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Let Us Be Muslim Part-III
(Salah & Sawm)
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Meaning and Blessing of
the Prayer
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What we Say in the Prayer
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Blessing of the Congregational Prayer
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Has the Prayer Lost its Power
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Meaning and
Blessing of the Fasting
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True Sprit of the Fasting
Brothers in Islam! The
basic and most important act of worship among those which Allah has taught
us to perform Salah, or the Prayer. It prepares us to worship Him in our
entire lives---the purpose for which He has created us.
Consider carefully why it is so important, what is its true meaning and
significance.
The Prayer is an act of worship. We should, therefore, first recollect what
worship means.Worship means revering, serving and obeying God in our whole
lives. Being born as God’s servants, we can not give up serving Him at any
time or under any circumstances and still remain His servant as God wanted
us to be when He created us. Just as you cannot say that you are creatures
of God for a particular time only, so you cannot say that you will spend
only a certain amount of time in worshipping Him and be free to spend the
rest as you please. You are born to worship Him. Your whole lives should,
therefore, be spent in ‘Ibadha, you should not neglect it for a single
moment.
It is precisely for this reason that worship
does not require giving up the day-to-day world and sitting in a corner
chanting God’s name. Worship means that whatever you do in the world should
be in accordance with God’s guidance. Whether you sleep, are awake, eat,
drink or work ---in fact, whatever activity you do---you worship Allah if
these are done in obedience to Him.
When you are at home with your wives and
children, brothers and sisters and relatives, behave towards them exactly
as God has laid down. When you talk to your friends and amuse yourselves,
remain conscious that you are servants of God. When you go out to work and
have dealing with other people, keep in view God’s commandments about what
behaviour is proper and legitimate and what is not.
When in the dark of night you feel you can
commit a sin which nobody in the world can see, then is the time to
remember that God is seeing you and it is He, and not your fellow humans,
who deserves to be feared. When you find yourselves in a place where you
can commit a crime without fear of the police or any witnesses, then again
it is time to remember that God sees everything and refrain from doing
anything from doing anything for transient gain which would displease Him.
And when following the path of truth and honesty causes you material loss
or otherwise puts knowledge that you are pleasing Allah by obeying Him and
that your gain from Him will far outweigh any temporary, earthly loss.
Abandoning the world and sitting in secluded
places counting rosary beads is, therefore, not real worship at all.
Worship is to be engaged in everyday affairs and yet follow the way of
God. What does remembering God (dhikr) mean? It does not mean
merely the continual chanting of ‘Allah, Allah!’. The real remembrance of
God consists in recalling to mind the name and will Allah when you are
caught up in day-to-day worldly activities. Being engaged in pursuits which
could tend to make you forget God and yet not forgetting Him is in fact
remembering Him. In this life, where opportunities of huge profits lurk,
you must unfailingly remember God and remain steadfast in following His
law. This is the true remembrance of God. This is the kind of
remembrance the Qur’an refers to thus:
Then, when the Prayer is finished, disperse
on earth and seek God’s bounty; but remember God often, so that you
may attain success (al-Jumu ‘ah 62: 10).
Keep in mind this comprehensive meaning of
‘Ibadah and see how the Prayer helps us realize the qualities which are
necessary to live in such ‘Ibadah, what blessings it confers upon us.
It is necessary, first, for us to be
constantly aware that we are servants of God, that every moment of our
lives must be dedicated to adoring and obeying Him.
To cultivate and keep alive this awareness is
not an easy task, because there is a Satan within you whose voice
constantly tells you : ‘Follow me and great benefits await you’.
Similarly, there are multitudes of Satans outside you who, in various
guises, keep on telling you: ‘Follow us, otherwise yhou will be in trouble.
The spell cast by these Satans and their urgings cannot be overcome unless
you are reminded continually that you are slaves to none but God.
This is what the Prayer does. When you get up
in the morning, the Prayer reminds you of this even before you start your
day. When you are busy in your work during the day, it again reminds you of
this fact three times. And when you are about to go to bed, you are
reminded once again. This is the first blessing of the Prayer. And this is
why the Prayer is described as ‘Remembrance’ in the Qur’an [al-Ankabut 29:
45]. Its true meaning and purpose lie in remembering God.
Second,
since at every step in your lives you should obey God, it is imperative
that you know what is your duty and you cultivate the habit of performing
it promptly. If you do not even know what your duty is, how can you ever
please God and obey His orders? And, one who understands his duty but,
despite his knowledge, due to indiscipline, does not care to perform it,
can never be expected to remain prepared and willing to come forward and
obey God, every hour or every day, as he must.
Those who have served in the army or police
know how they were made to understand and carry out their duties. A bugle
is blown several times during the day and night and parades are held at
short notice. The purpose of this is to train people to respond and carry
out orders. This routine also quickly distinguishes those who are incapable
or too lazy to do so. In like manner, the Prayer summons you five times a
day. On hearing it, Allah’s soldiers must quickly gather from all sides and
prove that they are prepared to obey His call. Any Muslims who do not
respond when they hear the Adhan show that either they do not understand
the importance and meaning of their duty to God or, if they do understand
it, they are so useless that they are unfit to remain in the army of Allah.
It was for this very reason that the Prophet,
blessings and peace be on him, said that he felt like going and setting
fire to the houses of those who did not stir after hearing the Adhan (Bukhari,
Muslim).And this is why, in one Hadith, performance of the Prayer is
described as a mark distinguishing Islam from Kufr (Muslim).
During the times of the Prophet and his
Companions nobody was considered a Muslim unless he joined the
congregational Prayer---so much so that even the hypocrites felt compelled
to come. They were rebuked not for abandoning the Prayer, but for the
half-hearted way in which they used to perform it: ‘And when they stand up
to pray, they stand up reluctantly, only to be seen and praised by men, and
not remembering God but a little’ (al-Nisa 4: 42).
You can hardly be considered true Muslims,
this shows, if you do not perform the Prayers. For Islam is not a mere
matter of doctrinal faith; it is a way of life to be lived in practice.
Islam means surrendering to God and fighting against Kufr and evil every
minute lives. Its essential message is: always remain prepared to obey God
at a moment’s notice.
The Prayer, five times a day, tests again and
again whether you are so prepared. Those who claim to be Muslims are tested
to see whether they can put their claim into practice. If they cannot,
their faith is of little value to Islam. For only they find the Prayer hard
and unwelcome whose hearts are devoid of reverence to God and who are not
ready to live in submission to Him. ‘And it [the Prayer], indeed, is hard
save for the humble who know they shall meet their Lord’ (al Baqarah
2: 45). That they find the Prayer too difficult to perform is itself
proof enough that they have no faith in God, no certainty about meeting
Him, and are unwilling or unprepared to serve and obey him.
The sense of duty to God and being
ever-prepared to obey Him is the second blessing that the Prayer confers
upon you.
Third,
consciousness of God---being in His presence, His love and His fear,
strength to avoid whatever may displease Him---needs to be kept alive
constantly in our hearts. You cannot practice Islam unless you believe that
God is seeing you all the time and everywhere, that God sees you even in
darkness, and that God is with you even when you are alone. It is possible
to hide from the world but not from God, to escape from the punishments of
the world, but not from His punishments. It is this awareness, this
feeling, this belief, which restrains man from disobeying God and
which motivates him to observe all the limits Allah has laid down for his
life. Without this awareness you cannot live like a true Muslim lives.
