Why Salah Stands Apart Among Islamic Duties
The Critical Position of Salah in Islam and the Five Pillars
Summary
Sh. Ali Mashhour continues teaching from a fiqh book focused on Salah (prayer), explaining why the author takes a detour to discuss the importance of Salah in Islam before covering rulings. Sh. Ali Mashhour discusses the five pillars of Islam as defined by the Prophet Muhammad, using an analogy to explain how Islam is defined by its most prominent external features and individual obligations. He emphasizes that Salah is arguably the most critical pillar of Islam after the Shahada, as it is the only act of worship where scholars differ on whether someone who completely abandons it can still be considered Muslim.
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No.
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Alhamdulillah. Continuing.
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In the book of Salah. Now that we've began or now that we've begun the book of Salah, the author is going to take a slight detour. The reason for this is that this book is geared towards the general masses of the Muslim. It's not a pure textbook. A pure textbook form of the fukah is usually very cut and dry. It's very interesting to people who are advanced and it is very complex, complicated and uninteresting to someone who is a beginner. All right, this book is geared towards the general masses. That's why its name is Elwis, right? the the the concise the concise the summary of Phil and this is why only the most major issues are mentioned there's a lot of peripheral issues that are not mentioned that even I had to add and the issues are not presented as more than one opinion or more than one possibility is just mentions the ruling and it's most obvious evidence ends and it moves on. Because of this, the author is going to take us on a bit of a detour is a very important detour. And that is he's going to discuss what is usually not found in the books of usually this is reserved for books on books geared more towards geared more towards admonishment or geared more towards contemplation or meditation. Right? more so than books geared towards. And so he is going to discuss now the importance of salah in Islam. This is not something that's usually discussed in books of it's not his place. Right? And then he's going to discuss the ruling of a person who abandons salah. Someone who does not pray at all. and someone who prays cons consistently. And then we're going to add a third which is someone who prays consistently but misses prayers. What is the ruling on each of these three? The author says the position of salah in Islam. What what position does Salah hold in Islam? He says,.
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Ramadan. He says on the authority of Abdah Abdahbar, may Allah be pleased with him and his father who narrates that the messenger of Allah sallall.aii Wasallam said Islam has been built upon five pillars.
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Islam. Islam has been built upon five foundations, fundamentals, five pillars. All of these are correct and all of them have been narrated with those different words. Islam has been built upon five pillars. the testimony that none is rightfully worshiped but Allah and that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah and the establishment of prayer and the giving of zaka the hajj the pilgrimage to the house the house meaning the house of Allah and Mecca and fasting the month of Ramadan. So these are the five pillars of Islam. We've all heard of these, correct? what does this mean? The prophet sallall.aii wasallam was asked to define Islam. Define it. It's if you could imagine yourself right now, someone told you, tell me what is the mosque, the MCCT mosque, right? You could define that in a couple of ways. This building that we're in right now, we could define it in a couple of ways. We could define it by the people that go there. We could define it by its exact definition in city hall or its exact name in city hall with its address and coordinates. Or we could define it by its most prominent features. Right? Someone says, "Tell me about the mosque in the MCCT mosque." And I said, "Well, it's, you know, it's got a gold dome. It looks this. It's about this size. It is located at the following place. I have defined it for you, but I've defined it by its outward appearance. Or I could define it by its location. Or I could define it by the people that go there. I could say it's the masid that so and so goes to or the masid that so and so is the imam there or the masid that so and so is built. for instance. This is all correct definitions, right? And that's how things are defined in the Quran. Usually, they're either defined by the by the by the path or defined by the people that are on the path or defined by the parameters of the path. Here Islam is defined by its most prominent rights. From the outside looking in, who is a Muslim? A Muslim is the one who has these five pillars. The testimony that none is rightfully worshiped but Allah. That Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. The establishment of prayer. The giving of zaka. making Hajj and fasting Ramadan. Notice that every one of these pillars is what is referred to as meaning it's an individual obligation. It's an obligation on individuals and communities contrary to other major pillars of Islam jihad for instance or a or like you know slaughtering etc. These are all major rights of Islam. However, they are obligated upon a community as a whole not individuals. As far as each individual person is concerned, these are the five pillars of Islam. So we see that the huge position that salah occupies is that it has been made a pillar of Islam. And this means that if a person does not have this pillar, they fail to fulfill this pillar that their Islam is at best highly deficient, not ready for not ready for presentation to Allah. And at worst, a person's Islam could even be invalid. if the first pillar was compromised, if that is compromised, it entirely compromises a person's religion. Their entire Islam is compromised. And so salah is a huge major right of Islam. And it is arguably the most major right of Islam after a shahad. And as we'll hear in the in the following days, inshallah, this is the only act of worship. This is the only act of worship that the scholars differ on whether a person can still be Muslim if they have completely abandoned salah. Every other act of worship, it's a difference. It's the majority of the scholars or all of the scholars agree that this person is still a Muslim. However, their Islam is highly deficient except for salah. Salah as the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam has mentioned a person who does not pray at all. This compromises a person's Islam to the core to the point that it is a difference of opinion on whether this person can either still be a Muslim or not. And we will discuss that of course in greater detail. But this shows the incredible position that Salah has. And if salah has that position, imagine how critical it is to make sure that it's right, to make sure that we do it correctly. There is nothing more important for us to learn to make sure is perfect than salah.
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I think I'm.