Finding the Sweetness of Salah

A few years ago a daiya from kuwait by the name Mishary Al kharas had aired a show in Arabic called 'how can you taste the sweetness of prayer'. This became a big hit which was then taken in the form of salah workshops by several individuals around the world in different languages. Majority of the people who attended such worskhops said that it helped them attain the khushu' in salah which they were struggling for all their lives. This inspired me to dive into it myself in hopes of attaining that which I have been struggling for in my life. Fortunately, I found a series of articles on the same topic by sister Jinan Yousef. Her articles are a summary of the entire show of brother Mishary al kharas. inshaAllah my references are mainly sister Jionan Yousef's summary of bother Mishary al Kharas's show and a book authored by Sheikh Saalih al Munajjid, called '33 ways of developing khushu' in salaah'. 

It is reccommended that you be very systematic with this series and take notes if necessary. InshaAllah I will have all the materials, including the audios upoladed in my blog. However, I personally prefer taking down my own notes if I have to learn somehting in detail and thoroughly, so if you are like me, I would reccommend you to do the same so as to be able to do maximum justice to this topic which is pivotal in a muslim's life. 

Before we get into this, we must realize that success comes FROM salaah... "hayyaala ssalaah hayyalal falaah..." and who doesnt want success. Salaah is SO important in a muslim's life that it is what differentiates a muslim from a kaafir, it is a GIFT that Allah has given ONLY to the believers.It is what Allah SWT gave rassol SAW directly as a gift for his ummah on al isra wal miraj. Tragically most of us have not experienced it as a gift. Because a gift is somehting we all enjoy, whereas to most of us, salaah is more of burden than a thing enjoyable. It is utterly tragic and unfortunate! BUT we are muslims, we do not just lament about what we dont have especially when our jannah depends on that. We are people of action. We realize our mistake and take necessary action to rectify it. And because of The Most Merciful Lord that we have, even thought we may have lived for 80 years so far not knowing the sweetness and victory of salaah, as long as we are still breathing, its ISN'T too late, alhamdulillah! So knowing the full importance of salaah and having a burning desire to find the sweetness of salaah... we begin our journey here... inshaAllah 

Allah SWT says in surah al-Baqarah verse 238 “…and stand before Allaah with obedience”  and in verse 45 of the same surah He says“… and truly it is extremely heavy and hard except for al-khaashi’oon…’

When I read this verse while I was preparing for this, I was stuck there for quite some time... I just couldnt move fwd... Allah is talking about me... has salaah ever been extremely heavy and hard for me? if the answer is yes, then Allah Himself says that I'm not among the khashioon. And there's no need to wait even for the judgement day, He, The Maalik and Malik of 'youmiddeen' has already passed the judgement on me... RIGHT NOW, in THIS world. That I am NOT among the khaashioon. 
The only difference is, I have been granted time and chance to correct it as opposed to the judgement He will pass on me on the last day when I would NEVER have another chance to go back and correct it... NOW is my chance... He's passed the judgement on me for my present giving a chance for my future...

I pray to Al-Mujeeb that you and I be able to grab the opportunity before it's too late...

• So what exactly is khushu' and who are the khashioon? InshAllah this is what we are going to learn in detail with the intention to not only learn but also to apply it in our lives, we'll dive into it from the next session inshaAllah. Before that, lets brush up on a couple of ahadith on the importance of salaah so that we get into the mode seriously and be prepared to take in every bit of it. 
• Jabir Ibn Abdullah RA reported that: The Prophet (pbuh) said: “The key to Paradise is prayer; the key to prayer is wudu (ablution).” (Musnad Ahmad)
• It was narrated that Buraydah ibn al-Husayb RA said: “I heard the Messenger of Allaah SAW say: ‘The covenant that distinguishes between us and them is the prayer, and whoever neglects it has disbelieved"
• Abdullah bin Qurt reported that: The Messenger of Allah SAW said, “On the Day of Judgment, a slave will be questioned about his prayers first. If his prayers are good, his other deeds will be good, too. If his prayers are bad, his other deeds will be bad, too.” (Tabarani, Targhib)
• Nawfal bin Muawiya RA reported that: The prophet SAW said “A person who does not perform a prayer on time is like someone whose family and property were removed.” Ibn Hibban
• Abu Umama RA reported that: the Prophet SAW stated the following:  “There is nothing superior to a person who is given by Allah the opportunity to perform a two-rak'ah prayer. As he is busy with praying, goodness and good deeds are poured onto him.” (Musnad Ahmad) Abdullah Ibn-Amr Ibn As RA said: One day, the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) talked about prayers. He said, “The prayer of a person who performs five daily prayers without missing will be brightness, evidence and salvation for him on the Day of Judgment. A person who does not perform five daily prayers properly will be together with Qarun, Haman, firawn and Ubayy Ibn Khalaf.” (Musnad: 2/169, Darimi: 2/301, Ibn Hibban: 1448)
• The following is reported from Abu Hurayra radiyallahu anh: While the Messenger of Allah was passing by a grave, he asked, “Whose grave is it?” The Companions said, “It is the grave of such and such person.” The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said, “For this person in the grave, to perform a prayer of two-rak'ahs is better than all of your worldly goods.” Tabarani, Majma’uz Zawaid. Abu Dharr RA says, Once, the Prophet (pbuh) went out in winter. A lot of leaves were falling off the trees. When he held a branch of a tree, more leaves started to fall off. The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said “O Abu Dharr!” I said, “Yes, o Messenger of Allah!” The Prophet (pbuh) said, “If a Muslim performs prayers in order to please Allah, his sins will be shed like the leaves of this tree are shed.” (Musnad Ahmad)

May Allah make us all among those who are successful through salah as success is guaranteed from salah if performed in the right way. 

My Lord, make me an establisher of prayer, and [raise such] from my off springs. Our Lord, and accept my supplication.

Rabbijalni muqeem as salaata wa man zurriyati rabbana wa taqabbal dua

Click on the links below to view the audio files of the sessions.

1. Session 2
2. Session 3
3. Session 4: The main focus of the above audio on salah is Allah's beauty. Hence as a refresher and homework for the session, I'm posting the audio of Al-Jameel from Asmaul Husna series- Al Jameel (part 1),  Al Jameel (part 2)
4. Session 5
5. Session 6
6. Session 7
7. Session 8
8. Session 9
9. Session 10
10. Session 11
11. Session 12
12. Session 13
13. Session 14: Allah Please listen to it after you've listened to the 14th part of 'Finding the Sweetness of Salah'. The 14th part has a connection to this Name.
14. Session 15
15. Session 16
16. Session 17
17. Session 18 
18. Session 19
19. Session 20
20. Session 21
21. Session 22
22. Session 23
23. Session 24
24. Session 25
25.  Session 26
26. Session 27