Yaa ‘ayyuhal-ladhina amanu idha nudiya
lis-Salati miny-yawmil-Jumu’ati fas’aw ila dhikril-lahi wa dharul-bay.
Dhalikum khayrul-lakum in-kuntum
ta’lamun. [62:9]
O you who believe, when the call for Salah
is proclaimed on Friday, hasten for the remembrance of Allah, and leave off
business. This is for your own good, if you but knew it.
In my last khutbah on Quran
and the structure of Islam, I spoke of the transcendent universality of God/Allah,
and how practicing the pillars of Islam is just one possible way of striving to
connect with God. But it is Our way –
the way we have chosen, or inherited as Muslims. So, in my next few khutbahs, I want to
explore the meanings behind the way we practice our faith – the meaning in each
of the pillars of Islam. Today I will
focus on prayer, and the discipline of prayer in Islam.
I have struggled with the
concept of discipline all my life. I was
born in 1953, which means that the later part of my childhood and my entire
adolescence took place in the 1960s. As
you all know, this was the “Age of Rebellion.”
Moreover, I was raised in a Unitarian church, whose only real creed is
to respect each individual’s unique path to and understanding of God. I was therefore programmed, from a very early
age, to inquire and question and investigate.
I was not focused on sticking to one thing and perfecting it, but rather
on checking out as many alternative “things” (careers, religions, cultures,
etc.) as possible to find the one “thing” that might really be worth the
effort. The positive outcome of this was
open-mindedness. The negative outcome
was a deeply ingrained proclivity toward escapism.
Even after I converted to
Islam, I was not disciplined at all about my prayer. I loved God and believed in God, but I felt
that, to be honest in my relationship with God meant that I should only pray
“when the spirit moved me.” I was not
convinced in my heart that praying five times a day at specific times in a ritualized
way was going to bring me closer to God.
I was programmed to resist the need for such “discipline” about my
spiritual life. I felt it should “flow
naturally,” or it wouldn’t be real. It
took me more than twenty-five years to finally realize that my recognition of
the value in different approaches to faith was blocking me from truly engaging
with my own faith. I had the love, but
not the discipline. And so I made a
commitment to God, that I would pray five times a day for a year, as close as possible
to the prescribed times, and see what would happen.
But
before I share what has happened, let me address the topic of discipline
itself. I don't know about you, but I was captivated by the coverage of
the Olympics in Rio these past two weeks, especially by the performances that
seemed to transcend the effort that so obviously goes into whatever sport is
involved. There are the obvious ones –
Michael Phelps, Simone Biles, Usain Bolt.
But the one that brought tears to my eyes was one that I had to look up
on You Tube, because Dressage was not included in the televised lineup.
Allow
me a moment of digression if you will. Dressage
can best be described as “horse ballet.”
It is the only Olympic event that can claim Xenophon, the ancient Greek
general and student of Socrates, as its first coach. The sport’s ethical rational is “Anything
forced or misunderstood can never be beautiful.” Dressage horses begin training at age four or
five, and it takes five or six years of strength training before they can even begin
to learn the most advanced movements:
the piaffe, jogging in place – “three quarters of a ton of moving
muscle, feet rising and falling in the same four hoofprints;” the passage, a slow prancing trot, the
pirouette, a hand-brake turn, ideally executed in six to eight strides. I encourage you to look up Dujardin Olympics
-Dressage on You Tube and watch the free-style performance of Charlotte
Dujardin riding Valegro. Dujardin began
riding at age three, and she has trained with Valegro for ten years. They won the gold this year, and at the
London Olympics. In that video you see rider
and horse moving as one - seamlessly - through the movements set to music. It is the most amazing demonstration of the
beauty of controlled power and grace you could hope to see.
One
of the best books written about what it takes to be an Olympic champion is
about another team that competed in another Olympics - the men's crew (rowing)
team from Seattle who represented the U.S. at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin,
Hitler’s Olympics. These were men who grew up during the depression, dirt
poor, most of whom had never set foot in a rowing skull before they arrived at
university and tried out for the crew team so they could get their tuition
covered. They practiced in the rough water of the Pacific Ocean, often in
frigid temperatures, for hours every day, their muscles screaming in pain.
But they had a coach who was relentless, and they were, each and every
one of them, determined to succeed. "The Boys in the Boat "
focuses on one of those men, Joe Rantz, but it really is about the team as a
whole. The man who built their boats (skulls), George Pocock, was not
only probably the best skull craftsman who ever lived, he was also an
inspirational leader for them. He understood them, and helped them work
past their weaknesses. Joe's biggest challenge was learning to trust.