Allah has enjoined upon you praying five times a day precisely to help
strengthen this awareness in the hearts of the faithful. He has Himself
thus described this blessing: ‘Surely the Prayer restrains from all
that is shameful and wrong’ (al-‘Ankabut 29: 45).
This awareness becomes deeply embedded in you
through the Prayer. For instance, you may perform the Prayer only when you
are clean and have done the ablution (wudu’). But who is to know if
you have not washed, or if your clothes are unclean, or if you are just
pretending to have done wudu’? No one. But you never do such a thing
because you are sure that your actions will not be hidden from God.
Similarly, no one will know if you do not in fact recite at all those parts
of the Prayer which are supposed to be said in a low voice. But you do not
‘cheat’ in this way. Why? Because you believe that God hears
everything; He is closer to you than your jugular vein. And, you perform
the Prayer even when you are alone---although there would be nobody to know
that you had not performed it---because you fully realize that it is
impossible to hide any crime from Him.
That is how the Prayer evokes and sustains in
the heart of man fear of God and the belief that he lives in His presence.
How can you worship and serve God and remain loyal to Him throughout the
twenty-four hours of the day and night unless this fear and this awareness
are revived continuously in your hearts? Devoid of this feeling, how can
you embrace goodness and avoid evil in your daily lives for the sake of God
alone?
Making you ever-conscious of God is the third
blessing of the Prayer.
Fourth, to worship God you must know what His law is; without knowing
it you clearly cannot follow it. Prayer is the instrument through which
this knowledge is fostered. The parts of the Qur’an that are recited in the
Prayer are intended to teach you the law of God. The Friday congregation
and the sermon (Khutubah ) are also designed to provide you with
opportunities to learn Islamic teachings. It is your own fault if you do
not take the trouble to find out the meaning of what you are reading in the
Prayer. It is no use complaining that you do not understand if you have not
bothered to try. On the other hand, it is unfortunate that Friday sermons
are delivered in a manner which does little to impart the knowledge of
Islam.
It is
necessary, fifth, that no Muslim should be left alone and on
his own in the tumult of life, while worshipping God. Muslims should come
together to form strong communities to help each other in their life
mission: serving God, obeying Him, observing His law and promulgating it in
the world.
Those who are faithful to God and those who
reject Him are always arrayed against each other; the struggle between
‘surrender’ and ‘rebellion’ is never ending. The rebels break the laws of
God and enforce in their place satanic laws. Individually, Muslims cannot
effectively resist this process, and it is, therefore, necessary for the
true servants of God to join forces. The Prayer is central to the
establishment of this collective strength. Congregational Prayer five times
a day, the Friday congregation, the congregation of two ‘Id festivals---all
these together make you like a strong wall and create in you that
singleness of purpose, cohesiveness and real unity, which are necessary to
make you helpers of each other in the cause of Allah in your day-to-day
lives.That the Prayer generates and consolidates the social cohesiveness in
the Ummah is its fifth blessing.
Brothers
in Islam! The Prayer prepares us for ‘Ibadah, for serving and obeying
God. Even if you do not understand the full purport of the words you
recite, it helps keep alive in your hearts the fear of God and the
awareness that He is with you everywhere and He is watching over you; it
helps remind you, too, that one day you, along with all mankind, will have
to appear before God to give an account of your lives. The Prayer keeps
ever-fresh the conscious-ness that you are the slaves of God, and of God
only, and that is only to God that obedience and worship are due.
It goes without saying that this faith is all
the deeper when you fully appreciate the meaning of the words you are
reciting in the Prayer. Then, the power or Prayer is capable of reshaping
your entire lives---in thoughts, in words and in deeds.
It is, therefore, important to know the
meaning of what you say in your Prayers.
What we Say In the Prayer
Adhan and its Effects
First take the Adhan, by which you are
summoned five times a day in the following words:
Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar
Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest.
Ashhadu an la ilaha illa ‘llah
I bear witness that there is no god but Allah.
Ashhadu anna Muhammadu ‘r-rasulu ‘llah
I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messanger of Allah.
Hayya ‘ala ‘s-salah
Come to the Prayer.
Hayya ‘ala ‘l-falah
Come to the well-being.
Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar
Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest.
La ilaha illa llah
There is no god but Allah.
How powerful the Call and how beautiful the
words! And how they constantly and powerfully remind us of how bogus
are the claims to greatness made by other beings. On earth and in the
heavens there is only one Being who is worthy of worship. In His worship
alone lies our well-being in this world and in the Hereafter. Who can fail
to be moved on hearing this voice? How can anyone who has faith in
his heart hear so powerful a call without wanting to rush and bow his head
before his Master?
On
hearing the call of Adhan you get up, go and wash yourselves. What does
this show? It makes you realize that having an audience with the Lord of
all the worlds is very different from everything else you do. Unless you
are clean, your clothes are clean, you performed wudu’, you are not
worthy of entering His presence. Then, in the course of Wudu’, while
washing your limbs, you constantly remember Allah. After finishing it you
recite the prayer taught by the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be
on him. Thus not only your limbs but your hearts are washed clean. Look at
the words of this prayer:
Ashhadu an al ilaha
illa ‘llagh wahdahu la sharika lah,
wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan ‘abduhu wa
rasuluh
I bear witness that there is no god but Allah; He alone is God,None is
His partner.
I bear witness that Muhammad is God’s Slave and Messenger.
Allahumma ‘j’ alni mina ‘t-tawwabina wa
‘j’alni mina ‘l-Mutatahhirin
O God! Make me among those who repent and keep themselves Pure.
After this, you stand up for Salah up for
Salah. Your faces are directed towards you utter are:
Allahu akbar
Allah is
the Greatest.
Proclaiming His sovereignty over everything, you raise your hands to your
ears as if you have renounced the world and whatever is in it. You, then,
fold your hands; now you are standing reverently before your Lord. Next you
make the following submissions.
You glorify and praise
Allah thus:
Subhanaka ‘llahumma wa bihamdika wa tabaraka
‘smuka wa ta’ala
Jadduka wa la ilala ghayruk
Glory be to Thee, O God, and all the praise that is Thine.
Blessed is Thy
Name and exalted is Thy majesty. There is no god but Thee.
You now seek His
protection:
A ‘udhu bi ‘llahi mia ‘sh-shaytani
‘r-rajim
I seek refuge in God from Satan, the rejected.
You then seek His
blessing and help by invoking His name:
Bismi ‘llahi ‘r-Rahmani ‘r-Rahim
I begin in the name of God who is Most Merciful, the Mercy-giving.
You praise Him, thank
Him, and seek from Him the guidance for your lives. This is what we do in
Surah al-Fatihah, the opining Surah in the Qur’an:
Al-hamdu li ‘llahi
Rabbi ‘l-alamin
Priase be to God, Lord of the worlds.
Ar-Rahmani ‘r-Rahim
The Most-merciful, the Mercy-giving.
Maliki yawmi ‘d-din
Master of Day of Judgment.
Iyyaka na’budu wa iyyaka nasta’in
Thee alone do we worship and from Thee alone we seek help.
Ihdina’s-sirata ‘l-mustaqim
Direct us on the straight path.
Sirata ‘l-ladhina an’amta ‘alayhim
The path of those whom Thou hast favoured.
Ghayri ‘l-maghdubi ‘alayhim wa la ‘d-dallin
Not those who earn Thy anger nor those who go astray.
Amin!
