how to concentrate on salah?
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Clearly, you are making claims about God. I am asking you to provide me evidence of your
claims. You can personally believe in anything but what is your belief based on?Peace justamuslim,
When we study the Quran in the right context and seek understanding it will be open
to us. As can be noted, the Quran is efficient at teaching us deen and does not state
the unnecessary. Also you may have noted, some things are elaborated on while some
things are understood by having knowledge of Quran. The Quran is the source of deen,
all other knowledge must be in agreement with it. Tauhid, Fasting, hajj, , charity, salat.The practices of deen predate Muhammad
Here are some examples
Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed,
"My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but
as you will."Matthew 176 And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face,and were
sore afraid.Ezekiel 1113 And it came to pass,when I prophesied,that Pelatiah the son of
Benaiah died.Then fell I down upon my face,and cried with a loud voice,and said,
Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of
Israel?2 Chronicles 2018 And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground
and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the LORD,worshipping the
LORD.Joshua 514 And he said,Nay;but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come.
And Joshua fell on his face to the earth,and did worship, and said unto him,What saith
my Lord unto his servant?Exodus 348 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth,and
worshipped.Genesis 1717 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed,and said in his heart,
Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is
ninety years old,bear?Genesis 173 And Abram fell on his faceand God talked with him, saying,.
The deen is very old, and its practices have been around for a long time.
O people of the scripture, our messenger has come to you to proclaim for you
many things you have concealed in the scripture, and to pardon many other transgressions
you have committed. A beacon has come to you from GOD, and a profound scripture.With it, GOD guides those who seek His approval. He guides them to the paths
of peace, leads them out of darkness into the light by His leave, and guides them in a
straight path.Shall I seek other than GOD as a source of law, when He has revealed to you
this book fully detailed? Those who received the scripture recognize that it has been
revealed from your Lord, truthfully. You shall not harbor any doubt.The word of your Lord is complete, in truth and justice. Nothing shall abrogate
His words. He is the Hearer, the Omniscient.ONE DEEN ONE GOD
Peace
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To define salat = this ritual worship and to say that God commanded this ritual worship is a fabrication said about God. Salat is mentioned in the Koran in several places but where in the Koran did God define salat = this ritual worship involving sitting, standing, bowing, prostrating, of a certain format and length?
Peace justamuslim,
According to your line of thinking I am interested to know your view of Jum'a i.e.,
should there be a khutbah?ONE GOD ONE DEEN
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@hawkninetynine,
Let's stick with salat instead of digressing off talking about juma and deen.
You made the claim that salat in divinely preserved, that God taught us the rituals and the Koran corrected parts of the rituals that had been corrupted over the years like wudhu...
Can you back up your claims? Where is the evidence that God taught the ritual of worship as you posted? How was wudhu corrupted over the yeas and what part of wudhu was corrupted that the Koran corrected?
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@hawkninetynine,
You made the claim that salat in divinely preserved, that God taught us the rituals and the Koran corrected parts of the rituals that had been corrupted over the years like wudhu...
Can you back up your claims? Where is the evidence that God taught the ritual of worship as you posted? How was wudhu corrupted over the yeas and what part of wudhu was corrupted that the Koran corrected?
