Between disbelief and faith is abandoning the Salah

 

Between disbelief and faith is abandoning the Salah

﷽

Verily all praise is for Allah, we praise Him and seek His aid and ask for His forgiveness and we seek refuge with Allah from the evils of ourselves and our evil actions. Whomever Allah guides there is none who can misguide him, and whomever Allah misguides there is none who can guide him, and I bear witness that none has the right to be worshiped except Allah alone, having no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger

(this is how Prophet SAW used to start his speech Nisai 3278)

My Lord, open up my heart [with assurance] And ease for me my task And untie the knot from my tongue That they may understand my speech.[20:25-28] Ameen

Disclaimer: These articles doesn't mean that I am posing myself superior to everyone of you or that I am better than you No No No. It is simply a duty that is bestowed on every Muslim by Allah so it's only Dawah ilal Khair.

Salah/Namaz, one of the most neglected deed among Muslims now days. One of the scholars said in his speech:

"We are muslims only in our passports/national ID card but in Allah's register we are not if we have a habit of abandoning Salah on regular basis"

and this was based on this Hadith:

Narrated Jabir:

that the Prophet (ﷺ) said: "Between disbelief and faith is abandoning the Salat." [Tirmidhi 2618] [Muslim 246 or 82]

There are more than 14 Hadith with same wording. So it is a pretty serious matter if you don't pray, you may call yourself Muslim but Allah doesn't see you as a Muslim not according to me but according to the Prophet S.A.W.

The Prophet S.A.W said that on the Day of Judgement the first thing that a Muslim will be held accountable for is Salat. 

.....Prophet (ﷺ) said: The first thing about which the people will be called to account out of their actions on the Day of Judgment is prayer...... [Abu Dawud 864]

So if a person fails the first test then imagine what happens next...

So the question is if it's such a serious matter why don't people pray? I will talk with keeping Subcontinent in my mind. The molvis and the Alims of Subcontinent have made Prayer such a hard thing for a Muslim by adding some extra spice to it and making those extra spices  as obligatory. like for example: 

The molvi would tell you that the total rakat of only Isha prayer is 17 rakaat or of Zuhr is 12 rakaat. If a normal person like me hears it he becomes scared by the numbers of rakaat and he says I will start praying tomorrow or next Friday or this Ramadan and that day never comes.

So to be straight the total Rakaat in a whole day for which a person will be held accountable for is 17 Rakaat, AGAIN IN A WHOLE DAY, which is called fardh/obligatory prayer. 

Prayer: Rakaat : Rakaat while traveling

1: Fajar: 2 : 2

2: Zuhr: 4 : 2

3: Asr: 4 : 2

4: Magrib 3 : 3

5: Isha 4 : 2

So in total 17 rakaat and if you are traveling 11 rakaat in a whole day

These are total Salah in a day for which you will be held accountable for which is Fardh.

SO, to understand why Molvis and Alims have made the number of Rakaats so controversial. You need to understand one thing.

There are two types of Salah, 

1. Fardh (obligatory) (passing marks)

2. Nafl (optional) (bonus marks)

Fardh, as discussed above that for which you will be held accountable for total of 17 rakaat.

next is Nafl these are extra prayers for which if you pray is an extra reward for you but if you don't you won't be held accountable for.

So for Nafl, in a Hadith it is said

Umm Habibah bin Abi Sufyan said: "I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: 'Whoever prays twelve rak'ahs during the day and night, apart from the prescribed (fardh) prayers, Allah (SWT) will build for him a house in Paradise.' [Sunan Nisai 1796]

The Nafl prayer which the Prophet S.A.W prayed are known as Sunnah prayer but we won't be held accountable for it but if we do pray it, It's like extra sugar, bonus marks, more rewards. These twelve rakahs are also described by Prophet S.A.W in Nisai 1795 

Name : Sunnah Rakaat

1: Fajr : 2 before Fardh

2: Zuhr : 4 before Fardh 2 after

3: Asr : None

4: Maghrib : 2 after

5: Isha : 2 after

Once again one should not be scared of these Nafl prayers and as a result abandon the obligatory prayer.

In the same Hadith that we discussed above a while back it is mentioned

... Prophet (ﷺ) said: The first thing about which the people will be called to account out of their actions on the Day of Judgment is prayer. 

Our Lord, the Exalted, will say to the angels - though He knows better: Look into the prayer of My servant and see whether he has offered it perfectly or imperfectly. If it is perfect, that will be recorded perfect. 

If it is defective, He will say: See there are some optional prayers offered by My servant. If there are optional prayer to his credit, He will say: Compensate the obligatory prayer by the optional prayer for My servant. Then all the actions will be considered similarly. [Abu Dawud 864] 

So in short if there will be any imperfection in the Fardh prayer it will be compensated by the Nafl prayer that's why there is too much stress on Nafl prayer.

An important thing about Nafl prayer is that you cannot fix the amount of it aside from these 12 rakaat mentioned by Prophet S.A.W. For example if a person offers 4 nafl prayer after Isha and then he starts telling/forcing his kids that you should pray these 4 nafl prayer that is wrong. You are making it obligatory while neither the Prophet nor Allah has made it obligatory on you. So please don't. It's up to that person on how many nafl prayer he wants to prayer whether it be 100 rakat, 12 rakat or 2 rakat, there is no compulsion.

I have seen people who are hafiz e Quran but they don't pray. In this case being a "Hafiz" won't benefit you in any way and this is probably because they don't know what they are reading/reciting in the prayer. 

So to develop your interest in the prayer you should learn the meaning of it and it's not a rocket science. Just need to learn the meaning of Surah Fatiha, some surahs and Zikr in Tassahud aside from this it is 

Allahu Akbar (Allah is the Greatest)  

Subhana Rabi Al Azim (Glory to MY lord the greatest)

Sami Allahu liman Hamida (Allah listens to those whose praise Him)

Rabbana lakal hamd, hamdan kaseeran tayiban mubaarakan fee (O lord all our praises are for you, good and the blessed parise )

Subhana Rabi Al Aala (Glory to MY lord the most high)

 

and some more duas.

One last thing, Quran will also only guide those who establish Prayer as said by Allah in start of Surah Baqarah.

...It is guidance to Godfearing people,(2) who believe in the unseen, establish the Salats and expend (in Our way) out of what We have bestowed on them;(3) [Al Baqarah 2:2-3]

In Surah Rum Allah said

وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَلَا تَكُونُوا مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ...

...establish prayer and do not be of those who associate others with Allah (31) [Ar Rum 30:31]

Remember, Salah is one of the pillar of Islam, so if you don't pray you should worry that the building is without one of its pillar and it will collapse eventually

 

There are many more topics related to Salah like in Quran it is said to establish Salah not once it is said to pray Salah. What is the difference? will discuss that some other time InShaaAllah

 O Allah! Enable us to see the Truth as Truth and give us the ability to follow it. And show us the falsehood as false and give us the ability to refrain from it. Ameen