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Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, alhamdulillahi rabbil ‘alameen, was-salatu was-salamu ‘ala ashrafil anbiya wal mursaleen, Muhammadin Rasulullah ﷺ, wa ‘ala alihi wa sahbihi, taslimun kaseelun. Hum abadu. My brothers and sisters, we all know the ayat of, the hadith of Uqari, where Rasulullah ﷺ narrated by Sayyidina Umar ibn al-Khattab, radi Allahu anhu, where Rasulullah is reported to have said: He said that the reward of the deed is based on its intention. So I remind myself and you of the importance of doing everything, whatever we do, with awareness, with the right intention, and with awareness. The right intention is only one, which is the pleasure of Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la. So whatever we do, we do with the intention that Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la should be pleased with that action. So automatically, when you do the action with that intention, then it guarantees that the action will be correct. Because we cannot be doing something which is haram with the intention that Allah should be pleased. Makes no sense, completely oxymoronic. Because if it is haram, it means Allah will be displeased. How can you say my intention is Allah should be pleased? If your intention is Allah should be pleased, then first thing to check is this action, is it? According to the Sharia, is it permissible or not permissible? Once we have that, then the second one is to check if we are doing this action only for the pleasure of Allah or if there is a contamination in that, I will also be doing it so that people will be pleased or I will show up as a, you know, wise person, pious person, scholarly person or whatever person, a generous person. So, connect, correct the inia. And then do the action with awareness of the benefit of this action. The fadl of the amal, right? What is the benefit of this action?
For example, an apparently simple action, all of us came here for Salatul Fajr, alhamdulillah. So before you came here or after you came to the masjid, you made wudu. Now most of us may Allah have mercy on us, we make wudu without thinking, right? We just go and make some niyat of the wudu and then you do the wash your face, wash your hands, wash your feet and so on and you’re done, right? That’s not the way to do it. Because wudu is an ibadah, it’s an action, an act of worship in itself. Wudu is an act of worship in itself. Allah ﷻ will reward you for this hudu.
For example, Rasool Allah said, when you gargle, when you take water in your mouth and spit it out, it washes away, it takes away all the evil that your tongue has done until that time. So, maybe anything wrong you said, maybe bad words or whatever, that flows out with that water. Your mouth is clean, clean. So it’s not only clean in a physical sense, it is also clean in a spiritual sense. When you wash your hands, the Prophet said, the sins fall off with the wudu, water, the washes, the wudu water washes away the sins. So physical purification and spiritual purification. To the extent that in the Shafi’i Madhab, the water of wudu is considered impure. When which falls is considered impure because it has carried away your sins. It’s dirty water.
Are we aware of this when we are doing Subhudu? This is the Fadl of Allah. Allah has rewarded you and He has benefited us and rewarded us by purifying us. We have the hadith where the Prophet said, if there is a man who has a river flowing in front of his house and five times a day he bathes in this river, will any dirt be left on his body? The Sahaba said, it is impossible, dirt cannot be left on his body. So, Rishad al-Assalam said, that is what happens when you make Udo. It’s like washing in the river. All right.
Then we come for Salah, and then we stand for Salah. And the first action we do is Takbeer Taharima. It’s Allahu Akbar. Now, on a side note, saying Allahu Akbar is wajib and fard. That is how you enter Salah. Many times you see people, when the Jamaat is going on, you come and you are in a hurry to join the Jamaat and you simply come and you do whichever action the Jamaat is doing. For example, if the Jamaat is in Ruku especially because you want to catch that Ruku so you don’t miss that Rakhaat. So people just come and they go in Ruku. They have not said Allah is the Greatest. Now, saying Allah is the Greatest loudly is not required but in an audible voice to say Allah is Fard. If you do not say Allah is the Greatest then you are not considered to be in Salah. You would have prayed the whole thing, but it’s like doing yoga or something. You know, you went up and down, that’s it. It’s not salah. You must say Allahu Akbar. Now, part of saying Allahu Akbar is also raising your hands to your ears. Allahu Akbar. You raise your hand to your ears. Now, raising the hand is not wajib and fard. But saying Allahu Akbar is fard. But raising your hand is mustahab, alhamdulillah. So, you should do it.
