Prayer
The verses of the Holy Quran quoted earlier (see Section 3) form, as I have already said, the nucleus of the teachings of Islam. Taken in the broadest sense, the two principles of action mentioned in these verses stand for the fulfilment of man’s duties towards God and his duties towards man.[7] Prayer to God is the essence of man’s duties towards God. It is an outpouring of the heart’s sentiments, a devout supplication to God, and a reverential expression of the soul’s sincerest desires before its Maker. In Islam the idea of prayer, like all other religious ideas, finds its highest development. Prayer, according to the Holy Quran, is the true means of that purification of the heart which is the only way to communion with God. The Holy Quran says:
“Recite that which has been revealed to you of the Book, and keep up prayer. Surely prayer keeps one away from indecency and evil; and certainly the remembrance of God is the greatest (force)” (29:45).
Islam, therefore, enjoins prayer as a means of the moral elevation of man. Prayer degenerating into mere ritual, into a lifeless and vapid ceremony gone through with insincerity of heart, is not the prayer enjoined by Islam. Such prayer is expressly denounced:
“Woe to the praying ones! who are unmindful of their prayers, who do good to be seen” (107:4–6).
It is also stated in the same passage that prayer is useless unless it leads to the service of humanity.
In Islam there is no Sabbath or a day of the week set apart for worship. Prayer is made a part of the everyday affairs of man. It is the first daily act of a Muslim and it is also his last one, and between these two there are three other prayers during hours of business or recreation. Thus Islam requires that, even when busiest, a Muslim should still be able to disengage himself from all worldly occupations for a short while and resort to prayer. Hence it is also that Islam has done away with all institutions of monkery, which require a man to give up all worldly occupations for the whole of his life in order to hold communion with God. Islam makes communion with God possible even when man is most busy with his worldly occupations, thus making possible what was considered impossible before its advent.
The Islamic mode of worship is calculated to concentrate attention on one object: the realization of the Divine presence. The ablution preceding prayer, the reverential attitude in standing, the bowing down, the prostration and the reverent sitting posture — all help the mind to realize the Divine presence as a fact; and the worshipper finds his heart’s joy in doing honour to the Great Master, not only with his tongue but with his whole body.
In Islam, the daily congregational prayers are also the means of levelling all differences of rank, colour and nationality, and the means of bringing about a cohesion and unity among people which is the necessary basis of a lasting civilization. Before their Maker, all the worshippers stand shoulder to shoulder, the ruler along with his humblest subject, the rich with the beggar, the white man with the black. Nay, the king or the rich man in a back row will have to lay his head, while prostrating himself before God, at the feet of a poor man in the front. Differences of rank, wealth and colour vanish within the mosque, and an atmosphere of brotherhood, equality and love prevails within its precincts. In fact, the five daily prayers are meant, among other things, to carry into practice the theoretical lessons of equality and fraternity for which Islam stands.
But while Islam has given permanence to the institution of prayer by requiring its observance at stated times and in a particular manner, it has also left ample scope for the individual himself, particularly in the private portion of the prayer, to make any supplications that he likes and in any language that he chooses, in any of the four postures (standing, bowing, prostrating or sitting).
Fasting
Fasting is one of those religious institutions which, though universally recognized, have had quite a new meaning introduced into them by Islam. It rejected totally the idea of appeasing Divine wrath, or exciting Divine compassion through voluntary suffering, and introduced in its place regular fasting as a spiritual, moral and physical discipline of the highest order. The object of this institution is clearly stated in the Holy Quran:
“Fasting is prescribed for you … so that you may guard against evil” (2:183).
Islam has set apart the month of Ramadaan for this purpose. Every day in this month, one is required to abstain from food and drink and sexual intercourse from dawn till sunset. But fasting also means refraining from every kind of evil. In fact, abstention from food is only a step to make a man realize that if he can, in obedience to God, abstain from that which is otherwise lawful, how much more necessary it is that he should abstain from the evil ways which are forbidden by God!
