بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum
Dear Friends
I pray that you are well.
The ritual prayer is the most important obligation of the obligations in Islam. The prayer is the pillar of the religion. He who gives up prayer intentionally becomes near coming out of faith as his pillar falls down. It's outer acts and movements, such as wudu' (ablution), standing, bowing, prostration are meant to bestow on a person an inner reality.
So Allah says,
إِنَّنِي أَنَا اللَّـهُ لَا إِلَـٰهَ إِلَّا أَنَا فَاعْبُدْنِي وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ لِذِكْرِي
Indeed, I am Allah. There is no deity except Me, so worship Me and establish prayer for My remembrance. (Qur'an Ta Ha 20:13)
This is the point of all of the rules of the ritual prayer. You establish them and they bequeath in the heart of the person who is focusing on Allah the state of remembrance of Allah. No doubt, the object of religious acts is to remember Allah. If that object is not attained, there is no use in prayer, as it is very easy to move the tongue without attention. If you recite, "Guide us to the straight path", and if you are inattentive at that time, it is only the movement of your tongue and nothing else. His tongue moves only owing to habit but he is far away from the object of the prayer to enliven Allah's remembrance and with that to make firm the tie of faith.
What is this remembrance of Allah? It is a tremendous gift of ease, relaxation and tranquility from Allah.
Allah says,
الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَتَطْمَئِنُّ قُلُوبُهُم بِذِكْرِ اللَّـهِ ۗ أَلَا بِذِكْرِ اللَّـهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ
Those who believe, and whose hearts find rest in the remembrance of Allah for without doubt in the remembrance of Allah do hearts finds rest. (Qur'an Ar-Ra'd 13:28)
No matter how everything else might be going wrong in your life, but if your heart is with Allah, you find ease and relaxation.
Allah says,
قَدْ أَفْلَحَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ ﴿١﴾ الَّذِينَ هُمْ فِي صَلَاتِهِمْ خَاشِعُونَ ﴿٢﴾ وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ عَنِ اللَّغْوِ مُعْرِضُونَ ﴿٣﴾ وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ لِلزَّكَاةِ فَاعِلُونَ ﴿٤﴾ وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ لِفُرُوجِهِمْ حَافِظُونَ ﴿٥﴾ إِلَّا عَلَىٰ أَزْوَاجِهِمْ أَوْ مَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَانُهُمْ فَإِنَّهُمْ غَيْرُ مَلُومِينَ ﴿٦﴾ فَمَنِ ابْتَغَىٰ وَرَاءَ ذَٰلِكَ فَأُولَـٰئِكَ هُمُ الْعَادُونَ ﴿٧﴾ وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ لِأَمَانَاتِهِمْ وَعَهْدِهِمْ رَاعُونَ ﴿٨﴾ وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ عَلَىٰ صَلَوَاتِهِمْ يُحَافِظُونَ ﴿٩﴾ أُولَـٰئِكَ هُمُ الْوَارِثُونَ ﴿١٠﴾ الَّذِينَ يَرِثُونَ الْفِرْدَوْسَ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ
Certainly will the believers have succeeded: (1) They who are during their prayer humbly submissive....And they who carefully maintain their prayers - (9) Those are the inheritors (10) Who will inherit al-Firdaus. (Qur'an Al-Mukminun 23:1-10)
The believers have surely succeeded (i.e it is a done deal for them), those who are humble in prayers. This is the first characteristics mentioned before others. Humble does not mean they are slouching over and everyone look at them like they are not worth anything but they have dignity. They are humble and their hearts tremble out of awe before whom they know they are standing. They are not standing in front of a wall but in front of their Lord and this humbles their heart. They don't fidget, they don't look around, and their gaze is lowered throughout their standing during 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 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 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.
When prayer works, it has a miraculous effect on these people.
The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, who is the Sayyid of these people, said: The coolness of my eyes is in the prayer.
Meaning my happiness and my joy is in the prayer. Prayer is an absolute tranquility and peacefulness.
Where are you in your prayer?
The first level of prayer is when someone does not fulfill the minimum requirements of the exterior and interior part of the prayer. The person is sinful. We seek protection from Allah from being in this level. The exterior part of the prayer are conditions of the prayer: 1) in state of ritual purity 2) body, clothes and place of prayer be free of filth beyond the excused amount 3) cover nakedness 4) facing the Qibla 5)pray within the prayer time 6)intention before beginning 7) say the takbir "Allahu Akbar". The minimum of the interior part of the prayer are integrals of prayer: 1) standing 2) bowing 3) reciting (lips movement) 4) prostrating 5) final sitting.
The second level is when someone who observes the minimum of the exterior and interior parts of prayer. This person’s prayer is legally valid but he is sinful for skipping the necessary elements of the prayer. We seek Allah’s Protection from being in this level. The necessary elements are 1)reciting Al-Fatiha and 3 short verse 2) 2 prostrations in each cycle 3) remain motionless at least a moment in all integrals--no woodpecking 4) first sitting/tashahhud 5) reciting tashahhud at final sitting 6) salam twice at the end 7) recite quietly for daytime prayer, aloud for night prayers and if he is an imam.
The third level is when someone fulfills the exterior part of the prayer but the moment he enters into prayer and says Allahu Akbar, every single thought other than Allah comes to his mind. He starts to think about food, work, school, what so-and-so said to him yesterday, etc. The heart is just not there with Allah. But he knows that he must be khusyu’ so he tries to focus his attention to his prayer. So, he lowers his gaze and tries to focus at his prayer mat. But this lasts for a few seconds and he starts drawing with his eyes the pattern on the prayer mat and starts admiring the intricate design and colors, and it takes him to the place he bought the mat from or the image of the person who gifted it to him. Suddenly, he remembers he is in prayer, so he moves away from that but then the door bell starts ringing and he wonders who is ringing the door bell. He realizes he is in prayer and tries to focus on his prayer again. This cycle repeats (with variety of distractions) until he completes his prayer. In other words, this person takes care of the exterior part and he does his best to fulfill the interior part but fails miserably.
Most of us who pray are in this level. The scholars said that for this type of prayers, there is a double reward. The first reward is because you pray for the sake of Allah and you fulfill the exterior part and interior part of the prayer. The second reward is for the jihad (the strive to succeed) against Shaytan who comes and whispers all sorts of nonsense to distract us.
The key is that we must fulfill the requirements of a valid prayer and do our best to stay focus on what we are doing during prayer and not just let our minds wonder off in different directions because we don’t want to fall back into the first or the second level. We should aspire and strive to attain the next higher levels.
The fourth level is when the person observes the exterior and interior part of his prayer as well as the sunnah, e.g. using miswak before wudu', perform recommended prayers before and after obligatory prayer, reflect on the tremendousness of the Words you are reciting, etc. This person attains khusyu’ in his prayer. The Companions of the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, were in this level.
The fifth level is that when the person starts to pray, it is as though he takes his heart out and give it to Allah. This is a highway to Paradise for him. This is the Prophet’s level of prayer.
May Allah guide us in our prayers and to complete His favor upon us and make us His righteous slaves and of those He is pleased with. Please don't forget us in your prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.
And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam
