A Quranic Analysis of Prayer, part 5
A Quranic Analysis of Prayer, part 5 (final)
Recap: According to the Qur’an everything in the universe is praying to their Creator. The concept of prayer cannot be reduced to only supplication to God with hand gestures when our heart desires something and our tongue articulates it. Creation such as plants, animals, particles, stars,… just to name a few items from the cosmos, also pray in the way they are created.
Most religions have the concept of praying. The believers are aware that they are praying to God, the Creator of the universe and supplicate to Him alone. However, those people who are neglectful about the reality of the existence of this universe, wish for something to happen, without specifying from whom they are hoping for their desires to be fulfilled. In this domain of fulfilling our desires, we are all left free with what we attribute as the source of fulfilling those desires.
The nature of prayer is to declare that I cannot create what I want, and I do not know what the future can bring to me. I have infinite needs and desires but I cannot fulfill them, neither can anything else in the universe. Therefore, I must present all my needs to the Creator of the universe, the One who created me with these needs can satisfy my needs. Only through these needs can I be aware that my existence is totally dependent on Him. The essence of prayer is to keep this awareness alive and be always in relationship with my Creator. This is called “living in the presence of God.”
To fully understand the concept of prayers, we must be aware of how creation is taking place in space-time. We may think that creation is static, however it is important to keep in mind the ever-changing and dynamic universe. Example: we see our hair and nails grow. We must question who is changing them? Who is giving continuous existence to my ever-renewed hair, for example, without any interruption? The universe is created in such an attentive way that we cannot ignore how things are being taken care of. There is something that is continuously presenting its act of creation to us. This act of creation that we experience means that the Creator of the universe is introducing Himself to us, to conscious human beings. We must also bear in mind that whatever exists out there is directly communicating with our feelings. In other words, everything is directly related to my human feelings, such as anything beautiful or ugly out there catches my attention. I do not want the ugly things, rather I want the beautiful things and this relates to my feelings. We are continuously communicating with everything in the universe. You want to communicate with the beauty of the clouds, the mountains, etc.
For example, you do not want viruses, and you want to keep away from them, that is a communication with the Creator of both you and viruses. He created you with the love of healthy life and He created the viruses to remind you that “your life is not guaranteed, it is a gift from Me, remember that I can take it away anytime, be aware of this, do not take it for granted.” While you try to protect yourself from the harm of viruses you acknowledge your neediness and realize that life and health are given to you as gifts. You are praying to the Creator to keep yourself from the harm of viruses by acknowledging the value of His gift to you, “a healthy life.”
The relationship between me and the universe is so harmonious, which makes me conclude that the One who is creating the universe and the One who is creating me now is putting me in connection with the universe, so that I can understand the meaning of existence. For the human mind wanders, what is going on here, as everything here is related to me. It is as if I am at the center of the universe, where my Creator wants me to understand how through creation He is introducing Himself to me so that I can learn to communicate with Him, the Creator of the universe. This relationship involves acknowledgment and communication which is the meaning of prayers.
For example, I want something good to happen to me and I also do not want something bad to happen in the universe. With such desires and wants, and anything that comes to our minds in relation to creation, is nothing but the communication of our spirit with its Creator. That is, with any occurrence that occurs in our mind, we are communicating with the Creator of the universe, whether we realize it or not.
Let us take a practical example to further understand this. You are running late, and you wish the train comes right away. This is a wish given by your Creator. This wish is a declaration from you, whether you realize it or not that you cannot do anything, rather you are hoping for the Creator of the universe to create the arrival of the train for you, that is your expectation. In this example, you are presenting your impotence to your Creator that you cannot create, which implies the acknowledgment that you need someone else to create it. The essence of prayer is acknowledgement, rather than expecting God to change the way He creates the universe and make the train arrive at the time you want. He creates as He wants. My acknowledgement means I confirm that the creation of the order of the universe is according to the Absolute Will of the Creator, not accidental or by itself. Who can create it? Who can create the next moment for you? Who is controlling the universe and creating and arranging it according to my needs? I must ask these questions consciously and recognize that I am treated here especially by my Creator. By creating the universe, my Creator is:
- communicating with me
- asking me to get to know Him
- prompting me to present my desires and hopes to Him
With such awareness, I can understand that my existence is meaningful and that I am purposefully placed in such a position i.e. in communication with my Creator through the creation of the universe. It is extremely important to pay attention to what is going on in creation, for I cannot communicate with God without going through the universe. The essence of prayer is that we keep in mind the following: There is someone who is arranging everything perfectly and introducing Himself to me. I would ask this One: “Can you please create the next moment for me, I need to exist?” There is a continuous communication with the Source of our existence. Again, only if we are aware of what is going on in creation and our existence, then we can always keep this continuous communication alive. This awareness of the existential relationship between me and my Creator is called “taqwa” i.e. being aware of who I am and who my Creator is.
