Principles of Contact Prayer | Verses, History, Azan, Demonstration, Congregations, Friday Prayer

Speaker 5 (0:11) Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Speaker 1 (0:12) My dear lucky viewers, assalamu alaikum. (0:16) This step will present to you how to observe the contact prayers, the salat. (0:22) And you are very lucky because you are trying to learn how to make contact with your Creator, which is the greatest of all worships. (0:41) In this step I will explain to you the meaning of the word salat. (0:45) You already heard me call it contact. (0:48) The word salat is an Arabic word derived from the root silat, which means connection or contact. (0:55) So when you observe the salat prayers, you make contact with your Creator. (1:01) It is wrong to translate it as pray. (1:04) As a Muslim, when you tell somebody, I pray five times a day, that is the wrong expression, because other people can tell you, I pray all day. (1:15) The correct expression for the Muslim is, I make contact with my Creator five times a day. (1:23) This is the meaning of salat. (1:26) In this program, I will present to you where the salat commandment comes from. (1:32) The contact prayer is mentioned in Quran more than 70 times. (1:38) And I will show you the crucial verses, like where the times of contact prayers are mentioned in the Quran. (1:49) Then I will go on to explain to you the source of the contact prayers. (1:55) When was the first time that the contact commandment came to us from God? (2:00) And how did it come to our generation? (2:03) I will explain this to you. (2:04) Then I will move on to explain why does God want us to establish contact with Him? (2:10) Why did God command us to observe contact prayers five times a day? (2:16) What is the reason? (2:18) Does God need the contact prayers? (2:20) Or do we need the contact prayers? (2:23) After this, I will go on to explain every aspect of the contact prayer. (2:31) I am going to start with the call for the contact prayers, the adhan. (2:36) I will go through the details, even the historical development of it. (2:40) I will show you how the words are written in English, the English transliteration. (2:46) Then I will go on to the preparation for the contact prayers, which is called wudu, or ablution. (2:53) And of course, my sources are always the Quran, there is only one source, and it is this book right here, the Quran. (3:02) God's message to you, to me, and to the whole world. (3:06) This is God's final message to the world, and this is our source, the only source. (3:13) I will show you where the wudu is mentioned in Quran and what the details are, then I will demonstrate for you how to do the wudu. (3:23) And I will move on from there to demonstrate for you and describe in detail how to do the five daily contact prayers. (3:32) The morning contact, the noon contact prayer, the afternoon, the sunset, and the night contact prayer. (3:42) I will explain also some of the fine details of, for example, what happens when you miss part of the contact prayer in a group. (3:53) You go to the mosque and you see a group of people praying, you come in late, what to do? (3:58) And some other fine details. (4:01) So I hope this will cover everything you need to know about the contact prayer, the most important worship in Islam. (4:28) You heard me say that the contact prayers must be observed five times every day. (4:36) Okay, where in the Quran do you find these five times? (4:41) They are specifically defined in the Quran. (4:44) For example, in surah number 11, ayah or verse number 114, we see three times of contact prayers. (4:55) This is what the verse says, you shall observe the contact prayers at both ends of the day and at night. (5:05) So here you have three prayers at both ends of the day, this is the morning prayer and the sunset prayer. (5:13) The morning prayer is before sunrise, and the sunset prayer is immediately after sunset. (5:21) And of course the night prayer is the last prayer of the day. (5:26) So here in this verse we have three prayers, we are commanded to do these three prayers, the morning, the sunset, and the night. (5:35) Now, the noon prayer is mentioned in surah number 17, verse number 78, where it says you shall observe the contact prayers when the sun begins to decline from the highest point at noon. (5:54) So this is a very specific description of the time of the contact prayer at noon. (6:00) As soon as the sun begins to decline from its highest spot of the day at noon, you observe the noon contact prayer. (6:09) This is surah 17, verse 78, it says exactly the time of the contact prayer at noon. (6:18) So now we see the morning prayer, the noon prayer, the sunset prayer, and the night prayer. (6:25) Well this accounts for four of the prayers, where is the fifth one? (6:29) We find the fifth prayer mentioned in surah number 2, ayah or verse number 238, where it says you shall observe all the contact prayers, especially the middle prayer. (6:44) The middle prayer has to be the afternoon prayer, because we have the morning prayer, the noon prayer, the sunset prayer, and the night prayer. (6:53) These two prayers here and two prayers here, so the middle prayer would be the afternoon prayer. (6:58) So there you have it, all five contact prayers mentioned in the Quran. (7:04) By the way, the morning prayer and the night contact prayer are mentioned by name in verse 58 of surah 24. (7:15) Surah 24, the verse is 58, it talks about Salatul Fajr, this is the morning contact prayer, and Salatul Ishaq, this is the night contact prayer. (7:27) So all five times of the contact prayers are decreed in the Quran. (7:43) And now I would like to discuss with you the source, the original source of the contact prayers. (7:50) When you look in the Quran, you will notice that before Abraham there was no mention of the contact prayers, the Salat. (8:01) You notice that Noah was telling his people to just believe in God and ask his forgiveness, but there is no mention of the contact prayers before Abraham. (8:11) So the original source of the contact prayers is the Prophet Abraham, who is the father, the founder of Islam. (8:20) And we see this very clearly in surah number 22, verse number 78. (8:26) The last verse of surah number 22. (8:30) We also see it in surah 21, verse 73, where we learn that the contact prayers were given to Abraham as the original founder of Islam. (8:46) And we see in surah 16, verse number 123, that the Prophet Muhammad followed the ways of Abraham. (8:54) And then we see in surah number 8, verses 33 to 35, and in surah 9, verse 54, we see that the Salat, the contact prayers, were practiced before the Prophet Muhammad. (9:10) So all these, you know a lot of people are under the erroneous impression that the Prophet Muhammad broke these practices, but they came through the Prophet Abraham. (9:20) And this is why we do not see the details of how many units per prayer, and these kind of details, we do not find it in the Quran. (9:28) Although the Quran is complete, perfect, and fully detailed. (9:33) So the reason the details of the contact prayers are not in the Quran, is because they were already in existence when the Quran was revealed. (9:44) I can tell you to go and buy a Crest Toothpaste, and I don't have to explain to you what Crest Toothpaste is, because Crest is already in existence, all you need to do is go out in the market and buy it. (9:59) And when the Quran came down, the contact prayers, the Salat, were already in existence. (10:05) And this is exactly why in one of the very early surahs, surah number 73, Al-Muzzammil, we see the commandment to observe the contact prayers and the zakat, because they were already in existence. (10:21) Abraham, being the founder of Islam, what did he contribute to the religion? (10:27) He contributed all the practices of the religion. (10:32) The contact prayer, the zakat, charity, the fasting of Ramadan. (10:37) In fact, we see that the fasting of Ramadan was slightly modified in the Quran, in surah number 2, verse 187. (10:46) Also, hajj. (10:48) Hajj in surah number 22, we see that it is directly decreed through the Prophet Abraham. (10:55) So Abraham contributed all practices in Islam, you must correct that impression. (11:01) The Prophet Muhammad contributed the Quran, that's it. (11:04) But all the practices existed before the Prophet Muhammad, they were in existence when the Quran came down. Speaker 5 (11:21) Now we get to the question, why should we pray? Speaker 1 (11:25) Why should we make contact with our Creator every day five times, repeating the same thing, five times a day? (11:33) Well the answer, the obvious answer first, is that we do it because our Creator commanded us to do so in the Quran, as I showed you. (11:42) But what is the mechanism? (11:45) Why does God ask us to contact him five times a day? (11:50) Does God benefit from it? (11:52) Do we benefit from it? (11:54) And the answer immediately is, God does not need our contact prayers, we need the contact prayers. (12:01) And we fully understand the reason for decreeing the contact prayers, if we know who we are. (12:09) You see, most people do not even know who they are. (12:12) You ask a person, who are you? (12:14) And they look in the mirror, they say this is me, and you know something, they are wrong. (12:19) This is not me, this is my body, and the body is like a garment that we are wearing temporarily. (12:27) The real person is invisible to us, the real person, the soul, is in another dimension that is not visible to our eyes. (12:37) So what does the real person look like? (12:40) This will lead us to understanding why should we observe the contact prayer? (12:46) You see, you can consider the contact prayers the means for the real person, the food, the nutrition. (12:54) When we are born, our mother feeds us milk, and we grow, then we eat all kinds of food, rice and meat and potatoes and so on, and our body grows until it becomes five feet, six feet, whatever. (13:08) And that is the limit of the body's growth. (13:11) Okay, meanwhile, what is happening to the real person, the soul? (13:15) The body, or the garment, grows to five or six feet. (13:20) But what happens to the real person? (13:24) Is the real person nourished, just like the body? (13:28) And this is where most people do not realize the importance of making contact with their creator. (13:36) Making contact with our creator is the most important nutrition for the soul. (13:41) We need it to grow and develop. (13:45) And I am talking here about the real person, the real person grows and develops by contacting our creator daily, five times every day constitutes five means for the soul. (13:59) So every time you do a contact prayer, your soul grows and develops. (14:04) And this is why we are commanded to do the contact prayer. (14:08) You can imagine the person who does not feed his or her soul, at the end of living in this world, they are still babies, because they never feed their soul. (14:20) But the Muslim, the person who observes the duties and practices of worship, this person feeds the soul, and the soul grows and develops immensely. (14:31) And we end up our mission in this world, grown and developed and healthy and fit for the real life, the eternal life that comes after this life. (14:43) The contact prayers, therefore, are very important. (14:45) Think of them as the meal for the soul, for the real person. (14:52) The morning prayer is the breakfast for the soul, for you, the real you. (14:57) Just like you give your body breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you need for yourself, for the real person, you need meals also. (15:06) The noon prayer is the lunch for the soul, and the afternoon prayer is another meal, and the sunset prayer is a meal, nutrition, for the real person. (15:16) And the night contact prayer is the dinner for the soul. (15:23) So, nourishing, developing, and growing the soul is the reason for observing the contact prayers, and we are the ones who need it, God does not need it. (15:41) All practices of worship in Islam, without exception, are designed to close the soul, the real person, the real you, to grow and develop. (15:52) They are all designed to make you the boss over your body. (15:58) A lot of people, in fact, the majority of people are enslaved to their body, their outer garment that is temporary. (16:06) Someday this garment is going to vanish, and you, the real person, will remain forever, for eternity. (16:14) So most people, unfortunately, are unaware of nourishing, and strengthening, and developing their soul, the real person. (16:22) But all practices of worship in Islam are designed to cause the soul to grow and develop, nourish the soul. (16:32) For example, the morning prayer, let's take the morning contact prayer. (16:36) Before sunrise, what does your body want? (16:41) Your body wants to sleep, right? (16:44) But your soul, you, the real you, the real person, needs to get up, do the ablution, and observe the contact prayer, make contact, the first contact of the day with your Creator. (16:59) So immediately you can see that there is a fight, the body wants to sleep, and the soul needs to get up and nourish itself, and have breakfast. (17:11) Now who is going to win? (17:14) If your body wins, you continue to sleep, and the body is the temporary garment, it is not very smart to let the body win, right? (17:26) If you win, you, the real person, wins, your body will obey, and will say, yes sir, will listen to you, obey you, get up, out of bed, do the ablution, and observe the contact prayer. (17:41) So you can see that the first contact prayer is a struggle between you and your body. (17:50) By the way, this struggle becomes less and less as your body becomes more and more obedient to you, as you become the boss, as you develop and become stronger, your body becomes more and more obedient, and with time, your body, when you say, my body get up and do the morning prayer, your body will say, yes sir, obediently. (18:12) As a matter of fact, eventually, you will actually enjoy getting up in the morning and doing the contact prayer. (18:20) And this is because the soul has grown and developed and became the boss, and enjoys observing the contact with our Creator. (18:30) You look at the fasting, for example, one of the important practices in Islam is fasting (18:35) the month of Ramadan, during the month of Ramadan, and in Ramadan, your body, of course, wants (18:44) to eat and drink, but you tell your body, when you fast, you are not going to eat or drink (18:50) until sunset, so you can see that you are practicing, exercising your soul, and this (18:58) causes your soul to grow and develop, and this is exactly the whole idea of our being (19:02) here in this world, we want to grow and develop as much as possible, in order to enter the (19:09) real life, the eternal life, the hereafter, in a state of fitness, strength, growth, and (19:16) development, because in the hereafter, you cannot hold a responsible position in the (19:23) eternal, real life, if you are weak, unnourished, and still a baby. (19:28) Will you hire a baby as a pilot or an engineer? (19:31) Of course not. (19:33) So God wants you to develop yourself and to be strong enough to hold a responsible position, a high rank, in the hereafter, the eternal, real life. (19:44) And all practices of worship in Islam are designed towards this end. (19:49) For example, the zakat charity, what is it? (19:52) The zakat charity is simply taking money away from your body and giving it to the poor. (19:59) So you can see that you are being the boss, because the body loves money, and you take something that the body loves and give it away. (20:06) So all practices of worship in Islam are designed to make your soul grow and develop, make you the