The Prayer: The First Question You Will Be Asked on the Day of Judgement

Author: Shaykh al-ʿAllāmah Ṣāliḥ al-Luḥaydān (d. 1443H)
Publisher: Lum'ah al-Lughah
Pages: 92

Prayer is the first of a servant's deeds to be brought to account on the Day of Judgement. If it is sound, the rest of his deeds will be sound; if it is found wanting, the rest will suffer loss. It is the pillar upon which the religion stands, the delight of the Prophet's eye (Peace and blessings be upon him), and the believer's refuge in hardship. To hear a scholar of the Shaykh's standing speak of prayer in the most sacred place on earth was a gift. To preserve his words and carry them to those who were not present is a mercy we have laboured not to waste.

The first lecture concerns purification, outward and inward, without which no prayer is accepted. It closes with the words of remembrance said while bowing and prostrating. The second calls the believer to guard the voluntary prayers, through which deficiencies in the obligatory prayers are repaired, and the servant draws nearer to his Lord. The third, delivered on the following night, explains the place of prayer in the religion and warns of the ruin awaiting those who abandon it. The fourth concerns the remembrance said after every obligatory prayer and the forgiveness Allāh grants through it.