This is the last lesson of the course. You will teach the prayer back in English, finish your salah plan, and ask the questions you still have.
In Lesson 1, we asked why you pray, and this course made you a promise: by the end, you would understand every word you say in salah, in English.
In this last lesson, you show in your own words that the promise was kept.
Islamic Studies · Worship class · about 75 minutes · your notebook, your cards, and a pen
Swap whole decks with your partner and shuffle them. Today every card is in play, from the catch-up set to Lesson 11. One of you reads the cue, the other says the Arabic and what it means, then switch.
أَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ لِذِكْرِي
Aqimis-salata li-dhikri
Establish prayer for My remembrance.
Lesson 11 · Surah Ta-Ha 20:14
إِذَا رَقَدَ أَحَدُكُمْ عَنِ الصَّلاَةِ أَوْ غَفَلَ عَنْهَا فَلْيُصَلِّهَا إِذَا ذَكَرَهَا
Idha raqada ahadukum 'anis-salati aw ghafala 'anha, fal-yusalliha idha dhakaraha
When one of you sleeps through the prayer or forgets it, let him pray it when he remembers it.
Lesson 11 · Sahih Muslim 684d
لَا تَقْنَطُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللَّهِ
La taqnatu min rahmatillah
Do not despair of the mercy of Allah (SWT).
Lesson 11 · Surah Az-Zumar 39:53
اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ
Allahu Akbar
Allah (SWT) is greater than everything.
Lesson 6
سُبْحَانَ رَبِّيَ الْأَعْلَى
Subhana Rabbiyal-A'la
Glory be to my Lord, the Most High.
Lesson 8 · Sahih Muslim 772
السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ
As-salamu 'alaykum wa rahmatullah
Peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah (SWT).
Lesson 9 · Sunan Abi Dawud 996
Any card that is still shaky goes in your "Still learning" pile. That pile is where your study starts after this course.
The last lesson ended with one challenge: carry out your written plan for one of your three hardest salah situations.
In your notebook:
Your writing stays with you. You will use these answers again when you finish your salah plan later today.
All eleven lessons in one view, and what salah has been all along.
You explain one part of the prayer, in English, to a partner, and then you listen to theirs.
The question from Lesson 1 one more time, and your salah plan, finished.
Your own questions, out loud if you want, and a closing dua that we say together.
Today's title is The Meeting. Salah is a meeting with Allah (SWT), and today we look at everything you now bring to it.
The house and the deed, His (SWT) love that came first, and worship as what love does.
Four of His (SWT) Names, and how knowing Him helps you love Him.
A private conversation, five prayers with the reward of fifty.
The times, the adhan, purity, the qiblah, and niyyah.
The four acts in the ayah, the full wudu, and tayammum.
Allahu Akbar, the opening dua, and the conversation begins.
The straight path, Amin, and Al-Ikhlas as a surah of your own.
Awe before Al-Adheem, and nearness in sujud.
The tashahhud, the salawat, and the taslim.
Two rak'ahs, slowly, with the meaning running in your head.
School, missed prayers, and your three hardest situations.
You teach it back, and the deed transfers to your name.
Which lesson changed the way you pray the most? Which one do you need to go back to?
إِنَّ أَحَدَكُمْ إِذَا صَلَّى يُنَاجِي رَبَّهُ
The Prophet (pbuh) said: "Whenever any one of you offers his prayer, he is speaking in private to his Lord."
You met this hadith in Lesson 3. Back then, many of the words in that private conversation may have been new to you. Now you know what each one means.
When you pray now, does it feel more like saying words or like talking to someone? What would move it one step closer to talking?
وَاسْتَعِينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَاةِ ۚ وَإِنَّهَا لَكَبِيرَةٌ إِلَّا عَلَى الْخَاشِعِينَ الَّذِينَ يَظُنُّونَ أَنَّهُم مُّلَاقُو رَبِّهِمْ وَأَنَّهُمْ إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ
"And seek help through patience and prayer; and indeed, it is difficult except for the humbly submissive [to Allah (SWT)] Who are certain that they will meet their Lord and that they will return to Him (SWT)."
You met these ayat in Lesson 10, when we talked about khushu. The One you meet in salah is Allah (SWT): Al-Wadud, who loved you first, and Al-Adheem, the Most Great. You come to the prayer out of love for Him (SWT), and you stand in it with awe.
Since Lesson 10, has a prayer felt lighter for you, even once? What was different about it?
You meet Him (SWT) in salah five times a day. How might those meetings prepare a person for the meeting this ayah describes?
In Lesson 1, this course made a promise: by the end, you would understand every word you say in salah, in English.
Your notebook holds all of it, in your own handwriting: the words in one column, and what they mean in the other.
Start today's page: "Lesson 12: Capstone: The Meeting." Then look back through your pages from Lesson 6 to Lesson 11, and put a small mark next to any word whose meaning you cannot say yet without looking. Those marked words are what you study first.
