DUA and ZHIKR - Ahmed Hulusi WHY TO PRACTICE DUA (PRAYER) Dua (prayer) is the weapon of believers, says

Rasul of Allah Mohammed Mustafa (peace be upon him). He also brings another explanation to the subject of prayer: Dua is the essence of servitude. Right after this hadith, let us remember the following verse: I created the jinn and the humans in order that they may serve me. The most basic meaning of servitude is dua and zhikr. The most comprehensive meaning of servitude is for the created to carry out its purpose for creation. If my servant raises his hands and prays to me, I refrain from leaving those hands empty. Yes, this is a holy hadith (hadith qudsi). Here is another hadith qudsi on this subject: Oh you, son of Adam! Prayer is from you, reply is from me; apology is from you, forgiving is from me; repentance is from you, acceptance is from me; gratitude is from you, giving abundantly is from me; endurance is from you, help is from me What did you ask for that I did not provide? Here is a verse from the Koran which supports this hadith qudsi: Pray to me so that I may reply. Here is another hadith qudsi which sheds light onto this subject: I am upon my servants assumption. Now, let them think as they choose! So, if you believe without doubt that you will be answered when you pray, know it for sure that your wishes will come true. Since this is the view point, Imam Rabbani Ahmed Faruk Sarhandi, who is one of the friends of Allah (awliyaullah -spiritual masters), said the following: To ask for something is to receive it, as Allah does not allow his servant to carry out a prayer if it will not be accepted. In point of fact, when it comes to praying, we should immediately remember the following verse of the Koran: YOU CANNOT WILL EXCEPT BY THE WILL OF ALLAH! So, will our prayers be accepted and answered when we pray? The will that you exhibit is, in fact the will of Allah that manifests through you. If Allah had not willed so, then neither could you have that will. Prayer is the easiest, cheapest, and free, and the most effective thing. Therefore, prayer is said to be the weapon of the believer. How can prayer be a weapon? In order to understand this, we need to delve deep into Sufism. Human being, as far as its origin is concerned, is created with the Principal (dhati) Attributes of the one referred to as Allah, and it stands upon and sustains with the being of the One. As pointed by the name of Allah, the Hayy (the Alive), it has the attribute of LIFE, it lives. Human being has the attribute of life as pointed by the name of Allah, the Hayy (the Alive), and so he lives. Human being has the attribute of wisdom and consciousness as pointed by the name of Allah, the Alim (the Knower), and so he gives direction to his life.
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Human being has the attribute of will as pointed by the name of Allah, the Mureed (the Willing), and so he seeks out to realize its wishes. It is therefore that a human being can attain what he wishes and remain safe from what it fears, in so far as he can live out the spirit of these Names already available within his being, to the degree as it was ordained for him. * * * WHAT IS DUA (PRAYER) Is it a request from a god far away from you? Or is it a request to unleash the power of Allah within your essence and within every particle and dimension of your being with which you exist? Prayer is nothing other than the technique to manifest the divine power from within ourselves. That's why we often see that many things that initially appeared impossible will come true when we are able to pray with full concentration. This is the reason that prayer is our most powerful weapon. If wed like to make the best of the prayer mechanism, first and foremost, we need to pay attention to a few principles regarding the form, place and time of prayer. HOW TO PRACTICE DUA Certain motions are quite important when praying. While praying, arms should be spread out far enough to have the armpits visible; hands should be extended forward, parallel to the face. It is very beneficial to position the hands approximately thirty centimeters away from the face with the fingers spread out such that the rays emanating from the finger tips intersect with the rays emanating from the forehead closeby. Take a look at what Hazrat Rasul (peace be upon him) is saying about this: If a servant makes a request from Allah with his hands raised such that his armpits are visible, his prayer will certainly be answered as long as he does not rush. How does one rush, Rasul of Allah? He says, I prayed but it has not been accepted (and gives up)... This is a mistake. One should remain persistent until his prayer is anwered. The waves emanating from the hands, finger tips, and the waves directed from the brain (you may read about the subject of directed waves in our books MYSTERIES OF HUMAN and THE CONTEMPLATION OF THE ONE) merging at a single point like a laser beam, play an important role in the actualization of certain affairs. As it can be seen here, the main power that allows the PRAYER to be realized does not come from outside, but rather, it manifests from the spiritual power of the Names of Allah that are available within the being of the person. In short, PRAYER is the act of fulfilling a persons desires in association with the divine powers that the person possesses within. And of course it has a technique and there is a scientific explanation for it. In reality, PRAYER is the directed waves of the brain. Just as the first formation of the universe took place with the envision of Allah, through the transformation of the knowledge (ilm) level of existence into energy and quantum substance, all of a persons wishes and desires resulting from the knowledge level of consciousness, too, turn to reality by way of the focusing his brains directed waves. For this reason, the stronger the concentration is, the faster the actualization of
