Prayer begins when it ends...

Dear Friends

Quaker meetings for worship are conducted in silence for 30 minutes, all are welcome and crucially anyone who is moved by the spirit can give a ministry.  I used to attend Quaker meetings very regularly in down town Manchester and some of my finest epiphanies were experienced with them. It was during one memorable session that an elderly Quaker got up and stated that meetings for worship begin when they end. I was stunned.

It was the first time that I appreciated what my current Sufi Teacher had taught me namely that prayer should transcend the prayer mat into our day to day lives otherwise it has become inverted if not a subtle show of ego / nafs. She later concluded that this is the Quranic ‘establishment of Prayer’. Also that orthopraxy / right conduct is superior to orthodoxy / right thought.

Prayer is a deeply private matter and its zenith is when it becomes a dialogue between wo(man) and God  just as Martin Buber brilliantly augured. Sometimes it appears and feels that God is not listening but unexpectedly something happens that knocks you for 6, in the cricketing sense! Other times the dialogue can be informal such as walking or whilst day dreaming but just as powerful and valid rather than in any ritualised form such as facing Mecca 5 times a day or in a Saturday night evening gathering in a Synagogue. Since God is closer than the jugular vein emphatically claims the Quran.

Prayer is petrol for the soul especially when it is hurting or broken and allows it to soar beyond the heavens into the loving and sweet embrace of the source...the soul emerges strengthened if not emboldened and above all revitalised...

Call out if not pine for Brahman / God and watch the magic unfold...

Alone to Alone...

Rishi Faisal