Assalam Alikum wa rahmatu Allah wa barakatouh
How many times did you start praying and the shaytaan started whispering to you all sorts of things?
How many rewards did the shaytaan snatch from you during prayer then walked away laughing?
Yes the shaytaan looks at your prayer with so much desire and jealousy. He wants to spoil it for you as much as he possible!! The problem is that we follow him, he tells you think of this and you start thinking then he tells you switch to this and you follow him, suddenly you hear the imam saying Salam and you don’t even know what you were saying or how many units you prayed.
Let’s admit that we lost many battles against the shaytaan but we don’t want to continue losing and instead we want to put a limit to this evil thieve.Today I will do my best in shaa Allah to help you stop the shaitaan from stealing your rewards while you are not looking.
What happens in Salah (Prayer?)
When you stand to pray the shaytaan feels so jealous because you are standing in the best position and you get to speak to Allah and please him which he failed to do. He will put all his hard work and effort to spoil it for you. This is something you must understand before you start praying. You are entering a battle between you and him, either you win or he wins.
What is ironic is that he gives you the best solutions for your problems during prayer. You could be thinking of a solution all day and nothing comes up but you stand up to pray and there it is. Why? Because he has been saving those solutions for the battle of prayer, the minute you stand to pray he starts showing you all these solutions to your problems sometimes to even older problems so he can win the battle against you.You need to understand that the shaytaan has a goal and that is to steal your prayer. Our mother Aisha may Allah be pleased with her narrated: I asked Allah's Apostle about looking hither and thither in prayer. He replied, "It is a way of stealing by which Satan takes away (a portion) from the prayer of a person." Sahih Al Bukhari
The enemy of Allaah, vowed to mislead and tempt the sons of Adam and said:
Then I will come to them from before them and behind them, from their right and from their left [al-Araaf 7:17, interpretation of the meaning],What we need to realize that the reward recorded for Salah is in proportion to the degree of khushoo, as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: A slave may pray and have nothing recorded for it except a tenth of it, or a ninth, or an eighth, or a seventh, or a sixth, or a fifth, or a quarter, or a third, or a half. (Reported by Imaam Ahmad; Saheeh al-Jaami, 1626).
So if you concentrate in one raka (Unit) you will get the reward for that one Rakah and if you didn’t concentrate on any of the rakas then you get nothing. The Khalifah Omar Ibn Al Khattab said: a man may become old while he is in Islam and may he did not complete a single prayer LeLLAH….how? Because he has been praying all his life without concentration and lost all his prayers. Only the parts of his prayer where he focused and concentrated properly will be of any avail to him. It was reported that Ibn Abbaas (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: You will only have from your prayer that which you focused on.
This is so scary..Can you imagine how much effort you are spending which could all go to waste??? So what to do?
Let me start by giving you a simple example that will make the picture easier to understand. If I come to you and tell you, please hold on to these gold coins and make sure you take good care of them and watch them for a period of time so no one steals them…….you then hold on to those coins and watch them carefully…….but after a short while you start feeling sleepy and you doze off………A thieve comes and steals as much as they can while you are not looking. You then wake up and start paying attention again for a short while and you fall asleep again and the thieve keeps coming back and snatching from you every time you fall asleep ….this is exactly what happens in prayer.
Some of us will come out of their prayer with one rakah or may be two and others may come out with nothing and loses the value of prayer which the Prophet peace be upon him told us about when he used to call Bilal and say: (Arihna beha ya Bilal) “O Bilal; call for (the start of) Prayer; relieve us by it (the Prayer).”[13]
Ibnul Qayyem said about those who leave the prayer with nothing: they leave the salah with all their load, sadness and worries exactly as they first entered the salah. The Salah did not relieve them. Salah relieves those who pray with complete concentration and when they are done they leave while they feel so light, energetic and happy Subhana Allah.It was narrated that: When the slave stands up to pray Allah faces him and when he starts with concentration Allah tells the angels to lift the (Hujoub, plural of Hijaab ) covers, but if his heart turns away and starts thinking of something else, Allah says to the angels (Arkhou-haa) bring down the covers. Ibnul Qayyem said: once the covers are brought down, the Shaytaan enters and starts showing you the matters of this dunia (life) as if you are looking at a mirror. But if the person goes to Allah with his heart and complete concentration, the shaytaan cannot break into that hijaab or barrier between him and Allah. Ibnul Qayyem says: the Shaytaan enters when the hijab or cover falls off. But when the person tries again to concentrate the shaytaan runs away and the hijab is brought back up and so forth…..That is how he fights you during salah, the minute you dose off, he tries to get from you as much as he can.