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PRAYER is. Thus, as it has been said in the Turkish proverb the prayer of the quiet under oppression does not go unanswered; the one receiving others moan does not find salvation. Since the person who is moaning under oppression directs his brain waves to his oppressor with such distress and concentration that it is not possible to escape from the arrow of that bow. The result of the moaning will appear in the grandson even if the grandfather does not receive it. How can it be? Very simple! The waves that the grandfather received change his genetic makeup such powerfully that its result is expressed either in himself or in his children, or even in his grandchildren by way of genetic inheritance. So, the following generations would be exposed to the consequences of their grandparents actions. Well, we mentioned the prayer with the hands forward and arms spread out. Our Master, the Rasul of Allah, had done it that way. Rasul of Allah prayed standing up, with his hands as we described above, together with his companions, about some people who were found in the desert in a wounded state, brought in by the locals to be taken care of, but after they got better, killed their caretakers and escaped. As he prayed so, the escapees were soon found and they received the punishment for their actions. Likewise the prayer that is done as the waves directed via the fingertips as we described above, standing up, the arms extended forward with the palms of the hands towards the face, is very effective, the prayer done in a state of PROSTRATION (sajda) is also very effective. Prayers done in the state of PROSTRATION after midnight hours in particular, when the sun is directly across from where you are and the radiation from the sun is at a minimum, are remarkably effective. If this kind of prayer is done in the last prostration of the salaat for a necessity (hajaat) or any other salaat practiced, it will be much more powerful. If prayer is done at the last prostration of the salaat, that is midnight salaat, after confession of imperfections and requesting to be forgiven from them and if, depending on the importance of the request, this practice is carried on regularly for a few days in a row or every other day, the discretion of the Divine will certainly allow the request of that prayer to be realized, because the permission given to the persistence on that prayer is a sign that the prayer will be answered. As it happens, Allah will not grant permission to the insistent practice of a prayer if it is not going to be answered. If the person is not insistent on his PRAYER about something, then there is a very small chance that such a prayer might be fulfilled. We said that PRAYER that is done in the state of PROSTRATION, especially after the confession of imperfections, is very powerful. But why...? During prostration, there is a lot of blood flow towards the head, the brain, from the body and the brain is fed perfectly well with oxygen and other sources of energy. For this reason, the brain is at that time able to generate very powerful waves. In addition, with the act of confessing imperfections during prostration, a very powerful concentration and focusing is achieved, which results in the release of powerful waves about what is desired. It is the most important factor, which makes PRAYER stronger and allows it to be realized, for a person to keep his mind from the control of suspicion (wahm) away
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during the prayer. Such is the state experienced during prostration when the sense of I (ego) disappears. Accordingly, Hazrat Rasul (peace be upon him) warned us in this matter by saying pray faithfully and without suspicion that it will be accepted. It is also the power of SUSPICION- MISGIVING found in the person that reduces the power of the PRAYER. The more the persons power of SUSPICION MISGIVING has receded, the faster and more certain his prayer will be realized. It is one of the most important factors to have SUSPICION MISGIVING at a lowest level that PRAYERS performed by people who have achieved an intimate understanding (yaqeen) of Allah (entered into the realm of certainty about Allah) are accepted. No doubt, the divine powers, which is revealed in these people as a result of their practices and of the Divine blessing (lutf), are also an important factor in the accomplishment of their prayers faster. * * * Besides, some misleading inspirations of the JINN, who are well known by their SATAN characteristics, upon people are also of importance on the topic of PRAYER. Their influences leave people without using this very effective weapon. Right at the moment when you have a good mind to PRAY, the JINN, who are called SATAN due to their devilish characteristics, send you an impulse of misgiving. Oof! Why should I pray? I will already have it if it was laid out for me in my destiny (qadar)! I do not need to pray! Whether I pray or not, everything works out to be as they are already destined in advance! And in consequence you give up praying and hence you are left without this most powerful WEAPON. Yet, you cannot even imagine what you are deprived of by not praying! Thats why Hazrat RasulAllah (peace be upon him) recommends us the following: From the strap of your shoe, to the grass of your sheep, ask for everything from Allah. Ask from the generosity of Allah because Allah is fond of being asked. No doubt, Allah loves his servants most who is persistent in their prayers. Look on the times when you are most sensitive as a gift opportunity for praying because such states mark the times of mercy and grace (rahmat). The meaning pointed out by the last hadith shariff I wrote down is as follows: The times when you are most sensitive means your times of high feelings owing to your full concentration on a matter. It means turning fully and clearly toward ALLAH at such times. Such a turning consequently allows the person to manifest the ideal powers within because of putting his brains attention totally on a single target. * * * It is the most important factor for a person in the actualization of his PRAYER to be able to remove his person (individual self) from between, and allow the Haqq (Truth) alone to create the request in his brain and to put the PRAYER into words in his tongue. In such a case: IF ALLAH WILLS SOMETHING TO HAPPEN, HU SAYS BE, AND IT IS. One of the most important supporting factors in praying is being insistent on what is desired. Therefore, it is a big mistake to pray for a few times and then give up
