The Minhaj Women’s League Rotterdam (Netherlands) held a special program about ‘Salah’ on the 20th of November 2016. There were around 90 women who attended this program to benefit from the knowledge that was shared by our special guest. The special guest of this program was Mrs. Sumaira Faisal who gave a lecture about ‘The Philosophy of Salah’.

The program commenced with the recitation of verses from Surah An-Nisa by sister Zienat. In addition, sister Zienat gave us a translation of the verses in both Dutch and Urdu. After the recitation a group of girls presented the Qasidah Burda Shareef and sister Attiya recited a beautiful Naat Shareef. A group of young girls also recited a Naat and Mrs Badar Bari recited a Hamd. A couple of more sisters got the opportunity to recite a Naat and Kalaam.

After this introduction of the program Mrs Sumaira Faisal started her speech about ‘The Philosopy of Salah’. The contet of her speech was from the books “Falsafa-e-Namaaz” by Shaykh ul Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir ul Qadri and “Ghunyat ut-Talibeen” by Ghawth ul Azam RA. The main purpose of this speech was to improve and perfect our prayers. Before the program started all the women who attended got a translation of Salah. The reason why the sisters got the translation is because most of us don’t know the meaning of what we read during our prayers. We should concentrate on what we are saying to Allah SWT during the prayer. The Auliyah say that if you want to listen to Allah SWT you should read the Qur’an. Thus, if you want your God to talk to you, you should read the Qur’an. And if you want to talk to Allah SWT you should pray. When we pray we talk to Allah SWT. Allah SWT will always focus on us, but we don’t always focus on Allah SWT and our prayers only. One should always focus on Allah SWT, which means we should pray with our mind, spirit and body, this is called Khushu`-o-Ghuzu` and this is the actual prayer. The prayer that isn’t read with spirit doesn’t even makes it to the heavens.

Salah is a gift given from Allah SWT on the blessed event of Mi’raj. And only through Salah we can meet Allah SWT. This is such an important gift for us which we should cherish. The prophet SAW said that nothing in this world is good, but the only thing that I like in this whole world is Salah. We should love those things that our Prophet SAW used to love. The Prophet SAW said that whoever doesn’t pray has no belief. It is said in Sahih Muslim that the only difference between a person and a Kafir is Salah. The Prophet SAW said that not praying on purpose, without any reason, is Kufr. Every sin can be forgiven except for Kufr. The Sahaba say that the prophet SAW used to pray with fear in his heart, he used to cry during his prayers and pray with all his attention towards Allah SWT. He did not realize what was happening around him.

The prophet SAW used to say that only if we knew the importance of Salah, we wouldn’t do salaam until the day of Qiyamah. You should try to pray like Allah SWT is standing in front of you and focus on that, and don’t care about anything else. Pray with Khushu`-o-Ghuzu`. Pray on a place where you are alone, where you won’t get distracted by anything. Mrs Sumaira Faisal gave a couple of examples about the importance of Salah and praying with Khushu`-o-Ghuzu` from Ahadith. We should remove all the things that distract us from our prayer. Allah SWT said to Prophet Isa AS that whenever you stand to pray you should pray with so much fear that your body and organs will shiver from fear. Praying with Khushu`-o-Ghuzu` will always bring a change in a person, he will become a better person. The connection with Allah SWT should be deep enough during our prayers. There should be a balance between Deen and Dunya. Deen should not be extremist. If something of Dunya keeps us away from Allah SWT we should remove that from our lives. We should not let the world overpower our hearts. Deen should be more important than Dunya, there should be more place for Deen in our hearts.

Our Prophet Muhammad SAW said that whoever prays on time, respects the salah and gives importance to it, his prayers reaches the heavens like Noor and keeps doing Istaghfaar for the reader until the day of Qiyamah. And whenever there is no Khushu`-o-Ghuzu` and respect one’s prayer that prayer has no Noor and when this prayer goes to the heavens this prayer comes back to the world like a torn piece of cloth and gets thrown in the face of the reader. Salah is a very precious gift that we should not neglect and should always respect.

After the beautiful and important speech of Mrs Sumaira Faisal the event got concluded with greetings and salutations upon the Holy Prophet SAW lead by Mrs Tayyeba, followed by a beautiful Dua by Mrs Sumaira Faisal.