Peace All
Many will have us follow a logic today which is based on a form of intellectualism that suggests simplicity or ease should be the focus of a believer in order to meet the minimum requirements without penalty. I am here to contest this view, based on personal experience, and shall present a counter logic to this line of argumentation.
First let’s look at the argument being presented by the voice of intellectualism … It suggests that since our association is with Qur’an and the Sunnah, the most important act being to enjoin a Fard/Wajib and/or abstain from Haram, then when these have been perfected to worry about enjoining the Mustahab/Mandoob and/or abstaining from Makruh, then when these have been perfected then to worry about the enjoining of Nafila and not dwelling or wasting time in Muba (neutral) acts.
At first glance and verily according to my own practice I was doing just this. The argument follows and is given weight by the idea that “Islam is easy and we should make Islam easy for others” …
This is where I would like to usher in my first contention. Making it easy for others does not mean making Islam overly simplistic and at the same time it does not mean we adopt short cuts - for sure taking short cuts is the path to failure.
There came a point in time when I was praying only the Fard prayer … in the back of my mind being the notion that “I had other things to do” and that “I was doing my obligation” I was justifying it to myself. In time prayers were often delayed and combined and then missed altogether. It started to dawn on me that the simplistic approach is the road to laziness and was being presented as a way for me to push aside Islam in favour of worldy things.
Often people are criticised for filling up masajid on events such as celebrations, but the same level of attendance is not there with prayer. It is also true that Shaitaan makes us favour doing sin, if not then the lesser of two good deeds.
However I soon learnt that if I start to shun people for attending the only time when it is “easy” for them to come to the masjid - i.e. when a celebration is on then people neither come for prayer nor for those lesser events. !!! In effect I contributed to turning people away from the masajid … they became fixated to attend the prayers, they couldn’t do it and they didn’t go to other events either. What a sad situation this was becoming.
**I’m sure many will identify with me that being consistent in prayer is a difficult thing and often people wonder and wish how to become regular in it, but simply don’t know how … Please read on and try this other approach out and see if it helps …
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My first understanding can be described as “crystalisation of habits” - Just as a crystal forms from a seed wherever it is found in the development media likewise a good habit grows from a seed that can be well anchored. This way for example if a person finds it easy to entertain guests then to continue doing this - but then to associate prayer with this habit, by calling over people who pray. When functions in the masjid take place encourage this so people can get “air” of the masjid and it no longer seems like an alien place for them to be spending time …
So my postulate is that we should not tell people to leave other things and focus on the fard prayer, but we should encourage people in what they find easy to do within Islam hoping they develop that in to a means to pray or be in the environment of prayer.
My second understanding is that of a “gymnasium” - When we go the gym as newbies we don’t hit the big weights straight away. We build up to a level to be able to handle that and we perfect the technique on lighter weights in order to lift the true load. Since Shaitan works harder to make us miss our obligations then know and realise the heavy weights of our faith are our obligations.
If we have not had the right training to maximise on the benefits of prayer then we will effectively burn out our muscles (spiritual) and stop praying altogether.
Now people will often say that missing prayer is worse than drinking alcohol, which is true, but then it does not mean we pray whilst drinking, because the drinking will be a pathway to missing prayer and in the state of drunkeness prayer if forbidden anyway, so even if prayed it will be void.
Now the nufs is not broken by making things easy for it … just imagine a child is being naughty and then instead of punishing the child with timeout, you instead cuddle the child and give it more cake - others will see this as spoiling the child. Likewise the nufs is our child within … If we feed it … it will become spoilt; to tame it we need to deprive it. Now the nufs tells us that we are tired and don’t want to pray and to quicken our prayer and Shaitan brings about in our minds thoughts of the world during prayer. Instead of entertaining these thoughts - we should present our argument to the nufs and this is how that argument should be presented.
Since you have caused me to become distracted I am going to prolong my prayer, since you are trying to make me feel tired or bored I am going to remind myself that I am standing before my Lord. Then convince yourself through the faculty of imagination that you can see Him, or behave as though you would if you could see Him. Feel Him. Instead of just praying fard - pray all the Sunnah and Nafila until your prayer is complete. Only shorten the prayer when you feel that the prayer itself is no longer acting as a hurdle to overcome or no longer making you feel tired. This is when the nufs has been tamed.
This method ensures that not only is prayer enjoined, but when the nufs is weak the extra sunnahs and nafila make up for the faults in the Fard, and it is a method of improvement not of basic minimum requirements.
Logically if we focus on the minimum requirements then to faulter slightly is a big problem - but if we focus on the extended requirements then if we faulter then we are still safe within the league - do not play ball on the relegation line. !!!
Teach yourselves about Islam from lots of angles - such as Arabic grammar, Fiqh, Memorisation and Tilawat (Fard al Ayn) these are necessary to develop an understanding of prayer … develop love for Allah (SWT) and Muhammad (SAW) through the Sira and reflection, meditation and other forms of dhikr to enhance the emotional connection of prayer. When prayer become loved by the Muslim then there is no way he/she will turn away from it and hence this is what it means to make Islam easy …
Making Islam easy is to guide people to the best way to building a sustainable relationship with their Lord, it does not mean giving them less and less to do … The only hard work required in this approach is to grow gradually and always “take yourself to account” - punish yourself with more ibadah and follow it through and then the power of the nufs will be destroyed inshaAllah.
I’m not saying this is what I have done, but I am doing this and it is working far more effectively than any other way I have experienced … Please take good companions who remember Allah (SWT) and remember me in your du’as … 