boss over your body, and the contact prayers are the most important tool to do so. (20:20) You are going to notice it the first time you do the morning contact prayer before sunrise. (20:28) Let us now get to the details of the contact prayers and how to observe them. (20:35) There are a billion Muslims in the world today, 1,000 million throughout the world, in every country of the world. (20:43) But in the area that is recognized as the Muslim world, you hear the call for the prayer five times every day, the morning, noon, afternoon, sunset, and night. (20:56) And you hear the muezzin, this is the name of the person that delivers the adhan, or the call to contact prayers. (21:03) And before I get into explaining the adhan, I wish to remind you that in the last 1400 years, lots of customs, innovations, prejudices, superstitions, were added into the adhan. (21:18) And what I am going to present to you now is the adhan of the Prophet Muhammad, that he approved. (21:27) And I am going to remove all the additions and the superstitions and nonsense from the adhan, and I will give you the pure adhan. (21:35) I am going to write it for you on the board, so you can see how it is pronounced. (21:41) And I will have professional adhans, you are going to hear, recordings of professional muezzins. (21:49) Now, at the beginning of Islam, the people went to the Prophet Muhammad and they said, how can we call the people to come to the prayer? (21:58) You know, the Jews have the hall, and the Christians use beds, what are we going to use? (22:04) And with time, the Prophet's companions studied the matter, and finally, it was suggested that somebody stands on top of the mosque and make the announcement allahu akbar, which means god is great, four times, allahu akbar, allahu akbar, allahu akbar, allahu akbar, na ilaha illallah, there is no god except the one god, which is the message of all god's messengers to the world. (22:33) There is really one message from all the messengers that god sent to us, and this message is la ilaha illallah, there is no god except the god, allah. (22:46) So the adhan consists of allahu akbar four times, followed by la ilaha illallah. (22:55) This adhan that has been approved by the Prophet, (22:59) consisting of allahu akbar four times, then la ilaha illallah, with time, (23:04) it got so long that in my lifetime in 1953, the minister of religious affairs in Egypt (23:14) issued a law to reduce the adhan, it got so long and so ridiculous, (23:19) it took 10-15 minutes to deliver the adhan, and it had foolish things, praising the Prophet and (23:28) his red cheeks and these silly things, I mean, the adhan got really ridiculous. (23:33) After a few years, some people added to the adhan, ash-hadu an la ilaha illallah, wa ash-hadu anna muhammadan rasoolallah, this was added to the original adhan. (23:47) Some years later they added the expression hayy ala salam, which supposedly means come to the prayer, but it really doesn't mean that, apparently some new foreign muslims, that is non-Arab muslims added that expression hayy ala salam, which is not atypical, the Arabic should have been hayy ala salam, but they said hayy ala salam. (24:12) Then many years later somebody added hayy ala salam, which supposedly means come to the success. (24:21) And some other people added ash-hadu anna aliyan waleeyullah, in some parts of the muslim world, and until now they use these, all these additions are being used in different parts of the muslim world. (24:37) Later on some people added ash-hadu anna ahlul bayt hujudullah, and so on. (24:44) So the adhan kept getting longer and longer, as I told you, until the minister of religious affairs in Egypt issued a law reducing the adhan to its present form in the muslim world. (24:56) But here at Masjid Tucson, and hopefully you will go back to the original adhan that the prophet Muhammad approved, allahu akbar, allahu akbar, allahu akbar, allahu akbar, la ilaha illallah. (25:10) This is the adhan that we use here in Masjid Tucson, and hopefully it will spread all over the world. (25:17) We have it done like this in many mosques around the world that have seen the light and decided to take the adhan and the prayers to the original adhan and prayers of the prophet Muhammad. (25:31) You know the same thing is true with the wudu. (25:34) Wudu is the ablution or preparation for salat. (25:38) When people hear the adhan or the call to the contact prayer, they prepare for the prayer, the contact prayer, and they do this by observing ablution. (25:51) And ablution is decreed in the Quran in surah number five, verse number six, and it is very specific, it gives you four steps. (26:01) Remember that, four steps of ablution. (26:04) The average muslim today has eight or nine or ten steps, which constitutes actually, in reality, some other god that added these steps, because they do it religiously, and it constitutes idolatry. (26:18) So please be careful and observe what the Quran says. (26:23) The Quran, the whole Quran, and nothing but the Quran, and the Quran gives us four steps. (26:29) The first step is washing your face, the second step is washing your arms to the elbow, the third step is to wipe your hair, and the fourth step is to wash your feet. (26:43) These are the four steps decreed in the Quran, and it is actually a gross transgression to add anything to the four steps or reduce anything. (26:57) Some people will say what is wrong with washing my nose and my mouth and my neck and all this, my ears, and so on. (27:03) Of course there's nothing wrong with extra cleanliness, go take a bath or a shower if you want to. (27:09) But when it comes to religious practices, we must adhere to what our creator dictated exactly, we cannot reduce it or increase it by anything. (27:23) So it is very crucial that we follow what our creator said in the Quran, these are the words that came out of the prophet Muhammad's mouth. (27:32) Ironically, those people think that they are following the prophet Muhammad by increasing the number of steps in ablution, and you and I know that the prophet Muhammad could never disobey God. (27:45) So if God said four steps, this is it, the ablution is four steps. (27:49) So now let us go to demonstrate for you the four steps of ablution, the wudu. (28:05) We find this commandment in surah number five, verse number six, and I will quote the verse for you, it says, O you who believe, when you get up for the salah prayer, you shall wash your face, your arms to the elbows, wipe your hair, and wash your feet. (28:26) Four steps, and these are the words that came out of the prophet Muhammad's mouth, these are the words of God. (28:34) And God is saying you shall observe the ablution four steps, washing the face, arms to the elbows, wipe your head, and wash your feet. (28:44) These are the four steps as dictated in Quran. (28:49) However, like everything else, innovations, superstitions, traditions, crept into God's commandment, and Satan distorted the commandment. (29:00) Now the vast majority of Muslims observe something like nine or ten steps in ablution, and this is very serious, because it simply means that there is some other God who taught them to do the ablution nine steps. (29:15) They wash their hands, their mouth, their nose, their face, their ears, their neck, they have all kinds of innovations and additions. (29:26) And I would like to warn you that you must never increase the steps or decrease them, the steps of ablution, you must obey exactly what God told you in Quran. (29:39) If you want to wash more you might as well take a shower or do whatever you want, but outside the ablution. (29:47) If you are taking a shower or a bath, you can do the ablution after the shower or the bath while you are still in the shower, but you have to go through the motions of ablution as I will show you now. (30:01) So let me show you, demonstrate to you how to do the