What Prayer Means to Me....

[najma82]

What Prayer means to me

 

 

Five times a day I retreat from life, pause and renew my intention for living. It's not just kids and work, fun and problems. There's more, much more .....

Lying just beneath the surface of our everyday thoughts. If we dare to peer within, we'll find it, the home of peace; of truth ; an acute awareness of what is wrong and right, of what is worthwhile and what is wasted.

I stand still and concentrate on the spot on the carpet where my forehead will soon rest, casting aside all worries, fears and hopes, and focusing on the only One Who can help, Who can forgive, Who is Well-Aware of everything. Quietly, so only myself can hear, I recite the verses of Qu'ran that remind us, in every prayer, of the One Who showers Mercy of those who deserve it and those who don't. The One to whom, all Judgment lies and Whom we are all to return to, at an appointed time. I remember that no one can help me, no one can waylay my fears, no one can turn the tide of events, except the One to Whom all help is sought.

 

When anger strikes my heart, I recite the verses that remind us of mercy, tolerance and forgiveness; raising the consciousness to see through the empty words that people speak, to the meaning that may have been intended. So I forgive.

 

When worries cloud my mind and I'm busy planning what I should do, I recite those verses telling of good deeds and trust in the Lord of all. The best of planners, the Subduer of evil and the Exalter of Whom He pleases. So , I try my best, ask for help and leave the rest to Allah s.w.t.

 

When I feel sad and lost, I recite the verses promising victory to those who strive to uphold piety, that place of rest and peace that lies not so far ahead and the Source of all Peace Whose help is always near. So, I wipe away my tears and keep on trying, never giving up.

 

My prayer, is a way of life. It comes five times a day but the rest of the time is in preparation for the next, awareness of the passing time, remembering my duty to my Creator and my responsibility to my own soul. So whatever I'm doing, I stop and put it aside, wash and stand in prayer, trying to look within, at the faults that follow me around in my life, of the evil my hands have sent forth, and seek guidance, forgiveness and escape from the evil consequences of what I may have done.

 

I think of the marvels of the universe, how infinately beautiful and amazing as they are. The wonders of my own self, the physical human body and the wonders it contains. The depth and breadth of the mind, that few of us can compass and then I look to the trivial pleasures of life, the transient nature of our existence and I feel an urge to do more, to try harder, to be better than I was the day before.

 

And so I bow before my Creator, acknowledging the fact that only He deserves my sincerity, my obedience and my love. All else in life, is secondary to the fact that if He hadn't chosen to create me, I would never have existed. Here I am! Here's my duty. Worship is not only prayer and fasting but the way we live, the way we speak, the way we treat people and the way we solve problems. Knowing that we weren't only Created and left to discern truth for ourselves, I adhere to the guidance given to me , to steady me on the path that leads to success in this life and the next.

 

I continue in my prayer, whether well or ill, tired or wakeful, sad or hopeful, I continue, knowing that success doesn't lie in the amount of money, weapons or strenth one thinks one has, but in ones morality.

[Nur]

Najma sis

 

Baarakallahu feek! for sharing with us this great piece.

 

Prayer ( Salaat) is indeed a refreshing session with our maker, imagine how much spiritual decay and pollution we pick up in the course of a day?, if our souls are like our houses, and usage of the house was intense, then it makes sense that we routiely clean it up to keep it fit for its purpose.

 

Of all the tasks, Salat ( prayers) is the most relaxing, and rejuvenating, optimizing our energies and focusing our progression. The Messeneger of Allah used to say " Arixnaa bihaa yaa bilaal" " O bilaal, refresh us with it(Prayers)". In contrast, many Nomads including myself, at times, when we get so much involved in Dunyaa, we say " Naga bixi salaadda" let us get it over with Salaats burden.

 

Nomads, we need to examine our performance in our prayers to see if our on the right course, because, our Salaat, is our Silaat ( connection) with our maker, if teh connection corrodes, no duaa transmissions, our calls not answered, and our worries in this life and the next multiply.

 

Let us pay a close attention on the quality of our prayers.

 

 

Nur

[amatillah]

Masha Allah najma82.This my prayer for u my muslim followers:

 

Oh Allah,bless all of those who have taught me about You and Islam,oh Allah guide us to seek our knowledge of You and this blessed Deen (religion) from those who are sincere, who possess the correct Islamic knowledge, who are moderate and gentle, who are not harsh or impatient with me, and who understand where I'm coming from, my situation as a Muslim in this country, living in this world today.

