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Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘Alameen. Wa salatu wa salamu ala ash-sharafi al-anbiya wal-mursaleen, Muhammadur Rasulullah ﷺ, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Tasliman kafiran kafira. Wa amma abadu.
My brothers and sisters, we just heard the recitation of Surah Taha in Salah. And we heard Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala say, “Have you heard the story of Musa (alayhis-salam)?” Then Allah described the situation where Musa was traveling back from Madian to Egypt, towards the Masjid. It was dark at night; he was on his way but lost. In the distance, he saw a fire. So he told his wife and whoever was with him to wait there, saying, “Let me go and see. Maybe I can get a piece of the fire—a firebrand—to light our own fire, or perhaps someone will be there to guide me.”
And then he went there, and Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala gave him prophethood. That is why the poet said: “Ask Musa about the generosity of Musa regarding the generosity of Allah that He sent him to get a piece of fire, yet he received prophethood instead.” You see what Allah says? First, Allah addresses him and says, “I am your Rabb. Remove your shoes,” because this is the sacred value of Tawaf. The first lesson we learn here is the lesson of Adab. If you want anything in life—especially concerning religion—the first condition is respect. Allah says, “Remove your shoes.” Then, before telling Musa what His command was, Allah gave him a resource. Do not think more; He gives him a resource. Allah said, “Verily, I am Allah. There is no deity except Me. So worship Me alone and establish Salah for My remembrance.”
This is a direct command from Allah to Musa. The instruction is to establish Salah. Allah declared, “Verily, I am Allah. There is no one worthy of worship except Me. So establish Salah for My remembrance.” This Salah was not given through Jibreel (alayhis-salam) or any other source; it was given directly from Allah to Musa. Similarly, when Rasulullah ﷺ was granted prophethood and the Quran was revealed to him, that revelation came through Jibreel and various means. But regarding the issue of Salah, Allah called Rasulullah above the seven heavens, to His Throne, and gave him the command and the gift of Salah.
Allah made this Salah such an important and beautiful thing because it is the resource which Allah has given us to have direct access to Him. That is why Rasulullah said: “When the slave makes sajda on the earth, he is actually making sajda to Allah in front of his throat.” The idea is to have that awareness: when I am making sujood here, I am actually prostrating before the Arsh of Allah. Right? This is what Salah is—a complete and total awareness that I am standing before Allah. Allah is in front of me; I can see Allah. Even though I do not see Allah, Allah sees me. When I make ruku’, it is before the throne of Allah. When I make sajda, it is before the throne of Allah. It is not on this earth; it is before Allah. And that is the reason why Allah gave us complete access to Him in every state.
We are supposed to pray standing up as we normally do. If you cannot pray standing up for some reason, you are supposed to pray sitting down. If you cannot pray sitting down and can only lie down, you must pray in that state. May Allah protect us from all these things and keep us always in a state where we can pray properly. But even if you are lying down, sick, and paralyzed, you are supposed to pray using only your eyelids—blinking. And if you cannot even blink, Rasulullah said, “Pray in your heart.” There is no state in which a person who is sane and alive has no condition. He is sane and he is alive. Even if he is completely paralyzed, Allah has given him access.
The thing is, we have to change the way we look at Salah. We look at Salah as a burden to be done. Like my South African friend said: “Make Salah finish.” What do you mean “make Salah finish”? What finish? There is no finish. Salah is access to Allah. Salah is the greatest honor. Salah is the greatest facility and benefit that Allah has given. That is why Allah said, “If you have any difficulty, seek the help of Allah with Sabr and Salah. Make the effort. Have patience. Have persistence. Have fortitude. And turn to Allah. One Salah.”
Salah is something which is the greatest honor. Imagine being given access to Allah without any boundaries. We need to have this awareness. The whole problem is, unfortunately, there are those who do not pray. That is a different story. But regarding people who do pray, they keep us among the few. Even those who pray, we often go through the motions; we pray because we have to. So I pray, finish it, and go away. If I ask myself, “I just finished Salatul Fajr—is there a difference in me from before and after?” Do I feel any difference?
