Shatan loves whispering in our ears, especially if they are big.
Just playing, big or small, he loves whispering in our ears and tries to find ways for us to miss the act which is most beloved to Allah swt. Anyone want to guess what act this is?
Salat! ding ding ding, you just won a free dawah pamplet. Anyways, whether your on campus or your out shopping, your bound to run into a time where one of the five daily prayers come in. Oh, sorry nike for changing up your marketing, hehe. I should make a shirt out of that.
So Ideally, you would want to schedule your life around Salat and not the other around. As Shaykh Abdul Hakim Murad said ” A busy life makes prayer harder, but prayer makes a busy life easier”. Now we are all victims of Missing Salat, or praying late. Some people are consistent with performing their five daily prayers on time and that allows them to live a better lifestyle, Alhumduililah.
Once we are going strong on the daily prayer grind, it’s easier for us to spot weaknesses in other people. Now that makes sense because the person who is more conscious will remind others.
There are a couple of issues I want to talk about and insh’Allah we can all including myself learn from it. The first is all about getting others to pray with you, I’m not saying tie them up and bring them to Salat, you don’t have the power to do that. But when you can do is simply remind them, often times we see brothers or sisters far from the deen and we think “hey, they aren’t worth the time to call towards Allah”. Astugfurillah, drop that mentality and don’t underestimate anyone’s potential to change. Matter of fact, stop being arrogant. I know a brother who used to disappear in the middle of our basketball games. When he came back, we all asked him where he went and he said “I went to pray”.
Bad planning brother, you could have reminded everyone else on the court and by not being selfish you could have gotten all those extra good deeds. So yea it’s good your remembering Allah internally, but when you remind others, your getting more reward. It’s a great blessing to have that constant dhikr, but if your not going to share it then whomp whomp.
The reason I bring this up is because if we had more Muslims reminding others for Salat, maybe those who missed prayers would have one less excuse to use, =).
A lot of times I’ve noticed that the easiest excuse to miss Salat is “I don’t have a place to pray”. Well if you can connect to the internet from anywhere on earth, then come on you can do a wireless connection with the lord of the worlds. Don’t worry about the carrier, because you are the carrier. If you get your khushu (the degree of humility or submission before Allah) on point in your salat, then it’s all good.
Another excuse which is Shatan loves to brand is “I haven’t prayed in so long, so there isn’t any point now”. This is probably one of the most annoying ones to hear, but it’s a reality. People after a while think Salat isn’t for them since the only time they pray is on Eid, and maybe not even that. Well if you fall victim to this, then don’t let the devil trick you into this game. It’s never too late, as long as you are alive then the door is always open to repentance.
I remember one time, I was with some friends and we offered another Muslim brother to come to the masjid to pray with us and he said “No, I’m not a good Muslim”. After some effort, he agreed to join. He actually ended up leading the salat and afterward he said “I’m haraam, I prayed with a bag of weed in my pocket”. At least he felt bad about this sin, right?. Well on the other hand, he ended up coming to pray and it required a little bit of effort from our end.
Oh yea, missing Salat at work is not a good idea, one of the things that increases your rizq (sustenance) is Salat. So definitely not a good idea.
The last excuse is all about missing an event. This makes sense because sometimes we fall short and begin to tell ourselves, if we pray then we’ll miss this game, or miss this class or whatever. I find it hard to believe that Allah swt will make your life harder if you offer your prayers, in fact there have been many times when I’ve seen peoples priority’s backwards and Allah swt makes it harder.
5 tips on How to Stop making Excuses:
- It all starts with recognizing that your Muslim and it’s an obligation for you to pray. If you miss your prayer make it up, that’s better than not praying at all.
- Revolve your schedule around prayer and not the other way around! Salat is a shield against sin, and we are all witnesses to that.
- Plan accordingly. If your on campus, find the MSA and ask others where they pray. If you don’t want to do that, figure out the Qibla and pick a corner.
- It takes 5-10 minutes to pray, depending on your speed. That’s nothing, don’t be fooled into thinking Salat is a big physical workout, if you can hit the gym for an hour then yea. It’s actually a spiritual workout and it is tough, but without sincere effort and consistency, you won’t see any progress.
- Reflect on repeated reminders from the Qur’an and Sunnah, “Indeed he will be successful the one who purifies himself. And remembers the Name of his Rabb (Allah), and prays.” (87:14-15)
There you have it, now go play. I mean pray.
