Regular prayer

[aadil77]

If you watch this you'll get an idea of what we pray, there are things which the imam doesn't pray out loud - which you pray on your own, such as when in prostration

 

[Insaanah]

The way Muslims pray is not much different from the way the Biblical prophets (peace be upon them) prayed.

The faithful come to the mosque and take off their shoes so that they may enter the house of worship in bare feet...

"When he came to the Fire, a voice was uttered: O Moses! I am thy Lord, therefore put off thy shoes, for thou art in the sacred valley of Tuwa."-(HOLY QURAN 20:11-12).

(And God said to Moses), "Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."-(EXODUS 3:5, also ACTS 7:33).

They make ablution, washing their faces, hands and feet...

"O you who belive! When you rise up to prayer, wash your faces and your hands as far as the elbows, and wipe your heads, and wash your feet to the ankles."-(HOLY QURAN 5:7)

"And Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet thereat; when they went into tent of the conregation they washed as the Lord commanded Moses."-(EXODUS 40:31-32).

"Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple..."-(ACTS 21:26).

The faithful face that Great Mosque in Mecca, whether in prayer, or reciting, or seeking the blessings of God in unison with the faithful from all over the world...

"So turn thy face toward the Sacred Mosque, and (O Muslims), wheresoever ye may be, turn your faces toward it."- (HOLY QURAN 2:144).

"Now when Daniel...went into his house; and his window being open in his chamber towards Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and thanks before his God, as he did aforetime."-(DANIEL 6:10).

Bowing down and prostrating..

"O you who believe! Bow down and prostrate yourselves and serve your Lord, and do good that you may prosper."-(HOLY QURAN 22:77).

"And he (Jesus) went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed..."-(MATTHEW 26:39).

"And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship..."-(JOSHUA 5:14).

"And he (Elijah) cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees."-(1 KINGS 18:42).

"And they (Moses and Aaron) fell upon their faces..."-(NUMBERS 20:6).

"And Abraham fell on his face..."-(GENESIS 17:3).

Invariably, the faithful spreads out his hands to God, asking forgiveness, seeking His blessings, beseeching His protection for mankind...

"Our Lord! Give us good in this world and good in the Hereafter, and defend us from the torment of the Fire."-(HOLY QURAN 2:201)

"...when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication unto the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven."-(1 KINGS 8:54).

And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that Thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent me.-(JOHN 11:41-42).

It's a great feeling when you know that Muslims around the world, and the Prophets that came before Muhammad (peace be upon them all) prayed in the same way, and that you are following in their footsteps.

Peace.

 

[glo]

problem is what is christian teaching, what are the fundamental beliefs that make you a christian? no one can seem to agree on them

Christians may have differences in opinion, but there are basic tenets which most Christians, if not all, can agree on.

For the sake of my conversation with Pouring Rain, I am really talking about things which I personally could not say or do, as they would go against my personal convictions and beliefs.
As Pouring Rain said, Christians may have different opinions as to where they draw that line.

For example, if Islamic prayer meant actively denying Jesus' divinity, that would be something I simply could not do. (Just as I am sure that you could not participate in any prayer which actively claimed Jesus' divinity)

Thank you for your link, BTW.

 

[Tyrion]

I would agree with you and also disagree with you...... if that is possible.

Yes, the way most Christians pray would be similar to how muslims make du'a. I agree with that. In fact, there are often discussions and reprimands amongst Christians who dislike how some treat God like a santa claus in the sky. (Although not all prayer, nor du'a, are of that nature either.)

The way that I disagree with you is that the Lord's Prayer, from my understanding, is the same basic structure as the Islamic prayer (salat). (This is not my own conclusion, as I have never honestly examined the two side by side, but I read an entire chapter about this in a book once many years ago, written by a man who was not a Christian.) As Christians, we are often taught that the Lord's Prayer is the model for prayer. The structure of it should serve as a model for how we should pray. So, in that sense, Christians who follow the model of prayer, is very comparable to salat.

I would say that what we Christians simply call "prayer" would include both du'a and salat for a muslim. For Jews it is more similar to Muslims.

