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. |