The beauty of prayer

Prayer in Islam is simply beautiful. Every time I pray I feel like I have discovered something new or I remember something within it that I hadn’t focussed on for a while. It is like you are entering a cave full of millions of precious jewels and every time you enter the cave, a different one glistens and catches your eye and you are in awe all over again of what you are seeing.

If I described every precious jewel, I would be writing a book, so I will pick out a few of the things that often manage to capture my heart when I pray. This is more of an article than a blog in length but I wanted to do the topic justice.

1.    Making Wudhu

Wudhu is the washing and purification Muslims do before they pray.

I love making Wudhu. Firstly, making Wudhu reminds me of how Allah is All-Seeing and All-Knowing. Whatever my outward actions, Allah knows everything that is in my head and my heart and He knows everything I do. For example, if you are a child and your mum tells you to wash before bed and brush your teeth, and in typical child fashion you can’t be bothered, you will do what you need to convince her you have done it with as minimal effort as possible. But with Allah, you can’t pretend you washed yourself properly before prayer while cutting some corners. This principle is something I love about being Muslim. It gives me such confidence to know that my faith in Allah and my decision to live my life to please only Him will keep me morally consistent. Knowing that He sees all that I think, feel and do, I will not be easily swayed by people or circumstances to deviate from the right path or cut some corners when it comes to doing the ‘right’ thing, because I am accountable fully and only to Him at all times.

Secondly it just feels so good to purify myself five times a day; to cleanse my soul over and over again. In the Hadith it explains how Wudhu washes away your sins. It means you approach your prayer in a state of spiritual purity so you can indulge in its beauty and renew your intention to fill your heart with the light of Allah (swt).

2.    Allahu Akbar (Takbir)

Sometimes when I pray, I get fixated on saying Allahu Akbar. Saying Allahu Akbar is known as ‘Takbir’ in Islam and means God is Greater. We say it so many times I think it is easy for it to blur into the background of our prayer. But if we bring it to the fore, it can make your prayer feel so incredibly liberating. Because you are simply stating over and over that God is Greater. He is greater than any problem, any person, anything. People sometimes mistakenly think it means ‘God is Great’, but it is so much better than that. It is the fact that whatever is going on in your life, literally anything, God is Greater than it. And so you can just hand it all to Him, let it all go, take that weight off your heart and free yourself of it because God is Greater.

3.    Remembrance of the mercy of Allah and His sustenance

One of the first things we recite in prayer and recite in every rakat is Surah Al-Fatiha. And we start with Bismillaahir-rahmaanir Rahim. Alhamdullilah Rabbil-Alamin. Ar-Rahmaanir-Rahim. In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and the Sustainer of the Worlds. Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

We are told that He is our Sustainer and are therefore reminded that it is Him that we should turn to in times of need because only Allah can truly sustain us through all things . This duniya and everything in it is temporary and so if we seek things of this world to sustain us, we will inevitably be let down at some point. Yasmin Mogahed talks brilliantly on this subject and explains how through Allah you can ‘reclaim your heart’.

No doubt you can think of at least one time in your life where you relied on for something for happiness (money/people/possessions/appearance etc) and created an unhealthy attachment to it so that your happiness became dependent on it. And then it got taken away from you because it was only ever temporary, like everything in this world, and you were left in despair. So as you begin prayer you are remembering to detach from your reliance on anything or anyone in this world and stating that your sustenance  - true unfaltering sustenance – comes from the One you are about worship.
 

After this sustenance we are immediately reminded that Allah swt has told us he is Most Merciful. Indeed throughout the Quran we are told not to despair of the Mercy of Allah. "O My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful." (Az-Zumar 39:53). We are told to keep turning back to Allah no matter what, and in our prayer that is exactly what we are doing 5 times a day. We are turning to Allah over and over and setting ourselves free of sin through renewing our relationship with Him and His infinite mercy. In the Hadith we are told:
 

“Allah has one hundred parts of mercy, of which He sent down one between the jinn, mankind, the animals and the insects, by means of which they are compassionate and merciful to one another, and by means of which wild animals are kind to their offspring. And Allah has kept back ninety-nine parts of mercy with which to be merciful to His slaves of the Day of Resurrection.” [Muslim, al-Tawbah, 6908.]
 

This means the mercy of Allah is 99 times greater than the most mercy you have ever witnessed any human being or animal in this duniya give to another living creature. SubhanAllah.  Every time I recite Ar-Rahmaaanir Rahim my heart feels completely overwhelmed as I attempt to contemplate the level mercy that I have been given by Allah (swt).

4.    Reciting Quran – Keeping the guidance of Allah just where we need it

We recite two different Surahs in addition to Surah Al-Fatiha when we pray, and this means we have a big incentive to memorise the words of the Quran - the words of Allah swt.

Reciting Quran in our prayer means we do not deviate from this guidance and the mercy given to us by Allah because our prayers are filled with His words, not our own. And so rather than our prayers becoming all about what we want or need, it is in fact all about what He wants us to know so we may be successful in this life. It is through this, not through our desires, that we truly gain strength and help from Allah. We then save our personal requests to Allah for our duas, keeping a healthy balance in our relationship with God.

It also means that whenever we are facing a moment when we need the words of our Lord to help or guide us, we have kept this invaluable resource just where we need it, available any time, anywhere – stored safely in our memory.

5.    Sending Salaams to the Prophet (Alayhi Salaam)

It states in the Hadith that when the Ummah send their Salaams to the prophet, Allah has sent angels to gather them from us and take them to him (Alayhi Salam).

The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Allah has angels who go around on earth, conveying to me the salaam of my ummah.” [Narrated by al-Nasaa’i, 1282; classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Targheeb, 1664.] 