Allah says what can be translated as: And when they deviated, Allah caused their hearts to deviate (61:05)
I know you will ask me, how I can concentrate with my heart!!? What do I need to do to keep him away.
Before I answer you let me ask you a question: if every time you pass a certain road you find a huge dog who is ready to attack you, what will you do?
Some may say: I will hit him with a rock, others may say I will try to fight him with anything I am carrying but that would not be wise. The best thing to do is to ask the owner of the dog to keep his dog away from you so you can pass the road safely.It is exactly the same thing Subhana Allah with the Shaytaan. Allah says what can be translated as: And if an evil suggestion comes to you from Satan, then seek refuge in Allah . Indeed, He is Hearing and Knowing (7:200)
And in Salah we have a special way to seek refuge in Allah from the Shaytaan which the Prophet peace be upon him taught us.
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) taught us the following methods of combatting the wiles of Shaytaan and getting rid of his waswaas: Abul-Aas (may Allaah be pleased with him) reported that he said, O Messenger of Allaah, the Shaytaan interrupts me when I pray, and I get confused in my recitation.The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, That is a shaytaan whose name is Khanzab. If you sense his presence, seek refuge with Allaah from him, and spit [dry spitting] towards your left three times. [Abul-Aas] said:I did that and Allaah took him away from me.(Reported by Muslim, no. 2203)Another important way which can help you is to take a minute before you start your prayer and think of the reward and what you want to achieve. Think that you are going to stand before Allah and that you will beat the Shaytaan and you will not let him take one single reward from you.
The Shaytaan tried to fight us and steal our rewards many times before but from today no more. We will by the grace of Allah be stronger and fight him back.
Inspired by my favorite Sheikh, Mushari Al Kharraz
How many times did you start praying and the shaytaan started whispering to you all sorts of things?
How many rewards did the shaytaan snatch from you during prayer then walked away laughing?
Yes the shaytaan looks at your prayer with so much desire and jealousy. He wants to spoil it for you as much as he possible!! The problem is that we follow him, he tells you think of this and you start thinking then he tells you switch to this and you follow him, suddenly you hear the imam saying Salam and you don’t even know what you were saying or how many units you prayed.
Let’s admit that we lost many battles against the shaytaan but we don’t want to continue losing and instead we want to put a limit to this evil thieve.Today I will do my best in shaa Allah to help you stop the shaitaan from stealing your rewards while you are not looking.
What happens in Salah (Prayer?)
When you stand to pray the shaytaan feels so jealous because you are standing in the best position and you get to speak to Allah and please him which he failed to do. He will put all his hard work and effort to spoil it for you. This is something you must understand before you start praying. You are entering a battle between you and him, either you win or he wins.
What is ironic is that he gives you the best solutions for your problems during prayer. You could be thinking of a solution all day and nothing comes up but you stand up to pray and there it is. Why? Because he has been saving those solutions for the battle of prayer, the minute you stand to pray he starts showing you all these solutions to your problems sometimes to even older problems so he can win the battle against you.You need to understand that the shaytaan has a goal and that is to steal your prayer. Our mother Aisha may Allah be pleased with her narrated: I asked Allah's Apostle about looking hither and thither in prayer. He replied, "It is a way of stealing by which Satan takes away (a portion) from the prayer of a person." Sahih Al Bukhari
The enemy of Allaah, vowed to mislead and tempt the sons of Adam and said:
Then I will come to them from before them and behind them, from their right and from their left [al-Araaf 7:17, interpretation of the meaning],What we need to realize that the reward recorded for Salah is in proportion to the degree of khushoo, as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: A slave may pray and have nothing recorded for it except a tenth of it, or a ninth, or an eighth, or a seventh, or a sixth, or a fifth, or a quarter, or a third, or a half. (Reported by Imaam Ahmad; Saheeh al-Jaami, 1626).