From my own understanding, The Lord's Prayer is more comparable to Al-Fatiha, which is only one part of Salat. Salat itself requires much more than just a recitation of Al-Fatiha, so I still don't see it as totally comparable to when a Christian prays. Like I said though, this is only my understanding of the matter.

 

[Danah]

Peace glo

Regular prayer? from the name itself you can get one benefit...you said regular, so its kinda organize our day to five times. Our life is more organized as we know what to do each time and so keep waiting the time of the salah impatiently (more like missing Allah so we need to pray again and again to him), not just living the day randomly without any goal. They are five in different times of the day and not all at once so we are renewing our covinent with Allah five times daily that we are directing our worshipping to him only.
Think about it this way. Imagine you have two nice vases for your flowers in your outside garden, one of them you keep cleaing it several times during the day, while the other one is just getting cleaned once everyday. which one will be cleaner?
Of course the first one, and so the heart of Muslims. Salah cleans the heart of Muslim five times a day from the worldly dust that the person live with daily and keeps reminding him of the ultimate purpose of his existence. It purify our hearts and keep telling us that there are more important things in this life than just work, sleep, and eat.


Its us who are seeking benefits from Salah....its has been always said: if you want Allah to talk to you, read Quran. But if you want to talk to Allah, pray your Salah.

 

[Muhammad]

Greetings glo,

Thanks for starting an interesting thread.

I remember hearing an example about regular prayers. The example was that prayers are to the heart what water is to a tree. If you gave the water all at once, the tree would die. Likewise it would be too difficult if all the prayers were done at once. Islam has spread out the timings for prayer throughout the day to keep us in regular contact with God and to make it easier than having to do it all at once. This is similar to how water is given in small amounts but in regular intervals to nurture a tree and help it grow.

Prayer in Islam is also about reviving our faith each time we pray and finding comfort from the difficulties of the world. The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, "prayer was made the sweetness of my eyes". That was his rest and comfort. Whenever a matter grieved him, he would take refuge in the prayer. He would say to his muezzin (caller to prayer), Bilal, "O Bilal, give us our rest in prayer." This shows the yearning and desire he felt to meet Allaah (swt). Hence, Islam even encourages optional prayers in the long intervals between the obligatory prayers, as devotees of Allaah (swt) enjoy communicating with Him in prayer.

Regarding the manner of prayer - it is a very lofty act of worship because it combines different acts of worship together: remembrance of Allaah, recitation of the Qur'an, standing humbly before Almighty Allaah, bowing, prostrating, supplication, praising and glorifying Allaah and so on. As one author put it, it is an act in which all the three aspects of human existence, physical, mental and spiritual, find their due expression.

Peace.​

 

[PouringRain]

From my own understanding, The Lord's Prayer is more comparable to Al-Fatiha, which is only one part of Salat. Salat itself requires much more than just a recitation of Al-Fatiha, so I still don't see it as totally comparable to when a Christian prays. Like I said though, this is only my understanding of the matter.

Thank you, Tyrion. You may be correct, as I said, I have never analyzed or compared the two structures personally, I only read about it in a book many years back. From what naidamar described when he outlined the prayer on the previous page, I would say that the lord's prayer includes more than just al fatiha. He wrote that when sitting you also make du'a for forgiveness, good health, and the straight path, etc. The Lord'a prayer as a model has these basic elements: starts with praise (adoration), acknowledging his will, supplication (for needs), supplication (forgiveness), supplication (straight path), ends in praise (although the ending this way is in the protestant Bible and not the Catholic one).

I was reminded of another model that christians use and it is acronymed ACTS: adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication.


I would say that one main difference is that christians do not usually recite the Bible in their prayers. There are exceptions though. For example, reciting the Lord's prayer in itself is a recitation of the bible. There was a movement not too long ago where christians were reciting the "prayer of Jabez" which is fro the Bible. It is also not uncommon for Christians to pray the Psalms. Off hand, those are just a few prayers I can think of where the bible is recited in prayer.

Another difference in the prayer itself is that christians do not generally remember or mention the name of past prophets as Muslims do in naming Mohammed (and also Abraham). The exception would be using the name of Jesus. Not all christians pray to Jesus.... I just wanted to point out. It is not uncommon to see a christians who prays to God, but tacks on the end of the prayer something to the effect of "we ask these things in Jesus' name."

