As part of my ordination from ChI (August 2004), I, along with my partner ordinands, took holy vows of intention, one of which is
“I vow to seek the Sacred in all beings and serve as a bridge between the world’s spiritual traditions.”
And so, I felt called to put together an Interfaith Prayer Series at my church, the Community Congregational Church in Tiburon, CA, with leaders from 7 different faith traditions coming in to teach us how they pray. And in preparing for the series, I reviewed our study and practice of Islam at ChI. I was awed all over again, by the depth and breadth of prayer in the Islamic faith, and wanted to make some comments on Muslim prayer, here.
Read these eloquent words in the Muslim Prayer for Peace:
In the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful.
Praise be to the Lord of the Universe
who has created us and made us into tribes and nations,
that we may know each other,
not that we may despise each other.
If the enemy incline towards peace,
do thou also incline towards peace,
and trust in God, for the Lord
is the one that heareth and knoweth all things.
And the servants of God, most gracious
are those who walk on the earth in humility,
and when we address them, we say “PEACE.”
The word 'Islam' comes from the same root word as 'peace'. I was very moved, during our study and exposure to Islam, by two things: one is the incredible strength of prayer, and the other is the centrality of God (Allah) in everyday life and how that affects the way every Muslim tries to live out her own life. Devout Muslims pray times every single day. Nazila Ghazi, a devout Muslim who is a practicing Sufi describes it this way:
“All of us get spiritually dirty throughout the day, so we need prayer five times a day, to clean ourselves, to bring us back to God.”
Think about that for a minute. Stopping EVERYTHING you are doing and practicing this ritual and nothing else:
1. When you get up
2. At midday
3. In the middle of the afternoon, but before it’s time to go home from work
4. At sunset
5. Before going to bed
And the practice consists of more than just uttering some words; it has in fact three parts: intention, physical movements, and the words. The intention is always, “I want to get closer to God.” The physical aspect includes ritual washing before beginning, as well as certain movements during the prayers, such as kneeling and prostrating oneself. And then there are the prayers themselves.
This is a STRONG practice. This is how Muslims know God and know they are always in relationship with God. How could you forget you are in relationship with someone if you carefully communicated with them five times every single day?!
I want to suggest you take a moment here and just read aloud some of the daily prayers, just to get a feel for their power.
"God is most great
God is most great.
I testify that there is no god but God.
I testify that Muhammad is the Prophet of God.
Come to prayer. Come to salvation.
God is most great.
God is most great.
There is no god but God."
This is the Call to Prayer.
Another prayer, called The Opening, consists of the opening verses of the Qur’an:
"In the name of God, the beneficent, the merciful,
Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds,
The Beneficent, the merciful.
Owner of the day of judgment,
Thee alone we worship; thee alone we ask for help.
Show us the straight path,
the path of those whom thou hast favored,
not the path of those who earn thine anger,
nor of those who go astray. Ameen."
Again, think of saying these prayers five times every day of your life!
The second thing I want to bring forth is the Muslim belief that, as God’s crown of creation, humans are unequivocally good and worthy of self-respect and self-esteem. We have two tasks as humans; one is to have gratitude at all times, and the other is to surrender to God ('surrender' is the other meaning of the word 'Islam'), that is to say, to put God at the center of our life, and not put ourselves there. For devout Muslims, five-times daily prayer is what keeps them focused on God at the center of their lives.
During the course of my studies at ChI, we were taught about many of the world’s major religions and faith traditions, including what the practice of prayer is. This was, for me the most powerful experience in shifting my own heart, from an unconscious idea of “us versus them”, to a dawning awareness of all of us, here on the planet, as precious children of a divine source, wanting the same things, experiencing the same things, and turning towards our Source, in whatever language or practice, in prayer and supplication and gratitude.
More than all the academic learning, the experiencing of prayer with people of other faiths, shifted my heart.
Listen to this most basic of Muslim prayers:
"La ilah ha il Allah."
"There is no god but God."
This means, attachment to anything that is not-God keeps us from peace. The only way to peace is through God. We have to turn away, again and again, from everything that is not-God and towards God, asking for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry it out. This leads to peace. By turning to God, again and again and again, I bring peace to my own heart and then have the ability to extend it to others in my everyday life.
After I learned this prayer, I brought it into my own practice. Sometimes I just recite it as I am hiking, in the beat of my footsteps (pronounced something like "La eel lah ha eel Allah").
For me, praying with others is the highest form of spiritual intimacy, and a certain antidote for fear of otherness, isolation, and separation from God. For if we hear how others pray (as we did as ChI students); if we discover what it is they are praying about and for, and HOW THEY DO IT, how can we possibly stay in a place of difference, of separateness, of “other than?”
I will close with this prayer, written during the Islam module at ChI:
"God,
As your crown of creation,
Show me the jewels that you have given me.
Open my eyes to my own light,
My ears to my own song,
My heart to my own compassion.
Teach me to sing out, in glorious melody,
The eloquent and passionate love-song
You have composed on my soul,
That all who come near, will hear
Your music
And dance.
Amen.