Ibadah (worship) is an Arabic word derived from `abd
(a slave) and means submission. It portrays that Allah is the Master
while people are His slaves. A slave is to obey his master and seek his
master’s pleasure, which is one of the meanings of worship.
The Islamic concept of worship is very wide. If you free your speech
from filth, falsehood, malice and abuse, speak the truth, talk goodly
things and do all these only because Allah has so ordained you to do so,
this is a kind of `ibadah.
If you obey the law of Allah, in letter and spirit, in your
commercial and economic affairs and abide by it in your treatment of
your parents, relatives, friends and all those who come in contact with
you, then all these activities of yours are worship. If you help the
poor and the destitute, give food to the hungry, serve the ailing and
the afflicted persons and do all of this not for any personal gain but
only to seek the pleasure of Allah, they are also a kind of worship.
Even your economic activities, the activities you undertake to earn your
living and to feed your dependents, are worship if you remain honest
and truthful in them and observe the law of Allah. In short, all your
activities and your entire life are worship if they are in accordance
with the law of Allah, and your heart is filled with fear of Him and
your ultimate objective in undertaking all these activities is to seek
His Pleasure.
Thus, whenever you do well or avoid evil for fear of Allah, in
whatever sphere of life, you are demonstrating your Islamic obligations.
This is the true significance of worship, namely total submission to
the pleasure of Allah by the molding into the patterns of Islam your
entire life, leaving out not even the most insignificant part thereof.
To help achieve this aim, a set of formal `ibadat (acts of
worship) has been constituted, which serves as a course of training.
These acts are thus the pillars on which the edifice of Islam rests.
Prayer (salah) is the most primary and the most important of these
obligations. So, what is prayer? It is prescribed five times a day to
refresh one’s belief and consciousness of Allah, glory be to Him. One
gets up early in the morning, cleanses oneself and stands before Allah
for prayer.
The various poses that one assumes during prayers are the very
embodiment of the spirit of submission; the various recitals remind one
of one’s commitments to Allah. The Muslim seeks His guidance and asks
Him again and again to enable him avoid His wrath and follow His chosen
path.
When the Muslim reads from the Book of Allah, it refreshes his belief
in the Day of Judgment and enlivens in his memory the fact that he will
have to stand before Allah and be called for account about his entire
life. This is how the Muslim’s day starts.
Then, after a few hours the next call for prayer is declared. So, he
will again submit to Allah and renew his covenant with Him. In prayer,
one dissociates oneself from the worldly engagements for a few moments
and seeks guidance from Allah. This once again brings to the power of
his mind his real role in life. After this rededication, one reverts to
one’s occupations, with hope of reverting again to prayer a few hours
later. This acts as a reminder to the Muslim and refreshes his faith.
When the sun sets and the darkness of the night begins to cover the
earth, one again submits to Allah in prayer so that he should not forget
his duties and obligations in the midst of the approaching shadows of
the night. And then after a few hours, one again stands before Allah,
and this is the last prayer of the day.
Before going to bed, the Muslim once again renews his faith and
prostrate before Allah. And this is how the Muslim’s day come to an end.
The frequency and timings of the prayers never let the object and
mission of life be lost in the maze of worldly activities.
Prayer is prescribed five times a day to refresh one’s belief and consciousness of Allah, Glory be to Him.
It is easy to understand how the daily prayers strengthen the
foundations of your faith, prepare the Muslim for the observance of a
life of virtue and obedience to Allah, and refresh that belief from
which springs courage, sincerity, purposefulness, purity of heart,
advancement of the soul and enrichment of morals.
Now see how this is achieved: You perform ablution in the way
prescribed by the Prophet (peace be upon him). You also perform your
Prayers according to the instructions of the Prophet. Why do you do so?
Simply because you believe in the Prophethood of Muhammad (peace be upon
him) and deem it your bounden duty to follow him ungrudgingly.
What makes you say your prayers at places where there is no one to
ask you to offer them or even to see you offering them? Isn’t it because
of your belief that Allah is ever looking at you? What makes you leave
your important business and other occupations and rush towards the
mosque for Prayers? What makes you terminate your sweet sleep in the
early hours of the morning, go to the mosque in the heat of the noon and
leave your evening entertainments for the sake of prayers?
Is it anything other than sense of duty -your realization that you
must fulfill your responsibility to Allah? And why are you afraid of any
mistake in prayer? Because your heart is filled with the fear of Allah
and you know that you have to stand before Him on the Day of Judgment
and give an account of your entire life.
Now look! Can there be a better course of moral and spiritual
training than prayer? It is this training which makes man a perfect
Muslim. It reminds him of his covenant with Allah, refreshes his faith
in Him, and keeps the belief in the Day of Judgment alive and ever
present before his mind’s eye. It makes him follow the Prophet and
trains him in the observance of his duties.
Indeed, this is a strict training for conforming one’s practice to
one’s ideals. Obviously, if a man’s consciousness of his duties towards
his Creator is so acute that he prizes it above all worldly gains and
keeps refreshing it through prayers, he would certainly not be inviting
the displeasure of Allah that he all along has striven to avoid. He will
abide by the law of Allah in the entire gamut of life in the same way
as he follows it in the five prayers every day.
This man can be relied upon in other fields of activity as well, for
if the shadows of sin or deceit approach him, he will try to avoid them
for fear of Allah that would be ever present in his heart. And if -even
after such a vital training- a man misbehaves himself in other fields of
life and disobeys the law of Allah, it can only be because of some
intrinsic depravity of his self.
Then, again you must fulfill your prayers in congregation, especially
the Friday Prayer. This creates among the Muslims a bond of love and
mutual understanding, arouses in them a sense of collective unity and
fosters among them national fraternity. All of them say their prayers in
one congregation, which inculcates in them a deep feeling of
brotherhood.
Prayer is also a symbol of equality, for the poor and the rich, the
low and the high, the rulers and the ruled, the educated and the
unlettered, the black and the white; all stand in one row and prostrate
before their Lord.
Moreover, prayer inculcates in Muslims a strong sense of discipline
and obedience to the elected leader. In short, prayers train them in all
those virtues that make possible the development of a rich individual
and collective life.
These are a few of the myriad of benefits we can derive from the daily Prayers.
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