How to Pray (Five Times A Day) With A Busy Schedule By Daliah Merzaban December 6, 2011 I believed in God and

loved Him, but on my own terms, not on the terms very clea rly set out in the Quran and Prophetic teachings. PHOTO: AFP Before I genuinely began to cultivate and nurture my relationship with God, I re garded the five daily prayers that Islam enjoins on believers as laborious. It s eemed impractical to expect that I would be able to stop what I was doing during my busy work schedule to take time out and pray. Working as a news wire journalist, I was often spending over 10 hours a day in t he office or at conferences, interviews and meetings, barely able to make time f or a lunch break. If I wasnt working, my time was divided between house chores, e rrands, family and friends, and exercise. I was punctual with everything in my l ife except that I was late five times a day. In my mind, it was not viable to expect that I could wake up before the crack of dawn to pray the early-morning Fajr prayer, otherwise I would be too tired to w ork effectively later that morning. It also seemed inefficient to interrupt my w ork meetings to pray the mid-day duhr prayer, and the afternoon Asr prayer. Making the sunset prayer Maghrib was often a challenge because the window to pra y is typically quite short and coincides with the time between finishing work, h aving dinner and returning home. So, in effect, the only prayer that was feasibl e for me to pray on time was the evening Isha prayer. For most of my life, thus, I would at best pray all five prayers in the evening, or skip prayers here and there to accommodate my immediate commitments. Without realising it, my inconsistency and approach to praying trivialised the p rinciple behind performing prayers throughout the day. I believed in God and lov ed Him, but on my own terms, not on the terms set out in the Holy Quran and prop hetic teachings. Yet, praying the five daily prayers, at their prescribed times, is the backbone of being a Muslim; we cannot stand upright in our faith without them. It is one of the essential practices that God has called on those who endeavour to live in Islam, a state of existence whereby a human strives to live in submission to Go d. When I came to truly understand the importance of prayer, the realisation was bo th overwhelming and quick. It dawned on me that if I was not fulfilling this pre condition, then I really could not claim to be Muslim. Even if I desired to have a solid connection with the Almighty I was not taking the necessary steps to do so. I promptly reoriented my life and it has now been a year and a half that I have not intentionally missed a prayer time, whether I am in the office, mall, g rocery store, out with friends or travelling. Looking back, I see how wrong I was about the impracticality of Islamic prayers, which are succinct and straightforward notwithstanding their resonance. When I moved from trying to fit prayers into my life to fitting my life around my praye r schedule, I instantly removed a great deal of clutter from my daily routine. S ince regular prayer promotes emotional consistency and tranquility, I began to e liminate excess negativity and cut down on unnecessary chitchat, helping me be m ore focused, productive and patient. Over a short period of time, what amazed me was how easy and fluid the prayers b

ecame. Performing the early-morning prayer actually gave me a burst of energy du ring the day and, gradually, the prayers that I had initially perceived as cumbe rsome became an essential facet of my routine. With Gods help, I would find ways to pray regardless of the hurdles. While in Canada for the summer, I would often catch duhr prayer in a department store fitting room, with the help of a handy Islamic prayer compass application on my iPhone. Verily the soul becomes accustomed to what you accustom it to, that is to say what you at first burden the soul with becomes nature to it in the end. This is a line drawn from a magnificent book I am in the process of reading by g reat Islamic thinker al Ghazali, titled Invocations and Supplications: Book IX o f the Revival of Religious Sciences. Al Ghazali describes a series of formulae, drawn from the Quran and Hadith, which we can repeat to help us attain greater p roximity to the Divine and purify our hearts. At each turn in my quest to enrich my faith, I have found that what at first app ears difficult becomes easy when performed with sincerity. Soon after I reorient ed my life to revolve around prayer, the five prayers felt insufficient in expre ssing my devotion. I examined Hadith, or the traditions of Prophet Muhammad (pbu h) peace and blessings be upon him, and discovered there were optional prayers I could add to my routine. Since then, I have not let a day pass without praying them. To supplement my prayers, I have integrated various zikr, or remembrance and men tioning of God, into my days. Zikr, including repeating such phrases as La illa h a il Allah (There is no God but God), habitually draws our attention back to God. Among the many rich invocations mentioned in Ghazalis book is this one which I ha ve started to incorporate. As we leave our houses each day, if we say In the name of God (Bismillah), God will guide us; when we add I trust in God (Tawakalt al All ah), God will protect us; and if we conclude with There is no might or power save with God (La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah), God will guard us. I suppose to an outsider, these acts of devotion can appear a bit obsessive, and I have had a couple of people say this to me. Yet it is an obsession with the g reatest possible consequences that can improve rather than disintegrate ones disp osition. The more time I devote to God, the greater the peace of mind I find fil ling my life and the more focused I become on what is important -such as treatin g my family and friends honourably, working hard at my job, giving charity with compassion and generosity, and maintaining integrity. Remembering God throughout the day, through prayer and invocation, truly does po lish the heart as Hadith teaches; you erase obstructions that would impede faith in its purest form. Truly when a man loves a thing, he repeatedly mentions it, and when he repeatedly mentions a thing, even if that may be burdensome, he loves it, writes Ghazali Source: The Express Tribune, Lahore URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamIslamAndSpiritualism_1.aspx?ArticleID =6084

