Each prescribed prayer time points to a mighty revolution, is a sign to the Master’s tremendous activity, and a token of the universal Divine bounties. And so this matter is a result of perfect wisdom.

Fifth point:·We are created weak, yet everything involves, affects, and saddens us. We have no power, yet are afflicted by calamities and enemies. We are extremely poor, yet have many needs. We are indolent and incapable, yet the burden of life is very heavy. Being human, we are connected with the rest of the world, yet what we love and are familiar with disappears, and the resulting grief causes us pain. Our mentality and senses inspire us toward glorious objectives and eternal gains, but we are unable, impatient, powerless, and have only a short lifetime.

Given all of this, several things become quite clear:

The fajr prayer is essential, for we must present a petition before the day’s activities begin. Through prayer and supplication, we must beseech the Court of an All-Powerful One of Majesty, an All-Compassionate One of Grace, for success and help. Such support is necessary to bear and endure the troubles and burdens waiting for us.

The zuhr prayer is essential, for this is when the day starts to move forward to complete its course. People take a break from their activities. The spirit needs a pause from the heedlessness and insensibility caused by hard work, and Divine bounties are fully manifest. Praying at this time is good, necessary, agreeable, and proper. This prayer gives relief from the pressures of daily life and heedlessness. We stand humbly in the presence of the Real Bestower of blessings, express gratitude, and pray for His help. We bow to demonstrate helplessness before His Glory and Might, and prostrate to proclaim our wonder, love, and humility before His everlasting Perfection and matchless Grace.

The ‘asr prayer resembles and recalls the sad season of autumn, the mournful state of old age, and the distressing period at the end of time. The day’s tasks are brought toward completion, and the Divine bounties received that day (e.g., health, safety, and good service in His way) have accumulated to form a great total. It is also the time when the sun fades away, proving that everything is impermanent. We, who long for eternity, are created for it and show reverence for favors received, also are saddened by separations. So we stand up, perform wudu’ (ablution), and pray.

Thus praying ‘asr·is an exalted duty, an appropriate service, a reasonable way of paying a debt of gratitude, and an agreeable pleasure. We acquire peace of mind and find true consolation and ease of spirit by supplicating at the Eternal Court of the Everlasting, the Eternally Self-Subsistent One, and seeking refuge in His infinite Mercy, offering thanks and praise for His endless bounties, bowing humbly before His Lordship’s Might and Glory, and prostrating humbly before His Eternal Divinity.

Evening reminds us of winter’s beginning, the sad farewells of summer and autumn creatures, and our sorrowful separation from loved ones through death. The sun’s lamp is extinguished, and Earth’s inhabitants will emigrate to the other world following this one’s destruction. It is also a severe warning for those who adore transient, ephemeral beloveds, each of whom will die.

By its nature, the human spirit longs for an Eternal Beauty. During this prayer, it turns toward the Eternal Being, Who creates and frames everything, Who commands huge heavenly bodies. At this time, the human spirit refuses to rely on anything finite and cries Allahu akbar (God is the Greatest). Then, in His presence, we say al-hamdu lillah·(all praise be to God) to praise Him in the awareness of His faultless Perfection, matchless Beauty and Grace, and infinite Mercy.

Afterwards, by declaring: You alone do we worship, and from You alone do We seek help (1:5), we offer our worship of, and seek help from, His unassisted Lordship, unpartnered Divinity, and unshared Sovereignty. Bowing before His infinite Greatness, limitless Power, and perfect Honor and Glory, we demonstrate, with the rest of creation, our weakness and helplessness, humility and poverty by saying: “Glory be to my Lord, the Mighty.” Prostrating in awareness of the undying Beauty and Grace of His Essence, His unchanging sacred Attributes, and His constant everlasting Perfection, we proclaim, through detachment from all that is not Him, our love and servanthood in wonder and self-abasement. Finding an All-Beautiful Permanent, an All-Compassionate Eternal One to Whom we say: “Glory be to my Lord, the Most Exalted,” we declare our Most Exalted Lord free of any decline or fault.

Then we sit reverently and willingly offer all creatures’ praises and glorifications to the Eternal, All-Powerful, and All-Majestic One. We also ask God to bestow peace and blessings on His holy Messenger in order to renew our allegiance to him, proclaim our obedience to His commands, and renew and strengthen our belief. By viewing the universe’s wise order, we testify to the Creator’s Oneness and Muhammad’s Messengership, herald of the sovereignty of God’s Lordship, proclaimer of what pleases Him, and interpreter of the Book of the Universe’s signs or verses.

