Essentials of Islamic Prayer Practices

Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds And may Allah's peace and blessings be upon the one who has sent mercy to the worlds Our master Muhammad and upon his family and companions in general As for the rest, peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings This is a brief introduction of how our Prophet used to pray. And this is collected and taken from the authentic Sunnah. And this is extremely important because it was he, who said, pray as you have seen me pray. I haven't seen you pray, O Prophet of Allah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, but I have read the description of your prayer from your companions and the hadiths. that came to us are found in Bukhari, in Muslim, in Sunan Abi Dawood, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Al-Nasa'i, in Al-Mustadrak, in Musnad al-Imam Ahmad, Mu'talim al-Malik, so many books of hadith. You collect them, you check their authenticity, and then you implement it in your prayers. Now the issue of prayer is important because it is one of the pillars of Islam. Not only that, it is a vast and huge topic because, like any forms of worship, it has conditions. It has things that nullify it. It has pillars. It has mandatory acts and it has sunnah acts. And without the knowledge of all of these things, Your prayer would not be complete. And this is the cause where a lot of the Muslims have dispute, argument. They have hatred and enmity towards one another. Simply because you're not praying like I'm praying. Simply because I follow a school different than your school. And this is totally wrong. Salat was made to gather people together. This is why we have congregational prayer. This is why when the Prophet ﷺ used to straighten the rows of the worshippers, he used to say to them, do not differ. Do not go against one another so that Allah ﷻ would not differ your hearts. And this is what we're having at the moment. So this is a brief description. I don't claim that it is the perfect. description, but at least sharing with you that I know would, insha'Allah, elevate the level of our prayers to the level we want, bi-idhnillahi azza wa jal. So first of all, there are conditions, and these conditions must be fulfilled. And the definition of condition, according to the jurors, is that a thing, without it, the form of worship does not exist. And if it is found and fulfilled, that is the condition, this doesn't mean that it has to be found. What does this mean, Sheikh? I'm confused. I'll give you an example, don't worry. One of the conditions of Salat is Wudu, Abolution. So, if I pray without Abolution, my prayer is void. Simple as that, because the condition was not fulfilled. But if I make Abolution, this does not mean I have to pray. I may pray, and I may not pray. So, when the condition is there, It doesn't mean that I have to perform the form of worship. But if it is not fulfilled, if it's not there, this means that even if I perform the worship, the form of worship, it is invalid. So what are the conditions of Salat? There are many. Among them is, first of all, niyyah or intention. And the intention, some make it as a condition. because it comes before the prayer and some make it as a pillar and it's more likely to be a condition. So you have to know what you're doing, you have to intend it. And I will not go into the conditions of Salat because this is a long topic, but I have to know whether I'm praying Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, Isha or Fajr. I just can't say Allahu Akbar and during the prayer say, what is this? I think it's Witter. No, this is not valid. Second condition, facing the Qibla. So if I know the direction of Kaaba, I have to direct myself to it. If I know it's there and I direct myself this way, then my prayer is invalid. Third condition is the entrance of the time of prayer. So I want to pray Maghrib and I can see the sun is about to set or half of it is... has disappeared and I say Allahu Akbar your prayer is invalid. Why? Because the sun has to completely set and disappear for Maghrib to be due and you can't pray before the time is due. Condition number four to cover your awrah. So for a man I have to cover from the navel to the knees this is my awrah. This is the private part that must not be shown without it. my prayer is invalid. Number five is to have purity and purity is divided into two types wudu which is uplifting the status of impurity or ghusl which is uplifting the major state of impurity the ritual impurity this is number one wudu or ghusl. Number two purity of my body No najasa, no impurities on it. Purity of my clothes and purity of the spot that I'm praying on. Three types. These are the conditions. You can look for more details in the books of fiqh. But this is something you have to understand and know. Without it, your prayer is invalid. So be careful. We come to the prayer. I want to pray now. What do I do? I fulfill the conditions. Okay, my aura is covered. I have wudu. I'm facing the qibla. The time is due for prayer. So what do I do? I intend. And how do I intend? Intention is in the heart. It's not something that you verbally say. So if I want to eat an apple, I don't say I intend to eat this green apple in front of me on the table. I just reach out. Invited this is the intention. So my intention now in my heart. I don't have to say anything verbally or mentally I just intend to pray the whole it is the whole time. I make wudu I come and I stand the intention is there I Begin my prayer with a pillar. What is this pillar? You tell me wrong answer The pillar, first pillar of Salat is not Takbir. The first pillar of Salat is standing up when you're able to do so. So for Fard prayers, you don't have the option of sitting down because you're lazy or you feel tired. If you're able to stand up, it's a pillar that you stand up. This is pillar number one. I'm standing up. I do pillar number two which is known as Takbeeratul-Ihram the first inauguration Takbeer by saying Allahu Akbar so now I've started prayer the hadith of the prophet alayhi salam wa tahreemuha al takbeer so it has to be inaugurated with Takbeer the first Takbeer Okay, Shaykh, you said Allahu Akbar and you didn't raise your hands. Yes, raising the hands is not a pillar. This is a sunnah. Whoa, I didn't know that. Well, now you know. This is why I'm here. So saying Allahu Akbar means that I've started praying. Now, the sunnah is to say Allahu Akbar, to raise the hands. If I don't raise the hands, sunnah is gone. Prayer is totally valid and correct. Okay, when to raise the hands, Shaykh? You have one of three. Either before saying Allahu Akbar, or during it, or after it. Can you explain? Yeah, sure. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. It can be. raised before, during or after. This is confirmed sunnah of the Prophet. So we move on. When I say Allahu Akbar, raise my hands, the sunnah is to put the right hand over the left hand on the chest as per the hadith of Wael ibn Hujur. May Allah be pleased with him. And this was a confirmed Sunnah of the Prophet to place the right hand over the left on the chest. Well, the chest itself is an issue of dispute because some authenticate the hadith, some don't. And those who don't differ whether to put it on the belly or to put it underneath the belly. But the most authentic is to put it on the chest. It's from here. to hear. So you put the right hand on the left hand on this chest while in the standing position. Underline, highlight with yellow, bold font. Why? I'll come to discuss this with you because the hadith when describing the Prophet's prayer, they used to say that he used to put the right on the left hand in the standing position. So now I'm standing. Let's begin from scratch. You look at the place of your prostration. You don't look at the chandeliers and look at the people around you. Everything is fine. No, no, no, no. You're praying. Look here. Look there. I asked Allah's messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. Upon looking hither, and thither in prayer. He replied, It is a way of stealing, by which Satan takes away a portion from the prayer of a person. Sahih al-Pukhari narrated Anas bin Malik. The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said, What is wrong with those people who look towards the sky during the prayer? His talk grew stern while delivering this speech, and he said, they should stop looking towards the sky during the prayer. Otherwise, their eyesight would be taken away. Narrated by Sahir Al-Bukhari You are facing Allah Azza wa Jal. So you stand in submissiveness and humility, expressing your poverty, and you say, Allahu Akbar. Where do I raise my hands? Two hadiths. One next to the shoulders, one next to the ears. So how do I understand this? It's very easy. The palm is next to your shoulders. The fingers are next to the level. of your ears and this is how you combine between the two authentic hadiths so it is not like as people say or as people do this is all wrong it is not no it is this way so the palms next to the shoulders the fingers are next to the level of the ears facing the qibla You say, Allahu Akbar, looking at the place of your prostration. Where do I put my forehead? I look at it whenever I am in the standing position. So it's always like this. Then I place my right hand over the left hand on the chest. And there are two ways of doing this. Look at my fingers. This is my wrist, my palm, and my arm. It's in between, like this. So this is one way of doing it. The other way which is also authentic of doing it is grabbing my wrist. like this so I'm grabbing it some people want to make something in between so they do this and this is wrong either you put the whole palm of your hand with the fingers on the arm wrist and hand or you simply grab your wrist left wrist like this so what people do like this is totally wrong. Some brothers from Africa do this and they tilt themselves. What are you doing? They said, we're preserving the heart. When was the last time we took an x-ray? Maybe your heart is on the right. Then we have a problem. Where are you getting this from? The sunnah is to stand idle in the middle, not to the left, not to the right, as the Prophet used to pray. Capisce? Move on. Do the Takbir, put the right on the left on the chest and you don't have to put it like some of the brothers do this. This is extreme. Some of the brothers maybe, Allahu Akbar, this is too loose. Some of the brothers