Build your connection with Allah through prayer
“There can be nothing better that we can do for ourselves and for the entire ummah than to rectify our connection with Allah.”
The ummah should respond to suffering by strengthening its relationship with Allah through consistent salah and cultivating the same prayer discipline in its children.
The khutbah in 6 steps
- The ummah should feel and respond to the suffering of any one part, illustrated by Umar ibn al-Khattab and Amr ibn al-As during Medina’s drought.
- Communal crises should prompt believers to rectify their connection with Allah.
- The examples of the prophets and the Prophet Muhammad emphasize salah as the foundation of that connection.
- Umar’s guidance and the Prophet’s final illness demonstrate the importance of preserving salah.
- Listeners are urged to progress from five daily prayers to congregational prayer, sunnah prayers, and arriving early.
- Parents should nurture love of salah in children from age seven through gentle encouragement and example.
In the khateeb's words
“Today we're seeing not one, not two, but hundreds of thousands, mothers who are worrying about their children, children that are being starved to death.”
“There can be no greater, there can be nothing better that we can do for ourselves and for the entire ummah than to rectify our connection with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.”
“So if we're not regular in performing our five times salah from today on, let us make this niyyah that we are going to perform our five times salah.”
“Whatever level of Salah we are at, let us try and take it to the next level.”
For the dinner table
The khateeb reminded us that the ummah is like one body: when some Muslims suffer, the rest of us should care and respond. He shared a story of food being sent to people facing hunger to show how concern can lead to action. He urged us to strengthen our connection with Allah through regular salah and heartfelt dua. Each of us can take a next step in prayer, whether that means establishing our five daily prayers, joining congregation, offering sunnah prayers, or arriving earlier. He also encouraged parents to help children love salah through patient, gentle encouragement and praying together from a young age.
- What is one way our family can help Muslims who are suffering?
- What could help you pause for salah during a busy day?
- What makes praying together feel welcoming and special to you?
The masjid
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