The wisdom behind different factors of Salaah (Prayer)- Part 1

This is going to be a series of posts Inshaa-Allah taking you through the entire salaah and explaining some of the reasons for the postures and words in the salaah.

All the information in this series will be taken from the following source:

My Salaat  by  Moulana Muhammad Idris Ansari, translated by Dr. Imtiaz Kamal Madani, 

Please note that this is just a basic introduction, the Salaah has so many dimensions to it and there are so many secrets in this beautiful prayer that we will never fully comprehend. This is why salaah is regarded as a gift to Muslims. It should be remembered that Salaah is about connection to Allah Almighty, it is about breaking oneself away from this worldly life, to connect with the Creator and remember what our true purpose on this earth is.

Inshaa-Allah if time permits then this can become a regular weekly thing where posts specifically about Salaah is put up. I am still learning, just like all of you and the more I learn the more it helps me to appreciate the beautiful gifts I have being given, may Allah Most Glorious guide myself and all of you to love and understand what He has given us.

I hope that you enjoy this series and please leave your comments below, if anyone requires any further information or explanation please email me (zhassem1@yahoo.com) and Inshaa-Allah I will try my best to find the information that you need. 

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 The wisdom behind starting salaah with Takbir (that is reciting Allabu Akbar)

• -          Allahu Akbar means that Allah (Most Glorious) is the greatest in all His powers and characteristics, and the meaning of the entire salaah is that by his every action, man is displaying his own and the whole world’s helplessness in comparison to Allah’s greatness.
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• -          For this reason, before one begins his salaah, Allah showed his servant that he will have to perform his entire salaah under the title of Allahu Akbar and perform it with that perspective in mind.

The wisdom behind raising hands to the ears at the start of salaah

• -          When Allah Almighty’s servant says Allahu Akbar, and at the same time raises his hands, he expresses his freedom from associating any partner with Allah, so that the words and actions of the worshipper may be the same.
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• -          When a man is drowning in a river (or other body of water), he raises his hands up in the hope that maybe he can grab something to save his life. In the same way, Allah’s servant says with his tongue, Allahu Akbar, and at the same time, thinking about the river of his sins, he raises his hands as though to say, “O my Saviour, I am drowning, but if you hold me, then I will be saved from drowning in my sins.”
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• -          In short, by raising his hands, the person is expressing his helplessness in front of Allah.

The wisdom behind standing with hands folded in salaah

• -          Man is both accused and guilty in front of Allah on account of his sins, and salaah is like that appeal which the accused has placed in Allah’s court of justice for forgiveness.
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• -          It is as though, at this time, Allah’s court is in session, the King of Kings is present in His court and the case of the accused is being tried.
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• -          In this condition, it is the duty of the accused, that he stand with his eyes downcast and his hands folded in front of him, so that by looking at his helpless and humble condition, Allah the most merciful of those capable of showing mercy, would relent towards him.

The wisdom behind reciting surah Faatiha (the Opening Chapter of the Glorious Quraan) in salaah

• -          Surah Faatiha is actually the substance of the appeal, and as mentioned already, salaah is a means of presenting oneself in the Supreme Court of Allah.
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• -          Now what do you think will happen if one enters the court and his petition is not acceptable, or his plea does not properly express his purpose, or what if he has no petition or plea in itself?
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• -          Thus, Allah Almighty has given us the appeal or the plea to make, when we stand in front of Allah, and this is none other than Surah Faatiha.
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• -          So this petition or plea would then be appropriate to Allah’s Grandeur, and also encompass the most important needs of the servant.

The wisdom behind the requirement of bowing (ruku) in salah

• -          The Lord of the Worlds accepts the plea that the servant has presented, even before the servant performs ruku (bowing)- SubhanAllah (Glory be to Allah!)
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• -          It is narrated in a hadeeth something to the effect that when the servant of Allah reaches the part in Surah Faatiha which says (guide us to the straight path- Ihdenassirtatul Mustaqeem), and completes the Surah, then Allah Almighty says, “O my servant! Your appeal has been accepted, and I have fulfilled your request.”
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• -          In thankfulness for his acceptance, the servant makes ruku, and thereby bows his head and waist, in an action that says, “My Lord your servants head and waist are at your service. How can I thank you? This slave is helpless in front of You. This head is also present in front of You. You can create whatever thought (in this head) that You want, and this waist is also present, You can give it strength in whatever action You want.
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• -          In another hadeeth it is narrated something to the effect that, the Prophet (pbuh) said, that when the worshipper stands up for salaah, all his sins are gathered together in the form of a bundle and placed on his head. When he goes into Ruku (bowing), all his sins fall off his head. Because the worshipper becomes pure from his sins after performing ruku, he is happy at his purpose being fulfilled, and says with his tongue (Sami-Allah-u-liman Hamidah- which translates as, “Allah heard the one who praised him), and then he stands up again.

