Looking Down On The Worship of Others

Looking Down On The Worship of Others, by Ustadh Salman Younas


Every Ramadan there is a debate – sometimes prolonged and other times less so – regarding how many cycles of Tarawih one should pray. Is the sunna to pray 8? Or is it 20? Or is it something else? Ustadh Salman Younas critiques the culture of using these differences to look down on others.

These discussions may be important in certain settings but they have assisted in creating a culture where individuals look down on the worship of others, where one pats oneself on the back for praying the “full amount”, where those who pray less are joked about through memes and statuses. The self (nafs) is fed and aggrandized in this context through the worst of ways: in the guise of following and defending the sunna.

Ramadan is not a time to judge. It is a time to strive, struggle, and do our best. For someone who never prayed, praying even the obligatory prayers is a great accomplishment; for someone who only prayed the obligatory prayers, praying the associated sunan is a great step forward; for someone who never prayed the night prayer (qiyam al-layl), performing a few cycles of it is from divine tawfiq; for someone who regularly prayed the night prayer, praying it in even more copious amounts is an increased blessing from God.

Quality, not quantity

Your 20 cycles mean nothing if you conclude them by judging those who prayed less than you. Your recitation of the Quran means nothing if you look down on those who were not able to read as much as you think they should have. A single cycle of prayer and a single session of Quranic recitation done out of sincerity and hope in God’s reward is a million times better than mountains of worship accompanied with subtle arrogance and a sense of superiority.
Don’t let your self delude you and squander your works this month (or any other for that matter). If you find yourself feeling this way, recognize your flaw and use this month to overcome it. Do not discount anyone’s worship regardless of whether it is up to your standards or not. Only someone who does not know the value of worship says things like, “He only prayed 6 cycles of Tarawih!” Instead, say, “MashaAllah, may God accept it and increase us all in good.”

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