So if you concentrate in one raka (Unit) you will get the reward for that one Rakah and if you didn’t concentrate on any of the rakas then you get nothing. The Khalifah Omar Ibn Al Khattab said: a man may become old while he is in Islam and may he did not complete a single prayer LeLLAH….how? Because he has been praying all his life without concentration and lost all his prayers. Only the parts of his prayer where he focused and concentrated properly will be of any avail to him. It was reported that Ibn Abbaas (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: You will only have from your prayer that which you focused on.
This is so scary..Can you imagine how much effort you are spending which could all go to waste??? So what to do?
Let me start by giving you a simple example that will make the picture easier to understand. If I come to you and tell you, please hold on to these gold coins and make sure you take good care of them and watch them for a period of time so no one steals them…….you then hold on to those coins and watch them carefully…….but after a short while you start feeling sleepy and you doze off………A thieve comes and steals as much as they can while you are not looking. You then wake up and start paying attention again for a short while and you fall asleep again and the thieve keeps coming back and snatching from you every time you fall asleep ….this is exactly what happens in prayer.
Some of us will come out of their prayer with one rakah or may be two and others may come out with nothing and loses the value of prayer which the Prophet peace be upon him told us about when he used to call Bilal and say: (Arihna beha ya Bilal) “O Bilal; call for (the start of) Prayer; relieve us by it (the Prayer).”[13]
Ibnul Qayyem said about those who leave the prayer with nothing: they leave the salah with all their load, sadness and worries exactly as they first entered the salah. The Salah did not relieve them. Salah relieves those who pray with complete concentration and when they are done they leave while they feel so light, energetic and happy Subhana Allah.It was narrated that: When the slave stands up to pray Allah faces him and when he starts with concentration Allah tells the angels to lift the (Hujoub, plural of Hijaab ) covers, but if his heart turns away and starts thinking of something else, Allah says to the angels (Arkhou-haa) bring down the covers. Ibnul Qayyem said: once the covers are brought down, the Shaytaan enters and starts showing you the matters of this dunia (life) as if you are looking at a mirror. But if the person goes to Allah with his heart and complete concentration, the shaytaan cannot break into that hijaab or barrier between him and Allah. Ibnul Qayyem says: the Shaytaan enters when the hijab or cover falls off. But when the person tries again to concentrate the shaytaan runs away and the hijab is brought back up and so forth…..That is how he fights you during salah, the minute you dose off, he tries to get from you as much as he can.
Allah says what can be translated as: And when they deviated, Allah caused their hearts to deviate (61:05)
I know you will ask me, how I can concentrate with my heart!!? What do I need to do to keep him away.
Before I answer you let me ask you a question: if every time you pass a certain road you find a huge dog who is ready to attack you, what will you do?
Some may say: I will hit him with a rock, others may say I will try to fight him with anything I am carrying but that would not be wise. The best thing to do is to ask the owner of the dog to keep his dog away from you so you can pass the road safely.It is exactly the same thing Subhana Allah with the Shaytaan. Allah says what can be translated as: And if an evil suggestion comes to you from Satan, then seek refuge in Allah . Indeed, He is Hearing and Knowing (7:200)
And in Salah we have a special way to seek refuge in Allah from the Shaytaan which the Prophet peace be upon him taught us.
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) taught us the following methods of combatting the wiles of Shaytaan and getting rid of his waswaas: Abul-Aas (may Allaah be pleased with him) reported that he said, O Messenger of Allaah, the Shaytaan interrupts me when I pray, and I get confused in my recitation.The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, That is a shaytaan whose name is Khanzab. If you sense his presence, seek refuge with Allaah from him, and spit [dry spitting] towards your left three times. [Abul-Aas] said:I did that and Allaah took him away from me.(Reported by Muslim, no. 2203)Another important way which can help you is to take a minute before you start your prayer and think of the reward and what you want to achieve. Think that you are going to stand before Allah and that you will beat the Shaytaan and you will not let him take one single reward from you.
The Shaytaan tried to fight us and steal our rewards many times before but from today no more. We will by the grace of Allah be stronger and fight him back.
Inspired by my favorite Sheikh, Mushari Al Kharraz
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