Peace justamuslim,
We made them imams who guided in accordance with our commandments,
and we taught them how to work righteousness, and how to observe the Contact
Prayers (Salat) and the obligatory charity (Zakat). To us, they were devoted worshipers.Sahih International And We made them leaders guiding by Our command. And We
inspired to them the doing of good deeds, establishment of prayer, and giving of
zakah; and they were worshippers of Us.Muhammad was to observe the deen of Abraham
Then we inspired you (Muhammad) to follow the
religion of Abraham, the monotheist; he never was an idol worshiper.Sahih International Then We revealed to you, , to follow the religion
of Abraham, inclining toward truth; and he was not of those who associate with Allah.Moses said Salat
We inspired Moses and his brother. "Maintain your homes in Egypt for the
time being, turn your homes into synagogues, and maintain the Contact Prayers
(Salat). Give good news to the believers."Exodus 348 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth,and
worshipped.Jesus said Salat
"He made me blessed wherever I go, and enjoined me to observe the
Contact Prayers (Salat) and the obligatory charity (Zakat) for as long as I live.Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed,
"My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but
as you will."Ismail said Salat
He used to enjoin his family to observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) and
the obligatory charity (Zakat); he was acceptable to his Lord.You will find in the Quran, for example, words like Umrah, Arafat, Safa and Marwa
and sacred months described as the Quran teaches about Hajj, none of these are
defined in Quran but are to be learned from previous generations. That is the reason
I asked you about Jum'a because it also is not explained in Quran.Ablution is practiced by other cultures as well, the Quran explains the correct manner
for the muslims, obviously there was a need for the explanation.THERE IS ONLY ONE GOD
Peace
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Salaam Magnus and Emil,
Thanks for your response.
I did not disregard the sukara part. I think that ?until you know what you express? actually explains the meaning of the word ?sukara?.
I think that the general meaning of ?sallaat? is something like ?contact?. In case of prayer, it is making contact with Allah. So when you recite The Quran in your prayer, do you know what you are saying to Allah?
Magnus, you said that you begin your sallaat to Allah, with ?BismiAllah?. Now the question is What are you actually saying to Allah? Are you saying ?In the name of Allah? to Allah?
Some say that they do o only chapter AlFatiha in their prayer, but to who are they talking when they say "Alhamdu lillahi rabbi al3alameen"?
Most sunni sholars even agreed that it's even allowed to say every single verse from The Quran in their prayer. So according to them it's even allowed to say this in prayer
"I am Allah, there is no god except Me, so serve Me and hold the contact prayer for My remembrance." (2014)& & &So how should we do our sallaat?
I believe that we have to do our sallaat in a state of mind, where we exactly know every word we express. If we just recite The Quran then we not only don't know what we are saying but also we loose our concentration because of this.
So how should our sallaat be like? Are there examples in the Quran? sure there are.
193 When he called out to his Lord secretly.
194 He said "My Lord, my bones have gone frail, and my hair has turned white, and I have never been mischievous in imploring You my Lord."26117 He said "My Lord, my people have denied me!"
26118 "So open between me and them a rift, and save me and those who are with me of the believers."There are maybe hunderds examples like this. One thing to note in all those prayers of past rasuls/nabi's is that they always begin their call to Allah with "My Lord" (=Rabbi) and not with "bismiAllah AlRahmaani AlRaheemi".
"bismiAllah AlRahmaani AlRaheemi" is not used to contact Allah but can only be used to contact others then Allah, see for example the story of Sulayman in chapter (2727-31).
I believe that we have to contact Allah in the language we understand so that we only say things that we understand. And I think a prayer to Allah should begin with "Rabbi" or the equivalent of it in the language we understand.Ofcourse it is also allowed to use Quran verses but only a couple of them as most are not for sallaat. The verses I think you can use in you sallaat are the verses that start with "Rabbi" or "Rabbana". And I think we should express these verses in the way we understand them and not in the language of The Quran if we don't understand it.
Another thing is that verse 17110 is badly translated and most of times understood wrong by most of people. It doesn't say that we should do our sallaat with a voice that is not too loud and also not quite. nope
We can do our sallaat also in our mind yes
If you like I can go deeper into 17110 and why it doesn't say anything about the loudness of our voice.To make a long story short. let me ask you 2 these 2 questions. Do you loose concentration when you do "dua" and do you know what you express when you do your dua?
If you don't know what "dua" means it's what most sunnis do after their prayer.Sorry for the loooooooooooooooooooong answer.
btw. when I was a sunni I did not only loose my concentration after 3 seconds but I also didn't know what I was saying and most of times I didn't even remebered how many rakaats I did )
But now I don't even loose 1 second my concentration and I also know what I am expressing to Allah, and this is because I do my sallaat in the way I understand every single word I express.Salaam,
Benderps. this is ofcourse my personal understanding of sallaat to Allah.