O God! Let if be so. O Lord! Grant this our
prayer.
Then you
recite some parts of the Qur’an, each of which is full of wisdom and
beauty. There are instruction, admonitions and lessons as well as
directions to guide you on the same straight path for which you have just
prayed in Surah
Al-Fatihah. Let us look at the meanings of some of those which you often
recite in your Prayers.
Wa ‘l-‘asr, inna
‘l-insana la fi khusr
By the fleeing time! Surely man is in [a state of] loss.
Illa ‘l-ladhina amanu wa ‘amilu ‘s-salihat
Except those who believe and do good works.
Wa tawasaw bi ‘l-haqqi wa tawasaw bi
‘s-sabr
And enjoin upon one another to keep to Truth and enjoin
Upon one another to be steadfast.
This Surah teaches us
that the only way for man to be saved from loss, failure and destruction is
to attain to faith and do good works. Additionally, the faithful must form
a group wherein they strive together and help each other in remaining
steadfast in the cause of Truth.
Ara’ayata
‘l-ladhi yukadhdhibu bi ‘d-din
Have you seen him who gives the lie to Judgement.
Fa dhalika ‘l-ladhi yadu’u ‘l-yatim
That is he who pushes away the orphan.
Wa la yahuddu ‘ala ta’ami ‘l-miskin
And urges not to feed the needy.
Fa waylul li ‘l-musallina ‘l-ladhina hum
‘an salatikhim sahum,
Alladhina hum yura’una wa yamna’una ‘l-ma’un
Woe, them, unto those praying ones who are unmindful of their
Prayer, those who want to be seen, and refuse [even] small kindnesses.This
Surah teaches us that without faith in the Hereafter, which is the basis of
Islam, we can never walk on the path of God and fulfil our duties towards
our fellow human beings. Also, a faith which does not lead to responsible
and kindly sharing with others is no real faith.
Waylul li
kulli humuzati-ni l-lumazah
Woe unto every slanderer, fault-finder!
A ‘l-ladhi jama’a malan wa ‘addadah
To him who amasses wealth and counts it over
Yahsabu anna malaha akhladah
Thinking that his wealth will make him live forever!
Kalla la yunbadhanna fi ‘l-hutamah
Nay, but he shall surely be thrown into the Crusher;
Wa ma adraka ma ‘l-hutamah
And what could convey to you what the Crusher is?
Naru ‘llahi ‘l-muqadata ‘l-lati tattali’u
‘ala ‘l-af’idah
The kindled fire of God, which roars over the hearts
Innaha alayhim musadatun, fi ‘amadin
mumaddadah
Surely, it closes in upon them in endless columns.
This Surah, again, instructs us in important social attitudes. It
castigates those who engage in slandering others, spreading false reports.
Love of worldly wealth is what leads us to treat others with contempt. But
that wealth we will have to leave behind, only to see it again as a fire
raging in our hearts.
In short, whichever Surahs or Ayahs of the Qur’an you recite in the Prayer
they impart some kind of instruction or guidance and point out to you those
commandments of God which you should follow.
After reciting these
instructions you say Allahu akbar and perform ruku’. Bending down
before your Master with your hands resting on your knees, you repeat
(either three or five or seven times):
Subhana Rabbiya ‘l-‘azim
Glory be to my Lord, the Magnificent
Then you stand up straight and say:
Sami’a llahu li man hamidah
Allah listens to him who praises Him
Then, again saying Allahu
akbar, you prostrate yourselves with forehead on the ground, and
repeatedly utter:
Subhana Rabbiya ‘l-a ‘la
Glory to my Lord, the Most High.
Then you raise your
hands, saying allahu akbar, sit
reverently and say:
At-tahiyyati li ‘llahi
wa ‘s-slawatu wa ‘t-tayyibat
To God belong all greetings of praise, all prayers, all good deeds.
As-salamu ‘alyka ayyuha ‘n-nabiyyu wa rahmatu
‘llahi wa barakatuh
Peace be on you, O Prophet, and mercy of God and His blessing.
As-salamu ‘alayna wa ‘ala ‘ibadi ‘llahi
‘s-salihin
Peace be on us and on all true servants of God.
Ashhadu an la ilaha illa llah wa
ashhadu anna
Muhammadan ‘abduhu wa rasuluh
I bear witness that there
is no god but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His
Messenger.While giving this testimony you raise you first finger: this
symbolize the renewal of your pledge and commitment to the life of witness
that you are required to live. While uttering it you must give special
attention and emphasis to it.
After this you call down
blessings upon the Prophet Muhammad, blessings and peace be on him:
Allahumma salli
‘ala Muhammadin wa ‘ala ali muhammadin
kama sallayta ‘ala Ibrahima wa ‘ala ali
Ibrahim, innaka hamidun majid.
Allahumma barik
‘ala Muhammadin wa ‘ala ali Muhammadin
kama
Barakta ‘ala Ibrahima wa ‘ala ali
Ibrahim, innaka hamidun majid
O God! Have mercy
of Muhammad and his people just as Thou blessed Ibrahim and his people.
Indeed Thou art adorned with the best qualities and art sublime. O
God! Bless Muhammad and his people. Most certainly Thou are
adorned with the best qualities and art sublime.
The whole
Salah is an act of prayer, but towards the end you make a special prayer
seeking His protection from all kinds of evils that might afflict you.
Allahumma
inna a’udhu bika min ‘adhabi jahannam,
wa a’udhu bika min ‘adhubi ‘lqabr, wa
a’udhu bika min fitnati ‘l-masihi ‘d-dajjal,
wa a’udhu bika min fitnati ‘l-mahya wa
‘l-mamat, wa a’udhu bika min ‘l-ma’thimi wa
‘l-maghrim
God! I seek Your protection from punishment in Hell, and I seek
your protection from punishment in the grave, and I seek Your protection
from the mischief of al-masihi ‘d-dajjal, and I seek Your
protection from the trials of life and death, and I seek Your protection
from sins and from indebtedness.
After
reciting the above Du’a’, the Prayer is complete. Now you have to return
from the audience with your Master. How do you do this? The first thing you
do on your return is to turn your heads to the right and to the left and
pray for the safety and blessings of all those present and everything in
the world:
As-salamu
‘alaykum wa rahmatu ‘llah
Peace be on you and the mercy of
God.
This
symbolizes good tidings that you have brought for the world on your return
from the presence before God.
The above
is the Salah which you offer at dawn before you start work. At noon you
present yourselves again. In the afternoon you offer the same Salah again
and repeat it immediately after sunset. Finally, before going to bed, you
present yourselves for the last time before your Master.
The concluding part of
this Salah consists of witr. In the lask rak’ah of the
day, which turns all the rak’ahs you have prayed into an odd number, you
make an important and comprehensive covenant with your Master. This is
called Du ‘a’ qunut. The meaning of qunut is affirmation of humility,
subservience and service before God. Listen carefully to the words with
which you make your pledge:
Allahumma inna nasta
inuka wa nastaghfiruka wa nu’minu bika wa natawakkalu ‘alayka wa
nuthni ‘alayka ‘l-khayr kullahu wa nashkuruka wa la nakfuruka
wa nakhla’u wa natruku man yafjuruk
O God! We seek help from
Thee; we ask Thee for guidance; we seek Thine forgiveness; we
have faith in Thee; we put our trust in Thee; we give all good prises
to Thee; we thank Thee, and do not commit ungratefulness; we abandon and
leave everyone who disobeys Thee.