In the Quran, we find some examples teaching us how our prayers to God are responded to when we pray to God. The Quran demonstrates that God responds to our sincere prayer by giving us what is best for us according to His absolute Knowledge. The examples presented in the Quran depict how our verbal relationship with God and our prayers are at the core of sincerity, which is declaring that “I cannot do it by myself, but I have this need and You gave me this sense to like something better for me in my life. According to my understanding I think this is the best for me, please give it to me if it is good for me”. Sincerity comes from the declaration of our neediness accompanied with the understanding that only the Creator of the universe can fulfill my needs. This realization is the recognition of the Creator of the universe, which is called “imaan” i.e. belief. Sincerity comes through belief, “imaan”.
- If I pray to God sincerely, God guarantees a response.
If a response is guaranteed from my Creator, then it means that God hears all prayers. How can we imagine otherwise?! If God is the Creator of my feelings, how can I imagine that He is not aware of what He is creating in my feelings?! After all, all my feelings are given by Him. When we are young, we have different feelings. As we grow older, our feelings change. At different stages of our lives, we experience different feelings. I am not changing my feelings, rather, my Creator is changing my feelings in the course of time i.e. continuation of creation. If we sincerely pray to God, He hears and responds to the prayer. However, if the prayer is not sincere, then I am imposing something from my side with the desire for the Creator to create something for me as I want. As a result, the Creator does not respond in a positive way according to my expectations, but according to His Absolute Knowledge, wisdom, and Mercy. I pray according to my expectations, but I do not know the future, I should leave it to God to decide the best for me. Sometimes, people think that what they are asking for is the best thing for them to have, and afterwards, they realize that it is not. That is also a teaching from the Creator. Therefore, we must always put our absolute trust in our Creator who knows what is best for us.
As far as extending supplication to a desperate situation is concerned, the idea is still the same, where we need the consciousness that I am not the One creating the situation for myself, rather my Creator created me with the need for something solely for the purpose of acknowledging Him as the Source of all my affairs and existential matters.
Let us now study these Quranic verses to further grasp the concept of prayer:
إِذْ قَالَتِ ٱمْرَأَتُ عِمْرَٰنَ رَبِّ إِنِّى نَذَرْتُ لَكَ مَا فِى بَطْنِى مُحَرَّرًا فَتَقَبَّلْ مِنِّىٓ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلسَّمِيعُ ٱلْعَلِيمُ
3:35 “Remember, when the wife of Imran said, “My Lord! I dedicate what is in my womb entirely to Your service, so accept it from me. You alone are truly the All-Hearing, All-Knowing.”
Being aware that one’s Creator is Hearing and Knowing is the premise to any prayer. The prayer of Jesus’s grandmother is: “You know that I am praying to You, and I would like my child to serve in the temple”. Traditionally, in Jewish tradition, only males can serve in the temple which indicates that she was expecting a male child. Let’s also examine the following verse:
فَلَمَّا وَضَعَتْهَا قَالَتْ رَبِّ إِنِّى وَضَعْتُهَآ أُنثَىٰ وَٱللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا وَضَعَتْ وَلَيْسَ ٱلذَّكَرُ كَٱلْأُنثَىٰ وَإِنِّى سَمَّيْتُهَا مَرْيَمَ وَإِنِّىٓ أُعِيذُهَا بِكَ
وَذُرِّيَّتَهَا مِنَ ٱلشَّيْطَـٰنِ ٱلرَّجِيمِ
3:36 “But when she had given birth to the child, she said: “O my Lord! Behold, I have given birth to a female’- while God had been fully aware of what she would give birth to, and fully aware that no male child [she might have hoped for] could ever have been like this female- and I have named her Mary. And, verily, I seek Your protection for her and her offspring against Satan, the accursed.”
Seemingly, it may appear that God did not accept Jesus’s grandmother’s prayer by giving her a daughter. Again, being aware that one’s Creator is fully aware of what He is creating helps us look into how we see our case of prayers in our practical lives. In the example presented, she communicated with God and asked to provide protection for her daughter, Mary, and her offsprings against Satan.
What we must keep in mind from these teachings is that our Creator responds to our prayers for sure, but our Creator accepting our prayer is another thing, which looks to my expectations. In a way there are two sides to acceptance of prayers, from my side, the acceptance is based on my expectations, and from my Creator’s side the acceptance is based on what He thinks is best for me i.e. His Absolute Knowledge and Wisdom. Regardless, our prayers must be sincere, and its acceptance is not guaranteed according to what I expect. I do not know what is in my best interest (I may think that I know), but my Creator knows what is best for me and when it is best for me.
- Sincere prayers may be accepted not according to my knowledge, rather according to God’s knowledge.
For example, as far as John knows, drinking coffee is best for him. When he is drinking coffee, he is praying to his Creator to accept this act from him and whatever the consequences of drinking coffee are if any, he is asking to be protected from any undesired results. When he starts having dark teeth as a result of drinking coffee, this shows that the results of drinking coffee were not positive, thus, God is responding in another way that he must stop drinking coffee, which is to protect him from harm. We must be careful with the details of our lives to understand the workings of prayers.
