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CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER
Brethren-in-Islam!
In my previous lectures I described to you the benefits of Salah
from which you must have gathered what a tremendously powerful form of ‘ibadat
it is, how it develops in man the capacity to reach the acme of servitude and how he is
enabled to render what is due on him in this respect. Now I want to explain to you the
advantages of congregational Salah on learning which you will be able to judge how
Allah by His graciousness has combined all blessings in one single item. Firstly, Salah
by itself was already sufficiently effective, but by ordering to offer it in congregation
it has been rendered doubly powerful and invested with a dynamism which is matchless in
bringing a healthy change of man.
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I have already told you that real ‘ibadat consists in considering
oneself perpetually a slave of God, living in subjection to the will of the Master like an
obedient servant, and being constantly ready to execute His orders. And Salah equips man
to perform this very ‘ibadat. I have also pointed out to you that whatever qualities
are required to enable man to do this ‘ibadat, are all developed by Salah.
Consciousness of being a slave, faith in God, in His Messenger and in His Book, belief in
the Hereafter, fear of God, acknowledgement of God as Knower of the unseen and considering
Him always close to yourself, readiness in all conditions to obey God and awareness of His
commandments, these and all other such qualities needed to make man God's slave in the
real sense of the word, are developed in you by Salah.
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But if you examine a little carefully you will come to know that a man,
however, perfect he may be in his own place, cannot fulfil all the requirements of being a
servant of God unless other servants of God also assist him. He cannot carry out all the
injunctions of God until all those people with whom he has to live day and night and with
whom he has to carry on dealing all the time, cooperate with him in this task of obeying
God. Man is not alone in this world nor can he do any work singly. His whole life is bound
in a thousand and one relationships with his fraternal associates, friends,
neighbours,
men with business dealings and countless companions in life. Allah's commandments too are
not confined to one single man but are meant to set right these very relationships. Now if
all these people cooperate with each other in carrying out the injunctions of God and
render mutual help, all of them can jointly become obedient servants of God. And if all
are bent on disobedience or if their mutual relations are such that they cannot help each
other in following the injunctions of God, then it is impossible for a single person to
act wholly according to the law of God in his life.
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When read the Qur'an carefully you will know that God does not command
that you alone should become His submissive and obedient slave but that He has also
ordered that along with yourself you should make the world too submissive and obedient to
him and propagate and enforce his law in the world, and also exterminate the law of Satan
wherever it is prevalent and then establish in its place the paramount of the law of
Allah. This tremendous duty entrusted to you by Allah cannot be performed by one Muslim
alone and even if millions of Muslims try to do it in individual capacity they cannot
subdue the organised force of the servants of Satan. For this purpose it is necessary for
Muslims to become one team helping and backing up each other, and all striving together to
one single objective.
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Then when you look at it with a deep insight, the fact will become
evident to you that for such a grand objective it is also necessary that this union should
be formed on the right lines. That is to say the party of Muslims should be organised in
such a manner that their relations with each other are as correct and proper as these
ought to be. There should be nothing wrong in their mutual relationship. They should have
a unified aim. They should obey one chief. They should develop the habit of moving at his
command. And they should also understand how far and in what manner they have to obey
their chief and what are the occasions to disobey him.
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Keeping in view all the above facts you can now perceive how
congregational Salah performs all this work.
It is ordained that hearing the call of Adhan you should leave your work
and go to the mosque. The rising of Muslims from all sides on hearing this call and
gathering at one centre creates in them the same condition as is found in the army.
Soldiers on hearing the sound of the bugle understand that their commander is calling
them. On hearing this summons only one kind of feeling is aroused in the minds of all,
i.e. the thought of obeying, the order of the commander and in response to this call all
of them do only one work, i.e. they run at this voice and flocking from every side
assemble at one place. Why is such a system followed in the army? For this very reason
that firstly the habit and trait be cultivated in every soldier to obey and carry out
orders separately one by one and then simultaneously all such obedient soldiers become one
group, and one team, and develop the habit of gathering on the commander's order at one
place and at one time so that when a war takes place, the entire army should gather on one
call and work together for one single objective. It should never happen that all the
soldiers, who may be great warriors by themselves, when called to perform a task do not
assemble to put up a fight and go about their own way according to their individual wish.
If such be the condition of any army, a platoon of fifty soldiers of the enemy can finish
one thousand brave soldiers of it by catching hold of them individually. Exactly on this
principle has the rule been made for Muslims also that whichever Muslim hears the voice of
Adhan he should at once leave all his work and go to the mosque so that all Muslims
joining together become an army of Allah. They are made to do the practice of thus
assembling five times a day because the duty of this army of God is harder than that of
all the armies of the world. For other armies a war takes place after long periods and for
its sake they have to do all these military exercises at intervals. But this army of God
has to fight with satanic forces perpetually and has to carry out the orders of the
commander without break. And yet it is a very great concession to it that only for five
times a day it is ordered to hurry up on hearing the divine bugle and assemble in the
cantonment of God, i.e. mosque.