 When we perform Tashahhud – the part of the prayer performed while kneeling – we say, “Peace to you, O Prophet, and the mercy and blessings of Allah” (As Salaamu ‘alaika ayyuhan nabiyyu wa rahmatul laahi wa barakaatuh).

So, at this moment in our prayer, our salaams are being gathered by angels to take to the Prophet (alayhi salaam). Knowing this makes me smile so much every time I say these words as I imagine angels coming to me during my prayer to capture my salaams and take them to rasool-Allah!

6.    Sujood – elevating you heart and assuming a position of absolute submission and humility

I have loved this position from the first time I prayed. I remember the first time I prostrated and I just wanted to stay there because I had taken the decision to submit to Allah, and I felt like sujood epitomised the state of my heart and mind. Now, it means every time I perform sujood I am putting myself in this state of humility and submission before Allah, and remembering that I am at my best - my most peaceful and my most calm - when I fully submit to Allah.

Most of all, I love how this is the only position where your heart is higher than your head. A mind without a heart can be lethal. We see around us how people will justify and rationalise the worst of acts in their head which would simply not have been possible if their hearts had been involved in their decision making. And so keeping our hearts elevated is vital if we are going to use our minds in the right way.

This in itself is beautiful, but it is also an important lesson that we must nurture our hearts to be only for Allah swt. Allah illuminates our hearts if we seek Him, and only by following a heart illuminated by Allah are we able to be truly successful in this life. If our heart is not illuminated by Allah then it we will not be successful because what you think is your true heart may in fact be a desire that goes against the guidance of Allah. And so sujood is not just about elevating your heart above your head, but about elevating it towards Allah while in a position of submission. You must ensure that the heart you are following is only for Allah because only when your heart has submitted fully to Allah and puts Allah first will it guide your thoughts and actions successfully.

I could write so much more about the beauty of prayer however I hope this gives a taste of the things that make prayer the best part of my day :).

Are Muslims oppressed?

There is a pervasive idea among non-Muslims that the rules and requirements of following Islam restrict individual freedom, and that it therefore is an oppressive religion. People want to set us free from our religion so that we may experience ‘freedom’.

As a Muslim convert, I am surrounded by non-Muslim friends and family who are sympathetic to this viewpoint to varying degrees, and I guess understandably so when you look at the mainstream media rhetoric about what Islam is. I think it is telling that one of the first concerns my parents had about me becoming Muslim was that it would take away my free will and change my identity away from who I really am to who my religion tells me I must be. And I am sure it is a concern that every parent of a convert must have. As a result, I have been thinking a lot about the rules we follow as Muslims and how we explain to non-Muslims that they do not restrict our freedom. I hope this post will help show my perspective on how Islam allows us to be free and, in my opinion, to experience a level of freedom that it is very difficult to attain without Islam.

The rules that people think oppress us are our fiqh – literally translated as the understanding or comprehension of something – and in Islam means the jurisprudence which covers every aspect of a Muslim's life so that we can live in a way that brings us close to God and true to our purpose. It tells us what is allowed and forbidden, recommended and advised against. It covers theology to tell us what we must believe, our ethics so that we can refine our character, and our actions so that we outwardly behave in the best way.

It is important to understand that following fiqh is a means to an end, it is not an end in itself. It is a way of life that facilitates us in this world so that we can have peaceful hearts and restful minds.

In Jeffrey Lang’s book ‘Even Angels Ask’ which I highly recommend, he mentions a Hadith (a saying of the Prophet (saw*)) which says “the more a believer persists in worship and doing good, the clearer his heart becomes so that it is better able to receive the divine light, and if someone is negligent of these, his heart becomes rusted and incapable of receiving divine illumination.”

This Hadith is not very helpful if we don’t know what worship actually is, and are left to our own devices to work out what ‘doing good’ should be. The Quran and Hadith have been studied extensively by scholars to create fiqh so that when we live as the Quran advises us and the Prophet (saw) recommended, we are not just making it up all by ourselves and inevitably getting it wrong. So fiqh is not just helpful, it is absolutely essential for the life of a Muslim.

When I choose to fast in Ramadan, when I choose not to drink alcohol or eat non-halal meat, when I choose to dress modestly, when I choose to get up at 4.30am to pray, I choose to follow fiqh. Because when I do, I feel amazing. I wake up at 4.30am and I smile knowing that the world is asleep and this is my time to be intimate with my creator. I abstain from alcohol and I have stimulating conversation all evening with people whose minds are clear. I eat halal meat and feel happy that this animal’s life was not taken for granted, but honoured, and that it was killed in a way that limits any suffering**. I dress modestly and realise that people are now forced to value me for who I am, not how I look, and I stop caring about whether or not my body looks like unattainable airbrushed images because even if it did, it would mean nothing to me.

So no, Muslims are not oppressed. We are free. Free of superficiality, free of objectification. We are free from that empty feeling that means no matter how much money you earn you still want more. We are free of the need to define our worth by what job we have or status we hold in society. We are free from feeling like the extent to which we look like the celebrities in magazines is fundamental to our happiness. We have this freedom by following our religion. Since becoming a Muslim I have experienced a freedom that I never knew I could. The way I now live my life, following fiqh, has not compromised my identity or taken away my free will. It has made me a better person and it has made me happier. Now, people get to see the best of me because I am empowered through my religion to attain it.

 

*sallallahu alayhi wa salaam (may God's blessings and peace be with him

**With Halal meat, this is a topic I will write more about as I am aware that animal welfare of halal meat, certainly in the UK, is not as it should be. However I must emphasise that this is not a reflection of Islam, but a reflection of people following fiqh without understanding its meaning.

*This article is in reference to the lives of Muslims who are actively seeking authentic knowledge, are focussed on spiritual development, and are meaningfully implementing the principles of their faith.