the state of prayer; dynamics of prayer
Editorial introduction
Why speak to God at all, when He already knows every wish of the heart? ‘Abdu’l-Bahá answers with the simplest of analogies: a friend who loves another will want to say so, and will look for every chance to speak, to bring gifts, to write. Prayer is that impulse, conversation with the Beloved. Yet the conversation has an inner discipline. Words matter less than the soul’s condition; the mind can become an altar and the heart a sanctuary, so that one lives in a continuing attitude of prayer. The Báb adds that the supplicant must behold nothing but the face of his Lord, and that whoever prays for a need should also seek its means, since God works through channels. Prayers that seem unanswered are met not with blame but with the language of wisdom and surrender. Paul’s picture of the Spirit interceding when we do not know how to pray offers a kindred sense of help amid limitation [1]. From here the path leads into meditation, the law of obligatory prayer, and the real power of prayer in a life.
What is prayer? It is 'conversation with God.' While man prays he sees himself in the Presence of God. If he concentrates his attention he will surely at the time of Prayer realize that he is 'conversing with God.'
"If one friend feels love for another he will wish to say so. Though he knows that the first is aware that he loves him, he will still wish to say so. If there is anyone that you love do you not seek an opportunity to speak with him, to speak lovingly with him, to bring him gifts, to write him letters? If you do not feel such a desire it would be that you did not love your friend. God knows the wishes of all hearts. But the impulse to pray is a natural one springing from man's love to God.
When one supplicates to his Lord, turns unto Him and seeks Bounty from His Ocean, this supplication is by itself a light to his heart, an illumination to his sight, a life to his soul and an exaltation for his being.
… When the vessel is widened the water increaseth, and when the thirst grows the bounty of the cloud becomes agreeable to the taste of man. This is the mystery of supplication and the wisdom of stating one's wants (praying).
O thou daughter of the Kingdom! Know thou that supplication and prayer is the Water of Life. It is the cause of the vivification of existence, and endows glad-tidings and joy to the souls.
Prayer confers spirituality upon the heart.
There is no state like the state of prayer. It attracts the pure hearts, awakens the holy souls, and confers remarkable spirituality.
Prayer is both attitude and word; it depends upon the soul-condition. It is like a song; both words and music make the song. Sometimes the melody will move us, sometimes the words.
He told Florence that the turning toward God in thought, and a prayer-like appeal from the heart, is prayer, and is heard of God. Words are not necessary, the heart is enough. He was not referring here to the obligatory daily prayers, one of which is chosen by the believer to recite, nor other prayers revealed for special times--He meant that a prayer-like attitude of the heart is essential.
However, verbal repetition of prayer does not suffice. One must live in a perennial attitude of prayer. When man is spiritually free, his mind becomes the altar and his heart the sanctuary of prayer.
O my God, my God! Thou hearest my crying in the depths of night and my wailing in the morning and evening hours. I supplicate Thee during my prayer and devotions with a wandering heart and flowing tears and a throbbing breast.
It is incumbent upon every servant to pray and supplicate God, and to beg for and implore His assistance! This is the attitude of a true worshipper (devotee) and thy Lord is able to perform whatsoever He wishes through His excellent wisdom.
O friends! Recite this prayer with utmost humility and supplication at the Threshold of the King of the Kingdom of Glory, and seek confirmation.
O seeker of Truth!
In the middle of nights pray and supplicate to God with such fervor and zeal that I may hear thy calls.'"
Now is the hour for beseeching and supplicating Him.
Man is eternally in a state of communion and prayer with the source of all-good. The highest and most elevating state is the state of prayer. Prayer is communion with God ... Its efficacy is conditioned upon the freedom of the heart from extraneous suggestions and mundane thoughts. The worshipper must pray with a detached spirit, unconditional surrender of the will, concentrated attention and a magnetic spiritual passion. His innermost being must be stirred with the ethereal breezes of sanctification.
When you pray you must not think of your aching body, nor of the birds outside the window, nor of the cracks in the wall!
