Bismillah hir-Rahma nir-Raheem. In the name of Allah the Most Beneficent the Most Merciful. All praises are due to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. Greetings and Salutations upon His beloved Prophet Muhammad (salallah hu alay hi wa salam).
(Talk by Mufti Ismail Menk during his visit to Blackburn 18/04/08)
How to obtain success?
Allah has pointed out for us in the Quran Sure Muminoon (The believers) on how we can do this; each step is pointed out clearly, which is followed by how to achieve that step in the following verses. It is like a domino effect, the step followed by how to achieve it. If you bring into your daily life and follow these steps then Inshallah you will have obtain success in this world and in the hereafter.
Salaat (prayer/namaz)
Salaat is the foundation upon which the pillars of Islam are built around, if we can correct out salaat then Inshallah everything else will be corrected also. First thing we need in our salaat is concentration, the better the concentration and devotion in salaat the closer we become to Allah. The pious people use this as a guage to see how close they are to Allah.
Mufti Saab told a funny story at this point which I will summarise, there was a boy who went to a Masjid and was told that there are 3 pious people at the front of the mosque performing salaat, so he went to check which one was the most pious, he wanted to see how they would react whilst performing salaat (how much concentration they had)
1 He slapped the first buzrookh(pious man), the buzrookh did not react and just carried on with his salaat.
2 He went to the next buzrookh wanting to see how he would react as he was more pious, once he slapped him the buzrookh finished praying salaat and asked him if he was ok? Concerned whether he had hurt his hand.
3 Amazed by the reaction from the second buzrookh he wanted to know what the most pious would do, so he went to the third buzrookh and slapped him, once he had finished performing salaat he got up and slapped him twice!! The boy was shocked, the buzrookh said to him the reason I slapped you twice is if I hadn’t you’d go round slapping everyone.
Back to the main topic.
How to concentrate in Salaat?
Those who stay away from things that do not concern them and the things that are unnecessary. You have to free your brain from things that are a waste of time, things that are futile, stay away from these things, so when you enter the Masjid your mind is not pre occupied with thoughts. The same also applies when you stand on the prayer mat to perform salaat. To enable for this to happen we must stay away from Haraam things; such as backbiting, gossiping, ill feeling and hatred.
If you remove all unnecessary things, then you will be creating space in the heart for things that are necessary (Islamic). It is said that one sign of a goodness of a Muslim is, one who leave things that do not concern them, who are concern about themselves and not interfering with the lives of others and pointing out bad points. It is said that for such a person they will get the rank of ‘tuba’ in Jannat, as their own weaknesses keep them occupied so that they don’t interfere with things that do not concern us.
How to Stay away from things that do not concern us?
Those who give zakaat, this does not only mean the charity that we give, that is included however it means to cleanse the heart. Like in the Quran it is mentioned ‘successful is the one who cleanses the heart’, so what we need to do to stay away from jealousy, hatred and backbiting etc is to cleanse our heart, we should purify the heart.
So how do we purify the heart?
The ulama have advised to set aside some time daily whether its 5/10 minutes or a little more or less every single day, we need to set aside the time to meditate (murakabah).
Meditation to reflect on what you have done that day, e.g. what time you woke up? What did you do? did you pray Fajar salaat? Did you pray on time? If not why not? reflect on this. We do the same in our worldly life, if we have one business, we think to ourselves what can I do to expand and open more branches? Likewise we should do the same for our amaals (good deeds) to increase them, and for bad deeds (gunnah) try to commit fewer and fewer.
Inshallah if we start with a few things slowly and improve daily, we should consult our local ulama, they have been put into our communities through takdeer.
The prophet SAW has taught us all good things and not forgotten to mention any and warned us of all the bad things, likewise not forgotten to mention any. We should protect our private parts.
What do we mean by Protecting our Private Parts?
Mufti saab spoke about refraining from sin, to protect our eyes. Refrain from looking at things that we shouldn’t as it is Haraam, looking at girls and boys. If we protect our eyes, then our hearts wont desire things that we should refrain from, the person who protect their body parts and eyes will have Noor (light) emanate from their face. On the day of judgement they will be asked by Allah to choose which ever Hoor(woman of jannat) that they desire.
How can we protect our Private Parts?
We should once we are eligible to marry get married in the proper sunnat way shown by our Prophet Muhammed SAW, this way we can fulfil our needs in the halal way. Both the husband and the wife should also be faithful, this will help in the marriage. To have a successful life we should look after our salaat.
How do we safe guard our Salaat?
The first point mentioned concentration in salaat, this point builds upon that and takes us full circle. We should pray our regular salaat, punctual in all 5 salaats, both quantity and quality is important, as this is the foundation from which our imaan(belief) and life is built around.
May Allah give us the guidance to act upon and bring these points into our lives, also may Allah forgive me for any errors or mistakes I may have made in writing this summary.
Ameen
If you spot a mistake please let me know.
