The Quest of a Curious Muslim — Page 5
5 Why do we pray? Prayer is the most basic form of communication between human beings and God. It is a unique type of communication where a human being presents himself or herself before God and seeks His Grace and Mercy with utter humility. And God responds either through the acceptance of the prayer and directly acting in the person’s life to fulfill his desire, or by disclosing His acceptance through visions or dreams, or even by directly bestowing revelations to him or her. In the Holy Quran, Allah says: ﻗ َ ﺪ ۡ ا َ ﻓ ۡ ﻠ َ ﺢ َ ا ﻟ ۡ ﻤ ُ ﺆ ۡ ﻣ ِ ﻨ ُ ﻮ ۡ ن َ ۙ ﴿ ۲ ﴾ ا 6 7 ِ ﻳ ۡ ﻦ َ مه ُ ۡ ىف ِ ۡ ﺻ َ ﻼ َ هت ِ ِ ﻢ ۡ ﺧ َ ﺎ ﺷ ِ ﻌ ُ ﻮ ۡ ن َ ۙ ﴿ ۳ ﴾ That is, “Success does come to the believers, who are humble in their prayers” (Holy Quran, 23:2-3). In other words, according to the Quran, prayer is a means to success. What is required is that we are patient and persevere. Ultimately, success does indeed follow and can come in a variety of ways.