My Prayer in Ramadan
A prayer is a form of God’s love you have in your heart for other human beings. We have often observed a mother praying for her kids, a needy person praying for the person from whom he receives help, children praying for parents, a Priest or Imam praying for their community and so on. And this love for another human being in the form of prayer could be conditional or unconditional but it is still a beautiful thing to do.
This Ramadan a thought came into my mind while I was praying for my family and dear ones before breaking my fast “Mazhar, it's so easy to pray for the people you love or you consider good, but what about people whom you do not like? The people who hurt you, disrespected you, are unkind to you.” Before I could avoid this thought, the following verse from Quran popped into my mind —
41:34 Not equal is the good response and the bad response. You shall resort to the nicest possible response. Thus, the one who used to be your enemy, may become your best friend.
And this verse reminds me that we cannot move to the next level on our spiritual journey without having the quality of turning our enemies into friends. So without giving it much thought I started thinking of people and prayed to God to guide them and have mercy on them. Fortunately, I didn't have many people on my list :) ( Thank You, God!)
I know you all will think but what about evil people? Like murders, rapists, abusers, thieves etc. And I also understand it won't make sense to some of you maybe to pray for such people. But imagine for a moment if God had not guided us? God forbid, we too could have committed evil like them. Also, God says in the scripture that He can forgive all sins if one genuinely seeks forgiveness.
39:53 Proclaim: “O My servants who exceeded the limits, never despair of GOD’s mercy. For GOD forgives all sins. He is the Forgiver, Most Merciful.”
Therefore, if God’s door is open for all who want to seek His mercy and forgiveness then I believe our prayers for their guidance may help them get inside the kingdom of God by His leave. Also, it is not just about them, like I said prayer is also a form of love. Imagine if you start praying for people whom you don't like your/ or your enemies then your prayers will become unconditional. Your heart will become much stronger, kind and more loving and a heart which carries God’s love finds it easier to connect with his Creator. So basically when you send prayers/love for others you receive more love from the Source, Our God.
As my favourite philosopher Shams Tabrizi said “If you want to strengthen your faith, you will need to soften inside. For your faith to be rock solid, your heart needs to be as soft as a feather.”
I pray to the Almighty that our hearts may become full of love and mercy.
Peace and Love ❤️
