The Importance Of Salah For A Shi'a

Do not let go of your Salat, brothers and sisters. Whether you are at the university, pray your Salat, at work, pray your Salat. You are traveling on the plane, pray your Salat. Do not let go of your Salat.

Shaytan sometimes comes to us, especially when we are youthful. When we are youthful, we are strong. We feel that we are invincible. Sometimes he will take us away a little bit. That might happen. When that happens, God forbid, if that happens, God forbid, then still maintain your Aqidah, maintain your Salat. Still do your Salat. Do not let go of your Salat.

That Salat InshaAllah one day will bring you back to the Sirat al-Mustaqim. That Salat will bring you back.

Now, some people tell me Shaykh, but my Salat is really meaningless. I mean, I say Allahu Akbar, bismilla ar... [mumbling]. I do not even remember anything from my Salat. What kind of Salat is this? I say it is okay. It is a start. It is better than nothing. It is a start. The mere fact that you are doing something. Let us say you are studying and the mere fact that you say you know what time of Salat. Salat is going to become qadha, for example. You have delayed it, but you want to pray it. So, you know what? Let me go pray my Salat.

You go, you do your wudhu and you stand facing the qibla and you say Allahu Akbar. That in itself is something that Shaytan hates. Because you remembered Allah. You remembered Allah. So the quality of that Salat is not the greatest, but you need to work to improve it. Improve it, it is okay. Do not say Shaytan will come to you and say, what kind of Salat is this? Forget it. You better might as well not pray at all.

No, that is what he is trying to tell you. You say, no, let me continue, but let me next time I will try to pray a bit sooner, a bit more closer to the time. I will try to concentrate better. So, try to improve the quality of that Salat. But never let go of your Salat. Salat is very important, especially if you can, try to pray it on time. When the time of Salat comes, pray on time.

I had a brother the other day came to me, he said Shaykh, I go to university and I am unable to pray because I am at the university. So, I go back home, I pray Dhuhr and Asr qadha. I said to him it is haram, you cannot do that. And I told them, what is the argument? I told them I studied the university for more than ten years, and I did not miss my Salat because I was at the university.

So what kind of an excuse do you have? What excuse do you have? In fact, I was teaching once a chemistry course, chemistry lab, that was 4 hours long. It started at 12:30, it finished at 4:30, which was exactly the time of Salat. Salat started at 12:30 and by 4:30 in the winter, becomes qadha. I used to go do my wudhu, come teach the students the lab how to do it. Set them up, they get them going and then I will tell them I will be back in five minutes. Just please make sure you do not blow something up here while I am absent, just be careful here.

And I will tell one other student or teacher to please make sure you supervise. I go quickly, do my Dhuhr, come back. Then monitor them, supervise them, teach them, educate them, keep going with them, get them to a stage where they are going, the reactions are cooking, as they say. Then I go back, finish my 'Asr, and I come back.

What excuse do you have not to pray Salat? Pray Salat on time! So always do not let go of your Salat!