George told him, "Joe, when you really start trusting those other
boys, you will feel a power at work within you that is far beyond anything you've
ever imagined. Sometimes, you will feel as if you have rowed right off
the planet and are rowing among the stars."
By
the time they got to the Olympics, they had reached that level of precision, that
level of disciplined unity. They were rowing perfectly, fluidly,
mindlessly, as if on another plane, and it was beautiful. They went on to
win the gold in Berlin, while Hitler watched.
No
one gets to the Olympics without discipline. In fact, no one achieves
anything significant in life without discipline, be it in sports, music, dance,
theater, medicine, academics, auto mechanics or accounting. But those who
reach the level of the sublime in their performance are the ones who also love
what they do. Joe Rantz and his
crewmates learned, not just to trust each other, but to love each other. Dujardin and Valegro – rider and horse - love
each other. And many of the other
outstanding athletes at the games have talked about love of their sport, and
their team members.
Why
should our spiritual life be any different?
Hafizu alas-Salawati was-Salatil-wusta
wa qumu lillahi qanitin [2:238]
Be ever mindful of prayers, and of
praying in the most excellent way; and stand before God in devout obedience.
Qad aflahal-mu’minun. Alladhina hum fi Salatihim khashi’un.
Wal-ladhina hum anil-laghwi mu’ridun.
Wal-ladhina hum liz-Zakati fa’ilun.
[23:1-4]
Truly, to a happy state shall attain the
believers: those who humble themselves
in their prayer, and who turn away from all that is frivolous, and who are
intent on inner purity.
Wal-ladhina hum ala Salawatihim
yuhafizun. [23:9]
And who guard their prayers from all
worldly intent
I
don’t think I was wrong all those years when I was focused on loving God,
rather than discipline. I just wasn’t
growing in my faith.
In
the past six years since I made the commitment to daily prayer, I have come to
appreciate the structure that prayer gives me for reconnecting with God.
Allah communicated message this over and over in revelations to the Prophet.
Surah 2:45 says "seek help through patience and prayer. It is
indeed exacting, but not for those who are humble in their hearts."
Ayah 2:153 says, "O you who believe, seek help through patience and
prayer. Surely Allah is with those who are patient in adversity."
Surah 4:103 tells us that "Salah is tied up with time." Surah
11:114 enjoins us to practice Salah at both ends of the day, and in the early
hours of the night.
We
are reminded in other surahs as well, to praise Allah in the afternoon, before
sunrise, before sunset, and that prayer at night is the most effective way to
subdue one's base self. [73:1-8]. I have learned this one myself. One of my
biggest faults is that I am a worrier.
Worry can immobilize me, it makes me overeat, it makes me procrastinate,
it robs me of joy and can make me hard to live with. Praying five times a day has helped me
control my worrying, and recognize how selfish it is. This is just one of the ways prayer has
helped me to become a better person. But
it wouldn’t work – my prayer wouldn’t work – if I just did it routinely, if I
forgot what I was striving for - my love of God – reminding myself of the
connection, and that God’s love for us is always there when we open ourselves to
it. Prayer is a discipline that,
practiced with love, reaches toward the Sublime.
George
Pocock, the rowing coach said "Harmony, balance, and rhythm. They're
the three things that stay with you your whole life. Without them
civilization is out of whack. And that's why an oarsman, when he goes out
in life, he can fight it, he can handle life. That's what he gets from
rowing."
The
ancient Greeks developed the art of Dressage based on the sacred precepts of
“harmony,” “impulsion,” “self-carriage,” and “submission” - all so beautifully
channeled by Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro.
Harmony,
impulsion, self-carriage and balance, rhythm and submission - what better way to describe the elements of
our prayer – reciting, standing, bowing, prostrating, sitting, greeting. We, in this room, are not and never will be
Olympic athletes. But as Muslims we have
this gift - the challenge to practice a simple discipline every day of our
lives – five opportunities every day to connect us to what is greater than
ourselves.
And
praying together opens the door to trust, trust that we can strive together to turn our attention to what's important, and
remind us of what is not, and give us the perspective and strength to face
whatever comes our way in life with patience and grace… and just maybe, every
once in awhile, to feel like we’re praying among the stars.
Fa’idha qudiyatis-Salatu fantashiru
fil-ardi
wab-taghu min-fadlil-lahi
wadh-kurul-laha kathiral-la allakum tuflihun.
Then once the Salah is over, disperse
in the land, and seek the grace of Allah, and remember Allah often, so that you
may be successful. [62:10]
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