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The Spirit of Worship in Islam (part 1 of 3): Worship and Prayer
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Description: The meaning of worship, and spirit and purpose of prayer in Islam.
By Abul A`la Mawdudi (edited by IslamReligion.com)
- Published on 22 Oct 2007 - Last modified on 01 Apr 2008
Viewed: 3340 - Rating: 4.2 from 5 - Rated by: 6
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Category: Articles
> Worship and Practice
> Islamic Morals and Practices
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_-_Worship_and_Prayer_001.jpg) Ibadah (worship) is an Arabic word derived from
abd (a slave) and it means submission. It portrays that God is your Master and
you are His slave, and whatever a slave does in obedience to and for the
pleasure of his Master is Ibadah. The Islamic concept of Ibadah
is very wide. If you free your speech from filth, falsehood, malice, and abuse
and speak the truth and talk goodly things and do all these only because God
has so ordained to do, they constitute Ibadah, however secular they may
look in semblance. If you obey the law of God in letter and spirit in your
commercial and economic affairs and abide by it in your dealings with your
parents, relatives, friends, and all those who come in contact with you, verily
all these activities of yours are Ibadah. If you help the poor and the
destitute, give food to the hungry, and serve the ailing and the afflicted
persons, and do all this not for any personal gain of yours but only to seek
the pleasure of God, they are nothing short of Ibadah. Even your
economic activities, the activities you undertake to earn your living and to
feed your dependants, are Ibadah if you remain honest and truthful in
them and observe the law of God. In short, all your activities and your entire
life are Ibadah if they are in accordance with the law of God, and your
heart is filled with His awe, and your ultimate objective in undertaking all
theses activities is to seek the pleasure of God.
Thus, whenever you do good or avoid evil for
fear of God, in whatever sphere of life and field of activity, you are
discharging your Islamic obligations. This is the true significance of Ibadah,
namely total submission to the pleasure of Allah; 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 `ibadat are
thus the pillars on which the edifice of Islam rests.
Salah (Prayer) is the most primary and
the most important of these obligations. And what is salah? It is the
prescribed daily Prayers which consist in repeating and refreshing, five times
a day, the belief in which you repose your faith. You get up early in the
morning, cleanse yourself and present yourself before your Lord for Prayer. The
various poses that you assume during your Prayers are the very embodiment of
the spirit of submission; the various recitals remind you of your commitments
to your God. You seek His guidance and ask Him again and again to enable you
to avoid His wrath and follow His chosen path. You read out from the Book of
the Lord and express witness to the truth of the Prophet, may the mercy and
blessings of God be upon him, and also refresh your belief in the Day of
Judgment and enliven in your memory the fact that you have to appear before
your Lord and give an account of your entire life. This is how your day
starts.
Then, after a few hours the muezzin
(caller to prayer) calls you to Prayer, and you again submit to your God and
renew your covenant with Him. You dissociate yourself from your worldly
engagements for a few moments and seek audience with God. This once again
brings to the fore of your mind your real role in life. After this
rededication you revert to your occupations and again present yourself to the
Lord after a few hours. This again acts as a reminder to you, and you once
more refocus your attention on the stipulations of your faith. When the sun
sets and the darkness of the night begins to shroud you, you again submit
yourself to God in Prayer so that you may not forget your duties and
obligations in the midst of the approaching shadows of the night. And then
after a few hours you again appear before your Lord, and this is your last
Prayer of the day. Thus before going to bed you once again renew your faith
and prostrate before your God. And this is how you complete your day. The
frequency and timings of the Prayers never let the object and mission of life
be lost sight of in the maze of worldly activities.
It is but easy to understand how the daily Prayers
strengthen the foundations of your faith, prepare you for the observance of a
life of virtue and obedience to God, and refresh that belief from which spring
courage, sincerity, purposefulness, purity of heart, advancement of the soul,
and enrichment of morals.
Now see how this is achieved: One performs ablution
in the way prescribed by the Prophet. One also says their Prayers according to
the instructions of the Prophet. Why do they do so? Simply because they believe
in the prophethood of Muhammad and deem it their bounden duty to follow him
ungrudgingly. Why do they not intentionally misrecite the Quran? Isn’t it so
because they regard the Book as the Word of God and deem it a sin to deviate
from its letter? In the Prayers they recite many things quietly, and if they do
not recite them or make any deviation from them, there is no one to check them.
