Ways to Improve Salat (and how to improve feeling)

Learning Arabic o Ultimately, most of the prayer is in Arabic o If you know Arabic, it helps you understand your prayer o Long term, obviously Reflect on what youre saying o i.e. Allahu Akbar Allah is Greater In Arabic Greater and Greatest mean the same thing given the context Try and focus on it. Allah is greater, more important, than all these other things Im pre-occupied with Ask Allah for help o Ask Him to help you focus Understand the symbolism behind salat o i.e. when youre standing and recitingyoure living by the Quran and remaining upright, and bowing only to Allah o We turn to the Kabah, no matter where we are in the worldunity among Muslims We have the idea that we should always feel spiritual, but thats not the case o Sometimes you do, sometimes you dont; both of these are normal and dont indicate your religiousness or how good you are. o If a persona gets a lot of spiritual highs, that doesnt mean theyre better than a person who doesnt o Same with people who have profound dreams, and people who dont o This is just something that Allah has given you o Often people when they start out doing things, they get spiritual highs quite often, then it tapers off and levels out. This is good. It is a sign that you are maturing in your faith. When youre starting out, Allah blesses you with these feelings. Then as you progress, Allah tests you by making them taper off. So the question is: are you doing it to get a spiritual high, or because Allah asks you to do it? o Even people who go to Hajj, some people have a profound spiritual experience from start to finish; some people get to Hajj, and they get sick, and they cant sleep, and theyre miserablethe number of spiritual highs theyre hitting is obviously less Its just important to accept it; know that this is what Allah wants from you, accept it, and keep going. You cant say someone is better because they have more spiritual highs. Companionship has a big effect on who we are, and who we associate with. o Prophet (pbuh) said a person is on the deen of the people he is close with (Khalil). The word deen means both religion and way of life o Some Muslims, before they started practicing, would hang out with drug dealers and gangsters; even though there may have been redeeming characteristics with them, they lead a bad lifestyle overall

When it comes to other people, some people take you farther away from God, some people bring you closer If people are taking you father away, you have to try and become stronger so that you are a person who influences people, and not a person who is influenced by people o The Prophet (pbuh) said people are like metals. The best of them in the time of ignorance will be the best of them among Muslims if they follow the religion correctly. He compared people to metals. Some metals are soft, some are hard. Steel is hard and not affected by other metals; gold, however, is the most malleable o Ultimately, a person has to know themself. We usually start somewhere in the middle. o If you see youre starting to get back influences from other people, then you have to notice when youre doing it and stop if you cant stop, then stop hanging out with those people. Take a bit longer in prayer Focus when you make wudhu o Prophet (pbuh) said when were making wudhu, were washing out sins away o Dont leave a lot of time between wudhu and salat If you have to wait for prayer, do religious things that will bring you closer to Allah (read Quran, do dhikr) There was a Companion, Hamballah (lit horse fly in Arabic). Hamballah was walking around Medina Ive become a munafiq (hypocrite). Abu Bakr comes out and asks what he meant. Hamballah said when he was with the Prophet (pbuh) his faith was so high that he would see Paradise and see Hell and all eh cared about was going to Paradise and keeping away from Hell. But then when he went home, he would forget all about that. So this means I must be a hypocrite. [He was worried he was two-faced]. Abu Bakr said he had the same thing happen to him, lets go see the Prophet (pbuh). So they went to him and told him about what was going on. The Prophet (pbuh) said Hamballah, if you were like that all the time, the way you are with me, then the angels would come down and shake your hands. There is an hour for this and an hour for that. o Basically, theres a time for religious matters, and theres a time for worldly matters. This is a natural thing. You shouldnt expect it to be high all the time. You have to find a balance.