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Magnus, you said that you begin your sallaat to Allah, with ?BismiAllah?. Now the question is What are you actually saying to Allah? Are you saying ?In the name of Allah? to Allah?
That's not really what I said though, and most definitely not what I meant, sorry for being casual with my choice of wording, leading to you misunderstanding me (I usually begin the spoken part of any calling upon my Lord with "Lord" or "Rabbi" or "Herre" or somesuch word, not that this is really here nor there for the sake of the theme of this thread)
My general view of salaat is that it is some kind of re-establishing of contact between me and my Maker. My mostly experimental view is that I need to re-connect because I have lost something, that the connection is corrupted in some way. I find that my awareness of what needs to be kept in mind decays over time. Because of this decay, my understanding of whom the Lord is - and therefore my understanding of what I am saying when I say for example "oh Lord..." - is usually vastly different at the beginning of my attempt at re-establishing contact compared to how I understand the whole concept of God towards the end.For contrast, consider your average internet user exclaiming "OMG!" in a casual, oblivious manner, and compare this to some hypothetical pious person using a similar phrase in calling upon his Creator, his soul trembling from the profound implications of the very concept, if you will.
Now, if I were drunk for some reason I'm highly likely to think and say all kinds of dumb things, because of my confused state of intoxication - therefore I'm forbidden to even try to re-connect to the Lord in such cases, I think.
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...sometimes I wonder... was God's intention that we improvise and make guesses so amply... ???
was His intention of leaving so many things for free interpretation to all?
For instance, I know of a few people who would NEVER ever learn anything about the Qur'an , let alone Salat and some other "traditional" details about Islam if there were no Internet...
Without internet I'd had never myself even approached the things I now know about the Qur'an...
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Peace!
The way I pray after ablutions, I stand and for a while I breathe calmly, focusing myself in the prayer (I can't describe the feeling but there is one). I recite sura al-fatiha (in italian, except the first verse, in arabic. Why? Because I like it, it suits me), then I pray God and words are never the same, I talk with open heart and sheer sincerity. It may last one minute or twenty. Then I bow to God, His creation (glad to be part of it) and the wonderful and everlasting Laws Gos gave us, to which I adhere and submit in peace (small segment but critical what heart accept as part of ourselves, the mind instantly adhere to it as true). Then I kneel and glorify God for what I have and I am, I seek refuge in Him asking to keep temptations, ingrates and hypocrites away from me and the people I love, to increase my knowledge when I study the Quran, beg for forgiveness, and many other things but, again, words are never the same. I prostrate three times reciting the shahada (as the Quran states) at the end.
So I reckon there is a kind of rituality and a high level of freedom in my prayer. What I've never liked are standard prayers words you know by heart but maybe don't represent you or your feelings in a particular moment of your life. Prayer is an act of worship, of course, but an instrument as well, to elevate our spirit to a dimension higher and more universal than earthly life. So let's find ourself a way, according to the Quran, to achieve betterment for ourselves. When we have done so we'll be able to share this contentment with our brothers, sisters and the whole Creation.
Peace! -
Peace Bender!
Yes, please. I would appreciate learning about your thoughts.
Salaam,
Sure, no problem.
17110 Say "Call on God or call on the Almighty; by whichever you call on, to Him are the best names." And do not tajhar in your sallaat nor tukhafit; but seek a path in between.
TAJHAR means something like "visible/open/external/outward/etc."
TUKHAFIT means something like "hidden"Both of them refer to sallaat and not to ones volume or ones expressions in 17110.
So we should not do our sallaat open nor hidden but a path between.please take a look at the next verse to see a clear difference with 17110.
492 O you who believe, do not tarfa3oo SOUND above the SOUND of the prophet, nor shall you tajharoo with a EXPRESSION to him as you would kajahri to each other , lest your works become nullified while you do not perceive.
