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Coordinator NMA

Oct 09

Not All Prayers Are Valid, nor Will They Be Granted

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Not All Prayers Are Valid, nor Will They Be Granted

 

Praying to God and asking Him to grant our needs and wishes is one of the greatest acts of worship. It is a beloved act of worship to God and one that is greatly encouraged in the Quran and by the Messenger Muhammad. However, not all prayers are valid, nor will they necessarily be granted. In this blog, we will explore some of the reasons for this.

Invalid Prayers

There are a number of reasons which may cause prayers to be invalid including:

  1. Impermissible earnings – wealth which is not attained from pure means or earned by Islamically unlawful means.  The subsequent food, drink, and clothing we purchase with such wealth is one reason for our supplications being rejected.
  2. Making Impermissible Requests or asking for evil and harm to befall oneself or others  – praying to God and asking for something which displeases God is something which may be rejected. For example, asking to break our ties of family kinship.
  3. Sins – disobeying God can at times act like a barrier which prevents our prayers from being answered.
  4. Being Inattentive – the Messenger Muhammad informed us that God does not accept the prayers that come from a heedless heart.

How Prayers Are Granted

For the Muslim who is trying their best and sincerely prays to God, they will find an answer. However, the response may not necessarily be what they expect. The Messenger Muhammad informed us that God answers our prayers in one of three ways:

  1. God gives us what we ask for – this means that God accepted our prayers and gave us what we wanted in our lifetime.
  2. God does not grant us what we ask for, but instead gives us the reward of our supplication in the Hereafter. 
  3. God does not grant our prayer, but instead removes from us an equal harm that would have befallen us, making the prayer a form of protection.

Remember, God is All-Knowing and All-Wise. If God chooses to withhold something from us, it is due to Him knowing that it is not in our best interest. However, the prayers are not lost; the reward of those prayers will be preserved and other harms that we were unaware of will be removed from us.

Therefore, never despair from praying to God as often as you can. When the disciples of the Messenger Muhammad heard the three ways in which God responds to our prayers, they stated that they would pray even more. The Messenger Muhammad replied that God’s bounty will always be more than our prayers.

Jul 07

Pilgrimage Rites Connected to Abraham & His Family

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Many of the rites of pilgrimage are connected to Abraham and his family. Abraham was commanded to leave his baby son Ishmael, and Ishmael’s mother Hajar, in the barren land of Mecca before it became a thriving city. Hajar was left with little provisions for herself and her son. In order to seek water, she ran between the two nearby hills of Safa and Marwah a number of times. This is where the pilgrimage rite of Sa’i, or the walking between the two hills comes from.

On her 7th circuit up the hills, Hajar saw water by where she had left Ishmael. Fearing the water would run out, she built a small mound around it to contain it. This is the well of Zamzam. This water is considered blessed and pilgrims will drink from this water throughout their stay in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

Ishamel and Hajar settled in this city and other people noticed the water so they requested to join them. When Ishmael was a young boy, Abraham saw a dream that he should offer him as a sacrifice to God. Abraham informed Ishmael of this, and together they walked the short distance to Mina, the place where pilgrims today spend much of their pilgrimage. On his way, Satan appeared three times to Abraham to convince him to disobey God’s command. Each time, Abraham took small pebbles and threw them at Satan. This is why pilgrims stone the three pillars during the pilgrimage.

When Abraham was about to sacrifice Ishmael, God informed him that he had passed the test, and instead replaced Ishmael with a ram. Today, pilgrims offer a similar sacrifice during their pilgrimage.

A number of years later, Abraham returned to Mecca. This time, God had commanded him to raise the foundations of the Ka’bah. Abraham asked Ishmael for his assistance. Together, they built the Ka’ba. Abraham proclaimed this as God’s house and a place of pilgrimage, and invited God’s faithful servants to come there for pilgrimage.

It is in response to this call from God, through Abraham, that millions of Muslims flock annually to the holy city of Mecca to perform this once-in-a-lifetime obligation of pilgrimage.