More salat and ra'kat discussion
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Peace wakas,
Your understanding sounds like Christianity for some reason )
God bless you
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Peace with you all,
I want to put some lines to the topic, which are my own understanding of prayers- without translation of specific words you have already illustrated here in this thread.
1315 And unto Allah (Alone) falls in prostration whoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, and so do their shadows in the mornings and in the afternoons.
2218 See you not that to Allah prostrates whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the mountains, and the trees, and Ad-Dawab (moving living creatures, beasts, etc.), and many of mankind? But there are many (men) on whom the punishment is justified. And whomsoever Allah disgraces, none can honour him. Verily! Allah does what He wills.
556 And the herbs (or stars) and the trees both prostrate.
http//www.dar-us-salam.com/TheNobleQuran/
As far as I understand this verses show us submitting/surrender - (sjd) of plants, moon, stars, mankind etc. to God. That means that everything, submit God?s natural laws that God has established/determined- time, atoms, gravity, mass, size, space-and time relationship, energy,?.dna, growth,metabolism, reproduction, respiration, irritability,?. etc (only a brief outline) And the verse in the sura 1315 point actually ?willingly? and ?unwillingly?, which is in my opinion a reference to the nature laws that we can?t avoid. It is impossible. If that were possible then God will contradict its (its=means God?s, I use here it, not "he" for God) self made laws of nature. God doesn?t contradict itself, doesn?t change its words, laws. In the laws of nature on the earth (biology, chemistry, physics), mats as the alone universal nature law, you will never not find contradictions.
For me the main massage of the Quran for mankind is to develop in science ? to learn from nature- WHAT IS IT AND HOW DOES IT WORK?, which is self organizing body and to use that knowledge to develop further at this area , what means in context for our better life here, satisfaction.If we look to this breath-taking nature and look to the details how something is created and how it works, we will never stop to praise God for its relief, because it is soooo fascinating and never ending story. Isn?t it?
In nature and space is always something to find what we, mankind, can investigate. Yes, we tend to take advantage of our knowledge but in my point of view that looks at the moment so because we are still young learners (kids) that do nasty tricks against ourselves. The Quran writes about good things for us and teach us on the way how to distinguish between good and evil things; to learn from the stories of previous nations and from our surrounding. It is virtuous apprenticeship for mankind.The next matter I want to point to is ritual prayer- 2, 3, or 5 times at day- it depends how one understands the verses how many times is to pray daily or in the night.
From my point of view the prayer in the Quran in a form to reflect his/her thoughts, words, acts etc. and according to what is in the Quran written realizing his/her own mistakes and avoiding them in the future.
Not only mistakes should be reflected but also the situation one has experienced where he/she was harmed/offended/humiliated etc. by and additionally to think how to cope with such situations/feelings to get not distressed next time.
If someone does prayer standing and bending, sitting and prostrate, I think that is matter of individuality. If we pray in community then it can be set how to
Perform physical prayer. In fact it is more important to discus matters, which are essential for maintenance of social and moral community.
First of all we should be thankful to God and praise God for everything is given to us, to pray for straight way, to ask for forgiveness, etc. God knows what we need and give us everything but what we do with it actually depends on our free will.I apologize for my not accurate written English and out of that maybe incomprehensible text.
All comments are pretty wished and welcome!Peace Birdy.
I certainly agree to most of what you said.
Just to add, salat only benefit us and the people and all things around us. I have my own personal journey to establish salat, many years of reforming.
Once we have submitted to Allah alone, by not setting any masters beside Him, we will begin our journey on His true path, unlearning and learning, rejecting (falsehood) and accepting (truth), and contemplating and reflecting as we improve and develop our personality. Naturally, this is a regular routine to actualize the calling to Allah in establishing the bond/connection/relationship with Him. We have to find the way to Him, through salat. Some people found their way and are in comfort, also some lost their way. Allah knows who are on His straight path.
Allah mentioned many things to be incorporated as commitments before and after we establish the salat, among them, uphold the Book, seek help, patience, speak good to men, purify, give, refrain, remember Him, think about His creations, forbids indecency and honour, etc.
All those things mentioned, to me, are part and parcel of the contents for us to seek help for His guidance in our personal call (salat) to Him. By establishing salat, we are actualizing a bond by relating what we have been doing and what we ought to do in connection with His words, in His book of guidance, the Quran. The salat is a routine call to Allah for us to continuously gain clear message from Him to direct our thoughts, emotions and actions, to safeguard us from being strayed from His straight path (siratulmustaqim). It is personal and at times a group call to Allah, humbly to purify ourselves and strengthen our commitments for our personal growth to be among His accepted servants.
