DAILY ISLAMIC REMINDERS.  Yaum Ath-thalaatha, 25th day of Ramadhan. (Tuesday, 26th of April, 2022). LET'S STRIVE TO PERFECT OUR ACTS OF WORSHIP AS THE QUANTITY HAS NO REWARDS WITHOUT KHUSHOO (Steadfastness). BismilLah. 

AlhamdulilLah for granting us the opportunity to be part of these blessed days and nights of Ramadhan. Because these last days are so special, many people make the mistake of just praying rak’ah upon rak’ah, making du’a upon du’a, and reciting more and more Quran, all without any khushoo, without any involvement of the heart, and without focusing on anything they are reciting.

Yes, all of those acts of worship are good and should be done, however, rather than just focusing on how much of those things we are doing, we should reflect on how we are doing them as well.

It is narrated that once the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was in the masjid and saw a man praying. When the man finished, the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam informed him that he had not prayed. This happened multiple times, and when the man inquired about how this could be, the Prophet explained that the man was praying in a way that he was not fulfilling the criteria for each part of the prayer to be accepted. [Bukhari 757].

This teaches us that merely doing the actions in the prayer is not enough, rather there are criteria that must be followed. It’s much better to pray slowly, ensuring to fulfill each criterion rather than praying quickly, finishing many rak’ahs but without properly fulfilling the criteria for any of them.

If we pray too quick or without any concentration just to get a large number of prayers, we are risking our prayers not even being accepted at all because of the increased chance of making major mistakes when praying quickly.

In this way we learn that the quality of our worship is much more important that the quantity of it.

Similarly, when making du’a, try to make sure your heart is present, and that you are not just reading from a du’a list without any kind of spiritual significance.

Rather than making du’a nonchalantly 10 times a day, it might be more beneficial to seek out the times of the day when du’a are more likely accepted, like at the time of breaking the fast and in the last 3rd of the night, and sit at those times and make du’a from your heart even if it’s just once a day.

With all other acts of ibadah we should also keep in mind the quality of our worship, and not focus on just the quantity.

It may be that one person’s 2 rak’ahs are more beloved to Allah than another person’s 10 rak’ahs, because those 2 were prayed with khushoo, and steadiness in each part of the prayer, and reflection on what is being recited.

May ALLAH make us among those who, despite doing a large amount of worship, never falter in the quality of it. Aameen.