Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa'l-Ḥikam 3: Islam as a Building That Shelters Its Owner

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 5 April 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

O Allah, write down our footsteps, make our feet firm on Your straight path, and do not disgrace us or forsake us, O Lord. O Allah, we ask You for Your pardon, Your gentleness, Your mercy and Your kindness. O Allah, draw over us, O Lord of the worlds, some of Your covering, and do not expose us, neither in this world nor in the Hereafter, out of Your gentleness, mercy, pardon and generosity, O Lord of the worlds.

Our talk today is about the most famous ḥadīth in Islam, the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both). He said: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: «بُني الإسلام على خمس: شهادة أن لا إله إلا الله وأن محمدًا رسول الله، وإقام الصلاة، وإيتاء الزكاة، وحجّ البيت، وصوم رمضان» (“Islam is built upon five: the testimony that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, establishing the prayer, giving the zakat, the pilgrimage to the House, and fasting Ramadan”).^[1]

The ḥadīth is well known and much has been said about it, so we will pause with it only briefly, in a few short stops. Still, we want to picture from the start: what is the significance of his saying «بُني الإسلام على خمس» (“Islam is built upon five”)? Why was the word “building” used specifically? And what purposes are generally sought in building?

Why a Building?

Why do people begin to build? They build something to live in and enter into, so that it becomes for them a shelter, a protection and a safeguard, a solid wall, a homeland in which they are secure. So when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ says «بُني الإسلام على خمس», it is as though he is likening Islam, with its pillars, to that building which people enter.

So where does Islam appear as a shelter for us? It appears in that it protects you from every psychological and mental deviation, in utter simplicity. And how does it protect you mentally and psychologically? Look at the scattering that afflicts people who do not know where they came from or where they are going. They live in this world aimlessly, with no purpose in life and no hope. These people live a life more miserable than that of any creature in the universe. You, however, Allah has given your heart rest, set your mind at ease and calmed your fears when He taught you that you have a Lord, that you are returning to Him, that you are a creature in His hand, glory be to Him, that your soul is only by His command, mighty and majestic is He, that everything that happens in your life is by His decree and destiny, that you are under Allah’s eye night and day, and that He, glory be to Him, does not lift His covering from you, and does not disgrace you or expose you. All these things make a person’s mind settled, reassured and calm, so it does not rush off into the deviations of Satan, the whispering of Iblīs, or anything of that sort. So Islam, for me, is like a shelter.

Then, as you go deeper, you find that this is intended in the ordering of these pillars, one coming after another.

Why “His Servant and His Messenger”?

The first pillar is the two testimonies, and their transmitted wording is: that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger. I understand that we bear witness that Muhammad ﷺ is the Messenger of Allah, so why does the word “servanthood” appear in the wording so prominently? To indicate that he is a human being to whom happens what happens to the rest of humankind: he ﷺ falls ill and then is healed, he ﷺ grieves and he, peace and blessings be upon him, rejoices; good news comes to him and his face lights up, and bad news comes to him and he is sometimes angered for the sake of the religion of Allah, blessed and exalted, and for its sanctities. He is a human being.

And why was he a human being? So that the message could be applied well before your eyes, and you could follow his example well. Had the messenger sent to you been an angel or some other creature, we would not have been able to follow him, because capacities differ and energies vary. Can we ask a human being to imitate a jinn in his movement, his speed, his flying, his descent to the depths of the earth and his ascent to the heavens? That is not open to us. And do we demand of a human being that he embody the angels? That is far off. So the humanity of the Prophet ﷺ was necessary, and it is singled out for mention in many places in the Book of our Lord, glory be to Him.

So the word “servanthood” stands out in the testimony so that our first mission in life may be made present to us. That is why even in the great occasions when Allah, the Most High, honored His Messenger ﷺ, exalted his presence and praised him, He said: ﴿سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَىٰ بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلًا مِّنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ الْأَقْصَى الَّذِي بَارَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ﴾ (“Glory be to Him who took His servant by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque, whose surroundings We have blessed”).^[2] We ask Allah, blessed and exalted, to free it from captivity and to lift from it the shackles of these aggressors. So Allah, blessed and exalted, said “His servant,” and the word “servanthood” became the highest decoration a servant can receive in his worldly life.

Servanthood: Commands and Prohibitions, and Nearness Too

As for your sense of servanthood: we are always looking at how people see you, whether you are a servant of Allah or not, but have we felt the term “servanthood” among ourselves? We embody servanthood in carrying out commands and refraining from prohibitions, so whenever I comply with a command I feel servanthood: so I am an obedient servant. But there is another dimension, which is the dimension of nearness to Allah, glory be to Him, the Most High.