Taken from: My Salaat  by  Moulana Muhammad Idris Ansari, translated by Dr. Imtiaz Kamal Madani, 

Tit-for tat, there should be nothing of that…

Lately I’ve been hearing people talk a lot about getting revenge and fighting negativity with negativity. “How can I just leave people to treat me badly? I have to be to them as they are to me.” This is the sentiment that people keep echoing. I agree that no one should be disrespected, I also agree that people should be able to stand up to those who are mistreating them, but I don’t really agree with fighting negativity with negativity.

It just doesn’t help to be mean and horrible to those people who are mean and horrible to you. It contributes to an endless cycle of negativity and with the ‘tit-for-tat’ attitude people have, that cycle will never end.

We may think that we are standing up for ourselves and achieving justice by reacting to negativity with more negativity but honestly I see it as a futile effort. What does one achieve from screaming back at someone who is screaming at you?  What do you achieve by abusing and disrespecting someone who has done that to you?  Instead of helping the situation you are making it worse, because you are condoning and contributing to negativity, thereby giving it justification.

“But it doesn’t help to be nice”, people will say to me. “If someone is horrible to me, I need to be the same to them,” and I ask them if this helps anyone, to which they calmly reply, ‘yes, it helps me to feel better’. But, even they have to admit that the feeling they speak about is short lived, and while they may have gotten their revenge, the major problems continue to persist and it just keeps escalating.

Now, please understand I am not saying that you should be a ‘doormat’ that simply just accepts whatever people do to you. This is obviously not healthy either. But the only way to fight negativity is with positivity, and if you think I’m talking nonsense or this doesn’t help, you need to look into the life of our Beloved Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

The story that stands out for me and all other Muslims is when the Prophet (pbuh) went to a city near Makkah called Ta’if to preach about Islam. The people were horrible to him to an extent that me and you can never imagine. They got the children to pelt our beloved Prophet (pbuh) with stones, and they mocked and insulted him as they drove him out of the city. His feet were bleeding the way they pelted him, and what did he do. He made sure that his blood did not touch the floor because he knew that if the blood of a Prophet touches the ground then Allah Almighty will destroy the people who caused it. He (pbuh) was asked by the angel Jibreel (peace be upon him), that Allah has sent me and if you say so Allah will crush the people between these two mountains, and the Prophet (pbuh) refused to let that happen. He said that maybe it will be that people of their progeny will accept Islam, and you know what, that’s exactly what happened. SubhanAllah (Glory be to Allah), can we even imagine that sort of mercy.

There are many other stories in the life of the Prophet (pbuh), stories which illustrate so well that he fought negativity with positivity and people changed and they ended up loving him and embracing Islam, because he was not concerned with revenge, and he understood that negativity upon negativity can never bring about positivity.

So where does this “tit-for-tat” attitude come from? What makes us think that we need to get even or die trying? Why do we believe that we should give people what they give us?  I like to argue that it’s all our ego, and if this is true then we really need to be working on ourselves first before we can even consider bringing about any positive change.

There are many ways to deal with negative people, but revenge is not one of them. After all, these very people who are negative are only human beings, with their own needs and insecurities and maybe they don’t understand how to be nice or good because no one has ever being nice or good to them.

So let us try to always be positive people, people who emulate our beloved Prophet (pbuh) in all ways, people who can’t imagine treating someone else negatively because we ourselves do not like to be treated that way. May Allah Almighty guide us all and help us to be positive role-models. 

An analogy we can’t miss

I recently received a new mobile phone. It’s a smart phone, and looks very nice, shiny and delicate. The screen looks amazing. One of the first things I did shortly after I got the phone was to go out and buy a cover for it. I didn’t want the phone to get damaged. Unlike my previous phone, this one just seemed like it needed to be protected.