The above example does encompass the understanding of the ritualistic expression “bismillah” i.e. with the awareness of the existence of the Creator, which is a prayer as well. As long as we have the awareness and consciousness of the Creator of the universe when we pray and express “bismillah”, then we have established the foundations of the purpose of our existence.
“In the example of Jesus’ grandmother praying to God for a boy to be in His service in the Temple, we notice that she sincerely prayed to God, and God responded to her prayer and gave her a girl. Although apparently her prayer is not accepted. As the verse explained, this girl was much better than what the mother prayed for. She did not know that this girl is much better than a boy but God did according to His infinite knowledge and wisdom and created a girl in response to her prayer.”
We mostly overlook the responded side of prayer and pay full attention to the accepted side of prayer. As the Quran mentions in the following verse,
40:60 “Your Lord says: “Pray to Me, and I will answer your (prayer).”
As per the Quranic teachings, response is guaranteed but acceptance of what we want is not according to our expectation but according to His Wisdom and Mercy.
“God responded to her prayer by giving her a girl, Mary, who is going to give birth to a prophet (Jesus) that would not only serve in the Temple, but he will restore the Temple and purify it for a long time and be the leader of those who serve the Temple. We see that Mary’s mother’s prayer was accepted not in her child but in her grandson: Jesus, infinitely better than what she nominally prayed for.”
Let us take a practical example. You ask God to give you a house with a beautiful garden. Is it wrong to express such desires verbally? No, that is how we are made because we think that having a house with a beautiful garden is better for us. The gist of any prayer is acknowledgment that I cannot get such a house by myself, but only the Creator of the universe can arrange with the means for me to get a house with a beautiful garden.
“We realize that God always responds to our prayers and accepts them as we sincerely prayed for. These sincere prayers may not be accepted as we thought what was best for us, but as God’s Absolute Knowledge knows what is best for us and creates it accordingly.”
“Let’s see an example in our practical life. I may pray for a job that I thought would be the best option for me. I prepared everything necessary for it and while I was preparing myself to succeed in the interviews, afterwards, I opened my hands and prayed to God to give me this particular job, because I assume it is the best one for me. But I may see that I could not get the job but another job that I thought was not the best for me.”
For example, as a law student, while studying, I must be conscious that I am praying to be a lawyer, which is not guaranteed. With every class that I attend, I say “please God, give me success. I am doing what is best on my part, for You will make me a successful lawyer according to your Knowledge.” This consciousness is needed. After getting the degree, you keep acknowledging the Creator for providing you with the best job. That is the process of prayer.
“Of course, after thinking if I had done something wrong in my preparation for the job interviews, and if I need to do some more preparations to succeed in the interviews, I must trust in God’s decision that His choice must be the best for me. We never know what is going to be created afterwards, and where the best job is given to me. Most probably, Mary’s mother had not seen that Mary gave birth to a prophet. But God knows what He is doing. She will see this particular result of her prayer, if not in this world, then in the next creation.”
In the example above, praying to become a successful lawyer while you are not attending the class, is not a sincere prayer. A sincere prayer needs obedience to God, by following the way He creates. If I do not follow the way He creates, it means that I do not care about my success, and God’s concern for me. As a result, I will fail the class, and God teaches me what I have done wrong, which is, I must study and follow His way of creating. If I just verbally express myself to God to make me a lawyer, that is not a sincere prayer. If I do not acknowledge His absolute Knowledge and Wisdom, that is not a sincere prayer either. To be sincere, I must acknowledge the Creator’s Sovereignty over me, by following both active and verbal prayers.
From these Quranic and practical examples, we can understand that every sincere prayer is accepted although we may think that it is not accepted. Just because we do not see the expected results and outcomes at that moment, it does not mean that the prayer is not accepted. Our responsibility is to follow the order in creation and do our best with the acknowledgement of the Creator, but we should never impose anything on the Creator, for He knows what He is doing, and He will create the best for us. That is called “tawakkul- ‘alAllah” i.e. trust in God.
“Also, she, Jesus’ grandmother, will definitely feel that the result of her prayer in this world is realized: I am praying to the One who definitely hears my prayers and definitely responds in the best way, and He is able to create it with his infinite Power, infinite Mercy, infinite Wisdom, and infinite Knowledge. This feeling is priceless because only through this feeling can we human beings feel secure and comfortable in our lives by trusting in the Wisdom and Mercy of the Absolute Creator of the universe.”
If you do not do any work, can you expect any wage? No. Similarly, we must do our part and follow the order in creation which is “active prayer”. While doing any work, you must be aware that you are doing this job so that you will get recompensed for your services in this world. In our existential reality, the acknowledgment is to the Source of our existence as the Owner of everything, including the next creation.
Finally, we must be aware about to whom we are praying to. We are praying to the Lord of the universe who creates a perfect harmonious creation. Prayer means to have a full satisfaction in my existence: “I am the creature of the One who creates the universe. I am His guest here; my owner is the Owner of the universe.”
Tags: Quranic Analysis of Prayer
