The meaning of prayer

Niyyat is the determination of heart that is along with the attention and the tendency of spirit toward God. It means the worshiper wants to traverse a way which starts from the purification of entity. It is a release from people’s right and a separation from moral obscenities which will be finished with the satisfaction and contentment of God. In fact, the worshiper wants to consider the prayer as a tool to gain the divine morality. The worshiper wants to bring his knowledge, action, work, endeavor, determination and belief to the magnificent position of Khalifatollah.

It’s clear that everyone has an intention and target which is related to his action. A worshiper also should establish his prayer for God and specifies him as his target, and with the help of this action, he should decide to bring himself toward the peak of reality and to the boundary of excellence, and according to the words of holy Quran that has been mentioned at the end of Sura Kahf, one should succeed to be close to God and immerse himself in the sea of his mercifulness through doing good deeds (that prayer is the most important sample of good deeds) and also by denying all invalid deities and internal and external idols.

If such a will and determination goes along with prayer to its end, that prayer will hold back the worshiper from all vices and immoralities and makes a spiritual and divine being out of mankind who wholeheartedly cares about the rights of God and others. Actually if a person establishes his prayer but doesn’t heartily accept the realities of prayer, the realties which are the belief in the oneness of God and his ownership and management of whole universe, his unlimited forgiveness and kindness, the obligation of expressing gratitude to him, believing in hereafter, being surrender to the essence of his all attributes, the necessity of asking for his help in all aspects of life, the necessity of obeying the messengers and Imams and refusing the conditions and the behaviors of heterodox and aberrant people, undoubtedly without being inspired by all these realities, in fact the worshiper hasn’t made any decision to establish his prayer and hasn’t entered in the zone of prayer and finally he has ignored all the efforts of messengers and dignitaries and has oppressed himself and others.

And if a worshiper sincerely accepts these realities, and at the beginning of his prayers, he applies these verities into his will and decides to accomplish the realities of prayer in his life, spirit, entity and mind then his heart will be gradually prepared to accept all the realities of prayer and after a while, he will be the source of truth and the container of actualities.

Imam Sadiq (AS) said about the wills that: “the owner of sincere will is the owner of healthy heart."[1] It means that a pure and utter will which is the source of Gods’ blessings, comes out from a pure heart, a heart that isn’t in the restriction of satanic temptations. The purity of will starts in the separation from some moral obscenities like greed, stinginess, arrogance, envy, haughtiness, duplicity, grudge etc. and the reason of will’s purity is the sincerity of intention and volition.

God has said in holy Quran:

" يَوْمَ لَا يَنفَعُ مَالٌ وَلَا بَنُونَ ﴿٨٨﴾ إِلَّا مَنْ أَتَى اللَّـهَ بِقَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ ﴿٨٩﴾ "[2]

 "The Day when there will not benefit [anyone] wealth or children (88) But only one who comes to Allah with a sound heart." (89"

Holy Prophet (PBUH) said: “the will of a believer is better than his action.”[3]

The philosophy of these words is this that “will” is the root of an action, so if the root of something would be healthy, so it results in the healthiness of other subgroups and if the root doesn’t have the healthiness, then the action will be dispossessed from the healthiness. And also Holy Prophet (PBUH) said: “the value of actions depends on the wills and the computations of everyone’s actions rely on the computation of his will.”[4]

When the will of a servant - in all of his actions and movements - belongs to God, then he can show the reality of slavery and the effects of his worship, and if it doesn’t, he is a neglector and according to the words of holy Quran, neglectors are similar to animals.[5] Imam (AS) continues his utterance about the chapter of will in this manner: “will arise from heart. If a heart would be the house of light and cleanliness, it will be close to the purity of will, and if a heart is far from certainty and faith and believe and the brightness of divine states, it’s difficult to appear the pure will in such a heart.”

So a worshiper should clean the house of his heart from the darkness and blackness and Satanic temptations so that he can bring his heart and will toward the Almighty God. Imam Sadiq (AS) said: “the owners of pure will are fighting against the wrong requests of their entity, and one of the greatest signs of pure will is the modesty, because one who has specified the Almighty God as the target of his actions and merges his inside and outside for God, by having pure will, he shies to paying no respect to the right of God as he deserves.”[6]

The owner of pure will lives in discomfort to provide the comfort of others. Because one who establishes his prayer for God and accomplishes all of his actions for him should adorn himself with purities and expel all obscenities from himself and in addition to this will, he must pay attention to the rights of others, and that’s why he discomforts himself to comfort others, and by regarding the rights of God and his creatures, one can be qualified to get closer to Almighty God.

