Page 16 - Prayer in the Qur'an

14 PRAYER IN THE QUR'AN

on the Day of Rising. You do not break Your promise." Their
Lord responds to them: "I will not let the deeds of any doer
among you go to waste, male or female…" (Surah Al Imran:

191-195)
In the Qur'an, Allah describes the kind of prayer He most likes,
which we will explain below.

Praying Humbly, Without Loudness of Voice

When you are in distress or feel desperate and thus feel the need
to pray to Allah, where would you like to pray? Surely, the solitude
of one's own room at night or a very tranquil place that will give you
the sense of Allah's nearness would be the place you are looking for.
While worshipping, spiritual integrity can best be attained in a
time and place that offers secure undivided attention. A person who

feels the need to pray to Allah for the correction of his or her mis-
takes prefers to be alone and pray in secret. The Prophet Zakariyya's
prayers, through which he asked for a descendant, is an example of
secret prayer:
When he called on his Lord in secret and said, "My Lord, my
bones have lost their strength and my head is crowned with
white, but in calling on You, My Lord, I have never been disap-

pointed." (Surah Maryam: 3-4)
As stated above, prayer is "accepting one's weaknesses and lim-
ited power before Allah's infinite might and asking for help from
Him." For this reason, prayer demands absolute consciousness and
acceptance of one's weaknesses and destitution before Allah. In this

sense, there is no doubt that one will fail to attain such conscious-
ness if one is insincere. In the Qur'an, Allah recommends believers