What’s the answer? If you did not have a bath—suppose you were exercising or going for a run, full of sweat—and then you went to have a bath and came back, would somebody ask if there was a difference? Would you say yes? There is a huge difference, right? Just pouring some water over yourself makes a huge difference; your orientation to life changes. If you’re feeling tired and have a nice cup of tea, is there a difference between you before and after the cup? Of course. Pouring some water over yourself or having one cup of tea makes a difference to you. And I can give many examples if that’s necessary.
But the same question applies: Is there a difference between how I was before I prayed (whichever Salat) and after I finished? What’s the answer? So, if the difference is there, alhamdulillah. But if there is no difference, it doesn’t mean therefore don’t pray. It means we need to work on that Salah. Something is wrong. So I must work on that Salah, right? I had a bath but still don’t feel the difference. What bath did you have? Something is wrong with the water or the way you use the water. So, Salah is supposed to produce that difference. We must ask ourselves, look in our hearts: Is my heart more at peace? Am I still worried about this and that?
Somebody sent me the Bengal election results saying BJP has won with a huge majority. He said, “There is no hope for us in this country.” I asked, “What kind of a statement is that? No hope for us in this country?” Your hope is with BJP? With TMC? With Mamata Banerjee? With whom do we have hope? With Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. What difference does it make who comes, who gets elected, or who doesn’t get elected? Hope is from whom? Really, we have to think and ask ourselves. Even these kinds of statements should not come out of your mouth. If you are making that statement, it means there is a sickness in your heart. Our hope depends on whether someone sits in the White House or another person comes; then life will change. No White House, no Black House. As far as we are concerned, our hope is only from Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. Allah does not change. Allah is Allah. And that is why the importance of responding, the importance of being alive when we read the Quran and when we pray.
Allah bless Abizbahi. He reminded me of one beautiful hadith which I found yesterday. This is a hadith in Tirmidhi. Jabir bin Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) went out to his companions and he recited Surah Ar-Rahman from the beginning to the end, and he was silent. Then he said, “I recited this to the jinn last night, and they were better than you.” When asked, “Which of the favors of your Lord do you deny?” They said, “There is nothing of Your grace, O our Lord, that we deny; so praise be to You.”
Jabir bin Abdullah read this. It’s just in the name of Allah, our Lord. This has been mentioned in a hadith in Tirmidhi where Rasulullah came out to the Sahabah and recited Surah Ar-Rahman from the beginning to the end—the whole Surah. Now, imagine putting yourself into that position. Here is Surah Ar-Rahman, the Surah which begins with the name of Allah, being recited by rahmatul lil’alameen. Okay? The one who recited it says, “I received this Surah to the Sahaba; they are all sitting there listening to the recitation of Rasulullah.” So first of all, before you go anywhere else, just put yourself in that situation and imagine—may Allah Ta’ala grant us this in reality in Jannatul Firdaus, insha’Allah—we listen to Rasulullah reciting Surah Al-Rahman while sitting in the company of the Sahaba.
So when he finished the recitation, Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said to them: “Are you not going to say anything? This is what shall we say?” This is the most beautiful thing. We thank Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala that He gave us this honor, but what do you want us to say? Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, “I recited this Surah to the jinn in the night, and their response was better than yours.” So he is saying, “I responded.” These are the jinn among the jinn; these are the Sahabah. They are also Sahabah who saw Rasulullah in a state of Iman; they are Sahabi. So these are the Sahabah of the jinn. And he said, “I recited to them, and their response was better than yours.” And he said…
Every time I said, “This is a question,” Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala is saying: How many of the blessings of your Rabb are you going to deny? And “you” means both of you—meaning humans and jinn. The grammar of Surah Al-Isra
shows that Allah is asking the question: How many of the *ni’mat* (blessings) of Allah are the two of you meaning the humans and the jinn—are you going to deny?
Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said every time I said this, the jinn responded, and they said: *”La bi shay’im min ni’mika Rabb, nukadhibu falakal hamd.”* They said we do not deny any of the blessings of our Rabb, and oh our Rabb, all *hamd* is to you—all thanks, all glory, and majesty is yours. *”La bi shay’im min ni’mika Rabbana, nukadhibu… Falakal hamd.”* This is the response.
The *Kalam* of Allah is something which is to be understood and to be recited with that awareness, with that glory and majesty of the *Kalam*. I remember reading somewhere that Allah’s companion, Maulana Iqbal Rahmatullah Ali, he said that when he was young, his house had a veranda. He said the rule was that he was not allowed to leave the house to go out and play or anything until he had recited three Juz’ of the Quran, and he had to recite aloud to his father. So he said, “I used to sit in the veranda and I would be reciting Quran; my father would be walking up and down in front of me in the veranda from one end to the other. He would be walking up and down, and Allah—Iqbal is sitting there reciting Quran.” And he said, “One day my father stops and he tells me: ‘This will never do any good to you until the Quran descends on your heart.’ Meaning read it in that way as if Allah is talking to me, and that is a fact.” It’s not as if—as in—you are not imagining this. This is Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala speaking to us. Just imagine: In this Salah, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala not only gave us Salah, not only gave us access to Him 24/7. Imagine if you or I had access to *Ta’ala* (Allah).
It’s not even correct to make these comparisons because where is the comparison between Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala and whoever-so-called leader of this world? But even if you had access to so-called any of these leaders, I can go to so-and-so’s house anytime; I can go to so-and-so’s office anytime. Nobody can stop me. You’ll be walking on air right; your feet won’t touch the ground. And here, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala—*Jalla Jalaluhu*—says: *”Amma nawaluhu Rabbul Arshi Al-Kareem, Badi’u Samawati wal-Ard, Khaliqu Kulli Asya wal-Ahwal… Al-Hayyul-Qayyum.”* And Allah has given us access 24/7. Come anytime. Five times is far, but beyond that is “anytime.”
And then when you come in that state of Salah, you don’t even use your own words. You don’t use the words of any human being. You recite to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala His own *Kalam*. Allah gave us the permission and the command to actually speak His words and the *Kalam* of Allah—the speech of Allah on our tongue. Now I can imagine. Just think about the honor of this. The speech of Allah on our tongue. Allah said, “When you come to Me, My own *Kalam*, not anything else.” Not even the words of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. You cannot read a Hadith in Salah. No. Only the *Kalam* of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala. See the honor of that!
That’s the reason why I remind myself: When we even start to pray, let us stand there and try to understand and try to bring that sense of where am I, what am I doing. Bring that sense into ourselves and say *Alhamdulillah*: “I am standing before Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala. I am standing before His Throne, Jalla Jalaluhu. I am going to get into a state now when I say *Allahu Akbar*—Tagbirat-ul-Haram. The whole world will become Haram for me. I am standing before Allah. And then I am going to recite to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala His own *Kalam*. I will praise Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala in the words in which He praised Himself because no praise to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala can be better than the way He said it.” Have this sense of saying, have this awareness. Say before I entered Salah, how was I feeling? After I finished Salah, how do I feel?
That’s the reason why if you think about this, Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam used to say to Sayyidina Bilal Radhiallahu Anhu: “Give us relief, Ya Bilal, call the Adhan. Give us peace, give us relief, call the Adhan.” The Salah is the tool; it is the resource to seek the help of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala to get relief from stress, to forget the world and turn our attention (*tawajju*) to Allah. We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala to give us peace, this sense and awareness. We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala that He gave us the honor of coming before Him. We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala never to send us away and to keep us in His presence—spiritually, mentally, physically—and we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala to take us in that state in His presence when the time for us comes. And we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala to keep us in a state where we don’t depend on anyone other than Him because we don’t worship anyone other than Him. And we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala to take us in that state and to be pleased with us and never to be displeased.
*Wa Sallallahu Ala Nabil Kareem Wa Ala Alihi Wa Sahbihi Ajma’in Wa Rahmatika Rahmatullah.*