Sheikh Uthman Hadi - The Power Of Salah | A Journey to the Divine - Ep. 13

Episode Date: March 3, 2026

5 times a day, 1825 a year. Why? Is it a distraction, a chore, a ritual? Is it without feeling, or without love. Why pray if salah is merely standing and speaking words into the air, or is it? Is it a secret power, or connection to one maker? Is prayer meant for this world or for the next?Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sheikh-uthman-hadi--6689369/support.https://sheikhuthmanhadi.beam.lyhttps://open.spotify.com/user/315hadqmwxllibu6ubi5us2cbn2y?si=572b4d8898284e9ehttps://open.spotify.com/show/3MQHfrpjj3XXcqoPbN5Dl8?si=v6YQ42kpSx-VONBFhT3CzA

Bismillah, Rihman, and I'mthulah, Ruhbeli, Ruhbeli, Ruhlih, Rālih, Rālih, and Aishae, and Aishae, my brothers and sisters. I pray that everyone is doing well, and I ask Allah, Sufanao, to feel us our sins of our shortcomings, and granted us your special mercy, not only in this life, but make me in the next. My dear brothers and sisters, al-hambhally-la, I would like to welcome you all back to another episode of this beautiful series. I'm actually very blessed and happy to be here, my dear brothers and sisters, as we are moving on to the second, moving on to finishing up the first half of the month of Ramadan, and then, inshallah, after that, we'll be finishing up the second. Inshallah, my dear brothers and sisters, we ask Allah, to allow for us to gain benefit from these first 15 days and mainly benefit from the last 15, my dear brothers and sisters. I mean, ahmdhah, you know, the last time I did a talk and I had a microphone on a stand. It was actually was my event. It was my very first day. It was quitting bad habits. I had it on there.

And you know, ahandulah, this time I think as being prepared, we were prepared for this time, this encounter with the microphone rather than the last time. Last time it fell on me, you know, I had to readjust it and retighten it. You know, alhambulah. But this time we actually have it. It's ready. It's ready. Nice and ready for me. So I can go ahead and speak. So Hamdilah, we're going to get started, my brothers and sisters. Hamdilah, when I was writing this talk, I was thinking in my head, wow. and a hamdala you never think about the how merciful allah sae pan a hoota'a is i don't want to get too far off of the topic of salaah but when it comes to the mercy of allah saffana hoa ta'a'all praying your prayers is double rewarded by allah right and only allah saanahua aotea knows the true amount

of reward because we can make numbers and go off of hadith but only allah saffana huaataa gives the amount of reward he wants and he knows the amount of rewards but just imagine praying in a year. Do any of you guys know how many times we pray in a year? You know, let's actually, let's actually boil that down a little bit. Do you know how many times we pray in a day? Five, five, al-h-a-h-a-h-a-a-a-so five. We pray five times a day. A year, if you do your calculations, if you do your math, you pray approximately 1,825 times a year. This is a commitment, my dear brothers and sisters, that we have to make as Muslims. We have to make as true, sincere.

your commitment, not to ourselves, but to Allah, supanahua-ta-a-ta-la. Us praying prayers, if we pray them every single day, and I'm specifically speaking for the men here, because for the women, you're not able to pray those many prayers. I didn't calculate that. I apologize that. I don't mean to insult any women. I was thinking about everyone here in this talk. I wasn't just thinking about the men, but I don't know precisely how many prayers you get a

a chance to pray. But my dear brothers and sisters, I want you to think of it on this level. when you are praying your sala what is it that you are thinking about in that moment what is going through your head because some people say oh it's you know I'm thinking about my prayer and I'm thinking about you know what happens if I don't pray my prayer right

I'm thinking about you know the business transaction I have to get done done I'm thinking about what I have to do for work today I'm thinking about all the other things things of this dunya one of the things my brothers and sisters about prayer is it is a time to reconnect with our creator It's time to reconnect with Allah Allah sufana-ahua-Talha. And Allah-Supana-Hu-T-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A is among all kings

and I don't want to try to level the two kings together. But a king of this world is way lower, beyond levels. It's not even comprehensible to the level that Allah-Supana-Hu-Talda is at. I want you to imagine the fact that if you have a king, if you come before this king and you are talking to this king in a direct connection,

And you cannot just, you're speaking to this king, right? I'm not going to say you're not, but you're speaking to this king directly. And you start thinking about other things. You start drifting off. You start remembering other things. You start doing, yeah, that would be great to have today for lunch. You know, since we're fasting when I, you know, sorry, since we were fasting earlier, it's the month of Ramadan.

