Ramadhan Day 5 -- Love, Obedience and Loyalty

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate

Assalaamu alaykum

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

Do you go to the masjid for prayers this Ramadhan because everybody is doing it or because they have great taraweeh imam or because they have special foods or because you can see your friends, etc?

When you go to the masjid tonight for prayers, stop and ask yourself, "Why am I doing this -- standing long hours in prayers at night (perhaps until early morning), and getting very little or no sleep at night?"

If the answer is other than to become a slave of Allah and worship Him, then there is something missing in our understanding of why we are created.

Allah Almighty says,

وَمَا خَلَقْتُ ٱلْجِنَّ وَٱلْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ ﴿٥٦

And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me. (56)

[Qur'an, Adh-Dhariyat 51:56]

In worshiping Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, we must have total obedience to His commands, full love for Him and complete loyalty to Him. If you have one and not the other, then you need to work on your worship. It is natural that if you truly love someone, you always want to please that person and loyal to that person. This is how we should worship Allah.

Prayers are supposed to transform you and your personality. If you are not transformed and you are still doing haraam or sinning or in a state of disobedience to Allah -- you are not good to your parents, you are still not wearing hijab or not having proper hijab, you gossip, cheat, lie, broke promises, involve in riba, you are not paying zakat, and so on; you are still an angry or a nervous person, then there is something wrong with your prayers.

Take the opportunity this Ramadhan to really learn your prayers properly and strive to have more khushu' in your prayers, starting with your wudu' (ablution).

May Allah grant us excellence in worship and accept our prayers, fasting, charity and du'as. Ameen.

Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa 'ala aalihi wa sahbihi wasallam.

And Allah knows best and He alone grants success.

Wassalaam