4 Rabi’ul thani 1444 A.H

As salam alaykum

Two weeks ago when I started the Transform your prayer course by Iqbal Nasim, I went in expecting a great experience but sincerely, it’s been that and more. It has been a thought provoking and mind-blowing experience. Ma shaa Allah!

As I go through the lessons, I can’t help but notice how similar we are in thinking and our approach to life. Lol. (I guess this is the point you tell me ahn ahn Seki calm down now 🤣🤣🤣)

Anyways, during the first live call, he asked a question that shook me to my core. It felt like someone rang a bell next to my ears. He said and I might be paraphrasing:

‘If Salat wasn’t obligatory, would you still pray?’

Brethren, to my dismay the answer to this question felt like a punch to my stomach. Clearly! I have a lot of work to do! May Allah make it easy. Ameen

Let me now direct this powerful question to you. if Allah did not make salat compulsory, would you still pray? Would you still pray five times daily? Would you take time out from your busy schedule to perform wudhu and pray? Would you still strive to perform sunnah/voluntary prayers?

The question is clearly not just about the ‘act’ of salat itself but more about our PERSPECTIVE AND ATTITUDE towards it.

With which perspective do you view your Salat?

• for you is it a transactional event where you go solely to ask and receive?
• is it a chore that you just need to tick of your list of to-dos and get back to more pressing matters?
• do you view it as an “I have no choice event”
• do you view it as an opportunity to have a blessed encounter with the one who created you?
• do you view it as an event where you can be vulnerable and build a relationship with the one who will never disappoint you

Which is it for you ?

If you know deep down in your heart that your attitude to your salat is wrong, then clearly your perspective is off too because it is your view of something that influences how you act towards it. To change our perspective and attitude towards our prayers, we need to let love, reverence and knowledge-seeking take the lead.

To want to eagerly meet with someone on a regular, we must truly love them and enjoy their company. It is with this thought process we should approach our salat. To want to eagerly pray to Allah means you need to love Him. To love Allah, we must get to know Him. 

A major mistake we make as humans that leads us to a lot of struggles is, we assume that we should automatically have a high quality, unshakeable connection with Allah. The fact is just as with any other relationship, having a strong connection with Allah is a lifelong process that takes work, conscious work.

In truth, we do have a natural love for Allah and connection with Him just as a mother has a love and connection with her child just by the sheer fact that she birth him/her. Yet, a mother and child still need to intentionally get to know each other and nurture their relationship in other for the love to grow and for a strong connection to be established. One person initiates the effort, the other reciprocates and vice versa.

As it so happens, in this case we are the ones that need to do the bulk of the work because Allah already knows us in our entirety (Hello! He created us) but we are the ones who will benefit the most from striving to know Him for the gracious and magnificent Lord He is.

When we get to know him, acknowledge, understand, and appreciate the magnitude of his mercies and blessings upon us: only then can reverence for Him be seated in our hearts. When you respect someone, you consider any meeting with them as important and a privilege. When you respect Allah and are in awe of Him, you treat your meeting with Him (essentially your salat) as an important one that shouldn’t be joked with or belittled to hasty, mindless speech and movements.

, I don’t know about you but the best meetings I have is one where I feel like effective communication has occurred. Meetings where I understand, and I am confident in what I am saying. Meetings where I feel like I have spoken in a language and manner my recipients understand and vice versa. Quite frankly, the best meetings are those where everyone is communicating in a language that they mutually understand.

Where am I going with this? To really focus on your meeting with Allah and truly enjoy it, you must get to a point where you understand the language of the Quran instinctively. A point where you are reciting the verses without your brain trying to play catch up to translate the meaning of what you have just said. If you understand what you are saying in salat then by Allah’s will, your prayers will transform from an emotionless/neutral feeling occurrence to an emotional positively charged experience where you can immerse yourself in the intensity, truth, and power of the words you are saying.

To draw up an important point from my last paragraph. To enjoy or dislike a thing, event or process, feelings must be involved.

How do you enjoy something?

Like a cherished meal we are looking to prepare we can experiment with different approaches to preparing the meal so far, the core ingredients and overall taste outcome doesn’t change. What does this look like for our salat? We can experiment with different spots in/outside our homes; which places make us feel the most at peace when praying? Which verses make us feel the most connected? What cues or activities before salat keep us in a frame of mind that yields the best experience and so on. When you know these, use it to your advantage!

There is a common belief that we have more affinity and find it easier to do the things that are bad for us, and we don’t naturally enjoy and/or find it difficult to do what is good for us. For things you don’t naturally enjoy perhaps because they aren’t the easiest things, you must trick your brain to link it to both the short- and long-term benefits. In the case of Salat, the short-term benefit might look like relaxation, tranquillity, comfort etc and the long-term benefit which is the ultimate reward of seeing your lord on the day of resurrection. May Allah make us amongst those who see Him. Ameen!

, Salat is one of the five pillars of Islam and the foremost and most visible way to show our believe in Allah and our submission to Him. If done right, it is the key that unlocks the route to meeting Him in the hereafter. Therefore, we need to strive to make it better each day.

I read in the book Heart therapy by Dr. Ali Albarghouthi that all changes begin with the heart (aka from the inside out). But how does one change the heart? I believe it’s through the mind .Remember my email about the interconnectedness of the heart, body, and mind? ( click the text to read it if you missed it)

How does one change perspective? Again, I believe it’s also through the mind.

In essence, in other to make lasting changes to your Salat, it needs to come from the heart and to change the heart, you need to work with your mind.

Change your perspective, change your attitude to your Salat.

, in this Jannah strive, you and I have a lot of work to do. May Allah equip us with the resources we need. May He make us amongst those who experience the sweetness of Salat and may we be amongst those whose prayers are accepted. Ameen.

At the start of this newsletter , I asked you a question. Are you bold enough to respond? Hit reply and let me know your thoughts. xx.

Our next event

In my last newsletter to you, I mentioned I was considering organising a virtual games session. I am happy to announce that it is a GO! and it would be holding next week Sunday, 6th November 2022 at 2pm in shaa Allah. It will be a small event (20 – 25 people max) as I don’t intend to start struggling with tech 🤣🤣.

If you are interested in this and you are available to join, please register HERE. I will send joining details during the week, God willing.

I look forward to seeing you there in shaa Allah

Till next time,

Love you fi se billilah

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