But they never do so intentionally. Why? Because they believe that God is
Ever Watchful and that He listens to all that you recite and is aware of things
open and hidden.
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The Spirit of Worship in Islam (part 2 of 3): The Prayer and Fasting
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Description: More on the spirit and purpose of prayer in Islam, as well as the spirit of fasting.
By Abul A`la Mawdudi (edited by IslamReligion.com)
- Published on 29 Oct 2007 - Last modified on 01 Apr 2008
Viewed: 2744 - Rating: 4.7 from 5 - Rated by: 3
Printed: 172 - Emailed: 11 - Commented on: 0
Category: Articles
> Worship and Practice
> Islamic Morals and Practices
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_-_The_Prayer_and_Fasting_001.jpg) What makes a Muslim say their Prayers at places where
there is no one to ask them to offer them or even to see them offering them? Isn’t
it so because of their belief that God is ever looking at you? What makes them
leave their important business and other occupations and rush towards the
mosque for Prayers? What makes them terminate your sweet sleep in the early
hours of the morning, to go to the mosque in the heat of the noon, and to leave
their evening entertainments for the sake of Prayers? Is it anything other
than sense of duty—their realization that they must fulfill your responsibility
to the Lord, come what may? And why are they afraid of any mistake in Prayer? Because
their heart is filled with the fear of God and they know that they have to
appear before Him on the Day of Judgment and give an account of their entire
life.
Now look! Can there be a better course of moral
and spiritual training than Prayer? It is this training which makes a man a
perfect Muslim. It reminds him of his covenant with God, 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, may the mercy and
blessings of God be upon him, and trains him in the observance of his duties.
This is indeed 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 God hat he all along has striven to avoid. He will
abide by the law of God 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 the Lord 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 God, it can only be because of
some intrinsic depravity of his self.
Then again, a Muslim should say their Prayers in
congregation and especially so the Friday Prayer. This creates among the
Muslims a bond of love and mutual understanding. This arouses in them the sense
of their collective unity and fosters among them national fraternity. All of
them say their Prayers in one congregation and this inculcates in them a deep
feeling of brotherhood. Prayers are 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. Prayers also inculcate 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 Muslims
derive from the daily Prayers. If we refuse to avail ourselves of them we, and
only we, are the losers. If you see that some Muslims shirk the prayers, this
can only mean one of two things: Either they do not recognize Prayers as our
duty or they recognize them. In the first case, their claim to faith shall be
a shameless lie, for if they refuse to take orders from Allah they no longer
acknowledge His authority. In the second case, if they recognize Allah's
authority and still flout His commands, then they are the most unreliable of
creatures that ever trod the earth. For if they can do this to the highest
authority in the universe, what guarantee is there that they shall not do the
same in their dealings with other human beings? And if duplicity overwhelms a
society, what a hell of discord it is bound to become!
Fasting
What the prayers seek to serve five times a day,
fasting in the month of Ramadan (ninth month of the lunar year) does once a
year. During this period from dawn to dusk, Muslims eat not a grain of food
nor drink a drop of water, no matter how delicious the dish or how hungry or
thirsty they feel. What is it that makes them voluntarily undergo such rigors?
It is nothing but faith in God and the fear of Him and of the Day of Judgment.
Each and every moment during the fast, Muslims suppress their passions and
desires, and proclaim by their doing so the supremacy of the Law of God. This
consciousness of duty and the spirit of patience that incessant fasting for
full one month inculcates in Muslims help them to strengthen their faith. Rigor
and discipline during this month bring us face to face with the realities of
life, and help them make their life during the rest of the year a life of true
subservience to His will.
From yet another point of view, fasting has an
immense impact on society, for all Muslims, irrespective of their status, must
observe fasting during the same month. This brings to prominence the essential
equality of men, and thus goes a long way towards creating in them sentiments
of love and brotherhood. During Ramadan evil conceals itself while good comes
to the fore, and the whole atmosphere is filled with piety and purity. This
discipline has been imposed on Muslims to their own advantage. Those who do
not fulfill this cannot be relied upon in the discharge of their duties. But
the worst are those who, during this holy month, do not hesitate to eat or
drink in public. They are the people who by their conduct show that they care
not a trifle for the commands of Allah, in Whom they profess their belief as
their Creator and Sustainer. Not only this, they also show that they are not
loyal members of the Muslim community; rather, they have nothing to do with it.
