Is praying for something or someone helpful?

Is praying for something or someone helpful

Here we are using the word ‘prayer’ for the Quranic term dua¹. This is NOT to be confused with salat, which is traditionally undertranslated as ritual prayer.

Does praying for something or someone change God’s own course of action?

No. God, according to the Quran, is not an external entity/deity that is separate from everything. He works through His laws, which He never changes. These laws, manifested to our perceptions as laws of nature, act upon the condition of a people largely through the agencies (malaika) of their own actions. Thus God doesn’t change our condition unless we change ourselves (13:11). So actions, not prayers, are the only means to this end, because invoking God to change our circumstances without following it with relevant actions will produce no change (8:53). In other words, prayer disconnected with real life actions is devoid of any meaning, Trust in God But Tie Your Camel is an ancient Arab proverb.

If God never changes His laws, and does not change people’s conditions unless they change themselves, then how does praying for something or someone make sense?

Man is hard-wired to cry out to his Sustainer when in distress or when needs help. Viewed from an anthropological perspective, prayer is a psychological placebo and an important gesture of human language. First, throughout the millennia and across cultures, man has been thriving through numerous psychological placeboes. And prayer, at the least, is one of them. Placeboes are all about ‘mind over matter’ and serve their own important purposes. While one may try to dismiss all placeboes as illusions (from another perspective, our whole life is an illusion), paradoxically however, many of these so-called illusions have been essential tools for survival and evolution of humans, both as collectives and individuals. Second, praying for others is an expression of compassion and a beautiful gesture in human language. In exercising compassion, one betters oneself and gives life a deeper sense of meaning. A gesture of ‘compassion to all’ (42:5) is one of those basic minimums of humanity that make us human.

How does prayer help as a placebo?

Since prayer is essentially a personal, subjective thing, everyone perceives it in their own ways. The many nuances include: ● Prayer is simply reiteration of our ardent desire and thus spotlighting on a real issue that motivates us to take related actions. In other words, by bringing a desire from the subconscious to the conscious, and thereby transforming the potential energy of psyche into the kinetic energy of all-out-efforts, prayer works to fulfill our desires. ● Prayer functions as the first move to trigger our actions, wherefrom God becomes a coworker with us, since He helps those who help themselves. ● Prayer awakens us like an alarm clock. For example, an utterance of prayer before starting your car gives you an added alertness for careful driving. ● Prayer is a moment of contemplation and self-examination. This opens doors for new possibilities by making us aware about our strengths and limitations. ● Prayer is a self-reminder through a soliloquy, i.e., an act of speaking one’s thoughts aloud addressed to one’s inner self. This helps us prevent repeating our past mistakes, while doing the things right. ● Prayer is a sort of goal setting. For instance, praying for your kids to grow up educated sets a goal that persuades you to take care of your kids’ education. Praying for finishing tasks properly on time moves your efforts in the right direction. ● Prayer generates positive vibes and positive thoughts that can keep you sane and hopeful about life. It is this power of positivity that often makes a real difference in our life. ● Prayer in monotheistic traditions² is a time of conversation with God when people praying with faith lift their minds and hearts to Him. It is assumed that, like meditation or contemplation, it provides a stairway to reach a higher spiritual level. ● Praying for something or someone, according to an atheist’s worldview, does nothing and makes no sense.

What are the overall benefits of prayer?

According to the pro-prayer psychologists, prayer may deliver a range of benefits: ◦ It gives you hope and assurance. ◦ It relaxes your mind. ◦ It gives you better control of life by helping you deal with problems. ◦ It lowers blood pressure and stress. ◦ It is good for your heart. ◦ It speeds up recovery from sickness. ◦ It boosts mental health by increasing happiness. ◦ It improves mental health by helping you become a better person. ◦ It encourages you to eat healthy. ◦ It may help you to live longer.

How does prayer boost mental health?

Here we are not talking about prayer “miraculously curing someone.” Instead, prayer gives hope and relief to the distressed and saves them from despair and isolation. This can improve a person’s mental health, such as reducing anxiety and stress, as it boosts their mood by releasing oxytocin, serotonin and dopamine from the brain. In turn, this can then translate into “better physiological functioning,” such as counteracting the effect of the stress hormone cortisol, lower blood pressure, and improved immune functioning. Thus prayer may have similar effects on mental well-being as meditation and yoga, which spill over into physical effects. Likewise, when someone prays for others, the compassion that she displays towards others positively contributes to her mental well-being.