Allahumma iyyaka
na’budu wa laka nusalli wa nasjudu wa ilayka nas’a wa nahfid, wa
narju rahmataka wa nakhsha ‘adhabaka inna ‘adhabaka bi
‘l-kuffari mulhiq
O God! Thee only do we
worship. For Thee alone we perform the Prayer and before Thee alone
prostrate ourselves. All our endeavours and strivings are directed towards
Thee, all our goals are centred on Thee. We hope to receive Thy mercy and
fear Thy punishment. Certainly Thy dire punishment will befall only those
who are disbelievers.
Brothers!
The call of the Adhan summons you five times a day to the presence of the
Lord of the universe; five times a day you put everything aside to rush to
Him; before every Prayer you purify your bodies and souls with wudu’; and
you are fully aware of the meaning of the things you are saying during the
Prayer. In such circumstances is it not inevitable that the fear of God
will arise in your hearts, that you will feel ashamed to break God’s
commandments, that your wins will weigh heavily on your consciences? How,
then, when you return to your work after the Prayer, can you justify
telling or giving bribes, payingor levying interest, and committing
indecent or illegal acts? And how, after doing any of these things, can you
possibly go back to God at the next Prayer and seriously reaffirm your
obedience to Him? Seriously say, thirty-six times a day, ‘Thee alone we
worship, Thee alone we ask for help’, and afterwards ask favour of others
in worship?
Properly
understood and performed, Salah must improve your morals and, where
necessary, fundamentally change your lives. This is why Allah emphasizes:
‘Surely Prayer restrains [man] from all that is shameful and
wrong’. If it does not, the reason lies in you, not in the Prayer. It is
not the fault of soap and water that coal is black.
Perhaps
one great obstacle to Prayer doing its purifying work is that you may not
fully understand or give serious attention to the words you recite in
Arabic. A little extra effort in learning by heart these recitations in our
own language may bring you rich reward.
Brothers
in Islam! That the Prayer as such has extraordinary power to make us
attain to greater and greater heights of obedience and worship is quite
obvious. Consider now how much more enriched it becomes, how greatly its
efficacy increases in transforming us, when the Prayer is performed in
congregation. Indeed in this one single act of Prayer God has given us His
choicest gift.
But,
first, recollect what worship is and how the Prayer prepares us for it.
Worship means making yourselves slaves of God, living in submission to His
will, and remaining always ready to obey Him. The qualities that enable you
to attain to this state of worship are all developed by the Prayer. These
are: consciousness of being a salve to God; faith in God, in His Messenger
and in His Book; belief in the life to come; fear of God; awareness that
God knows everything and is always close to you; strength of will and
preparedness to obey Him; and knowledge of His commandments.
Further
reflection will show you that an individual, however perfect he may be,
cannot worship God as is His due unless other servants of God join him. You
cannot obey all the injunctions of God until all those people with whom you
have to live day by day, and with who you have to deal continually, become
your partners in this worship. Man is not alone in this world: his whole
life is bound in a thousand and one relationships with his family members,
business associates, friends, neighbours and acquaintances. Worship equally
encompasses all these people unite in living by the will of God, all of
them can succeed in becoming His faithful servants. But if they are,
collectively, bent on disobendience or if they do not support each other in
following the commands of God, then will it not be virtually impossible for
a lone individual to submit his whole life to the law of God?
Careful
reading of the Qur’an shows that God does not desire that simply you, as
lone individuals, should become loyal and obediently to Him. This is not
enough. You should strive to bring the whole world under God, to spread His
word, and implement His laws. Whatever the rule of Satan prevails, you must
try to root it out. Let God alone, and no one else, be the Sovereign in
man’s life.
This
enormous duty entrusted by Allah cannot be performed by one Muslim
alone; nor can hundreds of thousands of Muslims, if they remain
individuals, be effective against the forces of the servants of Satan. You
must, therefore, work together, single-mindedly, but not singly, to fulfil
your noble mission.
This entails not merely that you become united, but that you become one,
knit together. Your mutual relations should be established on a harmonious
basis, without strife and discord. You should obey your leaders and fully
understand the limitation of such obedience: where to obey and where
to disobey.
See how
the congregational Prayer develops all these necessary qualities.
First, as
the Adhan summons you to the Prayer, you put everything aside and go to the
mosque. The mobilization of Muslims from all sides on hearing this call and
their gathering at one centre creates in them a sense of discipline as is
found in an ‘army’. The sound of a ‘bugle’ tells ‘soldiers’ that their
‘commander’ is calling them; their immediate thought is to obey the call
and assemble at a previously agreed place. And so they do. The army adopts
such a system to ingrain in every soldier the habit of obedience, both at
individual and groups levels, and to weld them into a cohesive team. Thus
if they ever face armed combat it will be as a unit with identical
objectives. If soldiers, however good they may be individually at fighting,
however well trained and brave, fight with each fighting his own battle, a
platoon of fifty soldiers of the enemy can defeat one thousand such brave
soldiers by picking them off individually.
For
exactly the same reason, you are required to assemble for the Prayer five
times a day on hearing the call of the Adan, leaving behind everything.
But, the resemblance ends here. Beyond this, you, as Muslims, are the army
of God and the duty of this army is much harder and radically different
than that of any other army in the world. For other armies, wars are fought
on one front at a time, and for selfish ends. But the army of God has to
wage perpetual war, and that too, against the forces of Satan, within their
selves and in the world at large. Gathering five times a day at the sound
of the Divine ‘bugle’ is a sign of its constant readiness for this
continuing battle. In view of the gigantic task they face, this strict
discipline should look easy.
Gathering
in the mosque, then, itself yields many benefits: here you meet each
other, come to recogmnize each other, and come to know each other. And what
makes you come close to one another? You come together as slaves of God,
followers of one Prophet, believers in one Book, with a single objective
inlife, both inside and outside the mosque. Such acquaintance, such unity,
and such attachment automatically leaven and quicken in you the feeling
that you are all one community, soldiers of the same army, brothers unto
each other. Your interests, your aims, your losses and gains, are the same;
and your lives are bound in with one another.
Again,
you see and meet each other not like enemies or strangers, but like friends
and brothers. As such, when you notice that one brother is in ragged
clothes, another seems unhappy, another does not have enough to eat, while
others are disabled, crippled or blind, then inevitably compassion is
aroused in your hearts. Those of you who are well-off will help the poor
and needy; the afflicted will find the courage to approach the rich; you
will visit those who, for some reason, cannot get to the mosque; and if one
of our brothers dies you will also join in his funeral prayer and share the
grief of the bereaved family. All these things strengthen the spirit of
mutual affection and make you mutual helpers.
Think
further: you have gathered at a sacred place for a sacred purpose.
This is not an assembly of thieves, drunkards, gamblers, or exploiters, but
a gathering of slaves of Allah’s house. In such a setting, a sincere person
would, automatically, feel ashamed of his sins. But his shame would be
overwhelming. And he would particularly want to repent if any of those who
ever affected by his sin or who witnessed it were gathered with him.
Indeed, the blessings of congregational Prayer will multiply manifold if
you also know how to counsel each other and help each other in correcting
yourselves, with sympathy, love and understanding. Individual deficiencies
will then easily be removed and the whole community will quickly grow
together in virtue and piety.
This is
how merely getting together to pray benefits you, But there are many more
blessings in the way the congregational Prayers are performed.
