The Spirit of lbadah or Worship

Towards Understanding Islam

Prayer And Worship


The Spirit of lbadah or Worship

lbadah is an Arabic word derived from 'Abd (a slave) and it means
submission. Allah is your Master and you are His slave and whatever a
slave does in obedience to and for the pleasure of his Master is
'lbadah. The Islamic concept of 'lbadah is very wide. If you free your
speech from filth, falsehood, malice and abuse and speak the truth and
talk goodly things, and do all this only because God has so ordained,
they constitute 'lbadah, however secular they may appear. If you obey
the law of God in letter and spirit in your commercial and economic
affairs and abide by it in your dealings with your parents, relatives,
friends and all those who come into contact with you, all these
activities of yours are also 'lbadah. If you help the poor and the
destitute, give food to the hungry and serve the afflicted and do all
this not for any personal gain but only to seek the pleasure of God,
this is all 'lbadah. Even your economic activities - the activities
you undertake to earn your living and to feed your dependants - are
'lbadah if you remain honest and truthful in them, and observe the law
of God.

In short, all your activities are 'lbadah if they are in accordance
with the law of God and your ultimate objective is to seek the
pleasure of God. Thus, whenever you do good or avoid evil for tear of
God, in whatever sphere of life and field of activity, you are
discharging your Islamic obligations. This is the true significance of
'lbadah, that is, 'total submission to the pleasure of Allah, the
moulding into the patterns of Islam one's entire life, leaving out not
even the most insignificant part.

To help achieve this aim, a set of formal lbadah (worships) has been
drawn lip as a course of training. The more assiduously we follow the
training, the better equipped we are to harmonies ideals and
practices. The 'lbadah are thus the pillars on which the edifice of
Islam rests.

Salah
Salah is the most fundamental and the most important of these
obligations. Salah are the prescribed daily prayers, which consist in
repeating and refreshing five times a day the belief in which you
repose your faith.

You get up early in the morning, cleanse yourself, and present
yourself before your Lord for prayer. The various poses that you
assume during your prayers are the very embodiment of the spirit of
submission; the various recitals remind you of your commitments to
your God. You seek His guidance and ask Him again and again to enable
you to avoid His Wrath and follow His Chosen Path. You read out from
the Book of the Lord and express witness to the truth of the Prophets
and also refresh your belief in the Day of Judgement and enliven in
your memory the fact that you have to appear before your Lord and give
an account of your entire life.

This is how your day starts. After a few hours the muezzin calls you
to prayers and you again submit to your God and refresh your covenant
with Him. You dissociate yourself from your worldly engagements for a
few moments and seek audience before God. This once again brings to
the fore of your mind your real role in life. After this rededication
you revert to your occupations before presenting yourself to the Lord
again a few hours later. This again acts as a reminder to you, and you
once more refocuses your attention on the stipulations of your Faith.
When the sun sets and the darkness of the night begins to shroud you,
you once more submit yourself to God in prayers so that you may not
forget your duties and obligations in the midst of the approaching
shadows of the night. After a few hours you again appear before your
Lord for your last prayer of the day. Thus before going to bed you
once again refresh your faith and prostrate yourself before your God.
And this is how you complete your day. The frequency and timings of
the prayers never let you lose sight of the object and mission of life
in the maze of worldly activities.

It is easy to understand how daily prayers strengthen the foundations
of your faith, prepare you for the observance of a life of virtue and
obedience to God, and refresh that belief from which springs courage,
sincerity, purposefulness, purity of heart, advancement of the soul
and enrichment of morals.

Now see how this is achieved. You perform ablution in the way
prescribed by the Holy Prophet (blessings of Allah and peace be upon
him). You also say your prayers according to the instructions of the
Prophet. Why do you do so? Simply because you believe in the
Prophethood of Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) and
deem it your bounden duty to follow him ungrudgingly.

Why do you not intentionally misrecite the Qur'an? Is it not because
you regard the Book as the Word of God and deem it a sin to deviate
from even a letter? In prayers you recite many things quietly and if
you do not recite them or make any deviation from them there is no one
to check you. But you never do so intentionally. Why? Because you
believe that God is ever watchful, is listening to all that you recite
and is aware of things both open and hidden. What makes you say your
prayers at places where there is no one to ask you to offer them or
even to see you offering them? Is it not because of your belief that
God is always looking at you? What makes you leave some important
business and hurry towards the mosque for prayers? What makes you
break your sweet sleep in the early hours of the morning, come to the
mosque in the heat of noon and leave your evening entertainment for
the sake of prayers? Is it anything other than your sense of duty -
your realisation that you must fulfill your responsibility to the
Lord, come what may? And why are you afraid of any mistake in your
prayer? Because your heart is filled with the fear of God and you know
that you have to appear before Him on the Day of Judgement and give an
account of your entire life.