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soon. We should always remain persistent on the issue of our PRAYERS and be careful about particularly choosing our desires be focused on and rewarding in our life beyond death in so far as possible. Yet, with the wrong kind of a request we could unknowingly hurt ourselves to a great degree. Just as we can use electricity for the good, we can also hurt or kill ourselves with its wrong way of usage. As we have already said, PRAYER is the way of manifestation via powers owned by Allah within your being, your essence, your SELF. As such, the more we know about how to use this weapon, the better we can protect ourselves from our enemies, realize our wishes, and even attain certainty (yaqeen) of Allah. In our book MYSTERIES of MAN, we discussed that at the basis of prayer is the brain power, and that the brain is a substance equipped and donated with divine powers. In that book we mentioned about the related mechanism for this, and wrote in 1984 that human beings can neutralize weapons with their brainwaves. Take a look at how the Russians realize the value of the brain without having belief: Let us carefully read the following article taken from the Turkish Sabah newspaper published on June 11, 1991: FUTURE WARS WILL BE TELEPATHIC The famous Soviet Union scientist Vlail Kaznatcheev remarked that human brains could affect wars telepathically. Prof. Kaznatcheev is continuing his research at an exclusive research facility founded in the body of Novosibirsk Academy where geniuses work. MOSCOW - Prof. Vlail Kaznatcheev, who is one of the most respected members of the Soviet Science Academy, pointed out that the human brain could have an effect on people, thoughts and electronic equipment that are physically far away from it. Kaznatcheev is intensely researching to prove his claim. Even though most people think his claims are nonsense, he is receiving great interest in his own country the USSR. The government, which provided Kaznatcheev with a fully equipped laboratory and assistants for help with his research in the body of Novosibirsk Academy where geniuses are educated, expects a lot from his research. KGB Protection The most important aspect of Kaznatcheev's research is that he is trying to use the telepathic powers of the human brain as a weapon. According to him, using only the power of thoughts, it is possible to disable computer systems, radars at the airports, and even every kind of weaponry that can be developed using modern technology. The government, who is watching this research very closely, mobilized the most talented KGB agents to protect Kaznatcheev to prevent CIA from kidnapping him. The famous scientist explains his views with very simple examples: If the computer you are using suddenly stops working, do not blame the manufacturer. If you are under stress or if you are angry, you could effect the equipment you are using because an ordinary human brain is more powerful than the most powerful computer and sometimes a person may use the powers that nature gave him without realizing it. According to Kaznatcheev, if a person intensely thinks about someone whom he hasnt seen for a long time, and unexpectedly receives a phone call or a letter from that person, he should not consider this as chance. This act is the person directly
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affecting the person he is thinking about with his thoughts. Lastly, at a Soviet television program in which Kaznatcheev participated, he displayed a plant in his laboratory for a long time and asked the audience to think for an hour only about the plant growing. The result was truly astonishing. The plant showed inexplicable growth in a very short amount of time. The basis of Kaznatcheev's research is to capture the infinity of the power of thought. Continuing his research by merging science and parapsychology, in which he tries to reach the human subconscious, Kaznatcheev states that his findings will someday produce very important results in crippling the enemy equipment. However, he would like this technology not to be used as a weapon, but to prevent wars. For all these reasons, PRAYER is the most excellent power given to a human being. * * * WHERE TO PRACTICE DUA By conditioning, we might immediately think, is there such a thing as a location for PRAYER? Are we going to look for a special place for PRAYER? What does location have to do with PRAYER? Of course, PRAYER can be performed anywhere! There is no requirement to search for a special place for PRAYING. However: The operational system of human brain is on a good deal related with the magnetic field of the place where it is found and the wave environment in that the field. Not only having the support of the positive energy channels formed by the underground ley lines, but the influences of the magnetic field suffusing the area where the brain is present at the time is very important for the brain. The brain waves of a person who is praying can join together with the brainwaves of people around him and hence enormously powerful waves can be produced. Collective prayers can also create enormous influences. For this reason, Hazrat Rasul (peace be upon him) says the following: When three people come together to PRAY, ALLAH will not reject their prayers. Why specific places? For example, where? PRAYERS performed at Kaaba PRAYERS performed at Mount Arafat PRAYERS performed in Medina at the post (maqaam) of Hazrat Rasul (peace be upon him) PRAYERS performed in the house of Virgin Mary at Ephesus PRAYERS performed in Istanbul at the posts of the person from among the companions of RasulAllah who is known as Eyyub Sultan... Likewise, PRAYERS performed at the posts of the well-known Islamic spiritual masters (awliyah) at any town These prayers have always their own affects as very powerful prayers. There are two important effective points here: 1. The magnetic energy emanating out from the place itself. 2. The energy extended from the spiritual quality of the individual who is buried therein. If the person performs prayers by taking the reinforcement of these two influences with him, his PRAYER has an extremely high chance of being answered and fulfilled. In addition, it has been established that PRAYERS performed collectively as a group, at the presence of persons who are believed to have high levels of spiritual
