“Call to your Sustainer humbly, and in the secrecy of your hearts.” (Qur’an 7:55)
“O God I remembered you so much
Little by little you arrived
Little by little I departed.” ~Sufi Saying
The salat (prayer) is like an antenna that tunes our awareness to the station of divine love that is continuously being broadcast into our universe. Allah says in the Qur’an, “He is with you wherever you are” (57:04) and that He is closer to you than your jugular vein (50:16), so prayer is not a means of getting closer to God, but a way to remember how close we already are to His all-encompassing presence.
When we sincerely ask for God, He answers our call and unveils His proximity to us. When we turn to God, leaving our sense of self behind, we come to see that we are not separate from this universe, that God is not in some faraway future Heaven, but that everything in this creation is reaching for and reflecting God right here and now. “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” ~ Rumi
Just as waterwheels raise water from a flowing river toward a fertile garden, prayer pulls our consciousness from the flow of our passing thoughts toward the garden of the eternal soul. Prayer is more than physical motions; it is more than words of praise and gestures of humility. When we pray, we join the orbit of love: we flow with the rivers, sway with the trees, dance with the moon, and sing with the birds. When we pray, we join with what is and has always been, in constant praise of the Divine.
“Have you not considered that those in the heavens and the Earth, the sun, the moon, the starts, the mountains, the trees, the animals, and many people, all bow down to God?” ~Qur’an 22:18
Prayer is not about punishment or reward, it is about cultivating an intimate connection with God. The deep purpose of prayer is not to obtain a certain outcome; rather it is about having an intimate conversation with your Lord. The salat is the “center pole” of the tent of faith, because of how it unveils our inner idols and connects us with the Divine. Prayer is like a spiritual shower that washes the dirt of forgetfulness from the spirit. It is like a flashlight, bringing to light all the hidden idols and barriers we have placed before God, that veil us from fully basking in the sun of His eternal presence, so that we can purify ourselves.
This blog is an excerpt from A. Helwa’s recently published best-selling book, “Secrets of Divine Love: A Spiritual Journey into the Heart of Islam.” Her book is available on Amazon.com
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About A. Helwa
A. Helwa believes that every single person on Earth is deeply loved by the Divine. She is a writer who has inspired hundreds of thousands of readers through her passionate, poetic, and love-based approach to spirituality. Her popular blog @quranquotesdaily, was established while obtaining her Masters in Divinity, as a means of helping others overcome personal and spiritual struggles on their journey of experiencing divine love.
With over 15 years of experience writing and speaking on Islam and spiritual development, A. Helwa draws from her personal experiences and traditional sources to help her readers access ‘Divine love in everyday life.’