CHAPTER – 1

QUR-ANIC
VERSES
ON
PRAYERS

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We pass; the path that each man trod
Is dim, or will be dim, with weeds;
What fame is left for human deeds
In endless age? It rests with God.

......... Alred Tennyson

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 Sovereign Lord, admonishes His Servants – the human species – to call
upon Him, day and night, in trouble or in bliss. He hears them. He is enough to
satisfy their needs and to salvage them from troubles. He has to say only “be”
and it is! The Almighty has repeated this at a number of places in the Noble
Scripture. Just to quote once, the Divine Book says:

Verily, when He intends

A thing, His Command is,
“Be”, and it is! (36:82)

Thus it is quite clear and is a fact that His modus operandi for creation or
re-enlivenment of a thing, whom He wants it, is remarkably simple. He merely
orders it and instantaneously it becomes a fait accompli. Thus no process or
labour is involved.

As a matter of fact, Existence waits on His Will, or Plan, or Intention. His

creation is not dependent on time, or instruments or means or any conditions
whatsoever. The moment He wills a thing, it becomes His Word or Command,
and the thing forthwith comes into existence. Thus without any doubt, all the
creation, on earth or the heavens, in one way or the other, obeys and adores their
Creator. Al-Quran says:

Do they seek
For other than the Religion
Of God? – while all creatures
In the heavens and the earth
Have, willingly or unwillingly,
Bowed to His Will
(Accepted Islam),
And to Him
Shall they all return. (3:83)

This then leads us to the conclusions that He is the only One to Him we –
his servants on earth – should call and He is the only One who hears our calls
and come to our rescue. Al-Quran says:

And your Lord says:

“Call on Me: I
Will answer (your Prayer):
But those who are
Too arrogant to serve Me
Will surely find themselves
In Hell – in humiliation!” (40:60)

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In the following verse we are told of Prayer and the nearness of God to his
humans to hear our prayers and come to our aid. Certainly, who can be so near to
us than our own Creator Himself. The Quran says:

When My servants
Ask thee concerning Me,
I am indeed
Close (to them): I listen
To the prayer of every
Suppliant when he calleth on Me:
Let them also, with a will,
Listen to My call,
And believe in Me:
That they may walk
In the right way. (2 : 186)

Exalted in Power, Omniscient, Most Merciful, Oft-Forgiving, is the source and

goal of all things. He should be called upon, in sincere devotion and under
whatever the circumstances one comes across. Those who turn away from His
Infinite Mercy, are petty, ignorant and loosers. However, it is ordained that in
calling upon God, his subjects must avoid any sort of arrogance or show or
loudness, or vanity of request or words. If excess is condemned in all things, it is
specially worthy of condemnation when we go humbly before our Lord, – we
poor creatures before the Most Gracious Who is aware of all our deeds inacted
hidden or open:

Call ye, then, upon God

With sincere devotion to Him,
Even though the Unbelievers
May detest it. (40 : 14)

For Him (alone) is prayer

In Truth: any others that they
Call upon besides Him hear them
No more than if they were
To stretch forth their hands
For water to reach their mouths
But it reaches them not:
For the prayer of those
Without Faith is nothing
But (futile) wandering (in the mind).

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 Whatever beings there are
In the heavens and the earth
Do prostrate themselves to God
(Acknowledging subjection), – with good will
Or in spite of themselves:
So do their shadows
In the mornings and evenings. (13 : 14 – 15)

Call on your Lord

With humility and in private:
For God loveth not
Those who trespass beyond bounds. (7 : 55)

Besides the evidence of external nature, there is still more intimate evidence in
man’s inner conscience and heart. God listens to man’s cry of agony and relieves
his suffering, and He has given him superiority over other creation on this earth,
through his mind and soul. Is man then going to run after inferior beings and
forget his Creator? As there is no argument at all in favour of your countrerfeit
worship, what sense there is in it? Either your false gods are senseless stocks and
stones which will never answer you to the end of Time, being themselves devoid
of understanding, or they are real objects which will disown you at the last. If
you worshipped Self, your own misused faculties will witness against you at the
last. If you worshipped good men or prophets, like Jesus, they will disown you.
Similarly, if you worshipped angels, they will disown you. To quote from the
Glorious Scripture it says:

