Wednesday 8 September 2010

The Act of Praying





When we connect with God in an act it is called praying. All religions have a distinctive ritual for praying, and all these rituals distinctively show how to connect.

But there is beyond all these religious rituals and ceremonies a way of connecting that is called creative and active praying.

In a normal course of praying, which I call passive praying we are alone with God whereas in creative and active praying God is alone with us.

What is this distinction and what this means, I will try to explain. When we pray in passive mode according to rituals we focus on God and ask His hearing, His compassion, His guidance, His forbearance. We ask him to listen to our prayers, our vows, our aspirations and our desires. We know He is there but we want Him to listen to us, give us audience, and acknowledge us. Here we are alone with God.

In creative/active praying which constitutes of :

Looking to this world positively, smiling in the face of adversity, holding and comforting somebody in distress, finding virtue in people when general perception is otherwise, speaking about love when the atmosphere is filled with hatred, passing on our loaf of bread to the one who is hungry and needy. Here :

God is alone with us since in these acts as we are acting on his behalf and are in process of creative activity like God's, so unlike passive praying where our attention is on God, here in active praying God's attention is on us. Wow what an attention this is to be in!

18 comments:

  1. What can I say about these beautiful lines. Yes, this is true that I have felt God more nearer to me when I deal with people with world when I show my behavior towards life as compare to the time when I offer my rituals. I think thats what I had read in school in a chapter "Tauseef Ka Khwab" but I understood the moral of these lines now when I am working for these flood victims.

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  2. Wow, I've never quite pictured this dynamic before yet I don't believe I will forget this when needed now in the future...

    And how much more powerful God is allowed then to be through us and we to grow in faith...

    And what faith you are having in this especially challenging time, dear Dar Sahib, to challenge and inspire us to do as you are doing...

    "Looking to this world positively, smiling in the face of adversity, holding and comforting somebody in distress, finding virtue in people when general perception is otherwise, speaking about love when the atmosphere is filled with hatred, passing on our loaf of bread to the one who is hungry and needy..."

    So profound yet so simple...

    Let's share our stories of doing so... unless they are better left done in silence...

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  3. So beautiful and touching.Every line leaves its own unique effect on the heart of reader.
    I specially loved these lines

    " In a normal course of praying, which I call passive praying we are alone with God whereas in creative and active praying God is alone with us."

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  4. Urooj, you have beautifully summed up your own feeling while in midst of creative/active praying while you were among people affected by floods. The only way that leads to God is through His creation and all direct approaches just leads back self , whereas God can only be found by selflessness.

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  5. Dear Connie, the way of Lord is simple, faith, love and help. Faith in God, faith in his creation, Love for God, love for his creation, and helping God by helping his creation, which ultimately turns out to be helping ourselves. The complexity of life lies in departure from this simple way of living, I guess!

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  6. Thanks ReeBz for your liking the post, I just dream to make my blog as beautiful as yours, but just lack the creativeness and aesthetics that you possess.

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  7. Sir thank you for liking my blog.I'm sure you can do it even more beautifully, its just this that I'm a free-time girl, having no burden of studies these days and have got such a lovely mother who doesnot order me for house chores, so i keep on trying new things over my blog =D

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  8. Thanx, Sir Friend for the beauty, simplicity and "usable" truth within all your work...not needing any newer techniques...

    Yet I too so enjoy dear ReeBz work for it's more contemporary and "cool, hip" creativity along with depth and Urooj as such a shining young Pakistani Mother Teresa in the becoming while still her own unique dear soul!

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  9. hmmm...thanks for such beautiful post...Dar Sahib...

    YOu have decribed the praying the best way to connect with our Lord...

    I dont have words to praise your post.

    To Allah be all glory.

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  10. Thanks Thinking, I feel happy that you liked this.

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  11. Beautiful and very touching Wasim... and I wish I could find ways for active praying all the time, I believe I would have a lot more satisfaction and content.

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  12. Thanks Chile Chele for visiting and commenting.

    @Aashfaq Hussain
    I know and believe most of your time is spent on creative praying. Thanks friend for taking time out and commenting.

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  13. so simple and yet so powerful...

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  14. Thanks HumaA for visting, and I highly admire your concise and apt postings on your blog and FB.

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  15. thank you Akhtar sahib...and I have learned a lot from u

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  16. What a beautiful thought, Mimi! I wish and pray that God be with us all the time!

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  17. Thanks Tasneem, God is always with us we sometimes forget him.

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