Now look! Can there be a better course of moral and spiritual training
than prayers? It is this training which makes a man a perfect Muslim.
It reminds him of his covenant with God, refreshes his faith in Him
and keeps the belief in the Day of Judgement alive and ever-present
before his mind's eye. It makes him follow the Prophet and trains him
in the observance of his duties. This is indeed a strict training for
matching one's practice to one's ideals.

Obviously, if a man's consciousness of his duties towards his Creator
is so acute that he prizes it above all worldly gains and keeps
refreshing it through prayers, he will be honest in all his dealings
for, otherwise, he will be inviting the displeasure of God which he
has all along striven to avoid. He will abide by the law of God in all
aspects of his life in the same way as he follows it in the five
prayers every day. This man can be relied on in other fields of
activity as well, for if the shadows of sin or deceit approach him, he
will try to avoid them. If even after such training, a man disobeys
the law of God, it can only be because of some intrinsic depravity of
his self.

Then, again, you must say your prayers in congregation and especially
so the Friday prayers. This creates among Muslims a bond of love and
mutual understanding. It arouses in them a sense of collective unity
and fosters among them national fraternity. Prayers are also a symbol
of equality, for the poor and the rich, the low and the high, the
rulers and the ruled, the educated and the unlettered, the black and
the white; all stand in a row and prostrate themselves before their
Lord. Prayers also inculcate a strong sense of discipline and
obedience to an elected leader. In short, prayers train people in all
those virtues, which make possible the development of a rich
individual and collective life.

These are a few of the myriads of benefits we can derive from our
daily prayers1. (1. For a detailed discussion of the nature and
significance of salah, see Maulana Mawdudi's book: Islami lbaadat Par
Tahqiqi Nazar (A Treatise on Islamic Worship). - Editor. If we refuse
to avail ourselves of them we and only we are the losers. Shirking the
prayers can only mean one of two things. Either we do not recognise
prayers as our duty or we recognise them as our duty and still shirk
them. In the first case, our claim to faith is a shameless lie, for if
we refuse to take orders, we no longer acknowledge God's Authority. In
the second case, if we recognise His Authority and still flout His
Commands, we are the most unreliable of the creatures that ever trod
the earth. For if we can do this to the highest authority in the
universe, what guarantee is there that we shall not do the same in our
dealings with fellow human beings? And if double-dealing dominates a
society, terrible discord will be the certain outcome!

Fasting
What prayers seek to do five times a day fasting in the month of
Ramadan (the ninth month of the lunar year) does once a year. During
this period we eat not a grain of food nor drink a drop of water from
dawn to dusk, no matter how delicious the dish or how hungry or
thirsty we feel. What is it that makes us voluntarily undergo such
rigours? It is nothing but faith in God and the fear of Him and the
Day of Judgement. Each and every moment during our fast we suppress
our passions and desires and proclaim, by so doing, the supremacy of
the Law of God. This consciousness of duty and spirit of patience that
incessant fasting for a whole month inculcates in us help us
strengthen our faith. Rigour and discipline during this month bring us
face to face with the realities of life and help us make our life,
during the rest of the year, a life of true subservience to His Will.

From yet another point of view fasting has an immense impact on
society, for all the Muslims irrespective of their status must fast
during the same month. This emphasises the essential equality of men
and thus goes a long way towards creating in them sentiments of love
and brotherhood. During Ramadan evil conceals itself while good comes
to the fore and the whole atmosphere is filled with piety and purity.

This discipline has been imposed on us for our own advantage. Those
who do not fulfill this primary duty cannot be relied on to discharge
their other duties. But the worst are those who during this holy month
do not hesitate to eat or drink in public. They show by their conduct
that they care nothing for the commands of Allah in Whom they profess
their belief as Creator and Sustainer. Not only this, they also show
that they are not loyal members of the Muslim community - rather, they
have nothing to do with it. Only the worst can be expected of such
hypocrites.

Zakah
The third obligation is Zakah. Every Muslim whose finances are above a
certain specified minimum must pay 2 ½ per cent of his cash balance
annually2 (2. Zakah is not merely on the cash balance. It is also
charged on gold, silver, merchandise, cattle and other valuables. The
rate of zakah for all these commodities can be found in the books on
fiqh and is not given here for the sake of economy of space.) to a
deserving fellow-being, a new convert to Islam, a traveller or a
person with debts3. (3. It should be noted that the Holy Prophet has
forbidden his own kith and kin to take Zakah. Though it is obligatory
on the Hashimites to pay Zakah, they cannot receive it even if they
are poor and needy. If anybody wants to help a poor Hashimite, he may
give him a gift. He cannot be helped out of Zakah.) This is the
minimum. The more you pay, the greater the reward that Allah will
bestow on you.

The money that we pay as Zakah is not something Allah needs or
receives. He is above any want and desire. He, in His benign Mercy,
promises us manifold rewards if we help our brethren. But there is one
basic condition for being thus rewarded: when we pay in the name of
Allah, we shall neither expect nor demand any worldly gains from the
beneficiaries nor aim at becoming known as philanthropists.

