Prayer-A Gift of Allah
Is Prayer or Salah has any significance? Is it too much of a burden to pray 5 times a day? What’s the purpose of Salah?
If any of these questions have occurred to you or if you have ever just wondered about the significance of Salah, then you are about to get a beautiful and satisfying explanation to your questions right here.
We will explore the views of Imam Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyyah Rahimullah regarding salah. He guides us through its meaning, purpose, and spiritual significance in his book ‘Inner Dimensions of the Prayer’.
What is Salah/Prayer?
Salah is a ritual and a commandment from Allah obligatory upon every believer. It’s not just movement of bodies and utterance of words, but there’s much more to it. Ibn Qayyim Rahimullah explains Salah as being:
- domain of tranquility for devotees
- the enjoyment of the souls of monotheists
- the garden of the worshippers
- the essence of the enjoyment of the humble ones
- the test of the sincere/truthful ones
- and the scale measuring the mettle of those embarking the right path
His beautiful exposition of what Salah/Prayer is, clearly indicates its spiritual significance, its sweetness and some of its purposes. Last two points here are important-
1. Salah is a test for sincere one - praying five times a day on its fixed time really differentiates a believer from a hypocrite. Islam demands full submission to Allah. A person’s love and longing for prayer indicates how much has he submitted himself to the will of Allah. It is difficult for a hypocrite to pray five times especially Fazr prayer before sunrise, he gets lazy and so his heart hardens. But a believer even if he feels lazy, realizes his duty to his Lord and submits himself fully to Allah. Hence, Salah acts as a test to demarcate a true believer from a hypocrite.
2. Salah is scale measuring mettle of those embarking the right path- After demarcating hypocrites from believers, Salah also categorizes believers into different levels. Some believers pray obligatory prayers and fulfill the bare minimum requirement. Some pray sunnah prayers and get closer to Allah and some others pray voluntary prayers and get more and more closer to the Creator. Some pray by just reciting and doing the movements like standing, bowing, prostrating and sitting and fulfilling his bare minimum obligations. Some while doing all of the things above, contemplate on the words they recite, and some others along with contemplating the words of Quran, enter into the presence of their Lord and pray as if they see their Lord or their Lord is seeing them. So, everyone gets reward and sweetness according to their level.
Why is it a Gift?
Ibn Qayyim Rahimullah considers Salah as Allah's Gift. He explains this gift in the following way:
- Salah is the divine Mercy that Allah has gifted to His believing servants so that they may attain a noble status with Him.
- This is a Gift because through its means He dignifies, honors and showers them with His Mercy and allows them to win His nearness.
- He is in no need of them, He just wants to lavish them with this gracious gift to show His favor upon them and bring their hearts and bodies altogether into his servitude.
The last point is really important. We must clear our mind of the thought that Allah is in need of our worship. No, He is not. He is self-sufficient, All Powerful. We worship Him because He is the most deserving of our, except Him no one deserves to be worshipped. On the contrary, we really need to worship Him so that He may bless and guide us to the right path, and we may get near to Him. So, the Most Merciful, out of his Mercy, gave us this gift of Prayer so that we may receive his blessings and save ourselves from the Fire.
Significance of Salah
Ibn Qayyim Rahimullah explains the significance of Salah in following way-
- Allah has tested His servants by creating them with innate lusts and desires and has exposed them to external temptations, but out of his immense Mercy and Kindness, The Most High, gave His servants this gift of ‘Salah’, which Ibn-Qayyim terms as ‘Feast’.
- This Salah/Feast comprises of several kinds of delicacies, nourishments, gifts and grants to help them repel these desires and temptations.
- Not only did He made every act of worship performed in Salah a means of remedy to atone for minor sins they committed but also rewarded them(believers) with a special light for praying.
- Salah brings forth light and strength into the heart, increases the share of one’s provisions in this life, inspires others to love the one who prays, and lets Angels and also the earth with its mountains, trees and rivers rejoice.
- On the Day of Judgement when the believing servants meet their Lord, their Salah shall turn into light and transform into reward.
‘Before attending the feast their hearts endured starvation, thirst and nakedness but as soon as the commence the Salah, all that shall change to become the opposite, hence they shall leave the feast with stomachs full, throats moistened, and bodies attired.’ — Ibn Qayyim Rahimullah.
Note: In next few articles, we will explore some other dimensions of prayers, so stay tuned.