Imagine that when our Lord, glory be to Him, the Most High, described the special relationship between the Muslim and the Lord of Might, He likened it to a man wholly at peace with a man. Listen to the verse: ﴿ضَرَبَ اللَّهُ مَثَلًا رَجُلًا فِيهِ شُرَكَاءُ مُتَشَاكِسُونَ وَرَجُلًا سَلَمًا لِرَجُلٍ﴾ (“Allah sets forth a parable: a man belonging to quarrelling partners, and a man belonging wholly to one man”).^[3] What is the story of “سَلَمًا لرجل” and what is the meaning behind it? The peace (silm) that arises between two parties who deal with one another: their minds are close, their souls are close, their thoughts are in step, so there arises between them all the ease, calm, stability and tranquility that arises. That is why, the more you increase in worship of Allah, you feel that you are rising, as though you are ascending above this scum in which people live: money and numbers, grudges and resentments, envy and rancor, I seek refuge in Allah, what is all this! And so you feel that you are rising.

So it is as though, with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, the term “servanthood” does not represent to me only commands to be carried out and prohibitions to be avoided, so much as it represents to me that servanthood is an ascent to a level at which you feel you are at peace with the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Most High. And it is as though He, glory be to Him, translates this for me in the ḥadīth qudsī, so imagine the saying of the Prophet ﷺ: «ولا يزال عبدي يتقرّب إليّ بالنوافل حتى أحبّه، فإذا أحببتُه كنتُ سمعَه الذي يسمع به، وبصرَه الذي يبصر به، ويدَه التي يبطش بها» (“My servant keeps drawing near to Me with voluntary acts until I love him, and when I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, and his hand with which he strikes”),^[4] and he mentioned the foot as well. Allahu akbar! This is a meaning that people do not imagine, but the people of nearness and union with the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, feel this meaning, and feel these implications and this nearness. Here you are able to translate «أرحنا بها يا بلال» (“Give us rest through it, O Bilāl”),^[5] because you enter into the depth of the relationship that separates your mind and heart from all the calamities of time and every attachment of this world. That is it: you have taken everything out of your head, and nothing remains in your mind except that you are standing before the Most Merciful of the heavens and the earth, the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, exalted on high.

When a Pillar Is Lost: The One Who Abandons Prayer, and the Limits of Judging People

The Prophet ﷺ says «بُني الإسلام على خمس» to show me that if one pillar of this edifice is lost, the remaining pillars collapse. From here arose the stand of the scholars who spoke about the one who abandons prayer, for example, and said that the one who abandons prayer is a disbeliever, for instance. Why this view? They said: because if you abandon the prayer, the religion has collapsed, especially since it has been reported: «الصلاة عماد الدين، من تركها فقد ترك الدين، ومن أقامها فقد أقام الدين» (“Prayer is the pillar of the religion; whoever abandons it has abandoned the religion, and whoever establishes it has established the religion”).^[6] From this understanding this idea came. And the scholars go into detail: one who abandons it out of denial and rejection is not like one who abandons it out of laziness and weakness; this one is treated, that one is kept away, this one is drawn near, and so on.

And I recall a saying of Shaykh Muḥammad al-Ghazālī, may Allah have mercy on him. He says: One of the young men came in to me while I was in a lecture in which we were speaking about the future of Islam, and he said to me: O Shaykh, what is the ruling on one who abandons prayer? He, may Allah have mercy on him, says: So I gave him a deep look, and I looked at his appearance, and I said: My son, the ruling on one who abandons prayer is that you bring him with you to the mosque.

This is the lesson: instead of judging people and putting them outside the circle, work and exert your effort as much as you can. Then if you have exhausted your means with so-and-so, you come on the Day of Resurrection and say: O Lord, I did what was in my power, and your Lord excuses you. And the judgment of people is for Allah, glory be to Him, the Most High, on the Day of Resurrection, so He admits this one to Paradise and admits that one to the Fire, as He wills.

By Allah, besides whom there is no god, some of those who are obstinate on many matters, if you begin to speak with them with a certain depth and enter into their inner world, you see that the only thing preventing them from praying, in utter simplicity, after very long conversations, is that when he was small his father used to beat him with the belt to make him pray, tightening the belt: you have not prayed yet! So when someone like this comes out to you complicated, is this one healthy or sick? In utter simplicity, this is a sick person, not a person sound in his mental, intellectual and psychological makeup.

