ISLAMIC OUTREACH - Lesson Eleven

Prayer - Actions

In a state of Wudu

With the inner Intention of making Salaat
     either the requisite formal prayers 
          at the prescribed time of day
     or Sunnah prayers at permitted times

Aligning oneself to Ka'bah 
     built by Abraham and Ibrahim
          as a temple for the worship of the One God

Positioning oneself in space and time
     in straight lines that form circles around the Ka'bah
     shoulder to shoulder with brother and sister muslims
     unified in form and purpose
     responsible only for ones own sincerity

After the opening Takbir
     expressing that whatever greatness can be imagined
          God is Greater
Moving through each rakah
     until an ending wishing peace upon our neighbours

The salaat consists of moving between four positions
     Standing, Bowing, Prostration, Sitting
These positions serve many different purposes
     some of which we can imagine though many will be hidden
They can be considered in many different ways
     in relation to human understanding and experience.

They can be seen as expressing the opposite poles of our physical attributes, Flexibility & Rigidity, Strength & Weakness, Rest & Tension.

They can be seen in terms of their mechanics. 

The Standing, that seems so simple yet is one of the defining attributes of humankind. We stand, but the body is not rigid from top to toe, but a zig-zag collection of hinged rigid pieces, all held in place with extraordinarily minimal effort through the tiniest of muscle movements, all held in balance under the control of the brain responding to sensations within the inner ear. This does mean that standing requires awareness, however, as loss of consciousness inevitably means collapsing in a heap. 

The Bowing, with hands on knees, expressing the strength that comes with triangulation. The hands hold the knees straight and keep them from buckling, while the legs through the rigid arms support the shoulders and relieve the strain on the back muscles, the whole structure being the stronger for each part helping the other, as a community is much the stronger for mutual help.

The Prostration provides us with the opposite of the Standing, being a position of rest that is so stable it is possible to go to sleep without falling over. How typical of the All-Merciful that when requiring our submission expressed through worship, this position of our ultimate submission is also the position of greatest comfort and relaxation in the prayer. But with our faces on the ground, this is not a position for interpersonal communication. It is a very private time, just us and our Maker.

The Sitting is actually the position we most commonly use when we wish to be in relaxed communication with our neighbours. Less tiring than standing, yet allowing our upper bodies freedom of movement, even if we ignore our lower halves to the extent of losing all feeling in our legs. Of course, in cold and wet parts of the world, we tend to use chairs to keep ourselves well above the typically cold wet floor, but stripped of possessions mankind will tend to sit on the ground to be at waking rest.

In a similar way, the prayer can be explored in the light of other areas of human experience. For example one can look at Medical aspects of the human body as they are reflected in the positions of the prayer.

The spine is strongly affected by the prayer in a way that is very advantageous to our health. When standing at length during Qur'an recitation, our standing is quite static compared to the way we stand at most other times, and the muscles in our backs soon tell us if our spines are not straight and in balance. Then when we bow, with our heads hanging free in front of our shoulders supported on our arms, our weight is distributed in a way that flexes our spines in a double curve. Then in prostration, with our heads supported on the ground, those curves are reversed, which along with the rising and falling between the positions, means that the spine is constantly being flexed back and forth. But the spine does not only flex one way, and the sitting position also flexes the spine in a sideways direction. Finally, with the closing of the prayer, as the head turns over each shoulder the spine shows that it can also twist.

Of course their are other Medical aspects of our bodies that are highlighted in the prayer. The Breath that we use casually when standing normally is brought under more conscious control for recitation of Qur'an, and then with the bowing the diaphragm is somewhat compressed, yet the ribcage naturally falls open. The prostration, of course had a tremendous effect on the breath, because the lungs tend to be compressed by the body's position at that point, while both the nose is as close to the ground as it can get. This means that heavy gases such as carbon dioxide are naturally forced up from the bottom of the lungs, to drain out from the nose and mouth.

The cleansing of the breath helps oxygenate the blood, and the prayer has other effects related to circulation. The sitting position compresses the legs, and helps push the blood through the veins back towards the heart, which is also at that point given some respite from the requirement to circulate the blood for the full length of the legs against the force of gravity. The sideways squint of the seating position also massages the liver, which cleanses the blood, and the various movements also provide a certain amount of colonic massage, thus aiding bowel function.

The movements of the prayer obviously bring the muscles into play, and sometimes they are compressed, as with the legs when seated, and sometimes stretched, as with the hamstrings during the bowing. But it must be understood that when the Qur'an describes the prayer as a 'timed prescription' for the believer, it is not using the word that we nowadays associate with our doctors, no matter how many medical benefits the prayer may contain. The prayer is prescribed for us as worship, and contains within it so much more than its physical aspects.

We can explore the prayer through our intellects and emotions, considering the symbolic and aesthetic interpretations that we can apply to the positions and the movements. These are often very personal, insights that appeal directly to the individual heart. But some are commonly voiced, such as the association of the positions of prayer with the letters of the Arabic alphabet. For the standing is said to resemble the vertical stroke of the Alif, while the bowing resembles the Dal, and prostration resembles the Mim. Put the 'A' and the 'D' and the 'M' together, and you have Adam, the progenitor of humankind.

So the effects of the prayer on the one who makes it are physical, psychological and spiritual, and although it is required to be made for no other reason than as a duty to our God, the Prophet himself did characterize it by association with other things. He said that it was one of his three favourite things, the others being sweet perfume and the company of women. The prayer may have been a duty, but he clearly did not see it as a hardship.

Astaghfirallahualazim