 

Oh Allah, all of my brothers and sisters who are suffering for Your sake through torture, violence, in jails, etc., around the world please forgive their sins and grant them Paradise.

 

Amiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin

[najma82]

Brother Nur you're indeed right, jazaka-allahu khairan for your kind words. Salaah is indeed a purification for the soul.May Allah make us those whose prayers are accepted. Amin

 

Sister Amatillah, that is a nice dua, Amiin to that sis...jazaka-allahu khairan.

[amatillah]

Assalamualaikum wr wb.... just want to share a poem that a muslim friend wrote during the retreat....

 

Knocking Your Door

 

I am listening to the sounds of the birds

I wish I am a bird

I am looking at the stillness of a rock

I wish I am a rock

I am wondering at the calmness of the lake

I wish I am a lake

I am looking at the 5 ducklings constantly following her mother

I wish I am a duckling

I listened to Yahya Ibn Muaz's story

I wish I am he

 

To the birds I said

I wish I could constantly in zikr of Allah like you

To the rock I said

I wish my qalb is still like you

To the lake I said

I wish my nafs is as calm as you do

To the duckling I said

I wish I followed Rasulullah SAW constantly as you do

To Yahya Ibn Muaz I said

I wish I am 'ibad like you

 

But who am I

A sinful human being

With a clouded heart

With a broken mirror to see in me

An ugly being kept in me

I wish I looked at it constantly since before

But who am I

A sinful human being

 

O Allah

I am knocking at your door

Wishing you to open for me

Oh! I saw a woodpecker in front of me

Knocking at a tree in front of my eyes

Subhanallah

I wish I am a woodpeacker

 

To you oh Allah

Please open the door for me

For I long your forgiveness and mercy on me

O Allah

Please accept my heart

As my heart have something to say

 

O Allah, I am weak

Turn my weaknesses to strength to what pleases you

Please take my forelock to khair

And let Islam be my ultimate expression of satisfaction

 

Ya Allah

Verily I am weak, base and low

Please elevate me

I am in need

Please enrich me

==============================================

[Muhammad]

Asalamu Alaykum dear brothers and sisters

 

i was reading the book, Purification of the Soul by Jamaluddin Zarabozo, here is a beautiful description of Salat;

 

 

What is Salat (prayer)? It is the expression of devotedness by the created to his Creator with his whole being, i.e., heart, tongue, feet and hands; it is the rememberance of the Most Merciful and the Most Gracious; it is the thanksgiving for His limitless favours; it is the praise and adoration for the eternal beauty of His creation and acknowledgement of His Unity and Greatness;

 

it is the communication of the soul with the Beloved Lord; it is the complete obeisance by body and soul to the Master; it is the dedication of one's internal feelings; it is the natural music of one's heart-string; it is the tie of relationship between the Creator and the created and the latter's strong bond of devoutness

 

it is the comfort for the agitated and uneasy mind; it is the solace for the restless soul; it is the remedy for the hopeless heart; it is the natural internal call of a receptive and sensitive mind; it is the purpose of life and the essence of existence.

Sulaiman Nadwi, pp. 49-50

[Nur]

From the e-Nuri Archives

 

 

Just Doing It Aint Enough!

 

 

As we have performed another prayer today, ( depending on your location on the globe ) I want to discuss the last file that we Muslims have sent to the heavens in our last prayer, or the last good deed folder transmitted.

 

Every time we pray, we read the Fatiha in which we make the following statements:

 

1. Thee alone do we serve (ibadah)

2. From thee alone do we seek help ( in order to serve you )

 

As reported by the Prophet SAWS, our prayers are not automatically accepted, they go through an appraisal process in which a checklist of requirements are cross examined and as a result a percentage of our prayers are accepted. For some people a quarter of the prayer is accepted yet for others a tenth and so on..

 

My concern in this thread is that most people that I know, including myself, feel relieved that we have prayed, but little do we worry about the final grade on the file that goes up for evaluation at the end of the day on the state of our prayers.

Now let us look into some of the metrics that matter in the acceptability of our prayers.

 

1. Understanding what we say

2. Believing what we say

3. Meaning what we say.

 

For an exercise, let us apply the first verse above on the three metrics above.