So when I got the cover for it, that’s when it hit me. This analogy I’ll tell you about in a short while. The shops we went to had many covers, for Samsung’s and I-phones, and all the latest phones and it seemed to me that the new “in-thing” was to get a cover for your phone. And that’s when I realized something important.

See these new phones are delicate, beautiful and somewhat fragile. If one scratch gets on it the whole screen may easily damage. The shiny screen needs to be protected. The sleek body of the phone needs to be held within a cover so that no harm comes to it. And because it is so beautiful and we care so much about it, what do we do, we want to protect it! So how do we do that, we cover it with a protective pouch or cover so that it can maintain its beauty…Starting to understand the analogy now?

So that’s how it is with women. We are beautiful, shiny, sleek, and delicate (not to compare women to a phone but you get the point right?) And Allah loves us, way more than we love our latest version mobile phones. Obviously just like we don’t want any harm to come to our phones, not even a scratch, this is what Allah wants for us. The soft padding of the cover is meant to protect the phone, just as our hijab and modest dress is meant to protect us. And what’s more, when our phones are in its cover we also protect it from all those who want to see it but shouldn’t. Like the robbers or thieves, or even those people who may long to have the same phone as we do. So similarly, when we are in covers, we are not seen by those who are not meant to see us. We take our phones out and show it to those who we trust, just like Allah exposes us to those who have been entrusted to care for us.

And what about men, you may ask? It’s okay, you can go ahead and ask this, many people ask that all the time.

Men can perhaps be likened to the older phones, you know, the ones that were not so smart. The screens didn’t shine so brightly and the phone wasn’t so sleek and shiny, so we didn’t care that much and getting a cover would just be bothersome. And even if those phones got scratches and even if we dropped it many times (as most of us probably have), it still worked fine, and the scars and bruises were hardly noticeable. You all know what I’m talking about right, and I don’t mean any bias against men at all when I say this, it’s just that they are rougher and tougher (physically) and I know that a lot of them these days try to make themselves look beautiful, but women are still way more beautiful (MashaAllah) so you can never compare a man to a woman, just like you’ll never compare a Smart phone to an older one.

So there’s the analogy that I got today, and I naturally had to share it with others, and the next time you carefully slip your new I-phone (or Samsung or whatever you have) in its protective pouch, maybe you’ll think of me and remember my words, and who knows, maybe you’ll be kind enough to make a little prayer for me too! 

Disclaimer:
A sister has brought it to my attention that it comes across as if what I'm saying in this post is that protection is the only reason for covering. Please be aware that hijab is a multi-dimensional concept and goes far beyond just covering for protection. There are many reasons for hijab and definitely when Muslim women don the hijab, it is out of obedience to Allah Almighty and not because they do it because they see themselves as a "smart phone"in need of protection. I apologize if this is misleading in any way. May Allah forgive me for my shortcomings!

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On mixed feelings and choices

Life is about mixed feelings. Nothing is ever really clear cut. There’s always happiness that comes with some sadness, or the other way around. Most people are never completely satisfied. Every choice seems to come with a sacrifice, while at the same time it may come with benefits. It’s possible that you love something yet hate some parts of that thing at the same time. It’s possible to be relieved to no longer have a certain responsibility, yet you may miss it (or some part of it) at the same time. Human beings are complex creatures. Perhaps this is why Allah Almighty says in the Glorious Quraan something to the effect that the children of Adam (pbuh) are always troublesome. We are never completely satisfied with anything!

And while we may think that clear-cut and easy situations would be better, we still can’t help asking ourselves whether a one-dimensional life would really be fulfilling. I can guarantee you that someone who had constant happiness would eventually get so tired of it that they’d be longing for some sadness or some trouble, just so that their routine could be broken. A lot of us search for the perfect life, but the sort of perfection we yearn and strive for is elusive. This is why we see people in a constant state of depression and unhappiness, because they are searching and yearning for something that doesn’t exist, and all the while they are ignoring what does exist.

Some of us may have bigger difficulties than others. Some of us may be living the type of life we always wished we would never live. Some of us are sitting and asking ourselves, “why did this have to happen to me?” Some may be wondering when things will change… How many of us realize that with every situation, through all the mixed feelings, the key is the choices we are going to make. The choices we inevitably make is going to be the determining factor for us, in this world and the hereafter.

