrant that which is which represents a different stage in your distance from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that's why Allah refers to Zina adultery fornication and all types of sexual deviance with this term of fahisha because it's foul it takes you so far away from Allah as the the most uh subtle or or most specific way everything that Allah has forbidden in his legislation falls under munkar in some way the point is prayer is a guard against these things and a person might say well how come I pray but I still commit these sins does that mean I'm not praying at all and there is a Hadith that's narrated in a tabarani that is extremely weak but that gets quoted frequently that seems to indicate that much where the Prophet saws in this report is said to have said whoever is not stopped from these sins the major ones the minor ones the flagrant ones the regular ones by their Salah then it is as if they have no Salah their prayer is not recorded for them now this Hadith is problematic not just in its Senna not just in its chain but in what it might indicate there is a report from IBN Abdullah in their words it is a scary one that whoever does not find that their prayer takes them away from Evil obscene Deeds from sinning then they did not get from their prayer except for distance it is a connection to Allah that is meant to Bear closeness closeness and here if you are treating your prayer like a chore or maybe even doing it just to get by then it may actually be distancing you further from Allah can be said about this that if the most potent form of connection that you have to Allah does absolutely nothing for you then at the very least there is a hardening of the heart that's taking place someone that comes into the religion for the first time and learns the Salah for the first time might taste its sweetness quicker than someone that's been praying for so many years and inshallah is documented for them but the heart has not been softened in any way and the closeness to Allah is not being established now there are two instances with the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam that are very important in regards to this Ayah which is that there's a difference between a person who is praying and who is falling even in fact even in deep sin but that goes to their prayer and hopes that their prayer will cure them from that and seeks a connection with Allah but is at a particular point in their Journey see a lot of times you diagnose two people wrong because you you frame them based on the output in the exact same way the munafir could look indistinguishable from the struggling Muslim to the outward eye but there is something of the heart and so we find an authentic narration that the companions came to the prophet saws think about this lifestyle this man prays in the day or his praise at night and steals during the day think about this he prays during the day he steals at nights he lives between Salah and Sarika theft and the prophet saws that his prayer will one day bring him back and another authentic narration from that there is a young man from the unsad and realize no one was Muslim that long with the prophet saws because his entire mission on Earth was two decadesh Allah and if you're in Ansari that means that it's less than a decade and so this young man used to pray with the prophet salallahu but look at his description by the companions there wasn't a single one of the obscene Deeds except that he was guilty of those deeds he was spoken about to the prophet saws described to the prophet saws in this regard and the prophet saws one day his prayer is going to stop him one day his prayer will will bring him back look the man has shut a lot of doors between him and Allah don't shut the most important door that he has and to all of the people in here that are struggling even with a major sin don't diminish the major sin but don't let shaytan get in your head and tell you what's the point of yera Salah if you're committing the sin and anas goes on to say subhanallah that this young man repented to Allah shortly after the prophet saws and so don't let the shaitaan play you into thinking that at any point giving up the Salah is necessary because you've distanced yourself that much from Allah but then it brings us back to the Ayah then what is the Ayah saying if it's not saying stop praying if it's not getting you to stop these sins and not getting you to be more accountable with the sayat then what is the Ayah actually saying and this is the beautiful Hadith from Abdullah that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said the prophet saws the example of your five daily prayers is like a flowing Deep River a flowing Deep River and in one narration admin which means it's sweet imagine a sweet flowing river that is right in front of your door now I want you to just think about what's being suggested here number one the real must say you could take every word of the Hadith and there's Beauty it's flowing so it doesn't stay still and it doesn't become corrupted at any point it's like a flowing pure River the second thing it is deep there is plenty of water for everyone to immerse themselves in the Salah is there as a cure for every single person that wants it there's no shortage of it you don't need to go anywhere necessarily for it of course the Masjid has its place saying in general it's there for you it is near to you it is consistently available to you and it is meant to immerse every single part of your body and it is sweet it's right there it's right there you don't have to travel for it and the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam said that the example is that a person bathes in that River five times a day what type of Filth would remain on a person Allah comments on this if he bathes five times a day think about a person who showers shampoos soaps up conditions five times a day perfumes everything physically speaking can you imagine a person like that that showers five times a day can you imagine a person like that that takes a real shower five times a day what are they gonna smell like what are they going to look like how fresh will they be the prophet saws imagine yourself