When we pray, do we understand what IBAADAH means? because a failure in the understanding of the meaning of Ibaadah, can manisfest itself negatively in our lives.

 

For example we may say this word while in effect we are serving other than Allah and are in a clear Shirk situation. So when we do not understand the meaning of Ibaadah, we may not be consistent in making it exclusively for Allah, in reality sometime, we may do it for Allah, other times, we may be doing it for others without being aware that we are stretching the truth in our prayers.

 

When we pray are we convinced that we are in reality making Ibaadah for Allah, or do we know that we are in reality making Ibaadah to others, but conveniently say the prayer as a habit. in other words do we really mean what we say.

 

Another point to think about is:

 

are we serving Allah, making ibaadah in our Prayer only, or are we in Ibaadah 24 hours a day, 365.25 days in the year?

 

The meaning of "thee do we worship" according to Quraan and Sunnah is that we are meant to be in a continuous state of Ibaadah, from the time our intelligence software is loaded in our mind up until when we are broken down to our original components. In that sense, anything we do that does not conflict with Allah's commandments can be an ibaadah if so we make our intention( you could be jogging in the park and still be in ibaadah if you make dhiker while running".

 

The prayer, fasting and Hajj are called (Shacaa 'ir_ Tacabudiyah) meaning, symbols of Ibaadah, NOT THE IBAADAH itself. So, you can visualize your prayer as the envelope that bundles a periodic amount of Ibaadah work to be delivered to Allah when you say ( Iyyaaka Nacbud, thee alone do we serve) .

 

Because in the course of the day, everything you do is being recorded to see if you are indeed telling the truth when you say ( Thee alone do we serve) . If what you do the rest of the day are NOT representative of what is approved by Allah SWT, and NOT formatted according to the protocol the prophet SAWS has standardized called Sunnah, chances are that your communication with Allah will be rejected outright for not meeting the goal of ( Ikhlaas) and the Protocol of ( Sunnah) for the acceptance of any deed.

 

So do not just transmit to heaven an empty Datagram (envelope) for a lifetime and expect that you have a good bank account waiting for you after you die. Allah says ( Wa an leysa lil insaani, illaa maa sacaa, wa anna sacyahu sowfa yuraa) .... Meaning, ( Mankind has nothing in store except for his efforts, and his efforts shall be duly appraised)

 

Also, if your envelope ( Prayer) is full of good deeds with ( Ikhlaas) , but not formatted according to the Sunnah protocol, again, your work may not be graded, because, the grading procedure calls for and invokes specific fields, if not found, the entire good deed document is discarded. Which makes it imperative that you make your prayers Sunnah compliant.

 

 

Moral of this right up, there are two things we need to pay attention to when uploading a file.

 

 

1. Doing the right thing ( Ikhlaas)

 

2. Doing things right ( Sunnah)

 

 

If the above two conditions are met

Your file will be transferred and graded. If not, you may have to redo the process, but before you die.

 

 

Nur

 

 

e-Nuri Communications Old Editions

Connecting People To Their Creator

[Viking]

Very important issue you took up bro Nur. Often, when we say Iyaaka Nacbud wa Iyaaka Nastaciin, some other thoughts are running through our minds. We could be thinking about i.e. what one is going to eat later etc (is that what we are pledging to?).

[Nur]

Viking bro.

 

You ask

 

Originally posted by Viking:

Very important issue you took up bro Nur. Often, when we say

Iyaaka Nacbud wa Iyaaka Nastaciin

, some other thoughts are running through our minds. We could be thinking about i.e. what one is going to eat later etc (is that what we are pledging to?).

Walaal, I read a Hadeeth that actually gave credit to our attention span during a prayer, depending on how alert we are to we are saying, we earn a fraction of reward for our prayer. A half, 1/4 and even 1/10 reward and at times, we earn punishment for using the Prayer time as a daydreaming session that we can not do it at work or in class.

 

Imagine being invited by an important person, how much disrespect is it not looking them in the eye and addressing them with a focused mind?

 

 

Nur

[bint abee saeed]

Khushoo` and Beautification of the Prayer

The Prayer and Its Effect in Removing Sins and Purifying the Soul

Author: Hussain al-Awaa'ishah

Source: As-Salaat Wa-Atharuhaa (trans. Abu Iyaad)

Article ID : IBD060008 [2602]

Next » Page 1 of 2

 

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Allaah the Sublime said:

 

Indeed prayer restrains from the obscene and evil deeds.[ 1]

 

Allaah has explained in this verse that a correct prayer, performed with khushoo' undoubtedly prevents its performer from obscene and evil deeds and leads him to goodness. Therefore, you will see that the people of the mosque are the most superior of mankind and the best amongst them. The sins and shortcomings of others are many times more than the sins and shortcomings of these people.