say, Allahu Akbar, this is too extreme. Follow the way of the Prophet, be moderate and don't make an issue of it. Some brothers say, Allahu Akbar and they pray like this and you start what are you doing? I'm following the school of so-and-so. No, this is wrong. Is it wajib? Is it mandatory? No. Is it a fard? A rukun? A pillar? No. It's a sunnah. So don't fight over things that are sunnah. Prayer is more important than fighting over such issues. Finished? Okay. What do we do? we move on to another sunnah which is called Du'a al-istiftah. So Du'a al-istiftah, there are different variations. One of the most easiest and popular, Subhanakallahu bihamdik tabarakasmuk wa ta'ala jadduk wa la ilaha ghayruk Very easy. This is a sunnah. If I skip it... Do I have any problem? No problem. Another famous one is the dua of Abu Huraira in Sahih Muslim. Beautiful dua, Sahih Muslim. There are three or four more. You pick and choose. If you skip it, no problem. Then, I begin with saying أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم or أعوذ بالله السميع العليم من الشيطان الرجيم or there are a number of ways of seeking refuge in Allah from shaytan mandatory? no, sunnah then I say بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم mandatory? no, it is sunnah Shaykh Give me a break. What do you mean sunnah? In the Quran if I open it I find Bismillahirrahmanirrahim number one. This is a verse from the Fatiha. Akhi, it's an issue of dispute. And the most authentic opinion according to the Sahih Sunnah that Basmalah is not a part of Fatiha. It is a dividing verse between the Surahs of the Quran with the exception of Surah Tawbah chapter number 9. And the hadith is clearly stating this. When Allah says, I've divided prayer between me and my servant into two halves. When my servant says, Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen, Allah says, my servant has praised me. Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim and so on. It goes on like this. So Allah did not mention Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim, which means it's not part of the Fatiha. But this is... another topic maybe we'll discuss it later on. Then I begin in one of the pillars of Salat which is Al-Fatiha. So I say Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem. I say each ayah and I stop and I pause not Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem Malik Yawm Al-Din Iyyaka Na'budu Wa Iyyaka Nasta'eenu Hidina As-Sirata Al-Mustaqeem I ran out of breath. If I were younger, I would have continued the whole surah. This is permissible, but it is not the sunnah. The sunnah is to stop at the end of each verse with a pause. And this is why when we pray, we don't find the taste and beauty of it. Because we want to rush things. While if you say, Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim Maliki yawmi d-deen You find that there is tranquility, submissiveness, khushur in your Salat. You get closer to Allah. I finish Fatiha. This is a pillar. Now I'm talking about pillars, mandatory acts and voluntary acts. Once I finish the Fatiha, I can go to Rukur. Whoa, Shaykh, wait, wait, wait. There's a Surah afterwards. I know there's a Surah afterwards. This Surah is a Sunnah. You're kidding me. No, I'm not. There is a Surah after the Fatiha, but it is a Sunnah. So if I say, وَنَ الضَّالِّينَ Ameen Allahu Akbar In Fajr, my prayer is valid I didn't know that Now you know If I say it in Maghrib, it's valid If I say it in Isha, it's valid The sunnah is to recite a surah afterwards Or a verse as a minimum And the sky is the limit Interesting So I recite a surah afterwards Oliya ayyuhal kafirun I finish that Then I go for ruku'One question, Shaykh After I say, Should I pause so that the people behind me can recite the Fatiha? So I say Say, O disbelievers Why did you stop? So that the people can recite the Fatiha. This is how they do it in Mecca and Medina. He says, okay, how did the Prophet do it? Because he said, pray as you have seen me pray. My job is to come and check how the Prophet used to pray. Never ever was reported that he paused between the Fatiha and the Surah. So this is clear. He never paused. Okay, so you say وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ آمِينَ قُلْ يَا أَيُّهَا الْكَافِرُونَ Just like that, yeah, just like that. Okay, we move on to finishing the surah. We finished the surah. What should we do now? After finishing the surah, the sunnah is to go for rukur. So, how do I perform rukur? So, I finish the surah, I say Allahu Akbar. Now listen, I haven't said it yet. Raising the hands, sunnah or mandatory? Sunnah. So the raising of the hands is a sunnah. And when do I say Allahu Akbar? Mistake number one, Allahu Akbar. This is wrong. Mistake number two, Allahu Akbar Wow! If these are two mistakes then what should I do? You should say Takbeer while moving not in the standing position and not after you've reached your rukoor So that is called Takbeer of movement So this is the way it should be Allahu Akbar So while moving saying the Takbeer What is the ruling of the Takbeer, Shaykh? This is wajib mandatory, meaning that if you purposely skip it, your prayer is invalid. And if you skipped it out of forgetfulness or an error, you have to compensate this by sujood as-sahub. So, I go to the rukur position. And what I do is the following Now in the ruku'ah position I have to do the following Number one My palms of the hands are spread And grabbing my knees like this So the fingers are spread My back is straight So it's not like this and it's not stretching out downwards. The Sunnah is to keep your back straight as if someone puts water on it, it will remain, it will not spill. I don't know how bad I'm doing this or how I'm doing this, I don't see myself but I try my level best, do it according to the Sunnah. A head as described in the Hadith should not be pointed up like this. and it should not be tilted down like this. So it should be normal way of doing it. So this is the rukur. Now you ask me, where should I look, Shaykh? It's an issue of dispute. Shaykh al-Albani says, in the standing position, we were told to look at the prostration spot. But in the rukur, there is no mentioning of that. which made some scholars say you should look at the spot of your sujood, prostration, like Shaykh ibn Aithaymeen. But this would be proven to be difficult because if you do this, when you're doing ruku'and you're looking at the position of your prostration, you will find that your head is a bit tilted. So Shaykh al-Albani says either you look between the area of your prostration and your feet, so in the middle, or you look between your feet like so. And this area is something that is open. The Prophet did not mention any specific place, your companions did not describe any specific place, so insha'Allah it is more than possible to do whatever you think is best for your Salat. Now, after finishing my rukur, during it I have to repeat the dhikr. And what is the dhikr? I have to say subhanarrabbi al-azim, which is mandatory. And one is the minimum. Three is recommended. The sky is the limit afterwards. I can say subhanarrabbi al-azim. I can say Subhanarabbiya al-Azim wa bihamdih. I can say Allahumma laka raka'atu wa bika amantu wa laka aslamtu. Khasha'laka sam'i wa basari wa azmi wa mukhi wa mastakallat bihi kadami. Different kinds of dhikr you can say. The minimal requirement is one, Subhanarabbiya al-Azim. This is mandatory. You cannot play with it. So we say, Subhanarabbiya al-Azim. While I'm in the ruku' Among the mistakes people do is like this, سُبْحَانَ رَبِّيَ الْعَظِيمِ So they say it while going down or coming up. And this is not valid. You have to say it when you are totally in ruku'a, relaxed, every bone is back to its place, by saying سُبْحَانَ رَبِّيَ الْعَظِيمِ وَبِحَمْدِهِ Once, enough. Then while rising up you say, سَمِعَ اللَّهُ لِمَنْ حَمِدَهُ And you raise your hands. again. So we raise our hands in the inauguration takbir. We raise our hands when we go for rukur. We raise our hands when we rise up from rukur. And this is the sunnah according to the hadith of Abdullah ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, in Sahih al-Bukhari. He's describing the Prophet's prayer, alayhi salatu wasalam. And we say, سَمِعَ اللَّهُ لِمَنْ حَمِدَهُ This is mandatory. 4. An individual praying on his own. 4. An imam leading prayers for worshippers. And I follow that by saying, رَبَّنَا لَكَ الْحَمْدِ رَبَّنَا وَلَكَ الْحَمْدِ اللَّهُمَّ رَبَّنَا لَكَ الْحَمْدِ اللَّهُمَّ رَبَّنَا وَلَكَ الْحَمْدِ Either one of these four does the job. And this is said, by the Imam, by the individual and by the followers, which means that if I'm praying behind an Imam and he rises from ruku'ah saying سَمِعَ اللَّهُ لِمَنْ حَمِدَهُ I as a follower do not say سَمِعَ اللَّهُ لِمَنْ حَمِدَهُ I just answer what he has said So I've raised or I've got up from ruku'ah position saying سَمِعَ اللَّهُ لِمَنْ حَمِدَهُ رَبَّنَا وَلَكَ الْحَمْدُ There are a lot of adhkar I can say afterwards but this is what's essential you can say مِلْ أَسَّمَوَاتِهُ وَمِلْ أَرْضِهُ وَمِلْ أَمَاشِتَ مِنْ شَيْءٍ بَعْبٍ you can say رَبَّنَا وَلَكَ الْحَمْدَ حَمْدًا كَثِيرًا طَيِّبًا مُبَارَكًا فِيهِ and do I place my hands on the chest or leave it on the sides either way is possible what do you suggest Shaykh I personally follow the hadith of Wa'il ibn Hajar which says that Whenever the Prophet ﷺ stood up, he used to put the right on the left on the chest. So now after I've risen from rukur, what is this position called? Is it sujood? Is it rukur? What is it? It's standing up. So according to the hadith, then I should do this. The majority of scholars say, no, you have to put it on your side. But there is not a single hadith. that stated that the Prophet used to put his hands on his side in any position. So it's an issue of dispute but, again, this is a Sunnah. You put it on your chest, you put it on your side, there's no problem. Don't make an issue out of it. Don't label people or classify people or think that people are better than you or worse than you. No. Just leave it as it is. This is the conviction. Leave them. So... I'm in the ruku'position. SubhanAllah. This is my standing up from the Quran. What should I do now? I should go for sujood. Now for sujood, there are two ways. A different opinion among scholars. Should I land first on my knees? Or should I land first on my hands? It's an issue of dispute. The reason of that is the hadith of the Prophet when he said that one should not go down like a camel does when the camel wants to sit. Rather he should put his hands first before his knees. And understanding whether the hands of a camel are their elbows or the knees in his feet, it's an issue of dispute. Either way, is okay insha'Allah. So, however you feel comfortable with, you should do it. I personally, due to age, due to preying on marble or stones, whenever there are pebbles in the ground, if you land from the standing position on your knees, would surely injure yourself, one way or the other. For elders, it's difficult to go on their knees, especially if they have knee problems. It's always best to go first on the hand. It's like a shock absorber. It absorbs the fall itself. It eases the pressure and the weight on the knees. So how to do this? This is what we'll, inshallah, show you now. So in order to do sujood, you will find that I'll take my glasses. Now I can't see you, but alhamdulillah, you can see me. Why do you take your glasses off, Sheikh? because it will hinder putting the sujood spots properly. What do you mean by sujood? Prostration. As the Prophet said, I was ordered to prostrate on seven limbs. He said, the face, and he pointed to his nose, meaning the forehead and the nose. These are related. This is one organ. The hands, the knees, and the feet. These are seven. So, I want to go to sujood. Do I raise my hands? No. I just say Allahu Akbar while falling to sujood and this is what I do Allahu Akbar This is the way of performing sujood. What are the things I should pay attention to? Before I do the prostration, I'm still in the standing position. You have to know that first of all my hands should be pointing to the Qibla. So my hands are not this way and are not this way. Rather, they are pointing to the qibla. Now, where should I place my hands? I have the option either to place my hands next to my shoulders or a little bit close to my ears. My knees are not so close together. They are apart. My feet, they are close to each other, erect, with some toes, not all of them because it's impossible to have all your toes pointing to the qibla, but the toes that are bendable can point to the qibla. My arms are wide and spread, so my biceps are not close to my sides. So I have to spread as I'm spreading my wings. And my stomach is not touching my thighs. Some people just go very down. And I'll show you quickly, hopefully to the best of my knowledge and ability. So my forehead, my nose must touch the ground. And these seven limbs must touch the ground throughout the sujood. Because part of... The famous mistake is having your feet dangling or some of the brothers having the left hand on the ground and the other hand while prostrating playing with his beard or looking at something in his pocket. So he's prostrating on six limbs and this renders his sujood void if he does this without any legitimate reason. So I was standing up. Now I'm falling into the sujood position and... I'm saying Allahu Akbar in between. So let's look at how I make the sujood. This is one of the ways of doing it. So my hands and fingers should be pointing towards the qibla. My face, my forehead, and my nose are touching the ground. I should have my arms apart and away from my body. And at the same time, My stomach is not touching my thighs. Some brothers do this and this is wrong. And this is too much spread. So the appropriate way is either having my hands next to my ears or to my shoulders. I can have this one here and I can have this one here. Look at my feet. They are touched together, not... far away, they are touched together with my toes bent towards the qiblah as much as possible. Now if I'm praying next to people to my right and to my left, if I do this I'm gonna annoy them and maybe harm them. So it is permissible when you are in a tight position to put your elbows on your thighs or inside. What is haram and prohibited is to do this. This is prohibited, which I have my arms, forearms on the ground like a dog. And the Prophet said that this is totally prohibited. What should I say when I'm prostrating? SubhanAllah. SubhanAllah. sabbuhun qaddoosun rabbu al malaaikati warrooh so many duas the minimum requirement subhan rabbiyal a'la can I make dua? go ahead make dua as much as I want as much as you want oh Allah pay my debts oh Allah guide my children oh Allah guide my wife oh Allah get me a second wife oh Allah grant me health whatever in Arabic Shaykh I'm non-Arab and I can't say it in Arabic. No problem, say it in your own language. Oh, this is interesting. Yes, the closest you are is when you are in sujood position. So if I'm in my sujood position, and I would like to sit between the two prostrations, I say Allahu Akbar and I sit on my left foot this is called iftirash and I erect my right foot with as many possible toes towards the qibla my hands are on my thighs and my knees so it's in between the area is Possible you don't have to do this. You don't have to do this. It's here sit normally don't be so technical sometimes People are so technical they forget the prayer they forget what they're ever sighted and just think oh am I doing this right? Am I doing this wrong be natural follow the Sunna acknowledge that this is a Sunna the way of the Prophet and do it naturally And when I sit like this, I say, رَبِّ اغْفِرْ لِي Minimum is once. I can say 10 times, 20 times. I can say 2, 3, 4, whatever. رَبِّ اغْفِرْ لِي Issue of dispute is saying رَبِّ اغْفِرْ لِي mandatory or sunnah. Some scholars say it's sunnah. I am inclined to say that it is mandatory because the Prophet, peace be upon him, always used to say it. Any other dua? Yes, there is a longer dua. رَبَّ اغْفِرْ لِي وَارْحَمْنِي وَعَافِنِي وَجْبُرْنِي وَوَهْدِنِي وَارْفَعْنِي All of this is possible. This is the prostration or the sitting between the two prostrations. It's called iftirash. And if you would like to show it from behind, I'm sitting on my left foot and my right foot is erect. This is the sujna. Shaykh, I have problems with my right foot, so can I... Ah, put it down like this? No problem. Shaykh, I'd like to sit with two feet on one another because this is the only way I feel comfortable. No problem. Your prayer is valid. You will lose the reward of the sunnah. But your prayer is totally valid, akhi. No problem. Not only that, Abdullah ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, at the end of his time, he used to sit cross-legged. And when some of his companions followed him, he said, no, no, no, this is not the sunnah. I'm doing this because of my knees. You should sit like the sunnah. But the position is what? Sitting. No matter how you sit, the right thing. But the more you are following the Prophet, the better it is for your word. I must do a second sujood. And it's the same format. I say, Allahu Akbar. The same thing exactly, SubhanAllah. Now, after I finish my sujood, I have to rise up to the second rak'ah. There is a sunnah that is called Jalsatul Istirahah, where I stand up, before I stand up, I give a small pause, and then I say Allahu Akbar. So, when standing up, one... should not stand with four fingers between the two feet, like some schools of thought say. And you go to the masjid and you find the people standing like this. What is this? If you want to answer the call of nature, go ahead, but don't come to the prayer when you're this tight. So this is, the way I'm standing is wrong. Some brothers, when they want to come and pray, they do this. Why? He says, the one on the right is far away from me, and the one on the left is far from me. And the brothers is doing this and doing this. Akhi, what are you doing? This is done in karate, in taekwondo, but not in prayer. So how should I stand? Stand normally, Akhi. The width of your shoulders should be relevant to the distance between your two feet. Don't stand like this, because this is not pointing to the qibla. and don't stand like this because this means you have to see your orthopedic surgeon you have a problem with your knees but stand in a normal way either like this or a little bit part away part from each other make it natural the way you stand so i rose to the second rakah do i raise my hands no i simply Akbar and resume my second rakah exactly as the first rak'ah. And I recite the Fatiha. I recite an optional surah afterwards as according to the sunnah. Now one thing that we need to pay attention to and 90% of Muslims are doing unfortunately, it is a mandatory act of reciting the Quran, of making dhikr, of making dua, is to move your lips. What do you mean, Sheikh? If you pray the Fatiha like this, I just said Ameen in my head. I did not move my lips. I did not move my tongue. Your prayer is invalid. Oof, invalid. Yes, it's totally invalid. Why? See, when I think of punching my cameraman in the face or taking... The wallet of the man sitting there and robbing him of his money. I didn't utter it. I didn't act upon it. There is no sin on me. Whatever goes in my mind, there is no sin. Likewise, if I just simply recite the Quran in my mind without moving my lips with it, it does not count. It's just scanning things in my head. I have to say, I have to move my lips and my tongue. And this is why when some of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ came to him, he said to him, your tongue must remain moist with the remembrance of Allah. Which means that you have to move your tongue when... reciting the Quran saying Allahu Akbar. The people they do like this and they keep on their prayer without moving their lips and this is totally wrong. One of the things that a lot of the Muslims also make a mistake in is keeping their eyes closed. So what are you doing? Well I am daydreaming. I think I'm on the beach in... Qadazoo, in Kaan or Nis. Wow, it's fun. Allahu Akbar. What? This is totally haram. Why are you closing your eyes? He said, oh, Shaykh, I'm distracted. Whenever I keep my eyes open, the man in front of me is moving, and the next one to me is touching his pocket, and the third one is picking his nose, and every time I feel tempted to look at my watch, And sometimes I say, سَمِعَ اللَّهُ لِمَنْ حَمِدَهُ And I watch the chandeliers and the lights and the writing on the wall. I get distracted, so I close my eyes. This is not permissible. Why? Because neither the Prophet ﷺ nor his companions had ever done this. And they had more things to distract them than you. Now, if you tell me that there's a child in front of you while praying, sometimes you get these situations. You get a three year or four year old