Knowing the words is one step. Explaining them to someone else is how you find out they are really yours.
Nothing is graded. If you get stuck, open your notebook, because that is what it is for.
What Allahu Akbar means, then the opening dua, line by line.
Each ayah in English, and what Allah (SWT) answers after 1:2, 1:3 and 1:4.
What Allah (SWT) answers after 1:5 and after 1:7, what we ask for, and what Amin means.
Each of its four ayat in English, and what the surah tells you about Allah (SWT).
Subhana Rabbiyal-Adheem, Sami'Allahu liman hamidah, and Rabbana wa lakal-hamd.
Subhana Rabbiyal-A'la, Rabbighfir li, and what Lesson 8 taught about nearness in sujud.
All four parts, line by line, and who each greeting is for.
Both parts of the salawat, and the salam that ends the prayer.
Every portion is in your notebook and in your cards. Use them while you prepare.
There are no graded answers here. Talking about salah in your own words is the point.
In Lesson 1, the first thing you wrote was one honest sentence: why do you pray? Then we used a picture. Your Islam was a house built for you, and at some point the deed transfers to your name.
On today's page, answer two questions honestly.
If you chose this deen yourself, or you are the one keeping it going at home, ask yourself instead: what will keep it strong?
Your writing stays with you. "Not yet" is an honest answer, and a real place to start.
In Lesson 11, you wrote a plan for your three hardest salah situations. Today you finish it, using what happened this week.
On a new page titled "My salah plan", write:
Your plan stays with you. If you are still building up to five prayers, plan for the prayers you pray now and for the next one you will add.
أَنَّ عَائِشَةَ زَوْجَ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم كَانَتْ لاَ تَسْمَعُ شَيْئًا لاَ تَعْرِفُهُ إِلاَّ رَاجَعَتْ فِيهِ حَتَّى تَعْرِفَهُ
Ibn Abi Mulaykah reported that Aisha (RA), the wife of the Prophet (pbuh), never heard anything she did not understand without going back over it until she understood it.
In the rest of this hadith, she heard the Prophet (pbuh) say something that seemed to her not to fit an ayah of the Quran. So she asked him about it, and he explained it to her.
Write one question first: about salah, about Allah (SWT), about Islam, or something you have doubts about. Then decide whether to ask it out loud. Both choices are fine.
Questions that feel like doubts are welcome here. If one needs a longer answer than today allows, we will look for it together, or you can take it to your imam.
Near the end of Surah Ibrahim, Ibrahim (AS) makes a series of duas: for himself, his children, his parents, and the believers. This is one of them. We end the course by saying it together, slowly.
رَبِّ اجْعَلْنِي مُقِيمَ الصَّلَاةِ وَمِن ذُرِّيَّتِي ۚ رَبَّنَا وَتَقَبَّلْ دُعَاءِ
"My Lord, make me an establisher of prayer, and [many] from my descendants. Our Lord, and accept my supplication."
Say it: Rabbij-'alni muqimas-salati wa min dhurriyyati, Rabbana wa taqabbal du'a.
Add this dua to today's page: the words in one column, what they mean in the other. Then, under "In my own words", write one sentence: what is salah to you now?
Copy the front and the back onto one index card. Then put it with the rest of your deck.
رَبِّ اجْعَلْنِي مُقِيمَ الصَّلَاةِ وَمِن ذُرِّيَّتِي ۚ رَبَّنَا وَتَقَبَّلْ دُعَاءِ
Rabbij-'alni muqimas-salati wa min dhurriyyati, Rabbana wa taqabbal du'a
My Lord, make me an establisher of prayer, and [many] from my descendants. Our Lord, and accept my supplication.
Lesson 12 · Surah Ibrahim 14:40
Keep every card, from the catch-up set to this one. Together they hold every word of salah, with its meaning.
Go through "Still learning" every day, and the whole deck once a week, shuffled.
Your cards stay with you. Nobody collects them.
Your writing stays with you.
Keep your cards and your plan going after the course ends.
Study them one or two minutes a day, for example after a prayer. Go through "Still learning" every day, and the whole deck once a week.
Read your salah plan once a week. When part of it stops working, rewrite that part and keep going.
If you are not praying all five yet, keep the cards and the plan going for the prayers you do pray, and keep adding.
There is no next lesson in this course. What happens next is between you and Allah (SWT).
وَمَنْ سَلَكَ طَرِيقًا يَلْتَمِسُ فِيهِ عِلْمًا سَهَّلَ اللَّهُ لَهُ بِهِ طَرِيقًا إِلَى الْجَنَّةِ
The Messenger of Allah (SWT) (pbuh) said: "...Whoever travels a path in search of knowledge, Allah (SWT) will make easy for him, through it, a path to Paradise..."
May Allah (SWT) accept your salah, and keep it yours for the rest of your life.