Feeling your 'Ibadah

Feeling your ibadah - Syeikh Kamaluddin Ahmed (14th of March 2011)

- The purpose of our life is ‘Ibadah: وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ
(51:56), ‘Ibadah or ‘Ubudiyyah means submission.

- The Al-Qur’an stresses the importance of ladies who are ‘zakiraat, Sabiraat, Sadiqaat : إِنَّ الْمُسْلِمِينَ وَالْمُسْلِمَاتِ وَالْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتِ وَالْقَانِتِينَ وَالْقَانِتَاتِ وَالصَّادِقِينَ وَالصَّادِقَاتِ وَالصَّابِرِينَ وَالصَّابِرَاتِ وَالْخَاشِعِينَ وَالْخَاشِعَاتِ وَالْمُتَصَدِّقِينَ وَالْمُتَصَدِّقَاتِ وَالصَّائِمِينَ وَالصَّائِمَاتِ وَالْحَافِظِينَ فُرُوجَهُمْ وَالْحَافِظَاتِ وَالذَّاكِرِينَ اللَّهَ كَثِيرًا وَالذَّاكِرَاتِ أَعَدَّ اللَّهُ لَهُم مَّغْفِرَةً وَأَجْرًا عَظِيمًا
(33:35)

- The whole purpose of ‘Ibadah is to feel Allah, and if we don’t feel Him then it is a big problem. Because of our Qalb is empty from Allah, we don’t have the love for Him.
- If we enjoy doing ‘Ibadah, we will not be delaying it.
- Allah is feeding us in the worship.

- One practical way to fix our salah is to fix one letter in the salah. By fixing this letter, it will perfect the solah. We have to know the meaning of this letter.
- Al-Qur’an has three parts: wordings (tajweed, qira’ah), meanings (mufasiroon) and feelings. For example, saying Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ilayhi Rajio’un.. All of us knew the words and the meanings, but we did not have the feelings. This is one of the link to Allah.
- When we prostrate (in Sajda), we said ‘Subhana’: Allah beyond any imagination, …, flawless, …, beyond any hypothetical arguments, … , above and beyond..
Al-A’la : Highest, High Most, Most Exalted ~ we have to feel the lowest at that moment, the lowest most.
Rabbi: Made up of two words, Rabb and the letter ‘Ya’
Rabb - many du’a using the word Rabb. It signifies His Rububiyah, His Tarbiyah, nourishing us, caretaking, His loving, kind and gentle.
The letter ‘Ya’ attached to Rabb = My Rabb

- All the components in solat need to be learn outside solat:
1) know to read Qur’an properly (minimum al-fatiha) with tajweed
2) legal rulings sorrounding solat
3) zikr: وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ لِذِكْرِي
(20: 14) The more we remember Him outside solat, the more we will remember Him in the solat.

- In one summer night, Sayidatina Fatima RadhiyaAllahu ‘anha prayed tahajjud prayer after ‘Isya’. She saw fajar coming and she said “what happened to the night that it is not long enough for two raka’ah of prayer”.
The companions enjoyed solah so much and the syeikh compared it to us enjoying ice-cream.
كُلَّ يَوْمٍ هُوَ فِي شَأْنٍ
(55:29) In means every single day, Allah manifest Himself in different way. Every single day, there is new pleasure in feeling Allah.

- يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ ذِكْرًا كَثِيرًا
(33:41) In Al-Qur’an, the word ‘kathiran’ is just for zikir.

- In Islam, gender equality is in knowledge and spirituality. Two women (as opposed to one man) were needed to be a witness for monetary matter as a protection for woman.
In hadith transmission, which is a real testimony and we based our religion upon it, only one woman transmitting it is enough.

- How do we increase our zikir? Two simple ways to increase zikir from Al-Qur’an:

a) Zikir ‘am: while doing other things, we remember Allah
الَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ اللّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىَ جُنُوبِهِمْ
(3:191) “Men who celebrate the praises of Allah, standing, sitting, and lying down on their sides,”
We can remember Allah while doing daily tasks and while waiting for appointments etc. رِجَالٌ لَّا تُلْهِيهِمْ تِجَارَةٌ وَلَا بَيْعٌ عَن ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ
(24:37) By men whom neither traffic nor merchandise can divert from the Remembrance of Allah,
The zikir uses Qalb, our spiritual heart.
الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ وَتَطْمَئِنُّ قُلُوبُهُم بِذِكْرِ اللّهِ أَلاَ بِذِكْرِ اللّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ
(13:28) "Those who believe, and whose hearts find satisfaction in the remembrance of Allah. for without doubt in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find satisfaction.
The example is like a mum saying “O Muhammad, I remembered you the whole day” when talking to her son. She still did all that was required from her, but she remembered the son all the time.
It began by taking three minutes in between doing things.
We should view it as ‘sprinkling our day with doing zikir”. We should try to remember Him in any way.
The second way is to check our heart before doing any activity ‘have you forgotten Allah?’

b) Zikir ‘khas: not along with other activities. We have to cut off from the world and sit down on the prayer mat. We have to think deep inside us:
وَاذْكُر رَّبَّكَ فِي نَفْسِكَ
(7:205) ‘And do thou (O reader!) Bring thy Lord to remembrance in thy (very) soul,...’
Listen to our heart saying Allah
وَاذْكُرِ اسْمَ رَبِّكَ
(76:25) And keep in remembrance the name of thy Lord..
We listen to our heart saying Allah just like in the middle of the night we listen to the darkness of the night or in the middle of the ocean, we listen to the silence of the sea.