We're not talking too much about food. But I said, al-Hand-a-oh, we already broke our fast. So, but still, you're thinking about food. Oh, this would be good. That would be good. Hamid-Dah, oh, man, I wanted this, you know, that would be great. And when you come to. you miss the conversation you come back to you you missed another portion of that well i want you to

think on the case of allah sufana hua ta a if you had to stand before allah do you think that you could actually sit here and focus and yes i am focused on allah supanahua ta'a alone just like we devote our attention to so many other things when people are cooking when people are writing when people are working they're not devoted to 55 other things they're only devoted to one thing Allah. We're devoted to more than 157 things at the time. And I'm making a joke here because it's not possible for us to be devoted to

that much. But we are thinking about a lot of different things, which is why my dear brothers and sisters, one of the key parts of sala is remembrance of Allah, which is why Allah, Sufana, He says in the Quran, in the Quran, bismillah, Rihamani. He says, He says,

He is Allah Allah, Allah, Ina, Ina, and I'm Salat dekri. He says,

indeed I am Allah. Worship me, believe in me, pray, do things, right? And after that,

he says, Salatali thikri. What does Salatili dh me mean? I know a lot of you know Salah,

Zikr. Okay, let's give those two parts in mind. Salah and Dikr. Sala,

remember it. Allah, It says and establish the Salaf of my remembrance. Rembrance of what? To remember Allah. Because throughout our days, my de brothers and sisters, our lives are in chaos. We're thinking about so many other things. We're going through this path and that path and doing this and doing that.

And we actually have an opportunity to have a dialogue and engage in a direct dialogue and direct line of connection with Allah, Safanahua. Which is why it also reminds me of, for example, when you go and you go to worship Allah, don't go to Allah doing 55 other things and then decide, okay, let me put it out with Allah Allah's like work. And then you go. Right? When you're about to start work, what do you do?

You prep. Don't you? You prep. You prep for work. Nobody just goes to work. Nobody just jumps out the bed, toss something clothes and goes to work, right? Because if you haven't showered, if you haven't used the bathroom, if you haven't done anything, right? You haven't even got anything to eat. You just go

and toss something, all right, and then that's it. Not only have you not taken the shower. Not only did you not, you know, use the bathroom and relieve yourself, and then not only did you not brush your teeth, because that's also very important for us. I don't want to relate too much to Allah, Sufana, hoi, ta a in the worldly sense, because Allah sufana hootala is unrelatable. But I do want you to think, my dear brothers and sisters, imagine that. Imagine the call to prayer is made. It's time for you to wake up, you wake up, you just throw on your thaw over your abaya, and then you go allah, Akbar. You didn't make wudu, you didn't purify yourself.

You didn't clean yourself before. You go worship Allah. This is a direct meeting in connection with Allah. And like I said before, if you're meeting a king, a worldly king, you're not going to go before that king with stinky breath. You're not going to go before that king with ripped clothes, with terrible clothes, with clothes that have holes in them, and they have different things on them dirt spots and marks. You're not going to do that.

You're going to clarify yourself. You're going to clean yourself so that you can meet with them in your best state. This is the same way we should meet with Allah, subhanna, to Allah, my dear brothers and sisters. And when it comes to our sala, it is a means of strength and peace, for us. It is in times of distress, in times of hardness, in times of hardship,

that we are provided comfort and clarity. We are bowing in humility, in prostration. We are prostrating in submission to Allah, Sufana and Heiata. We are acknowledging our dependence on Allah, which is why in the authentic hadith of Prophet of Allah al-Aleu-Salam said that the closest the servant comes to his Lord is when he is prostrating.

My dear brothers and sisters, Sala is not merely just acts of ibadah. It's not merely just a ritual that you perform every single day. It's not. Every single prayer should actually be a getting better at that prayer. It's not actually a sentence, but

it's trying to be every single prayer. Every time you have the opportunity to pray, get better at it. Right? We have prayed all five of our prayers today. Al-h-h-h-a-h-law. And for those who have it, inshallah, try to pray those prayers, whether that be, you know, it may be difficult for you to pray them now, or

you just haven't prayed them yet. I try to pray those prayers if you haven't. And I ask Allah, Sufano-Hu-Tal to make it easy upon us all. I mean, forgive us all. My brothers and sisters. Praying five of your prayers a day. Fajar, Duhr, Asar, Magr, and Isha. These five prayers each day are supposed to be a renewal of our imam.

