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Tuesday 24 August 2010

Why We Should Pray - Benefits of Prostrating position in Muslim's Prayers (from a Christian's perspective)



"An important aspect of every religion is prayer.

A prayer is anaction or practice of communicating, commonly with a sequence of words,to a deity or spirit for the purpose of worshiping, requestingguidance, confessing sins, or to express one's thoughts and emotions.The great spiritual traditions offer a wide variety of devotionalacts. There are morning and evening prayers, graces said over meals,and reverent physical gestures.

Prayers exist in many different forms. Some Christians bowtheir heads and fold their hands. Native Americans dance. Some Sufiswhirl. Hindus chant. Orthodox Jews sway their bodies back and forth.Quakers keep silent. Almost every religion has it's own form andstructure.

What you didn't know
Prayers, apart from nourishing your soul, are also good for health! A Malaysian study suggests that prostration in praying is benefic for one's health. Salah (the Islamic prayer), is an exercise which is good for hearth and spine. It also enhances memory and concentration abilities.

The Islamic prayer consists of the following steps:
  1. standing with hands on top of each other at chest level
  2. bowing down with hands resting on knees
  3. standing up from bowing with hands by the side
  4. going in prostration (sajjda) once
  5. lifting face up from prostration but sitting on the ground
  6. doing a second prostration (Sajjda) and then getting up
These psysical movements that a Muslim does during prayer strenghtenthe joints and muscles and stimulate blood circulation. Consequently,they also prevent the stagnation of bloog in the veins of the legs(which may lead to coagulation and other problems).
Sajdah is a unique position or stance in the regular prayers, which a Muslim is supposed to offer at least five times a day.
Although the basic purpose of obligatory prayers isn't to provide anexercise for people, it is being increasingly recognized that it hasplenty of medical advantages.

Sajdah is a unique position as this is the onlyposition in which brain (or head) becomes lower than the heart andhence for the first time the blood gushes towards the brain with fullforce whereas in all other positions (even when lying) brain is abovethe heart when it has to work against gravity to send blood to thebrain.

In the position of Sajdah due to the increased blood supply thebrain receive more nourishment and it has good effect upon memory,vision, hearing, concentration, psyche and all other cognitiveabilities. People who offer their prayers regularly have more willpower and can cope with the difficulties of life in a much bettermanner. They have fewer incidences of headaches, psychological problemsand other defects of cognitive function.

Prostration in prayer
Not only the Muslim prayers have such benefic prayer movements. References to kneeling and prostration to express one's humblenessbefore the Almighty abound in the Bible and are practiced bysuch notables as Abraham, Moses and Aaron, Joshua, Elijah, Solomon andJesus.Prostration in prayer is still practiced by some members of the Russian Orthodox Church and some Catholics still maintain kneeling in prayer.In contrast, Baptists and other Christian denominations have abandonedkneeling, and the Jewish liturgy has eliminated it altogether. The onlyexception perhaps is the Samaritan Jew, whose prayer is similar to theMuslim's prayer, but for the language.

I'm Christian, and I haven't abandoned kneeling. Seems like a good thing.

While getting up from Sajdah the perennial musclesare one of those muscles which have to pull the trunk back to sittingposition and they contract actively. Similarly while standing up from Sajdah theperennial muscles are again actively mobilized and this gives muchstrength to the muscles important for manpower.
The unique position of Sajdah also has positive effects upon theback muscles as while going into Sajdah and getting up from it the backmuscle contract actively and they become stronger. Probably it isbecause of this reason that a person who is regular in prayers willuncommonly get backache.

Although prayer in religion is not meant to be an exercise, there are lots of medical advantages associated with it. Still, the best thing a prayer can offer is peace of mind.

I think I should be praying more..."


