6 Steps to Achieve a Quality Salah

Source: productivemuslim.com

By: Abu Umar

Alhamdulillah, achieving a quality salah is something we, as Productive Muslims, are all striving towards. None of us likes to recite Quran during our salah without having our faith refreshed. We would all like for us to feel that peace from showing our obedience to Allah .

We’re all leading busy lives and this can affect the time we spend in worship to Allah . Therefore, in the little time we spend worshiping Him, we want to make sure this is done right and in a way that is pleasing to Allah . This will help benefit us in this life and our worldly duties, as well as the hereafter.

Here are a few points which, inshallah, will help you improve the quality of your salah in terms of improving the prayer itself and also bearing in mind what can harm it.

Pray, Connect, Learn, Speak – Ferguson

Source: muslimmatters.org

We await the grand jury decision on whether Darren Wilson, the police officer who fired on and killed unarmed Michael Brown, will be indicted on criminal charges. Our Noble Prophet ﷺ said, “By Allah, if you have killed one man, it is as if you have killed all the people” (Sunan SaEid ibn Mansur 2776). While Michael Brown’s death is a deep tragedy in and of itself, the militarized response to the protests it sparked reflect racial disparities and long standing injustices in our society. As Muslims we should draw upon our strong tradition of standing with the most marginalized members of society.

Quran Reflections: Worship of the Heart

By: Jinan Bastaki

Source: http://www.suhaibwebb.com/

“Recite, [O Muhammad], what has been revealed to you of the Book and establish prayer. Indeed, prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing, and the remembrance of Allah is greater. And Allah knows that which you do.” [Qur’an 29:45]

Reciting this verse of Qur’an always makes me stop and reflect on my prayer.  Allah subhananhu wa ta`ala (exalted is He) tells us that “as-Salaah” – the prayer – that we perform five times a day prohibits immorality and wrongdoing. So I ask myself, when was the last time my prayer had a significant effect on my actions outside of prayer?

Every act of worship has an internal element, an external form and a lasting effect after the action itself ends. The internal element of prayer – the worship of the heart – is khushoo’(devotion). It is to connect with every aspect of the prayer and thereby connect to Allah, being in deep conversation with Him. Fiqh covers the external form of prayer. And if those two are sound, or at the very least, we make an effort to make them sound, the effects will be lasting.

If we attend an inspirational talk, we leave feeling inspired. If we were really touched, we want to act upon the knowledge we gained and truly change. The inspiration might fade after a while, but the initial effect was there.

Prayer comes five times a day to give us that inspiration. It comes to remind us of what this is about ultimately. And if we truly connect, we will find that simply coming out of the prayer puts us in a state that keeps us away from immorality and wrongdoing. Because after connecting to the heavens, how can we come back to the earth to ruin it?