You stand
in a row shoulder to shoulder with each other. No one is higher or lower in
status than his neighbour. In the Divine court, in the presence of
God, you
all belong to one class, you all have the same status. Nobody feels
polluted if a fellow-worshipper’s hand or body touches him. We are all
equally pure because we are all human beings. We are all slaves of one God
and believers in one Din.
All
ethnic and linguistic prejudices are also destroyed. Although there are
differences among Muslims of family, tribe and country---someone is Sayyid,
someone is Pathan, someone is Rajput, someone is Jat, someone belongs to
one country and someone to another, some speak one language and some
another---yet all stand in one row, worshipping the One God. This signifies
that you all are one people, belong to one nation. Divisions on family,
tribal or national lines have no basis whatever. What binds you together is
that you all serve and worship God. When you are one in the Prayer, why
should you be divided about other things?
Again,
when you stand shoulder to shoulder with each other, you look like an army
presenting itself for service before its monarch. By standing in a line and
by making movements in unison, a remarkable spirit of unity develops in
your minds. You are made to do this practice, to become one in the service
of God, in such a manner that all of you raise your hands together and move
your feet together as if you are not ten, twenty, one hundred or one
thousand people, but have become one person.
What do you do after thus
standing together in one line? With one voice you submit to your Master:
Iyyaka na’budu
wa iyyaka nasta’in
Thee alone do we worship; Thee alone do we ask for help.
Ihdina ‘s-srata
‘l-mustaqim
Guide us to the straight path.
Also:
Rabbana laka ‘l hamd
Our God! All praise is for Thee
only.
And:
As-salamu ‘alayna wa ‘ala ‘ibadi ‘llahi
‘s-salihin
Peace be on us and on all true servants of Gods.
Then, as you finish the Prayers, you pray thus for peace, mercy and grace
upon each other:
As-salamu
‘alaykum wa rahmatu ‘allah
Peace be on you all, and the mercy of God.
This
means that all of us wish each other well. Everyone unites to pray to one
Master for the well being of all. None of us asks for everything for
himself only. Everybody’s wish is that God’s benevolence be bestowed on
all, that all be granted the ability to walk on the one straight path and
that all share together the blessings of God. In this way the Prayer unites
your hearts, creates harmony in your thoughts and develops among you a
relationship of well-wishing towards each other.
Now
remember that we never offer the congregational Prayer without an Imam who
leads the congregation. Even when two men pray together, one of them will
be Imam and the other follower. Once the congregation (Jama ‘ah) has been
formed, it is strictly prohibited to perform the Prayer outside it. If you
do, your Prayer will be invalid. Latecomers must join the congregation
behind the same Imam.
All these
teachings are not meant for the Prayer only. In fact, they impart a very
important lesson: if you want to live as Muslims, live as you pray: united
and organized, to secede from it means that your lives have ceased to be
the lives of Muslims.
A
Muslim’s entire life is a life of prayer; the entire earth, for him, is a
‘mosque’ where only one God is to be worshipped. The relation between the
Imam and his followers within the congregational Prayer has, therefore,
been designed to teach us important lessons about leadership: how you
should relate to your leaders outside the mosque, what their duties and
their rights are; how you should obey them, and in what matters; what
you should do if they make mistakes; to what extent you are obliged
to follow them when they go wrong; on what occasions you have the
right and duty to point out their errors; when you can demand that they
correct their mistakes; and, at what juncture you can remove them from
leadership. How to fashion your organized and communal living is something
you can learn about five times a day in any small mosque.
Consider
only a few obvious and important principles regarding an Imam and the
guidance they provide us in our macro-life.
One:
An Imam must be the best in character, piety and righteousness. He must
have greater knowledge of Islam, especially of the Qur’an, then others. He
should be of mature years. The Prophet, blessings and peace be on him, has
also explained other. This tells you, too, which attributes you should keep
in view when choosing a leader for a community or state.
Two:
An Imam should be liked and respected by the majority of the
congregation; none should lead the Prayer against their wishes. Here again
is an important principle for electing a leader.
Three: An
Imam should lead the congregation in Prayer in such a way that no trouble
is caused even to the old in the congregation. He should not make lengthy
recitations nor make long ruku’ and
sujud, which may suit only the young, strong and
healthy and those with plenty of leisure time. He should take note also of
those who are old, sick and weak and those who are busy in their work. The
Prophet, blessings and peace be on him, set an example of such kindness and
compassion and love: if he heard children crying while he was leading
the congregation in Prayer, he used to shorten it so that their
mothers, if they were behind him, could leave quickly (Bukhari, Muslim).
Four:
If an Imam meets with an accident while leading the Prayer, he must
immediately hand over his office to one of the men behind. This means that
it is obligatory on a nation’s leader too to resign when he feels unable to
carry out his functions. In this there is no shame, nor should selfishness
prevent him from doing so.
Five; The
actions of an Imam should be strictly followed. To make a move before he
moves is strictly prohibited, so much so that, according to one Hadith,
Imam does will be raised after death as an ass (Bukhari, Muslim).
Here citizens of a nation have been given a lesson on how they should
obey those who govern them.
Six:
An Imam may make a mistake in Salah. For example, he may rise when
he should sit, or sit when he should rise. Such errors must be pointed out
to him with the phrase, ‘Subhanallah’ (Glory be to Allah). To say
Subhaanallah when the Imam commits a mistake means: Allah alone is
pure, holy and above error; as you are a human being it is not surprising
that you have made a mistake, but correct yourself. Thus warned, it is
incumbent on the Imam to correct his mistake without any hesitation or
discomfort, without any feeling of loss of prestige.
If, after
this notice of correction, the Imam feels confident that what he did was
right he can continue as he thinks fit, and in such an eventuality the duty
of the congregation is to follow him in spite of knowing that he is wrong.
After finishing the Salah the followers have the right to try to convince
the Imam of his mistake and to demand from him that he conduct the Salah
afresh.
Seven: This
procedure is limited to situations which involve minor mistakes. But if the
Imam, contrary to the Prophet’s Sunnah, changes the method of the Salah, or
knowingly recites the Qur’an incorrectly in the Salah, or, while conducting
it, indulges in act of Kufr or Shirk, or commits a clear sin, it is
incumbent on the member of the jama’ah immediately to break
away from the congregation and discontinue the Salah.
In all
the above seven points concerning the congregational Prayer, striking
parallels can be drawn between the relationship of an Imam and his
followers and a head of state and the citizens of that state.
Brothers
in Islam! Undoubtedly you often ask yourselves: Why is it that
the Prayer, good and beneficial as it is, seems to make no difference to
our lives? Why does it neither improve our morals, nor transform us
into a force dedicated to Allah? Why do we continue to live disgraced
and subjugated?
The usual
answer will be that you are not offering the Prayer regularly or in the
manner prescribed by Allah and the Messenger. Such an answer may not
satisfy you. I shall, therefore, try to explain the matter in some detail.
Look at the clock fixed to the wall: there
are lots of small parts in it, joined to each other. When you wind it, all
the parts start working and, as these parts move, the results appear on the
clock face outside it which you observe. Both hands move to denote each
second and each minute. The purpose of the clock is to indicate correct
time. All those parts which are necessary for this purpose have been made
so that each of them moves as required. Only when all the parts have been
assembled correctly and the clock wound up properly will it begin
fulfilling the purpose for which it is made.