spiritually bathing five times a day and not all showers are the same there there's the Sunnah there there are different brands of shampoo different brands of soap different fragrances different ways in which you scrub yourself not every shower is the same there is a two minute shower and there is a 20 minute shower not every one of them is the same but what they're going to say when they comment on this is that a true Salah if you immersed yourself five times a day a person could achieve relia with Allah a friendship with Allah just through that alone why because just tasting the sweetness of that five times a day how are you going to go from that to the rest of your day and continue thinking the same way continue speaking the same way continue looking at the same things and Allah azzawajal continues and he says and the remembrance of Allah is greater and their elements say this is loaded with beauty as well is the the remembrance of Allah greater in the Salah or greater as a deterrence meaning as deterring you from these types of evils throughout the day what what is the extent to which this Ayah is suggesting and the scholars say a few things and we can reconcile them number one can you imagine for a moment if in your prayer you are allowed to use your phone and by the way you're not allowed to use your phone in The Prayer by the way can you imagine if in Salah you were able to scroll through your phone can you imagine if you were able to have conversations during Salah I mean you don't have to look further than tawaf and umrah and Hajj and the types of conversations that are ensuing there between the Selfies and the conversations I don't know how much they care some people can get in a matter of just seven rounds can you imagine it in your Salah the one time of the day the the five times of the day that you come to the prayer where you have to at least at the bare minimum not talk about evil things not say evil things not listen to evil things not look at evil things can you imagine if that was compromised what a mercy from Allah that we're not allowed any of that that is a huge Mercy from Allah we're not allowed any of that alhamdulillah because Allah knows how distracted we'd be in Salah we're already distracted enough just by the thoughts for what came before and what comes after the Salah but on top of that says what is it that's going to prohibit a person from the effect of sin inside of them it's the wicked inside the Salaam when your whole body is in a state of zikr five times a day and you're remembering Allah says and beyond that if a person is in a state of remembering Allah throughout the day then they don't even have to wait to be pulled to a full immersion of Victor five times a day what greater way to protect yourself to protect your eyes to protect your ears to protect your tongue then being in a state of remembrance of Allah throughout the day you can't guard yourself around the consistent signals of evil today unless you have a consistent spiritual habit of connection to Allah it's the only way the more extreme those signals get the more committed you have to be to those things that Allah azzawajal put right in front of you so what am I saying dear brothers and sisters not all Salas are equal but if you've been treating your Salah if you've been treating your five daily prayers as just an obligation you need to hurry up and get through and and move on from take a step back and remind yourself that Allah just gave you the greatest gift in these five prayers treat them right honor these five prayers you know subhanallah there's a Hadith and I'll end with this narration it's a beautiful one and it's similar to one that we hear around Ramadan and it's also authentic about two brothers and it's narrated from whose son narrates it from him that there were two brothers in the time of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and one of them one of them died 40 days before the other so just a little over a month before the other one brother died before the other and they were speaking in front of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and they were talking about the one who died first one died 40 days before the other so the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is listening to them praise the first one that passed away and then he says wasn't the second one a Muslim too you're talking about the first one wasn't the second one a Muslim as well and the prophet saws wants to make a point they said they said yes and he wasn't he was all right like he was okay he wasn't as great as the first one and the prophet saws in this particular narration he says what do you know about what rank has prayer delivered him to and the prophet saws repeated that the Salah the example of the Salah is like a flowing river in front of your homes five times a day that you could bathe in it and the prophet saws says you don't know what rank his Salah took him to you don't know how much that extra month of just the five daily prayers alone actually elevated his rank you have no idea dear brothers and sisters when you go to the graveyard and you're seeing these people that are under the ground and you ask yourself what it is they would want if they could have one more chance it might just be that you just do on the side and you you do it as a sense of Burden like I've got to get this out of the way and for them it would be more precious than an entire lifetime to just come back and to get one more Salat one more jummah one more that's the gift that Allah azzawajal has with you right now if they could say give me one more chance let me get one more zoharin one more Asurion what are we doing with these precious prayers and so it's worth it to immerse ourselves to learn the words that we're saying to add on the Sunnah is driven by love to add on the wicked after the Salah and Beyond to remember Allah between the two may Allah prohibit us from the evil things that taint our souls that darken our hearts that don't allow us to perceive his greatness or the magnitude of the gifts that he's given to us anymore may Allah connect us to him in every way purify our Deeds so that they are fully pleasing to him yeah foreign