Nothing comes Free

When we contemplate the exemptions from the five fardh, and what the greatest of our worship asks of us, therein is a great benefit. 

For the Salaat is obligatory for the sane, and only the insane are exempt from it. To the extent that if the call to prayer is made, and you are within the precincts of the masjid that you needs must answer the call and pray the salaat in congregation with the Jamaa’. 

Having prayed before with another Jamaa’ is no excuse. The only excuse is the lack of sanity. 

Furthermore incapacity is itself not an excuse, because in that instance we are to pray with our eyes - make the rukoo and sujood by lowering our gaze. 

The Zakah, poor due, is obligatory on all who hold assets in excess of their immediate need. And therefore it is not due on your home, or your car, or your provision. But it is due on anything that you hold to make a profit on, and on your wealth that you save. 

Interestingly here our society is not predicated, as this is, on misfortune nor the fear of regret of it. Whereas this society encourages saving, our does not. 

The exemption here to pay Zakah is the poor and those that do not have, or have just enough for their own m, and their families, upkeep. 

Sawm, the Ramadan fast, is incumbent on us all as a community. The exemption from it is for the old, infirm, unwell and the traveller. The expiation of which is the feeding of the poor. 

Hajj, our most perfect worship and the last to made clear is incumbent on all who are able and have sufficient means. 

Recently I had the good fortune to take my three sons for Hajj. There I impressed on them that the Hajj that we were doing was NOT their fardh Hajj. For that would require for them to perform it with their own funds and their own hard earned money. 

Of the five, the testimony of faith is incumbent upon all. 

After that the ordained five daily prayers are the most accessible, for did not God make the whole World as a place of sujood for us all. So that when the appointed time arrives, we stand to pray wherever we are. 

And the next that is twinned, nearly always in the Quran, with the established Salaat (prayer) is Zakah (the Poor due). 

And even though the Messenger (saw) made it so easy for the poor to perform charity. For he said even a smile is Charity. And that the prayer is Charity for your bones and your body. And that every step that you take to the Masjid washes away sins. 

Even then the poor of Medina felt keenly that they lacked in that they could not give in Zakah, so much so that they complained to the Messenger (saw). 

And then he gave them the Tasbih. 

That they felt the keenness in the lack of means is telling. Especially when you consider that the Messenger (saw) said that they would be the first to enter Heaven (their questioning being lighter). 

That they understood that the religion is not just lip service. But that the greatest of it is giving, and sacrificing so that another may benefit because of you. That is where you proof lies. The proof of who you are. 

If anything is worth doing then it is worth sacrificing for, paying for it and doing it. 

Indeed that which differentiates us from the Ahmadiyyq is that we do not accept free services, or gifts, irrespective of where they come from. 

That we know that for something to be pure and blessed it needs to come from us, for us, and not be provided by another. 

*Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation.*

*Not this above, nor lectures, nor talks.*