If you do
not wind it, it will not show the time. If you wind it but not according to
the prescribed method, it will stop or, even if it works, it will not give
the correct time. If you remove some of the parts and then wind it,
nothing will happen. If you replace some of the parts with those of a
sewing machine and then wind it, it will neither indicate the time nor sew
the cloth. If you keep all the parts inside the case but disconnect them,
then no part will move even after winding it up. The presence of all the
parts will not serve the purpose for which the clock is made because you
will have disrupted their arrangement as well as their connection.
In all
these situations, both the existence of the clock and the act of winding it
become useless, although an observe from a distance cannot say that it is
not a clock or that you are not winding it. He will surely consider that it
is a clock and will expect it to be useful as a clock. Similarly, when from
a distance he observes you winding it, he will take it as a genuine effort
on your part to do the job, hoping to notice the result which come from
winding the clock. But how can this expectation be fulfilled when what
looks like a clock from a distance has in reality lost is ‘existence’?
Imagine
Islam like this clock. Just as the purpose of the clock is to indicate the
correct time, so the aim of Islam is that you should live in this world as
the vicegerents of God, as witnesses of God unto mankind and as
standard-bearers of truth. You must yourselves follow the commandments of
God and bring all other people under Him:
You are
indeed the best community brought forth for mankind: you enjoin the
doing of right and forbid the doing of wrong, and you believe in God
(Al ‘Imram 3: 110).
And thus
We have made you a just community, that you might be witnesses unto mankind
(al-Baqarah 2: 143).
God has promised those of
you who believe and do righteous deds that He will surely make you to
accede to power on earth (al-Nur 24: 55).
And fight them, until
there is no rebellion [against God], and all lsubmission is to God alone
(al-Anfal 8: 39).
To fulfil
this purpose, various parts as were required, like those of the clock, have
been brought together in Islam. Beliefs and principles of morality; rules
for day-to-day conduct; the rights of God, of His slaves, of one’s own
self, of everything in the world which you encounter; rules for earning and
spending money; laws of war and peace; principals of government and limits
of obedience to it---all these are parts of Islam. As in a clock, they are
linked to each other in such a way that as soon as the winding is done,
every part starts moving and, with the movement of all these parts, the
desired result is obtained. Rule of God’s ;aw in the world, domination of
Islam, start manifesting just as, with the movement of the parts of the
clock in front of you, the time appears on its face.
In order
to fasten together different parts of the clock, screws and small pieces of
metal have been used.
Similarly, to join all the parts of Islam together, there is an arrangement
called the Jama ‘ah
or organization. Muslims should
organize themselves, and have leaders equipped with proper knowledge and
endowed with taqwa;
the brains should help them and
the limbs should obey them, as they all strive to live under God.
When all
the parts have been brought together and property assembled, regular
winding is necessary to set them in motion and to continue their movement:
Salah which is offered five
times a day provides that winding, creating the energy which sets an
Islamic life in motion. Cleaning this clock is also necessary: fasting
observed for thirty days a year cleanes hearts and morals. Lubrication,
too, is required: Zakah is like the oil which is applied to its
parts once a year. Then it is also necessary to overhaul it periodically:
Hajj is that overhauling which should be performed at least once in
a lifetime. And the more often it is done, the better.
The processes of winding, cleaning,
lubricating and overhauling are of use only when all the parts are present
in the frame, when they are linked in the order designed by the clock-maker,
and when all are so trained that immediately on winding they start moving
and begin showing results.
Alas, today the situation has become very
different. For a start, the very Jama ‘ah, the organizational
structure, which was supposed to link the parts of the clock together has
ceased to exist. The result is that all the fittings have come apart, each
has gone its own way. Everybody does whatever takes his fancy. There is
nobody to question anything. Everyone is autonomous. If someone wants to
follow the Islamic code, he can; if he does not want to, he need not.
Since even this so-called freedom has not
satisfied you, you have pulled out many parts of the clock and in their
place put anything and everything:
a spare part from a sewing machine, perhaps, or from a factory or
from the engine of a car. You call yourselves Muslims, yet you render loyal
service to Kufr, yet you take interest, you insure your lives, you file
false law suits, your daughters, sisters and wives are forsaking Islamic
manners and your children are being given secular materialistic educations.
Some have become disciples of Gandhi; others are following Lenin. Which
un-Islamic gadget is there that you have not fixed into the frame of the
clock of Islam?
Despite this, you expect the clock to work
when you wind it! And you suppose that cleaning, lubricating and
overhauling it will also be of use. With a little reflection, however, you
should see that in the condition to which you have reduced the clock you
can wind it, lubricate it, and overhaul it, for the whole of your lives
without any effect. Nothing will happen until you remove the parts brought
in from other applicnaces, replace them with the original parts, and
restore the original priorities. Then, and only then, will the winding and
so forth produce any results.
This state of affairs is the real reason why
your Salah, Sawn, Zakah
and Hajj make no impact
upon your lives. First, there are so few among you who perform these acts
of worship. Due to the dissolution of Islamic Jama ‘ah
everybody has become autonomous.
Whether you fulfil your obligations or not, there is nobody to care. Nor do
those who do apparently carry out their obligations do so in a proper
manner. They are not constant in attending the congregational Prayer.
People are selected to lead the Prayers in the mosque simply because they
are fit for no other work:
people who exist on the free bread doled out to mosques, who are
uneducated, who lack moral caliber. How can congregations led by them turn
you into the leaders of mankind? Similar is the situation regarding your
Fasting, Almsgiving and Pilgrimages.
Despite all these facts, you may argue, there
are nonetheless many Muslims who do discharge their religious duties
conscientiously. Why does that make no difference? But, as I have said,
when the parts of the clock have become unhinged and numerous foreign
bodies have been inserted in it, it makes no difference if you wind it or
not, clean it or not, lubricate it or not. From a distance it does look
like a clock. An outside observer may say:
This is Islam and you are Muslims. But what he cannot see is how
badly its inside machinery has been tampered with.
Brothers!
You understand why it is so that you pray and fast and yet remain
trampled under the heel of cruel tyrants. But, should I tell you something
even more distressing? Although most of you no doubt regret this situation
but, I would say, 999 people
out of 1000 are not prepared to change their situation. They have no urge in
their hearts to assemble the clock of Islam again properly. They are afraid
that any such reconstruction
would mean that their own favourite imported parts would be thrown out, and
this they are not prepared to accept. They are afraid that any tightening of
various parts would means that they will have to discipline themselves, and
this they are not willing to undertake.
Instead, they prefer that the clock remains a piece of decoration on the
wall for people to be shown and told how wonderful Islam is, what miracles
it can perform. Those who are supposed to
love this clock more than others would like to wind it repeatedly
and zealously and to clean it most laboriously; but they want to do nothing
to reset its part properly or tighten them, nor will they seek to get rid
of the extraneous parts.
I
wish I could endorse your attitudes and behavious, but I cannot say
anything which I believe is wrong. I assure you that
it if, in addition to praying five times a day, you were to offer
Tahajjud
(predawn), Ishraq (post-sun
rise) and Chasht
(mid-morning)
Prayers, read the Qur’an for hours every day, and observe, over and
above Ramadan, extra fasts for five and a half months in the remaining
eleven months, you would still achieve nothing. What is needed is to
restore the original parts to the clock and fix them firmly. Then even the
little necessary winding will make it work smoothly; and the minimal amount
of required cleaning and lubrication will be needed.