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power, are also extremely effective. * * * WHEN TO PRACTICE DUA Just as you can pray at any time and at any place you are inspired to or feel like to, certain days and nights also play an important role about the fulfillment of prayers. Seek for the Night of Qadr especially in the following nights: If the month of Ramadan you entered Began on Sunday, the night joining the 28th to 29th; Began on Monday, the night joining the 20th to 21st; Began on Tuesday, the night joining the 26th to 27th; Began on Wednesday, the night joining the 18th to 19th; Began on Thursday, the night joining the 24th to 25th; Began on Friday, the night joining the 16th to 17th; Began on Saturday, the night joining the 22nd to 23rd; Is the night of Qadr according to Imam-i Sharani We also think the same. The odd nights after the 20th of the month of Ramadan, 10th night of the month of Muharram, The first night of the month of Rajab, 15th night of the month of Rajab,. The night of Miraj, 15th night of the month of Shaban, Nights of Eve of Ramadan and of Eids, The nights of Eid of Ramadan days and Eid of Hajj days, Hours between the Friday sermons (khutbahs) and salaatu Asr (regular afternoon prayer), 27th day of the month of Rajab, 15th day of the month of Shaban, All days of the month of Ramadan, Days of Eve [of Ramadan and of Eids], 10th day of the month of Muharram, 10th day of the month of Dhul-Hijja Having presented these days, let us discuss about the nights, especially making the best use of the hours after midnight. * * * The following two points are especially important regarding the time of PRAYER: Internal conditions External conditions Internal conditions refer to the inner emotional state of a person. It is very important to PRAY wholeheartedly and feverishly. Indeed, this is the only state that creates full concentration. This is the only way the powers of the brain can focus on a single topic and generate waves towards the manifestation of desires. External conditions are completely related to the environmental conditions. The first of the external conditions is that the sun shouldnt be shining and its lights should have even completely disappeared, as the cosmic rays which emanate from the sun block the powers of the brain for the most part. The second important point is the hours when planets like Jupiter and Venus provide a soft and nurturing radiation, which affect the brain. The calculation methods required to find these hours are explained in the book
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MARIFATNAME (Book of Gnosis) by Ibrahim Hakki Erzurumi [17th century Sufi author] in full detail. A complete translation is highly advised. Actually, some safe going affairs may turn into a dispute and not work out during the current planetary hour of Mars, for instance, while some hopeless affairs could surprisingly work out during the planetary hours of Venus or Jupiter and leave us bewildered. For this reason, it is very beneficial to organize some of our activities based on the influences of current planetary hours. * * * RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DESTINY (qadar) and DUA When dua is concerned, most of Muslims tend to say oh, come on, what was predestined (foregone within qadar) will unavoidably happen; why practice dua, then? because of being conditioned by misleading information. However, this is totally a mistaken view. We disclosed the true information about destiny (qadar) to our readers in related sections of our books, the MYSTERIES of HUMAN and REASONING and FAITH based completely on the verses of the Koran and the instructions by Hazrat RasulAllah (peace be upon him). Destiny (fate) is precise; and nobody can stand beyond it. No flying from fate! As a matter of fact, Hazrat RasulAllah (peace be upon him) emphasized this fact in his explanations in a way even the narrow minded could understand. Unfortunately, you cannot find those hadithes reflecting this fact in any book, except for hadith books. They cannot write! They are afraid! But, a fact is still a fact whether it is written, told or not! Not to mention, if it was explained by RasulAllah in the clearest way! The most important issue here is: The technique of the qadar! Before explaining the relationship between qadar and dua, lets try to relay a few instructions of RasulAllah related to this topic. Only dua can change qadar. Only good deeds can extend lifespan. Undoubtedly, a person gets devoid of subsistence (rizq) due to the sin he has committed. Only dua can reverse the decree (qadha). Good deeds can extend lifespan. Precautions (tadbir) cannot prevent qadar; whereas dua is of use to all troubles (musibat) that were already lived or have not been lived yet; undoubtedly a trouble arises, dua goes against it and they fight till Doomsday. Yes, on one hand qadar is said to have set in stone, unchanging; on the other hand dua is explained to prevent qadar and qadha! How shall we merge these two ends and draw a conclusion? Well, we should know that Destiny (qadar) of humans has already been foreordained like every other thing! However, the fact of dua lies still within the system of qadar. If you practice dua, you can prevent the incident destined within qadar and reverse the decree; yet this will be possible only if your qadar would allow you to do so. Therefore, only if your qadar makes it possible, you would practice dua and so prevent that forthcoming incident.