If you see some of the people here in Haifa not paying their entire attention to prayer, it is because they are afraid of causing an uproar in the Government. When a man falls in love with a human being, it is impossible for him to keep from mentioning the name of his beloved. How much more difficult is it to keep from mentioning the name of GOD, when he has come to love Him.
It behooves the supplicant to behold none but the countenance of his Lord at the time of prayer, for if he finds himself or his desire while turning to his Lord, he has associated partners with his Master and has not truly turned in the station of prayer.
… For this reason, God does not accept the prayers of most supplicants, nor are they answered, because they call upon what they do not know. When anyone calls upon God in this way, God answers immediately, for turning to God in true unity is greater than what the servant asks of his Lord. Prayer in that station is itself the answer, and therefore God has said: "Call upon Me; I will answer you."
Verily God createth all things through their means, and He causeth all means to flow through their channels. When thou prayest to God for any need, look unto its means and seek to attract it through its means, for God will grant thee this, albeit through its means. Look not unto the means nor the cause, but rather unto the Causer of causes, Who operateth not through means but Who causeth the means to operate through their channels.
When thou hast received the Tablet, turn thy face toward the Kaaba of God, the Mighty, the Great, and say: My God, my God! My soul is a sacrifice for Thy remembrance, and for Thy tender care a sacrifice. I testify that through Thee the Sun of bounty hath shone upon the world and the hearts of the nations have been illumined with the light of recognition. I beseech Thee, O Thou Who sendeth down the verses, by Thy Cause that dominateth earth and heaven, and by the revelations of the lights of the Day-Star of Thy manifestation among mankind, to make me one who speaketh forth Thy Name and who acteth according to that which Thou hast commanded me in Thy Book.
These obligatory prayers are entirely personal between the individual and God.
There is also the form of prayer to which the name "Supplication" has been given, in the translations which may certainly be used in public. That is, if you should desire to ask God anything, you may certainly do so in an assembly of believers.
Man may say, "I can pray to God whenever I wish, when the feelings of my heart are drawn to God; when I am in the wilderness, when I am in the city, or wherever I may be. Why should I go where others are gathered upon a special day, at a certain hour, to unite my prayers with theirs when I may not be in a frame of mind for praying?" To think in this way is useless imagination for where many are gathered together their force is greater.
When one feels spiritually uplifted and attracted, one can say the Long Obligatory Prayer, and even that is not so lengthy. What a wonderful state comes over a person.
Congregational prayer has no spiritual attraction. Much hypocrisy enters into it. But if one closes the door of one's room and prays, it creates a different state. Praying individually gives much spirituality to a person.
Prayer without ablution is impossible, and supplication without humility is unacceptable.
However, firstly, one should perform it whenever one finds in oneself a state of devotion and humility; secondly, in the morning, at noon, and in the evening; and thirdly, from noon to noon."
Q. Is it necessary to arise to say the midnight prayer, or the prayer of the Dawn, or to wash the hands and face before using these?
During the time of prayer His Holiness Baha’u’llah must be singly and alone the center towards whom all the faces are turned.
When I pray I turn my thoughts and face to the Blessed Perfection.
Our Lord: "At the time of prayer one must hold in one's mind some object. Then he must turn his face and direct his mind to this picture.
Abdul-Baha said:
"If we wish to pray we must have some object upon which to concentrate. If we turn to God we must direct our hearts to a certain center.
… "The epitome of all worship is the worship of the attributes of Christ, not his personality."
Thou seest, O my God, this sick one who hath sought healing from the ocean of Thy healing, and Thou knowest, O my God, that I do not wish to offer prayer lest it be confused with what the divines practice.
And from Abu Basir who said: "I said to Abu Ja'far, peace be upon him, 'When I recite the Qur'an and raise my voice with it, Satan comes to me.' He said: 'Do you think I would destroy people with this? O Abu Muhammad, recite in a manner between the two manners of recitation. Let your household hear you, and modulate your voice with the Qur'an, for verily God, the Mighty and Glorious, loves the beautiful voice when it is modulated with proper modulation.'"
