As Taught By Messenger Elijah Muhammad
Reprinted from Message To The Blackman in America
"Surely prayer keeps [one] away from indecency and evil; and certainly the remembrance of Allah is the greatest [force] and Allah knows what you do"
(Holy Qur'an 29-45)
Surely the best way to strive to be upright in a sinful world is to pray continuously to the One True God, whose proper name is Allah, for guidance.
As we are generally sinful and easily yield to temptations, it is only fitting to keep up prayer.
Allah, the One True God, has blessed us with the universe. A sun to shine and brighten up the heavens, giving light for us to see; warmth enabling us to live, and causing vegetation to grow and all life to exist. We reside on the planet through His will, so why should we not pray and continuously thank Him for this privilege?
He it is who created the atmosphere for us to breathe. He it is who created all good vegetation for us to eat, plus the fowl and other animals which we partake of daily. He it is who created the beautiful atmosphere in which we live, and which we, with our own hands, mutilate and destroy for lack of proper guidance.
We cannot improve upon the nature in which Allah (God) has created all beautiful things, yet we try. So let us realize the power of Allah, that without Him we cannot exist, and make obeisance to Allah through our prayers to Him.
Prayer is obligatory in Islam (the true religion). "And remember Allah's favor upon you and the covenant which He made you, when you said, "We hear and we obey," and fear Allah. Surely Allah knows well what is in our minds.
"O ye who believe! Be steadfast in the cause of Allah, bearing witness in equity; and let not a people's enmity incite you to act otherwise than with justice," says the Holy Qur-an. Be always just; that is nearer righteousness. And fear Allah. Surely Allah is aware of what you do.
Allah has promised those who believe and do good deeds that they shall have forgiveness and a great reward (Holy Qur-an 8:10).
We owe our very lives to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds. Why should we not thank Him? Our every good thought we owe to Allah, the beneficent, the merciful and grants us pardon and oftentimes we drift back again to some other flaw. For this we must turn to Him again, asking to be forgiven. Surely Allah knows what is in our hearts, and what is more, He is oft-forgiving.
He it is who is the All Perfect One, who knows our imperfection and pardons most through His Messenger. Remember: And the best way for remembrance of Allah (God) is through prayer.
The five prayers of the day are spiritual refreshments and he who cleanses himself in and out leaves no filthiness. It would be an insult to invite His Lord's holy spirit into a house the outside of which is filthy.
Why should we pray five times a day to our Maker since we feed our bodies three times a day? What is so important that would keep us away from prayer to the Originator of the heavens and the earth?
Let us give praises to our God and submit ourselves to the Lord of the worlds and learn how to pray the right prayers in the right manner. Let us serve the One True God, whose proper name is Allah, in the right state.
"My Lord, make me to keep up prayer, and my offspring too. Our Lord, accept the prayer. Our Lord, grant Thy protection to me and my parents and to the faithful of the day when the reckoning will be taken. (The prayer of the Muslims will get you an answer!)
1. Wash hands, beginning with right.
2. Rinse mouth, three times.
3. Rinse nostrils, three times, beginning with right side
4. Wash face, three times
5. Wash arms, from wrist to elbows, beginning with right, three times
6. With wet palms, wipe head from front hairline to neck hairline
7. Wash ears
8. Wash neck
9. Wash feet up to the ankles
Reprinted from Message To The Blackman in America, *published in 1965
1. The washing and cleansing of all exposed parts of the body of filth and uncleanness, to stand and bow before the Lord of the Worlds.
2. The rinsing of the mouth (the impure and evil that the mouth is guilty of speaking).
3. The washing of the hands that are subject to the handling of clean and unclean things. They are cleansed to be spread before Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.
The Holy Qur-an says that our hands will bear witness against the evil-doers on the Day of Resurrection. They will say: "O hands why hast thou borne witness against me? The hands will say: "As Allah makes everything to bear witness, so has He made us to bear witness." Whatever we do, every member of our body plays a part in it.
4..The feet are washed up to the ankles if they were exposed. The feet should be washed once every day, even though one wears shoes.
5. A total bath should be taken if there were sexual relations. He is now ready for prayer. He stands erect *with his face and body towards the rising of the sun (The East) in the direction that the earth is rotating, and all the planets.
In this direction is the Holy City of Mecca, the only Holy place on the earth. From this direction do we look for Allah (God) and His Angels to come to judge the world.
6. He lifts his opened hands with his thumbs pointing towards his ear lobes. He says, "Allah is the Greatest" (Twice). "I bear witness that none deserves to be worshiped besides Allah" (repeated twice) and that Muhammad is His last Apostle" (twice).
The regular Prayer Caller in the minarets of the Mosque calls the prayer from four (4) directions: East, West, North and South. He repeats "Allah is the Greatest" four times.
7. He begins his prayer by saying: "Surely I have turned myself to Thee being upright to Him who originated the heavens and the earth and I am not of the polythesists. Surely my prayer, my sacrifices, my life and my death are all for Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. No associate has He, and this am I commanded. Oh Allah, Thou art the King, there is no God but Thee. Thou art my Lord and I am Thy servant."
THE MEANINGS:
First, the cleansing of the body before asking prayer to the Most Honored and Wisest Person in the Universe, the Lord and King over all, none is His equal, shows respect for Him. He desires to show (in words) in his prayer that his words are clean and coming from a clean heart.