They're supposed to be a renewal of our intention. Supposed to be a renewal of our relationship with Allah, subhpana-ho-ta-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a- Imagine meeting a friend five times a day, and if not more sometimes, especially during the matto-ramana-ramadan. If you wake up a friend. and you pray it's a hundred that's one time if you go and you pray uh your sunnas all the day of you know the whole day that right there is multiple other occasions that you prayed and you worshiped allah and you had another dialogue with allah do not think of your prayer as a ritual do not think of

your prayer as a chore do not think of your prayer as another responsibility that needs to be handled and gotten out of the way so you can get back to the dunya the temporary dunya the temporary pleasures of the dunya that are going to sleep which is why my brothers and sisters, it brings me to another point I want to mention. How do we ensure that our prayers are filled with feeling and love and meaning? And it begins with our Nia. We spoke about this a lot lately. We've been speaking about Nia intention.

And each time we prepare for Sala, we should remind ourselves for its purpose and the significance of it. The purpose is only for Allah and the significance is going to help better my relationship with not only Allah, Supanahua, Tala, or sorry, with Allah, and not only just that, but it's also going to help me reconnect back to Allah, back to his book,

make more dua, perform vicar, because one of the best parts of sala is it encompasses all acts of ibada. It encompasses all acts of ibada. And if you truly want to gain closeness to Allah, my dear brothers and sisters, ensure that you're approaching sala

with a heart full of gratitude and a mind focus on the words you're, you know, reciting, reflecting upon its meanings, and its verses, the supplications allowing them to resonate with you and also, my dear brothers and sisters, if you want to have a true, beautiful prayer,

ensure that you have a class in your prayer. You have sincerity. If you go to meet with someone special, without any intention, without any sincerity, you're just doing it, if you meet this person like any other person, or meet this king like any other person, then what will be the point of you even going there in the first place?

And Allah's upon a whole hotel I granted us five first today. How many did he grant other people? Only Allah knows. Some people only God one. Some people got two. Some people got four. Some people didn't even get one.

They got none. So us, my dear brothers and sisters, express our gratitude, not just for the blessings we have, but for the things that we have been granted, that we actually have the opportunity to worship Allah, Supperu'u'u'etala.

And do not forget, my dear brothers and sisters, that Sala is not a ritual. It is not a chore. It is not a responsibility. It is not a burden upon us. but rather it is a powerful connection to our Creator and it is a source of strength, guidance, and peace in this world and a means of securing our place in the hereafter. By your brothers and sisters, as we continue throughout the Mat of Ramadan, cherish the gift

of prayer, cherish it, and approach our prayers with love, with intention and mindfulness of Allah. And do not forget, don't just jump out of the bed, don't just wear your worst looking clothes and your worst smelling clothes, and then go expect to have a great meeting with you. with Allah, but rather, my dear brothers and sisters, go to Allah, full-hearted, mindful of him, purified, ready for him. And, inshallah, soon enough, my dear brothers and sisters,

I don't want to give too much away. But in the upcoming months, inshallah, we'll have a series just about prayer, inshallah, soon. But your brothers and sisters, we ask Allah Sufānahu, to accept our purse from us to grant the ability to see tomorrow and pray again for his sake and to better ourselves each and every prayer and to better our relationship with him.

My brothers and sisters, Zazakum al-Qa-Qa-Qa-haired for coming out here again. I pray that everyone has benefited, not only just all of you, but also myself and all of you at home as well. I pray that Allah, so-fana-ho-ta-a-da, grants us the ability to use prayer as a means of strength,

as guidance, and peace in our lives. And we ask Allah, Sufana-hu-ta-a-ha-ha-a-ha-ha to figure as far as sins of our shortcomings and grants his special mercy not only in this life but meaning the next. And the next. and I'm all right of all right. Thank you for your

brothers and sisters and for coming with your brothers and sisters. And al-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-lhae and a lot of you, kutvaheim, as thea-kmae from before you

before you, that you'd t'-tacko.