Salat exposition-My own reflections that of other scho

[Arnold Yasin Mol]

Salat

This small post was an answer to a question to me on another forum (Free-minds). The question was: what is Salat and has prayer any function?

You can find the whole discussion here:

http://free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=16137.0


I do not believe it is prayer.As mentioned before, I do not believe God intervenes in the Universe as He does not change His Kalimat/Decrees and none can make Him alter His words [6].

Many of the verses that seem God intervening are in reality talking about the working of His Laws in the Universe. As far as I have understood is that God only intervenes through communication with Mankind, as I believe for example the people of Lot were destroyed by the surrounding nations who were ordered by God to do so, that Sodom (means burned in Hebrew) and Ghomorra (means buried) were destroyed by war is confirmed by discoveries made in the 70's as it revealed that Darb al-Bhar and Numeri were burned and buried after being attacked by armies and these are the only 2 cities that coincide with the story of Lot.

So God does not answer prayers through intervention. What we do see though is something other. For example the Quran mentions people praying for peace or food, and how does the Quran answer, by telling us Muslims to protect these people and feed the poor. So it are HUMANS who answer the prayers of other humans. God wants us to be a self-sufficient species just as the Universe and nature is self-sufficient.

For example:

Prayer for help:
4:75 ..... Defenseless men, women, and children are being oppressed and crying, "Our Lord! Rescue us from this town whose people are oppressors, and raise for us protectors and helpers."

Answer:
4:75 What has happened to you that you do not fight in the cause of God?

See also:
http://www.tolueislam.com/Parwez/kt/kt_17.htm

A simple prayer can work as a psychological reminder for yourself as seen in the Quran with the prayers of the Prophets who call out to God and He answers through communication/Wahi or they understood their goal through verbalizing the wish or need, but a prayer as form of worship as a completely different goal: personal salvation.

First of all the Quran makes it very clear God has no needs:

Allah Himself says:

14:8 Moses made it clear to his people that obedience to the Divine Commands was only good for them, “If you deny the Truth, you and all those who live in the earth, know that Allah is indeed Self-sufficient, Owner of Praise.”

He doesn't need anything, it us who are in need.

3:97 .... One who denies verily, Allah, the Rich is Self-Sufficient, want-free of any peoples.

To believe Allah is One is part of accepting Reality, it has NOTHING to do with Allah Himself. Allah is worthy of Praise, but does NOT demand it.

As in the words of Solomo:

27:40 ....He said, "This success is a blessing from my Lord, that He may try me whether I am grateful or ungrateful. Whoever is grateful is grateful for his own good, and whoever is ungrateful, should know that my Lord is Self-Sufficient, Supremely Honorable.”

The concept for the need of spirituality and prayer is a psychological reaction to the chaos on earth and the feeling of being not connected to God. This need to feel connected with God comes from that the Quranic System is not present on Earth and so this emptiness is filled with a self-imposed ritual. This is how the elite and priest-classes subdued the masses and kept them busy with personal salvation and the pursuit of personal satisifaction of their inner need.

But the Quran says clearly that our goal is not to worship but to benefit the human species as a whole:

13:17..While what is of benefit to mankind, abides on earth.

Personal Salvation means the redemption of a person's soul through the forms of worship and denial of this life. This Christian concept has entered into Muslim thinking and has replaced their focus on selfish goals.

The Christian concept of forgiveness is not present in the Quran. it is even completely denied:

69:18-20 On the Day you will be brought, not a single hidden deed of yours will remain hidden. Then he who is given his record in his right hand, will say, “Come
all of you around! Read this my record. Behold, I always thought that my account would be given to me.”


99:7 Then whoever has done an atom's weight of good, will see it. 99:8 And whoever has done an atom's weight of evil, will see it.