Wa
ma ‘alayna
illa ‘l-balagh
There is no responsibility on us except conveying the truth.
Brothers in
Islam! The second act of
worship that Allah enjoins upon you is Sawn or the Fasting. It means
abstaining from draws to sunset from eating, drinking and sex. Like the
Prayer, this act of worship has been part of the Shari’ahs given by all the
Prophets. Their followers fasted as we do. However, the rules, the number
of days, and the periods prescribed for fasting have varied from one
Shari’ah to another. Today, although fasting remains a part of
most religions in some form by accretions of thir own.
O Believers! Fasting
is ordained for you, even as it ordined for those before you (al-Baqarah
2: 183).
Why has this particular act of worship been practiced in all eras?
Islam aims to transform the whole life of man into a life of worship. He is
born a slave; and to serve his Creator is his very nature. Not for a single
moment should he live without worshipping, that is surrendering to Him in
thoughts and deeds. He must remain conscious of what he ought to do to earn
the pleasure of God and what he ought to avoid. He should, then, walk on
the path leading to Allah’s pleasure, eschew that leading to His
displeasure just as he would avoid the embers of a fire. Only when our
entire lives have become modeled on this pattern can we be considered to
have worshipped our Master as is His due and as having fulfilled the
purport of ‘I have not created
jinn and men except to worship
Me’.
The real purpose of ritual acts of worship---Salah, Zakah, sawn and
Hajj---is to help us come to that life of total worship. Never think that
you can acquit yourselves of what you owe to Allah only if you bow and
prostrate yourselves five times a day, suffer hunger and thirst from dawn
to sumset for thirty days in
Ramadan and, if wealthy, give the Alms and perform the Pilgrimage once in a
lifetime. Doing all this does not release you from bondage to Him, nor of
the underlying purposes of enjoining these rituals upon you is to develop
you so that you can transform your whole lives into the ‘Ibadah of God’.
How does the Fasting prepare us for this lifelong act of worship?
Exclusively
Private Worship
All acts of worship include some outward physical movement, but not the
Fasting. In the Prayer you stand, sit, bow down and prostrate yourselves;
all these acts were visible to everybody. In Hajj you undertake a long
journey and travel with thousands of people. Zakah,
too, is known to at
least two persons, the giver and the receiver. None of these other people
will come to know about it.
But the Fasting is a form of ‘Ibadah which is entirely private. The
All-knowing God alone knows that His servant is fasting. You are required
to take food before dawn (Suhur) and abstain from eating and
drinking anything till the time to break the Fast (Iftar).
But, if you secretly ear and drink in between, nobody except except
God will know about it.
The private nature of the Fasting ensures that you have strong faith in God
as the One who knows everything. Only if your faith is true and strong, you
will not dream of eating or drinking secretly:
even in the hottest summer, when your throats dry up with thirst,
you will not drink a drop of water; even when you feel faint with hunger,
when life itself seems to ebbing, you will not eat anything. To do all
this, see what firm conviction must you have in that nothing whatsoever can
ever be concealed from your God! How strong
must be His fear in your hearts. You will keep your Fast for about
360 hours for one full month only because of your profound belief in the
reward and punishment of the Hereafter. Had you the slightest doubt in that
you have to meet your Maker, you would not complete such a fast. With
doubts in hearts, no such resolves can be fulfilled.
In this way does Allah put to the test a Muslim’s faith for
a full month every year. To the extent you emerge successful from this
trial, your faith becomes firmer and deeper. The Fasting is both a trial
and a training. If you deposit anything on trust with somebody, you are, as
it were, testing his integrity. If he does not abuse your trust, he not
only passes his test, but, at the same time, also develops greater strength
to bear the burden of greater trusts in future. Similarly, Allah puts your
faith to severe test continuously for one month, many long hours a day. If
you emerge triumphant from this test, more strength develops in you to
refrain from other sins. This is what the Qur’an says:
O
believers! Fasting is ordained
for you, even as it was ordained for those before you, that you might
attain to God-consciousness (al-Baqarah
2: 183).
The Fasting has another characteristic. It makes us obey the
injunctions of the Shari’ah with sustained intensity for prolonged period
of time. Salah lasts only a few minutes at a time. Zakah is paid only once
a year. Although the time spent on Hajj is long, it may come only once in a
lifetime, and for many not at all. In the school of the Fasting, on the
other hand, you are trained to obey the Shari’ah of the Prophet Muhammad,
blessing and peace be on him, for one full month, every year, day and
night,You have to get up early before dawn for Suhur, stop all
eating and drinking precisely at a certain time, do certain activities and
abstain from certain activities during the day, break your Fast (Iftar)
in the evening at exactly a certain time. Then, for a few moments only
you relax, before you hurry for long late evening prayers (Tarawih).
Every year, for one full month from dawn
to sunset and from sunset to dawn, you, like a soldier in an army,
continuously live a disciplined life, following certain rules all the time.
You are then sent back to continueyour normal duties for eleven months so
that the training you have received for one month may be reflected in your
conduct, and if any deficiency is found it may be made up the next year.
Training of such profound nature cannot be imparted to each
individual separately. Like how an army is trained, everyone has to act at
the same time at the sound of the bugle so that they may develop the team
spirit, learn to act in unison, and assist each other in their task of
development. Whatever one person lacks may be made up by another, whatever
deficiency remains in him may be compensated by yet another.
The month of Ramadan is earmarked for all Muslims to fast together, to
ensure similar results. This measure turns individuals ‘Ibadah into
collective ‘Ibadah. Just as the number one, when multiplied by thousands,
becomes a formidable number, so the moral and spiritual benefits accruing
from the Fasting by one person alone are increased a million fold if a
million people fast together.
The month of Ramadan suffuses the whole environment with a spirit of
righteousness, virtue and piety. As flowers blossom in spring, so does
taqwa in
Ramadan. Everyone tries extra hard to avoid sin and, if they lapse, they
know they can count on the help of their many other brothers who are
fasting with them. The desire automically arises in every heart to do good
works, to feed the poor, to clothe the naked, to help those in distress, to
participate in any good work being done anywhere, and to prevent evil. Just
as plants have their season of flowering , so Ramadan is the time of year
for the growth and flourishing of good and righteousness.
For this reason the Prophet, blessings and peace be on him, said:
Every good deed of a man is granted manifold increase , ten to
seven hundred times. But says Allah:
Fasting is an exception; it is exclusively for Me, and I reward for
it as much as I wish (Bukhari,
Muslim).
All good deeds grow, this shows, in
proportion to both the intention of the doer as well as their results, but
that there is a limit to their growth. The Fasting, however, has no such
limit. In Ramadan, in the season for the flourishing of good and piety, not
one but millions of people jointly water this garden of virtue. The more
you sincerely perform good deeds in this month and the greater you avail
yourselves of its blessings, the more will you radiate their benefits to
our other brothers. The more you sustain the impact of the Fasting on your
life during the subsequent eleven months, the more will our garden
flourish, and flourish without limit. Should its growth become inhibited,
the fault must lie with you.
You are now probably saying to yourselves:
We do observe the Fasting and perform the Prayers but the promised
results are nowhere to be seen. One reason for this situation I have
explained earlier. After snapping the vital links between various parts of
Islam and injecting into it many new things, you cannot expect the same
results as from the Whole.A second reason is that the way you look at the
‘Ibadah has changed. You believe that mere abstention from food and drink,
from morning till evening, amounts to ‘Ibadah; once you do all these things
you have worshipped Allah. Ninetynine per cent or even more among you are
unmindful of the real spirit of ‘Ibadab which should permeate all your
actions. That is why the acts of ‘Ibadah do not produce their full and
understanding.
