The Importance Of Prayer 2/2

Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim. We had begun the discussion about Salat and prayer in the words of Imam al-Ridha, alayhi assalam, and we came to realize that Salat and prayer is so important, that is, the daily prayer is so important, that actually it is the moving force for the virtue of the other actions.

If a person did not do his prayer properly or did not perform his prayer properly and his prayer is rejected, then you'll find the other actions also would not carry weight. So there are some conditions that are to be met in prayer, which are very important.

One of these conditions is the presence of heart in prayer. If a person is present in his prayer, he has a presence of heart in prayer, he concentrates, he knows what he is saying. Whenever he, for example, the main components of prayer is glorification of Allah, Subhanah wa Ta'ala, and that is duly clear that Allah is free from every imperfection and praise of Allah, Subhanah wa Ta'ala, which means, to be clear, the beautiful attributes of Allah, Subhanah wa Ta'ala. This is the main thing that we do in prayer.

Now, having known that these are the main things in prayer, if a person doesn't concentrate and he his mind wanders from one place to the other, then you'll find that the prayer would not have any effect. You would find that even the glorification would not be a proper glorification. The praise of Allah, Subhana wa Ta'ala would not be a praise of Allah.

The process of going to ruku'u and sujud, all these are, you know, actually expression of humility before Allah, Subhana wa Ta'ala, if a person does not perform this properly and does it without concentration, without the necessary conditions, then you will find that no kind of humility and humbleness would come in his heart.

He would not actually glorify Allah. He would not actually praise Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. He would not, for example, you know, bow down before an omnipotent and omniscient Lord Who has power over everything. And you see this realization will not dawn, when this realization would not dawn that person will perform other actions, but will lack the spirit of monotheism.

We can say that actually the prayer trains the human being to be a monotheist so that when he becomes a monotheist, whenever he does any action, it is actually according to monotheism.

And therefore, whenever he, for example, gives Sadaqah, he says Qurbatan Ila Allah, I'm doing this not to show off, not riya' an-nas or you will not, for example, try to taunt the person afterwards, after having given the Sadaqah because he knows that la hawla wa la quwwata illa billahi al-ali ul-adhim.

One of the lessons that he gets is when he says bi hawli llahi wa quwwatihi aqumu wa aqu'ud, and some of the scholars say, wa arkau wa asjud. The whole everything that I do in prayer, it is by Your permission and by Your power, oh Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. So whenever he does any action, for example, he he helps the poor, for example, he lets say fasts, for example, he goes for Ziyarat of Imam al-Ridha, alayhi assalam, for example. He doesn't feel proud in himself. He didn't feel proud in himself. He doesn't think that, you know, he has done something. He knows everything is by Allah's power.

Where did he learn this? In prayer. And that is why even Imam Ali, alayhi assalam, has a specific saying, which is actually near to this saying of Imam Al-Ridha, alayhi assalam. He says that: "kullu shay'in min 'amalika taba'un lisalatik", he gives this in Nahj ul-Balaghah.

He said everything of your action is actually it follows your salat. "In qubilat, qubila ma siwaha, wa in ruddat, rudda ma siwaha". If the salat was accepted, then the other actions would also be accepted.

But if it was rejected, then the others would also be rejected. Now, when we say the acceptance of salat, obviously we must understand it doesn't mean that, for example, if a part of your salat is not accepted, all the other actions would be rejected. No, sometimes it's a half of the salat is not accepted. Sometimes the entire salat is not accepted. This is when the entire salat is not accepted, when the person is indifferent, he doesn't know what he is saying before Allah, Subhanahu wa Ta'ala.

So this is one of the fundamental saying of Imam Al-Ridha, alayhi assalam, just to make a conclusion that it is important for us that whenever we go for prayers, we pray greedily. When I say greedily, I'm talking about the positive sense of greediness. We are greedy for the benefit of Salat. We are greedy to gain that monotheism so that, you know, when we go and perform any other action, we perform it out of sincerity.

So we stop over here. Wa al-Hamdulillahi Rabb al-Alameen, wa sallalahu ala Muhammad, wa aali at-tayyibin at-tahireen.