child standing in front of you looking into your eyes and doing faces to you. This would make you break into laughter. So in order to avoid this you close your eyes for maybe five, ten seconds until he goes away. This is okay. But to think that tranquility comes only through closing your eyes while doing this, this is against the law and it's not permissible. Also, one of the common mistakes... is that when you are in the ruku'position and you say, people think that this is time for du'a, qunoot. So they say, This is wrong. The raising of the hands should be, if you want to make du'a, either put your hands to your sides or to what I have indicated to earlier, put the right on the left on the chest and say, This is only done in Qunut of Witer When you're making Dua in Qunut of Witer Not during your prayers as usual I bow and I prostrate And then I sit for the first Tashahud So when I rise up from the second Sujood To sit for my first Tashahud I'm in the position Iftirash. I sit on my left foot with my right foot erect with my toes pointing to the qibla and I begin to say at tahiyyat which is mandatory. Now my left hand is on my knee and thigh in here. My right hand has two positions. The first position is to grab the two pinky and the one next to it finger to attach the middle finger with the thumb doing a circle like this and To point with my index finger like this This is position one which the Sunnah came with the second position is To make a fist with all four fingers pointing only with the index finger so either this or this Now, what do I do with the index finger? The sunnah, as in the hadith of Wael ibn Hajar, the Prophet, whenever he sat, alayhi salatu wasalam, for tashahud, he used to point his index finger, moving it, making dua with it. So the sunnah is to point it like this, shake it in its position, not circling like some people do, and not... going up and down like people do, rather than pointing it and moving it. There is another hadith which is not as strong, not as authentic, which was narrated by Abdullah ibn Zubayr, may Allah be pleased with him and with his father, that the Prophet used to point and does not move. But the most authentic opinion is the hadith of Wael ibn Hajar, that he used to move it throughout. So when do we stop, Shaykh? You begin by saying, with different variations of this Tashahud and I'm moving my finger point out that I can say either one The Hadith of Umar or the Hadith of Abdullah bin Mas'ud As-salamu alayka ayyuhannabi This is Umar bin Khattab and others Or I can say that what Abdullah bin Mas'ud used to say Which is in Sahih al-Bukhari As-salamu alannabi wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh And he said that we used to say at the time of the Prophet when he was alive As-salamu alayka ayyuhannabi But after he died we used to say السلام على النبي ورحمة الله وبركاته So I can say either one. Now this is the first as-shahud. Do I offer salutation afterwards by saying اللهم صلي على محمد وعلى آل محمد No. The most authentic opinion is that this is a sunnah. Imam Shafi'i said that if you add salutation upon the Prophet as-shahud in the first as-shahud, this is recommended. And the vast majority of scholars say this is okay, but it is not per the sunnah. So you stop at وَأَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ Now, then you go and stand up for your third rak'ah. In Fajr, I continue. اللهم صلي على محمد وعلى آل محمد And I point out my finger throughout until I offer salam. If I'm in Maghrib or Dhuhr, Asr or Isha, I stand up for the third rak'ah. I continue the third raka'a, the fourth raka'a, and then I sit for the last tashahud. In the last tashahud, which is in a prayer that has two tashahud, the first one and the last one, I sit in the position known as tawarruk. And tawarruk means that I sit on the hip, the wirk, and I sit on my left buttock. This is called Tawarruk. And I erect my right foot as usual, but my left foot, which I used to sit on, now comes underneath my right leg. So this is called Tawarruk. The Prophet used to do this in the third Raka'ah in Maghrib and in the fourth Raka'ah of Zohar Asr and Aisha. Now, I place my left hand over... my knee with it and sometimes it's erect so that I can lean on it because I can see that my hip and my side is a bit tilted because of this way of sitting and my hand is on my thigh pointing my finger and I'm looking and this is something important when I sit for the Shahood where the hadith The authentic hadith states that you should look at this index finger. So I should keep my sight through my hood while wiggling it or moving it in its position, shaking it. And this is the sunnah. Some scholars say you can also look at the position of your prostration, but the hadith proves that this is the sunnah. doing it and that is looking at your eye reciting مصلي على محمد وعلى آل محمد كما صليت على إبراهيم وعلى إبراهيم إنك حميد ومجيد اللهم بارك على محمد till the end and then it is recommended to say or seek refuge in Allah from the four things اللهم نعود بك من عذاب جهنم وعذاب القبر من فتة المحي والممات من فتة المسيح الدجال and then I can ask whatever I want Same as sujood, because this is a place where the Prophet told us, that you should select whatever you want from dua in this position. So I ask for Allah's forgiveness, I ask for Allah's provision, I ask for Allah's health, guidance, etc. And then he recommended to conclude before salam by saying, This dua of Mu'adh ibn Jabal, some say it's before salam, others say it's after salam. I'm inclined to say it before salam because this is the time of dua. And then I offer salam. And how do I offer salam? Say As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. If you notice, I did not pause. I did not say. As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi It's not this way. And it's wrong to say it. People say, As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi And then turn. No. It should be simultaneous. As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi And the sunnah is to Make those behind you see your cheek. So you don't say, do this. So they see your cheek as they reported it in the companions. We used to see the whiteness of his cheek, alayhi salatu wasalam, to the right and to the left. Among the common mistakes, your hands. In the Tashahud, after you finish, people usually do this. What is this? It's a sign that they have concluded. Who are you signing this for? So while in the Tashahud, they finish the Tashahud, and the Imam is still praying. So they say, اللهم عني على ذكرك وحسن عبادتك By the way, guys, I'm finished. Some of them, in Salam, they would say, السلام عليكم ورحمة الله السلام عليكم ورحمة الله As if they're giving... Right indicator, left indicator, the driving, I think, is part of driving lessons. No, it's wrong. You don't have to do this. You're not turning right or left. So doing this is prohibited. The Prophet saw the companions moving their hands while in prayer, and he said, do not do this like the tails of wild horses. You know, the tail of the wild horses always wiggling and upright. And the Prophet prohibited them from saying this. It is important to learn how to pray according to the Sunnah and that you're doing this for the sake of Allah. Some of the brothers in the standing position when they're praying and the end of the Surah is Minal Jinnati Wannas The Imam is reciting and I'm praying behind him. The moment he says, Minal Jinnati he lets go. What is this? This is indicating that I know that this is the last verse of the Imam and that he's going for rukur and this is acknowledged in long surahs. So if he's reciting from a long surah that people don't usually know, and I know that he's going to make ruku'now, I let go. So people next to me say, oh, mashallah, he's a hafidh. He says, sheikh, I didn't do this for that intention. Why did you do it then? Don't. Follow the imam. As long as the imam is doing this, you do it. The moment the imam says, Allahu Akbar, you let go. But not fulfilling this and doing it before the imam means that There's something wrong. Either you want to inform people that I know the surah and I know that he's going for ruku'I'm a smart man. Or there's something wrong, I don't know what. Another thing that a lot of the Muslims fail to do is the moment the imam says Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah you find the congregation doing this. And if the imam take his time to do the left one, they say Come on man, I'm waiting. Imam, what are you doing? Come on ya khiman. My neck is hurting. So they do this and this is totally wrong. They should wait until the Imam says, As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. Now they say their first Taslim. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. So it is wrong to do Taslim with the Imam when he first does his first. No, you have to only move after he finishes the Salam. Also, a very common mistake is how you follow the Imam. What do you mean? The companions of the Prophet ﷺ told us in an authentic hadith that when we used to pray with the Prophet ﷺ, we did not bend our backs. Now, they're in the standing position. Their backs are straight. We never bent our backs. until the forehead of the Prophet alayhi salam touched the ground. Whoa! Meaning that if the Prophet says, Allahu Akbar, they wait until his head touches the ground, then they start descending. The vast majority of people, the moment the Imam says, they immediately go and fall. Maybe they are fitter, faster than the Imam, so they race him and they go. prostration before the Imam and this invalidates a prayer. So be careful. You do not move from the pillar you're doing to the following pillar until the Imam reaches it. So in Rukur, he says, Allah, don't, until he bends, then you bend. When he says, once he's erect and standing, you stand up and you cascade this to all your prayers. People ask when we stand in the direction of Qibla, so how pinpoint should we be exact in our direction? Well, the Prophet told us the answer. The sisters say, are our prayers similar or different to men's prayers? A lot of the sisters also ask about their attire when praying. How do we pray a traveler's prayer? What are the conditions where tayammum is allowed in order to pray? How to pray the misraka? There are people who kiss their thumbs during adhan and iqamah when ash hadu anna muhammadan rasulullah is said. Is there any proof of this? Definitely not. Question. Can one pray Sunnah of Fajr after the Fardh Salat?

