Praying is meant to be a wonderful spiritual experience that we get to do 5 times a day at least. And for those of us who truly feel its power –or those who are looking for more thawab, it’s more than 5 times. The Prophet (PBUH) has once said the above words to Bilal, the Muezzin who called for the prayer at that time (the translation is rough to say the least but it’s better than google’s translation). Prayer gives us comfort, an outlet from life and a moment with God. We should feel eager to do it before we start and satisfied or even wanting more after we’re done, but we don’t always feel that. I think part of it is because we don’t fully grasp the process of praying and all the other rituals relating to it, they just pass us by completely.
First ritual: The Azan
I think, living in an Islamic country where listening to the Azan is something so completely normal and used to, maybe makes me forget the true meaning of the words said through it.
Allaho Akbar: God is greatest! This is the first call, the God is greater than you, and God is greater than whatever it is you’re doing, and God is calling you to come now and pray. So why is it do we answer the call so sluggishly?! These words are enough to make us jump out of our seats, drop everything and run to pray. Moreover, it is repeated for times at the beginning of the Azan, so if we start thinking “I’ll just finish this first” then by the fourth Allah Akbar, we should know that we will finish this later!
Ash-hadu an la ilah illa Allah, Ash-hadu an Muhammad Rasul Allah: the shahada, testifying that you are a muslim and thus will hear this call and go pray.
7ay 3ala el salah: come to prayer! Self explained and profound :)
7ay 3ala el fala7: come to work, also may be interpreted as come to success. For the first meaning, it related prayer to work because all muslims have to work in some way or another to better serve their faith. The second interpretation would be related to prayer helping in success; either in life or in death, praying will help you succeed.
Then Allaho Akbar and the Shahada are repeated, concluding that amazing message: we should pray because Allah is greatest and we are muslims.
I don’t think about all that when I hear the azan, but I try to because when I do, my heart goes to wanting to pray rather than thinking of it as something that needs to be done and that’s it!
Coming soon, wodou’
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