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This is the benefit accruing from Adhan only. Next you gather in the
mosque and this gathering itself provides innumerable advantages. Here you meet each
other, recognize each other and come to know each other. It is in this capacity that you
are all slaves of God, followers of one Prophet, believers in one Book, and there is only
one aim of life for you all. You have all gathered here to fulfil this aim only and you
have to carry on fulfilling it even after going back from here. This kind of attachment
and this type of acquaintance automatically creates in you the feeling that you are all
one community, you are soldiers of the same army, you are brothers unto each other, and
your interests, your aims, your losses and profits are all common, and your lives are
integrated with each other.
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Again when you will look, at each other, it will not be like an enemy
but like a friend looking at a friend and a brother looking at a brother. As such, when
you will notice that a brother of yours is in tattered clothes, another with sorrowful
looks, some other has come with a starved face while yet another is disabled, crippled or
blind, then inevitably sympathy from them will be aroused in your heart. Those of you who
are well-off will take pity on the poor and the helpless among them. The afflicted ones
will have the courage to approach the rich ones and acquaint them with their plight. When
it will be known about someone that he did not come to the mosque due to illness or any
calamity, it will occur to someone to visit him to enquire about his welfare. If the news
will reach of anybody's death all will join to perform his funeral Salah and share the
grief of the bereaved family. All these things are conducive to your mutual affection and
the spirit of helping each other.
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Now see that you have gathered at a sacred place for a sacred purpose.
This is not an assembly of thieves, drunkards and gamblers whose hearts are reeking with
impure intentions. This a gathering of slaves of Allah for the purpose of worshipping
Allah, in Allah's house. All have come here to affirm their servitude to Allah. in a
setting like this, in the first place an honest person would feel ashamed of his sins
within himself, but in case he has previously committed any sin in front of any of
those
present there, this confrontation will make him extremely repentant. And if there is
desire among Muslims to admonish each other and if they know how to improve each other's
condition with sympathy and love, be sure that this gathering will be a source of blessing
and beneficence. In this way all the Muslims together will remove each other's deficiency
and the whole community will gradually become a community of virtuous and pious person.
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The above blessing emanate from the mere act of Muslims gathering in
the mosque. Now, next to it, there are many more latent blessings in offering Salah with
the congregation. You stand in a row shoulder with each other. No one is high or low nor
is there anyone holding a high rank or of a low status. In the divine court in the
presence of God, all belong to one class. Nobody gets polluted if any fellow-worshipper's
hand or body touches him. All are pure because all are human beings. All are slaves of God
and believers in one Deen only. There is distinction among Muslims of families, tribes and
countries. Someone is Sayyid, someone is Pathan, someone is Rajput, someone is
Jat,
someone belongs to one country and someone to another, some speaks one language and some
another, but all are standing in one row engaged in worshipping God. This signifies that
all comprise one nation. The division of family and lineage, tribes and nations, is all
false. The greatest relation between you is that of servitude and worship of God. When you
are one in this matter, why should you be separate in any other matter ?
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Then, when you stand shoulder to shoulder with each other, it appears
that an army is in attention for service before their Master. By standing in a line and by
making movements simultaneously, a spirit of singleness of purpose develops in your minds.
You are made to do this practice, to become one in the servitude of God in such a manner
that all of you raise your hands together and move your feet together as if you are not
ten, twenty, hundred or thousand persons but have jointly become like a single man.
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What do you do after thus standing together in one line? With one voice
you submit to your Master :
Iyyaka na'budu wa iyyaka nasta'in
" Thee alone do we worship; Thee alone do we ask for help".
Ihdi-na-s-sirat-al mustaqim
" Shows us the straight path".
Rabba-na lakal-hamd
" Our God! Praise is for You only".
As-Salam-o-'Alai-na wa ' la ibadillah-is Salihin
" Blessing be on all of us and on the pious servants of God".
Then after finishing Salah you pray thus for blessing and benediction
to each other :
As-Salam-o-Alaikum wa rahmat-u-Allah.
This means that all of you are well-wishers of each other. All unitedly
pray to only one Master for the well-being of all. None of you is alone and by himself.
None of you ask for everything for himself only. Everybody's wish is that God's
benevolence be bestowed on all, all be granted the ability to walk on the one straight
path only, and all share together the blessing of God. In this way Salah unites your
hearts, creates harmony in your ideas and develops among you a relationship of
well-wishing for each other.
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But note that you never offer congregational Salah without an
Iman.
