Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 307
307: passion, and seats him in open space where there is light and safety. Before this light is obtained, a man's virtuous deeds are only formalities in ohedience to custom, and the slightest trial is apt to stumble him. Without certainty a man's relation with God cannot be clear. But the man to whom certainty is given flows towards God like water, flies to Him faster than the wind, burns like fire every thing foreign to God, and bears every suffering, with patience and steadfastness like earth. It is a sweet syrup which, as. soon as it is taken, sweetens the whole body. It is a delicious milk ;which makes a man indiffer- ent to the dainties of the world. But it is found only by means of true and devout prayers in which a man completely anni- hilates himself. It is obtained no doubt the task and narrow the path 1 Is there any one who would undertake this task and ; seek this path?" (Vol. Ill B. R. 1904. ) Importance of Friday Prayer. Of all the religious obligation of a. Muslim, the most im- portant is prayer, and of all the prayers, none is so essential to be recited in congregations as the Juma 1 prayer. The Juma 1 is in fact the greatest Muslim festival. The Holy Quran regards it as a holiday. A. whole chapter of the holy book entitled the Juma 9 has >been devoted to it. la that chapter Almighty God commands the Muslim to quit all their worldly affairs when they are summoned to prayer on Friday, to assemble in mosques and to say the Juma prayers wilh due observance of all the re- quirements of the Law. :. The person who does not act in obedi- ence to these injunctions is regarded by the Holy Quran as guilty of a deadly sin and almost out side the circle of Islam. Far more stress has been laid upon attendance at the Juma' Sermon and the Juma prayers than upon the I'd. It is on account of this importance of the Juma' in the Muslim faith