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6 perkara yang disembunyikan Allah SWT


Allah SWT selesai menciptakan Jibrail as dengan bentuk yang cantik, dan Allah menciptakan pula baginya 600 sayap yang panjang , sayap itu antara timur dan barat (ada pendapat lain menyatakan124, 000 sayap). Setelah itu Jibrail as memandang dirinya sendiri dan berkata:
"Wahai Tuhanku, adakah engkau menciptakan makhluk yang lebih baik daripada aku?." Lalu Allah swt berfirman yang bermaksud.. "Tidak"

Kemudian Jibrail as berdiri serta solat dua rakaat kerana syukur kepada Allah swt. dan tiap-tiap rakaat itu lamanya 20,000 tahun.

Setelah selesai Jibrail as solat, maka Allah SWT berfirman yang bermaksud.
"Wahai Jibrail, kamu telah menyembah aku dengan ibadah yang bersungguh-sungguh, dan tidak ada seorang pun yang menyembah kepadaku seperti ibadat kamu, akan tetapi di akhir zamannanti akan datang seorang nabi yang mulia yang paling aku cintai, namanya Muhammad.

Dia mempunyai umat yang lemah dan sentiasa berdosa, sekiranya mereka itu mengerjakan solat dua rakaat yang hanya sebentar sahaja, dan mereka dalam keadaan lupa serta serba kurang,fikiran mereka melayang bermacam-macam dan dosa mereka pun besar juga.Maka demi kemuliaannKu dan ketinggianKu, sesungguhnya solat mereka ituaku lebih sukai dari solatmu itu. Kerana mereka mengerjakan solat atas perintahKu, sedangkan kamu mengerjakan solat bukan atas perintahKu."

Kemudian Jibrail as berkata: "Ya Tuhanku, apakah yang Engkau hadiahkan kepada mereka sebagai imbalan ibadat mereka?"

Lalu Allah berfirman yang bermaksud. "Ya Jibrail, akan Aku berikan syurga Ma'waa sebagai tempat tinggal..."
Kemudian Jibrail a.s. meminta izin kepada Allah untuk melihat syurga Ma'waa.
Setelah Jibrail a.s. mendapat izin dari Allah SWT maka pergilah Jibrail a.s. dengan mengembangkan sayapnya dan terbang, setiap dia mengembangkan dua sayapnya dia boleh menempuh jarak perjalanan 3000 tahun, terbanglah Malaikat Jibrail a.s. selama 300 tahun sehingga ia merasa letih dan lemah dan akhirnya dia turun singgah berteduh di bawah bayangan sebuah pohon dan dia sujud kepada Allah SWT lalu ia berkata dalam sujud:

"Ya Tuhanku apakah sudah aku menempuh jarak perjalanan setengahnya, atau sepertiganya, atau seperempatnya? "

Kemudian Allah swt berfirman yang bermaksud. "Wahai Jibrail, kalau kamu dapat terbang selama 3000 tahun dan meskipun aku memberikan kekuatan kepadamu seperti kekuatan yang engkau miliki, lalu kamu terbang seperti yang telah kamu lakukan,nescaya kamu tidak akan sampai kepada sepersepuluh dari beberapa perpuluhan yang telah kuberikan kepada umat Muhammad terhadap imbalan solat dua rakaat yang mereka kerjakan.... ."

Marilah sama2 kita fikirkan dan berusaha lakukan... Sesungguhnya Allah S.W.T telah menyembunyikan 6 perkara iaitu :

* Allah S.W.T telah menyembunyikan redhaNyadalam taat. 
* Allah S.W.T telah menyembunyikan murkaNya di dalammaksiat. 
* Allah S.W.T telah menyembunyikan nama-Nya yang Maha Agung didalam Al-Quran.
* Allah S.W.T telah menyembunyikan Lailatul Qadar di dalam bulan Ramadhan.
* Allah S.W.T telah menyembunyikan solat yang paling utama di dalam solat (yang lima waktu).
* Allah S.W.T telah menyembunyikan (tarikh terjadinya) hari kiamat di dalam semua hari.