ablution. (30:06) First of all you roll your sleeves so you can wash your arms to the elbows, there we go, we are now demonstrating the ablution. (30:21) You go to the faucet, and the first step in Quran is wash your face, so you wash your face, here we go, bismillahirrahmanirrahim. (30:36) Okay let me stop right here and remind you of something, you should make an intention that as you say I intend to observe the wudu or the ablution before you do that, and you say bismillahirrahmanirrahim, and you commemorate God in any way you want, you say alhamdulillah, allahu akbar, anything you want to commemorate God. (30:59) But if you want to say it in Arabic, the intention should be nawaitu al wudu, bismillahirrahmanirrahim. (31:08) So here I go, bismillahirrahmanirrahim, nawaitu al wudu, and then the first step, you wash your face. (31:21) Okay I wash my face twice, and I feel like I did a good job, so this is good enough, there is no set number of washing your face. Speaker 2 (31:32) The second step, the arms to the elbows, so here we go, washing the arm to the elbow. (31:47) Right arm again, the left arm, the same thing, and this takes care of the second step. (32:02) The third step is you wipe your hair, so what I will do is I wipe my head, and then I wipe my head like this, and this is the third step. (32:13) The final step is wash your feet to the ankles, so you put your foot there, wash it thoroughly, and this takes care of the right foot, and then the left foot. Speaker 1 (32:42) That's it, there you have it, the four steps of wudu, very simple, don't add any more steps, and don't reduce the steps. (33:00) Now that you finished the four steps of wudu, wash your face, your arms to the elbows, wipe your head, and wash your feet, you are ready for the salat prayer. (33:12) So now let's go back to the masjid and show you how to observe the salat prayers, all five of them. (33:28) The innovations, superstitions, prejudices, customs, and traditions did not hit the adhan and the wudu only, brothers and sisters, it also hit the salat itself, the contact prayers. (33:41) There is so much garbage that we had to remove from the contact prayers to make it pure, and make it exactly the contact prayers that the Prophet Muhammad preached and practiced. (33:54) So what I'm going to present to you is the pure contact prayers without any innovations or additions that happened in the last 1400 years. (34:04) We are trying to take the salat, the contact prayers, all the way to the Prophet Muhammad, the way he preached it, and the way he practiced it. (34:13) And the most important point, please pay attention, the most important point is never to mention any name other than the name of Allah, the name of God, in your contact prayers. (34:27) This is dictated upon us in the Quran, but you probably know that the average Muslim today adds the names of Muhammad and his family, Abraham and his family, and so on, in the contact prayers, and this nullifies the contact prayer, it makes it absolutely useless, it's not harmful. (34:45) So you must be very careful, and this is my responsibility to tell you that, you must be very careful never to mention any name other than the name of Allah, the name of God, in the contact prayer. (34:59) We see this in the Quran in surah 72, ayah or verse number 18, where it says, the places of worship belong to God, do not mention any other name besides the name of God. (35:13) This is a Quranic commandment. (35:15) And in surah 20, verse 15, we see the commandment, aqib salata li zikri, observe the contact prayers to commemorate me, singular. (35:26) God is telling us that we must commemorate him alone in the salat, in the contact prayers. (35:34) So, I will give you the details of the contact prayers, and we will go to the mosque now and give you a demonstration. (35:43) But before I do this, I want to clarify that the tashahhud, or the recitation while sitting down, should be only ashhadu an la ilaha illallah wahdahu la sharika lah, or just ashhadu an la ilaha illallah, or just la ilaha illallah, this is enough, there is no God except the one God. (36:04) And forget about all these names, Muhammad and his family, Abraham and his family, Muhammad and Abraham will be the first people to denounce this use of their name in the contact prayers. (36:16) And you know something? (36:17) All the Imams of Sunni and Shi'i, all of them unanimously agreed that this mentioning of Muhammad and his family, Abraham and his family, while sitting down in the contact prayers, is not an obligatory part of the prayer. (36:33) You heard me right, unanimously they agreed that this is just a desirable, they think, a desirable part. (36:41) But it is not, it actually kills your contact prayer, makes it useless, and actually does harm to you. (36:47) Because God will be offended to have other names mentioned besides him in the daily worship, you are worshipping God alone. (36:56) So just be careful. (36:58) And this by the way led to the conclusion that we must recite only al-Fatiha, the opening surah of the Quran, while standing up in the contact prayers. (37:08) Do not recite any Quran after al-Fatiha. (37:12) And on the surface this looks like abandoning the Quran, it is not, it is the exact opposite. (37:17) Because in the contact prayers, a lot of people end up memorizing the short surahs, qul huwa allahu ahad, and qul a'udu, and that's it, and they think they know Quran. (37:28) But I must tell you to read Quran every day, you must read the Quran every day, this is a commandment from our creator, to read his message, the Quran, every day. (37:39) The whole Quran, not just the short surah. (37:42) But in the contact prayers, please, you need only recite al-Fatiha. (37:47) And this is a unifying force of all the Muslims in the world. (37:52) I was praying in Mecca one time, and the imam read al-Fatiha, and then he read the whole surah number 32, surah al-Sajdah, after al-Fatiha. (38:03) And I was thinking, you know, there are a few thousands of people in there around the Kaaba, praying behind this imam, and the vast majority of them didn't know any Arabic. (38:13) What is their fault? (38:14) They just stand through all this recitation in Arabic that they do not understand. (38:21) What was required is only recite al-Fatiha. (38:24) And this will unify all the Muslims of the world, they will do the same thing in all the prayers. (38:29) In Japan, they know al-Fatiha, they read it in the contact prayer. (38:33) In Sweden, in America, in Canada, in Australia, in Mecca, in Pakistan, all the Muslims of the world will do the same thing. (38:42) But this business of reciting long portions of the Quran is wrong, it actually ruins the contact prayers. (38:50) God wants things to be easy for us, but Satan wants to make things difficult for us, so he adds old things. (38:57) Besides, when you recite the Quran, you mention Moses, and Jesus, and Muhammad, and Pharaoh, and the devil, and all these things. (39:05) You mention other names besides the name of God in the prayer, and this is forbidden by commandment from God. (39:12) We are not to mention any name. (39:15) When you recite the Quran in the mosque, and you mention other names, it is because God says so in the Quran. (39:21) It says, walqur fil kitabi Maryam, for example. (39:25) This is God's commandment, you can mention the name of Mary in the Quran in order to learn from the lessons of previous prophets, messengers, and so on. (39:35) And it is a commandment from God to mention, so when we read the Quran, we mention these names only because God commanded us to do so. (39:44) But in the contact prayers, in the salat, we are commanded never to mention any other name but the name of Allah, the name of God. (40:01) After you have done your wudu, and you are ready for the prayer, you go to a nice clean place, you don't necessarily need a prayer rug, this is one of those innovations, you can pray in