LP Lessons Summary (Years 1 to 5)
The single most important thing in your life is to thank Your Creator for giving you life. When you’re in a state of shukr, you save yourself from kufr. The one who is kaafir is the one who’s ungrateful, one who hides. Kufurrah is physically a cover. The kaafir is always covering (a farmer is also a kaafir because he’s covering) because they cover or hide something they were given. It’s complete ingratitude that you ignore the fact that you owe Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala gratitude. The greatest statement of thanks is salah; we thank Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala with hamd ‘praise’. Salah in statement and action is the perfect expression of gratitude to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
If it is the most important thing in our life, how do we establish it?
Salah is not just a spiritual but also a legal dimension.
Water is the basic substance that purifies. It can either be filthy or purifying.
Filth has two types. Physical filth (najasa) is referring to urine, feces, etc. If this is on the skin, this has to be removed at all cost. Ritual filth (hadath) refers to a minor or major ritual impurity. Minor is when you pass wind, or go to sleep and wake up, or go to the toilet; these can be fixed by cleaning your private part or washing your limbs via ablution. It’s called istinja when you use water to clean your private part, and when you use toilet paper or stone then it’s called istijmar. It is sufficient to clean yourself back and front using tissue paper without going near water. Majority of the companions preferred istijmar, i.e, dry cleaning using a cloth or a stone but we know that water is blessed and we use it if we have it. Major hadath is when you have marital relations or wet dream. To lift this, you need to do ghusl ‘bath’.
Sperm is completely pure. Theoretically, if a person has a sperm on his hand, it would not affect his prayer at all. However, the act of the sperm coming out or the sexual fluids for the female, that’s what causes major ritual impurity.
Filth can be removed using anything. Hadath can be removed using water or dirt, either by wudu’, tayammum, or ghusl. As for najasa, anything that removes it can be used. For example, feces. Unless wetness or moisture is present and it leaves a residue on your skin, then we don’t have a major problem. However, if it’s so dry and can actually fall off, then you don’t need to use water. You can use a stick to scrape the thing away. Physical najasa, therefore, doesn’t require a special way of having it removed except when it’s wet and in special circumstance (i.e, dog’s saliva). The removal of the saliva of a dog, according to majority of scholars, requires a specific procedure of being washed seven times and then one or including one that uses earth because earth neutralizes something in that saliva and the water ensures that it’s completely rubbed away.
Dirt is not filth. Dirt is dirt, grease is dirt, mud is dirt. They are not filth.
When you make wudu’, the objective is not to cleanse you from dirt but from filth, both physical and ritual.
Water, whatever color it is in, is permissible to use for wudu’ and ghusl. It only becomes impermissible to use for wudu’ and ghusl when its nature has changed, which happens when its smell, taste, and appearance have changed that it can no longer be called water. However, if there are things in water, it’s still water with things in it. So if you’ve got leaves, moss, and other things floating on it, this is water that has things in it and is not dirty water.
If there is doubt over the purity of the water, you have to go by your best guess (51% or more). If you’re in doubt (50%), then you have the permission to proceed to tayammum.
It is permissible to use any implement to make your wudu’ from. Taps and others are ok. Gold and silver cups are permissible to be used for wudu’; however, to eat and drink from and with these two are impermissible. A man is not allowed to wear gold or to use gold in a cosmetic fashion but it’s permissible for medicinal purpose.
It is impermissible and impure to use for clothing, etc. a dead animal’s skin when that animal was impermissible to eat when it was still alive (e.g., pig, dog). Pig and dog are impermissible to eat. When an animal is permissible to eat when it’s alive, its skin can then be permissible to be used for clothing, etc.
The milk and meat of a dead animal are impure except for its hair. These are pure while they’re still alive. A carrion refers to an animal you found dead.
It’s mustahhab (recommended) that you seek protection when you go to the toilet. It’s makruh (disliked) to raise your garment before you reach the ground in an area where you’re exposed because you’re trying to minimize your exposure. Other makruh acts are speaking & urinating in a hole.
