Page 44 - Prayer in the Qur'an

42 PRAYER IN THE QUR'AN

thankful."
But then, when He does rescue them, they become rebellious
in the earth without any right to do so. Mankind, your rebel-
liousness is only against yourselves. There is the enjoyment of
the life of the world and then you will return to Us and We will

inform you about what you did. (Surah Yunus: 22-23)
It is quite hard to be saved from a ship that is about to sink in the
midst of an ocean. In such a situation, a person faces certain death
and none of the non-godly ideas upon which they relied until then
are of any help. Only the One Who holds control over the sea, storm,
ship and darkness can help them …and this is Allah, the Lord of
Superior Might.
This simply means that all the agents one thinks they can turn to
for help are powerless. This is an utterly desperate situation indeed.
So a person on a sinking ship will suddenly start to pray, assured of

Allah's existence and the fact that no one but Allah can save them.
While praying, they humble themselves and turn to Allah in prayer.
They fully comprehend that only Allah can save them from the des-
perate situation they are in and that they will never be saved unless
Allah wills it.
People who don't normally pray to Allah, or even have denied
His existence and who suddenly find themselves in this dire situa-
tion have, most probably, never thought about encountering death
in this way before. They usually think of death as a distant possibil-
ity and thus remain indifferent towards life after death, and rely on
their worldly supporters. Yet when faced with this dire situation of

which they never before contemplated, the existence of these sup-
porters become meaningless. Now, they do not falter in praying to
Allah. At that moment they turn to Him in prayer, even if before