اَللهُ اَکبَر

God is too great to be described; his holy essence is greater than all things and nothing is great in comparison with his greatness, and that’s why detaching the heart away from him and attaching it to others is the real obliquity and aberrance. How an insignificant particle like a man can be able to describe an unlimited essence with infinite power and dignity?

At the time of saying Takbeerato-al-Ehram (ﷲَُ اَﮐﺑَر) one should immerse himself in the dignity of God and obliterate his entity in order to see him, he should be like a person who has fastened an Ehram for a real Hajj and has given up all things except his dear God. In the moment of saying Alla-o-Akbar, the meaning of raising two hands near to the ears is: “O the hope of whole world! O the rescuer of the universe! O the owner and instructor of all creatures! In this time that I’m moving toward you, I have left the world and whatever exists in it and I’m flying in the direction of you without any obstacle.

If after saying Takbeerato-al-Ehram, you submerge yourself in the illusion, false imaginations and worldly affairs, then you have been left alone in your journey and you can’t arrive to the Meraj of faithful people. A prayer which is mixed with none-divinely programs has a weak base relying on some senseless words, and its only benefit is to getting rid of your obligation and being released from the group of people who don’t offer their prayers and its reward and remuneration will be insignificant.

بِسْمِ اللَّـهِ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

This holy verse and spiritually phrase is an instruction for all servants in order to inform them to start their work by his holy name and his memory and, definitely, if a work starts by the name of Allah, who owns all perfections and is free from all imperfections and deficiencies and who is the origin of all realities and positive affairs, it will have great ending and takes one to achieving the absolute happiness.

Saying “In the name of God” and understanding its concept and having connection with the owner of this phrase leads to being located in a fortified place which all creatures, in all aspects of their life, need it. Is there any greater and premier refuge than Allah who is the assistant and the aider and the protector of indigents?! He is a reliable backrest for the needy and helpless people, despite of incapability and inability, poverty and destitution, despicableness and confusion, cruelty, brutality and anxiety that are along with all people, is it possible to remove all these problems without resorting to the refuge of Almighty God and without connecting the beginning of each action to his name and memory?!

Allah is a pure and infallible essence who owns all perfect qualities and totally possesses the realities and is far from all deficiencies. By turning toward him, man can acquire the extremity of magnanimity and generosity and gentility and superiority and honor and he will be able to meet all his needs and remove all of his imperfections and deficiencies.

This is the power of prayer and the reality of this commendation, that if it doesn’t, it isn’t the prayer. If meditative, spiritual, social, internal, external and family issues can’t be solved through the prayer, its shows that the prayer hasn’t been established but some Arabic words have been repeated by tongue and as religious scholars say, the task has been dispelled.

A real prayer alon with paying attention to its concepts and meaning can create a smooth ground for mankind so that he can move toward the perfections and eliminate his all mental illnesses. If a spiritual and hearty connection can be made with the comprehensive essence of the perfections, all deficiencies and insufficiencies will be answered. The elimination of deficiencies is the natural feature of a prayer.

If a real connection has been established, all deficiencies and shortages and obscenities and indecencies can be dispelled and the effects of divine kindnesses and mercies and the realization of his great attributes will be appear in mankind. As a hungry person can remove his hunger by an access to foods and a thirsty person can remove his thirstiness by having connection with water, an imperfect person can also be released from his meditative and spiritual and moral problems through having connection with the origin of perfections and can perfect himself by means of being sunk in the excellent attributes of Allah.

“الرَّحْمَـٰنِ” A holy essence who donates his kindness and mercifulness to all the creatures that he has created according to their capacities and capabilities. He is one who has broaden the tablecloth of his compassion and love for everyone and feed all of them without any conditions and restrictions and has set down everybody beside this tablecloth including believers or infidels and allows them to be imparted freely from this unlimited sea of blessings and graces.

