How many times have I heard that (silly) question? Actually, that is a rhetorical question, but if you answer “Probably too many times (5 times a day and night),” then you earn a gold star because that is absolutely correct!

Let me list several reasons people give as to why they do not pray:

1. I don’t have time.
2. I have no place to pray.
3. What’s the point? God never gives me what I ask for, anyways.
4. On Muslim prayer: So many people don’t even know what they are saying when they pray, because it’s all in Arabic and it’s just a routine that is pointless. Why does everyone have to pray in the same language and do the same motions?
5. On Muslim prayer: Why pray five times a day?
6. I don’t believe in God.

Of course, there are many more reasons (and I do not call them excuses, because everyone has the freedom, free will, and right to do as they please) people have for not praying and I respect all them. But, as I am human, I have my own opinion on this matter from a Muslim perspective. And, as always, I do not expect you to agree with anything I say and I completely understand that what I say may not be what you believe and I respect that, but I simply ask that you open your eyes to this perspective and allow me to lay out my reasons for praying and for praying in the way that I do.

In referring to the above reasons, I believe that many people have issues with time. I myself have a very difficulty finding time, because I have class from 9-10, work from 10-5, and then class and lab from 5-9. So, my day is booked. But (there’s always a but, you should know that by now), I find myself just sitting around sometimes (like at work, if I am having a slow work day or an hour after I’ve finished up a project, I find a 15 minute break to breath in), that is a moment where I can say a few words to God and let Him know that I still know He’s up there. In communicating with God, I am also taking a few minutes to myself, to reflect about my life and about my relationship with God and others. So, we don’t have to say that we are being completely selfless and doing everything for God, this helps us and that is probably God’s reasoning for asking us to pray. God wants us to take a break from our chaotic lives and have a few minutes to ourselves (and in those few minutes, God is with us to help us think things through).

Here’s a scenario to think about in regards to the paragraph above about the lack of time. You are having a tough day, and your boss is being an absolute jerk and you really want to tell somebody about it. So, you step away from your desk and go to a quite area in the building and call up your best friend on the phone. You pour your heart out to this friend and your friend doesn’t really respond or anything, she simply listens to you, and that is all you needed in that situation. It’s really helpful to talk things through to someone else. Have you ever had a question looming in your mind and you think about it and think about it and never find the solution? But when you go to someone else and ask them the question, instantly you realize how simple the answer was, and you practically answer your own question?

So, I am just saying that, when you make time to go call your friend, you could use that time to pray to God for guidance and strength instead. In this case, you cannot say that you do not have enough time. There is always time to pray! Everyone has some sort of lag time in their lives, and this time needs to be used wisely.

Not having a place to pray is tough, though. Not every area you go to will have a designated area for Muslim prayer. But, when you find that you are constantly in a place at the time in which prayer is called, you might want to take some action and talk to people of authority to compromise a space for prayer. This is the duty of each individual Muslim. You can’t just sit back and think that not having a place to pray should keep you from prayer. In the least, take a few minutes to sit down in a chair or on a bench and recite the prayers to yourself. You cannot depend on others to provide you with a place to pray, so you must take action on your own to find a place or ask for a place.

Here is a scenario for you to reflect upon regarding the above paragraph about not having a space to pray. If you worked in a building that had no bathroom (and you’re one of those people who likes to drink lots and lots of water), this would be a big problem for you, and I am absolutely sure you would complain about it and you would desperately try to find the person in charge and ask that they make arrangements to have a bathroom installed in their building. If you were not one of those stern and talkative kinds of people, you might even go to the building across the street in order to perform your biological duties. So, in this case, you have either made an effort to have actions taken to put a bathroom in the building, or you have made the extra effort to find a way to go to the bathroom in spite of the lack of a bathroom in your building. This can be done in the case of a prayer space, as well. It is just as important and necessary as a bathroom.

We pray to God out of respect for Him, not so that we may ask Him for things. We pray to God for necessary assistance and guidance, and God provides for us what He knows we should have and what we need. If you pray that you get an A, maybe that is not what is right for you to receive. You pray that God helps you get an A, but you do not study, what have you learned? God wants us to earn what we receive, just as He wants us to earn His love. Everything is done for a reason, as cliché as that may sound, it is true in so many ways. God gives us what He knows we need, not what we want.

Here is a scenario for you to reflect upon regarding the above paragraph about not receive what you want from God. When you were around the age of 7 and you asked your parents to buy you a Twix bar while you were standing at the checkout line, you were always given a “no.” Your mom would snatch the candy bar out of your hand, put it back on the rack, and tell you that you can have some baby carrots when you get home. You hated that, mom never gave you what you wanted. Mom never gave you what you wanted, because your mentality was at a condition of unawareness, and you didn’t know what was good for you. She never gave you what you wanted, because she knew it was bad for you, and instead she gave you what you needed. This can be applied to God not giving us what we want. God is nurturing us and taking care of us by keeping us out of harms way, and we should give a prayer of thanks to Him, instead of being upset with Him. You grow up later and realize how your mom was only trying to help you, and you also grow up in your spiritual mentality and realize how God was only trying to help you and continues to do that (unconditionally).