Forgiveness means the ignoring of deeds done, which the above verses clearly deny, also forgiveness is about PERSONAL salvation while the Quran focusses on Universal development. The Quran is very practical, one must compensate for the deeds done:

11:114 Strive to establish and consolidate the Divine System, day and night.[iqama-salat=to establish the following of the Quran]
Actions that create balance in the society/Al-Hassanat remove the ill effects of inequities/Al-Sayyi.Good deeds remove bad deeds. This is a Reminder for those who pay attention.

Al-Hassanat=Ha-Siin-Nun = To be handsome, make good, seem good/beautiful/comely/pleasing, be excellent, make or render a thing good or goodly, to beautify/embellish/adorn a thing, strive or compete in goodness, to do good or act well, act or behave with goodness or in a pleasing manner towards a person, confer a benefit or benefits upon a person, act graciously with a person, know a thing well, beautify/embellish/adorn oneself, reckon/account/esteem a person to be good/beautiful/pleasing.

Al-Sayyi=Siin-Waw-Alif = to treat badly, do evil to disgrace, be evil/wicked/vicious, ill, anything that makes a person sad and sorrowful, bad action, mischief and corruption, sin, evil doer, wretched or grievous, vex, annoy. su'atun (pl. suat) - corpse, external portion of both sexes, shame.

21:47 We will set up the Scales of justice on the Day of Resurrection, and no person will be wronged in the least. Though the good or evil be of the weight of a mustard seed, We will bring it forth. We are Sufficient for reckoning and
none can take account as We do.

And Allah made it easy for us:

6:160. He who does a good deed will receive ten times its worth; and he who does evil will be requited to an equal degree; and no one will be wronged.

1 good deed=10x
1 bad deed=1x

So compensation is so easy.....

And all good or bad deeds can only directed at mankind itself as Allah is beyond harm or needs. This is why we must feed the poor, create peace and justice and so on. We can only compensate for our wrongs by doing good to others. This is not accomplished through worship, but to service.

But all religions are busy with personal salvation. This is how the original previous Revelations were distorted and this is how the Muslims have lost the Deen.

In this way people were and are not busy with understanding the Quranic message and creating its system.

This is also directly what the Quran warns us for:

107:1 Have you seen him who proclaims allegiance to the Divine System, but denies it in action? [53]
107:2 Indeed, he is the one who repels the orphan, the widow, the helpless, the one in a lonely state. [89]
107:3 And urges not the feeding of the needy. And participates not in helping those who have lost their jobs, whose businesses have stalled, and whose hard earned income is insufficient to meet their basic needs.
107:4 Ah, woe to the praying ones!
107:5 Those who know not what their Salat is meant to be.
107:6 They only want to be seen and praised. [9]
107:7 And, with all this, they hinder the flow of sustenance (by hoarding). [Ma'n = Running water. Mu’eein = Source of sustenance with plenty of fresh water springs. 23]

The people are not busy with creating a System where the WHOLE of Humanity is fed, they are busy with praying and rituals and personal salvation. In verse 4 Salat is used as worship prayer, but in verse 5 we are pointed it out that the true Salat is the feeding of the poor and taking care of all human needs.

Quran translator par excellence Ahmed Ali also understood it in the same way and translated the verses as:

107:
4. Woe to those who pray
5. But who are oblivious of their moral duties,

I believe Salat means to follow the whole System of the Quran just as animals follow their instinct (24:41), we must our instinct given in the Quran. It also means to reform ourselves just as a twig is bent to make it straight to make it an arrow (al-Salla). Allama Mashriqi says that Salat is:

"Is nothing else but arrangement and order, concord of the community and obedience to the leader, public spirit and self-command, battle against firmness towards the enemy, deliberateness and jusitice. Control of land and sea, as reptiles have it, command of the air as birds have it. All Westerners know what Salat means, occupying the earth from to bottom". [Al-Tadhkira, Pg 64]

He get all the above meanings from the root meanings of Salat:

arrangement and order=to walk straight as a running horse (musalli=the one following) that follows the Sabiq(1st horse)

concord of the community and obedience to the leader=The pursuit of Human Development is the Sabiq we must follow so we are musalli. This is why we must follow the chosen Khalif as he or she is then the chosen Sabiq of the community which the makes the whole ummah musalli, those that follow the 1st horse. This is also explained in the verse:

74:43 They will reply, "We were not of the Musalleen.”

