Page 13 - Prayer in the Qur'an

FOREWORD 11

ily's elderly members. They do not think about Allah's existence,
greatness and might while praying. They scarcely remember that
Allah always sees and hears people, and that He answers prayers.
They repeat memorized words without giving any thought to them.

However, the form of prayer that Allah describes in the Qur'an,
which is the subject of this book, is quite different.
According to the Qur'an, praying is the simplest way to reach
Allah. Now let's remind ourselves of some of the attributes of Allah.
He is the One Who is closer to people than their jugular vein, the
One Who knows and hears everything… Not even a single inner
thought of human beings remains hidden to Allah. This being the
case, only thinking suffices to ask for something from Him. This
shows how easy it is to get in contact with Allah.
Allah is pleased as long as people retain the consciousness of
being Allah's servant. For this reason, turning to Allah, confessing
one's mistakes to Him and asking for help only from Him are essen-

tials of being Allah's servant. A contrary attitude means growing ar-
rogant towards Allah, which, according to the Qur'an, leads to an
eternal torment in Hell.
In our day, as is the case with some other forms of worship,
prayer is perceived by many as an obsolete tradition. This notion
has been reinforced by the idea that the world is self-contained and
independent of Allah. Some people assume that they, or the people
around them, have control over the events they encounter through-
out their lives, so they do not feel the need to pray to Allah until they
encounter a disaster or come close to death. This is a delusion, which

in some cases drags people to the point of perceiving prayer as a kind
of sorcery that has survived to our day. The fact is that prayer is a
form of worship that permeates every aspect of one's life.