There are few things in life as beautiful or as powerful as Salat. It’s your direct connection to Allah at any time, and in any place. And despite the fact that we are only required to pray five times a day, we manage to find excuses and reasons not to. We get caught up in our daily activities and find it to be an unwelcome intrusion. Something that interrupts our work day, our classes, or our entertainment and if we pray at all, we consider ourselves to be pious and angelic for having taken the time to do so.

SubhanAllah, how deluded can we be? We are not conferring a great honor on Allah by praying to him. He is the Master, the Creator, and he has asked us to pray to him. He has told us in the Quran that he is not in need of our prayer. He grants us food, water, shelter, health, success, wealth, so many things which we take for granted. And we can’t even bother to say thanks? Or show our appreciation by praying to him in return. It hardly seems like a fair trade. Giving up thirty minutes out of every twenty-four hours to Allah seems like such a trivial thing that it’s a wonder we make excuses not to do it.

All it takes is one illness, one teeny microscopic virus to weaken our immune system and leave us helpless, and in pain. At times like that we have all our time for Allah. In fact, in those times when we are destitute, we turn to him a hundred percent, begging and praying for our health. Is it not much better, more honorable, to show Him our thanks when all is well?

In our daily lives, if we have a boss, or a relative or someone whose relationship is very beneficial to us. Either because they give us a raise, pay for our school fees, or write us a recommendation letter, we go out of our way for them. We buy them presents, remember their birthdays and compliment them whenever we have occasion to. All so that when the time comes, they’ll give us what we want whether a promotion, a new computer, or help with our homework.

We wouldn’t wake up out of the blue and ask for a promotion without working our butts off. Nor would we expect someone to keep giving us something with nothing in return.

So why can we not apply the same principles to Allah? Why can we not wake up every morning and be thankful? Why can’t we take time during the day to appreciate his gifts to us? And don’t tell me you don’t have the time because as long as you have time to stop and eat, then you certainly have time to stop and be thankful to the one who provided you with that food.

Head over to Islam Great Religion to view pictures of Muslims praying in the most difficult environments, to show you that infact praying in your office is really not a hardship, it’s all in your head.