Don't Settle for the Bare Minimum

وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ عَلَى صَلَوَاتِهِمْ يُحَافِظُونَ ﴿٩﴾

And those who strictly guard their prayers. These will be the heirs, who will inherit Paradise: they will dwell therein forever. (Chapter 23, verse 9-11)

وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ عَلَى صَلَاتِهِمْ يُحَافِظُونَ ﴿٣٤﴾  

And those who guard their prayer. Such will be the honored ones in the Gardens. (Chapter 70, verse 34-35). 

At first glance, these two ayahs look the same. They are describing the characteristics of those who will enter paradise; specifically those who guard their salah. If you go solely from translation, these ayahs are basically saying the same thing.

Wrong. Take a closer look.

وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ عَلَى صَلَوَاتِهِمْ يُحَافِظُونَ 

وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ عَلَى صَلَاتِهِمْ يُحَافِظُونَ 

In the first ayah, Allah is talking about the characteristic of a Mu'min (from Surah Mu'minoon), as one who guards his salawaat. In the second ayah, Allah is talking about a characteristic of a Musalli, as one who guards his salaah.

A Mu'min is not the same thing as a Musalli, and their characteristics would not be the same either. A Mu'min is at a higher level than that of a Muslim. A Mu'min and a Muslim are both believers, but the  degree of faith of a Mu'min is much higher and in how much they strive to please Allah. A Musalli is one who prays (one who does Salah). All Muslims should be Musalleen. However there are varying levels, some have lower levels of faith and others have higher levels of faith.

So obviously, Allah would not describe a Mu'min to have the same characteristic as that of a Musalli. What is the difference between the two? Why does Allah say that the Mu'min guards his salawaat, and a Musalli guards his salah?

In arabic, if there are two versions of a word, the version that has more letters means more. So a Mu'min guards his salawaat: he does more than just the essential five prayers. A mu'min will pray the sunnah, nawaafil, tahajjud. He will be in the highest gardens of paradise.

A Musalli guards his salah. The word for prayer is shorter, and connotates that he does the essential acts of worship. A Musalli will make wudu properly, face the qiblah when he prays, and prays his prayers on time. Doing all these things does not make you a Mu'min. Doing all these things is just what makes you Musalli, and all that really means is that you barely escape from the burning fire. It is the bare minimum.

On the Day of Judgement, if there is a lack of any of our fard salah, then Allah will look at our sunnah salah and take those to fill in the gaps of what is missing from our fard. The sunnah prayers protect our fard prayers. If we only pray the fard salah, then when our imaan starts to slip, as iman always goes up and down, then the first thing to suffer will be the fard salah. But if we pray our sunnah salah regulary, then when we begin to slip and our iman is suffering, it is only the sunnah salah that begins to suffer. Our Sunnah salah is a sheild for our fard salaah.

Don't settle for the bare minimum.





Update: Salaah literally means "connection".