When Ali would go to prayer, people would notice that he would blanch, color would leave his face and sometimes he would tremble as if he were in fear. He was asked why this happened to him. He said “Every time I go to prayer, I go to have conversation with Allah. This is the most awesome experience that we can have. It is of such great magnitude and it puts me in such awe that I tremble and I turn white.”
The point is that we have to understand that everywhere we go, Allah sees us. There are many little stories that point this out but when we go to prayer, the experience is supposed to be more than just cognizance that Allah is everywhere. It goes to another level, the level of direct conversation with ar-Rabb, our Lord.
The formal prayer is a constant repetition of that which happened to the Prophet (s.a.w.) on Mi’raj. When we do the formal prayer, we are essentially taking the Mi’raj on as if we were participating in it. Understanding this should put us in a state of awe and in a state of recognition that we are approaching Allah, that we are approaching the truth of reality, that we are approaching that which is real. It is our chance to become real, because we enter into that sacred space. Entering into that sacred space has to become something that we yearn for, that we yearn to do and that becomes a priority in our existence where it’s more important than the things we do in the secular space.
We have to realize that our existence is secular or worldly and sacred or holy. We fluctuate between these two spaces. The holiness always exists and the world always exists.
The question is, where are we? How often are we capable of staying in the holy space. This kind of attitude to our existence changes the nature of our existence. Prayer is no longer a ritualistic performance. Prayer is an alteration of our state. We come into prayer recognizing that we are now before Haqq, we are now before reality. In our contemplation we attempt to resonate to the fact that we are now encountering that which is holy and we relieving ourselves of all of that which we carry which is not holy.
This has to become a compulsion for us. This has to become something so powerful inside us that we are driven in a very profound way towards it. Prayer no longer becomes an automatic repetion of words and movements. Prayer becomes a conjoining, an entering, a surrendering to that which is real.
That should happen every time we make the effort to pray, whether it’s formal prayer, whether it’s dhikr or whether it’s our own meditation which is really conversation with Allah. This conversation with Allah, as we get involved in it more and more and more, our nature changes. Why?…
