Distraction in Prayers and forgetting to perform them in Piety
Was published in Arabic in August 16, 2015
Translated by Ahmed Fathy
Introduction:
This email message has reached me recently from a young friend of mine. We will quote his message and then write our reply to it:
(…They taught us the difference between those who do not pay attention during performance of prayers and those who forget to pray in piety and fear of God. A previous article of yours is concerned with the former and not the latter. Some imams of fiqh mention lots of stories concerning companions of Prophet Muhammad and their manner of prayers, such as in times of wars and battles. Would you please clarify the difference between distraction in prayers and forgetting to perform them reverently? Please explain the issue of forgetting what we are saying during prayers and impact of this on piety and devoutness…).
Here's our reply:
Firstly: distraction during performance of prayers
1- The first meaning of this is when prayers do not lead the person performing them to better behavior and demeanor as far as piety is concerned. This Quranic chapter illustrates this meaning: "Have you considered him who denies the religion? It is he who mistreats the orphan. And does not encourage the feeding of the poor. So woe to those who pray. Those who are heedless of their prayers. Those who put on the appearance. And withhold the assistance."(107:1-7). Hence, we see here those who pray without their prayers leading them to avoid evil deeds; instead, their prayers are just hypocrisy and a means to deceive people and to engage in wrongdoing. Those people cannot deceive God. Hypocrites are mentioned in the Quran many times; let us cite this verse as an example: "The hypocrites try to deceive God, but He is deceiving them. And when they stand for prayer, they stand lazily, showing off in front of people, and remembering God only a little"(4:142), that is why their prayers are of no use to them in life and in the Day of Judgment: "The hypocrites will be in the lowest level of the Fire, and you will find no helper for them."(4:145). This judgment of God in this verse is generally applied in all times and places to all those who pray hypocritically and their ethics and moralities are nonexistent. Their souls are not purified by prayers.
2- Those hypocrites deny religion as per chapter no. 107 in the Quran; this means they do not believe truly in the Quran: they deny it. This is prevalent among today's Muhammadans. How is that? The answer is simple; the Muhammadans believe in the so-called hadiths (i.e., sayings and deeds attributed falsely to Prophet Muhammad after his death) on which they base their earthly human-made, fabricated Sufi, Sunnite, and Shiite creeds. This fact makes us assert that the Quranic verses tackling those who lie to God and deny His verses of the Quran apply to them. The same applies to pre-Islam Arabs in sanctifying and worship of tombs/shrines, dead men, and 'holy' tomes and volumes. All this is done now by all Muhammadans in their unbelief related to adulterated faith and mindset as well as aggressive war and armed aggression toward peaceful people. Other crimes of the Muhammadans, under the cover of their creeds, include stealing, robbing, and enslavement that began as exemplary behavior by the prophet's companions after his death when they invaded and conquered many countries from Persia to North Africa. This sharia of criminal acts and invasions is contrary to sharia law in the Quran. These criminal acts are the bases of the hegemony and savage nature of the Sunnite creed. This creed that urges criminal acts has continued until today, passing through all the eras of the Umayyads, the Abbasids, the Mamelukes, and the Ottomans. All this aggression has been revived in modern times by the Wahabi KSA in their first, second and current third monarchy. The current KSA has waged an aggressive war in Yemen; the Saudis have killed many peaceful innocents in that war. The earlier crime of the KSA is spreading Wahabism (as the only 'correct' form of Islam), on which political terrorist groups of Islamists (i.e., Islamism = the so-called political Islam) have been based aiming to plan coups via terrorism and indiscriminate killings in so many countries. The Saudi Wahabis have created the terrorist MB and other terrorist organizations from Al-Qaeda to ISIS. The Wahabi Saudis are the main cause of so many bloodbaths in the countries of the Muhammadans and the failure of the so-called Arab Spring that turned into bloody Islamist terrorism. Accordingly, the Muhammadans, especially the Wahabis, pray inattentively, because real pious prayers should lead to avoidance of evil deeds. All acts of worship in Islam are means leading to more piety: "O people! Worship your Lord who created you and those before you, that you may attain piety."(2:21). Performing prayers correctly, regularly, and devoutly means avoiding evil deeds and wrongdoing as well in the times between prayers; i.e., with conscious effort all one's life as far as one could. The Muhammadans do the exact opposite; they perform prayers hypocritically and make them a reason to have authority, control, and power over people, to rob, steal, enslave, kill, rape, and to commit all atrocities. Hence, Muhammadans make prayers means to commit so many sins under the pretext of applying their faulty notions of Sunnite/Shiite creeds disguised as ''Islam''. Hence, those criminals who pray hypocritically deny religion of God (i.e., the Quran). For instance, the ISIS terrorist prays before and after raping his victim. Hence, they deny religion. So many stories victims (women and children) raped by ISIS men appeared in New York Times newspaper. Victims claim that criminals who raped them did their crime as a religious duty before and after prayers! In our book titled "Opposition Movement against Wahabism in the 20th Century KSA", we have written that the opposition movement begot the likes of Bin Laden, and that the founder of the current KSA, Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud, created a group called the Wahabi Najd Brothers to terrorize other Arabs in the newly-formed monarchy. Tenets of Wahabism include the notion of prayers in mosques that lead to kill opponents and stealing their possessions and enslaving their women. Thus, Wahabi Najd Brothers killed hundreds of thousands people in Arabia, Iraq, and the Levant and cooperated in the endeavor to establish the KSA. Those Najd Brothers tried to turn against Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud and waged war against him. He defeated them and killed them off. He created the terrorist group MB in Egypt in 1928 to replace the Wahabi Najd Brothers. The worst crime ever is to justify other crimes and atrocities, like killing, by saying that you commit them in the name of God for the sake of worldly ambitions. Terrorist acts here are committed as Islam! Hence, terrorists pray hypocritically to deceive people. Attributing one's crimes to God is the worst sin ever. God sent Muhammad the Prophet as a mercy to people not to kill all people on the planet. If hypocrites who pray (see chapter 107) will be punished in Hell for eternity (if not repented), what about bloody hypocrites who commit massacres in the name of God? This is the notion of intentionally performing prayers without piety. This is a form of un-Islamic prayers, of course.