The Fiṭrah and the Influence of the Parents

So if you deal with people, know that Allah, blessed and exalted, created people on the original fiṭrah. So if the fiṭrah deviates, from where does it deviate? What is the first source of the fiṭrah’s deviation or its uprightness, as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ told us? The parents: «فأبواه يهوّدانه أو ينصّرانه أو يمجّسانه» (“Then his parents make him a Jew, or a Christian, or a Zoroastrian”).^[7] This is a very clear text, and a ḥadīth that is sound and explicit in its meaning. And you can say, on the other side: his parents set him straight, treat him and prepare him for the future, and so on. Many of the cases we see are sick because of what happened to them before, or they are captives of experiences that settled in the soul until they became a mindset.

Even in the world of medicine: when we go to doctors, you find in hospitals a psychiatrist speaking with the patient. And sometimes a person comes in as an ordinary case complaining of a pain in some place, and before they put the stethoscope on him they ask a few questions: how are you? How are things? And they sense that the matter may be psychological, with nothing organic in it. And often we go to the doctor and he tells you: By Allah, I find no problem, but it seems you need a psychiatrist.

The point, so that we do not stray: that the basic principle with us, before we judge people, is to treat what they have, to make the effort, and their judgment is for Allah, blessed and exalted. Imagine coming on the Day of Resurrection and seeing people you used to count among the furthest from religion, and the mercy of the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Most High, has encompassed them. What is it to you? And what do you lose? It will not diminish anything of what we have.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ tells us in a ḥadīth that the last of the people of the Fire to come out of it and the last of the people of Paradise to enter it, the Lord of the heavens and the earth, glory be to Him, says to him: Enter Paradise. He says: O Lord, how can I enter it when people have already taken their places and taken their shares? No place is left. And he is used to this world, where if someone lays his hand on a piece of land he takes it as much as he can, each one greedy, each one has taken. So He says to him: Enter Paradise, and you will have in it the like of the dominion of a king of this world. He says: O Lord, are You mocking me? So glory be to the All-Powerful, glory be to Him whose is the dominion of the heavens and the earth! So he enters, and He says to him: And you will have the like of it, and the like of it, and the like of it, and the like of it.^[8]

Perceptions differ, and we judge individuals and conditions by the limited rational means we possess in this age that we are living.

The Two Testimonies Are a Contract of Servanthood, and Prayer Is the “Job Description”

What matters is that we are before an edifice whose basis is submission. And as we said a little while ago: the one who enters Islam goes through “there is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,” and this is the signing of the contract of servanthood before the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Most High. And from this moment I say: I am in Your hands, O Lord, I have surrendered myself to You. So we begin with the job description: what is required of us? Five prayers a day, so that your heart does not drift away and your mind does not drift away.

Imagine, my brother, that sleep doctors tell us that sleep has four stages before a person enters into it, and the last stage is the stage of stillness. I do not understand the matter in its details as the doctors explain it, but what I do understand is that if I reach the highest degrees of depth in sleep, then how about me in prayer, when I come to my prayer and say takbīr, recite, respond, glorify, rise, bow, prostrate and sit? Allahu akbar! It is as though I am moving from one level to another. And if that does not come over you while standing, it comes over you while bowing, or while prostrating; a moment comes to you in which you feel the goodness of connection with the Lord of the heavens and the earth, and you feel in it the sweetness of servanthood to the Mighty King, and the goodness of nearness to Allah and to the mercy of the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Most High, and you feel that a question of yours has been answered, or a supplication of yours accepted, or that a feeling you were holding in your hands has been raised to the Lord of the heavens and the earth.

And it has been narrated in some ḥadīths, whose chain is not established, that when the servant prays and gives the salām to end his prayer, his prayer rises above his head until it reaches the heaven. Then either it is accepted, if he was humble in it, or it is rejected, and it comes and says to him: May Allah neglect you as you neglected me.^[9] Imagine how your prayer speaks to you in this way! And before I enter the prayer I do not want it to go up to the heaven and then come down like a brick striking my head and hurting me; that I cannot bear. Accordingly, I do not enter a prayer except knowing fully that I am resolving upon a project that I am building, a project that is completed in my hands, so that when it is raised to the heaven it is accepted there.

The Prophet’s ﷺ Method in Forming the Muslim Mind

That is why, when we speak about such noble ḥadīths, we are speaking about the method of the Prophet ﷺ in building, or in forming, the Muslim mind: from the beginning of Islam you think with the mindset of the engineer who builds a project. This project is a building, and this building has five pillars, each pillar representing one of the aspects. The two testimonies represent the canopy, the roof that shades all these deeds; without it there is nothing, even if the columns stand by you. And you are in the prayer on one side, in the zakat on another, in the fasting on another, and in the pilgrimage on another; each represents for you a safety valve that protects you from one direction and guards you from another.