Even when two men pray together, one of them will be Imam and the other Muqtadi. When the
Jama’at is formed, it is strictly prohibited to say Salah away from it. If you do
that such a Salah will not be valid at all. Late-comers are ordained to join the
Jama’at behind the same Imam. All this procedure is not restricted to Salah only. In
fact a lesson has been given through it that if you want to live as Muslims, live as a
united party like this. Your party cannot be a party at all unless you have an Imam. And
when the party is formed, to be separate from it means that your life has ceased to be the
life of a Muslim.
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It is not confined to this much only. The relation between the Imamat
and his followers has been established in a manner as to let you know that if the position
of your Imam is such in this small mosque what position your Imam occupies in that grand
mosque which is called "earth". What are his duties, what are his rights, how
should you obey him, in which matters you should follow him, what should you do if he
makes a mistake, to what extent you should follow him when he goes wrong, on what occasion
you have the right to check him, when can you demand from him to correct his mistake and
at what juncture you can remove him from Imamat. All this amounts to a practice on a small
scale for running a big government---a practice which you are made to do five times a day
in every small mosque.
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There is no time here to go into all the details but I state a few
broad points :
It is ordained that such a person should be made Imam who is virtuous,
advanced in scholarship, has greater knowledge of Qur'an than others and is also advanced
in years. The order of priority of these qualities has been explained in the Hadith. On
this basis instruction has been given as to which attributes should be kept in view while
choosing a national leader.
It is ordained that the Imam should not be a person whom the majority
of the Jama’at does not like. Usually, there is hardly anybody who has no opponent
but if an over-whelming number of persons in the Jama’at dislike a person, he should
not be made Imam. Here again a rule has been expounded for the election of a nation's
leader.
It is ordained that the person who has been made Imam should conduct
Salah in such a way that no strain is caused even to the oldest man in the congregation.
He should not recite lengthy verses nor do long Ruku' and Sajdahs which may suit only the
young, strong, healthy and people having leisure but he should take note of those also who
are aged, sick and weak as well as those who are busy persons wanting to finish the Salah
soon and go back to work. The Holy Prophet (peace be on him) has set an example of so much
kindheartedness and affection that while leading the Salah if he heard the cries of
children he used to shorten the Salah in order that their mother, if she is present in
congregation, may not get worried. This serves as an advice to the national leader as to
what he should do when elected to that office.
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It is ordained that if the Imam while leading the Salah meets with an
accident which incapacitates him for his task, he must immediately quit and put in his
place one of the men behind. This means that it is obligatory for the national leader also
that when he feels unable to carry on his functions he should himself withdraw and make
room for a competent person to take over. In this there is no element of shame nor of
selfishness.
It is ordained that the actions of the Imam should be strictly
followed. To move before he moves is strictly prohibited, so much so that in regard to a
person who goes into Ruku' or Sajdah before the Imam does so, it has been said in a Hadith
that he will be raised after death as an ass. Here the nation has been given a lesson as
to how it should obey its chief.
If the Imam commits a mistake in the Salah, e.g. he stands up when he
has to sit, or sits down when he has to stand up, the order is that he should be called to
attention by the word: " Subhan Allah ". Subhan Allah means that Allah is pure
and holy. To say Subhan Allah at the mistake of the Imam means: " Allah alone is
above mistake; you are a human being it is not surprising from you to make an error
". This is the method to point out the mistake of the Imam and when he is thus warned
it is incumbent on him to correct his mistake without any feeling of discredity. Of course
if in spite of this notice of correction the Imam is confident that what he did was right
he can continue as he thinks fit and in such an eventuality it is the duty of the
Jama’at to follow him in spite of knowing that he is wrong. After finishing the Salah
the followers have a right to convince the Imam of his mistake and demand from him to
conduct the Salah afresh.
This treatment of the Jama’at with the Imam is limited to
situations which involve mistake in small matters. But if the Imam, contrary to the
Prophet's Sunnah, changes the method of the Salah or knowingly recites the Qur'an
incorrectly in the Salah, or, while conducting it, indulges in acts of Kufr or Shirk, or
commits a clear sin, it is incumbent on the Jama’at to immediately discontinue the
Salah and break away from the Imam.
All those directions are such in which a complete teaching has been
given as to how you should treat your leader in your national life.
Brethren-in-Islam !
You would have judged from the benefits I have related, which accrue
from congregational Salah, that how Allah, in this ‘ibadat being offered five times
in the whole day for a few minutes only, has combined for you the well-being of this world
and the Hereafter, how this one single practice enriches you with all possible blessings
and how it prepares for the servitude of Allah and for the sovereignty of the world. Now
you will surely raise the question that when Salah is such a remarkable thing, then why
the benefits I have described are not being realised? I shall Insha-Allah (God willing),
give its answer in my next discourse.
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