As they did not follow the System of God nor followed the pursuit of Human development. [See Raghib in Al-Mufridaat Fi Ghareebil Qur’an]

public spirit and self-command, battle against firmness towards the enemy, deliberateness and jusitice=Iqama-asSalat. Iqama comes from Qama, to stand firm, hold your ground. Thus the Iqama-asSalat means: "To follow the Quranic System in every situation and under every circumstances", this is also why verse 2:238 does not talk about "the middle prayer" but about always hold up the Quranic Law system, even during such an emotional state of divorce, or while during travel:

2:238 (While describing some important marital laws), it is reiterated that, your Central Duty remains the guarding of the System in which individuals and families can develop their potentials to the maximum. Stay alert in obedience to God.
2:239 Whether fear threatens you from without, or you are strolling, riding, relaxing in peace, remember God as He has taught you (the right and wrong) what you did not know. [3]


Control of land and sea, as reptiles have it, command of the air as birds have it. All Westerners know what Salat means, occupying the earth from to bottom= See verse 24:41 where it is pointed out that all creatures know their Salat and Tasbeeh, they know their instinct which they follow(salat) and they know their mission(Tasbeeh).

G.A.Parwez says:

"In verse (24/41) a question is asked: "Have you not pondered over the fact that whatever there is in the universe including the birds with wings spread out, is continuously carrying out their assignments with fullest play of their capabilities and each one of them knows its sphere of duties (Tasbeeh) and the way those are to be carried out (Sal'at)." This obviously means that everything in the universe knows by instinct, what are its duties and how to perform them and what is its destiny. As far as animal world is concerned, they do it by instinct. But if a human being wants to know, what is his Tasbeeh and Sal'at, it is a must for him to have faith in Wahi, through which all these directions containing do's and don'ts are explained. This is Iqamat-As-Sal'at, a special term used in the Quran.
To follow the Laws of the Quran is Iqamat-As-Sal'at. This is not possible individually and can only be done collectively; that is why the Quran has used the plural tense for this. It is the responsibility of an Islamic State is to establish this order (22/41), and they do it by mutual consultations (42/38). This system covers all the aspects of life, particularly the economic system. Verse (11/87) is very significant in this regard. It says: "O Shu'aib! does your Sal'at not permit us even to spend our wealth as we desire?" They did not understand as to what type of Sal'at is one which gives directions even in economic matters; they thought Sal'at is just a prayer or some sort of ritual.

In a nutshell it would pose one simple question. Would a person like to decide his affairs according to his desires, wishes or would he surrender before the Laws of Allah? This later position is called Sal'at. Verse (19/59) further clarifies: "they were followed by people who abandoned or negated the Sal'at." Therefore, following the Divine Laws is called Sal'at. As such Ibn-e-Qutaiba says, Sal'at actually means Ad-Deen and Iqamat-As-Sal'at means Iqamat-ud-Deen."

http://www.ourbeacon.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=120



Baljon mentions in "Modern Muslim Koran Interpretation (1968 Brill)[page 79-80]:

"Further, it is attempted to prove a broad sense of Salat and its components on etymolgical grounds. "Al-Salat", it is is argued, "is a term for 'walking on a striaght road'...musalli is a word for a horse running in a race right behind the first group of horses; no musalli is a zigzagging horse. Accordingly, if it is stated about somebody who turns away from the body of Islam that "he does not believe, does not observe salat but denies the truth and takes by-roads"(75:31). And Parwez holds forth in another excursus: "Sabh (root of Tasbeeh) signifies 'to swim, to race with the fierceness of a horse', that is to say: as , while swimming, the arms are spread widely, so it is called sabh if a horse gallops at full trot. Consequently, in this notion both the elements of fierceness and expanse are implied. So e.g. sabbaha fi l'ard means 'to travel in distant countries'; inna laka fi 'l-nahari sbhan tawilan (73:7)-"you have in the daytime an extensive and busy occupation". Hence, it says that everything in the creation is 'doing sabh', it signifies that everything is busy with carrying out appointed duties in a scrupulous way"....Ahmed Al-Din says by this also that Hajj is an annual international conference that ought to be avail for prevention of wars."

