Khutbah #11 - 15/05/98

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Alhamdulillahi rabbil'alamin wa salaatu wa salaamu ala Rasulihi  

One day, the Prophet said to some of his companions, "The five set prayers may be compared to a stream of fresh water, flowing in front of your house, into which you plunge five times each day. Do you think that would leave any dirt on your body?" When they replied, "None at all!" he stated, "Indeed, the five prayers remove sins, just as water removes dirt."

Our religious life may be centred on the spirit, but as we all know, spiritual matters are extremely difficult to understand, let alone communicate. So the Prophet described something very physical to cast light on it, something you don't need a degree in philosophy to understand. We have almost all shared the experience of washing, and know what it means to be physically clean, and most of us would think of it as a good thing.

In fact, with our modern understandings of the relationship between hygiene and disease and infection, even non-muslims can see a scientifically practical reason for the wudhu. And the wudhu is beneficial in a practical way, though that isn't the reason that we make it.

The Prayer (as well as the other aspects of Islamic practice) has at least two main kinds of benefits for those who make it. It brings us "benefits in this life and the next", a phrase which trips off muslim tongues with all the predictability of cliche. But although the benefits in the Afterlife are often discussed, the benefits that we gain in this life are much less frequently addressed, even though Qur'an tells us to say "Our Lord, give us good in this world and good in the Hereafter."

Where should we look for the good in this world in the Prayer? You really don't need books, it can be seen and experienced both through the process of the prayer and its effect, and of course these things can be seen in as many ways and from as many different viewpoints as there are people.

As we started with the physical, let's approach it from a very mechanical point of view, just the actions, non-verbal. The actions we make have clear medical benefits - the flexing of the spine through the changes between Standing, Bowing and Prostrating - the stretching of the hamstrings when we bow, a position that is also good for the bowels and digestive system - the up and down exercise which is good for the cardiovascular system - sitting on our legs, which is good for the circulation and the veins in the legs - the sideways twist to the spine when we sit, which is good for the liver - the lungs allowed to drain of carbon dioxide and other heavy gases, when the nose and mouth are at the lowest position in our bodies in Sajda.

We could go on, of course, but these medical things are fairly prosaic, and the prayer has much more to it than that. If we are looking at the mechanical, it may be better to look for something more allusive, which might shed some light on the way we live our lives.

Standing is such an extraordinary thing. Here we are, a strange collection of soft and hard, flexible and rigid, strength and weakness, rest and tension, a selection of bits of bone strung together by tendon and clothed in various kinds of soft, motile, largely aqueous material. Yet we stand with almost no effort involved, and the thing that makes it all so effortless we keep inside our ears - all we need is a sense of balance. And one other thing, of course - we must be conscious. The reason we have Qiyam-ul-Layl is because you can't stand up when you are asleep.

Unlike standing, bowing is a much more strenuous affair, gravity putting serious strain on the structure - until we triangulate ourselves and support our shoulders with our arms, and end up with a stronger mechanical system than before, capable of carrying great weights. Our arms support our shoulders, and the weight of our shoulders gives rigidity to our legs at the knees. The sum of the parts being stronger than the whole, as when people in a community help and support each other.

Then in Sajda we can relax. When we stand we may be precariously balanced, but in prostration we have a position of absolute rest. You can go to sleep in Sajda without falling over. And finally, there's that strange lop-sided kind of way we sit. Suddenly we move out of our symmetry and twist sideways, with one foot up and one foot down. But then, on the outside we mostly have two of things and look balanced and symmetrical, but on the inside most of our important parts come in ones, and come down on one side or the other. Indeed, if our hearts are to be in the right place they have to take a side. We may live in a creation that is largely dual, but like us, underneath it all creation is one - a characteristic it draws from it's Creator.

*****

In glancing at the mechanics of the prayer, we begin to see how much there is that we can hope to discover. For the mechanics are possibly the least important of the aspects of the prayer. How can it be otherwise when we have been told we will be judged by our intention, a very intangible, immaterial thing, which draws us into the psychological - the ways that we use the minds associated with these wondrous bodies, and which we use to consciously control them. Next week, God willing, I will perhaps speak more of the mind than of the body. For the moment it must suffice us to reflect on that moment of Intention before the prayer, when mind and body come together as we align ourselves in the dimensions of our world and face Qibla. In prayer as in life, it is absolutely essential that we try to recognise and freely choose the direction that we are facing.

"Our Lord! Condemn us not if we forget or fall into error; Our Lord! Lay not upon us a burden like that which you put upon those before us; Our Lord! Lay not upon us a burden greater than we can bear. Blot out our sins and grant us forgiveness, and have mercy on us." (Qur'an 2:286)

O God, forgive us, and have mercy on us, and guide us, and grant us security, and grant us sustenance.