In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum
Dear Friends
I pray that you are well.
When prayer works, it has a miraculous effect on people.
Obviously, offering Salaah (and reading Qur'an for that matter) is humongously difficult for those who don't fear Allah because they don't see the importance.
Allah Almighty says,
وَٱسْتَعِينُوا۟ بِٱلصَّبْرِ وَٱلصَّلَوٰةِ ۚ وَإِنَّهَا لَكَبِيرَةٌ إِلَّا عَلَى ٱلْخَـٰشِعِينَ ﴿٤٥[Qur'an, Al-Baqarah 2:45]
And seek help through patience and prayer, and indeed, it is difficult except for the humbly submissive [to Allah] (45)
Allah Almighty says,
قَدْ أَفْلَحَ ٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ ﴿١﴾ ٱلَّذِينَ هُمْ فِى صَلَاتِهِمْ خَـٰشِعُونَ ﴿٢﴾ وَٱلَّذِينَ هُمْ عَنِ ٱللَّغْوِ مُعْرِضُونَ ﴿٣[Qur'an, Al-Mu'minun 23:1-3]
Certainly will the believers have succeeded: (1) They who are during their prayer humbly submissive (2) And they who turn away from ill speech (3)...
Salaah should keep the people away from immodesty, immorality and shamelessness. Salaah offered unmindfully does not obviously restrain people from evil deeds, and consequently such a person goes farther and farther away from Allah.
The Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) has said: "The Salaah simply means self-abasement and humility." Says another hadith: "If his prayers do not restrain a man from immodesty and evil, he goes farther and farther away from Allah."
There is no act more powerful than offering prayers (Salaah) especially the five prayers every day -- Dhuhr (afternoon), 'Asr (mid-afternoon), Maghrib (sunset), 'Isha (night) and Fajr (dawn). These prayers take the weight of fifty prayers. It is a very potent concentrated medicine to pray these prayers. Prayer is our support and strength.
Praying five times a day is our personal school as long as we keep it for the rest of our lives, no matter where we are- travelling in non-muslim countries where people may feel threatened by your presence or praying on their sidewalk or parking lot, vacationing in third world countries where public toilets are almost none, working in difficult environment, in cold or hot weather, rain or shine. We will learn knowledge that we cannot learn from books.
Imagine someone who prays five times everyday no matter where they are, no matter what conditions they are in, the prayer will teach him things that books cannot teach. Praying in parking lots, sidewalks, roadside, airports, malls and many other awkward places, would teach him who is more important and whose eyes he care about more. Books cannot teach him that.
Imagine praying five times everyday in places where there are the four seasons -- summer, fall, winter and spring. It can be quite challenging in the winter when Fajr is very early in the morning and in the summer when 'Isha is very late at night. It requires planning and readjusting your sleep and work schedule in order to perform the prayers at their prescribed times. This teaches us an important virtue in our daily lives -- being flexible. Books cannot teach us this.
Someone who prays five times everyday faithfully under whatever circumstances and wakes up in the middle of night and pray is not an ordinary person with Allah. He is a very special person.
Prayer is an absolute tranquility and peacefulness. It is a joy for those people who Allah blessed them in their prayers.
The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: "The coolness of my eyes is in the prayer." The call to prayer is a comfort to People of Allah. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, said : "O Bilal, comfort us with it." Meaning give the call to prayer.
The Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, "Prayer is the best matter."(Tabarani, sound hadith)
Many scholars have tested this. If they have a free afternoon, they filled it up with extra cycles of prayer. Among the great 'Ulama' of people (Scholars) who made time for extra cycles of prayer, because of the light they found in ritual prayer itself, was Qadi Abu Yusuf, the greatest companion of Imam Abu Hanifa. He was the first judge of judges in Islamic history and despite his great time he must have spent in learning, teaching and and judging, he made extra time beyond that to perform 200 cycles of prayer for the sake of Allah.
In fact, many of the early Muslims did this because they found the light in prayer. The great spiritual master of North Africa, Al Arbi Darqawi, a great Qur'an teacher said: "I tried all manner of of worship for like 50 years, and I found nothing more beneficial and enlightening to the heart than repeating the prayer (meaning praying cycles after cycles of supererogatory prayer)."
An arrow stuck on a calf of a Companion of the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) and it was too painful to take it out. So the Companion asked his companions to wait for him to start praying and then pull the arrow out. The companions pulled it out while he was praying and he didn't feel the arrow being pulled out during that state. When he entered into the prayer, he entered into a state of mind wherein he was with his Lord and so he was less sensitive to the pain of the body.
May Allah make us of those who say, "We hear and we obey", and guide us in our prayers and make us His righteous slaves and of those He is pleased with.
وَمَن يُطِعِ ٱللَّـهَ وَٱلرَّسُولَ فَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ مَعَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَنْعَمَ ٱللَّـهُ عَلَيْهِم مِّنَ ٱلنَّبِيِّـۧنَ وَٱلصِّدِّيقِينَ وَٱلشُّهَدَآءِ وَٱلصَّـٰلِحِينَ ۚ وَحَسُنَ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ رَفِيقًا ﴿٦٩[Qur’an An-Nisa 4:69]
And whoever obeys Allah and the Messenger - those will be with the ones upon whom Allah has bestowed favor of the prophets (Nabiyyeen), the steadfast affirmers of truth (Siddiqin), the martyrs (Shuhada) and the righteous (Solihin). And excellent are those as companions. (69)
Ameen.
And Allah knows best and He alone grant success.
Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa 'ala aalihi wa sahbihi wassallam
Wassalaam
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