How does prayer deliver other health benefits?

Possible mechanisms by which prayer delivers health benefits are: ◦ Prayer as a relaxation response. ◦ Prayer as a placebo. ◦ Prayer as an expression of positive emotions. ◦ Prayer as a channel for mobilising some of brain’s hidden reserves that can benefit the body through psychosomatic links. Any benefit to mental well-being, which prayer has, is going to translate into benefits for physical well-being over time. Take pain control as an example. While prayer lowers depression and anxiety symptoms and increases optimism, it may reduce physical pain by easing the subjective component of pain. Some studies found that prayer decreased pain symptoms after a caesarean section and improved the quality of life in women undergoing radiation therapy.

What is the Quranic position on prayer?

The Quran promotes the concept of dua/prayer as an expression of man’s submission to God and a manifestation of their neediness to Him. It cites numerous examples of duas where humans directly address and supplicate their Sustainer. These examples reveal the spiritual purpose of dua, which is to create and nurture a God-centric existence. From a deeper Quranic perspective, however, dua is not a supplication but an affirmation to mobilise your own divinely gifted energies, which triggers a chain of events that starts working for you (2:186, 28:87, 40:60, 50:16). Thus, while dua is not utilised as a means to an end, it is externalising the natural disposition and innate desire within the human psyche.

Why are all the Quranic prayers addressed to Rabb, instead of Allah?

It is interesting to note that in almost all the 111 instances of the Quranic prayers, where humanity directly addresses and supplicates God, the Quran uses the generic title Rabbana (Our Sustainer), as opposed to Allah. This is because – while it is impossible for us to directly connect with the Divine (Allah) whose essence/persona is absolutely unknowable to us – our relationship with Him is through our awareness of Him being our Sustainer (Rabb)³. When children cry to their mother, they address her as “mum”, a call that represents the organic relationship where the mother’s name is irrelevant to the child. Furthermore, the Quran calls on us to become rabbaniyoon (3:79), i.e., to follow the divine attribute of Rabb (the Sustainer) as the only appropriate goal in our spiritual journey towards perfection. During dua/prayer, by consciously addressing this epitome of perfection, a person gets reminded of their responsibility to continuously evolve and progress towards perfection.

Is it fine that I pray for mental peace and tranquillity whenever I feel necessary, though I am not a fan of traditional ritual prayers?

We can always invoke/pray to our Sustainer for our inner peace, inspiration or meditation purpose. We can do it personally in our own way, as often as we feel required, without necessarily reducing it into an organised ritual.

Are you saying that prayer should be personal and non-ritual?

Yes. The Quran describes dua/prayer as a concept very different from salat, which is traditionally undertranslated as ritual prayer (3:38-39, 14:37-40, 17:110). A heartfelt prayer at a personal level can be a beautiful communication with your inner self, i.e. the divine Spirit inside you (15:29, 38:72, 50:16), thus leading to a very personal connection with your Maker. Ritual prayers, in contrast, tend to be a mindless, mechanical practice. This is especially true for public ritual prayers⁴, which is more about connecting with the ‘Pack’ instead of connecting with your Maker.

Final thoughts

Prayer (dua) is a psychological placebo and an important gesture of human language. It may deliver a range of benefits, including boosting mental and physical health. However, prayer without real life actions has no use or meaning.

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Note 1

The Quranic term dua derives from Dal-Ayn-Waw (د ع و): to seek, desire, ask, demand, call upon, invoke, ascribe, cry out, call out to, pray, supplicate, petition, require, need, summon, invite, assert, succour. https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/roots/Dal-Ayn-Waw.html; LL, V3, pp: 49, 50, 51 ## http://ejtaal.net/aa/#q=d3w

Note 2

In monotheistic traditions, prayer can be silent or said out loud. It can use set words, or a person’s own words. It is assumed that God always answers prayers, but not always in the way the person wants. When a prayer is not answered, it may be that the person asked for something God thinks would not be good for them, or that their prayer will be answered later.