Now, think about this. When you’re raising your hand like this, the hands are facing forward. And the back of the hands, obviously the back, you’re not raising them like this, you’re raising them like this. And what are you doing? What is this action? This action is throwing the whole world behind your back. You say, Allahu Akbar. Everything has ceased to exist. Everything has, anything that’s there has no importance for me. I’m indicating with my hands to say that I’m now in the presence of my Rabb on high. Jalla Jalal. Allahu Akbar. And you hold your hands. So you are entering into the presence of Allah ﷻ.
And when you enter the presence of Allah ﷻ, what do you do? You recite Salah and then you say Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. I begin in the name of Allah, who is the most merciful, the most beneficent, most beneficent, merciful. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘Alameen. All praise and all thanks are to the Rabb of the Aalameen. The creator, sustainer, maintainer, protector of all that exists. See the grammar of what I’m saying. You are saying here that all praise and all thanks are for Rabbul Aalameen. Who is he? Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim. The most beneficial, the most merciful. Merciful, the one whose Rahmah is always at the peak, never reduces. And who else is he? Malik Yom Eddeel. He is the Malik. And in the verse recitation we say Malik, which means king. Malik is owner. Both have the same meaning. Owner of the day of judgement. Malik Yom Eddeel. And then the grammar changes, changes. When you are saying all praise and thanks to Allah, the Rabb of the universe, the most beneficent, most merciful, the owner of the day of judgement, you are speaking in third person. You are talking about Allah ﷻ. Yes? Third person. Who is Allah? This is Allah.
After that, the grammar, the tense changes. You are not saying, You are saying, We worship. Only you we worship. And only you we seek help from. Nobody else is there. Now it’s me and my Rabb. The grammar of the language has changed from third person to first person. You were talking about Allah, now you are talking to Allah. You are in the presence of Allah in a way that suits His Majesty and Grace. Allah has allowed you and me into His presence. Iyyaka na’budu biyyaka nishti.
And then we make du’a. Hidina al-sirat al-mustaqiq. Qura’a al-giray’un, the straight path, the path of steadfastness. Sirat al-lazeena ala’imta alayhim wa ghayri al-maghdubi alayhim wa al-dallil. The path of those who you blessed, who received your blessing and not the path of those who incurred your anger or who were led astray or who went astray.
This awareness that I am in the presence of Allah ﷻ. And therefore Surah Al-Fatiha is fard in every rakaat, in every salah, no matter what kind of salah it is, whether it’s fard or nafil or sunnah or jum’ah or… Without Surah Al-Fatiha, la salata illa bi fatihati alkitab. Haw kamakala alayhi salatu salam, the Prophet is reported to have said there is no salah without the Fatiha of the Gita, without the opening of the book which is Sotafatiha. So I remind myself and you, let us inculcate this beautiful habit of doing things with awareness, not just blindly doing the rituals. The reason I’m saying is, Alhamdulillah, Allah has given us the tawfiq, you get up out of your bed, you come to the Masjid, Mashallah may Allah bless you and bless all your people will you accept all your duas? Right? So you’re making all the effort. Alhamdulillah, let’s make it. We ask Allah to forgive us and forgive our shortcomings and so on. But try to, let us try to do that with more awareness so we get more benefit from this. Right? It’s not just a matter of okay, I finished, tick the box. Did you pray saathul fajar wa itum jawat? Yes. Alhamdulillah, okay, good. No. What did you get from this? It’s not a matter of ticking some box. The question is, what did I get from this? I was, I’m in the presence of my Rabb,
I must take away something from here because we are in the presence of the one who doesn’t take he only gives. He doesn’t take, we don’t come here with an offering. We come here to take, we are people who are in need. We are in need of Allah’s help, we are in need of Allah’s protection, we are in need of Allah’s forgiveness. We are in need. So take it and go. Don’t go empty handed. Because you are in the presence of the one whose treasures have no boundaries. And he is the only one whose treasures have no guards. Allah does not appoint guards on his treasures. He appoints his Ambiyya. And the job of the Ambiyya is to distribute the treasure, give away. And in the Sadaqah of Rasulullah ﷺ, that job is given to us. Go and distribute the treasures of Allah, with the makhrum of Allah. So it’s important for us to understand how to take the treasure of Allah. How will you give without taking? You take from Allah, and you give to the people.
We were sent to give, we are not sent to take. We are not sent to take, we are sent to give. We ask Allah to grant us sincerity in our niyyah, we ask Allah to grant us awareness in our ibadat and in all our actions, and we ask Allah to reward us as He promised to reward us. Wa sallat ala nabeel kareem wa ‘ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma’in wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu walhamdulillahi rabbil ‘alameen.