So instead of focusing on the sadness, what if we choose to focus on the happiness? And in every situation, what if we choose to search for the lessons? What if we choose to take the messages that Allah Almighty is giving us? What if we choose to understand that our lives are individually tailored by Allah for each of us? A special exam has been set for each one of us. We are given tips throughout the way, and Allah (most Glorious) is so generous that He saves us 

from doing the wrong thing many times, and He directs us and guides us back to the right. All we have to do is to focus, then we’ll see that Allah is doing things for our own good, and we’ll understand that the hardest lessons are the ones that are the most worth learning.

The way I like to see life is that everything that happens to us, whether long-term or short-term is an experience. It’s something else to add to our “Life CV (or resume)”. One day we’ll understand why we’ve had all these experiences, one day these experiences will come in handy. Each experience benefits us and gives us more worth, and better skills.

Mixed feelings, well that’s what makes life interesting, and as for choices, this is something we all have, in every situation. Maybe it’s time we focus on the choices we keep making instead of focusing on the negative in our lives. We may just finding that it’s not our lives that are negative, but it’s our choices that are causing all the negativity.

For now, I am making a conscious choice to embrace whatever comes my way, whatever is still to come I pray to Allah to give me the ability to deal with it positively. I am making the choice to smile at the fact that I am able to experience mixed feelings, because this means that I have been granted the gift of experience and the even bigger gift to learn valuable lessons from this experience. But I cannot forget the greatest gift of all, and that is the fact that Allah Almighty wants me to be a person who can understand and comprehend reality,  (not the fake illusion which is sold to us as reality) and Allah wants me to just be true to myself!

What about you? What choices are you going to be making right now? And how do you deal with having mixed feelings?  Share your thoughts, we all have so much to learn from each other! 

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Book Review- “Normal Calm” by Hend Hegazi

This book tells the story of Amina, a young Arab-American woman. Amina is ambitious and hardworking and leaves home to study at one of the best universities in America. Very early on in the book she is raped by one of her college friends and this sets the scene for the rest of the book. Not only does Amina have to deal with the ordeal of her rape, but she also has to live through the after effects, the biggest one being how her rape has affected her marriage prospects.

The author delves into the usual stigmas associated with rape and focuses on how this is interpreted and understood in the Arab American community. It was also interesting to be given some insight into how Amina’s rape affected her parents.

One thing I really liked about the book is how the author attempts to shed light on the other perspective by occasionally shifting the spotlight onto the thoughts of the other characters. She also briefly touches on the feelings of the rapist, after he had committed this heinous act. Although this focus was very brief, it nonetheless provided an opportunity for the reader to try to understand the thoughts and reactions of an attacker, something that most of us are not very willing to do.

The relationship that was the most emotional for me was the friendship between Amina, and her non-Muslim best friend Kayla. Although Amina has a close knit group of college friends, it is Kayla, her childhood best friend that she turns to in all her times of need. The respect and support the two women give each other and the love they share for one another reminds us that as human beings we have the ability to connect to each other, despite cultural and religious differences. This relationship in the book also brings about opportunity for religious dialogue, which is included in a coherent and natural way.

Amina’s relationship with her parents however is also a very interesting one. For me there was a shift or growth in their relationship from the beginning of the book until the end. For some people, Amina’s parents may be perceived as unnecessarily overprotective, however, it is slowly revealed how their protectiveness stems from their deep love for their only daughter. At times her parents reactions to her may seem harsh and unemotional, but as the book progresses it can be seen how her parents act according to what they think is in her best interest and finally towards the end we begin to understand their strong love.

Issues relating to love and marriage are of course the most vivid in the book, and while these issues are usually selling points, the context of Amina’s rape provides an even more interesting discussion. The age old debate of passionate love versus a mutual respect and understanding is brought to the fore as Amina grapples with trying to find the most suitable spouse for her.  

I experienced Amina to be a practical and level-headed character, who always looked for positivity, even when faced with the most difficult of trials. It was her honesty and insistence on holding on to her values that made her a strong character, someone who could easily be called a role-model.

The book was generally an interesting read, which shed light on cultural understandings of issues which are pertinent to all people. In my opinion it has opened up the dialogue on issues that are often swept under the carpet in Muslim societies. I would say that the educational value of this book supersedes the entertainment value, and I would therefore describe it as a book with vision and purpose. 

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Read more from the author: http://hendhegazi.wordpress.com/