When you go to the toilet area, enter with left foot and say Allahumma a inni a’udhubika minal khubthi wal khabaith. When you come out, do so with the right foot and say Ghufranak. Whenever you enter a good area, do so with the right foot and when you exit, do so with the left foot (e.g., in a masjid).
When you’re in an enclosed toilet, direction is not an issue. However, when you’re in open, it’s not permissible for you to be urinating or directing your back in the direction of the qiblah unless you’re forced to or you don’t know.
Istijmar can be done with stones, cods of earth, clay, soft stuff like tissue paper--as long as it’s not food, animal bones, or dung.
When making wudu’, it’s sunnah to say Bismillah before one starts. It’s not obligatory in ghusl or tayammum but you can do it then as well.
It is sunnah to always keep your mouth clean (either through miswak, toothbrush, floss, cleaning cloth, mouthwash, etc.), especially before prayer.
To wash your hand three times is sunnah but not obligatory. This act only becomes obligatory when you go into such a deep sleep that you don’t know what happened. Does it become obligatory when you wash from the tap? If the tap is flowing, then there’s no real reason for it to become obligatory because then you’re not going to make your hand or the utensil dirty. However, in principle, it’s good to wash your hand at the beginning of wudu’. It’s also sunnah to go through your fingers when washing your hand at any stage.
In rinsing mouth and nose, it’s good to go as far as possible. To clean the inside of the mouth and nose is not obligatory.
When you wash your face, it’s sunnah to go through your beard with your fingers. The key is to make sure the skin beneath the beard is wet.
In washing the feet, it’s sunnah to go through your toes with your left fingers.
It’s sunnah to wash thrice although it’s more efficient to wash once.
Circumcision is obligatory upon males.
It’s impermissible to shave the hair on the head and leave parts of it. It’s haram to cut your hair in such a way that it imitates a religious practice of non-Muslims such as the hair of monks. When you’re copying someone because you admire him/her too much, that’s haram. However, cutting your hair by shaving one part and leaving the hair at the top, it’s disliked.
In doing wudu’, make the intention (which has to be done right at the beginning and not verbalized) and say Bismillah. Wash your hands three times. Wash your hands up to your arms three times. Gargle water into your mouth three times. Sniff water into your nostrils (it’s sunnah to clean the nose with small fingers) and blow it out three times. Wash your face from the top of the hairline to the forehead to the edge of the ears (not the ears) and down including the jawbone. The hands must then be washed up to the elbow--must include the elbow and fingers. It’s part of the sunnah to do this with a bit of massage and rubbing. Then, wipe over your head. The complete wiping is from your front to the back. And then to the ears, to go around the ears completely with your thumb. Then wash right foot up to the ankle and go through the toes. Do the same with the left.
If you have little time or water, make the intention and go straight to washing the face once (if you have beard, make it go through it), and then the arm once up until the finger and above the elbow, wipe the head with the ears. With the head, you don’t have to go back and forth--wiping once is sufficient and you don’t have to go back and forth. With the ear, you just need to enter your finger into the ear and that’s sufficient. Wash the feet.
You can wipe over the socks but it has to be a proper one, not a woman’s tights. It doesn’t matter if it has holes in it or it’s thin, as long as it’s a sock--tights are not allowed because it’s basically nothing. The next time you break wudu’, you have 24 hours (if you’re at home) or 72 hours (if you’re traveling) to wipe as long as you haven’t taken the socks off the entire period.
A person can also wipe over a turban or a hijab. It should be minimized but it can be utilized anytime.
The sunnah is to just have a handful (both hands cupped) of water. With ghusl, it’s four handfuls. The primary objective of ghusl is not to make you physically clean but to make you ritually clean. For example, when you had a wet dream, your objective is to make sure all of your body is wet.
You should generally avoid touching the Qur’an if you don’t have wudu’. Salah is completely impermissible without wudu’. Tawaf is permissible without wudu’.
Just thinking that you broke your wudu’ does not break your wudu’. If you’re not sure, you’re still in wudu’.
