By Adnan Majid

By its own admission, the Qur’an contains verses known as mutashābihāt or allegorical – verses with no definite interpretation whose ultimate meaning is known only to God (Qur’an 3:7). Despite this, however, the beautiful imagery of these verses never ceases to inspire us towards a deeper remembrance of God. One such verse that has long left me in awe and wonder is the fourth verse of Sūrah Ma`ārij (“Ascending Stairways”):

The angels and the Spirit will ascend to Him

during a Day the extent of which is fifty thousand years. (Qur’an 70:4)

“Fifty thousand years!” – such an immensely long period of time! I often ask myself what spiritual lesson I may draw from this verse,  knowing well that I can never fully comprehend the verse’s ultimate meaning and intent due to my limited understanding of the world around me.

I turn to the classical exigeses of the Qur’an, such as Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr, which states that this verse might be referring to the length of the Day of Resurrection (yaum al-qiyāmah), when each soul will be reminded of his or her actions in life. Imagine, all humanity standing in wait for fifty millennia to receive final judgment! All the decades of our lives would seem like an eye blink compared to the length of that weighty day!

Another interpretation I have read of this verse is that the angels and spirit take a period of fifty millennia to ascend to God. Compare the verse above to another verse in Sūrah Sajdah (“Prostration”):

He arranges (each) matter from the heaven to the earth;

 then it will ascend to Him in a Day

the extent of which is a thousand years

of those which you count. (Qur’an 32:5)

When reading these two verses together, I’m left astounded – why such long periods of time? If God wished, couldn’t the angels or God’s divine orders ascend to Him instantaneously without any delay whatsoever?

I have no definitive answers to satisfy my wonder, but I’ll share my reflections. Maybe one of the lessons the Qur’an seeks to teach by describing such long periods of time in Sūrah Ma‘ārij can be found in the verses that follow immediately after the verse above:

So be patient with gracious patience.

Indeed, they see it [as] distant,

But We see it [as] near. (Quran 70:5-7) 

If God had willed, He could give us judgment immediately. If God had willed, the angels and divine orders could ascend to Him instantaneously. But maybe God reveals these details in the Qur’an as a way of teaching us a lesson by example. He shows us that He has no need to rush events; He is not fazed by lengthy eons of time. God shows us Himself that He is aṣ-Ṣabūr, the Most Patient. And through His example, we are taught a universal lesson: Things take time, so you too be patient.

We can possibly find the same lesson in some verses of Sūrah Qāf where we read the following:

And We have did certainly create the heavens and earth

and what is between them in six days,

and there touched Us no weariness. (Qur’an, 50:38)

The Qur’an states in a number of places that God created the heavens and earth in six “days,” which in light of the verses above (32:5 and 70:4, as well as 22:47) could be indefinitely long periods of time. Our scientific investigation of the āyātullāh (God’s signs in nature) makes clear to us that these “days” had lengths of billions of years to our reckoning.

But why did the creation of the heavens and earth take any time at all? Creation did not tire God – the verse itself rejects the biblical notion that God had to “rest” on a seventh day. If creation was so easy, couldn’t God simply create everything at a blink of an eye? Why “six” of anything when He is undoubtedly able to create everything we know instantaneously?

Once again, maybe we can find a lesson in the verses immediately following the verse above:

So be patient [O Muhammad] over what they say,

and exalt [Allah] with praise of your Lord

before the rising of the sun

and before its setting.

And [in part] of the night exalt Him

and after prostration. (Qur’an 50:39-40)

Once again, God teaches us by His own example. To the best of our knowledge, 13 billion years have passed since the Big Bang, and 4.5 billion years have passed since the creation of the Earth. It was only after these incomprehensibly long periods of time that humans ever came into existence. When we consider these āyātullāh (God’s signs in nature), we see that God did not rush our creation. Again, we learn that He is aṣ-Ṣabūr, the Most Patient. Again, we are taught the same universal lesson: Things take time, so you too be patient.

Question:

I want to pray the five daily prayers on time, but I have trouble doing them on time and regularly. How can I get into it?

Answer:

Dear Questioner,

The fact that you even care about your prayers is an incredible sign of God’s love for you and His desire to keep you close to Him! How many Muslims do you know personally who have not prayed in years and who have no desire to do so? God has honored you by placing in your heart the desire to fulfill this part of your relationship with Him. The question is: will you accept being chosen and show Him that you really care?

Praying the five daily prayers on time, everyday, is a good habit that just needs to be built. You’ve been building habits since you were a child and this is just another habit you need to develop and strengthen.

How do I know you’ve been habit building? Without knowing you, I’m going to give you a simple example.

