Every religion has prayer, and every religion has ritual times for prayer; some pray once a week, some pray twice a day, some pray three times a day, some pray five times a day. In Sufism, in addition to prayer, we have what’s called “zikr”, remembrance, which is a repetition of the names of God as a remembrance of God.
Why is it that all of these religions have prayers, and what’s the purpose of prayer? Why do people pray? People pray for different reasons. Sometimes these reasons are selfish, they pray because they want things so they ask for things. Or they pray for health, or they pray for their friends, or they pray for their parents, or they pray for their children. All of these things, basically, are asking for some kind of outcome in the world. When you pray for the health of a friend you’re praying for Allah’s intervention in the world so that that friend can be helped.
But what is prayer really about, and what is true prayer, and how is true prayer done? Prayer is an attempt to come closer to God, to come closer to Allah, to set up a line of communication between yourself and Allah. But man is not capable of knowing God. Man is not capable of seeing God; no man has ever seen God. So how do you get to come closer to God? How do you get to know God, how do you get to know Allah?
Allah is known by way of His mercy. Allah is known by way of His resonance. Allah is known by way of His actions. Allah is known through Himself. We can only know Allah through Allah. So the intention to know Allah from our mind is an illusory intention that can’t be fulfilled. The intention to know Allah through our desire is an illusory intention that can’t be fulfilled. Because Allah can’t be known that way; Allah can’t be known through human endeavor, He can only be known through Godly endeavor. So what does that mean?
It means that we, to know Allah, must become godly; we must become like Allah to know Allah, and then, through that, we can know Him. There’s no other way to know Him. If you recite the entire Quran or if you recite the entire Torah, or the entire Injeel, the New Testament; you will not know Allah unless your heart has opened to Allah, and you’ve allowed Allah in your heart.
So we have to understand that in order to become involved with the truth, in order to know the truth; we must become the truth…
