Why We Are Proposed Religious Practices

Most likely we all had the following cliché statement deeply impressed in our minds from our early years:

"Allah is not in need of your prayers! But whatever practice you do, you do it for yourself."

That simple statement does, in fact, notify us of an essential fact related to the Order and the System of creation by Allah, as the Religion of Islam explains.  With that statement, it is intended to simplify a fact for better understanding. Yet, many of us have failed to realize that fact.

If Allah is not in need of our practices, then why are we required to perform any religious practices? Why bother praying? Why do we need them? What are the reasons for performing salaat, fasting, hajj, and others?

As a result of our limited knowledge upon mistaken information, we have assumed that we needed to perform all the religious practices (ibadat) for the purpose of pleasing the heart's desire of a heavenly God-out-there; a "god" who dwells somewhere on a distant star. We imagine that by engaging in those particular activities we can gain merit in this "god's" sight, get his consent and this "god" might eventually admit us into his Paradise, or we can escape his wrath and He may not throw us into his Hell!

However, there is no "god" dwelling somewhere far away, who will examine us and throw us into his Hell upon our failing his test. Nor is there a "god" who will let us into his Paradise because of our inducing and earning his trust.

Please, consider carefully the very first thing that the Religion of Islam teaches us in the Word of Unity (kalimat-it tawhid)! The statement, "la ilaha ill-Allah," has been translated as "there is no god to worship but ALLAH." This translation often leads one to presume that "Allah" is the only god (out of many possible ones!) to be worshipped. Such an interpretation of the Word of Unity indicates that its true meaning has not been embraced.  Seldom is any deeper thought or consideration of future consequences for misinterpreting the statement's meaning pursued.

Here is the true meaning of the Word of Unity:

“There is no god; there is only ALLAH.”

Hazrat Mohammed (peace be upon him) tried to make us realize the following fact:

There is not a god to worship or from whom we should expect something. Any concept of a "god" is irrelevant, since there is only ALLAH!

This is the key fact through which all the Sufis were inspired and reached their highest stations (levels of spirituality and insight). All of them from Mewlana Jelaluddin to Hadji Bektashi Wali, from Imam Jafari Sadiq to Abdulkadir Geylani...

The people of Truth (haqiqat) have been freed from an unawareness in which ALLAH is presumed to be a god afar off the existence, and they have realized, experienced that everything came into being by the ordainment of “ALLAH” through Hu's own Meanings (asma-ul husna). They have experienced that loving and serving the creation happens to be for and to the Creator. It is in this sense that serving people is in fact a service to Haqq.

Since “ALLAH” created everything entirely through Hu's Names (asma-ul husna) within Hu's ordainment, all of the laws and ORDER of nature in our world are in fact the SYSTEM and ORDER of “ALLAH.” Therefore, we should be aware that the more we know the operating SYSTEM and ORDER we live within, the more we will have understood the ORDER (ordainment) of ALLAH.

It is “ALLAH” Who created the SYSTEM and ORDER we have been living in, in the past (original) eternity, Who made up its constitution, formed its conditions and Who subsequently sent to us the information by the intermediacy of Hu's Naabi and Rasuls about the returns of our actions as to what we will be rewarded by what!

Now there are two paths for us to follow so that we can avoid any regret in the future:

1. To manage our way of life based on a serious understanding and consideration of what RasulAllah brought and why! Or else...

2. To prepare ourselves for future by means of following RasulAllah's instructions blindly without any understanding of the wisdom in them...

Now... We must become aware that none of the practices known as the “ibadat” (prayers) recommended within the “Deen-i ISLAM” are for winning the favor of a god-out-there. Instead, they are practices suggested completely as the requirements of the operating SYSTEM “ALLAH” created.

The same way as nutriments eaten are for the purpose of meeting the needs of the physical body, not aimed at satisfying a god, the practices named as prayers (ibadat) are too for empowering the spirit, preparing it for the life beyond death and increasing the brain capacity, as far as we could determine. You will either prepare yourself to the conditions of life beyond death by means of such practices or you will not give heed to them by whatever reason and will suffer the consequences.

No doubt, it is the greatest necessity of our lives to realize the irrationality of any concept of “GOD” and goodness... It is our next topic!