Prayer and other Forms of Meditation in Islam

Spirituality and the Good Life: Philosophical Approaches, 2017

Islam is essentially defined by the Qurʾān, but the words of the prophets and saints, recorded as narrations (ḥadīth), prayers, and supplications have also shaped its message. While some of these prayers inform their followers of the philosophical and ethical underpinnings of the spiritual life, they also focus on a personal relationship with God and how to foster it through open, heartfelt communication. Prayer in Islam not only consists of the five canonical prayers, but as its lexical meaning suggests, includes supplication, petition, invoking blessing, and seeking forgiveness. Even though Islam deems contemplation, self-reflection, and the pursuit of knowledge as essential forms of worship, this chapter explores the power of the word in three closely related spiritual practices: prayer (ṣalāt), invocation (dhikr), and supplication (duʿā).

ISLAMIC PRAYER 2 Islam has many aspects that make it both a very interesting and complex religion. Many people from different parts of the globe practice Islam. From the United States to England, the number of people that practice Islam as a religion is on the rise. Islam has many parts, which include the prayers, what the prayers mean, the 5 Pillars of Islam, how people pray in mosques, how Muslim people prepare themselves before prayer, and information about the religion, all of which, are explained in this paper.

1 determining that the prayer time has arrived, performing ritual ablution called wu'ḍu, finding a clean place to pray, dressing in clean and appropriate clothing, and orienting herself towards the direction of Mecca (the qibla), Ṣalāt begins. These are called the conditions for prayer, to be done to the best of one's knowledge and abilities, and without which the prayer is considered invalid. 2

Prayer: Christian and Muslim Perspectives, 2013

This volume is a record of the 2011 Building Bridges seminar for theological dialogue between Muslim and Christian scholars. Chaired by Rowan Williams (at the time Archbishop of Canterbury) and held in Doha, Qatar, the seminar explored the meaning and practice of prayer among Christians and Muslims. Contributors include Asma Afsaruddin, Caner Dagli, Susan Eastman, Lucy Gardner, Daniel Madigan, Michael Plekon, Philip Seddon, Reza Shah-Kazemi, Philip Sheldrake, Rowan Williams, and Timothy Wright. A PDF of the whole volume is provided by kind permission of Georgetown University Press. For more information on Building Bridges and other volumes in the series, see http://press.georgetown.edu/category/promotions/buildingbridges and https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/projects/the-building-bridges-seminar.

International Paris Conference on Social Sciences -VI, Paris, FRANCE 428 Proceedings book, 2021

Every religion seeks to realize the true path to realize God and salvation both in this life and in the hereafter. There are differences among various religions concerning their rituals, doctrines, worships, or teachings which reflect the identical character of each religion. The concept of worship among these factors not only shapes the life of believers but also symbolizes religious identity of believers for the outsiders. Among various belief systems, the religion of Islam is fundamentally a faith of submission to the one God and this faith is demonstrated by specified actions which is known as ‘ibādāt. The broad definition of the term according to Islamic sources states that worship (‘ibādāt) is an all inclusive term for all that God loves of external and internal sayings and actions of a person. Therefore, this traditional definition of worship in Islam has comprehensive aspects that include almost everything in any individual’s activities ranging from beliefs, social activities, personal contributions to the welfare of society.

This world makes living very unstable. It comes in different phases and stages: joy and sadness, pain and relief, weak and strong, health and sickness just to mention a few. Islam is a way of life and it emphasizes the need to live in good health and maintain it. It also offers guidance to ways and means of coping with sickness. The Quran is termed to be a book of guidance and also gives elaborate explanation on the guidance in dealing with every issues of life including health issues. The actual source of healing is from Allah as stated in the Qur'an that " And when I fall ill, so it is He Who heals me " (Surah 26:80). Allah stated further that " …We send down in the Qur'an that which is a cure for the Believers, and a mercy … " (Surah 17:82). Allah had made a declaration but the form of actualization is what man had been battling with especially in the wake of the Christian form of healing by faith and miracles. Using a historical analysis, the papers focus on the role of prayer, faith and faith healing in the Qur'an. The paper concludes that the recipient needs to follow certain instructions and abide with some principles before healing could be manifested. More so, healing comes only from God.

The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 2020

Prayer is an important aspect of many religions. Existing measures of prayer have mostly originated from the Christian West and emphasized various “verbal” aspects of making a supplication. An “active” aspect of prayer, in which the supplicants strive for what they pray, has not received sufficient attention despite being crucial to Muslim belief. Based on the Islamic scholar Said Nursi’s conceptualization, the current study developed and validated a 7-item, 2-factor measure of Muslim Verbal and Active Prayer (MVAP). The measure showed good construct validity in two independent Muslim samples (N = 297 and 179) in exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. It demonstrated not only convergent validity, but showed incremental validity predicting religious and psychological adjustment over and above Muslim religiosity and spirituality. In addition, the Muslim prayers invigorated and integrated Muslim religious spirituality in its expression of religious and psychological adjustment. This brief measure has potential to deepen empirical studies of Muslim psychology, and prayer research in general.

Vostok (Oriens), 2022

This article is dedicated to the terms for personal prayer (duʻāʼ and other derivative forms) in the Qurʼān. Occurrence of these terms in the text is analyzed quantitatively with regard to the chronology of the Qurʼānic text. They appear mainly in the sūras of the II and III Meccan periods, and more rarely in the Medinan period, contrary to the term for communal prayer ṣalāt which is frequent in the Medinan sūras. The study shows that they are used in a close number of interrelated contexts. These contexts could be described as follows: people's ingratitude towards the Almighty God and their inclination towards pagan deities; their appeal to God in the time of danger; Allāh's mercy to the righteous calling Him, including His response to them and helping a righteous man, like Zakarīyā and Ibrāhīm, to have a child. Emotional aspect of these fragments was analyzed as well. The Qurʼānic fragments, containing terms for the personal prayer, are emotionally intense and their modality varies from positive to negative, often containing both of these contrast evaluations. These traits and the variety of related topics and their emotional modality could be explained by diverse circumstances of Muḥammad's prophetic mission, as his social role evolved from an outcast preacher to a head of the theocratic state. The variety of topics and their emotional modality could be a consequence of the different character of audiences during the different stages of monotheistic preach delivered by Prophet Muhammad.

Edinost in dialog Unity and Dialogue, 2024

Human being is a combination of body and divine soul, and as body needs daily nutrition, soul needs it too-in a form of prayer and supplication. Spirituality and connection to the source of this soul which is God, the Almighty is the main goal of prayer. This concept is mentioned in almost all divine religions, including Islam and other Abrahamic religions. In the Qur'an, the divine scripture of Muslims human being is called the vicegerent of God on earth (Q 38:72). This clearly demonstrates the divine soul in human beings, and to feed this soul, man needs daily prayers. This article elaborates on the importance of prayer in Šīʿa denomination as the second largest denomination in Islam and also sheds light on differ� ent types of prayer, definitions and the main outcomes of prayer in daily life. The research is based on exploratory and descriptive approach based on library studies.