Where should your eyes look during prayer?

In our reading and summary of z provisions for the day of reckoning the promised day the day of the great appointment and that these provisions are taken from the from the legacy the ways and the times and the traditions of the prophet muhammad we discussed in our previous session where the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was definitely narrated to have looked or focused his vision on during prayer we mentioned in the standing position there is nothing that is totally authentic and this is why the scholars differ on this though a very strong opinion and it is the opinion of the author that a person look to his place of prostration where where his forehead or her forehead would be in the position of prostration while the person is in the standing position in the bowing position a person's vision should be towards the ground some scholars mentioned towards the place of sujud though it is narrated that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would neither lift his head nor dangle his head during bowing and while a person is in the tashahud position sitting in tashahud then the person's vision should be focused on his or her index finger of the right hand moving it making dua with it as the prophet salallahu wasallam was near ready to have done and the person's focus should be on his or her finger in this position this is what was narrated from the prophet sallallahu alaihi now one of the things that we did not discuss is the issue of where a person rather what we did not discuss is whether or not a person is to close his or her eyes during prayer this is a difference of opinion amongst the scholarship of islam on whether or not it is permissible for a person to close his eyes during prayer this is something that some scholars view as being something which is prohibited it is not permissible at all and they take this ruling and derive it from the statement of ibn abbas the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam's cousin that the jews the people of the book it is of their traits that they close their eyes during prayer now what this means is that the principle the fundamental principle that islam settled upon is that anything that is customary of the people of the book it is either to be done opposite or it is to be done in a modified way and this is something that a lot of people don't understand about the religion of islam and not just the religion of islam but human psychology in general and that is that a person define himself if you are not defined if you do not have a defined presence if the people of the religion do not have defined this is who i am this is who everyone else is the person will become lost and the truth will become diluted and so at the beginning of the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam's messengership the focuses were on commonalities in logic and religion what does that mean that we as human beings can all agree on certain logical points rhetorically in surah were they created by nothing from nothing or were they themselves the creators of themselves or were they the founders and creators of the heavens and the earth so these are logical points that all of humanity can focus on the prophets and messengers when they come to a people they they speak to them on these logical terms to establish a bedrock of agreement we all agree on this now this is what allah commands and this is why we find that when those logical points became diluted even logic itself that it was very difficult to address them with the oneness of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala because logic itself had been tainted by these people and their deviants and so the point here is that at the beginning of islam and it's important that we understand this progression at the beginning of islam allah focuses in the quran on commonalities of logic commonalities of religion meaning that as human beings we can all deduce and agree that one plus one equals two that we are not the creators we were not created by nothing therefore there is a creator is there more than one creator logic would have it that that is not possible for two equal entities to share equal dominion therefore there is one and if there is only one then only he is worthy of worship subhanallah with that right and commonalities in religion such as the people of the book let's go back to the origins of what our prophets and messengers all called to speaking to the christians with what isaben maryam had said and spoken to his people and as well speaking to the people of judaism with that which their most prominent prophet musa moses had said to them right and in general when the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam was a minority of revelation based religion meaning in that sense between the muslims and and the non-muslims of mecca they were more close the muslims were more close and had more in common with the christians and the jews than they did with the pagans of the arabs and so allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala had given a general rule and that is those prophets that have come before you allah has guided them and so by their guidance be guided and so anything that the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam knew to be of the religion of judaism or christianity that was practiced by the people of the book that was not that he did not find in what was revealed to him from allah as something that is prohibited or something that is an innovation he and the muslims adopted these things right and this is was the way until he made hijab near the end of his life when islam became more prominent and time came for the muslims to be defined from every other religion as being the only truth then it became that do the opposite of what the people of the book do in the sense that whatever it is that they do that is not of your religion then you are to do its opposite or if it is definitely something that is of our religion we do it but we do it in a modified fashion what does that mean such as fasting the day of ashura right fasting the tenth day of muharram this is something that the people of the book did and it's something that is good and so the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam did it yet at the end of his life he mentioned that he was he had intended to fast a day along with it so either fasting the 9th and 10th or the 10th and 11th because this modifies the act and distinguishes it from the act of the people of the book this is the progression rough progression that took place with the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and his companions and so this idea that we need to just blend in and this call to the abrahamic religions yes we have commonalities with the people of the book and we embrace those commonalities