The prayer as such has extraordinary power to make us attain to greater and greater heights of obedience and worship, which is quite obvious. Consider now how much more enriched it becomes, how greatly its efficacy increases in transforming us, when the prayer is performed in congregation. Indeed, in this one single act of prayer, Allah (SWT) has given us His choicest gift.

But first, recollect what worship is and how the prayer prepares us for it. Worship means making yourself slaves of Allah (SWT), living in submission to His will, and remaining always ready to obey Him. The qualities that enable you to attain this state of worship are all developed by the prayer. These are consciousness of being a slave to Allah (SWT); faith in Allah (SWT), in His Messenger and His Book; belief in the live to come; fear of Allah (SWT); awareness that Allah (SWT) knows everything and is always close to you; strength of will and preparedness to obey Him; and knowledge of His commandments.

A. Private worship of Allah (SWT)

Further reflection will show you that an individual, however perfect he may be, cannot worship Allah (SWT) as is His due unless other servants of Allah (SWT) join him. You cannot obey all the injunctions of Allah (SWT) until all those people with whom you have to live day by day, and with whom you have to deal continually, become your partners in this worship. Man is not alone in this world: his whole life is bound in a thousand and one relationships with his family members, business associates, friends, neighbors, and acquaintances. Worship equally encompasses all these relationships, just as it grasps his inner self. If all these people unite in living by the will of Allah (SWT), all of them can succeed in becoming His faithful servants. But if they are collectively bent on disobedience or if they do not support each other in following the commands of Allah (SWT), then will it not be virtually impossible for a lone individual to submit his whole life to the law of Allah (SWT)?

Careful reading of the Qur’an shows that Allah (SWT) does not desire that you, as lone individuals, should become loyal and obedient to Him. This is not enough. You should strive to bring the whole world under Allah (SWT), to spread His words, and implement His laws. Whenever the rule of Satan prevails, you must try to root it out. Let Allah (SWT) alone, and no one else, be the sovereign in man’s life.

This enormous duty entrusted by Allah (SWT) cannot be performed by one Muslim alone; nor can hundreds of thousands of Muslims, if they remain individuals, be effective against the forces of the servants of Satan. You must therefore work together, single-mindedly, but not singly, to fulfil your noble mission.

This entails not merely that you become united, but that you become one-knit together. Your mutual relations should be established on a harmonious basis, without strife and discord. You should obey your leaders and fully understand the limitations of such obedience: where to obey and where to disobey. Observe how the congregational prayer cultivates all these essential qualities.

B. Assembling on one call

First, as the adhan summons you to the prayer, you put everything aside and go to the mosque. The mobilization of Muslims from all sides on hearing this call and their gathering at one Centre creates in them a sense of discipline as is found in an army. The sound of a bugle tells soldiers that their commander is calling them; their immediate thought is to obey the call and assemble at a previously agreed place. And so they do. The army adopts such a system to ingrain in every soldier the habit of obedience, both at the individual and group levels, and to weld them into a cohesive team. Thus, if they ever face armed combat, it will be as a unit with identical objectives. If soldiers, however good they may be individually at fighting, however well trained and brave, fight with each fighting his own battle, a platoon of fifty soldiers of the enemy can defeat one thousand such brave soldiers by picking them off individually.

For the same reason, you are required to assemble for the prayer five times a day on hearing the call of the adhan, leaving behind everything. But the resemblance ends here. Beyond this, you as Muslims are the army of Allah, and the duty of this army is much harder and radically different from that of any other army in the world. For other armies, wars are fought on one front at a time, and for selfish ends. But the army of Allah has to wage perpetual war and that too, against the forces of Satan, within their selves and in the world at large. Gathering five times a day at the sound of the Divine bugle is a sign of its constant readiness for the continuing battle. In view of the gigantic task they face, this strict discipline should look easy.

C. Purposeful assembly

Gathering in the mosque, then, itself yields many benefits: here you meet each other, come to recognize each other, and come to know each other. And what makes you come close to one another? You come together as slaves of Allah, followers of one Prophet (SAW), believers in one Book, with a single objective in life, both inside and outside the mosque. Such acquaintance, such unity, and such attachment automatically leaven and quicken in you the feeling that you are all one community, soldiers of the same army, brothers unto each other. Your interests, your aims, your losses and gains, are the same; and your lives are bound in with one another.            (To be continued)

Abul A’la Maududi