SeekersNotes: The Prayer of The Prophet ﷺ – Shaykh Yahya Rhodus

Salaah comes from Seerah and is the essential connection to our Lord.

Notes taken by Seeker Aashif Sacha

• Imam Al-Junaid said “Ultimately life is praying 5 prayers and waiting to die”
  • This is the essential trait of the believer.
• If you think about the implications and the greatness of this, every single opportunity that we have to pray and stand before our Lord is an opportunity for us to reestablish this connection..

As human beings we have an element that is the physical aspect of our bodies which is like clay and is moving downwards.

Another element in our bodies is the spiritual element which is the ‘Ruh’ which is always wanting to rise.

• You constantly see the human being fluctuating between these two states that are:
  • Human Nature or Earthy Nature
  • Spiritual Nature

Ultimately the Prayer is the Miraj of the believer

• It is the ascent of the believer.
• Renewing the believer of connection to the heavenly realms.

If we look back at the source of prayer we find in it a very deep indication about the nature of prayer itself.

• When our Prophet ﷺ went on Isra’ wal Miraj and was taken to Jerusalem by night and ascended and went past the 7 seven heavens into the Divine Presence, this is where he ﷺ received the prayer.
  • This is the highest degree of Revelation that our Prophet ﷺ received from our Lord.
• Every traveller when they come home they have a gift
  • When the Prophet ﷺ returned from Isra’ wal Miraj the gift that he brought back to the Ummah was the Prayer.

We should see the prayer as a deep and intimate gift and we have to move beyond merely the very base levels of the Nafs where we find it difficult and heavy to stand before our Lord and pray to where we reach a state and do it naturally.

• Reach a state where this is the most exciting moment of our day is the moments where we stand before our Lord.
• This was the state of our dearly beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
  • When he bothered or troubled by an affair he used to hasten to prayer ﷺ.

This goes on to the beautiful statement of his “Pray as you see me Pray”

• This is indication that this is our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ it is the means for us to know how to worship our Lord.
• This is one of the miracles of Islam that every single one of our forms of Ibaa’dah are completely intact.
  • That after 1400years we know exactly how our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ prayed.
  • We have very detailed descriptions of things that he used to do in his prayer ﷺ.
• This statement also helps us understand the state of the Prophet ﷺ before his Lord and the way he was.
  • Not only did he do this element outward but what was his internal state?
  • When he ﷺ was submitting before his Lord, the prayer is unique and gathers all of these different forms of worship.
• When you see the true inheritors of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ which reflecting to you the way that our Prophet ﷺ used to pray himself.
  • When you sit before these rightly guided scholars that you start to tap into the way our Prophet ﷺ used to pray.

Included in this meaning of the hadith “Pray as you see me Pray”

• There is not only an Outward element but an Inward element.
• There is a spirit and a soul which both are important and inseparable.
• We come from a Deen that a complete balance, between having the Latter of the Law and the Spirit of the Law.

Through the inner aspect of the prayer we concentrate on the meanings of what we are saying and take the opportunity to be humble before our Lord.

• The pinnacle of the prayer is in the position of prostration.
• The Prophet ﷺ said “The closest that a servant is to the Lord is when he is in prostration”
  • We find that the intellect is lower than the heart

The heart is higher than the intellect.

The heart is the tool which we come to have Ma’rifah – our gnosis and knowledge of our Lord.

• The prayer is the greatest Wirid of all
• The greatest opportunity to draw near to our Lord in this Life.
• This is something we should take seriously.

As soon as the Prayer time enters we should be longing to stand before our Lord.

• The more longing we have to stand before our Lord, it would directly translate into the next world into our degree of closeness to Him.

When the prayer is intact and in shape then everything else will be intact and in shape as well.

A’isha (may God be pleased with her) was from the greatest of those who got to see the Prophet ﷺ pray.

• She prayed as she saw him pray.

When asked what was the most amazing thing that she saw about the Messenger of Allah ﷺ

She started to weed and say “What was not amazing of the Messenger of Allah, his entire affair was amazing. But when everyone went to sleep at night, and everyone went to lay with their beloved, the Prophet ﷺ used to stand before his Lord at night – this was the most amazing affair about him, the way he used to stand in night before his Lord in prayer.”

There is no better way to expose yourself to the Mercy and sweet breezes of Mercy of Allah than through the prayer and in particular praying as our Prophet ﷺ prayed, inwardly and outwardly.

• We must be effort and strive to learn then it will be one of the most enjoyable and pleasurable experiences and will attain a portion of Prophetic inheritances.