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If it was made easy for you to practice dua within your qadar, you would practice dua before that trouble or calamity arises and be protected from its possible harm. Accordingly, you cannot go against the foreordainment (taqdir) by taking precautions; but if it was already foreordained for you to take precautions within your qadar, then you would take the precautions and prevent the incident. Caliph Omar (may Allah be pleased with him) gave us a really significant warning related to this issue with an example of his. On the way to Damascus with an army, Caliph Omar learns that there is a bubonic plague epidemic in the city. Then, he orders the army to go back. Upon that decision, those who cannot go beyond the verbal formalism and comprehend the concept of qadar are surprised and ask: -Omar, are you fleeing from the qadar Allah foreordained? The answer of Hazrat Omar who mastered the technique of qadar is a lesson for all of us. -I am fleeing from the decree (qadha) of Allah to the qadar Allah fore-ordained! The answer written above is the key point about the concept of qadar. Qadar is absolute and preset! Ever person, however, will face the consequences of what has come out of him. Let us remember the verse: And that man shall have nothing save only that for which he made effort. (53:39) That is why you need to do your best and all you can do. If you can practice dua, do it without delay! If you have an opportunity for some other practices, go into them at once! If you have a chance to get protected, use it right away! Do whatever you can to change your fate which is unknown to you and you do not know what it says. What will take place as a consequence is what lies in your qadar. But by doing these, you will at least have the relief of having done your best. Know that, what you can do is what your qadar allows you to do; you surely will face the consequences of what you do. That is why it was said that dua may turn qadha back. That is to say, the reverse of that qadha depends on your dua! Whether that calamity will hit you or not, depends on your dua concerning it. Therefore, as long as you practice dua, you are not hit by that qadha or unwanted incident. Or, things or events you have been hoping for will come true as a result of your dua. * * * RasulAllah described it as a devil act to say I wish I had! Why, do you think? Why are we asked not to feel I wish I had? We need to explore and understand its meaning very carefully. We must know that dua is a significant component in the system of qadar. If you are able to practice dua, do it as much as you can; you will experience all their benefits so much, even far more than what you can estimate during your life in this world. Actually, Allah rendered dua to be a prerequisite for many certain faculties that Hu may unfold from within a servant; and set dua as the reason of many things that Hu foreordained. That is why dua is the weapon of believers. Dua is the best of blessed gifts (nimah) that allows all the beauties in the foreordainment (taqdiir) to reach you. Those who will gain the greatest blessings are those who will use the tool of dua as much and effective as possible. The unaware who cannot understand the qadar truly, on the other hand will give up
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dua, and hence all the scarcities and sufferings would be waiting for him. Let us conclude the issue with the following statement of RasulAllah (peace be upon him): The doors of rahmat (blessings) have definitely been opened for those of you whom the door of dua is once opened for, and nothing as a wish is lovelier than wishing for the well-being (afiyah) from Allah. Dua is helpful against troubles either confronted or not. You the servants of Allah, hold on to dua fast! * * * PRAYER RESEARCHES Let us now read the following piece of news carefully revealing the results of scientific research on the power of dua published in The New York Times on 10 September 2004, that is 13 years after the first print of this book in Turkish in 1991. * * * CAN PRAYERS HEAL? CRITICS SAY STUDIES GO PAST SCIENCES REACH Abstract (Document Summary) Since 2000, at least 10 studies of intercessory prayer have been carried out by researchers at institutions including the Mind/Body Medical Institute, a nonprofit clinic near Boston run by a Harvard-trained cardiologist, as well as Duke University and the University of Washington. Government financing of intercessory prayer research began in the mid-1990's and has continued under the Bush administration. Another problem concerns the mechanism by which prayer might be supposed to work. Some researchers contend that prayer's effects -- if they exist -- have little to do with religion or the existence of God. Instead of divine intervention, they propose things like ''subtle energies,'' ''mind-to-mind communication'' or ''extra dimensions of space-time'' -- concepts that many scientists dismiss as nonsense. Others suggest that prayer may have a soothing effect that works like a placebo for believers who know they are being prayed for. The quality of original data is also at the center of the controversy over the 2001 Columbia fertility study, which was reported by many newspapers including The New York Times. Dr. Kwang Cha, a Korean fertility specialist visiting the university, was the study's lead author. Daniel Wirth, a lawyer from California who had conducted research on alternative healing, was his principal research associate. In the spring of 1999, the two met at a Starbucks on the Upper West Side to exchange data, according to Dr. Cha, who provided details of the meeting through a colleague. In 2001, two researchers and a Columbia University fertility expert published a startling finding in a respected medical journal: women undergoing fertility treatment who had been prayed for by Christian groups were twice as likely to have a successful pregnancy as those who had not. Three years later, after one of the researchers pleaded guilty to conspiracy in an unrelated business fraud, Columbia is investigating the study and the journal reportedly pulled the paper from its Web site. No evidence of manipulation has yet surfaced, and the study's authors stand behind their data. But the doubts about the study have added to the debate over a deeply
