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QUR-ANIC
VERSES
ON
PRAYERS
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We pass; the path that each man trod
Is dim, or will be dim, with weeds;
What fame is left for human deeds
In endless age? It rests with God.
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Sovereign Lord, admonishes His Servants – the human species – to call
upon Him, day and night, in trouble or in bliss. He hears them. He is enough to
satisfy their needs and to salvage them from troubles. He has to say only “be”
and it is! The Almighty has repeated this at a number of places in the Noble
Scripture. Just to quote once, the Divine Book says:
Thus it is quite clear and is a fact that His modus operandi for creation or
re-enlivenment of a thing, whom He wants it, is remarkably simple. He merely
orders it and instantaneously it becomes a fait accompli. Thus no process or
labour is involved.
Do they seek
For other than the Religion
Of God? – while all creatures
In the heavens and the earth
Have, willingly or unwillingly,
Bowed to His Will
(Accepted Islam),
And to Him
Shall they all return. (3:83)
This then leads us to the conclusions that He is the only One to Him we –
his servants on earth – should call and He is the only One who hears our calls
and come to our rescue. Al-Quran says:
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In the following verse we are told of Prayer and the nearness of God to his
humans to hear our prayers and come to our aid. Certainly, who can be so near to
us than our own Creator Himself. The Quran says:
When My servants
Ask thee concerning Me,
I am indeed
Close (to them): I listen
To the prayer of every
Suppliant when he calleth on Me:
Let them also, with a will,
Listen to My call,
And believe in Me:
That they may walk
In the right way. (2 : 186)
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Whatever beings there are
In the heavens and the earth
Do prostrate themselves to God
(Acknowledging subjection), – with good will
Or in spite of themselves:
So do their shadows
In the mornings and evenings. (13 : 14 – 15)
Besides the evidence of external nature, there is still more intimate evidence in
man’s inner conscience and heart. God listens to man’s cry of agony and relieves
his suffering, and He has given him superiority over other creation on this earth,
through his mind and soul. Is man then going to run after inferior beings and
forget his Creator? As there is no argument at all in favour of your countrerfeit
worship, what sense there is in it? Either your false gods are senseless stocks and
stones which will never answer you to the end of Time, being themselves devoid
of understanding, or they are real objects which will disown you at the last. If
you worshipped Self, your own misused faculties will witness against you at the
last. If you worshipped good men or prophets, like Jesus, they will disown you.
Similarly, if you worshipped angels, they will disown you. To quote from the
Glorious Scripture it says:
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They call on such deities,
Besides God, as can neither
Hurt Nor profit them:
That is straying far indeed
(From the Way)!
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Thou wilt see them
Looking at thee, but
They see not. ( 7 : 197 -198)
O men! Here is
A parable set forth!
Listen to it! Those
On whom, besides God,
Ye call, cannot create
(Even) a fly, if they all
Met together for the purpose!
And if the fly should snatch
Away anything from them,
They would not (even) try
To release it from the fly.
Feeble are those who petition
And those whom they petition!
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To Him belongs all Dominion.
And those whom ye invoke
Besides Him have not
The least power.
Oh ye who believe!
Do your duty to God,
Seek the means
Of approach unto Him,
And strive with might
And main in His cause:
That ye may prosper. (5 : 38)
In Chapter ‘Asr’ (Time through the Ages), God clearly reminds mankind:
Verily Man
Is in loss,
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Except such as have Faith,
And do righteous deeds,
And (join together)
In the mutual teaching
Of Truth, and of
Patience and Constancy. (103 : 1-3)
That is to say Time is always in favour of those who have Faith, live clean and
pure lives, and know how to wait, in patience and constancy. The following lines
from “The Dragon Book of Verse – Book II)”, said to have been written on the
eve of his execution, beautifully describe the Time:-
Thus all praise is due to God, the Mighty. The man is created by Him. There is
no hardship for Him. He is to be called upon in every matter whatsoever. The
recognition of Unity and Sublimity of God would awaken the man to the
consciousness of his own insignificance. The man is created by God. He is
fostered by Him; and to Him shall he revert after death. On the day of trouble he
should call upon the Omnipotence and His Awareness of his troubles and
tribulations. He will listen to him and deliver him and no one else. A passage
from Shah Jo Risalo says:
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One should have reality in words and should not ask for which one is not
entitled.
However, the Divine laws have limits and whosoever crosses them must
face the destructive consequences. Remorse and repentance could not save them
when their final fall was in sight. Socrates once said that “his wisdom was
limited to an awareness of his ignorance”. Some what similar is also said by
Albert Einstein: “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity,
and I’m not sure about the former”. Obviously, in a world where agony and
distress outweights happiness and pleasure, sickness, poverty and multilation
prevails; the supplication to the Lord, Oft-Hearing, provides an invaluable
source of comfort, hope and a cause to live on. Surely and certainly, the
mitigation and deliverance will be on the way. A couplet of Allama Iqbal reads:
ن ت
ن ب
ھم تو ماءل ب کرم ھییں کوییی ساءل ھی ھییں
ن
ے رھ وے مننزل ھی ھییں
ن راھ دکھاءییں کس
Indeed, if there is anything worth crying over in the life, it is one’s sins
and acts of disobedience to God. No catastrophe is worse than sin. Crying over
worldly loses is useless, it merely hurts the eyes. But crying over one’s sins is
the equivalent of washing them away. Weeping is the atonement for sins and the
best apology the sinner can humanly offer. It is in itself a sign of blessing and a
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guarantor of salvation. But at the same time, we must organize our future life.
True repentance is that after which one acts in line with the new intentions and
promise.
Tell my servants
That I am indeed
The Oft-Forgiving,
Most Merciful;
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