When I was a kid, basketball was my refuge. I'd go outside, I'd shoot for several hours
and just pretend that nothing else in the world existed. Now as an adult, it's still somewhat my refuge sometimes when I can play in a game and be forced to isolate myself
in the experience of playing a game. Because when you're in the midst of it, you're not allowed to think about anything else because if you do, you might just drop the ball. I was thinking about this idea of khushu' in sports and khushu' in something that
we are doing and how it relates to khushu' in salah, to have deep stillness in prayer and deep presence in prayer. And I was reflecting on this hadith of the Prophet (ﷺ)
where he mentions to 'Aishah (رضي الله عنها) that he loves his wives and that he loves perfume or cologne, sweet smells. But he says that the coolness of my eyes was placed in my salah.
And if you think about the two things that the Prophet (ﷺ) mentioned first, you enjoy the attention of a relationship. You're able to immerse yourself in a relationship
and devote yourself to it and find an experience of joy through it. And when it comes to sweet smells, well, it overcomes your senses so that you're not able to be overwhelmed by
the senses of anything else or by the perception of anything else. A sweet smell means so much. But what happens when both your attention and your senses are overwhelmed by Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala through the experience of salah and you find refuge in it and you find upliftment and you find something that nourishes your soul like nothing else. It doesn't just distract
you, but it actually fulfills you. This topic of khushu' in salah is one that is deeply personal. More Muslims come up to me and ask me at a spiritual level about how they
can find khushu' in salah than any other question that I'm asked when I travel around the world. People want to know how to have an experience. And the reality is that learning
about the experience is part of the experience. A couple of years ago, we went through the deeper meanings of dhikr. Last year, we went through the deeper meanings of du'a, du'as that
change decree. This year, we're going back to the experience of salah. We talk about the other side and ihsan and perceiving something deeper than yourself. Ihsan, excellence, perceiving
the unseen at an excellent level starts with immersing yourself in prayer. And so insha'Allah ta'ala this Dhul Hijjah, we're actually going to go through the motions, the words of prayer
and what each word means, what each motion means. And this is a subject that you could reflect upon for 10, 15, 20 hours. You will find if you look through Islamic history,
almost every Islamic scholar had a risalah, had a treatise that they wrote on khushu' in salah. And most of it was just personal reflection. You'll find it from Imam al-Ghazali
(rahimahullah ta'ala) who wrote about the secrets of salah in Ihya 'Ulum ad-Din. You'll find a treatise from Ibn al-Qayyim (rahimahullah ta'ala), from Ibn Rajab (rahimahullah), a collection of narrations from Ibn Abid Dunya (rahimahullah ta'ala). You'll find sections of books like
Madarij as-Salikin that focus on khushu' in salah, how to have deep presence in salah. And even in this day and age, alhamdulillah, in English, you'll find a course, Meaningful
Prayer by my beloved friend Shaykh Abdul Nasir Jangda, which everyone should take. A course on the sweetness of salah by Dr. Farhan Abdul Azeez. I personally benefited from these two
courses. There are resources available, but it takes you allocating the time to listen to the reflections of someone else and then to reflect yourself. So when you step into
prayer, it's a special experience, bi'idhnillahi ta'ala. And so this series is special. It is a collection of reflections on each motion of prayer so that you can insha'Allah ta'ala
immerse yourself. We shot it also in a special location in Turkey, in Antalya, in a masjid in which people used to worship other than Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. This was a place
that existed thousands of years ago. It was a Roman pagan temple and it became a church and then it became a masjid under the Seljuks. This masjid was actually damaged in a fire
in the 1800s and just reopened in 2021, I believe. And now people worship Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala once again in this masjid to immerse ourselves in that environment and to think
about how we immerse ourselves in salah was truly a special experience. I pray that you will join us insha'Allah ta'ala on this journey. You will immerse yourself in the experience. You'll reflect with family and friends the way that we tell you to do with every Ramadan
series and every Dhul Hijjah series. You'll take notes, you'll use the companion guide and I hope insha'Allah ta'ala that you join us this Dhul Hijjah as we connect to the pillar
of Hajj by connecting to this fundamental daily practiced pillar of salah, of prayer. Jazakum Allahu khayran. Sign up insha'Allah ta'ala. Join along the way. Make use of the full materials
that are there and I pray that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala allow you to enjoy your prayer more and that you pray for us insha'Allah ta'ala in the process. Jazakum Allahu khayran. Wassalamu'alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