Consider the call of hunger. When you were an infant and you were hungry, you’d likely call out for someone to quell the pain of your hunger. Someone in your life most likely came to help you take care of this need; they fed and nourished you, and your body, in turn, responded and began to grow.

As you developed and learned how to eat for yourself, you most likely recognized the call to hunger and developed a habitual response (i.e. eating). The type and proportions of food you ate began to impact your body; the healthy foods for your body helped nourish you and strengthened your physical and mental development.

The overindulgence of food or consistent consumption of unhealthy and junky foods likely began to deteriorate your body. Eventually, your time will pass and your soul will depart. Your body will no longer feel the need for, nor be able to respond to, the call of hunger.

The habit of eating when feeling hungry is one you developed; even if it was time consuming, you realized it was something you had to do to survive.

Let’s now consider salah (prayer). Everyday, five times a day, your body, your heart and your soul, are begging you to respond to the call to prayer. For those who choose to respond to the call to prayer, you satiate your body, heart, and soul. However, just as with food, this satiation comes in different ways. Those who come to prayer with presence of heart and mind, with focus and desire to nourish and cleanse themselves spiritually, often begin to see the positive impact of their prayers on the rest of their lives.

Some others may answer the call to prayer more neglectfully, perhaps offering them on time or late, all of them or just some of them, but rushing through them mindlessly or negligently. These individuals are still nobly choosing to answer the call, yet like the junk food that can cause a body to be sick and stunt its healthy development and maintenance, this type of prayer could stunt a person’s spiritual growth, perhaps making them weak against succumbing to desires or fighting diseases of the heart and soul.

Finally, just as a dead body does not experience hunger, a spiritually dead person does not feel the need or have interest in responding to the call of prayer. The difference, however, is that while the dead body no longer has a chance to experience revitalization through food, the spiritually dead heart can be revived through prayer.

Prayer alone is not the key to a completely sound spiritual state or understanding, just as food alone is not the only component to maintain a healthy body. However, through developing a focused, centered, and meaningful habit of maintaining the five daily prayers, a person will, God willing, experience incredible benefits in this life and undoubtedly the next.

So, once we’ve recognized that salah is a healthy survival habit which one has the capability to work on maintaining throughout one’s life, the question then becomes: How?

Here are a few suggestions to perhaps get you started. Two are geared to convince and encourage your mind and heart to pray while three are specific tasks to help you begin and maintain the action of prayer.

1. Recognize the benefits.

Simply consider the following as a start: “The five obligatory daily prayers, the Friday prayer followed by another Friday prayer, Ramadan followed by another Ramadan, expiate sins committed in between them as long as major sins are avoided,” (Muslim).

And, “The first thing the people will be accountable for on the Day of Judgment is prayer. Allah will say to His angels (even though He already knows), “Look at my servant’s prayers. Were they complete or not?” If they were complete, it will be written as complete. If they were not fully complete Allah will say, “See if my servant has voluntary prayers.” If he has them, Allah will say, “Complete his obligatory prayers shortage with his voluntary prayers.” Then the rest of his deeds will be dealt with in the same manner,” (Ahmad).

2. Understand prayer as an investment and a refuge:

Make a list of everything God has given you for which you should be grateful. Also make a list of all the hardships you or loved ones are currently facing. Then, for each of the five daily prayers, take one item off one of those lists and take it to salah.

For an item of gratitude, allow yourself to understand that each and every prayer is an investment in what and whom you love in life being maintained and increased. As He tells us, “…If you are grateful, I will surely increase you…” (Qur’an 14:7).

For an item of difficulty from your list, allow the heaviness of your heart and soul to pour out in every word you utter in prayer. Permit your tears of anger and anguish to release in prostration. Be certain that through this action God will undoubtedly respond to your distress. As He confirms, “Is He [not best] who responds to the desperate one when he calls upon Him and removes evil…” (Qur’an, 27:62).

3. Make a chart to keep track of prayers and set daily and weekly goals.

Compensate yourself based on your performance. The below is an example:

Week 1: Daily Goal—Pray two prayers on time. If mess up, make up the prayer as soon as I can. Reward if meet my goal by end of the day = favorite chocolate bar. Punishment if do not reach goal = clean roommate’s bathroom. Reward if met goal everyday of the week: Movie night with best friend. Punishment if not met by end of the week: No Facebook all weekend.

Week 2: Daily Goal—Pray three prayers on time…

Continue until you’re habitually praying your five a day, on time.

4. Tag-Team and use technology:

Building a habit often needs support. Find someone who you can text or who will text you to check in for prayers. Consider also using current technology via an app on your phone to remind you of your prayers (if you’ve used an app successfully, please share recommendations!).

5. Keep going.

There may be times where you feel spiritual exhilaration through prayer; your heart may feel like it’s flying, your eyes may tear up because of a closeness you experience with your Creator. Then there may be times where you feel absolutely nothing; this can make you feel like you’re doing something horribly wrong or that it’s not worth continuing because it doesn’t make you feel any different.

