The origins of prayer
The Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), in the Year 11, on the 27th day of the month of Rejab, experienced a journey of a lifetime. The journey that he took is now known as Israk Mikraj ~ The Journey by Night.
After about 10 years of dakwah (missionary work), two people that were the closest to him died. They were Abu Talib, his beloved uncle and his wife, Siti Khadijah. Muhammad (pbuh) consoled himself through prayers and supplications to God.
How the Messenger prayed was like how his former predecessors prayed. The first prayer ever was performed by the prophet Adam. When he was cast out of heaven, and landed in Sarandib (Sri Lanka), he was directed by God to walk towards Mecca, and build the Ka’abah.
When that was completed, he performed thawaf, circumvating around the Kaabah seven times and prayed two rakaat. Thawaf is the practise of the malaikats – angels – that circumvate the Baitul Makmur in the seventh layer of the sky. Each action of the prayer is an ode to God, and revelling in His creations.
How it all began
 |
Muhammad (pbuh) was directed to pray the day he received his first Revelation. In the book, Sejarah Nabi, written by Ibn Ishaq, Jibrail the Archangel came to visit Muhammad (pbuh) and taught him how to pray.
He came at the beginning and ending of a prayer, and taught the Messenger ablution, how to pray and supplications. The difference between Muhammad’s (pbuh) first prayer and the ones that he was taught after Israk Mikraj was that he only prayed in the morning and evening, and for two rakaat.
On the 27th day of Rejab, in the Year 11, after Muhammad’s (pbuh) night prayers, a malaikat came down, and performed an operation on Muhammad (pbuh). By then, after a decade of being visited by Jibrail, Muhammad (pbuh) was honoured to receive such visitations.
The angel opened Muhammad (pbuh)’s heart to put in Hikmah (Enlightenment), Iman (Piety), Ilmu (Knowledge) and spiritual strength so Muhammad (pbuh) could traverse the world, to spread the teachings of Allah. And these very characteristics would stead him well in his journey to meet God. The angel then stamped on Muhammad’s (pbuh) back, to mark him as the Last Messenger.
Muhammad (pbuh) was then introduced to a vehicle that was and is unlike any vehicle we have seen, and with Jibrail accompanying him, they left the Al-Masjid Al-Haram in Mecca to Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem (Surah Al Isra’, Verse No 1).
|
From there he was brought to Mikraj, and hereby Mikraj is explained as the journey Muhammad (pbuh) undertook from Al-Aqsa to Sidrahtul al Muntaha, which was a big tree. Not far from the tree, was a place called Baitul Makmur, a place where all the malaikat congregate. Envision it as the headquarters for all angels.
From the first layer of the sky to the seventh, Muhammad (pbuh) saw many things. Sights that caused him to be delighted, visions that made him weep. He saw what heaven and hell were like. Some of the things he saw were:
- People farming and seeing their efforts come to fruit on the same day. These were the people that had stayed true to the path of God; their jihad was to be good Muslims.
- He also saw a group of people banging their heads against a huge rock, until their heads split and then rejoined, only to repeat the abuse. He then discovered that they had found prayers taxing, hence they did not pray.
- One of the more awful sights he encountered was seeing another group that kept cutting their ever-growing tongues. They’d be cut off, and then grow back, only to have them cut off again. These were the slanderers.
“It is time for you to meet God,” Jibrail said to Muhammad (pbuh).
“We shall go together then,” Muhammad (pbuh) replied.
“I cannot follow you for the journey would destroy me. You will go alone, Muhammad.”
This was why Muhammad (pbuh) had that operation, for that guarded him against the challenges on the way to meet God. A lesser being would have turned back, and if Jibrail refused to accompany Muhammad (pbuh), then truly the Messenger was the Chosen One.
He could never describe the journey fully later except that he saw the most beautiful light he had ever seen. Later, when his followers asked him, what was it like O Muhammad (pbuh), in God’s land? All he could say was that the beauty he saw could not be replicated on earth.
Conversations with God
When the Messenger reached the topmost layer of the sky, or the Seventh Heaven, he prostrated and recited a short prayer, and sat and recited another supplication.
A voice greeted him.
He greeted back and recited the Kalimah Syahadah.
I bear witness that there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is His messenger
The voice asked what it was that Muhammad (pbuh) desired.
Muhammad (pbuh) asked so that he became a lover of God. Someone that loved and lived for God.
God said, I bestow upon you then to pray 50 times a day.
Muhammad was excited and happy. He thanked God and made his way down. When he reached the Sixth Heaven, he met the Prophet Musa (pbuh) and was asked what he received from God.
A great gift: to pray 50 times a day.
“Muhammad, your people would not be able to abide that. They would not be able to cope!” Musa said.
So Muhammad (pbuh) went up to see God again, with light in his heart, because he wanted to see God again. He did, for quite a number of times, until he reached a compromise of praying five times a day.
When Muhammad (pbuh) met Musa (pbuh) on his way down and told him, Musa shook his head and said,
I doubt that your followers would pray five times a day.
Muhammad (pbuh) said, “But God has told me this: that even though we pray five times a day, we would be rewarded as if we prayed 50 times a day.”
There began his descent to Mekah, with Jibrail by his side. When they arrived, it was about to be dawn.
This is how we pray
Jibrail then lead the Dawn prayer and told Muhammad (pbuh) what to say and supplicate, right until the end of the prayer. And then Jibrail left. He came again, before Zuhur, Asar, Maghrib and Isya. All this was conducted in a day.
The next day Jibrail visited Muhammad (pbuh) five times, like the day before, but he came towards the end of the prayer period. This was to teach the Messenger the length of the prayer timing. And soon after that, Muhammad (pbuh) taught his family and friends,
Pray the way you see me pray.
When the muezzin calls us to pray, he says this:
Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar (twice)
Ash-hadu Allah Ilaha Il-Allah (twice)
Ash-hadu Anna Muhammad-ar-Rasoolullah (twice)
Hayya Alass-Salah (twice)
Hayya Alal Falah (twice)
Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar (once)
La-Ilaha Il-Allah
Allah is most great
I bear witness that there is no other object of worship except Allah
I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah
Come to Prayer
Come to Success
Allah is Most Great, Allah is Most Great
There is no other object of worship except Allah
And we say in our hearts,
Allah has asked us to pray and I will pray
And please put Mohammad (pbuh) in the most exalted position in Heaven.
And then we pray.