Mashriqi says also: "On the whole Sujud in the Koran does not stand for 'to rub the forehead on the ground' but 'to act upon the commands of God'. Thus 55:5-6; "And the herbs and trees made a Sadjah"(i.e. obeyed the Laws of God)[Tadhkira page 107]

And so Hajj is also a form of Salat as it is pursuing the following of the Quran which commands all of Mankind to be one:

2:213 Mankind were one single community.


So what is 4:101-104 about?

4:101 When you go forth in the land, there is no blame on you if you
shorten [Salat], if you fear that the unbelievers may attack you. Surely, the rejecters are an open enemy to you.

4:102 When you (O Messenger!) are with them and establish the
congregations of Salaat for them, let some of them stand with you, and
let them take their arms. Then, after they have received instructions, let
them fall to the rear and let another party come that has not received
instructions. Let them take precautions and their arms. The disbelievers
want you to neglect your arms and other belongings so that they may
attack you once and for all. There is no harm for you to lay aside your
arms if rain impedes you or if you are ill. But take all possible precaution.
Certainly, God has prepared for the disbelievers a humiliating
chastisement.

4:103 Be mindful of God’s commands whatever state you are in,
standing, sitting or lying down. And when you are once again secure,
establish the congregations of Salaat. Joining the congregations of
Salaat at the times [appointed by the Central authority] is a duty to believers.

4:104 Do not show weakness in pursuing the enemy. If you suffer
hardship they too suffer hardship. But you have hope to receive God’s
reward that they cannot rightfully hope. God is the Knower, the Wise.

The Salat mentioned here is nothing more then the gatherings of the community to discuss of to implent the Quranic System. The Quranic message is very open and flexible and does not discuss all details, as we must lay down these details ourselves as needed in a situation. 4:102 shows a gathering discussing the war strategy and 4:103 we are reminded that the Quranic System can only work when we all participate and share our thoughts and know our duties in the System.

So what is Wudhu for? Maybe just a reminder to be clean when gathering in public? We are also reminded to wear good clothing and to have a clear mind. Human psychology is trained to take the words of a clean, nicely dressed person more seriously then that of a person that is dirty, unwashed and wears simple clothing.

[bkanwar2]

Dear brother Arnold AA, and welcome back.

Salat, according to Lane also means =he performed the divinely-oppointed act

4:101-103 are explained as in 4:77


ذلك الفضل من الله وكفي بالله عليم
الم تر الي الذين قيل لهم كفوا ايديكم واقيموا الصلاة واتوا الزكاة فلما كتب عليهم القتال اذا فريق منهم يخشون الناس كخشية الله او اشد خشية وقالوا ربنا لم كتبت علينا القتال لولا اخرتنا الي اجل
قريب قل متاع الدنيا قليل والاخرة خير لمن اتقي ولا تظلمون فتيلا
Have you seen those who have been told, “Curb your hands, and establish the Divine System and set up the just Economic Order?” But as soon as the Command came to fight, some of them feared men as they should have feared God, or even more. They say, “Our Lord! Why have You ordained fighting for us? If only You had granted us a little more delay!” Say, “Brief is the enjoyment of this world, whereas the life to come is the best for those who live upright. None of you shall be wronged a hair’s breadth

Here children of Israel are orderded to fight, Salat means here to carry out this Divinely ordered act of Fighting. Establishing a system and or congregation does not make any senses here, same by tasref in 4:101-103

Badar

[Arnold Yasin Mol]

Salaam Badar,

Exactly, it is following God's commands as is portrayed in 24:41 where all animals and creatures know their Salaat, they know their obligations and how to fulfill them.

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