Are you pecking at prayer like a bird?

Oh man, come on. I I wasn't trying to pick on you. You look good. I still believe it looks good. I'll wear one tomorrow. I We'll wear today.

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Alhamdulillah.

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I have a we have arrived at a junction and our reading here in yesterday we discussed the importance of making as early as possible meaning as soon soon as it comes in as soon as it's most immediately feasible. And we also discuss the dangers of failing to make in its time that this is it is incredibly dangerous and considered to be a major sin. It is agreed upon as a major sin for a person to delay a prayer until its time is out without a valid excuse. So we've discussed the importance of making specifically at the earliest time and the dangers of delaying it and the sinfulness of a person who misses any prayer but especially but there's a middle ground there isn't there's a middle place between making it at the very beginning or missing it entirely. There's a middle place there and that is neglecting it until you almost miss it, but technically you didn't miss it. So putting it off as long as possible until just a few minutes before its time is over, a person makes it not because there was any real reason to do that, just out of laziness and a lack of enthusiasm to pray. And especially this goes for any prayer but especially and that middle ground that technical place where technically they didn't miss it but the spirits of the prayer they definitely did miss it. This is what Allah Subhanahu Waaala is referring to when he says. Now we have a narration regarding this exact phenomenon. So this narration is regarding the sinfulness of a person who delays until just before sunset.

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Malik narrates that he heard the messenger of Allah. say, "Behold the prayer of the hypocrite." Behold the prayer of the hypocrite. In one narration, in one wording of this narration, he repeated this twice three times. He says, "Behold the prayer of the hypocrite. He will sit and monitor the sun until the sun is just between the two horns of a shaitan. And then he will stand and peck the ground four times not remembering Allah in those pecs but very little. This narration is in Muslim. So here we have the prophet sallall.aii wasallam capturing the prayer of the hypocrite. The hypocrites they are many different types. There are those who are so hypocritical that they are no longer Muslim. There are those who are people who have elements of hypocrisy, right? And between those two between those two are many many many areas. But hypocrisy is not an illness, a disease that the Muslim ummah will ever be free of ever. Someone will always suffer from the from the ills of hypocrisy. We look at narrations that I think most of us know such as the prophet sallall.aii wasallam's statement the indicator or the sign or the hallmark of the hypocrite are three things and in other wording he says four things. If he promises he breaks his promise. If he speaks he lies. And if he gives his word, he breaks his word. We know this narration, correct? Very well-known narration of the prophet sallall.aii wasallam. And that is that hypocrisy is a weed that grows in the heart. Every every Muslim, everyone, even the companions, this weed will attempt to grow in your heart. And you have to do what? Any any gardeners here amongst us today this morning? If you are planting, gardening, what's the what's the thing that if you fail to do it, your crops will die no matter how much you water them? Failing to weed out the invasive species of weeds that are growing with them. If you don't weed your garden, it will choke out your crops. That's how it works. Hypocrisy is no different. Hypocrisy is the weed that grows in the garden of the believer's heart. The companions were extremely vigilant of this. And so they work day and night diligently to always weed their gardens. Always. Always. And what do we mean by weeding the garden? Most importantly to always analyze, judge yourself and continue to scrutinize yourself and to seek forgiveness as immediately as possible in committing any sin because everyone commits sins. But the difference between the hypocrite and the believer is the hypocrite allows those weeds to grow. This is what happened to the people who were given the book before us. Right? In Allah says,.

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Is the time not arrived for the believers to be serious about the remembrance of Allah and that their hearts truly become soft and focused on the remembrance of Allah? And has the time not arrived that they not be like those who were given the book before them? And much time went by and their hearts became hard. That's what happened. So when a person first receives Islam, it's exciting. It's exhilarating. You want to do everything perfect. You want to learn. Your your your heart is open. But as time goes on, the novelty wears off. You stop weeding the garden. You get a little bit less excited, a little bit less excited. And as time goes on, if you stop studying, if you stop learning, if you stop forcing yourself and training yourself, what's going to happen? Those good deeds that you used to do are going to become much more difficult to do. And there it's going to become more and more steep of an uphill battle. That's where hypocrisy comes from. The weeds are growing in the garden. You haven't weeded it for a long time. And so when a person is suffering from hypocrisy, what are the indicators? Well, the prophet sallall.aii wasallam has dozens of narrations on this subject alone. But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the Quran has hundreds of verses speaking about the hallmarks and the ailments of hypocrisy. And one of those hallmarks is that when they get up and go to pray, they get up begrudgingly, lazily to pray. Right? That is the hallmark of the hypocrite. And so in this narration, the prophet sallall.aii wasallam gives us the hallmark of the hypocrite in his prayer. Listen to the narration. He says this. Behold the prayer of the hypocrite. Behold the prayer of the hypocrite. He will sit idally monitoring the sun. speaking about monitoring the sun. So he is sitting idally. He could pray at any moment but he doesn't have to pray at this moment technically right. So he watches the sun until it arrives between the horns of a shan. This means that it is just above the horizon getting ready to set. Then he will quickly scramble and peck four pecks. a rooster, a chicken eating off the ground, pecking. This is a description, an analogy of his prayer. It's just very, very soulless, spiritless. If it were, if it were an item, it wouldn't even be sold by Walmart, right? worthless. Nobody wants that. The most begrudging prayer. Well, if I have to, if I go to hell, I if if I don't do this, so I guess I'll do it. This is the spirit of hypocrisy. If anyone feels that this description in any way is befitting, then this is a good thing. Why is this a good thing? Because you can change this immediately. How do you change it? Start weeding your garden. Get to work. And just any garden, when you let the weeds grow all over the place and you neglect it for weeks or months or years, you're going to have a hard first couple of weeks weeding that garden out and getting it back to working order. But then eventually things will smooth out. So he says that he will peck four pecs not remembering Allah but very little during these prayers and for this reason the prophet sallall.aii wasallam prohibited a number of things in prayer. He says that a person peck in his sujud and coming up from sujud very quick very that this be how a crow pecks at the ground. This is improper form in sujud which we'll get to all of these inshallah subhanahu waala.

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Wasam.