Importance of Salah

• Today, I would like to speak about a basic in Islam but people will be surprised how many people take it for granted
• when the Prophet was on his death bed, he called his close companions into where he was lieing on Aisha’s lap, and right before he passed away, he said 2 words. Do you know what they were?
• Imagine a very high person of influence that you are in contact with and any time they want to communicate with you, they either call you or send a messenger to tell you what it is; so if you were the President of the MSA and the President of the University wanted to tell you something, they might send you an email, call you, or tell someone else to tell you: do this, don’t do that, do it this way, not that way; but if it was really important, something that needed to be conveyed in detail, or they wanted you to realize its importance, they would ask you to come see them in person
• So in the same regard, when our beloved Prophet became a messenger, Allah used a messenger to convey to the Prophet the do’s and don’ts of Islam; in every occasion, whether to cheer him up, tell him if he could do something better, teach him about the laws of Islam, Jibreel would come down and reveal to the Prophet what needed to be revealed;
• But again on one topic, no messenger was used; Allah asked the Prophet to come directly and speak to him in what is known as the Isra’a and Mairaj; and so when the Prophet crossed the Sidratal Muntaha, the point where no creation had ever crossed before, what did Allah say to him?
• Similarly, on the day of Judgment, when we are standing before Allah about to be judged, what will be the first question that Allah will ask us about? He will ask us about our Salah and if it is complete, then he will not move on from there
• In the mairaj, Allah spoke to the Prophet about Salah, and the last words of the Prophet were Salah!!!!
• A very important act that we must perform and we must live up to; it is the second pillar of Islam and the four schools of thought are unanimous in stating that if you leave salah, you are no longer a muslim; Abu Hanifa is the most lenient wherein he says if you have to not just leave it, but deny it as a part of Islam
• So if it is so important, why do people neglect it so much? During the mairaj, initially the order was given that to the Prophet Muhammad that we should pray 50/day; it was Musa that told the Prophet to try to reduce it; Musa even asked him to reduce it from 5 to something lower, but the Prophet said he was too embarrassed to go back and ask
• So now we know how important it is, let us define it and then see how much of a benefit it is; then in the next khutba, lets look at how we can implement it in our loves; So Salah, means contact in Arabic, so it is not merely a prayer, although that is how it is most commonly translated; when you look at it from the perspective of “contact” then you know the seriousness of it, because it is a state in which you are in contact with Allah; not just in prayer, or talking to him, in which it could be a one way conversation; my wife often complains that she is talking to me and I am not listening; but if I make ‘contact’ with her, then she knows I am; and this is also why the Prophet said: Salah is the Meraaj of a Momin.
• And as for the benefits, there are many that one can think of; let me start by saying that salah is mentioned over 500x in the Qur’an and it is a means of shedding sins; the Prophet said that the in-between sins of a person who makes two salats are forgiven; also the Prophet one time picked up a dry branch and shook it until all the leaves fell off, and then said: The sins of those who pray Salah, drop off as the leaves of this branch fell off.
• And another benefit is that a person is constantly in contact with Allah; one of the greatest forms of remembrance of which Allah says “O you who believe, remember Allah often, so that you may become successful”; and this remembrance will keep you away from sins because I have never met a person that right after finishing to pray, says “lets go ….”; or for example, people are sitting around and backbiting, and then get up for prayer, finish, and then go back to backbiting;
• So not only will prayer shed your sins, but it will keep you away from them all together

• Bros and sisters, over and over again, Allah mentions in the Quran, “wa yu qeemas salaat” which translates as “establish salah” and as we mentioned in the earlier khuba, the better translation is “contact” rather then “prayer”
• And so we have looked at the importance of it and the benefits; but still we find that many people around the world, Muslims, neglect it altogether; so what can we do to establish it within our lives?
• The Qur’an says: “And truly Salah is hard save for the humble minded”
• So today we have to make a commitment and intention to begin to establish prayer within our lives; the biggest way to do this is to be humble about it by putting Allah back in our lives; and this humbleness is a humility of the intellect because intellect in the human brain lies on the forehead, and most human beings are not willing to put their intellect on the ground; which means that there is a higher being and our intellect is nothing compared to that;
• So if you are a person that never prays, then just begin by doing one, and if you are only occasional in your prayer, then begin by focusing on the ones you do and then work on increasing them
• One thing to keep in mind is that the a believer revolves his life around prayer, not prayer around his life; and this is a fundamental shift in attitude; that you don’t schedule something in conflict with prayer, and if it is unavoidable, then you make the prayer in advance of the time, or make it up afterward, knowing that the best is to make it on time
• And one place to begin the establishment of prayer is the Jumma prayer as we are here today; make it something you do every week no matter what happens; remember that the jumma is something that should motivate you for the following week and is also where sins are forgiven; and some people might have this idea that it is not a requirement but only a strong recommendation; this is a myth; in fact there is a sura named after this: Surat al-Jumaa and in it Allah tells us that when the call to prayer is made, leave whatever you are doing and come to it;
• When I was in college, many people used to skip jumma because there was a scheduling conflict; I had many opportunities to do this but decided against it, and Allah found a way for me to finish my BA on time; when I got to the workforce, many people didn’t go to jumma because they were afraid to ask their employer for a break or their employer said no to taking one; alhamdulillah, I have never missed a jumma for that reason and if fact, I always mentioned it in my interviews that this is not negotiable;
• So if you make Salah, and in this case, jumma a priority, then Allah will make it easy for you to attend
• And the last thing on jumma prayer is that there is nothing wrong with going back to work after jumma, in fact this is what is the sunna of Allah; in the verses where Allah mentions to stop what you are doing and come to prayer when the adhaan is made, he follows up by saying that when you are done, then go out and seek the bounties of Allah, and Allah is the one to give bounties; so if you have to go back to work, go back to class, or go back to whatever it is that you were doing, then go, and know that Allah will not make the break that you took bad for you;