‎فخلف من بعدهم خلف اضاعوا الصلوة و اتبعوا الشهوات فسوف يلقون غيا

“Then there succeeded them a posterity who neglected the prayers and followed lusts; so presently they shall meet with perdition.”

After mentioning Ambiya AS, Allah says after them such people came who had 2 bad qualities,

1.They used to destroy salah:

Firstly, either by missing it completely and continuously doing Qadha;

•Missing salah is a grave sin, so much so that it differentiates between Iman and kufr.

•Hazrat Umar RA wrote a letter when he became Ameerul Momineen to all the governors saying that salah is the most important thing in my eyes.

•Salah is the foundation of religion.

•Salah perfects Iman.

Quote: The strong person is the one who can lift his blanket for salah.

Secondly, they never kept the conditions of Salah in mind; pray it hastily and not doing Tadeele Arkan, wudu not done properly, no concentration

•Such salah is thrown back in the face.

•A people will come who will steal in salah this is because they pray like chickens.

•Tadeel Arkan (to stand after ruku calmly and to sit in between sujood calmly) is Wajib.
(The best way to do this is to pray those duas in between sujood and ruku which are Masnoon)

Hazrat huzaifa RA saw a person performing salah quickly without Tadeel. He asked how long have you been praying namaz like this for? He replied 40 yrs. huzaifa RA said, if you die like this you will die against the Fitrat of Muhammed.

Imam Qurtubi RA says, nowadays we see some people of knowledge and those who are classified as pious don’t perform salah properly and are negligent of its etiquettes, they merely perform few exercises.

This is in the 6th century, imagine nowadays.

A pious person said,

‎من أراد أن يعرف قدر الدين في قلبه، فلينظر إلى قدر الصلاة في قلبه.

“If you want to gauge how much value of Deen you have, look to see how much you value Salah.”

2.The second bad quality is that they used to follow their unlawful whims and desires.

The more a person fulfils his desires the more stronger his Nafs become and eventually he becomes a slave of his Nafs. Rasulullah صلي الله عليه و سلم said,
‎الكيس من دان نفسه و عمل لما بعد الموت و العاجز من اتبع نفسه هواها و تمني علي الله

The intelligent one is the one who crushes his desires and toils for the akhirah and the foolish one is the one who follows his desires and has hope in Allah (that he will forgive him).

‎أتى النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم رجل فقال: يا رسول الله من أزهد الناس في الدنيا؟ فقال: من لم ينس المقابر والبلى وترك أفضل زينة الدنيا وآثر ما يبقى على ما يفنى ولم يعد غدا من أيامه وعد نفسه من الموتى

A man once came to Nabi (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) and asked, ‘Who is regarded to be the most ascetic person in this world’? Nabi (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) replied, ‘The one who never forgets the graves and becoming decomposed, he leaves out the best adornments of this world, he prefers the eternal [Hereafter] over the temporary, he does not regard himself [to be alive] tomorrow, rather he regards himself among the dead’.

(Imam Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shaybah RA has recorded this Hadith as mursalan)

Allah says in Sura Jathiyyah,

‎افرايت من اتخذ إلهه هواه

“Have you seen the one who’s made his desires his God”

Mufti Usama Mahmad
https://www.tafseer-raheemi.com/%e2%...0%2C4027070869