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Goodone, another eyeopener to people who have a lot of excuses for not praying. Likd it a lot. keep up the good work.
TOTA-FREaking-LY needed this. Jazakallah Khair x a million bro.
r u dum blaaad
great post!! A lot of ppl really do need 2 read dis!! Jazak’Allah Khair
JazakAllahu khairun – your posts are so valuable. May Allah swt reward you for your effort and bless you with forgiveness and mercy Ameen
I don’t think anyone would miss namaaz. it might not be exactly on time per mosque but as long as it is done during the prayer timings. It should be fine. I see the bigger problem. We brand ourselves as muslims by 5 times namaaz and eat the Haraam food. How is our namaaz going to help us? No one focuses on this aspect which is the major aspect after tawheed.The difference bet Haraam and halaal. I know few named “mohammed” sleep with coworkers but pray 5 times.Will some one tell them that is “Zina”. Just 5 times action os namaaz is not enough..
Masha’Allah great post!
One thing I’d recommend is praying in jamaat at home. Try getting one of the males in the house to lead, and that way everyone gets their salah done on time, and as a bonus–in jamaat. There might be times when no guys are available but when there is, I really think jamaat makes a difference! For a few years we’ve been praying as much salah together as we can with either my pops or my bros leading and Alhamdulillah, I think the together-ness really gets us in the spirit and motivates us to pray, whether it be alone or in jamaat.
salam good post. i have a problem to ask others about. i go to uni and my lecture and class is exactly at the time of many salahs. i need to pray it otherwise i will not have a good day. but it is very difficult to get out the lecture hall and class as our uni is not like other unis where you can just walk out. also there is absolutely nowhere to pray as my uni is small and there are no spare rooms. once when my lecture finishes early i went to a shop in the mall and prayed in the changing room then came back for my class. but normally we don’t finish early and we get 5 mins break and at the back of the hall there is a tiny passage which people go in and out from and being a sister i feel uncomfortable in front of all these people although i normally would pray anywhere and i am afraid i will be told off for praying in the middle of nowhere at uni.
Wasalam,
Seeing that it’s been well over a year since you posted your comment I hope your dilemma is solved. How have you tackled the problem?
Alhumdoillah! This post was great! This is clearly one of your best posts saad yo!
Jazaku’Allah everyone for your support and comments!
May Allah swt help and continue to guide all of us, Ameen.
@Deen1, Certainly 5x a day will not be enough, it’s the minimum a Muslim must adhere to. The example you use of your co-workers, Allah swt knows best if there prayers are accepted.
Prayer can just be an automatic routine and become habitual without any real concentration, which is why the degree of khushu is so important.
Salat is definitely a powerful force against sin if done properly as Allah swt says in the Holy Qur’an.
[29:45] “Observe the Salat (Contact Prayers) for it prohibits evil and vice.”
So there needs to be a balance and an all around manifestation of Islam in your life and Allah swt knows best.
Asalamu alyukum.
MashaAllah, that was a great post brother, you really made the message cleaR and gave some pointers too.
May we benefit from this inshaAllah. Ameen.
ASA Wr Wb.
Jazakalalh Saad, for another insightful post. I’m just wondering, would you be interested in linking to your posts from http://OurIslamic.com or maybe helping out as a moderator there?
Great write-up. I hope it will help me get on with my salat. Thanks bro.
JazakAllah! this is so true!!
I just stumbled across this website and mashallah its a nice one. check out my website for Islamic videos at http://islam77.com sometime. thanks salaam
very helpful article, another thing is to always remember to seek refuge in Allah subhanahu wa taala..thatll make the shaytan go bananas and leave u alone
very inspiring! thank you.
“Revolve your schedule around prayer and not the other way around!”
I’m definitely going to do this now, iA.
It’s really owesome.. Jazak Allah 5ayran
My Mum encouraged me to start praying it took a while to get used 2 it but wen my mum kept helping me and teaching me it i got used 2 it nd Now i read 5 time Namaaz..:) xxx
we set out timings but there must b a wish for Namaaz,and thats all.
In the video you can see how he blatantly lied to the Indians, and only coz speaks with confidence, many young people feel impressed with him and he begins to believe the propaganda of hatred
I so needed to read this ALLAHU Akbar. Im trying to get back on my deen Insha ALLAH