ALLAH IN THE THOUGHTS AND LIVES OF MUSLIMS

The World-wide Worship of Islam

A Muslim's relationship to Allah can clearly be seen in the five daily prayers, which belong to the indispensable pillars of Islam. In the course of this liturgy, a Muslim will prostrate himself before Allah up to 34 times a day. Anyone who has seen a Muslim prostrating is impressed. The curve of his bent back during prayer is the best commentary on the word "ISLAM" which translated means surrender, submission or subjugation. These words sound very pious and describe the total submission of a Muslim to Allah.

Any observer who considers this will realise that anyone who prostrates himself before Allah 34 times a day in worship is not a free or person. He is no longer himself because his entire way of living and thinking is fully guided and influenced by Allah. In fact, the Arabic words for a religious service, place of worship and worshipper are derived from the word for slaves. According to Islam, everyone is a slave to Allah. No one is free. No one lives for himself. Everyone belongs to his Creator and was created to worship and to serve perpetually and unconditionally.

If it were possible to take a spaceship and fly high above the earth and observe mankind with a powerful telescope, we could see the prayer ritual of Islam sweeping across our globe like a mighty wave five times a day as millions of Muslims bow to the ground in worship.

At dawn, as soon as one can distinguish between a white and a black thread, the prayer of the Muslim begins in the Philippines. The first wave of worship surges over Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, then Iran and Turkey. Finally it reaches Europe, at which time the second wave of worship begins at noon for the Muslims in China. This new wave will have reached India and the 45 million Muslims in Central Asia just as a third wave will have started at 3 p.m. for afternoon prayers in the Far East. These three waves of worship follow each other successively, moulding and determining life under the Islamic culture. At this time, as dawn is breaking on the east coast of America with its morning prayer, Muslims in the Nile Valley are bowing down in the heat of their noon prayer and in Pakistan men are gathering in their mosques for afternoon prayer. When the final wave of the Muslim night prayer begins in the Far East two hours after sunset, simultaneously the rays of the setting sun touch the worshippers in the Ganges Delta, while pilgrims in Mecca bow down for afternoon prayer before the black stone in the Ka'ba. At that moment the second prayer wave has already reached faithful Muslims in the high Atlas Mountains in Morocco, while the first waves breaks with the early morning dawn in the Rocky Mountains of America.

These five prayer waves unite millions of Muslims in worship of their God. Islam is a religion of adoration and worship. Many Muslims pray earnestly and with great reverence, disciplining themselves by repeating their liturgical prayers 17 times a day.

Very early in the morning, the muezzins call from the minarets of the mosques, often through loudspeakers, over the roofs of the houses to all the people: "Arise to prayer! Arise to success! Prayer is better then sleep!"

Unless Christians rethink their prayer practices and discipline themselves into regular and intensive prayer for Muslims, they should not be astonished that Islam defies the attempts of mission societies and rises to challenge a tired Christianity.

The call from the minaret includes a significant sentence: "Arise to success!" Everyone who serves Allah hopes to receive a reward from him. Those who perform the prayers expect to receive earthly and heavenly blessings. Devotion to Allah and obedience to his commands deserve many gifts including salvation. Muslims do not thank Allah because he has already saved them through grace. On the contrary, they feel they must pray and keep the law in order to have the goodwill of Allah bestowed upon them. So Islam is a religion based on self-righteousness in which everyone tries to accumulate good deeds and so establish his own salvation by good works.

Prayer in Islam is not a voluntary service, but rather a compulsion, an obligation and a law. In Saudi Arabia once can sometimes observe policemen during the prayer times forcing passers-by into the mosques, so that the wrath of Allah may not descend on the country because of neglected prayer. Islam is a religion under the law of Allah. All facets of life are specifically controlled by a multitude of regulations. Allah is the centre of everything.

There is a deep longing for purity in Islam. Before each prayer time, every Muslim must follow a compulsory ablution - the washing of hands, arms, feet, mouth, face and even hair. Everyone must be clean before entering Allah's presence to pray. Anyone who does not follow the exact cleansing procedure is considered to have nullified his prayers. Christians know that such outward rituals do not cleanse the heart or the mind. But the five-times-daily ablutions in Islam testify to a deep longing for purity on the part of those who pray.

A sentence in the main prayer for all Muslims - from the al-Fatiha - reads, "Guide us in the straight path, the path of those whom thou hast blessed, not of those against whom thou art wrathful, nor of those who are astray" (Sura al-Fatiha 1:2,3). This cry expresses the desire for guidance and a total dependence on Allah. It would be wrong, ignorant and arrogant for Christians to deny the faithful intent of Muslims to serve God. On the contrary, their discipline, sincerity and consistency in praying can be an example to many of us. Without a doubt, every true Muslim desires to serve God with all his heart. He calls on him in his prayers. He wants to honour him; he fights for him and submits his entire being to him. In the Old Testament we read that God hears every honest prayer - even from a Muslim! (Genesis 21:17; 16:7-14).

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