Have you ever felt bored to perform ibadah or prayer to Allah? Or, maybe you feel a bit lazy to hold your work or study and spend some time praying. Have you experienced that?
To be honest, sometimes, actually I also feel the same. And it is also stated around a decade ago that a person asked exactly the same question to our big scholars, Imam Badiuzzaman Said Nursi.
A wealthy and big guy, someday asked the Imam. “I acknowledge that the prayer is good. But to do prayers five times in a day is actually too much. I feel bored and lazy to perform it because I know I need to do it again and again!”
It stated in his book, al-Kalimat, that the feeling is actually normal for all people. Because all of us had nafs ammarah in ourselves.
Allah S.W.T created humans with special characteristics, we have both good and bad sides. On the other hand, to maintain being a good person, we need to increase our faith by consistently doing Ibadah only for the purpose of Him.
Allah says in Quran:
إِنَّ الصَّلَاةَ كَانَتْ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ كِتَابًا مَوْقُوتًا ﴿﴾
“Verily, the prayer is enjoined on the believers at fixed hours”.
(Quran 4:103)
The main reason that makes us feel bored to perform our prayer is because we think that we are alive for eternity. We always think that we need to pray for more than thousands of years!
However, not even one person either the policeman, the king, the lawyer and even our beloved family cannot guarantee our life for tomorrow and even for the next one second. How can we be too confident for this?
We always keep ourselves busy with the worldly things. We care about our job, our money, our study, our lover, our food, and all single things that happen around the world. We care too much about this like we will stay in this world forever in comfort.
Ops, don’t get me wrong. It’s not a sin if we want to know about all things that happen and being updated with the news. But in the meantime, it is our obligation to know and have a knowledge about akhirah, Jannah, naar and all of that.
This eternal thought – (thinking that we will live in this dunya forever and ever) is not good and will drive our self to self-destruction. Starting with underestimating the value of ibadah, then we will be brave enough to abandon our obligations and follow with doing the bad things as commanded by our bad nafs (nafs ammarah).
“Pray as if you were to die tomorrow. Work as if you were to live forever.”
Smart people always think that this world is just a transit. It’s not our real home here. As prophet Adam (the first mankind) came from paradise, we as his grandchildren also understand that our real village and hometown is there.
And to get in the paradise, we must first passed the test in this world, which is not doing what is forbidden and not abandon what is compulsory for us. By constantly praying, we will increase our faith, prevent ourself from doing bad things and encourage ourself to do good things.
In addition, Imam Badiuzzaman Said Nursi also stated another factor on why people feel bored to perform their prayer. It is because they have no patience (sabr) in doing ibadah by wasting their patience thinking about the past and future.
Islam told us that there are three types of Patience (Sabr) that we must follow:
- Patience (Sabr) when facing difficulties
- Patience (Sabr) refraining from sins
- Patience (Sabr) in doing good deeds
Allah S.W.T has given us patience that is enough for our days. If we keep wasting it by thinking on how many times we had spent to pray and how difficult it will be to always pray five times in a day is foolish. We don’t even know that we will live till the next period of prayer time.
When performing our prayer, think like this is our last prayer. We should perform it in the best and preferred way. May Allah accept our prayer.
Written by,
Imani