Thirty & Up The Secrets Of Prayer #10

So, uh, we are continuing our reading from the Ihya, which is Imam al-Ghazali's text where he, um, really gets us to reflect and be inspired on the different parts of the, the different parts of our deen that we take for granted and that we kind of just do on autopilot.

And the goal that Imam al-Ghazali Rahimahullah, he had, was to try to instill within each person this idea of reflection that would then translate into a different experience in each of the pillars.

So we're focusing on Salah.

Um, but he has a book like this for all of the five pillars, and really he talks about it at length, uh, in different ways.

So we are in the chapter on prayer, and we are in specifically on the subchapter of having khushu in prayer, which can be translated as, you know, reverence or awe.

Uh, but one way that I like to think about it is that quality, you like to have quality in your prayer.

And so when you have quality in something, when you, when you feel, uh, uh, you know, something that is of good quality, it usually is a result of like focus.

Okay? If you do something well, if you do something with beauty and with focus, usually it means that it's good quality, right? So if you're just kinda like rushing through something, you can tell.

If you take your time and if you put your effort into it, you can tell.

So the correlation between having a good prayer and focusing is one that can never be overstated, right? This is a chapter that he writes on, and he gives us a lot to think about.

So we left off last week at the section where he, uh, defined and he gave us a different perspective on the phrase, you know, the farewell before your prayer, right? Pray this prayer as if you're bidding farewell.

And typically the way that we translate that is that, you know, pray this prayer as if you are, uh, uh, going to pray this as your last prayer.

Like you're bidding farewell literally with this prayer.

But al-Ghazali, he said, you know, another way to think about that in a way that can be helpful, not competing, but just a different way to think about it, is that he says that when you pray your Salah, when you pray your prayer, bid farewell to everything that functions as a distraction.

Okay? Bid farewell to everything in your life that functions as a distraction from your prayer.

So it could be, for example, like, you know, your phone.

H- how many of us have taken like really, I would say, serious concrete measures when it comes to praying and the battle that we fight with our phones? You know, do you...

After you finish your Salah, like, is the first thing you do, you reach for your phone? Okay.

So what can you do to stop that? What can you do to stop that, right? You can...

I've heard of some people who leave their phone in a different room altogether.

And I know that we have separation anxiety.

I know that we feel it.

What happens if, you know, how am I gonna...

But imagine every time you pray, imagine that there's a space in your house, or if you pray in the masjid, you leave it in your car.

I actually have a friend who does it.