any clean place, even bare ground, as long as it is dry and clean. (40:20) So you go to a nice clean place, and you find the direction of Mecca, the direction of the sacred mosque, because this is a commandment in Quran that you must face. (40:32) This is an organizational point, there is no other significance to it except an organization. (40:38) You can imagine people going in a mosque and facing in different directions, it will be a mess. (40:44) So this organizational point dictates on us that we must face the direction of Mecca, wherever we might be. (40:53) So in the United States, the direction generally is slightly south of east, slightly south of east, southeast. (41:04) So find the direction of Mecca, you face that direction, and then you make your intention, this is the first step. (41:12) You must say, I intend to do the morning prayer, in any language you like. (41:18) If you want it in Arabic, you can say, nawaitu salat al-subh, this will be the niyyah or the intention for the morning prayer. (41:26) Or if it is for the noon prayer, you say in your heart or in an audible voice, I intend to do the noon prayer, nawaitu salat al-dhuhr, in Arabic. (41:39) If it is the afternoon prayer, it is nawaitu salat al-asr, and for the sunset prayer, the niyyah or intention is nawaitu salat al-maghrib. (41:52) For the night prayer, the intention or the niyyah is nawaitu salat al-isha. (41:59) So, but you can do it in any language you wish, secretly or loudly. (42:04) Now after you do the niyyah, now you are facing the direction of Mecca, you make your intention or niyyah, then you open the salat by raising your hands to the side of your face and saying allahu akbar like this, allahu akbar, there is your opening of the salat. (42:23) Once you say allahu akbar in this manner, you have started your contact or salat, your contact with your creator. (42:34) Now after you make the opening takbir, allahu akbar, you can either put your hands on the side, or you can choose to hold them like this, with your left hand on your stomach, and your right hand on top of your left hand, it doesn't make any difference. (42:51) Some people make a big deal out of it, but there is no difference, either way is correct. (42:56) So this is the opening of the salat, the contact prayer, allahu akbar. (43:03) Now you are ready to recite al-fatiha, the opening surah of Quran. Speaker 3 (43:16) Let me write the words of adhan for you, allahu akbar, allahu akbar, allahu akbar, allahu akbar, la ilaha illallah. Speaker 1 (43:25) So, in the adhan, we say allahu akbar four times, allahu akbar, meaning God is the greatest, allahu, allahu God akbar, allahu akbar, four times. Speaker 2 (44:00) Then, la ilaha illallah, la means no, la, ilaha, meaning God with a small g, la means no, ilaha is God, no, ilaha is God with a small g, illa means accept, illa, accept, allah, means God, la ilaha illallah. Speaker 1 (45:11) So this is the complete adhan, the original adhan, without any innovations or additions or traditions. (45:21) A lot of people think that Allah is the name of God, but it is not, Allah simply means God, the English word for it is God. (45:30) The non-Muslims in the Arabic world say Allah, because this is the Arabic word for God, even though they are not Muslim, they will say insha'Allah and say Allah, because simply that is the language, it is not the name of God, this is why I use the English word God for Allah. Speaker 3 (46:22) By now you know how allahu akbar is written, the opening of the contact prayer, allahu akbar, this is followed by surat al-fatiha, and it is written like this, the first verse is bism, bism allah ar-rahman ar-raheem, bism allah ar-rahman ar-raheem, rabbil alameen. Speaker 1 (48:02) Okay, bism allah ar-rahman ar-raheem means in the name of God, most gracious, most merciful, alhamdu lillahi, means praise be to God, rabbi, rabbil alameen, means lord of the universe, bism allah ar-rahman ar-raheem, alhamdu lillahi rabbil alameen, in the name of God, most gracious, most merciful, praise be to God, lord of the universe. (48:36) And the next statement is familiar to you, ar-rahman ar-raheem, most gracious, ar-rahman ar-raheem, most gracious, most merciful. (49:06) And the next statement is maliki, means master or king, (49:19) maliki, master or king, yawm means day, yawm al-deen, day of recompense, (49:31) al-deen, recompense, yawm day, so ar-rahman ar-raheem, most gracious, most merciful, (49:42) maliki yawm al-deen, master of the day of recompense, (49:48) iyyaka na'budu, means only you we worship, Speaker 6 (49:59) iyyaka na'budu, iyyaka na'budu, which means only you we worship, Speaker 1 (50:18) wa'iyyaka, means and, only you, wa' means and, iyyaka nasta'eem, means we ask for help, only you we ask for help, (50:38) wa'iyyaka nasta'eem, wa'iyyaka nasta'eem, and only you we ask for help. (50:54) The next statement, now of course, you can always go back, reverse the tape, and watch all these words until you know them very well by heart. (51:12) The next statement is, ehdina al-sirata al-mustaqeem, guide us in the right path, ehdina, means guide us, ehdina al-sirata, and sirata means the path. (51:36) al-sirata, the path, al-mustaqeem, the straight or the right path, al-mustaqeem. (51:55) ehdina al-sirata al-mustaqeem, guide us in the right path, sirata means the path of, sirata, al-lazeena, al-lazeena means those, the path of those, an'amta, means those you blessed, an'amta alayhim, you showered your blessings on them, alayhim. (52:43) ehdina al-sirata al-mustaqeem, guide us in the right path, sirata al-lazeena, the path of those, an'amta alayhim, whom you blessed. (52:57) And then we go to the last statement in al-fatiha. Speaker 3 (53:04) ghayri al-maghdoobi alayhim, means not, ghayri means other than, or not. Speaker 2 (53:16) ghayri al-maghdoobi alayhim, means not the path of those who incur wrath or anger. (53:41) ghayri al-maghdoobi alayhim, wa laddalleen, wa means and, la means no, nor, wa laddalleen, and this is the end of it. (54:00) And not the strayers. Speaker 5 (54:01) ghayri al-maghdoobi alayhim, not the path of those who incur wrath or anger, wa laddalleen, nor the strayers. Speaker 1 (54:16) Then during ruku'a you say subhana rabbiya al-azim, about three times, it doesn't matter, two, three, or four times, subhana means glory be to, subhana, rabbiya means glory be to my lord, rabbiya al-azim, means the great, al-azim, subhana rabbiya al-azim, glory be to my lord, the great. (55:00) Then you stand up, and in this position only, you say sami'a allahu liman hamidah, means God hears anyone who praises him, and it is written like this, sami'a allahu liman anyone hamidah, who praises him, hamidah, sami'a allahu liman hamidah, as you stand up. (55:52) Then you make the first prostration, sujood, and when you do that you say allahu akbar as you go down in prostration, and during prostration you say subhana rabbiya al-a'la, subhana rabbiya, then during sujood in prostration you say subhana rabbiya al-a'la, about three or four times, al-a'la, means glory be to my lord the most high, al-a'la, the most high. (56:30) And this takes care of all the words of the contact prayers. (56:35) Now you know how to say all the words, and if you play the tape over and over, you can see how exactly they are written down and how they are pronounced. (56:50) In the sitting position you say ashhadu an la ilaha illallah wahdahu la sharika lah, which means I bear witness that there is no God except Allah, the one God, he is one, la sharika lah, he has no partners, and this is how I write it. (57:08) Ashhadu, ashhadu, means I bear witness, ashhadu an la ilaha, means God with a small g, ilaha, I bear witness that there is no God except Allah, the one God, wahdahu, he is one, he is one, wahdahu, la sharika lah, he has no partner, la means no, sharika means partner, la sharika, la sharika lah, and this takes care of the tashahud. (58:16) In the