You collect them, you check their authenticity, and then you implement it in your prayers. Now the issue of prayer is important because it is one of the pillars of Islam. Not only that, it is a vast and huge topic because, like any forms of worship, it has conditions.

It has things that nullify it. It has pillars. It has mandatory acts and it has sunnah acts. And without the knowledge of all of these things, Your prayer would not be complete. And this is the cause where a lot of the Muslims have dispute, argument.

They have hatred and enmity towards one another. Simply because you're not praying like I'm praying. Simply because I follow a school different than your school.

And this is totally wrong. Salat was made to gather people together. This is why we have congregational prayer.

This is why when the Prophet ﷺ used to straighten the rows of the worshippers, he used to say to them, do not differ. Do not go against one another so that Allah ﷻ would not differ your hearts. And this is what we're having at the moment.

So this is a brief description. I don't claim that it is the perfect. description, but at least sharing with you that I know would, insha'Allah, elevate the level of our prayers to the level we want, bi-idhnillahi azza wa jal.

So first of all, there are conditions, and these conditions must be fulfilled. And the definition of condition, according to the jurors, is that a thing, without it, the form of worship does not exist. And if it is found and fulfilled, that is the condition, this doesn't mean that it has to be found. What does this mean, Sheikh? I'm confused.

I'll give you an example, don't worry. One of the conditions of Salat is Wudu, Abolution. So, if I pray without Abolution, my prayer is void.

Simple as that, because the condition was not fulfilled. But if I make Abolution, this does not mean I have to pray. I may pray, and I may not pray. So, when the condition is there, It doesn't mean that I have to perform the form of worship.

But if it is not fulfilled, if it's not there, this means that even if I perform the worship, the form of worship, it is invalid. So what are the conditions of Salat? There are many.

Among them is, first of all, niyyah or intention. And the intention, some make it as a condition. because it comes before the prayer and some make it as a pillar and it's more likely to be a condition. So you have to know what you're doing, you have to intend it.

And I will not go into the conditions of Salat because this is a long topic, but I have to know whether I'm praying Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, Isha or Fajr. I just can't say Allahu Akbar and during the prayer say, what is this? I think it's Witter. No, this is not valid. Second condition, facing the Qibla.

So if I know the direction of Kaaba, I have to direct myself to it. If I know it's there and I direct myself this way, then my prayer is invalid. Third condition is the entrance of the time of prayer. So I want to pray Maghrib and I can see the sun is about to set or half of it is... has disappeared and I say Allahu Akbar your prayer is invalid.

Why? Because the sun has to completely set and disappear for Maghrib to be due and you can't pray before the time is due. Condition number four to cover your awrah. So for a man I have to cover from the navel to the knees this is my awrah. This is the private part that must not be shown without it.

my prayer is invalid. Number five is to have purity and purity is divided into two types wudu which is uplifting the status of impurity or ghusl which is uplifting the major state of impurity the ritual impurity this is number one wudu or ghusl. Number two purity of my body No najasa, no impurities on it. Purity of my clothes and purity of the spot that I'm praying on.

Three types. These are the conditions. You can look for more details in the books of fiqh.

But this is something you have to understand and know. Without it, your prayer is invalid. So be careful.

We come to the prayer. I want to pray now. What do I do? I fulfill the conditions.

Okay, my aura is covered. I have wudu. I'm facing the qibla. The time is due for prayer. So what do I do?

I intend. And how do I intend? Intention is in the heart. It's not something that you verbally say. So if I want to eat an apple, I don't say I intend to eat this green apple in front of me on the table.

I just reach out. Invited this is the intention. So my intention now in my heart.

I don't have to say anything verbally or mentally I just intend to pray the whole it is the whole time. I make wudu I come and I stand the intention is there I Begin my prayer with a pillar. What is this pillar? You tell me wrong answer The pillar, first pillar of Salat is not Takbir. The first pillar of Salat is standing up when you're able to do so.

So for Fard prayers, you don't have the option of sitting down because you're lazy or you feel tired. If you're able to stand up, it's a pillar that you stand up. This is pillar number one.

I'm standing up. I do pillar number two which is known as Takbeeratul-Ihram the first inauguration Takbeer by saying Allahu Akbar so now I've started prayer the hadith of the prophet alayhi salam wa tahreemuha al takbeer so it has to be inaugurated with Takbeer the first Takbeer Okay, Shaykh, you said Allahu Akbar and you didn't raise your hands. Yes, raising the hands is not a pillar. This is a sunnah. Whoa, I didn't know that.

Well, now you know. This is why I'm here. So saying Allahu Akbar means that I've started praying. Now, the sunnah is to say Allahu Akbar, to raise the hands.

If I don't raise the hands, sunnah is gone. Prayer is totally valid and correct. Okay, when to raise the hands, Shaykh? You have one of three. Either before saying Allahu Akbar, or during it, or after it.

Can you explain? Yeah, sure. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar.

It can be. raised before, during or after. This is confirmed sunnah of the Prophet. So we move on.

When I say Allahu Akbar, raise my hands, the sunnah is to put the right hand over the left hand on the chest as per the hadith of Wael ibn Hujur. May Allah be pleased with him. And this was a confirmed Sunnah of the Prophet to place the right hand over the left on the chest. Well, the chest itself is an issue of dispute because some authenticate the hadith, some don't. And those who don't differ whether to put it on the belly or to put it underneath the belly.

But the most authentic is to put it on the chest. It's from here. to hear.

So you put the right hand on the left hand on this chest while in the standing position. Underline, highlight with yellow, bold font. Why?

I'll come to discuss this with you because the hadith when describing the Prophet's prayer, they used to say that he used to put the right on the left hand in the standing position. So now I'm standing. Let's begin from scratch.

You look at the place of your prostration. You don't look at the chandeliers and look at the people around you. Everything is fine. No, no, no, no. You're praying.

Look here. Look there. I asked Allah's messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.

Upon looking hither, and thither in prayer. He replied, It is a way of stealing, by which Satan takes away a portion from the prayer of a person. Sahih al-Pukhari narrated Anas bin Malik.

The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said, What is wrong with those people who look towards the sky during the prayer? His talk grew stern while delivering this speech, and he said, they should stop looking towards the sky during the prayer. Otherwise, their eyesight would be taken away.

Narrated by Sahir Al-Bukhari You are facing Allah Azza wa Jal. So you stand in submissiveness and humility, expressing your poverty, and you say, Allahu Akbar. Where do I raise my hands? Two hadiths. One next to the shoulders, one next to the ears.

So how do I understand this? It's very easy. The palm is next to your shoulders. The fingers are next to the level.

of your ears and this is how you combine between the two authentic hadiths so it is not like as people say or as people do this is all wrong it is not no it is this way so the palms next to the shoulders the fingers are next to the level of the ears facing the qibla You say, Allahu Akbar, looking at the place of your prostration. Where do I put my forehead? I look at it whenever I am in the standing position.

So it's always like this. Then I place my right hand over the left hand on the chest. And there are two ways of doing this.

Look at my fingers. This is my wrist, my palm, and my arm. It's in between, like this.

So this is one way of doing it. The other way which is also authentic of doing it is grabbing my wrist. like this so I'm grabbing it some people want to make something in between so they do this and this is wrong either you put the whole palm of your hand with the fingers on the arm wrist and hand or you simply grab your wrist left wrist like this so what people do like this is totally wrong. Some brothers from Africa do this and they tilt themselves. What are you doing?

They said, we're preserving the heart. When was the last time we took an x-ray? Maybe your heart is on the right. Then we have a problem. Where are you getting this from?

The sunnah is to stand idle in the middle, not to the left, not to the right, as the Prophet used to pray. Capisce? Move on.

Do the Takbir, put the right on the left on the chest and you don't have to put it like some of the brothers do this. This is extreme. Some of the brothers maybe, Allahu Akbar, this is too loose.

Some of the brothers say, Allahu Akbar, this is too extreme. Follow the way of the Prophet, be moderate and don't make an issue of it. Some brothers say, Allahu Akbar and they pray like this and you start what are you doing?

I'm following the school of so-and-so. No, this is wrong. Is it wajib?

Is it mandatory? No. Is it a fard?

A rukun? A pillar? No. It's a sunnah. So don't fight over things that are sunnah.

Prayer is more important than fighting over such issues. Finished? Okay. What do we do?

we move on to another sunnah which is called Du'a al-istiftah. So Du'a al-istiftah, there are different variations. One of the most easiest and popular, Subhanakallahu bihamdik tabarakasmuk wa ta'ala jadduk wa la ilaha ghayruk Very easy.

This is a sunnah. If I skip it... Do I have any problem? No problem. Another famous one is the dua of Abu Huraira in Sahih Muslim.

