Gems of the Promised Messiah (as) & Imam Mahdi (as): Acceptance of Prayer is a True Means of God’s Recognition

As we have stated already, Muslims have been urged in Surah al-Fatihah to occupy themselves with prayer and have been taught the prayer: 

[1] ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرٰطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ

And it has been made obligatory that this prayer is to be offered on five occasions every day. It would therefore be a great mistake to deny the spirituality of prayer. The verdict of the Holy Qur’an is that prayer comprises a spirituality and that in consequence of prayer a grace descends which bestows the fruit of success in diverse forms. 

Thus every just person can understand that as despite the admission of determination, it is the way of Allah that in hundreds of matters effort and endeavour produce results, in the same way, the effort that is put forth in the form of prayer is not wasted. At one place in the Holy Qur’an, God Almighty has appointed it as a sign of His recognition that He hears the supplication of distressed ones, as it is said: 

[2] أَمَّن يُجِيبُ ٱلۡمُضۡطَرَّ إِذَا دَعَاهُ 

As God Almighty has appointed the acceptance of prayer as a sign of His existence, how can any sensible person imagine that prayer does not result in visible signs of acceptance and that it is only a formal matter which has no spirituality in it? I consider that no one having true faith can be guilty of such disrespect. God, the Glorious, says that as by the contemplation of the creation of heaven and earth, the true God is recognised; in the same way, by observing the acceptance of prayer, faith in God Almighty is created. Then if there is no spirituality in prayer and no obvious grace truly and in fact descends in consequence of prayer, how can prayer be such a means of the recognition of God Almighty as are heaven and earth and heavenly bodies? Indeed the Holy Qur’an shows that the best means of the recognition of God is prayer and that it is only through prayer that the complete and perfect understanding of the existence of God and His perfect attributes is obtained and that it cannot be obtained in any other way. It is prayer which, like a flash of lightning, pulls a person out of the pit of darkness and brings him into the open atmosphere of light and makes him stand before God Almighty. Through prayer thousands of the wicked are reformed and thousands of the corrupt are purified. 

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) , The Essence of Islam, Vol. II (Tilford, Surrey, Islam International Publications Ltd., 2004), 210-212.

ENDNOTES

[1] ‘Guide us in the right path.’ – The Holy Qur’an, 1:6. 

[2] ‘Or, Who answers the distressed person when he calls upon Him?.’ – The Holy Qur’an, 27:63.