IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE BENEFICENT, THE MERCIFUL
BEING THE FIFTH KHUTBAH FOR THE MONTH OF RAJAB 30/RAJAB/1443AH (4/MARCH/2022CE)
PRAYER; THE ASCENSION FOR EVERY MUSLIM.
Praise be to Allaah, the Lord of the worlds, we praise and thank Allah, the exalted. We seek help and guidance from Him, we believe in Him and trust Him. And we seek refuge in Him from the evil of our souls and deeds. He that Allah guides is the guided, and the one He misleads will have no one to be his guide. I testify there is no god except Allah, and that our master- Muhammad is His servant and messenger. O Allah send peace and blessing on Muhammmad (SAW), his household, companions and those who follow them in righteousness until the Day of Judgment.
O servants of Allaah! I admonish you and myself to fear Allaah the exalted both in secret and public since it is (the means to) success, victory and salvation. Allaah says:
” يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ (102
O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims [in submission to Him]. (3:102)
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Dear brothers in faith, being the fifth sermon in the month of Rajab, in the month where there was an important event that took place during the lifetime of the prophet, peace be upon him- the Al-Isra (Night Journey) and Al-miraaj (Ascension) as discussed last week. But today’s sermon is titled: PRAYER; THE ASCENSION FOR EVERY MUSLIM.
Know that prayer is the spiritual ascension for Muslims, during which they experience through it the shade of the closeness to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, everyday, and for our Noble Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, it was the comfort of the eye and the tranquility of the heart. The Prophet- peace be upon him said: “… but my comfort has been provided in prayer.” (Ibn al-Mulqin in Al-Badr Al-Munir 1/501, he said: Its chain of transmission is authentic on the authority of Anas bin Malik, may Allah be pleased with him)
It is a worship that the prophet received directly from the Lord of the Throne during the his Miraculous Night Journey and Ascension. To demonstrate the value of this worship, no angel was given the task of bringing down the obligation to the earth, but Allah honoured His messenger with ascension to heaven, spoke directly to him about the obligation of solat, and that is a special quality that distinguishes solat from other forms of ritual worships in Islam.
Solat was made obligatory some three years before hijrah, it was initially fifty before concession was made to five, but the reward for the five is still the same fifty. This is a sign of Allah’s love for it and also shows its great position.
Todays khutbah will focus on the status of this worship which have been underestimated by many Muslims except those Allah have protected.
THE STATUS OF PRAYER IN ISLAM
- Solat is the most emphatic obligation after the two shahaadah– testimonies among the five pillars of Islam. The Prophet said: “Islam has been built upon five things – on testifying that there is no god save Allah, and that Muhammad is His Messenger; on performing salah; on giving the zakah; on performing pilgrammage to the House (the Ka’bah at Makkah), and on fasting during Ramadhan. (bukhari)
- The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him have attributed the one who abandoned it to kufr- disbelief. The Prophet, peace be upon him said: “Between a man and disbelief and shirk is the abandonment of prayer.” (Muslim.). Narrated Abdullah, the sibling of Al-‘aqeeliy, he said: “The companions of the prophet did not regard the neglect of any act as being kufr other than prayer.”
- Prayer is the pillar of the religion which cannot be established except by it. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “The head of the matter is Islam, and its pillar is the prayer, and its hump is jihad for the sake of Allah.” Narrated by Al-Tirmidhi and he classified it as, a good, authentic hadith
- Solat is the first act that a person will be held accountable for on the day of judgement. The Messenger of Allah, upon whom be peace, said “The first of man’s deeds for which he will be called to account on the Day of Resurrection will be Salat. If it is found to be perfect, he will be safe and successful; but if it is incomplete, he will be unfortunate and a loser.” (Related by at-Tirmidhi.)
- It was the last recommendation of the Prophet (pbuh) to the Muslim nation before he left this world. The messenger of Allah says: “(Be mindful of) Prayer, “(Be mindful of) prayer and what your right hand possesses.” (Ibn Majah)
- Solat will be the last part of Islam to be lost, and when it is gone, the religion is lost.: The messenger of Allah says: “The bond of Islam shall be broken one by one, for every time the loop is broken, the people will cling to the next. The first of them to be broken is the ruling, and the last of them is the prayer.” (Narrated by Ahmad)
- It is also the only worship that is inseparable from the one who is obligated, and remains with him throughout his life and does not leave him in any case. Its virtues, and the urge to establish it, preserve it, and observe its limits were mentioned in many famous verses and hadiths.
- Solat wipes out sins. The prophet said: “Have you considered, if there is a river at the door of any one of you where he takes a bath five times daily, would any of his dirt remain? They said: “Nothing will remain of his dirt” He replied: “That is the similitude of the five daily prayers, Allah cleanses dirts with it.”
LEGISLATION OF SOLAT WITH EVIDENCES FROM THE QUR’AN AND SUNNAH.
From the beginning of Islam, solat in general term has been legislated as evident in the Makkan surahs that enjoin its establishment. However, the five daily prayers were made obligatory on the night of Isra wal miraaj, due to some disagreement among scholars on the specific time of occurrence. The evidences on the legislation of the five daily prayers could be drawn from the Qur’an and the Sunnah and the Consensus of the Scholars as follow:
From the Qur’an
Allah says in many verses of the Qur’an (وَأَقِيمُواْ الصَّلاةَ) “And establish prayer” (2: 110) Also (إِنَّ الصَّلاةَ كَانَتْ عَلَى الْمُؤمِنِينَ كِتَاباً مَّوْقُوتاً) “Indeed, prayer has been decreed upon the believers a decree of specified times.” (4: 103).
