As salam alaikum Everyone!
Before I share my article, here is a beautiful dua written by The Daily Sunnah (www.oursunnah.com):
O Allah, Lord of the worlds, we ask You by Your most beautiful names and exalted attributes to protect our brothers and sisters in Palestine and everywhere they face oppression and aggression.
O Allah, be gentle with their situation, alleviate their suffering, and lift the hardships and calamities from them.
O Allah, bestow upon them tranquility and safety, mend their broken spirits, heal their sick, and have mercy on their deceased.
O Allah, be their supporter and helper, grant them patience, strengthen their resolve, and grant them victory over the oppressive people.
O Allah, indeed You are capable of all things.
May Allah accept our prayers and grant relief to all those suffering.
Ameen.
Now my article:
I do apologize for the extremely long gap in posts. I’m currently co-writing a fascinating book titled, “My Life, the Life of this World, and Why It’s Spiraling Towards the End Times”. In addition to writing, I have other jobs. You all have been on my heart and I pray you are doing well. 🙂
Will Allah Accept My Salah?
A trick of Shaytan is to discourage you from doing Salah, thinking that your prayers are not good enough to be accepted. This is very sad and common. People are missing their salah for this reason.
When my friend told me that this is one reason she doesn’t pray regularly, I asked,
“Do you think Allah is stingy with blessings?”
Allah is Most Generous (Al-Kareem). Allah gives us at least 10 good deeds for 1 good deed we do. (Holy Quran 6:160).
Allah asks us in Surah 82 (An-Infitar) Verse 6:
What has deceived you concerning your generous Lord?
Even when the Prophet (pbuh) went to the heavens during Isra Wal Miraj and the daily prayer amount was reduced from 50 to 5, Allah (swt) said:
“O Muhammad, My word is never changed, so these five prayers will be counted as fifty.” (Sahih Tirmidthi)
Shaytan wants us to lose hope in Allah’s mercy. But Allah says in a hadith Qudsi, “My mercy prevails over My wrath.” (Sahih Bukhari)
Yes there is a hadith saying that prayers receive “grades” and sometimes the prayer does not receive full acceptance:
The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said, “Verily, a man may return from his prayer and nothing good is written for him but a tenth of his prayer, or a ninth, or an eighth, or a seventh, or a sixth, or a fifth, or a fourth, or a third, or a half.” (Sahih Abu Dawud)
But an interesting meaning of this hadith is that we do get some credit for salah even when it’s not perfect.
And, when we pray with other people in congregation, the reward of our salah is multiplied 27 times:
“The reward of the congregational prayer is 27 times greater (than that of the individual prayer)” (Sahih Bukhari).
Another point is that our voluntary prayers (Sunnah and Nafl) can make up for the shortcomings in our obligatory prayers:
“The first thing for which a person will be brought to account will be his Salah. If it is complete (all well and good), otherwise Allah will say: ‘Look and see if My slave did any voluntary prayer.’ If he is found to have done voluntary prayers, his obligatory prayers will be completed therewith.” (Sahih An-Nasai)
Please don’t allow shaytan to discourage you from praying salah because your prayer is not perfect. The truth is that Allah (swt) is generous and not stingy with blessings. And there are ways to make up for the imperfections in our prayers.
Did you know that we regularly do things in our salah that are considered sunnah and not fard (required)? For example, it’s only required to say Surah Al Fatihah in each rakat. Reading a short surah is sunnah (i.e. extra credit). Also, it’s only required to say “subhana rabbiyal adheem” in ruku 1 time (not 3). Same goes for saying Subhana rabbiyal Ala in sajda.
So we are already getting “extra credit” when we do our 5 daily prayers.
Oh, and 1 tip to have more presence of heart in your salah—find something to feel emotional about in your salah. It could be the meaning of a verse from the Quran or of something you’re saying in the prayer. Just connect with your heart and find something to feel emotional about, such as something you feel grateful for, or a verse that touches your heart. For example, I have connected emotionally with Surah Al-Fil and how Allah protected His Kaaba from the evil man trying to destroy it, and with Surah Al-Maun’s emphasis on helping the needy. Even Allahu Akbar can make me emotional, thinking about how much greater Allah is than everything. Connect your heart to something in your salah each time you pray, and you will have more “presence of heart”.