of the worship of allah alone we do believe in prophets etc however it is very important that muslims retain their identity and this doesn't have to be in the form of hostility it doesn't mean that we are hostile towards jews or christians in that sense what it means is that we are defined we are different we we have different things about us that set us apart from the rest of the lot and this is absolutely necessary in order to maintain the integrity of the muslim community in order that the truth of islam became completely unadulterated and clean and clear and not diluted with anything else and so ibn abbas mentioned that the jews are it is customary for them to close their eyes during prayer hence the companions and and the muslims and muslim scholarship in general agree that one should have his eyes open during prayer they do disagree on the ruling of closing one's eyes during prayer some view it to be something prohibited as we have heard from ibn abbas while others view it to be something which is makru which is disliked right and allah takes a very very good path in this he says and and the reason that he says this is that there's no definitive statement from the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam prohibiting this and obviously this is something that would have come up because this is something that is would be an issue regardless of the era or time and place right we're all human beings should i have my eyes open or closed during prayer this is something that the first companions and the last of the muslims will all have in common and so being that this was not directly addressed by the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam meaning that he explicitly prohibited rather we have that he did sallallahu alaihi and he did always mostly commonly so we can take from this that it is disliked however ibn says yet if a person is unable to focus due to some circumstances let's say they go into a masjid and it's very fancy or let's say there's writing on the floor on the walls or something that is distracting or let's say there's sometimes a person goes to the masjid and you know back during normal times there might be children you know running around or playing in front of you is distracting and so he says if a person is unable to focus during his prayer without closing his eyes then it is permissible otherwise it is something which is discouraged he said and this opinion is the closest of opinions to the general principles of islamic law he says would often pray barefoot meaning without anything on his feet any footwear and on occasion he would pray in his shoes or in his footwear right and there is there are narrations in which he had explicitly commanded that the companions pray in their shoes because the jews of medina at that time did not pray in their shoes they would always religiously take their shoes off and so something that would distinguish the muslim at that time would be to wear his shoes during prayer and so we we understand the pattern here this doesn't mean that all jews during all times everywhere will do this right a person may say well look you know jews in my community they don't pray that right that that is something that may be different with regards to the time and place and these kinds of decisions are reserved for the jurors of islam to be able to take the reality around us and interpret legislation onto that reality either way the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would pray in his shoes and sometimes not pray in his shoes what is the qaeda when would he choose to pray in his shoes and other times not the answer is would not change the state that he was in to pray so for example if he wished to make wudu he would not put socks on to wipe over them if he didn't have socks on that day right and vice versa the same thing here if he had shoes on and it's appropriate he would pray in his shoes if he had shoes off he would not go out of his way to put shoes on than to pray right now some people look to a verse in surah taha in which allah subhanahu wa says to musa take off your shoes because you are in the holy valley of tua which is and so allah in that holy place and he also said later on in the same chapter in the same line of verses and establish prayer for my remembrance and so some people think that this means that every time i go to pray i need to take my shoes off religiously and that is not correct first of all this is something which is specific to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not mention that musa remove his shoes because of prayer he mentioned for musa to remove his shoes because of the place that he was in so for a person to understand that during prayer you need to take your shoes off and understanding that from this verse is a misunderstanding he gave as a reason for removing his shoes the place that he was in not the act that he was going to perform which was prayer that is number one number two it is something that is at the level of which is undeniable and unmistakable that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and his companions would pray in the masjid in their shoes now a person may say well then that means we need to all pray in the masjid in our shoes and of course the way that the massage it customarily are built is that they have carpet and things that it's a it's a it's a very internalized structure if we look at the prophet sallallahu alaihis at his mosque we see that the ceiling would leak we see that there were no doors that would keep out wild animals and so forth we would see that there were no lights right it was muddy and the floor was not furnished it was just rocks and and dirt right and so outside and inside is essentially more or less the same during that time however now we have carpet and if we were to allow people to enter the masjid even under those circumstances with the amount of ignorance that we have in the muslim community we would track in all kinds of garbage and filth into the masjid and then a person would be praying in in filth right so this is an issue of muslim in the time of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam the muslim community was small they were vigilant and they were adhering and dutiful when the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam would say something immediately it would be put into action and so the companions of all the allah if they were told and they were told by the prophet sallallahu alaihi if any of you comes to the masjid this narration is in a sunan if any of you comes to the masjid if he has his shoes on he is to look to the bottoms of his shoes to his souls and if he finds that they're clean and clear then he is to come into the masjid and pray in them and if not then he is to rub them off and clean them off in the dirt and so immediately the companions all.

