THE PRAYER IS A GIFT FROM ALLAH

✦ THE PRAYER IS A GIFT FROM ALLAH ✦

The Prayer/Salah is the delight of the believers’ eyes, the pleasure of their souls, and the precious garden of worshipers. It is the sought-after fruit of submissiveness, the real gauge of truthfulness, and accurate scale of one’s affairs with Allah. The prayer is so very important that the Prophet said: "Verily, between man and polytheism and disbelief is abandoning prayer." (Muslim).

The Prayer is Allah’s mercy to His believing servants. He guided them to it, acquainted them with it, and gifted it to them through His truthful and honest Messenger (peace be up on him) as a means to attaining His mercy and privilege.

His purpose behind the Prayer is to qualify them to deserve the dignity and honor He prepared for them, and to help them win a position of nearness to Him. Not out of need for them, but absolute generosity from Him.

Through the Prayer, Allah guided the believers to manifest their servitude through their hearts and limbs. The heart that knows more about Allah will get the maximum benefit from it. It will be more keen to get nearer to Allah and turn completely to Him; it will feel pleasure and happiness in that state; it will enjoy His love; it will rejoice upon standing before Him, being completely focused on Him while fulfilling His rights internally and externally according to the manner most pleasing to him.

The outward and physical nature of the Prayer has been fashioned to naturally match the actions of the heart: submission, humility, obedience and submissiveness. Each part of the body is offered its share to manifest its servitude to Allah.

Allah Almighty Says in Holy Quran: Indeed, prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing, and the remembrance of Allah is greater. And Allah knows that which you do. [Surah Al Ankabut 29:45].

The fruit of all of this being: a complete and absolute turning and focus on Allah, through body and soul.

The reward of this being: nearness to Allah and attainment of His bounty in this world and the next.

The reality of it being: entering in a state of standing before Allah, beautifying oneself in preparation for that moment. This serves as a constant reminder of the grand standing before Allah on the Day of Meeting.

Allah Almighty Says in Holy Quran: And establish prayer at the two ends of the day and at the approach of the night. Indeed, good deeds do away with misdeeds. That is a reminder for those who remember. [Surah Hud 11:114].

► Design your life around Salah

1. Salah should be the main activity around which you build all other activities in your life. Salah should take precedence over all other activities in your life that includes work, study and leisure time.

2. Salah Our first obligation is to our creator, once we have met this obligation then we can pursue other activities as long as they are within the boundaries set by Allah. Salah connects you to the one true Allah and feeds your soul the spiritual nourishment it requires.

3. Our obligation to Allah is the most important obligation in our lives, without Allah we would not exist so we all have a responsibility to honor our creator and give him thanks for our lives and the wonderful gifts that he has given us. This commitment to Allah is our sacred covenant and our path to lead us to the eternal life.

4. We all need to endeavor to try and make Salah the focal point of our lives and ensure that nothing comes before that. I know this can be difficult for some people because their lives have already been built around other activities, but ask yourself this question, isn’t our creator the most worthy of our commitment?

5. Allah Almighty gave us life and the ability to think and feel and love and enjoy all the other activities we do. Without Allah there is nothing, he is the truth and the only reality. Think about what you will gain through Salah compared to what you will lose if you don’t pray.

6. If you don’t pray you may progress in your worldly affairs and you may do well and make lots of money and lead a comfortable life in this world. Is the worldly gains worth selling your soul for? Is it worth selling your soul for the temporary pleasures in this limited life that we have on this Earth?

7. Compare this to what you will lose, your eternal life in the hellfire. Is it not worth sacrificing some of your time to pray to Allah to ensure that your eternal life is blessed and is worthy of heaven?

8. We know this isn’t easy for a lot of people because of the social conditioning that we have been exposed to and the lure of worldly influences. I have personally struggled to achieve this in my life, to erase all the social conditioning and to value Allah in my life over all things.

9. It takes time and effort and it starts with the question mentioned earlier of acknowledging how important Allah is in your life and how you can repay the gift of life he has given you through praising him in Salah. Nothing is more important in your life then Allah and praying to Allah.

10. The second phase of the approach is to make salah the central theme of your life and to make sure all other activities do not impinge on your Salah time. So if you have activities that cross this boundary, then ensure that you stop doing them to pray. Always remember that Salah is a gift from Allah to you, it is not something that will benefit him, it will benefit you.

11. We as Muslims are obligated to pray 5 times a day at certain times during the day, the actual act of Salah itself should not take longer than 5 to 10 minutes. This is not long at all, to give 25 to 50 minutes of your time throughout the day to thank our creator. Can we not even spare 25-50 minutes throughout our day to honor our creator?

12. Start by having the intention of praying to Allah at the appointed time and slowly start designing your life so that you can meet your obligations of Salah. This will be a slow process because of how your life is currently designed around worldly activities, but have faith and patience and Allah will find a way for you.

13. The biggest obstacle of designing your life around Salah is work, we all need to work to earn money to survive in this world to ensure we have shelter and food and clothes. This is something we all have to do to live. Start by seeing if you can fit Salah into your current job by asking your employer that you require time to pray at certain times of the day.

14. If you cannot do this then seek alternative employment that will allow you to pray and meet your worldly commitments at the same time. The next stage is to minimize your financial burdens so that whatever money you do earn allows you to focus on your fundamental needs of yourself and your family to survive.

15. This can be achieved by cutting down on buying things that you don’t need and living simply and frugally so that you have time to allocated to meet your obligations to Allah instead of spending all your time working and accumulating money to buy material things to elevate your status in this world. I am not saying to become a pauper, enjoy the bounties that Allah has provided you in this world but always remember Allah and give thanks to him. If you make this intention to pray, then Allah will be with you and help you achieve this goal.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “The comparison of one who remembers Allah and one who does not, is like that of the living and the dead.”

Allah Almighty Says in Holy Quran: Those who have believed and whose hearts are assured by the remembrance of Allah . Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah hearts are assured." [Surah Al Ra’d 13:28].

Allah Almighty Says in Holy Quran: "Be grateful to Allah ." And whoever is grateful is grateful for the benefit of himself. And whoever denies His favor - then indeed, Allah is Free of need and Praiseworthy. [Surah Luqman 31:12].

Your worship is not a gift from you to Allah, It is a gift from Allah to you. Make shukr (give thanks) to Allah that He has given you the opportunity to pray.

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