Beautiful dua, Sahih Muslim. There are three or four more. You pick and choose. If you skip it, no problem. Then, I begin with saying أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم or أعوذ بالله السميع العليم من الشيطان الرجيم or there are a number of ways of seeking refuge in Allah from shaytan mandatory?

no, sunnah then I say بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم mandatory? no, it is sunnah Shaykh Give me a break. What do you mean sunnah? In the Quran if I open it I find Bismillahirrahmanirrahim number one. This is a verse from the Fatiha.

Akhi, it's an issue of dispute. And the most authentic opinion according to the Sahih Sunnah that Basmalah is not a part of Fatiha. It is a dividing verse between the Surahs of the Quran with the exception of Surah Tawbah chapter number 9. And the hadith is clearly stating this.

When Allah says, I've divided prayer between me and my servant into two halves. When my servant says, Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen, Allah says, my servant has praised me. Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim and so on.

It goes on like this. So Allah did not mention Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim, which means it's not part of the Fatiha. But this is... another topic maybe we'll discuss it later on. Then I begin in one of the pillars of Salat which is Al-Fatiha.

So I say Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem. I say each ayah and I stop and I pause not Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem Malik Yawm Al-Din Iyyaka Na'budu Wa Iyyaka Nasta'eenu Hidina As-Sirata Al-Mustaqeem I ran out of breath. If I were younger, I would have continued the whole surah.

This is permissible, but it is not the sunnah. The sunnah is to stop at the end of each verse with a pause. And this is why when we pray, we don't find the taste and beauty of it.

Because we want to rush things. While if you say, Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim Maliki yawmi d-deen You find that there is tranquility, submissiveness, khushur in your Salat. You get closer to Allah. I finish Fatiha. This is a pillar.

Now I'm talking about pillars, mandatory acts and voluntary acts. Once I finish the Fatiha, I can go to Rukur. Whoa, Shaykh, wait, wait, wait. There's a Surah afterwards.

I know there's a Surah afterwards. This Surah is a Sunnah. You're kidding me. No, I'm not. There is a Surah after the Fatiha, but it is a Sunnah.

So if I say, وَنَ الضَّالِّينَ Ameen Allahu Akbar In Fajr, my prayer is valid I didn't know that Now you know If I say it in Maghrib, it's valid If I say it in Isha, it's valid The sunnah is to recite a surah afterwards Or a verse as a minimum And the sky is the limit Interesting So I recite a surah afterwards Oliya ayyuhal kafirun I finish that Then I go for ruku'One question, Shaykh After I say, Should I pause so that the people behind me can recite the Fatiha? So I say Say, O disbelievers Why did you stop? So that the people can recite the Fatiha.

This is how they do it in Mecca and Medina. He says, okay, how did the Prophet do it? Because he said, pray as you have seen me pray. My job is to come and check how the Prophet used to pray.

Never ever was reported that he paused between the Fatiha and the Surah. So this is clear. He never paused. Okay, so you say وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ آمِينَ قُلْ يَا أَيُّهَا الْكَافِرُونَ Just like that, yeah, just like that.

Okay, we move on to finishing the surah. We finished the surah. What should we do now?

After finishing the surah, the sunnah is to go for rukur. So, how do I perform rukur? So, I finish the surah, I say Allahu Akbar. Now listen, I haven't said it yet.

Raising the hands, sunnah or mandatory? Sunnah. So the raising of the hands is a sunnah.

And when do I say Allahu Akbar? Mistake number one, Allahu Akbar. This is wrong. Mistake number two, Allahu Akbar Wow!

If these are two mistakes then what should I do? You should say Takbeer while moving not in the standing position and not after you've reached your rukoor So that is called Takbeer of movement So this is the way it should be Allahu Akbar So while moving saying the Takbeer What is the ruling of the Takbeer, Shaykh? This is wajib mandatory, meaning that if you purposely skip it, your prayer is invalid. And if you skipped it out of forgetfulness or an error, you have to compensate this by sujood as-sahub.

So, I go to the rukur position. And what I do is the following Now in the ruku'ah position I have to do the following Number one My palms of the hands are spread And grabbing my knees like this So the fingers are spread My back is straight So it's not like this and it's not stretching out downwards. The Sunnah is to keep your back straight as if someone puts water on it, it will remain, it will not spill. I don't know how bad I'm doing this or how I'm doing this, I don't see myself but I try my level best, do it according to the Sunnah.

A head as described in the Hadith should not be pointed up like this. and it should not be tilted down like this. So it should be normal way of doing it. So this is the rukur. Now you ask me, where should I look, Shaykh?

It's an issue of dispute. Shaykh al-Albani says, in the standing position, we were told to look at the prostration spot. But in the rukur, there is no mentioning of that.

which made some scholars say you should look at the spot of your sujood, prostration, like Shaykh ibn Aithaymeen. But this would be proven to be difficult because if you do this, when you're doing ruku'and you're looking at the position of your prostration, you will find that your head is a bit tilted. So Shaykh al-Albani says either you look between the area of your prostration and your feet, so in the middle, or you look between your feet like so.

And this area is something that is open. The Prophet did not mention any specific place, your companions did not describe any specific place, so insha'Allah it is more than possible to do whatever you think is best for your Salat. Now, after finishing my rukur, during it I have to repeat the dhikr. And what is the dhikr? I have to say subhanarrabbi al-azim, which is mandatory.

And one is the minimum. Three is recommended. The sky is the limit afterwards.

I can say subhanarrabbi al-azim. I can say Subhanarabbiya al-Azim wa bihamdih. I can say Allahumma laka raka'atu wa bika amantu wa laka aslamtu.

Khasha'laka sam'i wa basari wa azmi wa mukhi wa mastakallat bihi kadami. Different kinds of dhikr you can say. The minimal requirement is one, Subhanarabbiya al-Azim. This is mandatory.

You cannot play with it. So we say, Subhanarabbiya al-Azim. While I'm in the ruku' Among the mistakes people do is like this, سُبْحَانَ رَبِّيَ الْعَظِيمِ So they say it while going down or coming up.

And this is not valid. You have to say it when you are totally in ruku'a, relaxed, every bone is back to its place, by saying سُبْحَانَ رَبِّيَ الْعَظِيمِ وَبِحَمْدِهِ Once, enough. Then while rising up you say, سَمِعَ اللَّهُ لِمَنْ حَمِدَهُ And you raise your hands. again.

So we raise our hands in the inauguration takbir. We raise our hands when we go for rukur. We raise our hands when we rise up from rukur. And this is the sunnah according to the hadith of Abdullah ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, in Sahih al-Bukhari.

He's describing the Prophet's prayer, alayhi salatu wasalam. And we say, سَمِعَ اللَّهُ لِمَنْ حَمِدَهُ This is mandatory. 4. An individual praying on his own. 4. An imam leading prayers for worshippers.

And I follow that by saying, رَبَّنَا لَكَ الْحَمْدِ رَبَّنَا وَلَكَ الْحَمْدِ اللَّهُمَّ رَبَّنَا لَكَ الْحَمْدِ اللَّهُمَّ رَبَّنَا وَلَكَ الْحَمْدِ Either one of these four does the job. And this is said, by the Imam, by the individual and by the followers, which means that if I'm praying behind an Imam and he rises from ruku'ah saying سَمِعَ اللَّهُ لِمَنْ حَمِدَهُ I as a follower do not say سَمِعَ اللَّهُ لِمَنْ حَمِدَهُ I just answer what he has said So I've raised or I've got up from ruku'ah position saying سَمِعَ اللَّهُ لِمَنْ حَمِدَهُ رَبَّنَا وَلَكَ الْحَمْدُ There are a lot of adhkar I can say afterwards but this is what's essential you can say مِلْ أَسَّمَوَاتِهُ وَمِلْ أَرْضِهُ وَمِلْ أَمَاشِتَ مِنْ شَيْءٍ بَعْبٍ you can say رَبَّنَا وَلَكَ الْحَمْدَ حَمْدًا كَثِيرًا طَيِّبًا مُبَارَكًا فِيهِ and do I place my hands on the chest or leave it on the sides either way is possible what do you suggest Shaykh I personally follow the hadith of Wa'il ibn Hajar which says that Whenever the Prophet ﷺ stood up, he used to put the right on the left on the chest. So now after I've risen from rukur, what is this position called? Is it sujood?

Is it rukur? What is it? It's standing up.

So according to the hadith, then I should do this. The majority of scholars say, no, you have to put it on your side. But there is not a single hadith. that stated that the Prophet used to put his hands on his side in any position.

So it's an issue of dispute but, again, this is a Sunnah. You put it on your chest, you put it on your side, there's no problem. Don't make an issue out of it.

Don't label people or classify people or think that people are better than you or worse than you. No. Just leave it as it is.

This is the conviction. Leave them. So... I'm in the ruku'position. SubhanAllah.

This is my standing up from the Quran. What should I do now? I should go for sujood.

Now for sujood, there are two ways. A different opinion among scholars. Should I land first on my knees? Or should I land first on my hands?