“الرَّحِيمِ” he pays special attention to people who are faithful and have good deeds and bestows his great reward and eternal gift and divine profit to those who have utilized his guidance and were submissive in front of his commandments and the commands of his messengers and Aeme Atehar (AS). This attention won’t be given to those who haven’t any faith and good deeds. As holy Quran mentions “إِنَّ رَحْمَتَ اللَّـهِ قَرِيبٌ مِّنَ الْمُحْسِنِينَ” that means “Indeed, the mercy of Allah is near to the doers of good.”

It has been mentioned in the interpretation of “Kashfo-al-Asrar”: the philosophy of starting with the name of “Allah” and then bringing the term of “merciful” and afterwards “compassionate” is to descend according to the status of people which are three status: the first one is creation, the second one is rearing and the last one is remission. Allah implies to the beginning of creation which was along with power. Merciful implies to rearing in order to the survival of God’s blessings, and “compassionate” implies to remission that comes at the end of compassionateness. God wants to mention this point that: I created the creatures by power, then I reared them by my blessings and at the end I remitted them by my compassionateness.

Here, we should give notice to this matter that according to the words of holy Quran and the traditions, God’s compassionateness is for the people who expended their existence and the blessings of God in the way of their beloved and were faithful and carried out the commandments of God: “O God! Your name is our permission and your love is our apparatus. O God! Your cognition is our security and your beneficence is clear for us. O God! Your donation is our flag and your attention is our long house. O God! You are the protector of indigents, you are the guider of couriers; you are the testifier of believers. No matter if you increases or decreases. O God! How dear is one whom you love, and if he leaves, you bring him in the way?![7]

“بِسْمِ اللَّـهِ” is the beginning phrase of all Suras except the Suras of Tawba, and Muslim people are expected to say this expression at the beginning of their all works. The purpose of saying this expression and paying attention to its meaning is to disperse the people’s hearts and thoughts from unGodly affairs. We start our action under the aegis of his name to connect its beginning with the absolute bliss; its ending can yield good results and will be lucrative.

“الْحَمْدُ لِلَّـهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ”

“Shokr” (gratitude) is thanking for graces of God and his blessings without paying attention to the position of beneficent; “Madh” (laudation) is the commendation of one who has been commended due to his position and perfection without paying attention to the blessings and beneficences of beneficent; “Hamd” (praise) contains the comprehensive concept of “Shokr and Madh”. Hamd means gratefulness for all blessings by paying attention to the excellent position of beneficent which is the comprehensive concept of all perfect attributes.

This expression means all gratitude and praise, whether orally or practically or internally, is specifically for an excellent essence who is the owner and fosterer of all parts of universe. Praise and commendation must be offered for an origin whose beneficence and rearing has surrounded whole world and all creatures, one who empowers every incapable, who enlivened every lifeless creature and gives them the facilities according to their needs and upgrades them from what they are and adds to the quality of their  wisdom; then, in order to complete his training, he sends the messengers and puts the rules and conditions in front of their way and completes the Takveeni (early) training with the help of Tashryee (gradual) training.

That’s why, in holy Quran which is the appearance of training and  the volition of God, the verses of Takveen and Tashry have come together and considers all of them as the effects of “رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ” (world’s God) training rules. By mentioning this fact, it is clear that the praise is semantically as enormous as the immense universe. As much as the secrets of the world reveals and human minds develop, the unknowns of this world are being known to a larger degree and the fact of praise and paying attention to the creator of the universe are being increasingly realized, and its concept and meaning are being deep and wide.

Giving attention to the owner and the trainings of creatures, which is specifically for Almighty God and the existential organization of living being, including mankind, animals, stony and vegetal creatures is really a vital affair and a crucial reality. Perceiving the existential secrets of the smallest particle of this world is enough for mankind to makes him become modest and humble, and leads him to express his thankfulness and gratefulness before the owner and the trainer of the world, letting alone discover the realities of the spiritual world or the mysteries of vegetal creatures or animals or the essence of mankind.

It is really useful for worshiper to know something about four amazing worlds which are: spiritual world, the world of Nabatat (vegetal creatures), the world of animals and the world of mankind. Having knowledge about these worlds helps the worshiper to know the dignity and the superiority of Almighty God who is being prayed and worshipped by the worshiper!!