In Islam, we believe that Allah, the One God, is a Living God who listens to us and responds. It is related in the Holy Qur’an, Chapter 2, verse 187:-
‘And when my servants ask thee about Me say, ‘I am near. I answer the prayers of the Supplicant when he prays to Me. So they should hearken to Me and Believe in Me, that they may follow The right way’
If we truly believe in God, then it is very important that we have perfect faith in Him, and ask the One God for all our needs, knowing that it is only Allah, the One God, who can grant them. It doesn’t matter how big or small our request is, Allah can and will respond to it. In this way, through constantly putting your full trust in Allah, it will be only Allah you expect can help you.
For a Muslim, we not only pray five times a day, but along with them we do more prayers and also to get extra blessings, we can do further prayers. In fact, we should always be aware that God is with us at all times, no matter what we are doing. Therefore, we should constantly be remembering Him and talking to Him. If, on the other hand, we approach the prayers half-heartedly, just going through the motions, then we are putting more trust in our own ability than Allah. But whilst we may be able to resolve many things, whether that is for our good or not, we do not know. Time will tell. Whereas by asking Allah for help, then Allah knows what is good or bad for us and will protect us from any evil and reward us for putting our trust in Him.
We should fully understand that whatever we receive is in fact a bounty from Allah, therefore it is very important for us to supplicate to Him for all our needs.
This is why the Holy Qur’an, Chapter 25, verse 78 states:
“Allah would not care for you if it was not for your prayers”
The Holy Prophet Muhammad, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was always attached to prayers. This was vital to him, as this was his means to submit to Allah, seek His help and nearness. To gain Allah’s love and blessings. Without prayer he would be lost.
The Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, has said:
“Prayer is the highest form of Divine worship”, “it is a means of communication with our Lord.”
Through prayer we can inform Allah of our needs, our problems and seek His help. In fact every aspect of the Holy Prophet’s life appears to have been governed by his love for and devotion to God. In spite of the very heavy responsibilities that had been laid upon his shoulders, the greater portion of his time during the day as well as during the night was spent in the worship and praise of God.
Even before Prophethood, he would go for days to the Cave Hira and devote all his energy in prayer and Zikrullah, (the remembrance of Allah). This has always been the most important thing in his life as he strove to build this intense relationship with His Maker.
He would leave his bed at midnight and devote himself to prayer until it was time to go to the mosque for the morning prayers. He sometimes stood so long in prayer during the latter part of the night that his feet would get swollen, and those who saw him in that condition were always much affected.
On one occasion, his wife Hazrat Ayesha said to him:
“God has honoured you with His love and nearness. Why then do you subject yourself to so much discomfort and inconvenience?”
He replied:
“If God has by His Grace and Mercy conferred His love and nearness upon me, is it not my duty in return to be always rendering thanks to Him? Gratitude should increase in proportion to the favours received” (Bukhari).
Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the fifth successor of the Promised Messiah has said:
“We need to remain focussed on prayer. He who does not pray and does not beseech God can be likened to an animal rather than a man. Prayer is essential for the good of this world and the next. Allah says, ‘Pray unto Me; I will answer your prayers. But those who are too proud to worship Me will surely enter Hell, despised.” (Holy Qur’an, Chapter 40, verse 61)
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah, has said:
“Prayer, in essence, means a relationship of mutual attraction between a righteous person and his Lord. This means that God’s grace first draws a person towards Himself, and then, through the magnetism of the person’s sincerity, God draws closer to him.
In the state of prayer this relationship reaches a point where it manifests wonderful qualities. When a man in grave difficulty falls down in prayer with perfect certainty, perfect hope, perfect faithfulness, and perfect resolve; and when he becomes perfectly alert and advances far into the field of self-annihilation, tearing aside all veils of heedlessness, lo and behold, he finds before him the Divine threshold, and he perceives that God has no associate.
His soul then prostates itself at the Divine threshold and the power of attraction that is invested in him, draws the bounties of God Almighty towards him. It is then that the Glorious God attends to the fulfilment of the desired objective, and casts the effect of the prayer on all the preliminary means, which in turn, produce the means that are essential for the achievement of the objective”.
Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the fifth successor of the Promised Messiah, has explained this by saying:
“Allah and His servants have a quality of mutual attraction. Allah is always the first in drawing man towards Himself through His bounties, which He showers upon him every moment of his life. And when man remembers and glorifies Allah for His bounties, he draws closer to Him and when he prays to Allah, He shows him the signs of the acceptance of prayer”
This shows the unique relationship that we have with Allah and the importance of prayers, as prayers are a means of us communicating with our Maker. So first we need to recognise that everything we have, is due to the bounties of Allah. Our very existence is due to Allah. The food and drink for our survival. The means for development both worldly and spiritually.
It is something which we tend to take for granted. We don’t really worry about where the food came from, instead, we are more concerned with its taste, is it to our liking or not. The fact that it is really Allah that has given us this wonderful variety of food and we should always be grateful for the food that He has provided. Likewise, we tend to take many other things for granted and only really start to appreciate them when they have gone. But all these things are in fact the blessings of Allah, and we should constantly be giving thanks for them, and the prayer is the means to do so.
The only thing that is really important to you is God. We have this blessed opportunity to speak to Allah and develop a warm relationship with Him, so we should realise the importance of prayers and keep developing our prayers and love for Allah.