Ahmadiyya Times | Articles | Intn'l. DeskFiji Times Online | Tahir Hussain Munshi
The inner urge to worship powers superior to humankind appears to have existed in mankind since the deep darkness of ancient times. We know man has been worshipping odd sorts of images which had either been his own creation or the result of his imagination.
Through the ages man had erred in worshipping powerful elements of nature like fire, or heavenly bodies like the sun or the moon and even animals like snakes or lions. He had even carved images out of stones or moulded metal or clay into human or animal shapes in order to satisfy his natural urge towards worship.
Over the passage of time when man's intellectual capacity reached a certain level of maturity and development, God began to send/appoint His Prophets or Messengers who started initiating man to incline mankind back to God. According to Islam, God appointed approximately 124,000 by the time of the advent of the Holy Prophet, Muhammad (peace be upon him). These Messengers had come in every nation, region, tribe and community. They were termed as messengers, prophets, clairvoyants, rishis, munnies etc as per the terminology of the group in which they were raised by God Almighty.
The Holy Prophet Muhammad expounded at great length the nature of divine attributes and their operations, and set out clearly the purpose of man's creation —— thus was worship of One God finally and definitely established. The Arabic word Ibadat is truly expressive of the meaning of worship. It encompasses the concepts of adoration and worship, of complete submission to and service of the Creator, and the reality that it is for his own benefit that man should submit himself to God's protection through prayer and worship.
Of all the religious practices, Salat is the most outstanding experience for establishing communion with the Maker. Salat is the prescribed prayer like the 5 daily prayers obligatory on all Muslims. The Five Daily Prayer services are formal and are meant not only to cleanse the worshipper but also to raise him from the lower physical stage of his development via moral stage to the higher spiritual stage where he begins to live a pious life and experiences altruism. Apart from the formal Salat, or the prescribed prayers, the informal prayer or zikr (remembrance of the Creator) can be performed any time as a means of contemplation of the Divine.
Finally, the Promised Messiah (as), Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Admad, the Holy Founder of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Movement in Islam said there are four reasons for which Almighty God has rendered Salat obligatory upon the Muslims. They being:
* That by turning to God at all times and in all states, we may acquire firmness in our faith in the Divine Unity;
* That through the acceptance of our prayer and the attainment of the object prayed for our faith in God may be strengthened;
* That if Divine acceptance comes in any other way, our knowledge and wisdom may be increased; and
* That if the acceptance of our prayers is promised to us by means of inspiration or vision and it comes to pass exactly in the same manner, we may increase our knowledge of the Divine, and reach out from certainty to love and from love to total freedom from sin and thus obtain the fruit of true salvation.
We urge readers to reflect on the need for prayers according to their respective faith traditions and be absolutely certain that there is a Higher Power which exists and ensures that the perfect Order on Nature that we take for granted, in maintained. Be mindful that sincere prayers of the supplicants get heard –– experience it in the present life before it gets too tardy!
The author is the National Vice President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at Fiji. Any shortcomings are to be attributed to the writer and the organisation he represents.
Read more: Worship, prayer, supplication
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comments. Any comments irrelevant to the post's subject matter, containing abuses, and/or vulgar language will not be approved.