On the Wings of Prayers

And he hears every prayer and answers each one

When we Pray in His name - Thy will be done.

The burdens that seemed too heavy to bear

Are lifted away on the wings of a prayer.[1] 

As human beings however powerful we might feel most of the times, if we look carefully into our souls, we will see the need to rely on something all powerful since in essence we are actually very limited and inadequate creatures like the rest of beings on earth. This is an important innate feeling that connects us with our creator, which is the most powerful and the most merciful. That is why prayers, which is the ultimate form of accepting your weakness and resorting to the mercy and capability of a superior authority, have long been part of our lives as long as the humanity existed.

Though we are not limited in our longings and aspirations, we are very restricted in our access to what we want to achieve. Some people fall into the illusion and comfort of wealth and good health thinking that whatever needed is within the reach of their hands. This fallacy ignores the imperfection and deficiencies of being a human. As humans we do not even possess our body, which we did not find ourselves nor was build by our efforts, let alone having a command over how it works. The extent of our limitation can be understood better if we take into consideration how a creature that is unseen to the eye like a virus can bring down our whole body and we would have no control over it. One can be fooled by the capabilities,skills and potentials put in to the human body and soul, like the power of reasoning and being able to command over almost all other beings and materials in existence. However, that only disguises the obvious imperfections of the human insecurity over the resources that we seemingly own or command. We are prone to flaws in our health and disasters of the nature surrounding us. Illnesses that can not be cured and natural disasters that can not be stood against are straightforward examples of our shortcomings against our desires, needs, ambitions and aspirations.

The question then is to find a cure to all our insufficiencies. Our needs are as great as the extent of our imaginations yet our capability is as short as the reach of our hands. Who will give us what we desire? Who will extend a hand to get us out of our misfortunes and difficulties? Who will soothe our anxieties and illuminate our paths in darkness? The unlimited and the most perfect power of the Lord Almighty, who is also the most compassionate towards His servants, is the answer that our souls are searching for. Prayers are the paths ascending to His kingdom. Acknowledging our flaws and lack of real power is the most essential form of praying to the God. It is the essence of all sorts of rituals in religious traditions. That is, serving God is actually becoming aware of our deficiencies and inconsequence asking our needs from Him. This also brings another point to the mind. The troubles in our lives are a way of God reminding us our weaknesses and thus an opportunity to raise our hands towards Him to seek refuge in his compassion while also remembering His superiority and our subservience to Him. This is also why sometimes the difficulties continue to prevail despite all our prayers. According to scholars that means the time of prayer is still not over[2] for the forgetful human beings who will fall into the comfort of the material life, ignoring the main reason of creation, as soon as the problems are over.

In addition, words are not the only means of praying to God. To achieve our goals we also need to accomplish the prerequisites of a success. That is prayer is only one condition of reaching our goal. The Lord created the universe on the basis of causality and Humans need to obey this immutable law. Nonetheless, satisfying all the preconditions of some event does not guarantee the realization of the end result. It is the Almighty who decides and creates, not the causes[3]. So it is our duty to work hard towards our ambitions but know that it is actually God creating the results and bestowing us with His bounties. This is the fine balance between effectively praying to the Lord and doing nothing towards our goal.[4]

To sum up, the key to everything and every success is in the hands of God. Supplication to the Almighty, which is the utmost form of recognizing our imperfections against God’s power,is the essence of all prayers and rituals . As explained by Fethullah Gulen in the “Emerald Hills of the Heart”,  relying on God by prayers means doing all that is necessary to obtain the intended result and waiting in expectation for the Eternally powerful One to bring about His Will.[5]

As the poet Shihab says:

Rely on the All-Merciful in all your affairs;

One who relies on Him is never in loss.

Confide in God and be patient with His disposal of you,

For you can obtain only as His favors what you expect from Him.