However, be careful not to get addicted to the “feeling” by choosing only to continue praying as long as it “feels” good and despairing in Allah and leaving prayer once you no longer “feel” it.  Praying is an obligation. Remember that you are doing this action to the best of your ability for the sake of God, not just because it makes you feel good.

While going through this journey, remember that even overindulging in healthy foods can hurt your body. In the same way, taking prayer, or any aspect of religion, to an extreme can hurt your spiritual state. Praying is not always easy. God Almighty Himself tells us, “And seek help through patience and prayer, and indeed, it is difficult except for the humbly submissive. [The humbly submissive are those] Who are certain that they will meet their Lord and that they will return to Him,” (Qur’an, 2:45-46).

When the going gets tough with your prayers, always remember that God has been, is, and always will be there for you:

“I am as My servant thinks I am. I am with him when he makes mention of Me. If he makes mention of Me to himself, I make mention of him to Myself; and if he makes mention of Me in an assembly, I make mention of him in an assembly better than it. And if he draws near to Me an arm’s length, I draw near to him a fathom’s length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him at speed.”

Take that step through maintaining your five daily prayers with sincerity, focus and presence of heart. God willing, as you take a few steps, you’ll find Allah already waiting for you.

Lookout for Part 2 – “How can I  ‘feel’ my prayer?”

By Sana Gul Waseem

We all want to have a productive day. We strive hard in figuring out our interests and potential and learn to manage that precious commodity, time. We set goals and develop strategies to accomplish them.

Now, the point to ponder is, are these “goals” really aimed at gaining the Pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta`ala (glorified is He)?

What goals should we set for ourselves to achieve in a day that are aimed at gaining the pleasure of Allah (swt) and inching closer to Jannah (Paradise) insha’Allah (God willingly)?

Subhan’Allah (glory to God)!!  Allah (swt)—the Supreme Being—gives us the answer in 7 short ayahs (verses of the Qur’an) very aptly titled –“Al Fatiha—The Opening.”

Here goes:–

1. Say Bismillah before beginning a task—In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful: Start each task with the name of Allah (swt). It increases barakah (blessings). Say Bismillah before eating, starting something new, entering the house etc.
2. Thank Allah (swt) often—[All] praise is [due] to Allah, Lord of the worlds: A true believer is grateful in all circumstances. Look around you and acknowledge the blessings of Allah (swt) and thank Him for them each day. This very practical exercise will help in dealing with traumatic situations and fighting discontentment and increase the chances of leading a stress-free lifestyle.
3. Be Kind—The Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful: Allah (swt)‘s beautiful qualities of being Especially merciful and Entirely Merciful. We should try to adopt these qualities in our daily lives and be merciful and kind to the people around us. Be kind to your family, neighbors, and friends. Take a pot of chicken soup to someone with a cold, or give a ride to someone to the mosque or the halaqas (study circles) today. 🙂
4. Remember the Day of Judgment—Sovereign of the Day of Recompense: Tell yourself each day that this dunya (life, universe) is just “play and amusement” and very soon that day will come when Allah (swt) will recompense us for each good and bad deed done. This will insha’Allah assist us in balancing the dunya and the akhirah (Hereafter). Read Surah Mulk every night.
5. Seek Only Allah (swt) for help—It is You we worship and You we ask for help: Remember Allah (swt) is only a du`a’ (supplication) away. The Prophet ﷺ (peace be upon him) said: “Man should call upon Allah alone to provide for all his needs, so much so that even if a shoe-lace is broken, he should pray to Allah to provide a shoe-lace, and if he needs salt, he should beseech Allah to send it to him.” [Tirmidhi] We know and accept that only Allah (swt) can help us during our hardships. We increase our reliance on Allah (swt) and make du`a’ and practice patience.
6. Follow the Sunnah—Guide us to the straight path: Yahiya ibn Mu‘âdh (rahimahu Allâh, may God be pleased with him) said, “Renew your hearts with the remembrance of Allâh because it rushes into forgetfulness.” We should try each day to learn something new about the deen (religion). Learn a new sunnah (tradition) or Qur’anic ruling on some matter relating to your everyday life.
7. Do righteous deeds and seek the company of the righteous—The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who have evoked [Your] anger or of those who are astray: Make an effort to do good deeds and seek the company of those people who remember Allah (swt) when they meet. Listen attentively to the jumu`ah khutbah (Friday sermon) and attend halaqas (study circles).

The good news is that Allah (swt) reminds us of these goals at least 17 times a day; in every fard salah (mandatory prayer).

Alhamdulillah (praise be to God) for that  🙂