Salaam Minara Family,

Small yet weighty. 

A bit of a dramatic statement to sow today’s seeds!

But… let’s just sit with that for a moment.

Small yet weighty.

Is there anything you’ve done today that you would consider to be small yet weighty?

Because this week, we found ourselves reflecting on two such seemingly ‘small things’: waking for Fajr, and Surah Ikhlaas.

Yes both appear small and simple on the surface [Fajr is the shortest prayer after all and Surah Ikhlaas is the fourth shortest surah in the Qur'an], but sincerity has a way of turning small moments into turning points. 

And why we’re thinking about this today is because one of our Minara team is documenting her 30 day Fajr challenge. 

📸 You can follow along on Minara’s Instagram for a dose of real-life motivation, daily reflections: wins and struggles included! @myminara

Side note: And if you’d like to move from viewer to active participant, our 30-Day Fajr Challenge is designed to help you build consistency, deepen your connection to Allah, and reorient your day around the most blessed hours.

Look, we’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again. Sometimes, and sometimes ALL the time, waking up for Fajr just feels so darn hard! And so getting a look into another person’s journey of strife and struggle has really been tugging at our hearts because how can The Most-Merciful do anything but meet such effort with Love and Grace?

Aameen Ya Rabb 💛

Subsequently, we were reminded of this hadith: 

Narrated Abu Huraira:

And reading this hadith got us all in our ‘poetic feels’ so lo and behold - here’s our little love letter to Fajr.

💙💌

OK, OK, full transparency please. How many times have you read Surah Al-Ikhlaas in your salah this week gone? 

In this spirit of full transparency, yes we love it too. 

Short and sweet. 

But let’s change our intention. No, we don’t need to stop reading Surah Al-Ikhlaas but we could elevate its functionality in Salah to something beyond just short and sweet. 

Mu’awiyah ibn Muawiyah [Allah be pleased with him] - subhan Allah, the tale of his funeral will leave you with goosebumps. 

Angel Jibra’eel himself came to the Prophet ﷺ whilst he was in Tabuk and said: “O Muhammad! Attend the funeral of Mu’awiyah.”

The Prophet ﷺ set out with his companions and Jibra’eel descended. 

And accompanying him? 

70,000 angels. 

Jibra’eel then stretched his right wing over the mountains and they [the mountains ⛰️] lowered themselves in humbleness.

He then stretched his left wing over the earth and it [the earth 🌍] lowered itself in humbleness to the point that Makkah and Medinah became visible. 

Then, in a gathering comprised of: the best man to walk this earth,  some of the most beloved servants of Allah, and this magnificent army of angels, the Janazah Salah of Mu’awiyah was fulfilled. 

And when the Prophet enquired as to the reason behind this beautiful procession, Angel Jibra’eel replied, “By reciting Qul Huwallahu Ahad whilst sitting, walking and riding.”

^{[Source: printed in Ibn Kathir, preface of Surah Ikhlas]}

Just subhan Allah. 

And actually, did you know that a love for Surah Ikhlaas was a hallmark of several of the Prophet’s companions [Allah be pleased with them]?

You may have heard of the companion who would recite Surah Al-Ikhlas in every rak‘ah during prayer. The people around him noticed and complained to the Prophet ﷺ, almost as if to say, “Why does he keep repeating the same Surah over and over?” When the Prophet ﷺ asked him about it, the companion replied, “Because it describes Ar-Rahman, the Most Merciful, and I love to recite it.”

The Prophet ﷺ didn’t rebuke him. 

Instead, he said, “Tell him that Allah loves him.”

^{[Bukhari & Muslim]} 

So next time you read Surah Ikhlaas - well hey, it’s not because it’s short and sweet. It’s because it attests to the Qualities of Ar-Rahmaan and what could be more beautiful than praising your Creator directly, in your private line of connection during Salah? 💛

Let’s take a little deep-dive into this surah to unlock its layers.

Surah Ikhlaas is essentially a comprehensive lesson of Divine Oneness.

قُلْ هُوَ ٱللَّهُ أَحَدٌ

"Say He is Allah The One."

'Ahad' conveys the Oneness of Allah but differently from the Arabic 'wahid' which also means one. Yes Allah is One of course but 'Ahad' also determines that Allah is "beyond composition, plurality and resemblance." [Maa'riful Qu'ran] 

Let's break it down in layman's terms. 

This means Allah isn’t made up of parts. Human beings are composed of body and soul. Objects have parts that come together to form a whole. Allah, however, is not made up of anything: no body, no form, no ‘ingredients’ as such. His existence is absolute and not dependent on any structure.

It means absolute oneness -  indivisible, unlike anything else.

اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ

“Allah, the Eternal Refuge.”

Think of As-Samad as The One everyone turns to but He never needs to turn to anyone. We're acknowledging two things with this quality. That:

لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ

“He neither begets nor is born.”

This verse shuts down any idea that Allah could be part of a lineage, family, or group of gods, in response to the Quraish questioning the Prophet ﷺ about Allah's 'ancestry.' The simple truth is there is no analogy between Allah, the Creator and His creation . 

وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُۥ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ

“And there is nothing comparable to Him.”

'Kufuwan' means 'one equal in rank and position' or 'similar. There is no-one, there was no-one and there will never be anyone who can resemble Allah in any way. 

No image, no concept, no attribute in creation can fully reflect who Allah is.

A theological powerhouse - that's what Surah Ikhlaas is - short yes, sweet yes but an absolute powerhouse, negating every false idea about Allah's nature: composition, plurality and resemblance while affirming his absolute oneness and uniqueness. 

As you move through the coming days, try this short, repeatable practice to ground your Salah with more presence and intention:

Try this for one week. By the end, you’ll have seven simple reflections and a quiet record of what happens when a short surah becomes a doorway to deeper knowing.

Love and du’as,

The Minara Team