What is the philosophy behind “Prayer” in Islam?
Salat or prayer is one of the obligatory worships in Islam, although there are a lot of recommended prayers, but there are some obligatory kinds of that, like what we perform everyday which is the most manifest of it.
In the dictionaries the word Salat is translated as prayer and this word is used for every prayer in Islam as well as the word Doa is used so.
prayer is defined in a Narration as one of the five pillars of Islam.
Imam Baghir(peace be upon him) said:
“The prayer is the pillar of religion and its parable is that of the prop of a tent, when the prop remains upright, the pegs and ropes remain straight and upright, but when the prop bends or breaks neither the pegs nor ropes remain straight”.
In another Narration it is mentioned as the first thing, from which on the day of judgment a servant of Allah will be asked, if it is accepted, all of the other deeds will be accepted and if it is rejected, all of the other deeds will be rejected.
There are many Narrations regarding the importance of prayer in Islamic sources.
Many philosophies can be mentioned for performing prayer; like:
1) It is a way for remembering Allah.
It is a famous sentence that if someone wants to talk to Allah, he/she should perform prayer and if he/she wants Allah to talk to him/her, he/she should recite the holy Quran.
2) Allah said in the holy Quran chapter Ankabut verse:45:
أَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ إِنَّ الصَّلَاةَ تَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاء وَالْمُنكَرِ وَلَذِكْرُ اللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ
“Establish the prayer. Prayer forbids indecency and dishonor. The remembrance of Allah is greater, and Allah knows what you do”
It is appropriate to mention that some people might ask if the prayer prevents the servant of Allah from committing sins, so why do we see some people that they perform their prayer regularly, but they commit sins and crimes as well. So what is the meaning of this verse?
As the answer to this question we say:
If we look at the words of this verse carefully, we see that the exact used word in this verse is تنهی” “which means forbids, and Allah did not use the wordتمنع” “which means prevents. The verse means that performing prayer is a reminder and not a preventer and the next part of this answer is that a lot of our prayers are not the complete and perfect prayer which has all of its effects and benefits, for this very reason it is possible that a man is performing his prayer but at the same time he is gazing to a woman who is passing by. But if the preliminaries and prerequisites of prayer are observed and at the time of the performing the prayer, the heart that is the house of Allah is kept completely attentive to Allah and the servant feels him/herself in the presence of his/her creator, the prayer, definitely will have its benefits and results.
3) It is a way to remove the curtains and veils of negligence from our soul. It is narrated from the holy Prophet of Islam that prayer, looks like a clear-water river flowing ,in which if you wash yourself five times a day, nothing dirty remain on your body so prayer removes the sins.
When a person performs prayer every day five times, he/she remembers Allah and the duties and responsibilities that he/she has before Him and you know the verses and the Doas that we recite in the prayer is so effective and meaningful, like the mercy of Allah or the day of judgment or asking the guidance from Allah and being on the straight path etc. (of course if we really notice to what we recite and do, during the prayer).
Imagine what happens if we want to take lessons from what we say every day at least 10 times, for example when we mention Allah by the name of Al-Rahman and Al-Rahim which are related to the mercy of Allah, how cannot we be merciful in our family and in the society? Or when we remember the Day of Judgment by a verse in chapter Fatihah, can we be ignorant of our religious and moral duties?
4) Another philosophy of performing prayer is that it makes us tidy if we are observant to perform the prayer in its early time, because you know that performing prayer in those times is so much emphasized by the infallibles.
————————-
Source:
Center.namaz.ir
Imamreza.net