sitting position, ashhadu an la ilaha illallah wahdahu la sharika lah. (58:27) And then of course to end the prayer you look at the right side and say assalamu alaykum, and then on the left side saying assalamu alaykum, and this ends the contact prayer. (58:37) So let me write assalamu alaykum for you. (58:55) There you have it, the complete words of the contact prayers. (59:11) Now let me explain a few fine details about the salah, the contact prayers. (59:17) One of the most important points is that there is a myth among the average Muslims that a woman who has her period or the menstruation cannot pray. (59:30) Now this has to be from Satan, because Satan is the one who does not want you, the Muslim woman, to pray. (59:37) God did not say in the Quran at all do not pray during menstruation, there is nothing in the Quran that says that. (59:45) Even the hadith, we learn from hadith that the Prophet's wives used to pray during their menstruation. (59:52) One hadith even says they put a bucket under one of his wives as she prayed. (59:57) Ridiculous as this may be, but it demonstrates that the Muslim woman should pray during her menstruation. (1:00:04) If a Muslim woman does not pray during menstruation, this means one week in the month without prayer, and this is like four years every ten years, four years without any prayer, imagine that. (1:00:19) So this will be a satanic innovation to stop the women from praying during menstruation. (1:00:25) So, please, menstruation or not, the contact prayer, the only worship that must go on, there is absolutely no excuse for not doing the contact prayer. (1:00:38) Even God provides that you can pray walking or riding in a car or riding in a plane or in a bus, or even if a person is very sick, very ill, cannot move, that person can pray with his or her eyelids, just or even mentally. (1:00:56) If you are working in a crowded place and you cannot find a place to pray, you can pray at your desk sitting down, just mentally going through the motions and the words. (1:01:06) So there is absolutely no excuse for missing any contact prayer. (1:01:17) So whether the person is ill, unable to move, or riding trapped in a car or a bus or a plane, or in a working place where there is no place available for prayer, or during menstruation, or the afterbirth bleeding, any of these conditions cannot, nothing stops you from performing, observing the contact prayers. (1:01:42) Another point that I wish to mention is the group prayer or the jama'a. (1:01:48) In the jama'a, one person leads the prayer and the rest of the group stand behind him, behind the imam, and do exactly what he does. (1:01:59) You do not have to recite al-fatiha or the quran after the imam. (1:02:06) Remember all that is required in the contact prayer is al-fatiha, the first surah of quran. (1:02:12) So you just mentally follow the imam as he recites al-fatiha during the contact prayer. (1:02:19) And then of course in ruku' the bowing position, you say subhana rabbia al-azim as usual, and in the sujood or prostration you say subhana rabbia al-a'la as usual. (1:02:33) So you only listen to the imam when he recites al-fatiha in the standing positions. (1:02:40) If a person comes late and finds the jama'a, the group, already did the one or two or three raka'as, units, you just, if you come late, you just join the group in whatever position they are in, and then after they finish when they say assalamu alaikum, the first one, you stand up and you complete the part that you missed. (1:03:02) So this is how you make up for missing units or missing raka'as when you join a group. (1:03:15) What happens if you miss one of the prayers, one of the contact prayers? (1:03:19) You're supposed to do all five contact prayers during each one of the five periods. (1:03:26) The morning contact before sunrise, the noon between around 12 and 4, the afternoon between 4 and sunset, the sunset contact immediately after sunset, and the night prayer after all the twilight disappears from the horizon about two hours after sunset. (1:03:45) Now what happens if you miss one of these prayers? (1:03:48) There's a myth that you can make it up or combine prayers, and it is just an innovation, you cannot make up missed prayer. (1:03:56) If you miss the noon prayer in any day, you just cannot bring yesterday back, you missed it and it is too bad. (1:04:04) So you just ask God for forgiveness, repent, and promise God that you will never, to the best of your ability, miss any more prayers, and you just go on doing the prayers. (1:04:16) See the idea of the contact prayer is to contact our creator within a certain period of every day, and when you miss that, it is gone, you cannot bring it back, and you cannot make it up, but you can ask forgiveness and repent. (1:04:37) And now the best way to describe the contact prayers to you is to demonstrate exactly how it is done. (1:04:45) So now I will demonstrate for you the morning contact prayer. (1:05:03) Do you remember the first thing you have to do in order to observe the contact prayers? (1:05:09) That's right, the intention, you declare your intention, in Arabic, niyyah. (1:05:14) So since this is the morning prayer, I will make the intention for the morning contact prayer in English, then in Arabic. (1:05:22) Then I will proceed with the prayer and you just watch everything I'm doing, and this will be the correct way for observing the contact prayer. (1:05:32) So here I am facing the direction of Mecca, and I'm going to make my intention. (1:05:39) I intend to do the morning contact prayer. (1:06:12) Zalim. (1:06:14) Allahu Akbar. (1:06:22) Samia Allahu liman hamidah. (1:06:25) Allahu Akbar. (1:06:47) Allahu Akbar. (1:07:16) Allahu Akbar. (1:07:25) Samia Allahu liman hamidah. (1:07:28) Allahu Akbar. (1:07:38) Allahu Akbar. (1:07:41) Allahu Akbar. (1:07:51) Allahu Akbar. (1:07:53) Ash hadu al la ilaha illa Allah. (1:07:57) Wahdahu la sharika lah. (1:08:07) And this completes the morning prayer. (1:08:09) This is the original contact prayer as observed by the Prophet Muhammad. (1:08:15) And it came to us all the way from Abraham exactly this way. (1:08:21) And you notice in my prayer I didn't look around, I didn't laugh, I was not distracted, I concentrated on communicating with my creator. Speaker 5 (1:08:36) And now I will do the noon prayer. Speaker 1 (1:08:39) Now the noon prayer, the afternoon prayer, and the night contact prayer are all identical, exactly the same. (1:08:48) So, the intention for the noon prayer is nawaitu salat al zuhr. (1:08:55) For the asr, for the afternoon prayer, nawaitu salat al asr. (1:09:00) And for the night prayer, nawaitu salat al isha. (1:09:04) So what I am going to demonstrate for you is four rak'ahs, which is suitable for the noon, afternoon, and the night prayer. (1:09:14) So here we go. (1:09:15) I face the direction of Mecca, and I make my intention according to whichever contact prayer it is, and I start my prayer by opening with takbeer. (1:09:29) Allahu Akbar (1:09:33) Bismillahirrahmanirrahim (1:09:34) Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen (1:09:37) Arrahmanirrahim (1:09:38) Maliki yawm al deen (1:09:40) Iyyaka na'budu (1:09:42) wa iyyaka nastaeen (1:09:43) ehdina al sirata al mustaqeem (1:09:46) sirata al lazeena (1:09:48) an'amta alayhim (1:09:49) ghayri al maghdoobi alayhim (1:09:51) walad daaleen (1:09:53) Allahu Akbar (1:10:00) sami'allahu liman hamidah (1:10:03) Allahu Akbar (1:10:11) Allahu Akbar (1:10:13) Allahu Akbar (1:10:21) Allahu Akbar (1:10:26) Bismillahirrahmanirrahim (1:10:27) Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen (1:10:30) Arrahmanirrahim (1:10:32) Maliki yawm al deen (1:10:34) Iyyaka na'budu (1:10:36) wa iyyaka nastaeen (1:10:38) ehdina al sirata al mustaqeem (1:10:40) sirata al lazeena (1:10:41) an'amta alayhim (1:10:43) ghayri al maghdoobi alayhim (1:10:46) walad daaleen (1:10:47) Allahu Akbar (1:10:56) sami'allahu