Whisperings Two things that a person has to be aware of that can take them off the path of Allah o The whispers of shaitain o Their own egos How to tell the difference o If something wont go away, no matter what they do, then its from you o If it does go away, then its from Shaitain

People will keep asking about things until they ask Allah created creation, so who created Allah? and if that catches youre ear, say I believe in Allah If its your own inclination, then it wont go away o i.e., lets say someone has a problem with alcohol. Theyre struggling to get over it. If theyre struggling not to drink, and they say la illaha il allah, then they wont just go away if its their own inclinations Evil inclinations must be dealt with more seriously o Hang out with righteous people o Frequent the masjid o Change ones behavior and lifestyle o Find ways to stop oneself acting on their own inclinations You may not be able to kill your desire, then cut yourself from avenues that initiate that desire o i.e. get rid of all the alcohol from the house; make it hard for them to gain access Whispers can come from people or shaitan o We seek refuge in You from jinn and shaitan o These people are around all the time. If youre getting whispers about you starting to lose faith o Shaitan will whisper things to people, and if a person doesnt repel that it can become an inclination in their heart o If they act on the shaitans whisperings, then it can become an inclination in the heart

Theres a difference between jinn and the devil. The devil is a jinn, but there are good and bad jinn. Ghosts can be explained by jinn. Jinn are invisible to human perception, but sometimes jinn become perceptible. There are devious jinn. Hearing voices, seeing people, objects moving. Some people have jinn problems. (Who you gonna call? JinnBusters!) Some people get possessed. One option is to leave Supernatural phenomenon have explanations; we may not be able to explain it quantifiably, but there are explanations

The western idea of ghosts is that they are dead people who are walking around; that doesnt quite jive with our own beliefs.

Hot water poured down the drain anger the jinn? Nope. Cultural thing. The Prophet (pbuh) told people not to go to the washroom in holes in the ground (not like toilets, but like natural or man-made holes). There might be something living in it. That might be where the hot water thing came from.

Psychics The Jinn can do things we cant do, just as we can do things they cant do. The Jinn can see things that are unseen to our eyes. They try to listen to what is going on with the angels. Some of them catch bits and pieces, and pass it on to people who claim to be soothsayers. Soothsayers have one bit of reliable info and everything else is falsehood. Whoever goes to a psychic or a soothsayer, then Allah will not accept their prayer for 40 days. Even reading horoscopes; youre opening up a door to it, so its best to avoid it.

A person doesnt control their own heart; Allah controls their heart. If it werent for Allahs favour upon mankind, then none of you would be purified. If Allah was to stop helping us, we would become bad. A person shouldnt trust themselves.

Allah has mercy on everyone, even non-Muslims.

The greatest trick the devil ever played is convincing mankind that he doesnt exist

God knows when hes going to die, when Hes going to take you; yet theres people out there killing people. Its pre-destined that youre going to be murdered? When it comes to destiny, the best thing to do is to be quiet. If you make a mistake, and you ovevrthink it, it could mess up your faith. Remember that Allah knows what will happen, how everyone will die, etc. In that sense its written, meaning the knowledge of Allah is perfect and cant be changed. But we are given the ability to decide, to use our rational minds. The reality, though, is that our decisions do not always happen (i.e. Im going to the masjidand something happens and you cant go for whatever reason). So youve made a decision, but that doesnt mean its going to go. The only reason a person is able to make the decision to kill, then they have made that choice; but, again, they have the choice to do so. How can a God who is loving allow evil to occur? These things we consider them evil because of our perspective on life One of the names of Allah in Arabic is Wise (He does things for a reason, with wisdom), but we dont always understand that wisdom When a Muslim dies through murder, they go to heaven There is no tragedy if a person has faith Tragedies happen because people dont have certainty in God

All things that happen to us are actually mercies from Allah o When Allah afflicts us with troubles, we get reward, we are forgiven of our sins If you are thankful, then I will increase your blessings.basically, there are so many things we pass by or failure to acknowledge that are blessings from Allah.

The Prophet (pbuh) lost all his children, and the one that did outlive him, he was told would die six months after him.

Know that for us, death is not the end of life. Death is just the beginning of another life.

In the Quran, Allah makes a deal with humanity. His promises: o o o I will establish them in the Earth (the people who believe and do good deeds) I will replace their fear with security I will make their religion supreme

As long as: o o o They pray Give zakat Obey Allah and His Messenger

Think about this at a societal level.

The reason insurance is haram is because youre paying for something that you wont get anything in return; you arent buying a product, youre buying the potential for a product. Car insurance is legislated, and is a requirement, so you have no choice, therefore you arent sinful. Since the government has made it mandatory, we arent sinful for paying it.

Prayer during calamity: We belong to Allah, and we return to Allah.