 

If the prayer does not prevent us from obscene and evil deeds then it is necessary to carefully scrutinize the deficiency within it and to correct it. There is no escaping from correcting one's prayer and there is no fleeing from bringing about khushoo' within it. So let us look at the causes and let us strive to treat them with the cure. Just like we treat our bodies for their diseases, the treatment of the souls is more appropriate and comes first. And this is what will help us to understand the saying of the Messenger (sallallaahu alaihi wasallam): "The first thing for which a servant will be held to account for is his prayer. If it is correct and sound, all the rest of his actions will be correct and sound and if it is corrupt then all the rest of his actions will be corrupt."[2]

 

So in the correction of the prayer lies the corection of all the other actions. The position of the prayer (relative to all the other actions) is like that of the head to the body. This is because the servant is nearest to his Lord during his prayer, he calls upon his Lord and seeks forgiveness from Him. He returns to Allaah and cries to Him, the Sublime.

 

The prayer cannot be corrected except with the correction of the aqeedah (belief), being observant of Allaah, having fear of Him, bringing oneself to account in front of Him, and trembling out of fear of His Fire. When he finishes his prayer and is put to trial with sins and disobedience, he finds strength in his heart to repel them. This is because he looks at the the temporary and vanishing pleasures and then at the bliss and joy which never ends and the happiness which is never cut off. So he puts the good which will remain (and last forever) ahead of that which is only transitory and vanishes.

 

The prayer of the servant is corrupted due to lack of the careful observance of Allaah and weakness in taqwaa[3]. He is, therefore, not able to produce such awe which will come in between him and his acts of disobedience.

 

There also occurs in the hadeeth: "Indeed there is in the body a morsel of flesh which if it be sound and wholesome, the whole body will be sound and wholesome and which if it be corrupt, the whole body will be corrupt. Indeed it is the heart."[4]

 

In the correction and purification of the heart lies the correction of the whole body and in the corruption of the heart lies the corruption of the whole body. If the heart is corrected, the hand will be corrected so that it does not steal or strike anyone or commit zina by touching what is unlawful. The feet will also be corrected so that they do not walk towards what is unlawful. The ears will be put straight so that they do not listen to musical instruments, slander or backbiting. The situation of the tongue will improve so that it does not speak except what is good. If the heart is corrupted, the whole body becomes corrupt and the limbs will not depart except towards evil conduct and mischief.

 

The matter of the heart is either set aright or corrupted by the prayer. If the prayer is good it is an indication that the heart has benefitted and that it is sound and wholesome. If it is not good, it is an indication of the heart receiving little benefit and of its corruption. Evil deeds then become manifest and overtake the limbs.

 

Know that every prayer which is performed with awe and humility enlivens the heart and stimulates it to do good deeds and also makes it adapt to good deeds, just as every good action which is performed outside of the prayer increases ones khushoo within the prayer. In a hadeeth there occurs: "Upon you is the Night Prayer (Tahajjud) as it was the habit of the righteous people before you, is a means of nearness to Allaah the Exalted, a prevention from evil deeds and an expiation for sins."[5]

 

The Messenger (sallallaahu alaihi wasallam) has made it clear that the Night Prayer is a prevention from sins in that it stops the one who performs it from evil deeds and incites him to do good deeds. Therefore, it is necessary for us to establish the prayer and to increase in it and likewise we must perform the Night Prayer, standing awe-struck, humble and submissive to Allaah the Sublime. Our hearts weeping over what we have neglected and fallen short of while hoping for the mercy of our Lord. We seek nearness to him by calling Him by His Names and Attributes, asking Him by them that he establishes us (upon His path) and that He gives us benefit from our prayer and standing at night.

 

click here to continue reading http://www.salafipublications.com/sps/sp.cfm?subsecID=IBD06&articleID=IBD060008&articlePages=1

[LuCkY]

Assalaamu Alaykum,

 

JazakaAllah Khayr for the insightfuL posts.

[Muriidi]

this is nice ..