Inhibitions of prayer

The holy book of Quran and traditions has warned us about the inhibitions of prayer. All Muslims should try to pass those inhibitions and stand firmly for offering prayer. On this regard we’ll mention some verses and some traditions which warns and talks about inhibitions.

 O you who have believed, indeed, intoxicants, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone alters [to other than Allah], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful. Satan only wants to cause animosity between you and hatred through intoxicants and gambling and to avert you from the remembrance of Allah and prayer. So will you not desist? [1]

And what prevents their expenditures from being accepted from them but that they have disbelieved in Allah and in His Messenger and that they come not to prayer except while they are lazy and that they do not spend except while they are unwilling.[2]

What the preventions are mentioned are categorize into four parts:

1.       Wine

2.       Gambling

3.       Idolatry

4.       Hypocrisy

I would like to explain the parts above in light of traditions of fourteen infallibles.

Wine:

 Hazrat Imam Muhammad Baqir (AS) stated: wine drinker with his dark face, crooked mouth, tongue out of mouth, screaming and with an intense thirst will enter into the Day of Judgment. Such a person will be given water from sludge of adultery women.[3] 

Hazrat Imam Sadiq (AS) stated: O’ younis son of Jeryan, say to all people on behalf of me, if anyone drinks even a sip of wine, God, his angles, all prophets and the faithful will curse that person. [4]

The holy prophet (PBUH) has cursed ten types of people regarding the matter of wine: “The person who prepares it and one who asks for it to be prepared for him/her, the person who drinks, the person who carries it with themselves, the person to whom it will be carried, the person who pours it in glasses to let the people drink, the seller, the person who benefit from its money, the person who buys it, and the person to whom it will be bought.” The prophet (PBUH) stated: the first order of God which descended to me were to be away from idolatry, drinking wine and fighting with people. [5] It’s quoted from the prophet (PBUH) that he stated: drinking wine is the source of all other bad and evil doings.[6] Imam Jafer Sadiq (AS) stated: wine is the source of all bad deeds; wine drinker denies the holy book of Quran, because if he accepts the holy book of Quran he has to consider it as an unlawful (Haram) practice.[7]

Gamble

Holy Quran includes the gamble among the great sins.[8] Gamble is an action that produces enmity for the winner and the loser. If gambler loses, because of the possession he obtained with difficulty, he will hold a grudge against the winner, and if he wins, the loser will hold a grudge against him. There is barely any meeting of gambling which would be without quarrel and grudge, and perhaps the loser of property attempts to commit a self murder due to the high level of grief and regret, or to making up for the possession he has lost through an illegal way, he attempts to commit some other sins like stealing and homicide.

All of the gambling tools and instruments, its making and selling and preserving are unlawful. And sitting in the meeting of gambling has been banned in the divine religion. There are plenty of traditions about the prohibition of gamble, similar to the prohibition of wine, in some great books like Kafi and Vasael, you can refer to these valuable Islamic resources.

For instance here is a tradition about the prohibition of gamble. This tradition has also mentioned the tools of gamble:

Imam Sadiq (AS) said: selling the chess is forbidden and its preservation is infidelity and playing with it is polytheism and greeting with its player is a sin and teaching it to other people is a great offense. One who touches the chess is exactly similar to one who has touched the pork and one who looks at it is similar to a person who looks at the sexual organ of his mother.

Its player and one who greets with its player and its observer, all and all are equal in its sin and one who sits to play the chess, actually prepares a place for himself in the hell and the life of the other world will make him sad. Try to avoid having any relationship with gamblers, because the participators of that meeting are under the anger of God and they are in the exposure of God’s wrath in every moment and when the torment descends, it will include you.[9]

When gambler starts to gamble, he localizes his whole ability and power so that he can obtain the possession of other player and to do so, he has to inevitably wait hours and hours. Sometimes the meetings of gambling start at the beginning of the day and continues until sunset or from sunset to the morning and how can a tired and helpless gambler be able to establish his prayer in the day or in the night? What’s the similarity between the gamble and prayer? According to the effects of this banned action, which is counted among the impediments of prayer, its player won’t be able to say a pure prayer for God.

Idolatry

Idolatry means to avoid from all excellences and be contaminated by all the obscenities. The idols which were praised and also are being praised are divided into two groups: 1. Living idols 2. Lifeless idols: Pharaoh, Nimrod, Shaddad, calf, cow, goat and other animals are the examples of living idols. Sun, moon, stars, trees, stone, wood and manmade things like Laat, Hobal, Ozza, money and so on are the examples of lifeless idols.

These idols, whether they are living or lifeless, are counted among the external idols, but the internal idols consist of whim wham, lust, and sexual desire and so on. There is no doubt that mankind will be deprived of all excellences of morality especially the worship of God and prayer through being involved in the praising of living and lifeless idols.

This matter shouldn’t be forgotten that the main reason of worshipping external idols is the impurity of intrinsic. If the heart and soul will be expurgated and revived through the divine instructions, it will rescue mankind from the captivity of external and internal idols and convey him to the highest point of perfection, but by the negligence of heart and depression of spirit, mankind will be involved in the wrong worships. In this condition, a captive person shouldn’t be expected to have humanity or to do good deeds.

Duplicity

Duplicity is an aspect of polytheism and factionalism. If a hypocritical person knows that people are aware of his worship and want to compliment him, he will start to do the action otherwise he won’t attempt to do anything. According to this fact, the prayer of a hypocritical person depends on the attentions of people. If he knows that people will be aware of his prayer, so he will establish it otherwise he will avoid doing this great worship.

In fact duplicity is a branch of polytheism and the worship of the idols. God has severely urged the prayer of hypocritical people and hasn’t considered any value to their prayers. There are a lot of traditions about duplicity which are extraordinary. Researchers can refer to some books like: Beharul Al-Anwar, Mahjato-al-Bayza, Vasaeil Shiaeh, Al kafi, Tohaffo-al-Oghool, Alkhesal, and Jameo-al-Saadat.

Duplicity invalidates the actions and duplicitous actions won’t have any reward in hereafter. Molla Abdu-al-Razzaq-e-Laheegi has narrated an abridged but attractive story in Sharh-e-Mesbah book; here is that story:

Hypocritical person

One night a stranger came into a mosque, a dog was sleeping in the corner of that mosque. Shortly when that dog started moving, the stranger person thought that someone from this district has sit in the mosque. So he started to establish his prayer without taking ablution hoping this person to inform the people about his worship and adoration and then he can gain a reputation and respect in the mentioned district.

When the day dawned, the dog moved its ears and left the mosque. This miserable person was busy worshiping whole night. When it was morning, he came to the Sheikh of that district so that he informs other people about the condition of his worship. When Sheikh saw that unpleasent weariness, he said: “in which furnace had you been involved that you seem worse than the Jews of Kheibar?