Page 160 - Seekers Guide Book

Islam and the Quran

93 What do you have to say about those
who believe that offering prayer

makes people virtuous and will take

them to Paradise?

orship has a certain form and a spirit. If you carry
Wout the form alone, then that will not be of any
value. The real value is of the spirit of worship. Once a
person performed salah (prayer) in the mosque. When
on completion he came to the Prophet, he said to him:

Go and read namaz again. (Sahih al-
Bukhari, hadith no. 757)

The reason was that the Prophet had observed that the
person had prayed without any spirit and had simply
repeated the form of prayer. Today the crowds we see
in mosques is a fulfilment of a prediction made by the
Prophet:

A time will come when mosques will be full
of people, but empty of guidance. (Shuab
al-Iman, al-Bayhaqi, hadith no. 1763)

94 Is it obligatory upon Muslims to

establish an Islamic empire?

o, this is a totally false concept. There is no such
Nteaching in Islam that Muslims are duty-bound to
establish an Islamic empire.

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