Why Night Prayer Aligns Your Heart?

Alhamdulillah.

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Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala continues in chapter number 73 verses number five through 8 he says subhanahu wa ta'ala indeed we are going to send down upon you a very lofty and heavy speech and word indeed the rising of the night meaning rising in prayer at night is the most likely time for the heart and the tongue to be in accordance with one another and to be aligned. That is that when the tongue speaks the heart is conscious of everything that the person is reading. He says also in the daytime you have many errands to tend to and going to and fro which is a distraction for a person's heart and mention the name of your Lord and remember and recite the name of your Lord and cut yourself off to him. This is all of course a description of prayer at night. This is all expounding upon the statement of Allah stand in prayer during the nighttime. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala commanded the prophet sallall.aii wasallam to stand in prayer at night and he gives the many reasons why the nighttime is more favorable for prayer additional prayer than the daytime. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says to him, "Stand in prayer for the duration of the night. Save a little except a portion, half of it or a little less than half or a little more than half and recite the Quran at a pace. Indeed, we are going to send down upon you a very lofty and grave and heavy word. So this is in preparation for what the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam is to receive of revelation and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says indeed we are going to send down upon you a heavy word heavy in the literal sense and also heavy in the metaphorical sense it is heavy in the literal sense as we mentioned yesterday and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam went through great pains and it strained him immensely when he received revelation of the Quran. The prophet sallallah.aii wasallam was once asked as narrates how does revelation come to you. He said,.

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He said, "Sometimes I hear an undeniable metallic banging that fills my ears a kind of ringing and it is the most difficult type of re of revelation to me. And once it is concluded, I am then able to receive and made to memorize everything that the messenger that the angel recites to me meaning Gabriel. This is often how he would receive revelation. It doesn't mean that it was a ringing that was that had a rhythm to it. It's for instance if you imagine with me when your ears start to ring whether it is that you hit your head or you hear a very very loud sound and then the after effect is that ringing in your ears that you get let's say after a gunshot or after a very loud bang you would hear this intense ringing That is the kind of ringing that he would hear in his ears saiam that would drown out all other noises around him. And it would be of course more intense than what we would experience of our ears ringing. And once that alleviates the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam now has all of his attention focused to what the angel recites to him. And this is important because when he is going about throughout his day, he's got his own thoughts. He's got his own ideas that he's sifting through. He may be having a conversation. He may be contemplating something. And suddenly when he hears this ringing, it drowns everything else out. And all he can hear is this ringing, this metallic ringing. And that is for him to cut off all attention to everything else and become hyperfocused that revelation is about to come. And then when the angel would recite to him whatever it is, he would his heart was a kind of receptacle that would receive all of this. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told him when you are receiving this revelation, don't even move your lips. If I were to say something to you, I say this is very important. I need you to memorize this word for word and I start saying something to you. Most likely if you are really putting in an effort to memorize, you will kind of try to read with me and follow along with your tongue and recite along with me. You will try to kind of anticipate what I'm going to say. However, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said to him, "Don't be hasty with the reception of the Quran. When you receive it, don't even move your lips or tongue in haste." What does this tell us about the edip of the etiquette of learning? The etiquette of learning is that one of the great enemies of learning revelation is haste. It's haste that a person is hasty. Person's in a hurry. And this happens when a person is very excited about learning something. They want to get right to it. Right? You'll see this with even physical tasks. Many of us here have children, older children. When they learn how to drive, right? You're talking to them. You're telling them, "You got to do this, you got to do that, don't do this, don't do that." They're ignoring all of that. For the most part, they're ready to just jump in and start touching and moving and let's go right now. Right? This is an impediment to knowledge. Same thing with archery. People don't want to hear about the technicalities. They want to get right to it. I want to see arrows go down range or shooting or marksmanship. This is one of the big impediments of people learning proper form in marksmanship. Why? Because they're they're hasty. They're they want to touch it and and go with it. So the prophet sallall.aii wasallam is taught that that haste is an enemy to your learning. Do not even move your tongue when you are first hearing the recitation and revelation of the new verses. Just listen. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then said,.

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Meaning upon us is to guarantee that your heart will receive it and not mistake it. And when you go to convey it to your companions, it will be correct. Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala said.

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He said indeed we Allah referring to himself with the royal we we are going to teach you and you are going to remember and not forget. Do not worry about that. And so he would hear this metallic ringing in his ears. Once that is over, the angel would come and recite to him and he would have collected every ounce of his heart and strength to receive the revelation. The prophet sallall.aii Wasam said," he said, "And sometimes the angel will take the form of a man, and he will come to me and speak with the words, with the revelation, and I will be made to remember what he recites upon me. foram.

