Submission & Rightly Ordered Relationship

I enjoyed reading about Islamic prayer. It’s interesting that many non-Muslim people could describe what Muslim prayer typically looks like, perhaps from seeing it in a movie, on the news, or even in person; despite this, they likely could not tell you what was happening beyond the physical gestures. I was one of those people before this chapter!

From what I’ve learned about Islam thus far in this class, it seems that its central message is found in the salāt: God is God, and I am not. Many of the lines of the salāt echo this sentiment, such as “Allāhu akbar”, “Subhāna rabbī al-‘azīm”, and “Subhāna rabbī al-a’lā”, (God is most great, Glory to my mighty Lord, and Glory to my Lord Most High, respectively).

I find it beautiful that Islam embraces the very human tendency to upset this hierarchy through the sin of pride. Christians understand this to be the first sin which leads to all the others; as such, perhaps Christians could learn something from the Muslim practice of salāt. By praising God, we reinforce that rightly-ordered hierarchy, and like any habit, doing it multiple times a day would help keep one’s life rightly-ordered towards God.

There seems to be considerable overlap between salāt and the Liturgy of the Hours. As a professed religious, we are highly encouraged to say the Divine Office five times a day (canonically-speaking, this technically isn’t obligatory until ordination, but our constitutions call us to pray morning and evening prayer in common). I’m not sure if this is a more Christian notion or not, but I’ve found that this practice not only discourages pride by praising God–it consecrates the day. Each prayer seems like we are inviting God into our day at that moment, when in fact we are setting aside that time to respond to the invitation that God is consistently extending towards us.

Obviously, the connection between these two is a touch point that could be used for finding commonalities when talking about God. There is, however, one departure. In the chapter, it stated that part of the salāt recitation is “Sami’a Allāhu li-man hamidah” or “God hears the one who praises Him.” It almost seems that submission is so central, it is the prerequisite for gaining God’s attention. I would find it hard to believe that a Christian would agree with this statement. Yes, God wants us to praise Him; praising God restores our natural order and leads us to our ultimate fulfillment in Him; but in the Christian understanding, a conversion occurs from an encounter with love, not from submission.