Continuing in our series of purification of salaah, we all need to realize that it’s not a race to see who can finish first! Inshallah ta’alla take your time, relax, and comfort your soul with the tranquility of being in communication with Allah (سبحانه وتعالى), your Lord and Creator!
Our beloved Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم) used to move at a measured pace throughout his salaah; so much so that he would allow every bone to return to its place after each movement (classified saheeh by Ibn Kuzaymah and al-Hafiz). On top of that, he would command those who were not offering their prayers properly to do this as well: “None of you have prayed properly until he does this.” (Abu Dawood 1⁄536)
In a hadeeth Narrated by Abu Qutaadah (رضي الله عنه), the Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم) said: “The worst type of thief is the one who steals from his prayer by not doing rukoo’ and sujood properly.” (Ahmad and Al-Haakim 1⁄229)
In another hadeeth narrated by Abu ‘Abd-Allah al-Ash’ari (رضي الله عنه), the Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم) said: “The one who does not do rukoo’ properly, and pecks in sujood, is like a starving man who eats only one or two dates; it does not do him any good at all.” (classified hassan; Al-Tabarani 4⁄115)
These are some beneficial points that we should inshallah all try to practice as soon as our next salaah. We don’t want to be up in front of Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) on the Day of Judgement with sooo many prayers, and then we find out that they didn’t count because we didn’t take our time. As the hadeeth states, “…it does not do him ANY good at all”, i.e. meaningless. Can you imagine? All these prayers stacked to the max, and all of them amount to NOTHING on The Day where we need them the most, just because of something as small as not taking our time in salaah and doing our rukoo’ and sujood properly. Scary thought!
May Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) give us all the capability to perform our salaah in the perfect manner taught to us by the best of creations, the saviour of mankind, Muhammad (صلي الله عليه وسلم), ameen!
And remember, you only earn the reward for those parts of your prayer in which you have khushoo! More on that soon, inshallah.