Wednesday, July 17, 2013

ON RITUAL PRAYER




One day, my father advised me not to shut my eyes when I performed the ritual prayer. I was a bit startled because most people tend to do exactly that, probably to help them concentrate. But he said that the ritual prayer (not the one where you screw your eyes up, clasp your hands and say ‘Please, please pleeease God! Help me lose weight and I’ll love You forever! Amen!) should be performed in full awareness of what is around you, of Whom you pray to, and why; that it should, in addition to being an act of worship, symbolise a certain attitude according to which religion is to be studied and understood and not just practised with your eyes shut, nor its verses parroted back as litany alone.