How do you come out of wudu’? Anything which comes out of the anus or the urethra. That means that something that comes out of the vagina does not mean that it’s come out of the urethra. When you have vaginal discharge, it’s not impure and it does not break the wudu’. One of the reasons is because we believe it does not come out of the urethra itself. Any amount of feces and urine that come out of the body will lead to the necessity of ablution.
Going to proper sleep needs ablution. Sleeping while sitting does not invalidate your wudu’. Sleeping in the car, even if you lose consciousness in that state is not deep sleep.
Eating camel meat invalidates the wudu’ according to the Hanbali madhab but not for the other three madhahib.
Ghusl has some sunnah including wudu’ but in principle it’s straightforward--have the intention to make ghusl and make sure your whole body becomes wet. According to Hanbali madhhab, it’s sunnah to make wudu’ when you wash a dead body. Ghusl is obligatory after any sexual activity that leads to emission of sexual fluids and a wet dream because what obligates ghusl is not just the coming together of the private parts and feeling, but it’s also the emission of the sperm. Emission of everything else does not obligate ghusl. Emission of madhi’ (prostatic fluid) and all the preseminal fluid (wadhi’) does not obligate ghusl but they are impure substances. If these two are found in your underwear, they need to be completely washed off whereas sperm only needs to be scratched away. Ironically, if the sperm comes out, you need to make ghusl but if wadhi’ and madhi’ come out, all you need to do is istinja’ (i.e., clean your private parts and make wudu’).
New Muslims don’t have to make ghusl after shahada. S/he just needs to make wudu’ for prayer.
If you don’t have water or the water that you have is absolutely precious because it’s too difficult (i.e., it has to be a real impossibility) for you to find water, make tayammum. Tayammum is valid even after water begins to come in and you’ve prayed with that tayammum already, you don’t have to repeat the prayer.
How is tayammum done? Make the intention for tayammum. Say Bismillah. Strike on the ground--ideally on the ground but it doesn’t have to be the earth; it’s anything which gives dust (even a wall will do as it has natural dust on it). Then wipe the face and hands.
As long as it can be removed, anything can be used to remove najasa.
Menstruation is a heavy, dark type of blood. It smells more pungent than normal blood. It doesn’t look as fresh, it’s browner, and it’s sometimes associated with pain inflammation. It ends with a white discharge or a gradual reduction in bleeding.
Istihada (irregular vaginal bleeding or continual bleeding) is very common. Unlike the opinion of the majority of scholars, for AE, one doesn’t have to make istinja’ or ghusl or wudu’ each time for people with excessive flatulence, irregular bleeding, or similar medical problems. AE doesn’t obligate istinja’ or ghusl for any istihada, unless the person goes to the bathroom, to the toilet, or to sleep. That is, if you actively break your impurity whether by sexual intercourse, going to the toilet or sleep, you need to then make ghusl or wudu’ appropriately. In the case of people with any of these problems, there’s no need to make wudu’ or ghusl for what is happening with his/her body involuntarily.
Nifas (postpartum bleeding) has the same ruling as menstrual blood. There’s no minimum nor maximum period.
Salah is obligatory upon every legal person, i.e., they are aware of themselves, they know what life is about, they know they’re not insane, they have full control over their senses, and they’re not menstruating nor having nifas.
A person who has missed the prayers for a long time, especially if it’s from a past way of life when s/he was not practising, doesn’t have to make it up. However, missed prayers while being practising and being aware of the prayer, have to be made up in the immediate vicinity. However, for missed prayers because you’re in operation & you lost consciousness, or you’re in a coma for a long time, those don’t have to be made up because you’re not held accountable for the prayer(s) during the period when you effectively weren’t even there.
Prayer only becomes obligatory upon puberty, whether male or female. There’s no such thing as an age. When you see a hadith about seven or ten, these are all just preparatory work--7 is about getting them into the habit and 10 is making sure that when they understand now fully, then you’re going to discipline them if they’re messing about. However, their prayer is not obligatory until they’re 13, 15, whatever time puberty actually occurs and it is clear.
