Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The Prayer and the Importance of Prefaces(written by Maysam Ghasemi)

In the Name of God As we've been created for eternity and we are going to finnish this life,we should take supplies for afterlife.According to the holy Quran and traditiion the most necessary provision for everyone's afterlife will be the "justifuied prayer". Based on the verses of the holy Quran and tradition a justified prayer is the one wich is said with presence of mind and to have presence of mind while saying prayers we should do the prefaces of prayer such as taking ablution , saying supperogatory prayers and Azan & Eghamah with presence of mind to be able to say the main prayers this way nevertheless we find ourselves praying and thinking to everything and everyone eccept for God. The first step of prefaces of the prayer in which we should have presence of mind, is taking ablution.The final goal of inacting this deed as a preface of prayer is not just clarity while praying but also it's been ordered to remind us the incidents of the day of judgment and to make us ask for something that we need for that day from God ; the day in which some faces are blackened and some are whitened as a sign of being hellish and paradisical. Some people are given their deeds' report cards to their right hands and others are given to their left hands as a sign of being paradisical and hellish . Some people are allowed to pass the "Serat Bridge" to the paradise while others' feet slip and they fall from there to the hell , based on theirown deeds on the earth . And when we remember these devine promises we naturally ask God to whiten our faces that day while washing our faces and to give us our deeds' report cards to our right hands while washing our right hands and not to give them to our left hands that day while washing our left hands . And to make us tight not to fall to the hell while passing the bridge and to let us enter the paradise that day while wetting our heads and feet . such an ablution would be an eligible preface for prayer and can prepare us to pray . The next step of prefaces in wich we should have presence of mind in order to perform the main prayer with the same quality is saying superogatory prayers which was obligatory to the prophet Mohammad (P.P.U.H) and an emphasized recommended one for us . The prescription of this prayer is saying a "two units prayer" before the morning prayer and four "two units prayer" before the noon and the afternoon prayer and two "two units prayer" after the evening prayer stood and a "two units prayer" after vespers seated. If you could succeed to have presence of mind while saying these thirty four units of prayer (counting the last one as a one unit prayer) , then you are prepared to keep it while saying the main obligatory seventeen units of prayer. The last step of prefaces of prayer in wich we should have presence of mind is saying "Azan & Eghamah". When you profess truly that the God is the greatest for ten times and there is no devinity except for God for seven times and when you invite people to the prayer and introduce it as the salvation and the best deed for four times by shouting Azan & Eghamah you are notifying you and others that you are going to talk to the highest existent - God - with the best means - prayer - which is performed with presence of mind. Although the main prayer and its prefaces such as taking ablution, saying superogatory prayers and Azan & Eghamah with presence of mind are good suplies for afterlife even with the attention of earning the paradise and avoiding the hell , I think based on a story from Amir-ol- moemenin (P.B.U.H) the best slaves pray their master with presence of mind just in order to earn his satisfaction, the way which deserves him and will definitly imply the same result and will bring them near the God in the paradise and will avoid them from the hell and evil.