Should not that clean heart be a clean body? If one is offered clean water in an unclean outer surface of a glass, will he accept it? This is so with a Muslim; he believes in cleanness internally as well as externally.
THE DIFFERENT POSITIONS TAKEN IN PRAYER
Standing erect to address our Superior is proper and again it shows respect and honor. The raising of the hands with the palms open in the same direction shows an act of surrender to the King of Kings and Lord of the Worlds and is coming before Him with clean and emptied hands.
The hands, the most active members of our bodies, play the part of evil and good for the body. They sometimes bear witness for, or against us. The Muslims declare that there is only One God, and none deserves to be worshipped except Him. This is true.
Almost all religious persons acknowledge that there is but one God who made the heavens and the earth. The Muslims declare in one of their prayers that they worship Allah (God) in the best manner, *in the direction (East) in which He turns Himself -- towards the holiest places and one day the whole of the people of the earth will be just as holy or holier. I would say holier.
This position also has another meaning; it refers to the lost and found people of Islam. Before their return they must turn in this direction with clean hands and hearts, bow in submission to the will of Allah alone with righteousness that they may be welcomed to take their place again among their own people. This shall soon be made clear to my people here, that if holy war be declared, no so-called Negro could return to his native land and people unless he or she accepts Allah as his God and Islam as his religion.
"O you who believe, enter into submission one and all, and do not follow the footsteps of the devil. Surely he is your open enemy." Holy Qur-an 2:208
Here the Muslim is about to begin his prayer. He has cleansed all the exposed parts of the body, washed out his mouth, nose and ears. Standing upright, with is face towards his Holy City (Mecca), which is in the direction of sunrise, he lifts his cleansed hands up beside his head with the thumbs towards the lobe of his ears and declares that: "Allah is the Greatest" (four times), and that: "Nothing deserves to be worshipped but Allah."
What better preparation could have been made for the service of our God? With due respect and great honor, he is turned in the direction of sunrise in which our planet is carrying him at a speed of 1,037 1/3 miles per hour. Physically, he has turned his face in the direction in which he is traveling, and in which he looks forward to the light of the day. From the same direction (sunrise) came all the spiritual light - the holy prophets, the holy land and the holy cities of the earth.
With his cleansed hands open, with the palms towards the Holy Land and cities, he signifies an open confession of his internal purity and entire submission to the will of Allah (God). Whatever evils he has committed with his hands, by washing them with the water of life he shows forth his heart's repentances for the evils that his hands have committed.
Now as the open cleansed hands show forth a sincere surrender to their Maker without concealing or hiding anything, so it is with the heart -- that only Allah (God) can see into -- is clear of evils and desires forgiveness, for such evils have been washed from the heart, the ears from hearing them, the eyes are closed to keep out the evil morals, for none can turn away from me the evil morals but Thee.
The above prayers is preferred as the morning prayer, but can be said by the individual any time he likes. Here the prayer declares that he is strictly a believer in one God Who originated the universe (the Heavens and earth) and not in three, and further declares "that his sacrifice, life and death are all for Allah (God) and to Him does he submit." He acknowledges his sins and asks protection against them, or rather against a future sin.
A lot of Believers don't realize that in 1972, at the lecture given at the Opening Day of the New Temple No. 2 in Chicago, Messenger Elijah Muhammad stopped us from facing the East when we pray.
Messenger Elijah Muhammad's words from that lecture were published in the June 9, 1972 issue of Muhammad Speaks Newspaper.
The Messenger said: "We have to build a new world. As you noticed while the Minister was praying, I had not my face turned towards the East, for the sunlight of truth is not to come from the East, today! Is is to come from the West! And since God, Almighty, In the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, Has Made me the first to rise from you, I must turn you on a light coming from here--from the West. No more shall we turn our face to the East, looking for light from the East, for the Sun of Light has risen in the West!!!......"
Reprinted from Message To The Blackman in America,
The following prayer is for the Messenger of Allah:
"O Allah make Muhammad successful and the true followers of Muhammad successful as Thou didst make Abraham successful and the true followers of Abraham successful. For surely Thou art praised and manified in our midst. Allah bless Muhammad and the true followers of Muhammad as Thou didst bless Abraham and the true followers of Abraham. Surely Thou art praise and magnified in our midst."
In the above prayer, the Believers of the lost and found members of a great nation pray for the Messenger who Allah (God) has raised among them; a guide to the lost and now found path of Allah. For 400 years they have been wandering in darkness, blinded by the touch of Satan, the devil.
But now the light of Allah has shone upon them and they have turned themselves now to Him. And they have submitted to Allah to do His will, being blessed as the Jews and the Arabs were to have a Messenger born in their midst to teach and guide his people into the spirit and knowledge of his Teacher, Almighty God, Allah in Person.
The Believers are not satisfied with prayers and seeking refuge in Allah without asking a word of prayer for the success and blessings of Allah upon the Messenger and his followers whom Allah has so abundantly bestowed upon them; "the answer to Abraham's that he raise a Messenger from among them that he may teach the wisdom of the Book (Bible) to so many of them who do ot understand the very book (Bible) in which they think they believe, but without the true knowledge or understanding of the scriptures of Moses and Jesus.
Therefore, a correction must come to them in the way of true understanding of these scriptures in which their history is constantly referred to in the mentioning of the Jews and Christians through the Prophets that were sent to them.
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