How do we perform the daily prayer or salat to get forgiveness from God?
Salat here we refer to the daily five-time prayer. We need to address the issues prevalent in connecting with God. Which is attributed to a lack of understanding of what a prayer is and how to perform it.
God forgiveness is open to all who perform the prayer as per the conditions laid in the message. God will not pardon if we perform prayer according to our 'whims and fancies'.
We must be monotheists. Only then can we perform prayer to get forgiveness from God.
Be a monotheist
3.85 And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted of him, and in the Hereafter he will be one of the losers.
And what is the religion of Islam?
6.161 Say: " My Lord has guided me to a straight path, an upright system, the creed of Abraham the monotheist; he was not of the polytheists."
The phrase إِبْرَاهِيمَ حَنِيفًا here translated as "Abraham the monotheist". It also means "Abraham the sane in faith"
The commonsense approach to the concept of God is One God. It will be chaotic If there were gods among them besides God. If we think through about this, we can understand the concept of God clearly. But most of us do place an intermediary between God and us.
According to God 12.106 "And most of them do not believe in God unless they associate others"
39.45 And when God alone is mentioned, the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter are filled with aversion; and when others are mentioned besides Him, they rejoice!
21.22 Had there been therein (in the heavens and the earth) alihah (gods) besides God, then verily both would have been ruined. This is the simple logic from God. We cannot get close to God or His Forgiveness unless we change our mindset to that of a monotheist like Prophets. This is the gist of the message and in the scriptures!
In the earlier post how do we ensure access to heaven, we have briefly explained that only monotheism ensure us access to heaven.
It is evident from 6.161 that Prophet practiced monotheism. And he followed the Quran as evident from 7.203 "I ONLY FOLLOW what is inspired to me from my Lord". If we are the followers of Prophet, then we should not keep any intermediary between God and us. Prophet can only show us the way, but we need to take initiative to connect with God correctly. And God is the one who guides us.
28.56 You cannot guide whom you love, but God guides who He wills, and He knows best those who are guided.
And do not have false thinking or dream that the Prophet will be there to balance the deficit in our insufficient good deeds. He will be there to lodge a complaint about his people at the Day of Judgement.
25.30 Then the Messenger will say: " O my Lord! Truly my people took this Quran for just foolish nonsense."
Waqala alrrasoolu ya rabbi inna qawmee ittakhathoo hatha alqurana mahjooran
(For the word "mahjooran" please refer to this article)
Before we perform prayer also understand that the message is complete, and we do not need any other source for any clarifications including prayer or salat. We need to be firm about this.
Before we perform prayer understand 16.89
16.89 ...And We have sent down to you the Book as a clarification for all things, and a guidance and a mercy and good tidings to those who have submitted.
The message clarifies all things. We need to drill this down and affirm that the message has it all. Even in the matters pertaining to prayer, it has all clearly spelt out. We need to understand it as the message conditions us. Please read here on the matters of nafs and how it affects guidance.
This unconditional affirmation and certainty with the message will bring us closer to the forgiveness of God. Once we are in this state, we will realize the real taste of connecting with God.
Perform prayer on the dot
The following verses point out the daily prayers:
17.78 Perform the prayer at the decline of the sun, until the darkness of the night; and the Quran at dawn. The Quran at dawn is witnessed.
This verse refers to evening, night, and morning prayers.
17.79 And keep vigil with it during parts of the night, as an extra prayer. Perhaps your Lord will raise you to a laudable position.
This verse refers to Tahajjad - in the wee hours of the night.
11.114 Perform the prayer at the borders of the day, and during the approaches of the night. The good deeds take away the bad deeds. This is a reminder for those who remember.
This verse refers to Asr and Zuhr.
Therefore, we must perform prayer on time as stipulated in the message.
Perform prayer after ablution
5.6 O you who believe, when you attend to the prayer, then wash your faces and your hands up to the elbows, and wipe your heads and your feet to the ankles...
Since childhood we have been taught to perform ablution in the following manner: what the Quran guides us is to only maintain the ones highlighted in bold.
Hands
Mouth
Nostrils
Face
Hand to elbow
Ears
Rub head
Neck
Feet to the ankles
The unhighlighted ones were attributed to Prophet's way of ablution. Do Prophet introduce his way of ablution despite a stern warning from God?
69.43 (This) is a Message sent down from the Lord of the Worlds.
69.44 And if he had fabricated against Us some of the sayings
69.45 We would certainly have seized him by the right hand
69.46 Then We would certainly have cut off his aorta
69.47 And not one of you could have withheld Us from him.
Wear our beautiful apparel when we perform prayer
As we know women folks are very particular in dressing up when going to the mosque for prayer. And this becomes an issue for most when we are at work.
We have the habit of wearing the same clothes when we pray at work or at home. Keeping a separate prayer attire at work or at home to ensure we comply with the message.
7.31 O children of Adam! attend to your embellishments at every place of worship
Perform prayer using Quranic verses
When we perform prayer, ensure that only Quranic verses are used. Most of us mix other sources of text during prayer. And if by habit you need to say those texts, say it in your heart. The audible text must be only the Quran.
17.110 Say," Call on God or call on the Almighty by whichever you call on, to Him are the best names." And do not be too loud in your prayer, nor too quiet; but seek a path in between.
For illustration, during the opening of every prayer we use the famous "Wajjahtu wajhiya lilladzi...muslimeemn". To be audible use the Quranic text as follows:
6.162 Qul inna salatee wanusukee wamahyaya wamamatee lilahi rabbil alAAlameena
6.163 La shareeka lahu wabithalika omirtu waana awwalu al muslimmena
As per the verse 17.78 we must recite only Quranic text when we perform prayer. And as per verse 17.110 it must be audible.
We must do an audit of our prayer where we still use text not found in the Quran.
Cry on prostration
When we perform prayer, is there a time where we cry during prostration?
From 22.26 there are three positions in an entire prayer: standing, bowing and prostration. And the prayer ends with prostration 4.102.
However, during prostration as in 19.58 God has blessed, guided, and selected from the descendants of Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Israel that they would fall, prostrating and weeping when revelations are recited to them.
19.58 Those are the ones whom God has graced from the prophets from the progeny of Adam, and those We carried with Noah, and from the progeny of Abraham and Israel, and from whom We have guided and chosen. When the revelations of the Almighty are recited to them, they fall down prostrating, and in tears.
19.59 But they succeeded by generations who lost the prayers and followed their appetites. They will meet perdition.
And if we cannot cry during prostration, seek God to assist us.
Supplicate to God when performing prayer
We are reminded every time we recite verse 2.5.
You (Alone) we worship, and You (Alone) we ask for help (for each and everything).
But we fail to ask God for help during prayer or salat. God created us and gave this life to experience and given us the noble ancestry of Adam. God created Adam with his own Hands, given him the title of "fil ardli kalifa", blown His Spirit to Adam and commanded the angels to prostrate to Adam. This is a noble ancestry for us.
And He created us in a most beautiful form and given us food and nourishment. God blessed us with all good qualities and always given us goodness. And we are still unable to repent for our sins and cry to the Lord for forgiveness? It is only human that we thank Him sincerely and to make us eligible for heaven. Ask God for help when performing prayer.
Perform prayer like the guided ones
In conclusion, perform the daily prayer or salat to get forgiveness from God. Remember the following summary:
Be a monotheist
Before we perform prayer understand 16.89
Perform prayer on the dot
Perform prayer after ablution
Wear our beautiful apparel when we perform prayer
Perform prayer using Quranic verses
Cry on prostration
Supplicate to God when performing prayer
+ check it out the prayer calligraphy
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