Or, who listens to the (soul)

Distressed when it calls
On Him, and who relieves
Its suffering, and makes you
(Mankind) inheritors of the earth?
(Can there be another) god
Besides God? Little it is
That ye heed! (27 : 62)

And who is more astray

Than one who invokes,
Besides God, such as will
Not answer him to the Day
Of Judgement, and who
(In fact) are unconscious
Of their call (to them)! (46 : 5)

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They call on such deities,
Besides God, as can neither
Hurt Nor profit them:
That is straying far indeed
(From the Way)!

(Perhaps) they call on one

Whose hurt is nearer
Than his profit: evil, indeed,
Is the patron, and evil
The companion (for help)! (22 : 12-13)

Say: “Call on those –

Besides Him – whom you fancy:
They have neither the power
To remove your troubles
From you nor to change them.”

Those whom they call upon

Do desire (for themselves) means
Of access to their Lord, –
Even those who are nearest:
They hope for His Mercy
And fear His Wrath:
For the Wrath of thy Lord
Is something to take heed of. (17 : 56 – 57)

Verily those whom ye

Call upon besides God
Are servants like unto you:
Call upon them, and let them
Listen to your prayer,
If ye are (indeed) truthful! (7:194)

“But those ye call upon

Besides Him, are unable
To help you, and indeed
To help themselves.”

If thou callest them

To guidance, they hear not.

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Thou wilt see them
Looking at thee, but
They see not. ( 7 : 197 -198)

And God will judge

With (Justice and) Truth:
But those whom (men)
Invoke besides Him, will
Not (be in a position)
To judge at all.
Verily it is God (alone)
Who hears and sees
(All things). (40 : 20)

O men! Here is
A parable set forth!
Listen to it! Those
On whom, besides God,
Ye call, cannot create
(Even) a fly, if they all
Met together for the purpose!
And if the fly should snatch
Away anything from them,
They would not (even) try
To release it from the fly.
Feeble are those who petition
And those whom they petition!

No just estimate have they

Made of God: for God
Is He Who is strong
And able to carry out
His Will. (22 : 73 74)

He merges Night into Day,

And He merges Day
Into Night and He has
Subjected the sun and
The moon (to His Law):
Each one runs its course
For a term appointed.
Such is God your Lord:

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 To Him belongs all Dominion.
And those whom ye invoke
Besides Him have not
The least power.

If you invoke them,

They will not listen
To your call, and if
They were to listen,
They cannot answer,
Your (prayer). On the Day
Of Judgement they will reject,
Your “Partnership”. And none,
(O man!) can tell thee
(The Truth) like the One
Who is acquainted with all things. (35 : 13 – 14)

Those whom they invoke

Besides God create nothing
And are themselves created.

(They are things) dead,

Lifeless: nor do they know
When they will be raised up. (16 : 20 – 21)

Oh ye who believe!
Do your duty to God,
Seek the means
Of approach unto Him,
And strive with might
And main in His cause:
That ye may prosper. (5 : 38)

In Chapter ‘Asr’ (Time through the Ages), God clearly reminds mankind:

By (the Token of)

Time (through the Ages),

Verily Man
Is in loss,

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 Except such as have Faith,
And do righteous deeds,
And (join together)
In the mutual teaching
Of Truth, and of
Patience and Constancy. (103 : 1-3)

That is to say Time is always in favour of those who have Faith, live clean and
pure lives, and know how to wait, in patience and constancy. The following lines
from “The Dragon Book of Verse – Book II)”, said to have been written on the
eve of his execution, beautifully describe the Time:-

Even such is Time, which takes in trust

Our youth, our joys, and all we have,
And pays us but with age and dust,
Which in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandared all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days;
But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust. ………….Sir Walter Raleigh