TARFA3OO means something like raise.
green here you see an example when Allah speaks about ones volume.
blue here you see an example when Allah speaks about open expression.
Please note that the blue part doesn't even speaks about the volume of ones sound to the prophet, but it speaks about ones openness of expressions.Here another example of the use of the word and also a reason why salat with a loud voice is not necessary
207 And if you will tajhar with EXPRESSION, then surely He knows the secret and what is akhfa.So it is totally ok to do your sallaat in your mind or with a loud voice, Allah knows every thing.
I always do my sallaat in my mind with my heart, I don't know enough words to express myself correctly )
And I am sure Allah understands exactly what I mean without speaking a single expression loud.Salaam,
Bender -
Ok I have been wondering and please brothers and sisters help me out because it is been a huge problem to me. Ok I don't know if you guy believe in waswas but whenever I pray I get alot of distracting thoughts. First, I keep getting images on my head about people. It's like the image is telling me to worship them. And I keep getting songs stuck on my head wether it's secular or not (nashed).
Now the images I can handle, since all I have to do is just focus on the words and read of my prayers. Meaning, If I'm going to perform my salah, Im just going to read of the words from my mind. But The song part is realy difficult. I tried not listening to music it failed. I tried to pray louder, it failed. I tried focusing on the words and echoing the words in my head but it still failed. I tried playing a nashed on my head but I heard your not suppose to do that. Now what am i going to do now I feel like im doom PLEAE ANY ADVICE?Maybe its wise to change the way you pray and make it less routinish. Lack of concentration comes because we usually pray in a routine where our mouths and body moves routinely and automatically.
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sorry I know this topic is dead at present but I was hoping to revive it.
Just throwing this out there so be gentle on me.
So we see the verse being s routinised a few pages back which I think bender posted. Saying that the ayat clearly say do not approach salat unless you understand what you express. I agree completely and utterly with this. Then others went to talk about drugs alcohol. That's when I stopped.
Alcohol I agree ( I have been drunk like seriously drunk and also mildly merry many times in my life so I speak with experience) when consumed excessively will not leave you coherent enough to preform the ritualistic salat of today or any type in fact. Agreed.
However there are chemicals and other natural herbs yes I am alluding to cannabis that have medically be open proven to enhance your capacity to concentrate and reach a state of meditation better than in our natural state. I have smoked cannabis before and I have to say I would 100% agree that it definitely gets you into a state of higher thinking and pondering more so than when you are distracted by the hectic daily routines and earthly life.
I am not assuming or saying we should all become happy clapping hippy's but merely pointing this fact out.
So, to continue with the original topic of Salat and this particular verse which says you must not approach the salat in a state of intoxication and if we don't know wheat we express then god definitely wasn't referring to ALL drugs as well as alcohol because clearly as stated above you are in a much more heightened state of mind and able to rationalise and ponder better. ( you see many yogi's smoking this in India these are typically the yogi's that are constantly meditating o in a spiritual state.)
I know I may have to deal with all sorts of responses but the fact remains, so please some use only a logical and fact. THis discussion is necessary as Salat is clearly important for us to do and a commandment and we MUST as a community of free thinkers try to get to the bottom of it. However, I have a feeling our long line of ancestral n cultural n traditional subliminal messaging and blatant conjecture via Hadith Shiism etc etc is so engrained I am thinking its will be hard but only Allah can guide his true believers.
Personally I have given up salat as a "namaz" style ritual Till i personally feel i need to do it or may just not ever, only Allah ( illa) knows and can be sure and can guide but I will keep trying to find the truth with Allahs leave and grace. But i do feel terribly guilty, and I am trying my best to strive and to be righteous and truthful etc and still implore
OXYMORON - we are arguing about and trying to find out about and feeling guilty for not worshipping, "the one who neither is nor ever will be a dirty for worship" - ( I am assuming we all agree the Allah means this?) ( if not please out your arguments forward).
Your thoughts kind people please?
May Allah have mercy on us,
Peace.
Affy