Many people see the Muslim prayer as routine and not a true prayer. People from all over the world, who are Muslim, pray the same way and they all pray in Arabic even if Arabic is not their native language. To many this is a problem, because the people who do not know Arabic are saying words they do not understand and do not know the meaning of. My question to you is, who said? Who said these people have no clue what these words mean? These words have been translated into millions of different languages. Each person has a vast amount of opportunities to read and understand these words in their own language. When it comes to prayer, these words are said in Arabic. Why? What’s so special about Arabic? Nothing is special about Arabic, only that it is the original language of the Holy Quran. So many things are lost in translation, so in an effort to keep the Holy Quran precise and unchanged, the words are kept in Arabic, and the words are spoken in Arabic. God understands every single language on this earth, so it is not to be said that God only understands Arabic or Arabic is better than any other language. That is very wrong, every language is special. But the words of the Holy Quran are very special and they lose their true and outstanding meaning when translated into other languages. The Suras (the chapters of the Quran) are written like beautiful poetry. Have you ever seen a poem translated from one language to another? It becomes completely distorted, it loses its structure, and it loses its original meaning. That is why prayer is said in Arabic and it is the responsibility of the Muslim individual to go and find out what these words, that he/she is speaking, mean.

Here’s a scenario for you to reflect upon regarding the above paragraph about Muslim prayers. You are at a baseball game and Carrie Underwood (I apologize if you don’t know Carrie, but she has a phenomenal voice, so I greatly suggest that you try and listen to some of her music) approaches the microphone. On this queue, everyone in the crowd stands up straight and some of the people place their right hand on the left side of their chest. They all face the flag. The music starts and the voices from the crowd rise up together in harmony with Carrie Underwood’s leading voice as they recite the National Anthem of the United States. No one in the crowd is singing the National Anthem in Chinese or German, Carrie Underwood is not singing it in French. Everyone is singing the Anthem in its original language, English. This can also be applied to the Islamic prayer.

Also, when I was in the first grade and we were learning the pledge of allegiance in my ESL (English as a second language) class, we were not given the choice to say the pledge of allegiance in our own language… no… we were taught to say it (out of respect) in the original language of the pledge, that is being English.

In discussing the reason for five prayers, the art of repetition comes to mind. In school, when a teacher wanted you to learn something, he/she repeats it several times. After a while, you are able to perform what you learned without even thinking about it. The prayers five times a day eventually become so pressed into your mind, that you are able to say the words without thinking about them. As you are saying those beautiful prayers, you are able to think about God, think about the life He has given you, and reflect on everything. The prayers are situated in a way that you are remembering God throughout the entirety of the day. You are communicating with God actively throughout the day and that reminds a believer of his/her faith and reminds the believer that he/she must remember to thank God for all that he/she has. We all forget to thank God, so this sort of structure keeps us on track. Why do you need to thank God so many times in one day? He doesn’t need our thanks?

If you are asking such questions, here is a scenario for you to reflect upon regarding the constant communication and thanking of God. You take a trip to another country for one week, and you make a friend there. For that week, you two hang out and laugh together and enjoy your time together. When it is time for you to go, your friends asks that you call and not lose touch. You tell your friend that you would never hesitate to call. You leave for your own country. A month goes by, you make no contact with your friend (of course, you never gave him your number). Another 3 months, nothing. You forget about this friend (you were much too busy to keep contact). Without constant communication, that friend is lost.

God is our friend, He wants the best for us, so (in order for us to keep this almighty and merciful friend) we must keep the lines of communication constantly open. Prayer provides this communication. Now, two years have gone by and you have not called this friend. You visit that county against and your car stops in an unfamiliar area. You dig through your wallet and happen upon that phone number given to you two years ago. You call your friend up. He remembers you, but he is indifferent. “Two years you haven’t called, no show of appreciation for the shelter I provided for you in my country, and now that you finally need me you call? That’s ridiculous, goodbye!” Now, God is merciful, but if you only communicate with God when you want something from Him, you probably won’t get it. Karma and the divine work as a team.

Well, I have jabbered on long enough. I apologize for the length of this post, but I really needed to lay out my ideas here. In the case of the last reason given for not praying, that is an acceptable reason, because of course you wouldn’t pray to a God you don’t believe in. So, why pray if you don’t believe in God? So, although I do not agree with that belief, I must hold strong to my own belief that “to each his own” and I respect your decision to believe in what you wish to believe in.

I ask that you all open your eyes to these different reasons and scenarios and try to clean out the repairable reasons for not praying in your lives. A strong belief in anything is healthy for every individual. Every individual should have something he/she is extremely passionate about. Source/ Original Post by Hanenalk