Secondly: distraction during prayers
1- Distraction during the performance of prayers is another matter, almost unavoidable by all the faithful believers: it means that one tends to forget reverence, piety, and devoutness in prayers. Performing prayers is a treasure rarely made use of 100% by the faithful believers. Full fear of God and piety during prayers entail full concentration within one's mind and heart. God is the greatest above all minor and major worldly matters. This means forgetting all worldly matters and affairs during prayers in which one remembers God alone.
2- We are talking about believers who pray regularly and devoutly as much as they can, whose prayers lead them to more pious acts and good deeds, not those who pray inattentively on purpose. We are talking about those who feel ashamed of their sins/mistakes during prayers. Prayers ought to lead to sublime demeanor and civilized behavior with all people around us. Now, distraction or lacking of reverence that happen sometimes to devout sincere believers in parts of their prayers is a problem that can be solved.
3- Devout, pious believers who care excessively to be sincere and God-fearing in their prayers are constantly tried to be distracted by the devil – who never despair in trying to misguide human beings. We are not talking theoretically; this is a tangible fact. Humankind tends to pay full attention to TV and PC screens. Muhammadans pay full attention to their 'holy' tombs/shrines to their mortal gods long dead and buried. Sometimes in so many cities, these so-called shrines and mausoleums are empty and have no corpses. Yet, Muhammadans cry and supplicate and prostrate before the holy shrines, and kiss all the materials (word, iron, curtains, and glass) contained in the tomb/shrine. The devils never try to stop this kind of attention and reverence to polytheistic acts of worship. The devils readily distract you once you begin to pray one of the five daily prayers in all their parts/stages. Devils in such situations never feel despair in their ceaseless endeavors. Yet, they allow you to focus all your full attention to TV and PC screens and any other worldly activities. One of the major missions of the devils is preventing believers from benefiting from the treasure of prayers.
Thirdly: How can we pray attentively and reverently as much as we can?
1- God says in the Quran: "O you who believe! Do not approach the prayer while you are drunk, so that you know what you say"(4:43). Hence, we are to pray without distraction like drunken people; i.e., one has to be alert and attentive by making conscious effort to do that. We are to remember that prayers are our relatedness and nearness to God. However long our life would be, we are to die one day, then we will be resurrected, judged, and then live eternally either in Hell or Paradise. Our prayers in reverence and fear of God make us draw nearer to God, Our Creator, and thus, we will be saved from eternity in Hell. We are to be alertly conscious of every single word we utter during prayers in devoutness and deep worship of the Almighty. Being aware of every word we utter is part and parcel of reverent prayers.
2- As we have mentioned above in this article, the devils will not despair of misguiding and distracting us during our prayers in any stage or part of prayers. The solution to this problem lies in your insistence: if you feel that you have been distracted in any stage of your prayers, focus to regain your attention at once in the stage you are in. if you have been distracted during the whole prayers, try not to be distracted in the next prayers. Before every prayer, seek refuge in God against Satan before reciting the opening chapter of the Quran.
3- You have to realize before, after, and during your supplication, prayers, invocation, and glorification of God that you are directly addressing Almighty God the Creator of the universe and all creatures. Remember His supreme power within your mind and heart. Remember in your heart as well His greatness that deserves sincerity, humbleness, reverence, and sanctity in acts of worship.
4- Let us be reminded that when we remember God reverently, God remembers us. Let us remember the reward and benefit of prayers to you. God says in the Quran: "So remember Me, and I will remember you. And thank Me, and do not be ungrateful. O you who believe! Seek help through patience and prayers. God is with the steadfast."(2:152-153). We are to rely on patience and prayers in all troubles we face in life and in times of distress. The major issue here is to remember with joy that when we remember God, God remembers us. Let us contemplate this deeply. We are the creatures that are created via semen, and in our humble state as mortals, God remembers us. We must take pride in this honor. If one remembers this before performing prayers, your will achieve full attention in your prayers without the slightest distraction.
Lastly: the best discourse: the Quran:
"Successful are the believers. Those who are humble in their prayers. Those who avoid nonsense. Those who work for charity.Those who safeguard their chastity. Except from their spouses, or their dependents-for then they are free from blame. But whoever seeks anything beyond that-these are the transgressors. Those who are faithful to their trusts and pledges. Those who safeguard their prayers. These are the inheritors. Who will inherit Paradise, wherein they will dwell forever." (23:1-11). God the Almighty says nothing but the Truth.