Understanding the vocabulary of salah

Day 3: Sunday
We did opening supplication

Isthiadah

Basmala

Fatiha

Ruku

Getting up from ruku

Sujood

Between sujood

Now we are going to talk about the SITTING portion of prayer
4.01 SITTING

Testimony of Faith

The FIRST thing I want to say is

The sitting portion of the prayer might just be some of the most POWERFUL things we can recite in our prayer. The tashahud is the most interesting thing we study in this class

Each word has so many lessons embed within it

The sitting portion of the prayer is the CLIMAX of the prayer!!

Surah Fatiha lays down the core

We recite part of the Quran

Sujood and sajdah requires humbleness and humility

We acknowledge Allah has stability, and that He is the highest

We praise and glorify Allah in and between sujood, asking for His forgiveness and mercy
The sitting portion is the Climax, THIS IS WHERE YOU CASH IN

You did worship NOW you ask for what you need

NOW you make your final appeal
You did all this work, all this effort

NOW we beg, we will plead, and we will ask Allah

The SECOND thing we need to talk about before we get into this
There are 3 places where there is a difference of opinion

The first place was the opening supplication

This is SECOND place where there is difference of opinion
The THIRD point about tashahud is

Opening supplications were TOTALLY different from each other

We will study 5 tashahud, ALL taught to us by the Prophet (saw)

The interesting thing is they are VERY SIMILIAR to each other

The first one is tashahud of IBN MASOOD

Then the next one was tashahud of IBN ABBAS

Then we will go to 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th tashahud and we will look at the differences between them
The FOURTH thing is that EACH TASHAHUD is narrated by the name of a sahabi. That’s why they are named after these people, because the person it is named after is the person the PROPHET (saw) HIMSELF TAUGHT to. And then that person passed it on.
We will learn an interesting fact/tidbit of each tashahud.
TASHHUD OF IBN MASOOD
Word analysis

First word

ATAHIYAATU: this word is a PLURAL word of the word TAHIYATOON (this is singular form)

Along with being plural it is made PROPER by putting ALIF LAAM in front of it

KITAABUN means a book, any book

AL KITAAB- is THE BOOK (it is the proper form)

So it is plural (atihyaaaat)

This comes from root word HAYAAT- means LIFE

Comes in Quran also

Tahiya means TO GREET SOMEONE. Why does it come from root word of life?

Before we said ASSLAM AALYKOOM

They would say HAYAAKULLAH (it’s a supplication). That’s how pre-Islam people used to greet one another

May Allah give you a long and prosperous life.

Because they would be praying for life, the word for greeting came from word FOR LIFE.

This is something that happens in Arabic sometimes.. Over time the word spins off and becomes disconnected from root and takes on a meeting of its own

Like in English, when we say “that’s cool”, no one associates it with temperature- it’s a way to praise something

No one connects it back to hot and cold,

“When you are greeted, respond with something better!”

TAHIYA means to greet someone.
LILLAHI- for Allah

Letter Lam-for

Allah-
THE GREETING ARE FOR ALLAH (that doesn’t make sense)

We don’t greet Allah, Allah IS asslaam!

There is story behind the meaning of this word
Abdullah ibn salih al ijli

Its from the 2^nd century of Islam, he says “I was curious about what this word means?”

So I went on a journey to talk to different scholars to find what it means
I came to Imam Ashafie- there was something unique about him

He was A MASTER of the Arabic language. He was a poet. There is a collection of his poetry.

I asked him what does it mean

He said “when you enter into the court of the king, what do you do? You compliment the king. You praise the king, like in englsih you say royal highness, your majesty, in Arabic they said “may you find peace, blessings”, or “you have removed curse from our lands, “may you live for 100 years.

THAT’S WHAT ATTITYAAT MEANS
It means ROYAL COMPLIMENTS, COMPLIMENTS WORTHY OF A KING

We are about to put our needs before Allah and we start with compliments saying

ROYAL COMPLIMENTS ARE FOR ALLAH
WASALAHWAAT- plural fo salah.

Prayers are for the sake of Allah

WATAYIBAAT: tayib means beautiful things, appealing things, they are also for ALLAH
Salahwaat refers to worship,

Tayibaat refers to social conduct,

We forget sincerity for social conduct

When you are nice to people you are doing it ALSO for Allah!

If you are good to people because people are good to you, then you will be good to them as long as they are good to you, but what if the person is mean to you? Then that’s it, IKHLAAQ GONE?!

But I AM DOING IT FOR THE SAKE OF ALLAH

His teacher said what is the definition of ikhlaq?

Its the heaviest on the scale on deeds,

IKHALQ IS BEING GOOD TO PEOPLE EVEN IF THEY ARE BAD TO YOU”*

And THAT’S what the Prophet (saw) had.