[Arabic recitation]

And they would be vigilant and they would encourage one another and so if any companion saw any stranger or any person who hadn't heard that come into the masjid they would tell him please check your shoes at the door make sure that they are clean however today unfortunately this unfortunately this is something that is not practiced if if we were to implement that part of the sunnah we would leave off nine nine tenths of the other aspects of the sunnah and though i may digress a bit it is important that we understand the difference that we have to understand the difference between people of knowledge and people of information okay the verses of the quran are considered to be all explicit and clear but only in one place he says is all explicit and crystal clear in the chests of those men who have been given knowledge and understanding right and so the people of knowledge not just people that have facts not just somebody who's been reading for two or three years and he can you know show us a nice show not young people who haven't really experienced much when i mean young i mean very young in this society 15 16 17 right in our society the maturity level is very low so a person may be 20 years old and have the maturity level of an eight or nine year old in the time of the prophet alaihi and so the people of knowledge who have experience wisdom understanding true correct understanding they see the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam as an ecosystem right they see it as an ecosystem what does that mean that means that this ruling in order for it to be completely correctly implemented it relies on four or five other rulings as well they come together if you remove one the rest are no longer performed correctly right and so we have an example of that for example praying in in the masjid with your shoes on right if a person were to if we were to be sure that a person's shoes are clean there's no problem in praying in the masjid with your shoes on some people think that this is blasphemous or sacrilegious that's not the case this is fine absolutely no problem so for example those surgical boots that you know it's you slip it onto your shoes and you come in that's fine there's there's there is no prohibition of a person wearing his or her shoes or footwear in the masjid the reason that we have shoe racks and we tell people to take their shoes off etc is because people are not as vigilant as they were in the time of the prophet salallahu about the message right and so people will come in and just be my shoes are good i'm good i'm fine right and track all kinds of things into the masjid this is something of course which is a greater evil than merely not praying in one's shoes in the masjid so this is something is very important for us to understand that the sunnah a lot of the rulings that were given in medina the sunnah it's a a good way to think about it is a kind of ecosystem right it's a food chain it it all links together in a way that if you remove one or two or three links it becomes deformed and it becomes distorted and you're no longer exactly practicing it as it was and so we see that today in our societies we see that in our muslim communities that some parts of the religion are held to and other parts fall apart and fall away and then what happens a general weakness of the muslim personality of the muslim family of the muslim individual of the muslim nation and this is what we have and this is the reason for that little things along the way are left out it's just sunnah it's not a big deal this little thing here this little change there this little addition here this little subtraction there and over the course of a few generations the religion becomes so distorted that we are back to the days we will not say the days of ignorance because the days of ignorance were abolished by the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and will never come back as long as the quran is on this earth however we will say days of ignorance right and this is what the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam prophesized he said in the narration of islam he said that islam started out as a very strange affair meaning in people's minds and amongst people and it will go back to being strange as it once was would sometimes pray in one garment and other times he would pray in two garments meaning he would wear clothes with redundancy to ensure that his aura his private parts and prayer are covered concealed properly and he would usually wear his clothing with redundancy and so what does that mean well if a person is to pray there are certain parts of the body that need to be covered during that prayer right this is what the fukuha refer to as a person has a person has a very strict aura that no one is to see other than a person's spouse or intimate partner right and that is the private parts and the majority of the scholars say what is between the naval and the knee for both men and women then we have another level of aura which is what a person must be seen in what a person must wear during prayer so a man the bare minimum for a man to wear during prayer is from his navel including his navel include to below his knee and his shoulders right and his shoulders this is the bare minimum now just because something is minimally accepted doesn't mean that it is appropriate i mean obviously if a person came to the masjid you know with with wearing a pants on his navel to his knee and threw a scarf on his neck and came to the masjid while this is permissible it's not haram it's also not appropriate right and that's another distinction that we'll make later and for ladies for women in the opinion of the fukuha of islam all of them all of the scholars the four scholars the four imma hanifa malik all of them agree that the bare minimum for a woman to cover outside of her home meaning where strangers strange men of the opposite sex may see her is that everything must be covered except for her hands and her face right this includes the feet the only time abu hanifa rahimahullah disagreed with the feat is in saleh only only in salah so if a woman is in her house alone in the madhhab of hanifa she doesn't have to cover her feet but this again is a not a very strong opinion and the rest of the scholars of is of the medeb and the other three imams of the form of agree that the feet should be concealed during prayer as well and this is the exact fatwa of that she was asked what should a woman wear during her prayer she said she used to wear a head garment that covers right covers dangles from the head and covers and yes and to wear a dress that will completely cover her body including the tops of her feet this is what her answer was and so the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam in order for prayer to be acceptable in order for it to be valid one of the conditions of prayer is that a person's i would be covered during the prayer and so often times one may be enough but the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would wear two garments for redundancy to ensure that nothing would show right there is a weak narration that mentions that purports that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said may allah have mercy on the women that wear pants this means that they wear pants under their clothing they wear their dresses they wear their and as an additional portion of redundancy to ensure their their their dignity remain intact and that they not show anything that they wear pants as well but that's something that wasn't common in the time of the prophet sallallahu alaihi for men or women the narration is weak but if it were authentic that's what it means it doesn't mean some bab.