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controversial area of research: whether prayer can heal illness. Critics express outrage that the federal government, which has contributed $2.3 million in financing over the last four years for prayer research, would spend taxpayer money to study something they say has nothing to do with science. "Intercessory prayer presupposes some supernatural intervention that is by definition beyond the reach of science," said Dr. Richard J. McNally, a psychologist at Harvard. "It is just a nonstarter, in my opinion, a total waste of time and money." Prayer researchers, many themselves believers in prayer's healing powers, say scientists do not need to know how a treatment or intervention works before testing it. Dr. Richard Nahin, a senior adviser at the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, said in an e-mail message that the studies were meant to answer practical questions, not religious ones. "We only recently understood how aspirin worked, and the mechanisms of action of various antidepressants and general anesthetics remain under investigation," Dr. Nahin wrote. He said a recent government study found that 45 percent of adults prayed specifically for health reasons, and suggested that many of them were poor people with limited access to care. "It is a public health imperative to understand if this prayer offers them any benefit," Dr. Nahin wrote. Some researchers also point out that praying for the relief of other people's suffering is a deeply human response to disease. The 'Placebo Effect' Since 2000, at least 10 studies of intercessory prayer have been carried out by researchers at institutions including the Mind/Body Medical Institute, a nonprofit clinic near Boston run by a Harvard-trained cardiologist, as well as Duke University and the University of Washington. Government financing of intercessory prayer research began in the mid-1990's and has continued under the Bush administration. In one continuing study, financed by the National Institutes of Health and called "Placebo Effect in Distant Healing of Wounds," doctors at California Pacific Medical Center, a major hospital in San Francisco, inflict a tiny stab wound on the abdomens of women receiving breast reconstruction surgery, with their consent, and then determine whether the "focused intention" of a variety of healers speeds the wound's healing. Two large trials of the effects of prayer on coronary health are currently under review at prominent medical journals. Even those who defend prayer research concede that such studies are difficult. For one thing, no one knows what constitutes a "dose": some studies have tested a few prayers a day by individual healers, while others have had entire congregations pray together. Some have involved evangelical Christians; others have engaged rabbis, Buddhist and New Age healers, or some combination. Another problem concerns the mechanism by which prayer might be supposed to work. Some researchers contend that prayer's effects - if they exist - have little to do with religion or the existence of God. Instead of divine intervention, they
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propose things like "subtle energies," "mind-to-mind communication" or "extra dimensions of space-time" - concepts that many scientists dismiss as nonsense. Others suggest that prayer may have a soothing effect that works like a placebo for believers who know they are being prayed for. Either way, even many churchgoers are skeptical that prayer can be subjected to scientific scrutiny. For one thing, prayers vary in their purpose and content: some give praise, others petition for strength, many ask only that God's will be done. For another, not everyone sees God as one who does favors on request. "There's no way to put God to the test, and that's exactly what you're doing when you design a study to see if God answers your prayers," said the Rev. Raymond J. Lawrence Jr., director of pastoral care at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. "This whole exercise cheapens religion, and promotes an infantile theology that God is out there ready to miraculously defy the laws of nature in answer to a prayer." Prayer and Heart Disease Proponents of prayer research often cite two large heart disease trials to justify further study of prayer's healing potential. In one study, Dr. Randolph Byrd, a San Francisco cardiologist, had groups of bornagain Christians pray for 192 of 393 patients being treated at the coronary care unit of San Francisco General Hospital. In 1988, Dr. Byrd reported in The Southern Medical Journal, a peer-reviewed publication of the Southern Medical Association, that the patients who were prayed for did better on several measures of health, including the need for drugs and breathing assistance. At the end of the paper, Dr. Byrd wrote, "I thank God for responding to the many prayers made on behalf of the patients." In the other study, of 990 heart disease patients, Dr. William S. Harris of St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., and his colleagues reported in The Archives of Internal Medicine in 1999 that the patients who were prayed for by religious strangers did significantly better than the others on a measure of coronary health that included more than 30 factors. Dr. Harris, who was one of the authors of a paper arguing that Darwin's theory of evolution is speculative, concluded that his study supported Dr. Byrd's. In the experiments, the researchers did not know until the study was completed which patients were being prayed for. But experts say the two studies suffer from a similar weakness: the authors measured so many variables that some were likely to come up positive by chance. In effect, statisticians say, this method is like asking the same question over and over until you get the answer you want. "It's a weak measure," said Dr. Richard Sloan, a professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia who has been critical of prayer research. "You're collecting 30 or 40 variables but can't even specify up front which ones" will be affected. Dr. Harris corrected for this problem, experts say, but he then found significant differences between prayer and no-prayer groups only by using a formula that he and his colleagues had devised, and that no one else had ever validated. A swarm of letters to the journal challenged Dr. Harris's methods. One correspondent, a Dutch doctor, jokingly claimed that he could account for the results because he was clairvoyant. "I have subsequently used my telepathic powers to influence the course of the experimental group," he wrote. Still, some religious leaders and practitioners of alternative medicine argue that
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because prayer is so common a response to illness, researchers have a responsibility to investigate it. "We need to look at this with what I call open-minded skepticism," said Dr. Marilyn Schlitz, the lead investigator of the federally financed wound healing study and the director of research at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, an alternative medicine research center near San Francisco. Questions About Data It was a former associate of Dr. Schlitz's, Dr. Elisabeth Targ, who first helped draw federal money into research on so-called distant healing. The daughter of Russell Targ, a physicist who studied extrasensory perception for government intelligence agencies in the 1970's, Dr. Targ made headlines with a 1998 study suggesting that prayers from assorted religious healers and shamans could protect AIDS patients from some complications related to the disease. The findings, and Dr. Targ's reputation, helped win her two grants from the complementary and alternative medicine center at the National Institutes of Health - one for a larger study of distant healing among AIDS patients, another to test the effect of prayers by outside healers on the longevity of people with deadly brain tumors. Both trials are continuing at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, which has a complementary medicine wing, but Dr. Targ is no longer running them. She herself died of brain cancer in 2002. Shortly after Dr. Targ's death, her methods came under attack. An article in Wired