The Second Pillar
By Aiman Reyaz, New
Age Islam
22nd October, 2014
“The closest a person
is to His Lord is when he is in prostration.”
Immediately after the
testimony of faith, Prayer is the second pillar of Islam and that is why
whenever somebody came to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) to embrace Islam, after
giving the testimony, the first thing that he asked others to help him or teach
that man was Prayer.
The mention of Prayer
in the Quran is quite plentiful and most often it is mentioned in conjunction
with Zakat. And it is quite interesting because ‘Zakat’, literally means
purification and growth and both Zakat and Prayer involve purification and
growth.
When we look at the bulk of the verses of the
Quran related to Prayers, almost all of them mentions Prayer in the form of
plural- establishing Prayer in a group. Which means that while Prayers, in one
sense, is an individual act of worship, in the Quran it is seen also as a
collective act of worship? And this has a significant implication.
The Prophet said that
the separating line between a believer and a non-believer is neglecting Prayer.
He indicated that Prayer is the first thing that the person is held responsible
for in the Day of Judgment. He said “If the Prayer is right, the deeds would be
accepted”. Many times when people came to ask the Prophet as to which deed is
best, he said- Prayers.
When we read the Quran
properly we would come to know that Prayers is not actually new. While this
applies to all prophets, Prophet Ibrahim is credited with great role in the
history of monotheism, even though he was not the first monotheist, and his
famous Prayer: O God make me among those who establish regular Prayers and also
of my progeny.
The same sense of duty
and attitude was upheld by his descendent, Prophet Ismail. The Quran describes
him as one who used to enjoin Prayer and charity on his family. Actually when
the Quran also speaks about the other sons of Ibrahim, Ishaq and his son
Ya’qub, recounting God’s blessing on them. It says that We inspire them to do
good deeds and establishment of regular Prayers.
The Quran also speaks
about establishing regular Prayers even to non-Prophets and women. The Quran
says to Mary, the mother of Jesus, O Mary, be obedient to your Lord and bow
down with those who bow down.
Now let us discuss the
question of ritualism. Often times we get to hear that Muslims are ritualistic
and that their Prayers are a mere form of an exercise etc. There is only an
outward show, the critics say. They say that Muslims focus only on the exterior
part of the body and not on the interior. But I must add that some Muslims are
not ritualistic, but that is not what Islam teaches. There may be rituals, in
the Prayers, in the sense of following a certain guidelines but it does not
mean ritualism that is obsession with anything.
Why perform Prayer?
The Quran says emphatically to remember God at every time and at every moment.
It is no Prayer that one goes up and down and does all the bad things. The
second reason, as the Quran itself says, to negate ritualism, which is in a way
negated by all acts of worship. Prayer indeed restrains the person from
committing indecency and wrong. And that is what the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)
emphasized that if the Prayer does not restrain the person from indecency, his
Prayers are not accepted.
“Without doubt, in the
remembrance of God do hearts find satisfaction”.
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