Spiritual Satisfactions of Salah – Part Two
Here we are again, resuming our exploration of the spiritual satisfaction of salah. We left off in the last article, barely brushing over three of the numerous benefits salah can bring to you. Perhaps giving you the time to ponder on them and maybe reflect if you indeed feel these benefits through your prayer practice. Let us jump right into them to build awareness on how to achieve them.
Here we are again, resuming our exploration of the spiritual satisfaction of salah. We left off in the last article, barely brushing over three of the numerous benefits salah can bring to you. Perhaps giving you the time to ponder on them and maybe reflect if you indeed feel these benefits through your prayer practice. Let us jump right into them to build awareness on how to achieve them.
i. Relinquishing worry and anxiety
Remember we said: “The world is so consuming and exhausting that sometimes life is about surviving rather than living. What salah does is offer a practical and holistic means of living by encouraging us to relinquish control.” You must have thought, “Yes, that sounds comforting, and despite my best intentions, I don’t find it easy to achieve.” This gets us to how?
When a person presses the pause button five times during his day to go and pray simply because Allah has commanded it, what is happening here is that this individual’s ultimate concern is subconsciously being aligned to Allah. Allah becomes this person’s sole focus, whether this worshipper realizes this or
not. This process personifies what it means to worship: to submit to what one believes brings pleasure, and in this instance of performing prayer, one is submitting to Allah. By doing so, one is relinquishing the anxiety they face in the day because it is Allah who bestows pleasure and protects them from misery
and pain because Allah is in charge of all things. Prayer, therefore, is a form of secondary control – a person surrenders control to something greater than themselves, which reduces the stress of needing to be in charge all the time.
In short, whilst the physical act of prayer itself means a person is afforded a breather five times a day from the stresses of life, the spiritual nature of just making the time to perform salah means that a person learns not to worry about those aspects of life that he or she cannot control and truly trust in the
merciful nature of Allah’s plans.
ii. Taqwa (God consciousness)
Your closeness to Allah comes from knowing Him more, and your daily salah can only contribute to you becoming more conscious of God’s presence.
The more a person prays and the more effort s/he makes to improve his prayer, the more conscious he becomes of God’s presence. While we all may have had imaginary friends during our childhoods, now our conversations are very much real and tangible with entities that are real and tangible. While we cannot see Allah, salah makes His presence known to us; not ‘see-able’ but definitely tangible inthe way He soothes our souls and comforts out hearts. That is why we converse with Him right? That is why we do any good act we do. Because we know that though we cannot see Allah, Allah is very much present, seeing us and hearing us.
This is what it means to be God conscious. Outside of salah, this feeling of never being alone even in solitude stays with a person. This keeps the heart suspended between fear and hope. Fear that encourages a person to check himself before doing wrong and hope that encourages a person to do more good to earn the rewards promised to him by Allah. This spiritual purpose of prayer is as Allah
says:
“Recite what has been revealed to you of the Book and establish prayer [salah]. Indeed, prayer should deter one from indecency and wickedness.” (Surah ‘Ankabut:45)
Under the commentary of this verse in Ma’ariful Qur’an, Mufti Muhammad Shafi Usmani relates a narration by Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) that someone came to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and commented on a person who offers Tahajjud (night prayer) at night and steals after the day break. The noble Prophet (peace be upon him) replied, “The prayer will soon desist him from stealing.’ Other narrations relate that this person soon stopped stealing.
This does not mean a person should become despondent if they find themselves sinning despite offering their salah regularly and consistently. In the above verse Allah uses the Arabic equivalent of ‘establish’ which means that such a salah that induces God consciousness is to be offered in a manner that encompasses both the inward and outward beauty of prayer. This is not something that will happen
overnight. It is the process that is important and as someone beautifully reminded me not very long ago, this journey is not linear.
iii. A journey of love
Above, we discussed the merit of both fear and hope in relation to God consciousness. Ibn-al-Qayyim offers an eloquent analogy of a bird. He describes the two wings of the bird as hope and fear and the head as the concept of love. Without the head, the bird is quite simply dead. Without either of the wings,
the bird is vulnerable to its predators. So each unit of this triangle is important. However, the head is the most important unit and in our example of God consciousness, the head symbolises the concept of love. Similarly, the most important spiritual benefit of prayer is the feeling of love that is developed
between the Creator and His creation.