[Silence]

Scholars who wish to appease the masses and they interpret the texts and other than what was intended they said no is it permissible for a woman to go out in public wearing pants yeah there's no problem rahim alone this heather had a had a lap film this is playing games with what the prophet salallahu salem intended he never intended that a woman can wear a pair of pants and walk out in public rather what was meant by this narration it's not authentic but if it were that's what it means as a as an action as an act of redundancy not that it's okay for a woman to wear pants outside the point here is that a person must cover these parts of his or her body during prayer for the man the bare minimum is the two shoulders the attack this is the shoulder had the whole in the arabic language what is between the shoulder and the neck this is called the attack right this part this has to be covered during prayer for a man right and so many people don't know this many people say this is strange this is weird any lots of people grow up watching temptilia till islamiy wearing just the pants and you know walking around without anything on his body this is incorrect rather in sahih al-bukhari and now in certain terms the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.

[Silence]

A man is not to pray in a garment which does not cover his shoulders he said sallallahu alaihi wasallam this narration is collected by and so this is the bare minimum for men the bare minimum for women is everything from head to toe except for the hands and the face the hands at the wrist right and the face this this can be uncovered during prayer and in the correct opinion outside in public as well right and the scholars of islam mention that there are eight conditions for a woman's hijab and some of those conditions are shared by muslim men as well and one of those conditions for the validity of a man's prayer aniyakuana that the garment that the man is wearing or the woman is wearing that it is thick enough that it is not transparent meaning that you wear something that is see-through as we say right now what is the meaning of transparent ish mana.