Zakah is as basic to Islam as other forms of lbadah: Salah (prayer)
and Sawm (fasting). Its fundamental importance lies in the fact that
it fosters in us the quality of sacrifice and rids us of selfishness
and plutolatry. Islam accepts within its fold only those who are ready
to give away in God's way some of their hard-earned wealth willingly
and without any temporal or personal gain. It has nothing to do with
misers. A true Muslim will, when the call comes, sacrifice all his
belongings in the way of Allah, for Zakah has already trained him to
do so.

Muslim society has much to gain from the institution of Zakah. It is
the bounden duty of every well-to-do Muslim to help his lowly placed,
poor brethren. His wealth is not to be spent solely for his own
comfort and luxury - there are rightful claimants on his wealth, and
they are the nation's widows and orphans, the poor and the invalid;
those who have the ability but lack the means to get useful employment
and those who have the talent but not the money to acquire knowledge
and become useful members of the community. He who does not recognise
the call on his wealth of such members of his own community is indeed
cruel. For there could be no greater cruelty than to fill one's own
coffers while others die of hunger or suffer the agonies of
unemployment. Islam is a sworn enemy of selfishness, greed and
acquisitiveness. Disbelievers, devoid of sentiments of universal love,
know only how to preserve wealth and to add to it by lending it out on
interest. Islam's teachings are the antithesis of this attitude. Here
one shares ones wealth with others and helps them stand on their own
Feet and become productive members of society.

Hajj or Pilgrimage
Hajj, or the pilgrimage to Makka, is the fourth basic lbadah.

Makka today stands at the site of a small house that the Prophet
Abraham (God's blessings be upon him) built for the worship of Allah.
Allah rewarded him by calling it His own House and by making it the
center towards which all must face when saying prayers. He also made
it obligatory on those who can afford it to visit this place at least
once in a lifetime. This visit is not merely a courtesy call. This
pilgrimage has its rites and conditions to be fulfilled which
inculcate in us piety and goodness. When we undertake the pilgrimage,
we are required to suppress our passions, refrain from bloodshed and
be pure in word and deed. God promises rewards for our sincerity and
submissiveness.

The pilgrimage is, in a way, the biggest of all 'lbadah. For unless a
man really loves God he would never undertake such a long journey
leaving all his near and dear ones behind him. And this pilgrimage is
unlike any other journey. Here his thoughts are concentrated on Allah,
his very being vibrates with the spirit of intense devotion. When he
reaches the holy place, he finds the atmosphere filled with piety and
godliness; he visits places, which bear witness to the glory of Islam,
and all this leaves an indelible impression on his mind, which he
carries to his last breath.

Then there are, as in other lbadah, many benefits that Muslims can
derive from this pilgrimage. Makka is the center towards which Muslims
must converge once a year, meet and discuss topics of common interest,
and in general create and refresh in themselves the faith that all
Muslims are equal and deserve the love and sympathy of others,
irrespective of their geographical or cultural origin. Thus the
pilgrimage unites the Muslims of the world into one international
fraternity.

Defence of Islam
Although the defence of Islam is not a fundamental tenet its need and
importance have been repeatedly emphasized in the Qur'an and the
Hadith. It is in essence a test of our sincerity and truthfulness as
believers in Islam. If we do not defend one whom we call our friend
against intrigues or open assaults from his foes, or are guided in our
actions towards him solely by selfishness, we are indeed false
friends. Similarly, if we profess belief in Islam, we must jealously
guard and uphold the prestige of Islam. The sole guide in our conduct
must be the interest of Muslims at large and the service of Islam, in
the face of which all our personal considerations must take a back
seat.

Jihad
Jihad is part of this overall defence of Islam. Jihad means to
struggle to the utmost of one's capacity. A man who exerts himself
physically or mentally or spends his wealth in the way of Allah is
indeed engaged in Jihad. But in the language of the Shari'ah this word
is used particularly for a war that is waged solely in the name of
Allah against those who practise oppression as enemies of Islam.

This supreme sacrifice of life devolves on all Muslims. If, however, a
section of Muslims offer themselves for the Jihad, the community as a
whole is absolved of its responsibility. But if none comes forward,
everybody is guilty. This concession vanishes for the citizens of an
Islamic State when it is attacked by a non-Muslim power. In that case
everybody must come forward for the Jihad. If the country attacked has
not enough strength to fight back, then it is the religious duly of
the neighbouring Muslim countries to help her: if even they fail, then
the Muslims of the whole world must fight the common enemy. In all
such cases, Jihad is as much a primary duty of the Muslims concerned
as are the daily prayers or fasting. One who shirks it is a sinner.
His very claim to being a Muslim is doubtful. He is a hypocrite whose
lbadah and prayers are a sham, a worthless, hollow show of devotion.

http://www.al-islamforall.org/litre/englitre/Undislam.htm#Top

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