By Ustadh Adekunle Mikail
Preamble
One of the stimulants of peace of mind which the materialists have prevented themselves from enjoying and which the believers are enjoying is conversing with God every day in their Salat and prayer!
As-Salat is a momentum meeting of human mind , which has been busier with the worldly affairs, with its Creator so that it stands before its Lord and protector, and renders praise to Him as it fits Him, as well as looking up to Him while seeking His mercy and glory!
There Is A Strength For The Soul In Conversing With His Creator
In human conversation with God which has its highest form in praying Salat, there is a strength to the soul that makes it its habit to observe it as and when due and in the face of hardship as it aids the calmness of the soul!
It is as a result of this that the Lord of the universe, Allah Has made As-Salat an armament for the believer _ he would be using it as a defence in war of life and fence himself with it against the life vicissitudes .
Allah says in Quran 1vs 45:
” And seek assistance through patience and prayer, and most surely it is a hard thing except for the humble ones”
The Prophet Salla-llahu Alehi Wasalam Used To Take Refuge In Salat Whenever Something Borders Him
Whenever anything borders the prophet salla-llahu alehi wasalam, he used to resort to praying salat! This his salat was not a dry one or an ordinary necessary ritual but the one that was full of sincere intimate conversation with God until when it was time for the canonical ones, he used to seek the rest of mind to listening to the call for it and used to tell Bilal, the caller to salat , ” Relief of us of what border us with it (As-Salat)!
In addition to that he did say most of the time, to show the important position As-Salat had occupied in his mind as follows:
” And the cynosure of my eyes had been placed in Salat!”
It was Salat he had ventured into on the day he had returned from Ta’if when his two two legs were gushing out blood while his mind was full of sorrow as a result of the evil he had encountered with his people .
Nothing was left for him except to raise his hands to the heaven knocking its doors saying :
” O Lord I complain to you the weakness of my strength, the littleness of my power and my shyness with people, you are the Blesser of those who bless ; you are the Lord of the oppressed and my Lord…”
As-Salat To The Rescue!
The biographies of the believers are full of many instances in which As-Salat had served as the final arbiter which saved them from the impending dooms that might had resulted in the loss of their precious life, or put them in eternal mess or destabilise their worship!
Indeed, the salat of fear ( Salatul Khawf) is mandated so that it would be unleashed against fear in the hour of terror and so that it would relieve the believers of the pangs of war!
The Salat of the eclipse of the sun ( Khusuf) I.e, the prayer which is performed when there is the obstruction of the light from the sun, or part of it during the day and the eclipse of the moon ( khusuf) i.e, the prayer which is performed when there is an obstruction of the light from the moon , or part of it, during the night, are made emphatic so that man will be relieved of the fright that is occasioned as a result of the two usual signs of Allah that had just been experienced!
And part of the blessing of Allah to His servants, if critically observed, is the praying of the five daily canonical prayers which is an atonement of their sins, an elevation of their pedestals with God, a big panacea to their souls when desolate, a cure to their ailments, a purifier of their intentions and an harbinger of their Lord’s satisfaction!
As for the ones that desert mosques and avoid salat, it is miserableness upon miserableness, annoyance after annoyance and distress upon distress ! Allah says:
” And as for those who disbelieve, for them is destruction and He Has made their deeds ineffective”
A Practical Example
Ibn ‘Asaakir and Ibn Qayyum mentioned that a man among the righteous came across a bandit in one of the roads to Damascus.
He was lured to a road; it is said that when the righteous man asked the thief the safest road to Damascus, unknown to him that the one he was asking from was his own assailant, instead of pointing him towards the road many other wayfarers were taking, he lied to the righteous man that the one he was picking for him was the safest .
And to make it look genuine, he acted as if he was accompanying him and finally attacked him! On realising the mess he was, the righteous man begged the thief to spare him some minutes so that he pray for the reposing of his own soul after his death and the thief granted it!
He now stood up , rendered two rakahs and while doing this he remembered the statement of Allah, the Exalted:
”Or, who answers the distressed one when he calls upon Him?”.