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He said, Aisha said, "And I have witnessed myself that on certain days when it is bitter cold outside, he would receive revelation and after this process of revelation alleviates, I would see his forehead absolutely pouring with sweat sai." And this is why the companions, his close companions, are all the companions the same. What' you say? Tell me. They're not all the same. Not all the companions are the same. Just any hierarchy around any man of knowledge or power, it they're not all the same. There are those who are the close circle. There are those who are an outer circle. There are those who are the general masses. There are those who are you know have particular functions. Not all of them had the same exact access to the prophet sallall.aii wasallam and the same exact and the same exact relationship with him. He had certain companions which he was very close with, other companions which he was very which he was very polite with and more the the relationship is less deep and more shallow. But this doesn't mean that any of them would receive a different message. No, they'd receive the same message. It's just who gets the details. Who gets the details? The closer. They get the details. They get the secrets. They get the hikma. And there are some of the companions that only see him on Juma. And there are some that are companions that only saw him once in their entire life. And there are other companions that knew him for decades before he was even a prophet. Sallallah.aii wasallam. The companions are different. The close companions to him, they knew what was expected of them when he would receive revelation. When he would receive revelation, there was no speaking to him. There was no interacting with him. He was completely absorbed in what he was doing. And so if he would receive revelation suddenly, they would if he was laying down, they would usually cover him up and cover his face up and his head up with some blanket or some piece of clothing, right? Why Why would they cover him up? First of all, so that he wouldn't be disturbed. Second of all, it would appear to someone from the outer circle that he is asleep. But third of all, so that the effects of revelation that he endures are not mistaken by the ignorant. Are not mistaken by the ignorant. Remember the Arabs were very superstitious people. If they came to him and found that he was to them seemingly incoherent and in a state and seemed to be dazed and sweating profusely in a cold day, they would mistake this for what? Mistake it for insanity. Mistake it for possession from a demon. Mistake it for all kinds of things. So the companions that were his closest Abu Bakr Abu very later the Malik his servants right they would be close to him these companions that we all know All of these companions that were his very close-knit circle, they would protect his image and protect him from the ignorance and prying eyes. And so receiving revelation was not easy for him. It was a very difficult very difficult process that he went through. So when Allah tells us that indeed we are going to send down upon you a heavy word. heavy here is literal or metaphorical. Huh? Literal. Literal or metaphorical? Both. If you say literal, you are wrong. If you're metaphorical, you're wrong. Or we could say, if you say literal, you're right. If you say metaphorical, you're right. It is both. Because as we said yesterday that theul or the hermen her hermeneutics of understanding the Quran okay theul the hermeneutics of understanding Quran the functions of understanding Quran the principles is that the default in understanding the Quran and sunnah is that it is literal. Everything is literal unless the exception is metaphorical. However, anytime we are able to take the literal and metaphorical together, then that is what the verse intends because literal and metaphorical they are not mutually exclusive necessarily. You guys know about puns? A pun, huh? let's say for instance, I say to you, shoot. What's shoot mean? Shoot means go ahead and start. Right now, let's say I'm teaching you how to shoot a gun. I say shoot. What does that mean? Literally begin and metaphorically begin. Correct? That's what we call a pun, right? And so when a literal and metaphorical align themselves and both are applicable, both are intended in the Quran. Because when we exclude one of the two, we are excluding meaning. We're excluding knowledge. And you cannot exclude knowledge from the Quran's words or from the Sunnah's words without what? without evidence. So it's very important that anytime we can take the literal and the metaphorical together, that's what's intended. Literal meaning of metaphorical meaning.

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Quran. Adamaz.

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So for instance when we say is one of right is there only one sword of Allah there's more there's a number of companions three of them that were referred to as the sword of Allah right is one of them is this literal or metaphorical metaphor toal. It means that he was, you know, Allah's weapon against his enemies. It can't be literal because if it were literal, he would have to be what? He would have to be comprised of steel and iron and wood and stuff that. And he was a human being, right? It was the lion of Allah. Literal or metaphorical? Metaphorical. Because if it was literal, this what a lion literally is is you knowis right. Now there are instances where literal and metaphorical both align and that is always the best. We want to take both of them as is the case with the names and attributes of Allah subhanaa as is the case with the descriptions of paradise the descriptions of the hellfire. These are all literal and carry in many instances a metaphorical meaning as well. So for instance, Allah subhanahu.

[Arabic recitation]

Allah's hands are fully extended. Fully extended in what? In generosity. Hand here is generosity. Just I say to you, give me a hand. What is give me a hand. Cut your hand off and give it to me. No. What's meant is help me. Even if you're not going to use your hands to do it. Correct. However, with respect to the attributes and names of Allah, both are acceptable. Imagine with me and we'll end with this. Imagine if someone did not have hands. If someone did not have hands, you know, they they had a a disability, they are they have no hands. Would it be appropriate for me to say give me a hand to them? I mean it in the metaphorical sense. Say give me a hand. What about if someone didn't have couldn't speak? They were mute. Would it be appropriate for me to say, "He's a man of few words. He doesn't talk very much." Would that be appropriate? What if someone couldn't couldn't walk? Would it be appropriate for me to say, "I want you to run to the store for me." Huh? Are these things appropriate? These are only appropriate when the literal aligns itself with the metaphorical. If the literal is exempt, this becomes what? This becomes sarcasm. And sarcasm is a rhetorical contraption, but it is not appropriate in the vein of praise. and subhanahu.