When ye tire of reading a verse from the Book of God a hundred times, then reduce it by ten and ten until there remaineth but nineteen. This sufficeth you before your Lord in the paths of goodness, if ye be of them that wish to act. Say: Ye draw not nigh unto God by aught as ye do by reading His verses by night and by day, whether ye read them silently within yourselves or proclaim them aloud with your tongues.
The most beautiful pentagram comprises: Love, work, prayer, peace and joy; pursue daily its realization!
Further quotations · supplied wording and references
While praying it would be better to turn one's thoughts to the Manifestation as He continues, in the other world, to be our means of contact with the Almighty. We can, however, pray directly to God Himself.
We cannot know God directly, but only through His Prophets. We can pray to Him, realizing that through His Prophets we know Him, or we can address our prayer in thought to Baha'u'llah, not as God, but as the Door to our knowing God.
You have asked whether our prayers go beyond Baha'u'llah: it all depends whether we pray to Him directly or through Him to God. We may do both, and also can pray directly to God, but our prayers would certainly be more effective and illuminating if they are addressed to Him through His Manifestation, Baha'u'llah. Under no circumstances, however, can we, while repeating the prayers, insert the name Baha'u'llah where the word 'God' is used. This would be tantamount to a blasphemy.
In regard to your question: we must not be rigid about praying; there is not a set of rules governing it; the main thing is we must start out with the right concept of God, the Manifestation, the Master, the Guardian -- we can turn, in thought, to any one of them when we pray. … As long as you don't confuse their stations, and make them all equal, it does not matter much how you orient your thoughts.
If you find you need to visualize someone when you pray, think of the Master. Through Him you can address Baha'u'llah. Gradually try to think of the qualities of the Manifestation, and in that way a mental form will fade out, for after all the body is not the thing, His Spirit is there and is the essential, everlasting element.
At the level of the contingent world, true worship is realized for those who worship God through Him and submerge themselves in the Sea of Absolute Unity. For in that Sea, the worshipper and the words of worship are annihilated, and thus there remaineth naught for the worshipper but the very revelation of God and the pure Countenance of the Beloved.... He who worshippeth God through any one but Him, by gazing at his own self as the Worshipper and at God as the Object of his worship, hath joined partners with God and hath never worshipped Him. (The Bab, provisional translation,
...before every endeavour ... must we begin with prayer: not as though we would pull down to ourselves that Power which is nigh both everywhere and nowhere, but that, by these remembrances and invocations of God, we may commend and unite ourselves thereto.
In answering a similar from the National Spiritual Assembly of Uganda and Central Africa about congregation singing in services at the House of Worship we said: "Singing by a congregation present at a service in the House of Worship should not be confused with congregational prayer prescribed by Baha'u'llah for the dead..."
There is a difference between chanting a prayer collectively and congregational prayer. The latter is a formal prayer usually led by an individual using a prescribed ritual. Congregational prayer in this form is forbidden in the Faith except in the case of the Prayer for the Dead.
Although you seem to feel that your prayers have not so far been answered, and do no longer have any hope that your material conditions will ameliorate, the Guardian wishes you nevertheless not to allow such disappointments to undermine your faith in the power of prayer, but rather to continue entreating the Almighty to enable you to discover the great wisdom which may be hidden behind all these sufferings. … The true worshipper, while praying, should endeavour not so much to ask God to fulfill his wishes and desires, but rather to adjust these and make them conform to the Divine Will. Only through such an attitude can one derive that feeling of inner peace and contentment which the power of prayer alone can confer.
The true basis of prayer is for the individual to hold himself as a reed, through which the Holy Spirit may flow. His will should be completely submissive to the Will of God. … The Guardian has so often pointed out that there are three elements of prayer -- meditation, supplication and action. It is most important that an individual act, because it is only while the individual is acting that a prayer can be answered.
For thought and discussion