magazine charged that she and her co-authors had massaged their data on AIDS to make the effects of prayer look better than they were. Officials at California Pacific conducted an investigation of the study and concluded that the data had not been manipulated. Dr. John Astin, who is running the second AIDS study, said the biggest weakness of Dr. Targ's first trial was that it was too small to be conclusive. But in a letter defending the study, the hospital's director of research also acknowledged that he could not tell for sure from the original medical records which patients had been prayed for and which had not been. "Each subject's name, age and date of birth were blinded with what appears to be a black crayon," he wrote. The quality of original data is also at the center of the controversy over the 2001 Columbia fertility study, which was reported by many newspapers including The New York Times. Dr. Kwang Cha, a Korean fertility specialist visiting the university, was the study's lead author. Daniel Wirth, a lawyer from California who had conducted research on alternative healing, was his principal research associate. In the spring of 1999, the two met at a Starbucks on the Upper West Side to exchange data, according to Dr. Cha, who provided details of the meeting through a colleague. Dr. Cha had the pregnancy results with him, and Mr. Wirth had a roster of the women he said had been prayed for. The two had never shared the information before, and Dr. Cha was surprised enough by the results that he took them to a former mentor, Dr. Rogerio Lobo of Columbia, to make sure the study was done correctly. In a recent interview, Dr. Lobo said that the study had come to him as a "fait accompli" and that he had interrogated Dr. Cha to make sure his study methods
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were sound. He decided they were and helped write the study. "We had these results, we didn't believe them, we couldn't explain them, but we decided to put them out there," Dr. Lobo said. In May, Mr. Wirth pleaded guilty to conspiracy in connection with a $2 million business fraud in Pennsylvania. He is awaiting sentencing. Dr. Lobo said he had met Mr. Wirth but knew little about him or about his contributions to the study. He acknowledged that the data could have been manipulated, but said he did not know how. "I didn't actually conduct the study, so I can't know for sure," Dr. Lobo said. Mr. Wirth's lawyer, William Arbuckle, said his client was not available for comment. 'This Is No Routine Paper' One study that many people believe could either bolster prayer research or dampen interest in the topic has been completed, but has not yet been published. Dr. Herbert Benson, the cardiologist who founded the Mind/Body Medical Institute, began the trial in the late 1990's with $2.4 million from the John Templeton Foundation, which supports research into spirituality. The Mind/Body Institute, according to its Web site, is a "scientific and educational organization dedicated to the study of mind/body interactions." The study included some 1,800 volunteers, heart bypass patients at six hospitals. They were monitored according to strict medical guidelines and randomly assigned to be prayed for or not. One doctor who has seen a final version of the study said it was the most rigorous trial on the subject to date. Other experts say they wonder whether the study will be published at all, and what is holding it up. "He's got nothing, or we would have seen it by now," Dr. Sloan of Columbia said, referring to Dr. Benson. In an interview at his office, Dr. Benson acknowledged that at least two medical journals had turned down the study after asking for revisions. He said that the study was currently under review at another journal and that talking about the results could jeopardize publication. "This is no routine paper," he said. "What you're looking at obviously is not a typical intervention, not at all. We are at the interface of science and religion here, and there are boundary issues that you would not have for almost any other paper." Dr. Benson, who has studied the links between spirituality and medicine for many years, declined to answer when asked if he himself believed in the effects of intercessory prayer, saying only that he believed in God. "We know that praying for oneself can influence health, so that's what led us to this topic," he said. If researchers are struggling to prove that intercessory prayer has benefits for health, at least one study hints that it could be harmful. In a 1997 experiment involving 40 alcoholics in rehab, psychologists at the University of New Mexico found that although intercessory prayers did not have any effect on drinking patterns, the men and women in the study who knew they were being prayed for actually did worse. "It's not clear what that means," said Dr. William Miller, one of the study's authors. * * * You can also read the following article about the issue of praying written by Mary
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Duenwald published on 7 May in The New York Times. RELIGION AND HEALTH: NEW RESEARCH REVIVES AN OLD DEBATE In the last decade, dozens of scientists have claimed they have found evidence of links between religion and health, and the idea has caught on. News articles with headlines like ''Spirituality Is Good Medicine'' and ''The Prayer Cure'' have reported the findings as if they added up to just another instance of science confirming the obvious: that spiritual faith helps people stay healthy and live longer. More than 70 medical schools offer instruction in how to address patients' religious beliefs. An H.M.O. in Denver offers spiritual counseling to all members. And doctors are beginning to cross the traditional divide between religion and medicine. But a psychologist at Columbia University, Dr. Richard P. Sloan, says this is a movement that should never have started. Dr. Sloan has been examining the research and has found it to be rife with methodological problems and statistical flaws. ''Nobody would dispute that for a great many people, religion provides comfort in times of distress, medical or otherwise,'' Dr. Sloan said. ''But there is no really good compelling evidence that there is a relationship between religious involvement and health.'' Dr. Sloan, who studies associations between psychology and heart disease, has made an avocation of debunking the scientific literature on religion and health. ''My colleagues and I got tired of reading uncritical media reports about the putative benefits of religious activity,'' he said. In a recent Annals of Behavioral Medicine, Dr. Sloan aimed at statements that religion had salutary effects on heart health and said they did not hold water. One study from 1995 that he reviewed looked at whether religious activity lengthened the lives of 232 elderly patients who had undergone heart surgery. The subjects were asked to describe their religious denominations, how frequently they attended services, how much strength and comfort they received from religion, the number of people they knew in their congregation and how religious they were. Taken together, the five characteristics were not found to be associated with longer or shorter survival times. But one of the five, by itself, was. Respondents who said they derived