Brothers in Islam!
Essentially every work which we do has two components. The first is
its purpose and spirit; the second, the particular form which is chosen to
achieve that purpose. Take the case of food. Your main purpose in eating is
to stay alive and maintain your strength. The method of achieving this
object is that you take a piece of food, put it in your mouth, chew it and
swallow it. This method is adopted since it is the most effective and
appropriate one to achieve your purpose. But everyone knows that the main
thing is the purpose for which food is taken and not the form the act of
eating takes.
What would you say if someone tried to eat a
piece of sawdust or cinder or mud? You would say that he was mad or ill.
Why? Because he clearly would
not have understood the real purpose of eating and would have erroneously
believed that chewing and swallowing constituted eating. Likewise, you
would also call someone mad who thrust his fingers down his throat to vomit
up the food he had just eaten and then complained that the benefits said to
accrue from taking food were not being realized. Rather, on the contrary,
he was daily getting thinner. This person blames food for a situation that
is due to his own stupidity. Although outward actions are certainly
necessary, because without them the bread cannot reach the stomach, the
purpose of eating cannot be achieved by merely fulfilling thee outward
actions.
Perhaps you can now understand why our
‘Ibadah has become ineffectual and empty. The greatest mistake of all is to
take the acts of the Prayer and Fasting and their outward shape as the real
‘Ibadah. If you do so, you are just like the person who thinks that merely
performing four acts---taking a pieces of good, putting it in the mouth,
chewing it, and swallowing it---make up the process of eating. Such a
person imagines that whoever does these four things has eaten the food. He,
then, expects that he should receive the benefits of eating irrespective of
whether he pushed down into his stomach mud and stone, or vomited up the
bread soon after eating it.
Otherwise, how can you explain, that a man
who is fasting, and is thus engaged in the ‘Ibadah
of God from morning till evening, in the midst of that ‘Ibadah,
tells a lie or slanders someone? Why does he quarrel on the slightest
pretext and abuse those he is quarreling with? How dare he encroach on
other people’s rights? Why
does he make money illegally and give money to others illicitly?
And how can he claim, having done all these things that he has still
performed the ‘Ibadah of Allah?
Does this not resemble the actions of that person who eats cinders
and mud and thinks that by merely completing the four requirements of
eating he has actually done the job of eating?
How,too, can we claim to have worshipped
Allah for many long hours throughout Ramadan when the impact of this whole
exercise in spiritual and moral upliftment vanishes on the first day of the
next month? During the ‘Id
days we do all that Hindus do in their festivals, so much so that in some
places we even turn to adultery, drinking and gambling. And I have seen
some degenerates who fast during the day and drink alcohol and commit
adultery at night. Most Muslims, thank God, have
not fallen so low. But how many of us still retain any trace of
piety and virtue by the second day of ‘Id?
The reason most of you behave as you do is
that the very meaning and purpost of ‘Ibadah has become distorted in your
minds. You think that mere
abstention from eating and drinking throughout the day is the Fasting.
You, therefore, are very particular to observe the minutest details
about it. You fear God to the
extent that you avoid even the slightest violation of these rules; but you
do not appreciate that merely being hungry and thirsty is not the purpose
but only the form.
This form has been prescribed to create in
you such fear of God and love, such strength of will and character, that,
even against your desire, you avoid seemingly profitable things which in
fact displease Allah and do those things which possibly entail risks and
losses but definitely please God. This strength can be developed only when
you understand the purpose of the Fasting and desire to put to use the
training you have undergone of curbing your physical desires for the fear
and love of God only.
But what happens as soon as Ramadan is over?
You throw to the winds all that you gain from the Fasting, just as a man
who has eaten food vomits it up by thrusting his fingers down his throat.
Just as physical strength cannot be obtained from bread until it is
degested, transformed into blood, which spreads through every vein, so
spiritual strength cannot be obtained from the Fasting until the person who
keeps fast is conscious of its purpose
and allows it to permeate his heart and mind and dominate his
thoughts, motives and deeds.
This is why Allah, after ordaining the
Fasting, has said that Fasting is made obligatory on you, ‘so that you may
attain to God-consciousness’,
la’allakum tattaqun.
Note that there is no guarantee that you will
definitely become God-conscious and righteous. Only someone who recognizes
the purpose of the Fasting and strives to achieve it will receive its
blessings; someone who does not, cannot hope to gain anything from it.
The Prophet, blessings and peace be on him, has in various ways
pointed out the real spirit of fasting and has explained that to go hungry
and thirsty while ignoring the spirit carries no value in the sight of God.
Once, he said:
If one does not
give up speaking falsehood and acting by it, God does not require him to
give up eating and drinking (Bukhari).
On another occasion, he said:
Many are the people
who fast but who gain nothing from their fast except hunger and
thirst; and many are those who stand praying all night but gain nothing
except sleeplessness (Darimi).
The lessons are clear and unequivocal:
merely being hungry and thirsty is not by itself worship, but a
means for performing real worship. Real worship means desisting from
violating the law of God out of this fear and this love of God, pursuing
activities that please Him, and refraining from the indiscriminate
satisfaction of physical desires. If you fast while ignoring this essence
of the Fasting, you are simply causing unnecessary inconvenience to you
stomachs.
The Prophet, blessings and peace be on him, draws attention
to another aim of fasting thus:
Whoever observes
the Fast, believing and counting, has all his past sins forgiven (Bukhari,
Muslim). Believing means that faith in God should
remain alive in the consciousness of a Muslim. Counting means that you
should seek only Allah’s pleasusre, constantly watching over your thoughts
and actions to make sure you are doing nothingcontraryh to His pleasure,
and trusting and expecting the rewards promised by Allah and the Messenger.
Observing these two principles bring the rich reward of all your past sins
being forgiven. The reason is obvious: even if you were once disobedient,
you will have now turned, fully repentant, to your Master---and ‘a penitent
is like one who has, as it were, never committed a sin at all’, as said the
Prophet, blessings and peace be on him (Ibn
Majah).
On another occasion, the Prophet, blessings and peace be on
him, said:
The Fast is like
a shield [for protection from Satan’s attack]. Therefore, when one observes
the Fast he should [use this shield and] abstain from quarrelling. If
anybody abuses him or quarrels with him, he should simply say, Brother, I
am fasting [do not expect me to indulge in similar conduct] (Bukhari,
Muslim).
Hunger
for Goodness
The
Prophet, blessings and peace be on him, once directed that a man, while
fasting, ought to do more good works than usual and ardently desire to
perform acts of kindness. Compassion and sympathy for his brothers should
intensify in his heart because, being himself in the throes of hunger and
thirst, he will all the more be able to realize the misery of other
servants of God who are destitude.
In Ramadan,
whoever provides food to a person who is fasting to break that Fast will
earn forgiveness for his sins, deliverance from the Fire and as much reward
as the one who is fasting, without any reduction in the recompense of the
latter (Baihaqi).Abdullah Ibn ‘Abbas tells that Prophet, blessings
and peace be on him, used to become unusually kind and generous during
Ramadan. No beggar in that period went empty-handed from his door, and as
many slaves as possible were set free (Baihaqi).
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