It's an issue of dispute. The reason of that is the hadith of the Prophet when he said that one should not go down like a camel does when the camel wants to sit. Rather he should put his hands first before his knees.

And understanding whether the hands of a camel are their elbows or the knees in his feet, it's an issue of dispute. Either way, is okay insha'Allah. So, however you feel comfortable with, you should do it. I personally, due to age, due to preying on marble or stones, whenever there are pebbles in the ground, if you land from the standing position on your knees, would surely injure yourself, one way or the other. For elders, it's difficult to go on their knees, especially if they have knee problems.

It's always best to go first on the hand. It's like a shock absorber. It absorbs the fall itself.

It eases the pressure and the weight on the knees. So how to do this? This is what we'll, inshallah, show you now. So in order to do sujood, you will find that I'll take my glasses. Now I can't see you, but alhamdulillah, you can see me.

Why do you take your glasses off, Sheikh? because it will hinder putting the sujood spots properly. What do you mean by sujood? Prostration.

As the Prophet said, I was ordered to prostrate on seven limbs. He said, the face, and he pointed to his nose, meaning the forehead and the nose. These are related. This is one organ.

The hands, the knees, and the feet. These are seven. So, I want to go to sujood.

Do I raise my hands? No. I just say Allahu Akbar while falling to sujood and this is what I do Allahu Akbar This is the way of performing sujood. What are the things I should pay attention to? Before I do the prostration, I'm still in the standing position.

You have to know that first of all my hands should be pointing to the Qibla. So my hands are not this way and are not this way. Rather, they are pointing to the qibla.

Now, where should I place my hands? I have the option either to place my hands next to my shoulders or a little bit close to my ears. My knees are not so close together. They are apart. My feet, they are close to each other, erect, with some toes, not all of them because it's impossible to have all your toes pointing to the qibla, but the toes that are bendable can point to the qibla.

My arms are wide and spread, so my biceps are not close to my sides. So I have to spread as I'm spreading my wings. And my stomach is not touching my thighs.

Some people just go very down. And I'll show you quickly, hopefully to the best of my knowledge and ability. So my forehead, my nose must touch the ground. And these seven limbs must touch the ground throughout the sujood. Because part of...

The famous mistake is having your feet dangling or some of the brothers having the left hand on the ground and the other hand while prostrating playing with his beard or looking at something in his pocket. So he's prostrating on six limbs and this renders his sujood void if he does this without any legitimate reason. So I was standing up.

Now I'm falling into the sujood position and... I'm saying Allahu Akbar in between. So let's look at how I make the sujood.

This is one of the ways of doing it. So my hands and fingers should be pointing towards the qibla. My face, my forehead, and my nose are touching the ground.

I should have my arms apart and away from my body. And at the same time, My stomach is not touching my thighs. Some brothers do this and this is wrong. And this is too much spread.

So the appropriate way is either having my hands next to my ears or to my shoulders. I can have this one here and I can have this one here. Look at my feet.

They are touched together, not... far away, they are touched together with my toes bent towards the qiblah as much as possible. Now if I'm praying next to people to my right and to my left, if I do this I'm gonna annoy them and maybe harm them. So it is permissible when you are in a tight position to put your elbows on your thighs or inside. What is haram and prohibited is to do this.

This is prohibited, which I have my arms, forearms on the ground like a dog. And the Prophet said that this is totally prohibited. What should I say when I'm prostrating?

SubhanAllah. SubhanAllah. sabbuhun qaddoosun rabbu al malaaikati warrooh so many duas the minimum requirement subhan rabbiyal a'la can I make dua?

go ahead make dua as much as I want as much as you want oh Allah pay my debts oh Allah guide my children oh Allah guide my wife oh Allah get me a second wife oh Allah grant me health whatever in Arabic Shaykh I'm non-Arab and I can't say it in Arabic. No problem, say it in your own language. Oh, this is interesting.

Yes, the closest you are is when you are in sujood position. So if I'm in my sujood position, and I would like to sit between the two prostrations, I say Allahu Akbar and I sit on my left foot this is called iftirash and I erect my right foot with as many possible toes towards the qibla my hands are on my thighs and my knees so it's in between the area is Possible you don't have to do this. You don't have to do this.

It's here sit normally don't be so technical sometimes People are so technical they forget the prayer they forget what they're ever sighted and just think oh am I doing this right? Am I doing this wrong be natural follow the Sunna acknowledge that this is a Sunna the way of the Prophet and do it naturally And when I sit like this, I say, رَبِّ اغْفِرْ لِي Minimum is once. I can say 10 times, 20 times.

I can say 2, 3, 4, whatever. رَبِّ اغْفِرْ لِي Issue of dispute is saying رَبِّ اغْفِرْ لِي mandatory or sunnah. Some scholars say it's sunnah.

I am inclined to say that it is mandatory because the Prophet, peace be upon him, always used to say it. Any other dua? Yes, there is a longer dua.

رَبَّ اغْفِرْ لِي وَارْحَمْنِي وَعَافِنِي وَجْبُرْنِي وَوَهْدِنِي وَارْفَعْنِي All of this is possible. This is the prostration or the sitting between the two prostrations. It's called iftirash.

And if you would like to show it from behind, I'm sitting on my left foot and my right foot is erect. This is the sujna. Shaykh, I have problems with my right foot, so can I... Ah, put it down like this? No problem.

Shaykh, I'd like to sit with two feet on one another because this is the only way I feel comfortable. No problem. Your prayer is valid. You will lose the reward of the sunnah. But your prayer is totally valid, akhi.

No problem. Not only that, Abdullah ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, at the end of his time, he used to sit cross-legged. And when some of his companions followed him, he said, no, no, no, this is not the sunnah. I'm doing this because of my knees. You should sit like the sunnah.

But the position is what? Sitting. No matter how you sit, the right thing.

But the more you are following the Prophet, the better it is for your word. I must do a second sujood. And it's the same format. I say, Allahu Akbar.

The same thing exactly, SubhanAllah. Now, after I finish my sujood, I have to rise up to the second rak'ah. There is a sunnah that is called Jalsatul Istirahah, where I stand up, before I stand up, I give a small pause, and then I say Allahu Akbar. So, when standing up, one... should not stand with four fingers between the two feet, like some schools of thought say.

And you go to the masjid and you find the people standing like this. What is this? If you want to answer the call of nature, go ahead, but don't come to the prayer when you're this tight. So this is, the way I'm standing is wrong.

Some brothers, when they want to come and pray, they do this. Why? He says, the one on the right is far away from me, and the one on the left is far from me.

And the brothers is doing this and doing this. Akhi, what are you doing? This is done in karate, in taekwondo, but not in prayer.

So how should I stand? Stand normally, Akhi. The width of your shoulders should be relevant to the distance between your two feet.

Don't stand like this, because this is not pointing to the qibla. and don't stand like this because this means you have to see your orthopedic surgeon you have a problem with your knees but stand in a normal way either like this or a little bit part away part from each other make it natural the way you stand so i rose to the second rakah do i raise my hands no i simply Akbar and resume my second rakah exactly as the first rak'ah. And I recite the Fatiha.

I recite an optional surah afterwards as according to the sunnah. Now one thing that we need to pay attention to and 90% of Muslims are doing unfortunately, it is a mandatory act of reciting the Quran, of making dhikr, of making dua, is to move your lips. What do you mean, Sheikh? If you pray the Fatiha like this, I just said Ameen in my head.

I did not move my lips. I did not move my tongue. Your prayer is invalid. Oof, invalid. Yes, it's totally invalid.

Why? See, when I think of punching my cameraman in the face or taking... The wallet of the man sitting there and robbing him of his money.

I didn't utter it. I didn't act upon it. There is no sin on me. Whatever goes in my mind, there is no sin.

Likewise, if I just simply recite the Quran in my mind without moving my lips with it, it does not count. It's just scanning things in my head. I have to say, I have to move my lips and my tongue.

And this is why when some of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ came to him, he said to him, your tongue must remain moist with the remembrance of Allah. Which means that you have to move your tongue when... reciting the Quran saying Allahu Akbar.

The people they do like this and they keep on their prayer without moving their lips and this is totally wrong. One of the things that a lot of the Muslims also make a mistake in is keeping their eyes closed. So what are you doing? Well I am daydreaming. I think I'm on the beach in...

Qadazoo, in Kaan or Nis. Wow, it's fun. Allahu Akbar.

What? This is totally haram. Why are you closing your eyes?

He said, oh, Shaykh, I'm distracted. Whenever I keep my eyes open, the man in front of me is moving, and the next one to me is touching his pocket, and the third one is picking his nose, and every time I feel tempted to look at my watch, And sometimes I say, سَمِعَ اللَّهُ لِمَنْ حَمِدَهُ And I watch the chandeliers and the lights and the writing on the wall. I get distracted, so I close my eyes. This is not permissible.

Why? Because neither the Prophet ﷺ nor his companions had ever done this. And they had more things to distract them than you. Now, if you tell me that there's a child in front of you while praying, sometimes you get these situations. You get a three year or four year old child standing in front of you looking into your eyes and doing faces to you.

