What if your Salah is Nullified...?

Assalam Alaykum Dear Readers!

May the Peace and Blessings of Allah Almighty be upon you all.

Let me begin by asking you all to imagine a situation…

Imagine you are given a project in school. If you complete it on time and with perfection, you will be rewarded. So you start working on that project everyday…You put in all your time and effort and mind to it. You gather information, make a report, print the papers, arrange it and complete it on time. And when you submit to the incharge, they point out certain things which you may have left unnoticed.

For eg: The incharge had asked you to file your details in the front page and you happen to attach it at the last.

You lost your reward just because you missed out on your incharge’s instructions. If you had paid a little more attention perhaps you would have achieved your reward.

In the same way what if our prayers are being nullified because we don’t pay much attention to it…? We’ll be missing out on a huge reward here which is the Jannah!

Many of us are oblivious or unconscious of the fact that our Salah maybe nullified. Since Salah is the most vital fundamental things in a Muslim’s life, it is very important for us to analyse every aspect of it.

Let’s look into the 3 main reasons which can nullify our Salah;

1.   First and foremost is while making Wudu, we are in a rush. Sometimes we forget to wash the elbows or the ankles or we forget to wash the face completely. If you have a single hair span width left dry while making Wudu, then your Wudu is invalid and so your Salah is invalid.

2.  Another thing we don’t pay attention to is exposing the awrah. Again if a single hair span of our awrah is exposed, our Salah becomes invalid. The awrah of a man is the area between the navel and the knee. The awrah of a woman is everything except the face and the hands from the wrist.

3.  The third and the most prevalent one is excessive movement. Some of the jurists say that anything above three consecutive movements that are not part of the Salah for an individual during the Salah would nullify their Salah.  

The first thing Allah Azza wa jal will be asking us on the Day of Judgement is our Salah. It is the distinguisher between a Muslim and a Kaafir, keeps us away from sins and is one of the obligations of Islam which when performed on time and with perfection will lead us to Jannah.

So let’s give Salah the lil more attention it deserves and pray to Allah that He accepts and rewards us for all the good deeds we perform and forgive our sins and shortcomings. 

Ameen.

As Salam Alaykum.

 

A Call From Allah!

As Salam Alykum! 

May the peace of The Almighty be upon all of you!

Let's begin with a question. 

Whom do we usually turn to in sadness or in happiness? 

Our friends might get the majority of the votes! And maybe 10-15 % might say their parents. But whom should we turn to in times of grief or ecstasy..?

My answer would be pretty obvious but let's look into some facts that we may have ignored.. 

Let's deal with sadness first since that's kinda like the elixir for teenagers or rather the youth. When we are told that there won't be sadness in Jannah, we go like "Really? How come there's a life without sadness???"

But why do we face sadness or depression? Why is there a feeling of frustration and disappointment? If our Creator loves us so much then why does He burden us? Isn't there enough already?

Allah says in the Quran in Surah Baqarah, verse 286; "Allah does not burden a soul beyond that which it can bear."

A verse we've heard like a thousand times, but have we reflected on it atleast once..? Wallahi if we did, we wouldn't hold Allah responsible for our sadness. Because He knows what each and every soul's capacity is. He would NEVER ever burden us, or give us tests beyond that which we can bear. If He has tested us with something, it means we're strong enough to overcome it. Tell me. Would you or your Creator know best of what you're capable of? If we're saying we cannot bear it, are we trying to say that Allah's claim is wrong...? Remember what Rasulullah (SAWS) said? No fatigue, nor disease, nor sorrow, nor sadness, nor hurt, nor distress befalls a Muslim, even if it were a prick he receives from a thorn, but that Allah expiates some of his sins for that.

Sadness is a part of life just like happiness, anger and love. It cannot be neglected or avoided in this world. This world, as we know it is temporary. So the sadness in it is also temporary. But that doesn't mean it has no solution. There is an amazing way to get out of it....

At times of trials and tribulations, we have a decision to make. Either we can get closer to Allah or we can decide to live with our pain, restrict it to ourselves, prolong it for no reason and let the pain get worse.

When we are sad and we feel pain, our first reaction is, we wana isolate ourselves. And this is NOT what you want to do. It is the Shaytan telling you that you will feel better in isolation just because you're the only one that understands what you're going through. It is a deception from Shaytan! 

What happens during isolation is, our Deen starts to disappear. The content of our Salah, the Khushoo of our Salah starts to disappear. Our ability to recite the Quran is no longer there. What did we do differently? Well we gave ourselves to Shaytan. And Shaytan's promise is he will lead us astray, away from the path of Allah. 

Pain and suffering becomes negative if it creates a barrier between us and Allah. But it becomes positive, pain becomes positive - a motivation for us when it brings us back to Allah! And this is what each and everyone of us going through pain and suffering need to realize. The point of pain and suffering is not that Allah wants to punish you but rather it is a calling from Allah! This is one of the wisdoms of trials and tribulations.  

There is actually a blessing inside trials that we don't perceive. Trials and tribulations are a means of purification. They are a means of purifying us so that we can go to the purest of places. They are not out of Allah's anger or wrath. They are a means of cleansing us of our sins. It is a preparation so that we can go into the purest and noblest of places, Jannah. 

All of this is about perspective and how we deal with the situation. So it's very important for those of us who are going through trials, to change our perspective of trials. It is not a punishment from Allah, it is a means to get closer to Allah. It is a calling from Allah that He wants us to come back to Him. 

Let not the sadness in this world affect us. We were not made for this temporary life but for an eternal life of beauty and bliss. Let's keep aside this temporary sadness and work towards our ultimate destination, Jannah. 

As Salam Alykum. :)