And so that I do not lengthen things for you any more than this, may Allah, the Most High, preserve what you have of good and blessing, O Lord of the worlds. Look, with the mindset of a mature Muslim, at the kind of complementarity that arises between these four acts of worship. The prayer, for you, is an entire house: you enter into a psychological, heartfelt, intellectual and spiritual relationship between you and Allah, blessed and exalted; that is one. And at the same time you mix with people night and day. Let me give an example: when I entered the mosque I entered the prayer and prayed to Allah to keep the people present firm, and a thought occurred to me, and this is merely an example not connected to the core of the subject: that I entered the mosque, even regarding worldly interests, and found so-and-so and knew that the fault in my house would be fixed today, because he is a specialist in this matter. Or I entered and found the teacher I had wanted to speak to about such-and-such, and I spoke to him. From where does this interconnection arise? And how does the soul feel a kind of intimacy with these acts of worship to the Lord of the heavens and the earth, while He draws for us a complete way of life?

Then there is the matter of fasting and the collective feeling that comes over it: all the people look at one another, are you very hungry today or slightly full? And as you fast you see people after the ʿAṣr prayer, for example, and you greet your friend, and you look into his eye with a look that enters his inside: is he tired, or is he concealing his state, having had a good suḥūr and eaten fava beans? These feelings are created for us by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and his family and Companions, and may He send abundant peace upon them.

I ask Allah that I have not lengthened things for you in a way that troubled you, and I ask Allah, glory be to Him, the Most High, to make us firm with the firm word in the life of this world and in the Hereafter, and to inspire us with right guidance. O Allah, we seek refuge in You from forgetting the people of Palestine, and from neglecting to pray for them. O Allah, make them firm and help them, O Lord of the worlds. O Allah, we ask You for steadfastness and the protection of the blood of the Muslims and their sanctities in every land on earth. O Allah, give victory to Your servants who affirm Your oneness and are sincere to You. O Allah, protect the blood of the people of Islam. O Allah, we ask You for all humanity guidance, right direction and a balanced mind. O Allah, we ask You to preserve the dignity of the children of Adam on earth, O Lord of the worlds. Do not disgrace us or expose us, and make us firm with the firm word in the life of this world and in the Hereafter, and on the day when the witnesses will stand. And may Allah send blessings and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon his family and Companions.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The ḥadīth is reported in the Ṣaḥīḥayn, from the narration of Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both). We have set down its wording as in the Ṣaḥīḥayn, «وأن محمدًا رسول الله»; as for «عبده ورسوله», it is the transmitted wording of the testimony on which the speaker based his pause, and we have not verified its occurrence in the wording of this ḥadīth. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: al-Isrāʾ: 1. The speaker recited the verse up to the words «حوله» and omitted the word «ليلًا» by oversight, so it has been set down according to the script of the Muṣḥaf; its continuation is ﴿لِنُرِيَهُ مِنْ آيَاتِنَا﴾ (“that We might show him some of Our signs”), which he did not utter. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: al-Zumar: 29. The continuation of the verse is ﴿هَلْ يَسْتَوِيَانِ مَثَلًا﴾ (“Are the two equal in comparison?”), which the speaker did not utter. The verse is a parable of the monotheist and the polytheist, and most exegetes hold that «سَلَمًا لِرَجُلٍ» means belonging solely to one master; the speaker’s linking of it to the meaning of peace and ease between two parties is his own interpretive effort regarding its implication. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: This ḥadīth qudsī was reported by al-Bukhārī; the speaker mentioned of it what I have set down and then alluded to the “foot,” and the wording in the ḥadīth is: «ورِجلَه التي يمشي بها» (“and his foot with which he walks”). ^[5]: Editor's documentation: The expression is transmitted from the Prophet ﷺ in his words to Bilāl, and it appears in the Sunan of Abū Dāwūd; the speaker merely alluded to it without elaboration. ^[6]: Editor's documentation: The speaker cited it as a saying of the Prophet ﷺ without mentioning its source; it is not established as attributed to the Prophet ﷺ, and the ḥadīth scholars have graded it weak (al-Bayhaqī reported it in Shuʿab al-Īmān, and its chain is broken), so it has been rendered with the wording “it has been reported.” ^[7]: Editor's documentation: The ḥadīth of the fiṭrah is reported in the Ṣaḥīḥayn, and in it: “Every child is born upon the fiṭrah, and then his parents…” ^[8]: Editor's documentation: The ḥadīth is in the Ṣaḥīḥayn, on the last of the people of Paradise to enter; the speaker narrated it by meaning and appended to it his comment on the natures of people in this world. In the transcription of the clip there is a slight disturbance that has been omitted. ^[9]: Editor's documentation: The speaker did not mention the source of the ḥadīth, and it is narrated in some books of the Sunnah with chains that are weak as far as we know, so its attribution to the Prophet ﷺ cannot be affirmed.