Above, we discussed the merit of both fear and hope in relation to God consciousness. Ibn-al-Qayyim offers an eloquent analogy of a bird. He describes the two wings of the bird as hope and fear and the head as the concept of love. Without the head, the bird is quite simply dead. Without either of the wings,
the bird is vulnerable to its predators. So each unit of this triangle is important. However, the head is the most important unit and in our example of God consciousness, the head symbolises the concept of love. Similarly, the most important spiritual benefit of prayer is the feeling of love that is developed
between the Creator and His creation.
Love is a very abstract notion isn’t it? Yet it is perhaps one of the greatest leading forces for mankind. Love coaxes and inspires and challenges a person to move symbolic mountains and conquer overwhelming odds. Love inspires other love. A person will love everything that their beloved loves. Isn’t this the very goal Muslims aspire to? Love Allah and all the consequential branches of this love?
You love a person solely for the sake of Allah and you love a particular action solely for the sake of Allah.
How does salah inspire such love? Well when we look at the five pillars of Islam, whilst the Shahadah (testifying to the oneness of Allah) is the foundation of knowledge, salah is the foundation of a relationship with Allah. It serves as the pillar upon which other acts of worship, remembrance of and connections with God are built. All relationships are nurtured on love and this one with God is no
different. When we pray we are in Allah’s company and He is in ours. Essentially we are remembering Him and He is remembering us. In this lies the sweetness of salah. Two beings spending time with each other creates a bond and this one with Allah is extra special because Allah will only exceed a person’s expectations of Him and never disappoint. This can never be the case between two worldly
creatures, human or otherwise. Allah always deals kindly with you. Allah always bestows countless favours upon you. Even if a worshipper encounters fear or grief, it is in the knowledge that Allah knows what is best for him. With this realisation comes love.
The moment you recite Takbeer (Allah-u-Akbar) to initiate your salah, you are proclaiming the greatness of Allah over your family, your job, your wealth, your grievances, your happiness. Allah in turn commands that the veils be lifted between Him and you. Allah is ready to engage in that precise moment
and He will not be the one to turn away from you. This is a recurring theme in the salah when you recite Surah Fatiha, when you make ruku’’ (bow), when you offer sujood (prostration), when you read Tashahhud and even when you make salaam to end your salah. If all the conditions of salah have been met, your love for Allah grows and grows and Allah only reciprocates in return.
Ibn al-Qayyim said: "Loving Allah is the life of hearts and nourishment of souls without which a heart will not feel happiness, blessings, success or life.”
As mentioned in the last article, in short, loving Allah is pure worship and a salah is the means by which such a relationship can be established, nourished and sustained.
While this article is by no means comprehensive in terms of the spiritual benefits of salah, what is interesting to me is the relationship between salah as a form of therapy, the model of taqwa and the concept of love. When you surrender your concerns to Allah which is essentially an act of self-wellbeing, you acknowledge and celebrate the presence of Allah. When you become aware of Allah in this manner, this creates taqwa. Taqwa brings the desire to do and please for the sake of Allah. This in turn establishes a bond of love between Allah and yourself - a bond of love which is the ultimate goal for any believer. The spiritual intelligence that we spoke of earlier? This is the very framework that encapsulates the type of spiritual intelligence that every believer should strive for.
We will insha Allah discuss the different ways and strategies to wholly benefit from salah in future content. Meanwhile, may Allah help us to pray in both the good times and bad, and with each prayer, may our spiritual intelligence grow vast and wide and may we all love Allah in the purest forms possible.
Minara, with love