This would make you break into laughter. So in order to avoid this you close your eyes for maybe five, ten seconds until he goes away. This is okay. But to think that tranquility comes only through closing your eyes while doing this, this is against the law and it's not permissible. Also, one of the common mistakes...

is that when you are in the ruku'position and you say, people think that this is time for du'a, qunoot. So they say, This is wrong. The raising of the hands should be, if you want to make du'a, either put your hands to your sides or to what I have indicated to earlier, put the right on the left on the chest and say, This is only done in Qunut of Witer When you're making Dua in Qunut of Witer Not during your prayers as usual I bow and I prostrate And then I sit for the first Tashahud So when I rise up from the second Sujood To sit for my first Tashahud I'm in the position Iftirash.

I sit on my left foot with my right foot erect with my toes pointing to the qibla and I begin to say at tahiyyat which is mandatory. Now my left hand is on my knee and thigh in here. My right hand has two positions.

The first position is to grab the two pinky and the one next to it finger to attach the middle finger with the thumb doing a circle like this and To point with my index finger like this This is position one which the Sunnah came with the second position is To make a fist with all four fingers pointing only with the index finger so either this or this Now, what do I do with the index finger? The sunnah, as in the hadith of Wael ibn Hajar, the Prophet, whenever he sat, alayhi salatu wasalam, for tashahud, he used to point his index finger, moving it, making dua with it. So the sunnah is to point it like this, shake it in its position, not circling like some people do, and not...

going up and down like people do, rather than pointing it and moving it. There is another hadith which is not as strong, not as authentic, which was narrated by Abdullah ibn Zubayr, may Allah be pleased with him and with his father, that the Prophet used to point and does not move. But the most authentic opinion is the hadith of Wael ibn Hajar, that he used to move it throughout.

So when do we stop, Shaykh? You begin by saying, with different variations of this Tashahud and I'm moving my finger point out that I can say either one The Hadith of Umar or the Hadith of Abdullah bin Mas'ud As-salamu alayka ayyuhannabi This is Umar bin Khattab and others Or I can say that what Abdullah bin Mas'ud used to say Which is in Sahih al-Bukhari As-salamu alannabi wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh And he said that we used to say at the time of the Prophet when he was alive As-salamu alayka ayyuhannabi But after he died we used to say السلام على النبي ورحمة الله وبركاته So I can say either one. Now this is the first as-shahud. Do I offer salutation afterwards by saying اللهم صلي على محمد وعلى آل محمد No. The most authentic opinion is that this is a sunnah.

Imam Shafi'i said that if you add salutation upon the Prophet as-shahud in the first as-shahud, this is recommended. And the vast majority of scholars say this is okay, but it is not per the sunnah. So you stop at وَأَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ Now, then you go and stand up for your third rak'ah.

In Fajr, I continue. اللهم صلي على محمد وعلى آل محمد And I point out my finger throughout until I offer salam. If I'm in Maghrib or Dhuhr, Asr or Isha, I stand up for the third rak'ah. I continue the third raka'a, the fourth raka'a, and then I sit for the last tashahud. In the last tashahud, which is in a prayer that has two tashahud, the first one and the last one, I sit in the position known as tawarruk.

And tawarruk means that I sit on the hip, the wirk, and I sit on my left buttock. This is called Tawarruk. And I erect my right foot as usual, but my left foot, which I used to sit on, now comes underneath my right leg.

So this is called Tawarruk. The Prophet used to do this in the third Raka'ah in Maghrib and in the fourth Raka'ah of Zohar Asr and Aisha. Now, I place my left hand over...

my knee with it and sometimes it's erect so that I can lean on it because I can see that my hip and my side is a bit tilted because of this way of sitting and my hand is on my thigh pointing my finger and I'm looking and this is something important when I sit for the Shahood where the hadith The authentic hadith states that you should look at this index finger. So I should keep my sight through my hood while wiggling it or moving it in its position, shaking it. And this is the sunnah.

Some scholars say you can also look at the position of your prostration, but the hadith proves that this is the sunnah. doing it and that is looking at your eye reciting مصلي على محمد وعلى آل محمد كما صليت على إبراهيم وعلى إبراهيم إنك حميد ومجيد اللهم بارك على محمد till the end and then it is recommended to say or seek refuge in Allah from the four things اللهم نعود بك من عذاب جهنم وعذاب القبر من فتة المحي والممات من فتة المسيح الدجال and then I can ask whatever I want Same as sujood, because this is a place where the Prophet told us, that you should select whatever you want from dua in this position. So I ask for Allah's forgiveness, I ask for Allah's provision, I ask for Allah's health, guidance, etc.

And then he recommended to conclude before salam by saying, This dua of Mu'adh ibn Jabal, some say it's before salam, others say it's after salam. I'm inclined to say it before salam because this is the time of dua. And then I offer salam. And how do I offer salam? Say As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah.

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. If you notice, I did not pause. I did not say. As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi It's not this way.

And it's wrong to say it. People say, As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi And then turn. No. It should be simultaneous.

As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi And the sunnah is to Make those behind you see your cheek. So you don't say, do this. So they see your cheek as they reported it in the companions. We used to see the whiteness of his cheek, alayhi salatu wasalam, to the right and to the left. Among the common mistakes, your hands.

In the Tashahud, after you finish, people usually do this. What is this? It's a sign that they have concluded.

Who are you signing this for? So while in the Tashahud, they finish the Tashahud, and the Imam is still praying. So they say, اللهم عني على ذكرك وحسن عبادتك By the way, guys, I'm finished.

Some of them, in Salam, they would say, السلام عليكم ورحمة الله السلام عليكم ورحمة الله As if they're giving... Right indicator, left indicator, the driving, I think, is part of driving lessons. No, it's wrong.

You don't have to do this. You're not turning right or left. So doing this is prohibited. The Prophet saw the companions moving their hands while in prayer, and he said, do not do this like the tails of wild horses. You know, the tail of the wild horses always wiggling and upright.

And the Prophet prohibited them from saying this. It is important to learn how to pray according to the Sunnah and that you're doing this for the sake of Allah. Some of the brothers in the standing position when they're praying and the end of the Surah is Minal Jinnati Wannas The Imam is reciting and I'm praying behind him.

The moment he says, Minal Jinnati he lets go. What is this? This is indicating that I know that this is the last verse of the Imam and that he's going for rukur and this is acknowledged in long surahs. So if he's reciting from a long surah that people don't usually know, and I know that he's going to make ruku'now, I let go.

So people next to me say, oh, mashallah, he's a hafidh. He says, sheikh, I didn't do this for that intention. Why did you do it then? Don't. Follow the imam.

As long as the imam is doing this, you do it. The moment the imam says, Allahu Akbar, you let go. But not fulfilling this and doing it before the imam means that There's something wrong. Either you want to inform people that I know the surah and I know that he's going for ruku'I'm a smart man.

Or there's something wrong, I don't know what. Another thing that a lot of the Muslims fail to do is the moment the imam says Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah you find the congregation doing this. And if the imam take his time to do the left one, they say Come on man, I'm waiting.

Imam, what are you doing? Come on ya khiman. My neck is hurting.

So they do this and this is totally wrong. They should wait until the Imam says, As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah.

Now they say their first Taslim. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. So it is wrong to do Taslim with the Imam when he first does his first. No, you have to only move after he finishes the Salam.

Also, a very common mistake is how you follow the Imam. What do you mean? The companions of the Prophet ﷺ told us in an authentic hadith that when we used to pray with the Prophet ﷺ, we did not bend our backs.

Now, they're in the standing position. Their backs are straight. We never bent our backs. until the forehead of the Prophet alayhi salam touched the ground. Whoa!

Meaning that if the Prophet says, Allahu Akbar, they wait until his head touches the ground, then they start descending. The vast majority of people, the moment the Imam says, they immediately go and fall. Maybe they are fitter, faster than the Imam, so they race him and they go. prostration before the Imam and this invalidates a prayer. So be careful.

You do not move from the pillar you're doing to the following pillar until the Imam reaches it. So in Rukur, he says, Allah, don't, until he bends, then you bend. When he says, once he's erect and standing, you stand up and you cascade this to all your prayers.

People ask when we stand in the direction of Qibla, so how pinpoint should we be exact in our direction? Well, the Prophet told us the answer. The sisters say, are our prayers similar or different to men's prayers?

A lot of the sisters also ask about their attire when praying. How do we pray a traveler's prayer? What are the conditions where tayammum is allowed in order to pray?

How to pray the misraka? There are people who kiss their thumbs during adhan and iqamah when ash hadu anna muhammadan rasulullah is said. Is there any proof of this? Definitely not. Question.

Can one pray Sunnah of Fajr after the Fardh Salat?

Transcript for:Essentials of Islamic Prayer Practices

Transcript for:
Essentials of Islamic Prayer Practices