Voice of British Muslim Women

Yusra Dahri, Tilford

Prayer.

For me, that is the simplest and truest answer to this question. If you asked me ten, a hundred, or even a thousand years ago, I think my answer would still be the same.

One Hadith says, “A (believing) person is nearest to his Lord when in prostration, so pray much (during prostration).” According to the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) a perfect Salaat (Prayer) is the one during which the worshipper’s attention to Allah reaches such a climax as if he or she is seeing Allah, or at least, that Allah is seeing him or her.

This sums up to me how the Divine is experienced in the material age and has been ingrained in my mind since the first time I read it. No matter how I feel before I Pray, if I Pray sincerely I feel restored, my energy replenished. Prayer is how we connect to God, and true connection is so much more than seeing a physical “face” as we do when we interact with other human beings. I believe connection is about allowing yourself to be seen as who you are, truly humbling yourself before God.

Islam forbids pictures or paintings depicting God. Some might see this as too strict or that it restricts religious expression, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. God is limitless and we can only really try to experience the Divine if instead of trying to anchor God down to a painting, we free ourselves of the lurid chains of the material world. We do not have the strength to do this alone, and it is a Divine blessing that we do not have to.

Honestly speaking, I believe that the majority of human history has been perpetually going through a ‘material’ age, hence why my answer would not change. But when we are immersed in worship the material world ceases to hold power over us. To me, Prayer is something immeasurably precious because it allows me to plead for help whilst simultaneously relieving me of the burden of my shallow troubles.

God is Eternal, whereas the only eternal aspect of the material world is its transience. So even if I was asked in another ten, a hundred, or a thousand years, I still know what my answer would be. And my answer cannot be found in the technologies of any material age, but in the gifts God Almighty has already blessed us with.