Other differences I would say are not in the prayer itself, but are in things such as: christians do not perform wudu, although there are those who believe in washing the feet or things of that nature; christians do not make intention, although it is not uncommon for them to prepare their hearts; and Christians do not go through various body motions during prayer, although it is not uncommon to find them bowing, raising their hands, falling down, etc.

Maybe when you read this post, Tyrion, you can make more comments/ comparisson about christian prayer and salat. I know how to pray as a muslim and have done it many, many times, but I will be the first to say that I am not familiar with it enough to be able to analyze all its parts. I look forward to your comments. (Riding a bike and explaining how to ride a bike in detail are two different things. LOL)

 

[PouringRain]

Its us who are seeking benefits from Salah....its has been always said: if you want Allah to talk to you, read Quran. But if you want to talk to Allah, pray your Salah.

I remember hearing an example about regular prayers. The example was that prayers are to the heart what water is to a tree. If you gave the water all at once, the tree would die. Likewise it would be too difficult if all the prayers were done at once. Islam has spread out the timings for prayer throughout the day to keep us in regular contact with God and to make it easier than having to do it all at once. This is similar to how water is given in small amounts but in regular intervals to nurture a tree and help it grow.

I like these. :thumbs_up

 

[Tyrion]

Maybe when you read this post, Tyrion, you can make more comments/ comparisson about christian prayer and salat. I know how to pray as a muslim and have done it many, many times, but I will be the first to say that I am not familiar with it enough to be able to analyze all its parts. I look forward to your comments. (Riding a bike and explaining how to ride a bike in detail are two different things. LOL)

Well, the only real experience I've had with Christian prayers is when I lived in the dorms last year. Quite a bit of my floor mates were very religious, so it gave me a unique opportunity to engage in dialogue with them. As someone else mentioned earlier, ( I think it was mentioned in this thread anyway...) I noticed that it seems like most Christians just end up treating God as that "Santa Clause in the sky", and just pray in whatever fashion they want and ask for whatever they want. I think one of the things about Salat that I really like is the fact that it is worshiping God according to God's terms. God has every right over us, and we have no power to say how we want to please God. I feel like Islam is the only faith that reliably tells us how God wants us to connect with and worship him, and I feel like this is lacking in Christianity.

I'm not particularly sure where else we can go with this discussion, and I'm running out of things to say since my mind is really dead right now... (it's been a long week... Perhaps I'll think of more to say tomorrow ) But I did want to say that you have some very unique views, and I've never encountered a Christian who was so interested in Islam or who had actually taken the time to learn how to perform Salat. I find it really interesting, (if not a bit confusing...), and I'm glad we can exchange ideas and learn like this. I haven't really been active on this forum until very recently, and I'm really enjoying it so far, so I hope we can continue these kinds of talks. And who knows, since you already accept Muhammad as a prophet, perhaps one day you'll actually accept Islam...

 

[glo]

Thank you all for your contributions. I am really enjoying this thread! :statisfie

I wonder if there are any members who are neither Christian nor Muslim, who have a view on this?

 

[espada]

This thread makes me appreciate Islam that much more.

There is an actual system of prayer.

The things i enjoy about prayer the most are the sajdah, prayer in congregation and the superogatory prayers (the forenoon, the night prayer).

To the 2 Christian sisters, read this thread:

The Virtue of Night Prayer

In fact i recommend to both of you to rouse yourself out of bed and try it.

Call on Allah with your head bowed in humility, in the dead of night.

You have nothing to lose, and all whole lot to gain.

 

[Sister Unknown]

To Muslilms, every action is an act of worship. Everything we do and say is worship. Worship means doing everything that pleases Allah. Every action can be an act of worship if it is in accordance with Allah's revelation. But surely there is a difference between eating (worship) and offereing Salat (worship). Offering Salat is a second pillar in Islam. It is far rewarding than eating. When we offer the Salat, we must fear Allah, hope and love Him. We must keep these three things in balance. And of course, Al- fatiha, is the surah that gives us even more strenght of these three feelings.

As you have said, why should we focus on everything around us, except Allah? Allah has given us a way of life to live and to focus on that, not to live as we want.

And, Salat, keep sus away from sins. How? It increases us in belief, etc...