strength or comfort from religion lived longer after surgery than those who said they did not. Dr. Sloan called the single association insignificant, given that the other variables had no effects on survival. ''You can take any data set, and if you cut it apart in a number of different ways, you'll find something eventually,'' he said. ''But you can't just go in and pick out the one finding that's significant and say 'Aha, here it is,' when the other findings are not significant.'' He said the researchers set out to learn whether all five religious variables together had an effect on survival time. Only after the data were in did they decide to look at each variable independently. This tactic, Dr. Sloan said, exemplifies what's known in scientific research as the sharpshooter's fallacy, analogous to the way a gunslinger might empty his sixshooter into the side of a barn and then draw the bull's-eye around the bullet holes. Dr. Harold G. Koenig, a psychiatrist at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., said Dr. Sloan misrepresented the study, making it seem weaker than it was. Dr. Koenig, who cited the study as positive evidence that spirituality
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enhances health in his ''Handbook of Religion and Health,'' said comfort from religion was not the sole variable associated with longer life. Two others, he said, attendance at services and overall religiousness, were also associated, only less strongly. ''The risk of mortality for those patients who were both low on participation and low on strength and comfort from religion was over 14 times greater than in those with high group participation and high comfort from religion,'' Dr. Koenig said. ''But this is an example of what Sloan does with all of the studies he's reviewing. He selects out the negative and doesn't even mention the strengths of the study.'' Another study that Dr. Sloan criticized looked at patients in a cardiac care unit to determine whether they fared better if a small group of born-again Christians prayed on their behalf. Some patients in the study received the prayers and others did not, and neither the patients nor their doctors knew which ones were which, a double-blind situation. The researchers looked at 26 possible outcomes, like new cases of congestive heart failure, pneumonia and cardiac arrest and new prescriptions for diuretics and antibiotics. They found that for six outcomes, the people who had prayers said on their behalf fared better. Those findings were not valid, Dr. Sloan said, because the researchers had failed to analyze their data according to established principles of statistics. When so many variables are in question, he explained, it is quite likely that chance alone will cause a few of them to appear significant. Scientists usually employ statistical formulas to ensure that none of the associations they find can be attributed to chance, but the researchers here failed to do that, Dr. Sloan said. Dr. Frederic M. Luskin, a clinical science research associate at the Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention, who cited this study in his review in 2000 of the research on religion and cardiac health, acknowledged the statistical problem. But he argued that despite that flaw, the study at least raised the suggestion of an association between intercessory prayer and health. ''To dismiss it entirely,'' Dr. Luskin said, ''is exaggerated.'' Dr. Sloan faults some research for failing even to address the link between religion and health. He dismissed one study of a church-based weight control program that helped participants lose weight. ''Just because a weight-loss program is conducted in a church doesn't make it a religious activity,'' Dr. Sloan said. But Dr. Koenig argued that the weight-loss program in question had many religious aspects. ''These are church members who are supporting each other,'' he said, ''whose belief systems are involved in why they're doing this.'' Dr. Koenig said this and other studies suggested links between religion and health that were at least strong enough to warrant further study. Stronger evidence exists to suggest that religion is beneficial to mental health, he said. Because mental health is connected to physical health, he said, it stands to reason that religion would also be associated with physical health. ''It's just not as clean and easy to show an association with physical health as it is with mental health,'' Dr. Koenig said. ''That's a reasonable hypothesis,'' Dr. Sloan responded. ''But then you've got to show it.'' Dr. Luskin said he welcomed the criticisms because they would lead researchers to
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improve their methods. ''There's not enough data out there to say, 'Without a doubt we can prove this,' '' he said. ''It's just that there is an awful lot of smoke suggesting there's a fire. He's saying no one has proved there's a fire. I think that there's enough smoke that you can say to your patients that fire may be there.'' Dr. Koenig said the research suggested doctors should pay attention to patients' spirituality. ''Doctors shouldn't prescribe religion,'' he said. ''But they should take a religious or spiritual history on all patients with significant medical illness.'' If patients indicate that they are not religious, the doctor should let the subject drop, Dr. Koenig said. If a patient does find strength in religion, he said, ''the doctor might consider supporting the religious beliefs that the patient finds helpful.'' Dr. Sloan considers such an approach discriminating, because if a doctor thinks a treatment is useful, the doctor should use it no matter what a patient believes. ''If a patient has an infection, we don't ask, 'What are your feelings about tetracycline?' '' In another paper in the same annals, in an issue on religion and health, Dr. Walter L. Larimore, vice president for medical outreach at Focus on the Family, a religious organization in Colorado Springs, urged doctors to ''encourage positive spirituality with their patients.'' Dr. Raymond J. Lawrence, head chaplain at New York Presbyterian Hospital, argues in the same journal that if physicians become involved with religion, they will only cook up ''a witches' brew that will embarrass medicine and trivialize religion.'' Those who want doctors to pay more attention to religion, Dr. Lawrence said, underestimate the complexity of the subject. Some patients, he added, believe that their illnesses are punishments from God, and well-meaning physicians may try to discourage such a belief. ''So which beliefs are you supporting and which are you not supporting?'' Dr. Lawrence asked. ''Religion can be a destructive force in the world, just as it can be a benign and health-giving force.'' * * * After that information, let us clarify the place of this topic within the system of qadar with a hadith of RasulAllah: When asked to RasulAllah What would you say about the medicine we use for treatment, dua practiced with the purpose of healing and all those protective things we use to protect (from the enemies) Do they reverse or change something within the qadar Allah foreordained? He answered: All that you have mentioned are within the qadar Allah foreordained. * * *

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