Those who do not find the way, careless and face divergence in their salat to the remembrance of Allah, He mentioned them as such in 4142, 558, 835, 1959, 1075.
Some people may take even years to find comfort in his/her salat to the remembrance of Allah. It is certainly a challenge, except for those who are certain to meet Allah in the Hereafter.
That is the Book, wherein is no doubt, a guidance to the muttaqina (taqwa),
Those who yu?minuna, establish salat, and spend out of what We have provided for them,
And they believe in what is sent down to you and what was sent down before you, and in the Hereafter, they firmly certain (yuqinuna), those are on guidance from their Lord, those are the ones who prosper. (22-4)At one point of time I approach all ayats related to salat by discarding preconceived ideas particularly on numbers and methods.
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Peace Zone,
I appreciate your response. Yes, additionally To my previous post I gladly can add your posted comments. There are many ways , which lead to God. They are as individual as the people thanks God are.
I remember a Vers , think it is sura 96 a First revealed To Mohammed , that writes at the First beginning " read", but I have To point To the meaning of the arabic Word Ikre, which is translated in some other languages as "LEARN" / "STUDY" and not read. I am sure here are diligent people who can look for a correct translation of this word- I can't arabic and don't know how is this word written in Arabic, so I can't investigate on it in a Arabic dictionary like Lane or other one.
Zone, if you know how is this Word written in Arabic I would like you To put some Lines here please.
Thank you in advance for your advice or of any members here and I remain with
Best Regards
Birdy -
Peace,
"You must unlearn what you have learned"
God bless you
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Peace Zone,
I appreciate your response. Yes, additionally To my previous post I gladly can add your posted comments. There are many ways , which lead to God. They are as individual as the people thanks God are.
I remember a Vers , think it is sura 96 a First revealed To Mohammed , that writes at the First beginning " read", but I have To point To the meaning of the arabic Word Ikre, which is translated in some other languages as "LEARN" / "STUDY" and not read. I am sure here are diligent people who can look for a correct translation of this word- I can't arabic and don't know how is this word written in Arabic, so I can't investigate on it in a Arabic dictionary like Lane or other one.
Zone, if you know how is this Word written in Arabic I would like you To put some Lines here please.
Thank you in advance for your advice or of any members here and I remain with
Best Regards
BirdyPeace Birdy.
You pose a simple question, but to me it is a huge concept to be explained. I guess many people want a definite meaning of a word in the Quran just by translating its word from Arabic to English or to give its Arabic definition.
IMHO the Quran is not any ordinary book. It is from Allah. Its ayats are created by Allah and live (exist) in truth, just like His ayats in the heaven and the earth, all created by Him, and beings in truth. The ayats in the Quran relates to everything that exists in the form of His creation, includes objects, events, processes and laws.
Read seems to be a simple word. Why is it when we read the same message, we differ. Or some people just couldn?t understand or see it oppositely. This read thing by itself is a phenomenon.
The truth is out there. Whatever we formulate in our minds, is the interpretation of the truth. There is no guarantee someone expert in Arabic able to formulate the true understanding of a phenomenon, which belongs to Allah, in truth. Why? Language is just one of the means to approach the phenomenon, the effort is to read, observe, study, research, connect, relate, define, classify, describe and explain. And it is about you and i, as seekers of the truth, that matters in our ability to discover the truth.
Suffice for me to say in understanding Quran, whether read, recite or study, it is about our sincerity and seriousness to begin with (3928, 413, 1745). Yes we need to study the Arabic Quran (122, 379, 3444,).
Hope you grasp my basic explanation of what I have to say.
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Peace Birdy,
Are you looking for only the word or the whole phrase? Anyway is what you asked about.
The whole phrase 961 READ in the name of thy Sustainer, who has-
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2238 does not mention DAILY Salaats, but that is what we logically understand from it, i.e. we perform SALAAH, as a DAILY ritual.
Salaamun alayka,
243 And aqeemoo alssalata waatoo alzzakata and kneel with those who kneel.
How many times a day do you understand from this ayaat that we have to perform the sallaat.
And what about al-zakaat? Is it also on daily basis?The root word ?WA-SA-TA? means middle, center, midmost, midst, midway, halfway, average, median, medium, moderate, and neutral.
In all the verses you?ve mentioned, it more or less, means the same. In 2143 it can mean, moderate and or neutral. In 589 it means, median and or moderate. In 6828 it means one from their midst.
