Essence of Prayer

There is a lot of importance associated with formal prayer in Islam. It is one of its five pillars and the only one whose frequency is unmatched: 5 times in a single day.  From an early age, we are ingrained that we cannot simply pray; that we must purify ourselves by doing abulution (wazu/wudhu), we must ensure that where we are praying is a clean place, and if we happen to pray in a congregation in a mosque then our lines must be straight and that there must not be any space between people.  Some people raise their pants/shalwar to ankle high while they are praying to reflect a sunna of the prophet.  And at least on more than one occasion, I was gently told what I was doing wrong as I was either prostrating or while sitting during the namaz.  With all these “attributes” associated with the right way of performing a prayer, what gets lost is the true essence of prayer; that is, why are we praying in the first place.

Why, we must ask ourselves, is prayer considered so important. What is the reason that it is deemed necessary to face Mecca fives times a day and prostrate in front of God.  Unless we can answer the real reason why we are being asked to do something so important, then we are simply performing the mechanics like robots, without actually deriving the true meaning behind the actions.  Of course, it is not so black and white, most of us at least get some measure of reward from praying. For example, we get to meet our friends when we pray in a mosque, hence strengthening the bond between the Umma; others regard it as a meditation exercise, although we are almost always find our minds wandering during the prayer; another reason is by praying we are praising our Lord; still others feel that they are simply performing a duty that is asked of them – they pray because they have to.  Of course these are all valid reasons

Why is it that prayer is one of the pillars of Islam? Why do we need a reminder five times a day? To what end does the prayer justify its place in Islam? I think the answer lies in this Urdu verse:

“dard-e-dil kay wastay paida kea InsaaN ko

Warna ataa’at kay leay kuch kum na thay karobeaN”

A loose translation: If God simply wanted to hear praises for Himself then the angels were sufficient to do the job.  He created mankind because he wanted Man to feel love for his fellow man.

We pray so that we are aware of God’s presence. We pray and, most importantly, we raise our hands in dua after the prayer to establish a direct connection with God.  We do it five times because Islam wanted us to not forget this connection.  Why is this connection so important. It is important because we are talking to a being that is just in His dealing, to someone who will listen /or not listen to us regardless of our social and financial status, the skin of our color or our background. This connection is important so we can imbibe in us some of the qualities that are so near and dear to our God and in doing so, we can have the dard-e-dil in our hearts for our fellow human beings. The prayer, my friends, is not about pleasing God or doing your duty without understanding why you are doing it. Its sole purpose is that by praying we can be good to our fellow human beings.

If someone prays with concentration thenhe will realize the words that he is repeating “Oh God lead on the path of the righteous people, and not those people that went astray.”  What is the righteous path. Is it to pray and get back to your work where you cheat your fellowman, is it to kill and rob your neighbor? No, the prayer’s job is to make your heart softer, its goal is to make you cry, to make you cry when you realize the wrong deeds that you have committed, to make you cry to learn of the human misery, to make you cry of how much good you can do.  Ultimately, my friends, you pray so that you can be a better human being.

Haquqat-e-ibaad or the rights of fellow human beings. We hear how important this notion is in Islam. Prayer is the means to keep us on the “siraat-e-mustaqeem” so that we can fulfill the Haquqat-e-ibaad.

Prayer is like formal school.  In order to get a job and be successful, you need to go to school and get a degree.  But what about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, both university dropouts.  They did not do too bad.  Does that mean, all of us should drop out? No.  But it also does not mean that to be hugely successful, you must have a degree from a college; more than likely you do, but not necessarily.  Similarly, for most us, to be successful in hereafter, we need the formal guidance of the prayer.  However, the essence of the prayer, similar to the essence of education can be gotten without it.  It seems that I am making a case for not praying. I am not. I am merely making a case for praying for the right reasons.  Understand why prayer is so important and what you must get out of each prayer.  Far dangerous are those self-righteous people who bow down in front of God and turn around and rob their neighbors and cheat their fellow man.

Fulfill your hearts with the love of humanity and we will make this world a better place, together.  Let us worry about the good that we can do together rather than worry about the bad that other people are doing.  Let us focus on not hurting one another, physically or otherwise.  There is too much hate and sadness in this world, the five times prayer was forward thinking when it was mandated 1400 years, for us to focus on doing good, for us to block out the nagging bad news surrounding us, to simply not bow our heads in ataa’at in front of an unseeing God but to fill ourselves with dard-e-dil for everyone around us.

Sameer