Islam and Peace
Prayer in Islam
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Prayer, in fact, is the expression of a distressed state
of the heart. Such a state of the heart cannot be
bound within certain set words of prayer. True
prayer comes from the lips of a person when, on the
one-hand, he learns the full meaning of being a
servant of God and, on the other, he discovers God
in all His perfection. The words which come to his
lips spontaneously with this two-sided realization
are called prayer in the Islamic Shari’ah.
The concept of prayer in Islam and how to offer a
true prayer is described in great detail in the Qur’an
and Hadith. Here I should like to present some
Quranic references.
1. Firstly prayer should be made to one God alone.
The Qur’an says: ‘Do not pray to anyone other than
God, which can neither help nor harm you’ (10:106).
The Prophet Muhammad said: ‘Whenever for
anything you have to ask, ask it from God.’ This is
quite consistent with Islamic belief in monotheism.
When Islam teaches mankind to believe in one God,
with all power vested in Him alone, then praying to
someone other than God can never be in accordance