[Silence]

That when a person puts this garment on you cannot see the color of the pigment of their skin that is the minimum amount of thickness right so what does that mean so for example let's say a phobe what we call a though that's white you know it's made out of thick material but if i put a t-shirt on and the t-shirt has a picture or writing on it and i put that over it you can still see it through there right this is considered the laser catheter and so if it is something that you can see the color of the skin this here for example you cannot see the if no matter what the color of my skin is or what i'm wearing underneath you cannot see through it however there are garments t-shirts and light clothing especially the color white that there needs to be redundancy meaning that if you're going to wear this white soap you need to wear one t-shirt under it that will reinforce and become redundant so that the color of the skin does not show this is the bare minimum of a thickness that will not define the color another condition is.

[Silence]

Right meaning that it is thick enough that it is not transparent and that it is baggy enough that it does not define right for example a woman or a man to wear spandex or tights or something this this is basically this has the ruling of not existing in islamic law right it used to be just a woman you know just women in our this society here that would wear this kind of thing be very skinny jeans or very tight clothing right and it would define the body parts this is not considered set of the laser center on her that is does not conceal this beautifies right but now unfortunately the new thing is that guys are doing this as well right so now we have the problem with men as well wearing skinny pencil jeans and you know wearing clothing that is too tight and these pants or these whatever it is is so tight that it defines the shape of the body underneath this is something which is not permissible during prayer as well.

[Silence]

Is was narrated to have made dua this is called is that a person make dua after the bowing after they raised from that final record the final record of the sale so in fajr it would be after the second report in it would be after the fourth report that when he raises up between going to sujud and raising from rukur he would raise his hands and make dua this is called it was narrated authentically that the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam made this dua for one month right and then he stopped making this dua.

[Silence]

This is only employed during some calamity some crisis that has befallen the people and it's not only fragile it's all of the five prayers right in this particular instance is.

[Silence]

And so this dua that he would make he made it for a month after fajr and then he stopped and this continued due to some crisis that may be fall right.

[Silence]

Which his sunnah settled upon was that he would make this dua in the five prayers after the final report only in times of grave circumstances or crises right let's say there is a hurricane coming or tornadoes right or let's say there is a great earthquake that or a tsunami or some kind of terrible thing that happens it's a general thing right it happens to the community of your place at large and it affects everyone this is what is referred to as a nozzle and during these times of crisis it is the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam that the imam lead the people and make dua so the question now arises who makes the decision of whether this is a nozzle or not right because this is used often as well for political reasons just like everything else has been hijacked in islam by certain people and so forth.

[Silence]

So this is something that is to be determined by the people of knowledge of any particular area or place and so based on this we understand that perhaps we would be making dua el canute in chicago and people in wisconsin are now making dual notes because it's something that affects our particular community something happened here locally right so this is something that has to be kept in in mind.

[Silence]

Would not make this type of dua only in fajr rather it's in all of the prayers as we mentioned but he would emphasize his dua during fajr right so maybe they would be and the reason for this is that is the most recognized most likely for a dua to be accepted by allah subhanahu.

[Arabic recitation]

[Silence]

And it has been authentically reported that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said i am merely a human being as you all are human beings and i forget just as you all forget anibal.

[Silence]

Foreign.

[Silence]

My.

[Silence]

And so if i forget something then remind me i am a human being as you all are human i forget as you all forget so if i forget something never mind that's what he says and it was actually a great blessing from allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala that he was made to forget certain things yet he says and that is that it is a blessing from allah that he shares these common human traits with us so that we are able to better follow him and do as he did under these circumstances he says an example of his forgetfulness this is not something that he is a forgetful person it's just that no matter who you are you will eventually forget right it was mentioned that imam ahmad ibn ham as perfected as his memory was in the memorization of the prophet salallahu's narrations.

[Silence]

One of the examples of this is that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was narrated this narration is a muslim that he had forgotten and made tesleem and ended his prayer and it was salatopur at the second recap rather than the fourth so instead of making four rakah he made two made tesleem everybody made to sleem with him some people left other people asked him that we're in the front row did you forget or has a change been made in alteration been made to sha allah next week me.