(حَافِظُواْ عَلَى الصَّلَواتِ والصَّلاةِ الْوُسْطَى) “ Maintain with care the [obligatory] prayers and [in particular] the middle prayer” (2:238)
The unrestricted use of the word- Solat, refers to the usual prayers, which are performed every day and night.
Allah says: (وَأَقِمِ الصَّلاةَ طَرَفَيِ النَّهَارِ وَزُلَفاً مِّنَ الَّيْلِ) “And establish prayer at the two ends of the day and at the approach of the night.” (11: 114). This command covers the five daily prayers. The two ends of the day- Solatul- fajr is observed at the early part of the day while solatuz-zuhr and asr is observed at the other end of the day. Since the day is divided into two parts: morning and evening, and the morning is a name for the beginning of the day until the time of the noon, and what comes after it is the evening, so there are three prayers at the two ends of the day. While Magrib and Isha prayers are mentioned in His words thus: (وَزُلَفاً مِّنَ الَّيْلِ), “at the approach of the night”, because both are observed during the night
From the Sunnah:
The prophet, peace be upon him, said during the farewell sermon: “Worship your Lord, observe your (five daily) solat, observe your (Ramadan) fast, make pilgrimage to your (sacred) house, pay the zakat of your wealth generously, you shall enter the paradise of your Lord.”
He, peace be upon him also said in what Al-Nasa’i, Abu Dawood and Ibn Majah narrated on the authority of Ubadah bin Al-Samit: “There are five prayers which Allah has prescribed on His servants. If anyone offers them, not losing any of them, and not treating them lightly, Allah guarantees that He will admit him to Paradise. If anyone does not offer them, Allah does not take any responsibility for such a person. He may either punish him or admit him to Paradise.”
Finally, it is unanimously agreed upon by the Muslims regarding the obligatory nature of solat and the committing of disbelief by whoever abandons it.
SECOND KHUTBAH
All praises are due to Allah the lord of the worlds. May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon Muhammad (pbuh) his household, companions and all believers till the day of accountability.
Dear worshippers of Allah, a month passed and a month approaches, thus, in such situation, it is good for us to hasten to repentance unto Allah, the Almighty in preparation for the blessed month of Ramadan. Abu Bakr Al-Warraq Al-Balkhi said: The month of Rajab is a month for planting. Shaban is the month of irrigating the crops, and Ramadan is the month of harvesting the crops. The first thing to start with is the sincere repentance. The first preparation, the first seed we should sow is to gain nearness to Allah through the kind of repentance deserving from someone whose records is blackened by sins all through the year. So that he could get the opportunity to cleanse it with repentance in this month. Likewise, for someone who have wasted his age in docility, to maximum available gains in the remnant of his life.
Allah says: (وَتُوبُواْ إلَى اللهِ جَمِيعاً أَيُّهَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ) “And O ye Believers! turn ye all together towards Allah, that ye may attain Bliss.” (24: 31)
At-tawbah: We do not just want to say that tawbah is seeking forgiveness for your sins, or that you should turn to Allah with a clean heart, and that every past event is gone and that we are done, no, rather we want you to specify the sins as follow:
- Repentance from the traits of the hypocrites: Hypocrisy is the greatest and most dangerous disease of our time. We want you to dissociate from the traits of the hypocrites which could be residing within you. We are not accusing you of hypocrisy, but you could be!!!
- Sluggishness towards solat and little remembrance: Allah says: (إِنَّ الْمُنَافِقِينَ يُخَادِعُونَ اللهَ وَهَوَ خَادِعُهُمْ وَإِذَا قَامُوا إِلَى الصَّلاةَ قَامُوا كُسَالَى يُرَآءُونَ النَّاسَ وَلا يَذْكُرُونَ اللهَ إِلَا قَلِيلاً) “The Hypocrites – they think they are over-reaching Allah, but He will over- reach them: When they stand up to prayer, they stand without earnestness, to be seen of men, but little do they hold Allah in remembrance.” (4:142)
- Repentance from littleness or lack of remembrance of Allah: It is said that: “The remembrance of the hypocrite is little because Allah will not accept it, whatever Allah rejects is little, and everything He accepts is much.” Ali (R.A) says: “No effort is little with taqwa, how could what Allah accepts be little?” Your Lord is grateful, and when a servant is guided to a good act, he finds his heart more active and he hopes for other deeds.
- Repentance from lying in our speech: We should not speak except the truth, even when it is most difficult, dissociate from falsehood. “Verily falsehood leads to sins, and verily sins lead to the fire.”
- Do not betray trusts: In the hadith in the two Sahihs, on the authority of Abu hurairah (R.A), he said: the messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: “The signs of the hypocrite are three; when he speaks. He lies, when he promises, he defaults, and when he is given a trust, he betrays.”
O Allah destroy the cunnings of the enemies of Muslims. O Allah invalidate their plots and tricks. O Allah extinguish the flame of their evil. O Allah cast the round of consequence on every unjust impostor, and render destruction and shame on whoever tries to ruin the country. O Allah protect the blood of the people, their properties, and their dignity. O Allah set free all Muslim captives and prisoners. O Allah, protect them from before them and from behind them and on their right and on their left, and from above them.