Note 3

As the most frequent description of God and His most manifested role, the word Rabb in the Quran occurs a total of 975 times, starting with the very opening declaration, “All praise is due to God alone, who is the Rabb (Sustainer) of the Worlds”, a central Islamic concept that is oft-repeated throughout the Book. Rabb in the Quran stands for the manifested aspect of the Divine, who not only nourishes, cherishes, sustains and evolves, but also gives full form to something starting from original material and changing it through various stages towards a meaningful direction (20:50).

Note 4

Public ritual prayers, especially if mindless and mechanical, are more about connecting with the ‘Pack’ instead of connecting with God. Public rituals become conforming to our surrounds rather than with our Sustainer. They quickly move to ‘looking the part’, ‘being accepted into the pack’, ‘following the pack-leader to please both the pack and the pack-leader’ etc. The Quran consistently says that it is what is in your heart and not the display of your sleeve that matters.

Muslim 2d

Brother,

It is important that we do not pray in a mechanical mindless way.

However, ritual prayer does not need to be like that.

If we do the ritual prayer properly, it will not be that way.

However, ritual prayer is important.

As far as we can tell, 100% of Muslims from the intellectual to the peasant, the man, the woman, everyone from the Prophet to many centuries later never thought the ritual prayer as not needed.

Allah emphasizes prayer.

If one thinks that is not ritual prayer, well, that is an opinion but Allah tells us in the Qur’an to not be so confident in our personal opinions.

What can one do if on Judgement Day, Allah tells us that we were supposed to devote to Allah in the way the Prophet taught us from the guided way the Prophet was.

Indeed, Allah tells us around 2:239 that when we are safe we should pray the previous way we were taught to pray. At least, that is the most reasonable way I can translate the verse given the context of the verse before saying to shorten the prayer in safety.

When someone dismisses the form of the prayer that the Prophet taught every single one of his followers, we are in that aspect making a mockery of saying we follow the Prophet as a teacher to us.

Even if some may not trust all the hadiths, the form of the prayer is indisputable.

My dear brother, we need to be mindful of the individualist free thinking so called self-actualization mumbo jumbo in our current post modern materialistic environment that tells us in every advertisement to do what we want….to do with our time, our movements, our speech, our posture, our gaze, our attention, our focus, our direction, our attire, etc….do as we want.

The Prophet’s prayer was blessed by Allah and if it wasn’t, surely Allah would have corrected him as Allah corrected him in much, much smaller details.

And the Prophet’s prayer teaches us discipline and to control our time, our movements, our speech, our posture, our gaze, our attention, our focus, our direction, our attire, etc….and not to do as we want, but to submit to Allah.

Submission to Allah cannot be limited to philosophizing and thinking about Allah.

Yes, one of our gifts is intelligence and we must use it to gain useful beneficial knowledge that will bring us closer to our Nourisher, Allah and to make us better people.

However, another gift is conscience and we need to submit to God, to control what we can control. And what we most directly have control of is our bodies, our posture, our movements, our gaze, our attention, our speech.

We also control our time and what we do and when we do it.

Allah tells us to pray at appointed times. Qur’an says in rough parameters of when to pray but the Prophetic living sunnah that came down to us shows us in a more precise way of the broad times we have for the different prayers.

May Allah guide us to take the best of what we hear and read. 39:23

Peace and Happy New Year

Siraj Islam 2d

Peace and Happy New Year to you too, brother. Thanks for your comment.

I think the concept salat in the Quran is much broader than the ritual prayer. For example, the salat of prophet Shuaib was social welfare that enjoined justice and sharing money with the needy (11:87, 7:85, 29:36-37).

IMO, the salat/communication sessions during the Prophet’s time were primarily intended to deliver and disseminate the messages of the Quran. Thus the Quran greatly emphasized the audience to understand and assimilate these communications by thinking and reasoning, and then to implement them in real life (which is the meaning of ‘establish the salat/communication’). This is how at least the sahaba performed their salat – as we know from the Quranic evidence.

The traditional ritual prayer, on the other hand, developed over time mimicking this original salat, while overlooking its quintessence and actual objective. Sadly, looking for references about how the later Muslims performed their salat, is not really helpful – especially through the lens of unverifiable hadith hearsays. Here are two related links:

Salat during the time of the Prophet:
https://lampofislam.wordpress.com/2020/06/05/salat-during-the-time-of-the-prophet/

Why salat is NOT ritual prayer:
https://lampofislam.wordpress.com/2020/07/09/why-salat-is-not-ritual-prayer/