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4
Steps to Change the Ummah Part 1 of
2
09 FEB 09
A
couple of weeks ago, I read a tag on the Cbox, commenting me to
write my opinions on the Israeli onslaught on Gaza. If you are not
familiar with middle east politics, I suggest you read up about
it before forming your own opinions. But the gist of the problem
was that Israel decided to drop bombs on Gaza because the people
of Gaza shot homemade rockets to Israel.
I am not about to engage in a fruitless
debate with zionists and Islamophobics on who’s right and
who’s wrong... that to me, is apparent. I would rather focus
my efforts on the ummah (Muslim community).
My brothers and sisters in Islam, if it’s
not Palestine, it’s gonna be Iraq, if it’s not Iraq,
it’s gonna be Chechnya or Afghanistan. We are living in
a time where the enemies of Islam are attacking the ummah like
hungry animals from all sides and yet we are huge in numbers.
“Narrated Thauban: "The Prophet
peace be upon him said: 'The nations shall gather and team up
against you (i.e., Muslims) as the predators gather and team up
against their preys. A questioner asked: 'Is it because of us
being low in numbers at that day?' The Prophet replied: 'No, on
that day you shall be in great numbers, but you will be as powerless
as the foam of the water on the surface of the river.” Translation
of Sunan Abu Dawud
"Verily! Allah will not change the
condition of a people as long as they do not change their state
themselves." [Al-Ra'd:11]
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1 of 4
My brothers and sisters in Islam, if you wish the atrocity against
Muslims to stop, if you wish to learn how to better deal with
the problems that this dunia throws at you… you should fulfill
the very basics of all basics; and that is prayer.
The
reason why we Muslims are in such a pathetic state is because
Muslims are not doing what Muslims are suppose to do. We are Muslims
alright, because we declare that “There is no god but God
and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is His messenger.” But from
the 1.5 billion Muslims walking on the face of the earth today,
how many percent perform the prayer?
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Unfortunately,
the current trend of the predominantly Malay Muslim (at least
in my country), have the habit to make people dislike prayer
at an early age. When I was a child, I remember how much I dislike
prayer and I bet there are more kids like me today. The reason
for me disliking prayer is because NOBODY from the ustazahs
which I was enrolled in 2 madrasahs, and the pious pakcik who
taught me my Alif, Be, Tas, bother to explain to me the benefit
of prayer. How can prayer help me in life? What does prayers
do to a person? The only common answer I always get is:
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To
me and most people, this is not enough. So let me explain to you
the practical benefits of prayer and how it’s gonna change
your life as it did mine and God willing, I’ll show you
what you are missing.
First and foremost,
prayer gives you patience and teaches you self-restraint. The
difference between a non-praying person to a praying person
is.. a non praying person answers to his desires MOST of the
time. When he feels like he wants to play a video game, he will
play. When he feels like he wants to watch TV he will watch.
He will eat, sleep, have sex without any obstacles, without
any interruption. His only interruption is hunger and sleep
because the body needs to recharge itself. But let’s say
one day, his desires gets interrupted; he is denied playing
his game, he is extremely hungry and his food is delivered late
etc. how would he feel? He feels agitated. He gets into a bad
mood.
You may think that
this is insignificant but I have witness 20 year olds punch
walls, slam doors, stamp their feet like children just because
they cannot get what they want or things did not go as planned.
Now recall a friend, or a relative who is known to be impatient
or have a temper problem, chances are very high that he or she
is not a praying type of person.
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An example
of a non praying person. |
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imagine if you are a praying person. You are busy playing your game,
or working suddenly you hear the Adhan on the radio. Deep inside,
you still want to carry on that video game or work of yours but
you tell yourself, “That is what the “pause” button
is for.” and “Work can wait.” It’s can be
a tough process at first because you are totally engross, focus
in what you were doing but the praying person practically beat his
desires and force himself anyway and does his prayer. You practically
beat your desires to a pulp, 5 times a day. So,
what happens when you are not a slave to your desires? You suddenly
become in control. Since you are a human being, you WILL feel
anger when a problem hits you, but you can contain that anger,
disappointment, depression much more effectively… your tantrum,
crazy temper days are over |
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thing you have to understand is that; a praying person always keeps
tabs on prayer times. He may be working, playing soccer or eating
but he tries his best to keep track of when the next prayer is gonna
be. As soon as he wakes up when he is deeply lost in that work of
his, he ask himself; |
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What
does it mean if a person makes the effort to pray on time? The constant
reminder to pray is equals to the constant reminder of God. What
does it mean, when someone has God constantly in his mind? It means,
he will commit much less sin. And even if he commits sin, he will
immediately feel guilty about it and he tries to change himself.
