Praying

allah likes his bondsmen to pray to him. if a man, however numificent he may be, is again and again asked for anything, he sooner or later loses his patience and becomes angry. but allah, on the contrary, is pleased the more his bondsmen ask him. hadith tells as that allah is displeased with one who does not ask him for anything in prayer.

praying is not only a means of realizing one's purposes but is, in itself, an act or worship. in other words, praying even for one's personal ends and worldly needs is counted among acts of worship and earns merit. the more one prays the closer one gets to allah. it is not necessary to pray only in times of need or of distress; rather, praying in times of pleasure and plenty is also necessary. a hadith tells us that one who desires his prayers in the times of sorrow and distress to be answered, should pray in times of happiness and plenty. (tirmidhi cited in jami' al usmi)

allah has promise in quran "pray to me and i shall fulfill it". this divine promise can never be wrong so one must pray with belief and trust in its fulfilhnent. but fulflllrnent can take different forms; sometimes one gets what he prays for, but sometimes the desired object is not regarded by allah as beneficial or useful to his bondsman and so he is granted something, better in this life or hereafter.  thus every act of praying has three advantages:

1. divine grant of prayers fulfills our desires;

2. every prayer earns merit; and

3. repeated acts of praying bring one ever closer to allah

although the correct method of praying is to face the qiblah and raise one's hands and pray with tongue, prefacing the prayer with praise of allah and darud, but one can also pray without these preliminaries too. thus allah has made the act of praying so easy that one can also pray almost anywhere and at any time; one can pray while engaged in any activity and if one cannot intone the prayer as e.g. in lavatory, one can think his prayer.

also it is not necessary to pray for big or important things; one should pray to allah asking him to fulfil all one's wants, big or small; hadith tells us to pray even when one breaks his bootlace (tirmidhi).

consequently one should develop the habit of asking allah to fulfil even the smallest need, to seek divine amelioration of the most ordinary trouble. just a child calls his mother for everything big or small, one should call and go on calling allah. no matter what work one may be engaged in, one should always ask allah for something or the other. cultivate this habit and see how quickly you rise.