Communicating

The Messenger was not a child when he learned to make the Sala.

He was over forty years old,

and clearly recognised the benefits of this practice

that he had been told was now to be an essential part of his way of life

But you don't need Revelation to experience the physical benefits,

psychological and emotional benefits,

that accompany the spiritual benefits of the ritual prayer.

The bodily movements and static postures inevitably have

an effect on the physical body that can be felt,

and these different sensations are there for everyone

to meditate upon.

Everyone can feel the way that their spine flexes,

from its vertical tower of one disc upon another,

to the arc that hangs between hip and shoulder,

to the opposite curve in Sajda.

Now all these movements take place along a plane of symmetry,

but only human outsides are close to symmetrical,

the insides are much more jumbled affairs,

yet somehow all working together as one.

All that tangled tubing gets rearranged by gravity in Ruku,

as the back muscles stretch and tighten,

the abdomen is massaged by being squashed in Sajda,

and the liver is squeezed by the decidedly non-symmetrical position of Julus.

Of course, for the words to be spoken distinctly,

and the movements to be made smoothly,

we need to be aware of our breath,

and keep it under control.

And our breath awareness is helped when,

as with the digestive tract,

we feel the effect of gravity on our diaphragm and ribcage with Ruku.

Then in Sajda, the lungs are upside down,

and as all the heavy gases in the lungs sink downwards

they are expelled on the outbreath

from nostrils at the lowest point of the body,

next to the ground

Sala is an experience that involves both sight and sound.

Whether the words are spoken aloud or not,

they are heard internally,

and even though the concentration of the Sala is internal,

it is made with eyes open,

the eyes focussing from standing to Sajda point,

refocussing to a middle distance during Ruku and Julus,

and during Sajda focussed on a point just outside our vision

Our Sajda point is not really the ground,

which constantly changes beneath us,

but a point we carry with us all the time,

a point so close to you that you cannot see it,

invisible yet tangible.

But like sight itself, it cannot be seen but we know that it is there,

in the case of sight because we use it to do the seeing.

And then along with all the physical aspects of the Sala

there are the psychological and emotional benefits.

The word Islam is usually translated as Submission,

which unfortunately carries within it the suggestion of compulsion,

a neck beneath the foot of a victor,

an image that may be attractive to those who like to think of Islam as something to be imposed by force,

particularly by themselves,

a justification for the acquisition and use of power.

But the peace that comes to those that are conquered

may not always feel like one that is welcomed.

But we know that Qur'an tells us that there can be no compulsion in Islam,

and 'Peace',

the essential root of the word

has more than one shade of meaning,

more than one associated context.

Another way of translating Islam is with the word Surrender,

which also means to give up and give in,

but with the accent on letting everything go,

all the cares and worries of the world beyond the prayer mat.

It is possible to surrender as to a lover, not a victor,

submitting to the will of the beloved out of a longing to please,

putting the will of the beloved before our own.

This is a state to be longed for,

a love so great that it is all consuming, like that of Majnun for Layla,

but for a Beloved that is Ever-Thankful and Ever-Merciful.

Muhammad didn't find the Sala irksome or arduous.

It is said that it was one of his three favourite things,

along with sweet smells and the company of women,

not something that he had to force himself to do.

So should that not be taken as our example?

Surrendering to God in the Sala

should be a time of relief from care and trust in God.

During Sala we accept that whatever is past is not present,

and neither is what is to come,

and for that short time there is nothing you can do about either.

When your head is on the ground what else can you do but surrender?

The Sala is an experience that shapes itself to you

and grows with you as you grow.

The meanings and emotions that you associate with it

will be yours alone.

The simple symbolisms that are recognisable in childhood

gain in depth and subtlety with age

as your knowledge grows

and your perspective changes.

The standing, bowing, and prostrating,

lend themselves to any number of personal associations.

From upright youth, to bent over age, to death on the ground.

From a face on the earth like grazing beasts,

to bent over bipedal field birds like curlews and waders searching shallow water

like herons or flamingos,

to the upright stance partially seen in apes,

but only fully realised in humans.

The shape of standing can be seen in the letter Aliph,

the Ruku in the letter Dal,

and the letter Mim is suggestive of Sajda,

and the three together spell the word Adam,

linking us with the beginning of humankind.

In the end we come back to the beginning

to look again at those words we learned in childhood,

Fatihah begins from God's Self-display,

manifesting through the words of the Qur'an,

which begins by giving us a Name

by which to know Hu,

then tells us the best way to approach imagining and understanding Hu's Essence,

Hu's Self-description,

the quality of Mercy

so all-encompassing that it appears four times in the first three ayats of the Qur'an,

Hu is the Liege of All the Worlds,

our Monarch and our Judge.

God tells us the only possible appropriate relationship,

slavery and dependency,

while also giving us a mode of address.

We are told to speak to God as 'You'

the profound revelation that God shares this attribute with us

This 'you'-ness is the thing that makes you know and feel that you are you.

We don't relate to a 'what' but to a 'Who'

a Hu

that we rely on for guidance,

Hu is the source of all the blessings and trials of this life,

Hu alone is able to save us from our own mistakes and foolishness,

and to Hu,

the Fount-of-All-Mercy

we will be returned.

Tarawih and Janaza prayers