You’re not allowed to delay a prayer from its time unless you have intended beforehand to combine prayers (with valid excuses such as you’re traveling or it’s raining so hard & you’re far away so you can’t pray, etc.).
A person who doesn’t pray is in a very serious state and majority of the companions have the opinion that this person is in a state of kufr. The majority of scholars are of the opinion that this person is doing a huge state of haram and should be given a death penalty if s/he refuses to pray when s/he has been warned a lot of times. This are minutiae that can be differed over but the point is it is so essential to pray that it is beyond belief if you one doesn’t do it, but one is not a kaafir for missing his/her prayer. However, a person who says, “I don’t need to pray,” or “You pray but I don’t need to pray,” that is a major problem because that person is denying the obligation of a person to pray and that is then going into the realm of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala’s Law and Theology, and that is kufr. We don’t ever want to be considering that.
With the adhan, you repeat everything after the muezzin except for hay’alatayn, which you respond to with “La hawla wa laa quwwata ila billah”.
When the adhan finishes, the order of actions that are beneficial to be done are:
1. Saying the Salawat Ibrahimiyyah;
2. Making the du’a that the Prophet salallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam wants us to make so he salallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam can make shafa’a which is, Allahumma Rabba hadhihil da’watil tammah, wa’l salat il-qaimah, ati Muhammadan il-wasilata wa’l-fadhila wab’athhu maqaman mahmudan alladhi wa'adtah. ‘O Allāh, Lord of this perfect call and this present prayer, give Muḥammad the highest level in Paradise and a unique status with You, and allow him throughout to take his praised position that You have promised him;’ and
3. Making du’a for yourself.
Prayer is only valid in its right time. To establish prayer, you have to be internally pure from hadath, physically pure from najasa, the area you pray in has to be pure, the qiblah has to be established, your clothes are appropriate, and the time must have entered.
Times for prayer:
1. Dhuhr enters once the sun has set from its high point. It ends once a thing has a shadow which is equal to it plus a little bit that was there at the first point.
2. Once Dhuhr ends as mentioned above, that’s when ‘Asr starts. According to Abu Hanifa, it’s when your shadow is twice its length.
3. Maghrib begins when the sun has completely set, i.e, the sun’s disc disappears and darkness starts to set in. When the sun is setting and when the sun is at its highest point, it’s a haram time to pray. However, if a person hasn’t prayed ‘asr, s/he is allowed to quickly pray ‘asr then.
4. When the redness in the sky disappears, ‘Isha’ starts. To Abu Hanifa, the whiteness has to disappear as well. ‘Isha’ lasts until Fajr (N.B. this is a risky position) or until midnight (i.e, midpoint of the beginnings of Maghrib and Fajr).
5. Fajr starts when the light appears on the horizon.
To catch a prayer, we just have to make sure we have one rak’ah in. One rak’ah is takbiratul ihram + Al-Fatiha + ruku’ saying subhana rabbi al-adhim once + come up from ruku’ + first sajdah + sit + second sajdah saying subhana rabbi al-a’la once. For AE, one has to be on the way back up to qiyam position for one to complete one rak’ah.
Say you’ve missed Dhuhr and ‘Asr and you’re praying it in Maghrib, then pray Dhuhr, ‘Asr, Maghrib in that order except when Maghrib is about to expire. At that time, you pray Maghrib first then Dhuhr and ‘Asr.
‘Awrah (minimum areas of nakedness that must be covered obligatorily) for the prayer of the male is between the navel until the bottom of the thigh. Majority of the scholars say until the knee has to be covered. For the female, her entire body except for the face, hands, and feet. When you’re praying in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, try to cover more parts of the body as much as you can as it signifies respect for the prayer. Male or female, don’t wear something silly, don’t cover your mouth, don’t wear something expensive or something that will make you out as someone special.
A female can have gold, silver, and silk on her clothes. A male cannot have gold and silk on his clothes unless it’s for medical or desperate reasons. Things that distract someone from the prayer should not be used. Faces on clothes are generally not allowed. For AE, if the face or animate object is very small or very difficult to make out, it’s permissible but it’s safer to cover them up.