A Practical Guide to Human Rights in Islam

Haqooq ul Ibad

 

 
 Chapter 6

Practice of arkans is training

In our previous chapter we discussed an astonishing point, Allah does not need our prayers, rather we need these to become befitting and beneficiary peace makers of this world.  Prayers, fasting pilgrimage and Zakat are in fact training courses to help us perform the human rights of which majority of us are unaware of. 

We often do not mention the holy prophet’s (pbuh) other qualities except his being honest and a man of promise before he became a prophet, the massager of Allah.  It is a long discussion but in short, before he became a Prophet, he supported the weak, carried burden for elderly people, attended patients, fed the starved etc. He spent all his day in the serving humanity and that is why when he announced his Prophet-hood the poor class embraced Islam and followed his teachings. They faced all those hardships. No nation in the world has given so many sacrifices in the name of faith.

Let us see how this training program affects human beings.  Let us talk about prayers, the first pillar of Islam, of which we will be questioned first on the Day of Judgment is salat. Prayers are not forgiven in any condition even in war when two armies are upfront, except when women are in their special days.  Do you know why?  Because it is the first step of our training. It begins with five prayers a day and some more in the love of God and pray to Him at night tahajjud too. Achievement in this is punctuality and to please God. Time, which is the most important factor in life and of which God swore in surrah Alasr, is wasted by us the most. The time spent by us in playing cards, dancing etc.  Islam does not forbid us from recreation on small scales, but when we exceed the limits then we become the partners of Satan.

Extremism in any form is not acceptable in Islam. For example, it is not forbidden to play but to put aside all your prayers while you are busy entertaining yourself is not acceptable. To bet in gambling, whether two rupees or two thousand rupees, is illegitimate in Islam. To play with bet even for welfare is illegitimate. Nowadays people consider lottery as legitimate but it was forbidden even in Christianity.

First benefit of prayers is that one becomes punctual, and secondly to suppress your worldly desires to achieve the pleasure of Allah.  For instance, in the morning for the pleasure of Almighty you leave your bed; leave your house for prayers in the mosque. Wadoo freshens your mind, and you get the opportunity of greeting people and share the problems of our community. Further more we offer our prayers completely submitting ourselves with a thought that we are seeing Him and above all, He is observing us all. While offering prayers, rich and poor are standing shoulder to shoulder which is a lesson in equality of human beings.  Imam doesn’t order during the prayers for rakaoo or sajda, all he says is "Allah -ho-akbar" and we follow his words and submit our forehead in front of our Almighty and we all do rakoo, sajjda and dua together to complete our prayers. We come out of the mosque with a thought that God is pleased with us, and watching us on our every step, and thus we are showered all day by his benedictions. Will of God gained by crushing our desires is the reward and our preparation of big sacrifices in His way.

 

Send questions or comments to M. Rafiq & S. Pervaiz