It is evident that in so far as obedience to law and regard for a trust reposed
in them goes, only the worst could be expected of such hypocrites.
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The Spirit of Worship in Islam (part 3 of 3): Zakah and Hajj
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Description: The spirit of the Zakah (obligatory charity), and a glimpse of the Hajj.
By Abul A`la Mawdudi (edited by IslamReligion.com)
- Published on 05 Nov 2007 - Last modified on 04 Nov 2007
Viewed: 2113 - Rating: none yet - Rated by: 0
Printed: 181 - Emailed: 3 - Commented on: 0
Category: Articles
> Worship and Practice
> Islamic Morals and Practices
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Zakah
The third obligation is zakah. Every
Muslim whose financial condition is above a certain specified minimum must pay
annually 2.5 percent of his or her cash balance to a deserving fellow being. This
is the minimum. The more you pay, the greater the reward that God shall bestow
on you.
The money that we pay as zakah is not
something God needs or receives. He is above any want and need. He, in His
benign mercy, promises us rewards manifold if we help our brethren. But there
is one basic condition for being thus rewarded. And it is this: that when we
pay in the name of God, we shall not expect nor demand any worldly gains from
the beneficiaries nor aim at making our names as philanthropists.
Zakah is as basic to Islam as other forms
of worship: salah (prayers) and saum (fasting). The fundamental
importance of zakah lies in the fact that it fosters in us the qualities
of sacrifice and rids us of selfishness and plutolatry. Islam accepts within
its fold only those who are ready to give away in God’s way from their hard
earned wealth willingly and without any temporal or personal gain. It has
nothing to do with misers. A true Muslim will, when the call comes, sacrifice
all his belongings in the way of God, for zakah has already trained him
for such sacrifice.
There are immense gains to the society in the
institution of zakah. It is the bounden duty of every well-to-do Muslim
to help his lowly placed poor brethren. His wealth is not to be spent solely
for his own comfort and luxury, as there are rightful claimants on his wealth,
and they are the nation’s widows and orphans; the poor and the invalid; and
those who have ability but lack the means by which they could seek useful
employment; those who have the faculties and brilliance but not the money with
which they could acquire knowledge and become useful members of the community.
He who does not recognize the right on his wealth of such members of his own
community is indeed cruel. For there could be no greater cruelty than to fill
one’s own coffers while thousands die of hunger or suffer the agonies of
unemployment. Islam is a sworn enemy of such selfishness, greed, and
acquisitiveness. People not ingrained with these morals, devoid of sentiments
of universal love, know only to preserve wealth and to add to it by lending it
out on interest. Islam’s teachings are the very antithesis of this attitude. Here
one shares one’s wealth with others and helps them stand on their own legs and
become productive members of the society.
Hajj
Hajj, or the pilgrimage to Mecca, is the fourth
basic act of worship. It is obligatory once in a lifetime only for those who
can afford it. When Muslims undertake the pilgrimage, they are required to
suppress our passions, refrain from bloodshed, and be pure in word and deed. God
promises rewards for our sincerity and submissiveness.
The Hajj is, in a way, the biggest of all acts
of worship. This is so because unless people really loved God, then they would
never undertake such a long journey, leaving all their near and dear ones
behind them. It may seem easy now with the appearance of airplanes and
vehicles, but imagine in the past when Muslims had to take a long arduous
journey, facing fatigue, hunger and death, often taking more than a year!
This pilgrimage is unlike any other journey. Here,
pilgrims’ thoughts are concentrated on God, their very beings vibrate with the
spirit of intense devotion. When they reach the holy places, they find the
atmosphere laden with piety and godliness; they visit places which bear witness
to the glory of Islam, and all this leaves an indelible impression on their
minds, which they carry to their last breath.
In addition, there are in Hajj, as in any other
act of worship, many benefits that Muslims can gain. Mecca is the center
towards which the Muslims must converge once a year and discuss topics of
common interest. Hajj refreshes in them the faith that all Muslims are equal
and deserve the love and sympathy irrespective of their geographical or
cultural origin. Thus, Hajj unites Muslims from around the world into one
international brotherhood.
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