liman hamidah (1:10:58) Allahu Akbar (1:11:09) Allahu Akbar (1:11:09) Allahu Akbar (1:11:18) Allahu Akbar (1:11:20) ashhadu alla ilaha illallah (1:11:23) wahdahu la sharika lah (1:11:25) Allahu Akbar (1:11:30) Bismillahirrahmanirrahim (1:11:31) Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen (1:11:34) Arrahmanirrahim (1:11:36) Maliki yawm al deen (1:11:38) Iyyaka na'budu (1:11:39) Iyyaka na'budu wa iyyaka nasta'een (1:11:41) Ihdina al sirata al mustaqeen (1:11:45) Sirata al lazeena an'amta alayhim (1:11:47) ghayri al maghdoobi alayhim (1:11:50) walad daaleen (1:11:51) Allahu Akbar (1:11:59) sami'allahu liman hamidah (1:12:02) Allahu Akbar Speaker 3 (1:12:04) subhana rabbiyal a'la Speaker 1 (1:12:06) subhana rabbiyal a'la (1:12:08) subhana rabbiyal azeem (1:12:09) subhana rabbiyal a'la (1:12:11) Allahu Akbar (1:12:13) Allahu Akbar (1:12:21) Allahu Akbar (1:12:25) Bismillahirrahmanirrahim (1:12:26) Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen (1:12:30) Arrahmanirrahim (1:12:31) Maliki yawm al deen (1:12:33) Iyyaka na'budu wa iyyaka nasta'een (1:12:37) Ihdina al sirata al mustaqeen (1:12:39) Sirata al lazeena an'amta (1:12:42) alayhim (1:12:43) ghayri al maghdoobi alayhim (1:12:45) walad daaleen (1:12:47) Allahu Akbar (1:12:55) sami'allahu liman hamidah (1:12:58) Allahu Akbar (1:13:08) Allahu Akbar (1:13:11) Allahu Akbar (1:13:18) Allahu Akbar (1:13:20) ashhadu an la ilaha illallah (1:13:22) ashhadu an la ilaha illallah (1:13:25) wahdahu la sharika lah (1:13:33) and this takes care of the (1:13:34) four rak'ah prayers, (1:13:36) the noon, Speaker 5 (1:13:37) the afternoon, or the night prayers. Speaker 1 (1:13:46) And now, for you, the three rak'ahs of salat al maghrib, the sunset prayer. (1:13:54) It is, of course, the same, except you do only three rak'ahs, three units. (1:13:59) And here we go. (1:14:01) I intend to do the sunset contact prayer. (1:14:05) nawaitu salat al maghrib (1:14:08) Allahu Akbar (1:14:09) Bismillah (1:14:11) ar-Rahman ar-Raheem (1:14:13) alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen (1:14:16) ar-Rahman ar-Raheem (1:14:18) maliki yawm al-deen (1:14:20) iyyaka na'budu (1:14:21) wa iyyaka nasta'een (1:14:23) ihdina al-sirata al-mustaqeem (1:14:25) sirata al-lazeena (1:14:27) an'amta alayhim (1:14:29) ghayri al-maghdoobi alayhim (1:14:31) walad daaleen (1:14:33) Allahu Akbar (1:14:35) subhana rabbiyal a'la (1:14:38) subhana rabbiyal a'la (1:14:40) sami'a allahu liman hamidah (1:14:42) Allahu Akbar (1:14:51) Allahu Akbar (1:14:53) Allahu Akbar Speaker 2 (1:15:01) Allahu Akbar Speaker 1 (1:15:05) Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem (1:15:07) alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen (1:15:08) ar-Rahman ar-Raheem (1:15:12) maliki yawm al-deen (1:15:15) iyyaka na'budu (1:15:16) wa iyyaka nasta'een (1:15:18) ihdina al-sirata al-mustaqeem (1:15:20) sirata al-lazeena (1:15:22) an'amta alayhim (1:15:24) ghayri al-maghdoobi alayhim (1:15:26) walad daaleen (1:15:27) Allahu Akbar (1:15:35) sami'a allahu liman hamidah (1:15:38) allahu akbar (1:15:47) allahu akbar (1:15:49) allahu akbar (1:15:59) allahu akbar (1:15:59) ashhadu alla ilaha illallah (1:16:03) wahdahu la sharika lah (1:16:05) allahu akbar (1:16:10) bismillahirrahmanirrahim (1:16:11) alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen (1:16:15) arrahmanirrahim (1:16:17) maliki yawmid deen (1:16:19) iyaka na'budu (1:16:21) wa iyaka nastaeen (1:16:22) ihdina al-sirata al-mustaqeem (1:16:25) sirata al-lazeena (1:16:27) an'amta alayhim (1:16:28) ghayri al-maghdoobi alayhim (1:16:31) walad daaleen (1:16:32) allahu akbar (1:16:34) subhana rabbiyal a'la (1:16:36) subhana rabbiyal a'la (1:16:37) subhana rabbiyal azeem (1:16:39) subhana rabbiyal azeem (1:16:41) samia allahu liman hamidah (1:16:44) allahu akbar (1:16:53) allahu akbar (1:16:54) allahu akbar (1:17:05) allahu akbar (1:17:07) ashahadu an la ilaha illallah (1:17:10) wahdahu la sharika lah Speaker 5 (1:17:13) assalamu alaykum (1:17:16) assalamu alaykum (1:17:33) bismillahirrahmanirrahim Speaker 1 (1:17:34) in the name of god (1:17:36) most gracious most merciful (1:17:37) brothers and sisters (1:17:39) assalamu alaykum (1:17:41) the friday congregational prayer (1:17:43) is an obligatory duty (1:17:45) upon every muslim man and woman (1:17:47) this is a social function (1:17:50) decreed by god almighty (1:17:52) for the muslims to get together (1:17:54) and to know each other (1:17:56) and to be familiar with their (1:17:57) problems and their joys (1:18:00) and we find in surah (1:18:02) number 62 verse number 9 (1:18:04) the commandment from god says (1:18:06) oh you who believe (1:18:08) when the contact (1:18:10) prayers the salat for friday (1:18:12) is announced you shall go (1:18:14) to the mosque and observe the salat prayer (1:18:17) and drop (1:18:18) all business (1:18:19) this is better for you if you only knew (1:18:22) so if anyone is afraid (1:18:24) that he or she may lose some business (1:18:26) during the friday prayer (1:18:27) god is saying this will be better for you (1:18:30) god will make it up to you (1:18:31) god runs the world and he is the only provider (1:18:34) and he guarantees you (1:18:37) doing better (1:18:38) if you go to the friday prayer (1:18:39) and notice that the commandment said (1:18:42) oh you who believe (1:18:43) it didn't say oh you believing men (1:18:45) or oh you believing women (1:18:47) it says oh you who believe (1:18:49) when the contact prayer on friday (1:18:52) is called for (1:18:53) you shall go and drop all business (1:18:55) it is very important (1:18:57) and emphasizing the role of the women (1:18:59) because this is also an educational (1:19:02) meeting where people sit down (1:19:03) and listen to a sermon (1:19:05) and the muslim woman (1:19:07) must be the best educated because (1:19:09) she teaches the children (1:19:12) the women are (1:19:13) our mothers and they teach us (1:19:15) as we grow up and it is (1:19:17) essential that they are educated (1:19:20) not ignorant (1:19:21) the traditional (1:19:24) customary (1:19:26) muslims of the middle east they kept (1:19:27) the women away from the mosque and this (1:19:29) kept the children ignorant because the mothers (1:19:31) are ignorant as far as the religion is (1:19:33) concerned so it is very important (1:19:35) to emphasize this fact that muslim (1:19:37) men and women are required (1:19:39) it is an obligatory duty for them Speaker 5 (1:19:41) to go to the friday prayer (1:19:52) now there are certain conditions Speaker 1 (1:19:54) for the friday prayer (1:19:57) the people (1:19:58) dress nicely as (1:20:00) commanded in the quran (1:20:02) and they go for the noon (1:20:04) prayer on friday to the mosque (1:20:06) and the imam (1:20:08) or the person who gives the sermon (1:20:10) is required to follow certain (1:20:13) traditions (1:20:14) that these are religious (1:20:15) traditions or duties that came to us (1:20:18) all the way from abraham (1:20:20) and it is universal, this is the way it is (1:20:22) happening all over the world (1:20:24) the first condition is (1:20:27) that throughout (1:20:28) the prayer from the beginning to the end (1:20:30) you mention only the name of (1:20:32) god, allah (1:20:34) subhanahu wa ta'ala (1:20:36) in the adhan (1:20:37) the adhan should be allahu akbar (1:20:40) allahu akbar, allahu akbar (1:20:42) allahu akbar, la ilaha illallah Speaker 5 (1:20:44) this is the adhan (1:20:50) the adhan should be (1:20:52) allahu akbar, allahu akbar Speaker 1 (1:20:54) allahu akbar, allahu akbar (1:20:56) la ilaha illallah, this is the adhan (1:20:58) so the adhan or the call (1:21:00) for contact prayer is delivered (1:21:02) then the imam (1:21:04) stands up in front of the congregation (1:21:07) and he (1:21:08) starts the first sermon (1:21:10) by saying alhamdulillah (1:21:12) this is the first requirement (1:21:14) now you notice (1:21:16) I said the first sermon (1:21:17) because (1:21:19) the khutba or sermon on (1:21:21) Friday consists of two sections (1:21:23) or two sermons (1:21:27) the prayer itself consists of (1:21:29) two rakahs instead of four (1:21:31) the customary noon prayer consists (1:21:33) of four rakahs or four units (1:21:35) but on Friday (1:21:37) it is only two rakahs or two units (1:21:39) and this is because the two (1:21:41) sermons compensate (1:21:43) for two rakahs or two units (1:21:45) so the first sermon (1:21:47) and also the second sermon (1:21:49) they must begin (1:21:51) by stating alhamdulillah (1:21:54) praise be (1:21:55) to God, followed by (1:21:58) the shahada, and the (1:21:59) shahada as dictated (1:22:01) in the Quran, in surah (1:22:03) number 3, verse 81 (1:22:05) the shahada is (1:22:07) la ilaha illallah, that's it (1:22:09) so the imam stands up (1:22:11) and he begins each sermon (1:22:13) the first one and the second one (1:22:15) by saying alhamdulillah (1:22:17) la ilaha illallah (1:22:20) then he (1:22:21) goes into (1:22:23) the sermon, the subject, in any (1:22:26) language that he (1:22:28) wishes. (1:22:29) Of course in this country, in the United States, it will be English so the people will understand if the imam during the sermon uses Quran in Arabic, he must translate it so the people will understand this is the whole idea of a sermon the sermon also deals with the local conditions of the local community or it can deal with a general lesson from the Quran or a general religious lesson. (1:22:56) So let me write for you (1:22:58) the first requirement (1:23:00) which is (1:23:01) stating alhamdulillah (1:23:03) la ilaha illallah Speaker 5 (1:23:05) at the beginning of each sermon Speaker 1 (1:23:13) for the sermon, and the first thing he (1:23:15) says in the first sermon and the second sermon (1:23:17) is alhamdulillah (1:23:19) this is how it looks Speaker 4 (1:23:21) in writing (1:23:34) alhamdulillah (1:23:42) which means (1:23:43) praise be to God (1:23:46) la ilaha illallah (1:23:48) which looks like this, la (1:23:51) means no (1:23:53) ilaha (1:23:55) means God with a small g (1:23:58) la ilaha (1:24:03) illa (1:24:03) except (1:24:06) illa Allah (1:24:15) la ilaha illallah (1:24:17) there is no God except (1:24:19) Allah Speaker 1 (1:24:21) this is the required (1:24:23) utterance at the beginning of the first sermon (1:24:25) and the second sermon, after this (1:24:27) you go into the subject (1:24:29) of your sermon. (1:24:31) Now you (1:24:31) notice I didn't (1:24:34) say anything else (1:24:36) this is what you start with (1:24:37) alhamdulillah la ilaha illallah (1:24:39) you don't start with bismillahirrahmanirrahim (1:24:42) or dear brothers and sisters (1:24:44) or assalamu alaikum or anything (1:24:46) else, the minute you stand up (1:24:47) for the sermon you say alhamdulillah (1:24:50) la ilaha illallah (1:24:51) then you can say dear brothers (1:24:53) and sisters assalamu alaikum (1:24:55) I want to talk to you today about the (1:24:57) contact prayers, the salat, for example (1:25:00) or whatever your subject Speaker 5 (1:25:01) is. (1:25:09) The subject of the first sermon how do you finish the first sermon? Speaker 1 (1:25:15) You finish it by asking the people to repent. (1:25:18) You can ask them in Arabic and then translate it to English and the Arabic is tubu illallah repent. (1:25:27) This is how you end the first sermon. Speaker 4 (1:25:29) Let me write it for you tubu means repent, with a plural tubu illa allah tubu illallah and this is how you end the first sermon. Speaker 1 (1:25:56) Now as soon as you say tubu illallah, repent, you sit down and you repent yourself you sit down and you pray to God, please God forgive me, I repent to you, I will never commit a sin after now, and you mean it. (1:26:13) Now as soon as you say tubu illallah to end the first sermon, you sit down yourself and you repent you ask God to forgive you so here is how you end the first sermon. (1:26:25) You finish (1:26:26) your subject, then you say to the people (1:26:28) tubu illallah, repent (1:26:31) and then you sit (1:26:32) down (1:26:33) and you ask (1:26:34) God to forgive you (1:26:37) and you declare your (1:26:38) repentance, you say (1:26:40) please God forgive me, I repent (1:26:42) I will never commit a sin after now (1:26:44) and you mean it (1:26:46) of course you are going to have fallen in sin again (1:26:48) but God says he loves (1:26:50) those who continuously repent (1:26:53) so you sit down (1:26:54) for about a minute (1:26:56) no more, just one minute, and (1:26:58) everybody in the mosque will be (1:27:00) asking God for forgiveness and (1:27:02) everyone in the mosque will be repenting (1:27:04) and then you stand up for the second (1:27:06) sermon, and you start the second (1:27:08) sermon by, that's right (1:27:11) alhamdulillah (1:27:12) la ilaha illallah (1:27:14) this is how you start the second sermon (1:27:16) exactly the same way as the first (1:27:18) sermon. (1:27:19) Then (1:27:20) you either continue the subject you were (1:27:22) talking about in the first sermon (1:27:24) or you talk about a (1:27:26) new subject, you can have two different (1:27:28) subjects for the two sermons (1:27:30) and after you finish talking (1:27:33) in the second sermon (1:27:34) you end this (1:27:36) last sermon by (1:27:38) saying aqim salat (1:27:40) and this is assigned to someone in (1:27:42) the congregation to declare (1:27:45) that the salat, the (1:27:46) contact prayer for Friday (1:27:48) is ready to be observed and (1:27:50) everybody stands up (1:27:52) you end the sermon by saying aqim salat (1:27:54) let me write it for you Speaker 4 (1:28:01) aqim (1:28:05) salat (1:28:12) aqim salat Speaker 1 (1:28:16) now the minute (1:28:18) you say aqim salat (1:28:19) the second sermon is over (1:28:21) and a person in the congregation (1:28:23) will say allahu akbar allahu akbar (1:28:26) allahu akbar allahu akbar (1:28:28) la ilaha illallah (1:28:30) and this means (1:28:32) everybody stand up (1:28:33) and let us pray (1:28:35) then as the imam (1:28:37) who gave the two sermons, you stand (1:28:39) up in front of the congregation and you (1:28:41) pray two rakahs as usual (1:28:44) and I'm (1:28:45) going to show you now an example (1:28:47) of (1:28:49) Friday congregation sermons Speaker 5 (1:28:51) God bless you (1:28:58) so let me summarize for you (1:29:00) you begin the first sermon by Speaker 1 (1:29:02) saying alhamdulillah la ilaha (1:29:04) illallah, then you go into your (1:29:06) subject in English (1:29:08) then you end the first sermon by saying (1:29:10) tubu illallah (1:29:12) then you sit down and you ask (1:29:14) God for forgiveness and you repent (1:29:16) you sit down for about one minute (1:29:18) no more than that, then you stand up (1:29:20) and you start the second sermon (1:29:22) by saying the same thing (1:29:24) alhamdulillah la ilaha illallah (1:29:26) then you go into (1:29:28) your subject that you want to talk about (1:29:30) and you end the second sermon (1:29:32) by saying aqim salat (1:29:34) when you say that (1:29:36) someone in the congregation (1:29:38) that knows that it was going to do this (1:29:40) will stand up and say (1:29:42) allahu akbar allahu akbar (1:29:44) allahu akbar allahu akbar (1:29:46) la ilaha illallah (1:29:48) and then everyone in the mosque (1:29:50) stands up and they stand up in straight (1:29:52) lines behind (1:29:54) you, the imam (1:29:56) you take your place and you do (1:29:58) the Friday prayer (1:30:01) exactly like the morning (1:30:02) prayer, it is identical to the morning (1:30:04) prayer because it consists of only (1:30:06) two rakahs or two units (1:30:08) now the exact method of (1:30:10) doing the salat, the contact (1:30:12) prayers, is explained (1:30:14) in our tape entitled (1:30:16) principles of Muslim prayer (1:30:18) this gives the details of all Speaker 4 (1:30:20) five daily contact (1:30:22) prayers