“Why do we still remain deprived of the fruits of our prayers even after practicing it for 40 years or so? Despite diving in the oceans of kindness and purity, why do we remain dry? Why not purity and prayers affect our personalities???”
I used to think that majority of us offer regular prayers five times a day, Allah Almighty also give us the honour to grow thick beards; we also observe ablution, perform Umrah and Hajj ample of times and also pay our Zakaat. But the affect of all these reverences and practices is not apparent on our personalities. Even after prayers in excess of forty years or so, we are influenced with violence. We also remain uneducated, earn huge profits as we desire, do hoarding, weigh and measure less, carry out adulteration of water in milk, produce spurious medicines and forfeit the rights of our employees. I thought as to why our prayers, fasts and Hajj does not leave their impression on us whereas Allah Almighty claims that a Momin (true Muslim) cannot be knave. A Momin cannot even be cruel. He can neither be unjust and hypocrite nor violent and extremist as well. But in spite of being a Momin, no characteristic of Islam is evident from us. WHY?? Why can’t we make an impact on our brothers and sisters from our Islam? I used to think all this much and remained disturbed. Then like other helpless and obtuse Muslims, used to consider it as weakening of faith and go silent.
But then I met a trainer and he unfolded all the ambiguities of my mind. He told me that that the best way to carry out an exercise is that when you do an exercise concerning some specific muscle, then during the exercise think about that muscle. For example if you are doing an exercise for your arms muscles and you are lifting some weight with these muscles then you should keep your mind concentrated on your arms. The muscles of your arms will develop sooner. Similarly if you are exercising for your chest, think about your chest during exercise. Your chest muscles will expand.
He used to say that our brain is the headquarter of strength. When we work out without this headquarter, although our muscles undergo weight, pressure and stress but they do not get the strength. Therefore they do not grow with the pace as we want them to. He said that when we think about our arms while lifting weights, then the strength stored in the headquarter shifts in the arms and the arms receives energy both internally and externally. Thus the arms muscles start expanding. He told that muscles can also expand even without concentration, but the ratio of their development thereby is only 30%. If the 70% from the brain or concentration is also added, then we can achieve 100% results.
This lecture was concerning exercises but it also opened on me the secrets of prayers and supplication. I understood as to why we still remain deprived of the fruits of our prayers even after practicing it for 40 years or so? Despite diving in the oceans of kindness and purity, why do we remain dry? Why not purity and prayers affect our personalities? The only reason for the same is concentration. Prayers have a relation with the soul and all the good deeds of a person are also stored in his soul. May it be honesty, faith, cleanliness, decency, humility, cordiality; or social, economical and business ethics, all of them are gathered in human soul. Out of these we need some deeds and qualities. During our prayers if we think about the required good deeds and make them part of our focus, then like muscles, these qualities also start strengthening and in a few days or some years, they are in front of us as reality. For instance, if a person needs knowledge, then during Zikar he should keep requesting Allah for knowledge. If he continues asking for the same while observing ablution, donating Sadqa (charity in the name of Allah), guiding people and while fasting; then the strength hidden in his soul with merge with his pray and the doors of knowledge will open on him. Similarly if a shopkeeper wants to become truthful, or wish for becoming honest when measuring and making deals, he wants to avoid fraud and If he wants to save himself from the fraud and make this intention of his prayers or worshipping or any kind of religious activity and keep fair intentions then GOD will open the doors of faith for him. Likewise if his work is filthy and dirty and he wants to remain clean then he should ask for cleaning himself throughout his prayers then GOD will make ways for him to remain clean. But this wish should be in form of intentions not in words or sentences because there is faking in words and sentences which is not like by GOD.