And sometimes change takes A LOT of time but at the very least there
is this inner struggle that he have to wrestle with, every time
he commit sin. Non-praying people who follow their desires can get
so corrupted and indulge in sin so much so that the sin becomes
fair seeming and they will come up with every excuse in the book
to defend their sinful activity. |
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you still remember God without prayer? Of course you can but not
as often as you should. That’s the point. And people who do
not make a prayer a habit only remember God in times of hardship.
They pray only when a major exam is coming, or lost their jobs,
but when the calamity is gone, look at how they strut themselves
away from Islam as if God never exist.
The person who takes
prayer seriously will soon realize that their character will also
change for the better. If he used to call his friend’s names,
he will realize that this is a wrong thing and he will stop. He
will be tempted to cheat his customers in business but he realizes
that God is watching him so he tells the pros and cons of a product.
He may feel like screaming at the taxi driver for making a wrong
turn, but he refrains himself because he knows it was an honest
mistake.
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If you
have no God in your heart. |
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If you
make the effort to remember God constantly EVERY DAY. |
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that explains why we pray 5 times a day. If Islam only ordered its
followers to pray twice a week, we will only think of God twice
a week. No, we must have God in our minds every waking day because
the human being forgets and needs to be reminded. |
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people forget that Muslims are human beings too. We make mistakes
and we will fall into sin and the fact that we also get hungry during
the fasting month. Falling into sin is not the point, the point
is combating it, struggling to change yourself.
Praying 5 times a day
is a struggle in itself but do your best and make the effort.
Heck, I am praying for years and Fajr prayer is still the biggest
struggle I am dealing with right now. Sometimes I get it, sometimes
I overslept and it slips away. And I have not seen ANYBODY who
pledges to start praying and he suddenly completes 5 daily prayers
without any hiccups. My advise is to catch as much prayer as you
possibly can right now. That is a big step forward. This approach
is better than no effort at all. Once you make prayer a habit,
God willing your faith will increase, you will find that prayer
becomes easier and inevitably, you will replace the old you with
a much, much better you. A much patient, calmer, nicer you. A
change so drastic your parents and friends will notice.
Note:
When I advise you to make the effort to catch as much prayer as
possible does not mean that you should feel happy if you get 3
prayers in a day. I want you to start some where but do be aware
that if death approaches and you are a 3 or 4 time praying Muslim,
you are eligible for Hell UNLESS God grants you His mercy. And
bear in mind that the First level of Hell is for MUSLIMS who does
not pray ON TIME. So what do you think will happen to Muslims
who doesn’t pray at all?
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I
want to add that God DOES NOT NEED our prayers. He commands us to
pray because WE need it. If he wants a creation to pray to him he
already have Angels who praise His name perfectly and tirelessly.
Not to mention that Angels do not sin at all. The reason why you
have to pray is to safeguard yourself from this filthy world (dunia)
we live in.
Some people think that they can survive in this world alone by using
their limited intellect. They think they can control and can manage
the problems of life without prayer. By no means! You will run in
circles! How are you going to handle serious problems in life like
divorce, a death in the family, severe illness and poverty without
prayer? If you are not careful, you will find yourself falling in
depression, stress, going into insanity, suicide and so on and so
forth so why do we keep resisting prayer?! |
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thing a lot of non praying Muslims have totally overlook is the
Weapon that God gives to the Believer which is the Dua. Every single
time, you are done with your prayer, you spend an extra 1 or 2 minutes
to ask God for help. Here is God telling us that we can ask Him
for help and yet we don’t want to take advantage of this?!
How poor! When you are sick and need to go for surgery, you will
find the best doctor you can find and you put your trust in him
to do a good job. Here is God, the Lord and Creator of the Universe,
the one who cause life and death; don’t you think He can help
you with your problems?
Even though Dua can
be made without prayer, one of the prescription for your Dua to
be accepted by God is by insisting on it, meaning, you cannot
just ask once or twice. You have to keep asking God and pleading
to Him so don’t you think that your Dua will be answered
if you keep asking God 5 times a day?
God willing, I’ll
write an article about Dua separately but for now, I’ll
end this and I do hope that you brothers and sister will come
closer to prayer. And if you don’t know how to pray, look
it up over the Internet or ask a praying Muslim friend to get
you going.
I will cover the other
3 more steps to reform on the next article God willing.
Come to Success! Come
to Success!
EB
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