The Miracle of Islam

It just never ceases to stun me how amazingly tuned Islam is to human nature. Little things in life constantly keep reminding me. The best moments are when by Allah's grace, I observe something and I can correlate it back to the wisdom of His last religion. Those moments leave me filled with happiness and a sense of sublime wonder.

Like the other day, I was discussing religion with a very good Hindu friend of mine. We were talking about the importance of religion in every day life. He was of the opinion that religion has a very limited practical role when it comes to taking your mind off mundane worries. He said something to the tune of: "what's the point, man...even if I do pooja in the morning and I feel at peace then, I wind up forgetting it in the busy routine of the day." And afterwards, when I was mulling over his words, this one question suddenly lit up in my mind like a bulb....

Why does Islam insist upon five prayers a day?

In fact, insist is the wrong word...five prayers a day are part of the fundamental pillars of Islam. They're the barebones you need...other stuff is extra credit - whipped cream on top of your imaan cake, if you like. In a moment of frustration and despair, my friend had given me a morsel that ironically fed my faith and made it stronger. And now I can appreciate one solid reason out of a myriad why praying is so necessary, and why it is interspersed throughout the day.

It's necessary because we keep forgetting.

It's as simple as that. We get dragged down into banal details of every day life. Praying gives us a chance to see the bigger picture, the end goal, the sky for the trees baby. In fact, Allah in his wisdom probably knew that even five prayers throughout the day wouldn't be enough, and that we'd still forget in between prayers (we do though, don't we?) Maybe that's why He had originally prescribed more...much much more. Ultimately, Allah, our Creator, knows what makes our gears tick. Islam as a way of life channels our instincts as opposed to oppressing them.

Of course, only Allah knows his Wisdom. We can only stare in awe at what we'll never even hope to understand.