Prayer in Islam

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Muslims are supposed to pray five times a day at specific times while facing the direction of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Muslim prayer is formal and ritualistic yet many Muslims do make every effort to be sincere and upright in performing their prayers. Muslim prayer is characterised by rules of respect and attitudes of politeness toward Allah. (Please note that all Arab speakers use this word for God - whether Christian or Muslim, though their ideas of God are significantly different.)

"Praying correctly and at the appropriate time is one of the greatest indications of (Muslim) faith and a great sign of true religion". Prayer is to be done with heart and body cleanliness, with cleanness of clothing and in a ceremonially clean place. The washing of the hands, nose, face, forearms, ears, and feet in preparation for Muslim prayer is important.

The words

Muslims place very strong emphasis on the exact postures and the words of their prayers (which are always in Arabic). Almost all Muslim prayer is concerned with reciting specific phrases from memory. In the course of the five regular prayer times a Muslim will prostrate himself before Allah a total of 34 times and he will repeat the following phrases:

"Allah is greater"
"Praised be my mighty Lord"
"Allah hears the one who praises him"

He will also recite the "Al-Fatiha" or another text from the Qur’an 17 times, the "Shadada" (Islamic creed), and the greeting of peace to all Muslims.

Answered Prayer

Muslims can make requests to God privately after they finish their ritual prayers. However, this is not done as often as Christians typically make requests. Muslims do not believe that God binds himself to his people through covenants. This is a key concept for understanding their attitudes toward answers to prayer and their lack assurance of God’s steadfast love towards them. In addition, because of the fatalism of Islam, Muslims generally have little faith that their requests will alter their circumstances. They generally believe that Allah’s desires (for good or ill) will always be done despite their activities or requests. Trusting in God for specific responses to prayer in the Christian sense is not practised among Muslims. This is a huge difference between Muslim and Christian religious experience.

When Christians speak of prayer they mean direct two-way communication with God. Muslims never expect God to speak back to them directly at any moment and certainly not during prayer. The vast majority of Muslims will say that God only speaks through the Qur’an. Even Mohammed is said only to have heard from God indirectly through an angel. Christian prayer, on the other hand, is a combination of requests, thanksgiving and praise. The Bible says that we should "nter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name" (Ps 100:4).

Let us Pray…

* Muslims need to come to know the Christ of Christian prayer. Pray that Muslims would come to believe that God Himself wants to communicate directly with them. Pray this specifically for any Muslims that you may know personally. Pray for the Muslims in your city, region and nation.

* Pray for newly-converted Muslims, that they may develop real confidence in God as one who keeps His covenants, makes promises and who hears and answers prayer.

* Christians need to share their prayer experience with Muslims in humility. Pray that God will give us wisdom when describing our Christian prayer experience so that God would be glorified and Muslims could understand Him better.