Thus all praise is due to God, the Mighty. The man is created by Him. There is
no hardship for Him. He is to be called upon in every matter whatsoever. The
recognition of Unity and Sublimity of God would awaken the man to the
consciousness of his own insignificance. The man is created by God. He is
fostered by Him; and to Him shall he revert after death. On the day of trouble he
should call upon the Omnipotence and His Awareness of his troubles and
tribulations. He will listen to him and deliver him and no one else. A passage
from Shah Jo Risalo says:

The Lord expressed His grievance to the supplicants:

“O supplicant! Why do you by-pass my door and seek others?
It is therefore that you have fallen on evil days”.

As an epilogue to the chapter, the following conclusions may be derived:

 To call upon God is itself equivalent to His worship.

 God hears the cry of everyone who calls upon Him. His Infinite Mercy is
invoked and His servant is delivered.
 Humbleness, entire human application, fear and hope in Him and with
softness in the pitch of the caller’s voice, He be called upon.

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  One should have reality in words and should not ask for which one is not
entitled.

Barring a few exceptions, the Quran enunciates general fundamental principles

without touching subsidiary laws. To end the discussion here, a quotation from
Shakespeare appears to be very apt: “The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars
but in ourselves”.

However, the Divine laws have limits and whosoever crosses them must
face the destructive consequences. Remorse and repentance could not save them
when their final fall was in sight. Socrates once said that “his wisdom was
limited to an awareness of his ignorance”. Some what similar is also said by
Albert Einstein: “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity,
and I’m not sure about the former”. Obviously, in a world where agony and
distress outweights happiness and pleasure, sickness, poverty and multilation
prevails; the supplication to the Lord, Oft-Hearing, provides an invaluable
source of comfort, hope and a cause to live on. Surely and certainly, the
mitigation and deliverance will be on the way. A couplet of Allama Iqbal reads:

‫ن‬ ‫ت‬
‫ن‬ ‫ب‬
‫ھم تو ماءل ب کرم ھییں کوییی ساءل ھی ھییں‬
‫ن‬
‫ے رھ وے مننزل ھی ھییں‬
‫ن‬ ‫راھ دکھاءییں کس‬

(We are gracious, full of compassion,

But no one is begging for it.
Whom to show the Way when no one is seeking the destination?}

Persian mystic poet Hafiz prays:

Oh Lord! Kindly pour rain on me from the clouds of guidance

Before I am blown off like dust from amidst this world.

Indeed, if there is anything worth crying over in the life, it is one’s sins
and acts of disobedience to God. No catastrophe is worse than sin. Crying over
worldly loses is useless, it merely hurts the eyes. But crying over one’s sins is
the equivalent of washing them away. Weeping is the atonement for sins and the
best apology the sinner can humanly offer. It is in itself a sign of blessing and a

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guarantor of salvation. But at the same time, we must organize our future life.
True repentance is that after which one acts in line with the new intentions and
promise.

Despair of God’s mercy tantamount to disloyalty. He is without any

want. He is forgiving and kind. He is independent of our worship. Were all living
beings on earth to disobey him it would make not the slightest difference to His
internal rule and sovereignty. Conversely, if everyone turned angelic and took to
worshipping Him, day and night, it would not add an iota to His greatness and
grandeur. If this were not so, He would have created angels in place of
disobedient, rebellious and sinners humans. The various obligations that have
been ordained by God on man are for his own benefit, for his own improvement
and well-being. There is no doubt that He is very merciful and very tolerant. One
may commit innumerable sins, but once one truly repents in all humility and
submission, all will be forgiven. At the same time a habitual sinner should
clearly know, as a Persian mystic poet Saadi says: Do not be unmindful of the
law of retributions for actions. Wheat grows from wheat and barley from barley.
To conclude the discussion, let us quote for our own caution, from the Holy
Quran:

Tell my servants
That I am indeed
The Oft-Forgiving,
Most Merciful;

And that My Penalty

Will be indeed
The most grievous Penalty. (15 : 49-50)

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