Meditation and Islamic Prayer (Namaz)

Since ages, meditation is considered to be a great source of acquiring inner peace and elevating one spiritually. It is deep rooted in many religions of the world, including Islam. Holy Prophet P.B.U.H. used to meditate in Cave Hira. There are many ways of performing the act of Meditation. However, in Islam, the best way to meditate is to establish prayer(namaz). 

I am talking about establishing prayer not just reading and performing rituals. During prayer, one should keep in mind that he is standing before Allah S.W.T and Allah is continuously watching him. From the start of prayer to its end, this thought should be present and besides this, every action during prayer should be performed thoughtfully. To understand this, let me give you an easy example of Traffic Sergeant who is standing at a busy intersection and is controlling the traffic. That sergeant's mind and thoughts are fully concentrated in traffic. He does not get his mind involved in any other thought than traffic. If he does, then cars would collapse into each other and at the end that particular sergeant, who was day-dreaming, would be held responsible. The Sergeant is fully attentive on every single movement of his body during duty. He is aware of his actions. Same should be the state of a person who is standing in front of his lord, the Almighty Allah. He should be attentive about his "qiyam", "ruku", "sajda", etc. During Ruku(bowing), he should keep in his mind that he is bowing in front of the creator of the universe, the great lord and then with a submissive tone he has to say Subhana-rabbi-yal-alah. Similarly prostration and other actions in prayer should be performed in order to establish prayer not merely read it. Holy Prophet P.B.U.H said that Prayer is the ascension of a believer.

There a lot of other ways of doing meditation such as closing eyes and then focusing on breathing etc. But I must say, for Muslims, Allah has given the best way to fulfill this spiritual need and that is Prayer. Allah gave this gift to the Prophet, when he called him to Mairaj(Ascension). So, from now onwards, pray regularly with an intention to make your prayer physically and spiritually alive.

Posted in: Islamic Knowledge