No temptation is greater than the temptation of satisfying one’s thirst and hunger when food and drink are in one’s possession, yet this temptation is overcome by the faster, not once or twice, as if it were by chance, but day after day regularly for a whole month, with a set purpose of drawing closer and closer to God. Whenever a temptation comes before him, he overcomes it because there is an inner voice, “God is with me,” “God sees me”; so the Divine presence becomes a reality for him, and a new consciousness of a higher life — a life above that which is maintained by eating and drinking — is awakened in him, and this is the life spiritual.
Pilgrimage (Hajj)
The Pilgrimage to Makka, the performance of which is incumbent upon every Muslim once in his life if he has the means, represents the last stage in the progress of the spiritual pilgrim. It represents the stage in which man completely surrenders himself to the Divine will, and sacrifices all his interests and discards all his comforts of life for the love of God. The first requirement of the Pilgrimage, known as Ihram, in which all costly dresses are cast off and the pilgrim has only two seamless wrappers to cover himself, represents the severance of all worldly connections for the love of God. Another prominent feature of the Pilgrimage is Tawaf, the circumambulation of the Ka‘ba,[8] and by performing this external act the pilgrim shows that the fire of Divine love has been kindled within his heart, and like the true lover, he makes circuits around the House of his beloved One. In fact, the whole condition of the pilgrim and all the different devotions connected with the Pilgrimage represent the stage in which the worshipper, imbued with true love of the Divine Being, shows that he has completely surrendered himself to his beloved Master and sacrificed all his interests for His sake.
At the annual occasion of the Pilgrimage, there is a unique assemblage of humanity at Makka, hundreds of thousands of people all inspired by the one idea of feeling the presence of the Divine Being, all concentrating their minds on the One Supreme Being Who for the time is their sole object. Added to this is the mighty effect of the outward unity of them all, clad in the same two sheets, crying out in one language what is understood by all: lubbaika Allahumma lubbaika — “Here we are, O Allah! here we are in Thy presence”. God is surely not in Makka to the exclusion of other places, yet that vast assemblage feels His presence as if He were actually there in their very midst. Such is the higher spiritual experience of the pilgrims, the experience not of the hermit shut up in his closet, but the experience of a mighty concourse gathered together in one place.
The Pilgrimage also has a wonderful influence, like no other institution in the world, in levelling all distinctions of race, colour, nation, rank or wealth. Not only do people of all races and all countries meet together as God’s servants, but there is nothing to distinguish the high from the low. There is a vast concourse of human beings, all clad in one dress, all moving in one way, all having but one word to speak. Thus is every Muslim made to pass once in his life through that narrow gate of equality that leads to broad brotherhood. All men are equal in birth and death, but the Pilgrimage is the only occasion on which they are taught how to live alike, how to act alike and how to feel alike.
Meaningful and practicable acts of worship
It would thus be seen that all these Islamic precepts are only meant for the moral elevation of man. Islam does not lay down any institution which may be said to be a meaningless worship of God. The aim and object of all the precepts it gives is the purification of the heart, so that thus purified, man may enjoy communion with the Holy One Who is the Fountain-head of all purity. It would also be seen that Islam introduces workable ascetic formulae into the daily life of man. The five daily prayers require the sacrifice of a small part of his time and, without interfering with his everyday life, enable him to realize the Divine that is within him. Fasting requires the giving up of food and drink, but not in such a manner as to make him unfit for carrying on his regular work. The Pilgrimage is a function which one performs generally only once in a lifetime, and therefore, while leading a man through the highest spiritual experience, it does not interfere in any appreciable degree with the regular course of his life.
Footnotes
[7] “… those who … keep up prayer and spend (charitably) out of what We have given them.”
[8] The Ka‘ba is the simple, rectangular building which has stood as a Divine shrine in Makka from very remote antiquity. It should be noted that Muslims do not worship the Ka‘ba, which is, in fact, a memorial to the belief in the oneness of God.