2143
Are we just a moderate umma '(
589
What does "median"/"moderate" food mean?
6828
Wat was the best man doing in the story?
Peace,
KhalilSalaam,
Bender -
Peace Bender,
So your translation would be
You shall consistently observe the Contact Prayers, especially the middle prayer, foremost prayer and devote yourselves totally to GOD
&
Salaamun alayka,
I do not agree with the red highlighted, but for the rest it is an ok translation.
why & ?
Salaam,
Bender -
Peace Bender,
What is your translation of the entire verse (2/23?
peace
Salaamun alayka,
something like this
2238 Be secure over your connections/contacts and the foremost connection/contact and raise up to Allah qanitina.
Sorry not sure yet how to understand the last word.
Salaam,
Bender -
Peace Bender,
I apologize for my oversight, as far as the & is concerned, I just had the urge.
There is also another icon I would like to use but haven't had a chance yet,
so here goes brickwall brickwall brickwall aaahh much better.Back to your translation.
Salaamun alayka,
something like this
2238 Be secure over your connections/contacts and the foremost connection/contact and raise up to Allah qanitina.
Sorry not sure yet how to understand the last word.
Salaam,
Bender-
I am not fond of the forward slash, I prefer the translator to make a decision as
to what it is they want to say. -
The word foremost while grammatically correct is too ambiguous, what I mean by
too ambiguous is, which connection/contact are you referring to, if there are three or
five contact/connections, your translation does not denote which connection/contact
is the foremost. -
I see no problem with "qnitna" being translated as very or devoutly obedient.
Just my opinion
God Bless
peace
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Peace Bender,
I apologize for my oversight, as far as the & is concerned, I just had the urge.
Salaamun alayka,
you scared me
There is also another icon I would like to use but haven't had a chance yet,
so here goes brickwall brickwall brickwall aaahh much better.Back to your translation.
- I am not fond of the forward slash, I prefer the translator to make a decision as
to what it is they want to say.
I understand.
I am still not sure which word is a better translation, thats why I used the slash.- The word foremost while grammatically correct is too ambiguous, what I mean by
too ambiguous is, which connection/contact are you referring to, if there are three or
five contact/connections, your translation does not denote which connection/contact
is the foremost.
GREEN Does the arabic denotes which connection/contact is the foremost hmm
Anyways, more then 2 years ago, I thought the same as you, thus that it was referring to a middle prayer in a day.
Then after some study of the word "wusta" and the verse I was sure "wusta" could not mean "middle".
The only explanation I had, was that it could probably refer to the sallaat on the day of aljumuaa.
But with time I saw more and more flaws in this "aljumuaa" theory. So I rejected it.
Then Allah showed me
2014 "I am God, there is no god except Me, so serve Me and hold the sallaat for My remembrance."
What sallaat could be more important then that hail
If you have any then I am very happy to know.- I see no problem with "qnitna" being translated as very or devoutly obedient.
Sure it could be, I never studied the word so I keep at the moment every option open.
Just my opinion
God Bless
peace
handshake
May Allah bless you too pr
Bender - I am not fond of the forward slash, I prefer the translator to make a decision as
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2238 does not mention DAILY Salaats, but that is what we logically understand from it, i.e. we perform SALAAH, as a DAILY ritual.
The root word ?WA-SA-TA? means middle, center, midmost, midst, midway, halfway, average, median, medium, moderate, and neutral.
In all the verses you?ve mentioned, it more or less, means the same. In 2143 it can mean, moderate and or neutral. In 589 it means, median and or moderate. In 6828 it means one from their midst.
2143
589
6828
I agree with this for salatul wusta.
Word wasata will have different meaning based on verses's context. -
Peace be upon you.
I'm in complete agreement with your post and I'm glad to find someone who thinks like me. Although I have changed the wordings in my salat, and I hope to keep changing it every once in a while, it still consists of rakahs with the traditional pattern of 2-4-4-3-4.
Salaam!
I keep my rakaat to 4 or 2 depending on time and mood. I think it's perfectly acceptable to do so as God knows sometimes I'm so tired, but I try to aim for 4 always with intention beforehand.
I do Salat al-Fajr before sunrise, Salat al-Wustu at midday and Salat al-Isha after sunset. I reserve Dhikrullah (meditation on Allah's qualities) for after midnight when possible. I also practice this in jama'at with two, three or sometimes four others here in London. We have a very cheap space for this and we call our group Masjid Ahl al-Qur'an.
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3 has no middle you said in an earlier post? If the word PEN has 3 letters, wouldn't the letter E be the middle one?