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12/9/2011 8:46:25 AM Raihan Nezami The opening chapter of the Quran By Nawal Aqil From among the beautiful Surahs of the Holy Quran there is one Surah which I woul d like to talk about today. This Surah happens to be the cure (Shifa) or treatme nt (Al-Ruqya) for any disease. I hope by now the readers must have guessed which Surah I am talking about. Indeed, this Surah is the one with which the Holy Qura n begins and so does our Salah. It is none other than the great Surah, Surah Al Fatiha (the opening). It the Surah without which ones prayer is incomplete. Proph et Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, There is no prayer for the one who does not recite the opening of the Book. (Bukhari) Surah Al Fatiha is also called as the Quran-e-Azeem (Bukhari). In a Hadith narrat ed by Tirmidhi, Abu Huraira (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Pr ophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) said, Al-Hamdulillah is the Umm ul Quran (mothe r of the Holy Quran) and Sabaatul Mathani (the seven repeated verses). Surah Al-Fatiha begins with the hamd of Allah, i.e. His Praise. None but Allah has the right to be praised for He alone is the Lord of the worlds. It is He Who su stains and provides His creations and believers with innumerable blessings. He A lone is the Rabb, the Rahman and the Raheem. Allah Alone is the Lord of the Day of Judgment and no one except Him has the power and sovereignty, and none would have the courage to open his mouth before Him. No injustice would be done on tha t day. After the declaration of Allahs praise verse number five places a duty on everyon e His creation to worship Him alone and turn only to him for help. This verse co mmands every worshipper to stay away from Shirk and dedicate his or her acts of worship like Salah, Dua, Sawm, Haj, etc. for Allah alone. Furthermore, it tells us to seek guidance and help only from Him. The sixth verse is then a dua where a believer asks for guidance because it is only Allah who guides us in the best way by telling us the difference between right and wrong. The seventh verse specifies that the guidance should be sought from those who ar e blessed like the Noble Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), righteous peopl e, Shuhada (martyrs) and the pious servants of Allah and not from those who were misguided and had to face His wrath. Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) said, When the Messenger of Allaah (pea ce be upon him) was sitting with Angel Jibreel he heard a creaking sound above h im. Angel Jibreel looked up and said, This is the sound of a gate that has been o pened in heaven today that has never been previously opened. Then an angel descen ded and came toward Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) and said, Rejoice our th e good news of two lights that have been given to you as no Prophet before you h as been given. They are Surah Al Fatiha and the concluding two verses of Surah A l Baqarah. You will never recite a word from them without being given the blessi ngs they contain. [Sahih Muslim] There are many Ahadeeth that describe the virtues of Surah Al Fatihah. It is ind eed a Surah full of blessings and its recitation brings peace and security to it s readers. May Allah give us Tawfiq (opportunities) to recite it in every Rakah of our Salah and in our daily life so that we can receive maximum blessings. __

12/8/2011 11:12:00 AM satwa gunam A better way to put the whole concept is to make the work as worship. Every act

if it is done in the spirit of service to the lord, then the same becomes the w orship as lord exist in the mind of the person who is working as servant of lord . It is called karma yoga.

12/7/2011 10:08:50 AM Raihan Nezami The feelings expressed by Daliah Merzaban is the true reflection and in the righ t spirit of Islamic culture. We can draw a point or two from her adjustment to f ive-time prayers so successfully. Such women should be taken as a role model for our community. Otherwise, I am afraid the present-time intellectual Mullahs wil l also consider it as obsolete and recommend for the rectification (Nauz Billah) . Or they would discover the reality that Namaz s exact number and the way of su pplications are not mentioned in Qur an, and find out that visiting mosques for Namaz and performing it according to Sunnah are not necessary (Nauz Billah). Ma y Allah forgive us for the intentional or unintentional sins and give good sense , Ameen.

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