Given this, how can we be truly human if we do not realize what the evening prayer represents: an agreeable duty, a valuable and pleasurable service, a fine and beautiful worship, a serious matter, a significant conversation with the Creator, and a source of permanent happiness in this transient guest-house?

The time of ‘isha·(nightfall), when night covers Earth, reminds us of the mighty disposals of God’s Lordship as the Changer of Night and Day. It calls to our mind the Divine activities of the All-Wise One of Perfection as the Subduer of the sun and the moon, observed in His turning the white page of day into the black page of night, and in His changing summer’s beautifully colored script into winter’s frigid white page. It recalls His acts as the Creator of Life and Death in sending the dead entity’s remaining works to another world. It reminds us of God’s majestic control and graceful manifestations as the Creator of the Heavens and Earth, and that this narrow, mortal, and lowly world will be destroyed. The same is true for the unfolding of the broad, eternal, and majestic world of the Hereafter. It also warns that only the One Who so easily turns day into night, winter into summer, and this world into the other world can be the universe’s Owner and True Master. Only He is worthy to be worshipped and truly loved.

At nightfall our spirits, which are infinitely helpless and weak, infinitely poor and needy, tossed to and fro by circumstances and whirling onward into a dark and unknown future, perform the ‘isha prayer. We say, like Abraham: I love not those that set (6:76). We seek refuge at the Court of the Ever-Living, the Ever-Worshipped, the Eternal Beloved One. From our transient life in this dark, fleeting world and dark future, we beseech the Enduring, Everlasting One. For a moment of unending conversation, a few seconds of immortal life, we seek the All-Merciful and Compassionate’s favors. We ask for the light of His guidance that will illuminate our world and our future, and bind up the pain from the decline of all creatures and friends.

We forget the world, which has left us for the night, and pour out our heart’s grief at the Court of Mercy. Before death-like sleep comes, after which anything can happen, we perform our “last” duty of worship. To close our day’s activities on a favorable note, we pray and enter the Eternal Beloved and Worshipped One’s presence, rather than the mortal ones we loved all day; the All-Powerful and Generous One’s presence, rather than the impotent creatures from which we begged all day; and the All-Compassionate Protector’s presence ·in the hope of being saved from the evil of the harmful creatures before which we trembled all day.

We start the prayer with Surat al-Fatiha, which extols praising the Lord of the worlds, Perfect and Self-Sufficient, Compassionate and All-Generous. We move on to You alone do We worship (1:5). That is, despite our insignificance and being alone, our connection with the Owner of the Day of Judgment, the Eternal Sovereign, causes us to be treated like an indulged guest and important officer. Through You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help (1:5), we offer Him the worship of all creatures and seek His assistance for them. Saying Guide us to the Straight Path·(1: 6), we ask to be guided to eternal happiness and the radiant way.

Saying God is the Greatest, we bow down and contemplate the Grandeur of the Majestic One, Who orders hidden suns and waking stars, that are like individual soldiers subject to His command just like the plants and animals that have now gone to sleep, and are His lamps and servants in this world.

We think of all creatures’ universal prostration. That is, like the creatures that sleep at night, when all creation living in a certain age or period is discharged from the duty of worship by the command of “Be!” and it is like a well-ordered army of obedient soldiers, and is sent to the World of the Unseen, it prostrates on the rug of death in perfect orderliness saying: “God is the Greatest.” They are resurrected in the spring by an arousing, life-giving trumpet-blast from the command of Be! and it is, and rise up to serve their Lord. Insignificant humanity makes the same declaration in the presence of the All-Merciful One of Perfection, the All-Compassionate One of Grace, in wonder-struck love, eternity-tinged humility, and dignified self-effacement. We then prostrate and achieve a sort of Ascension.

Thus each prescribed prayer time points to a mighty revolution, is a sign to the Master’s tremendous activity, and a token of the universal Divine bounties. And so this matter is a result of perfect wisdom.

Glory be to You. We have no knowledge save what You have taught us. Truly, you are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

O God! Bestow blessings and peace upon the one You sent as a teacher to Your servants to instruct them in knowledge of You and worship of You; to make known the treasures of Your Names, the interpreter of the signs or verses of Your Book of the Universe; to serve as a mirror, through his worship, to the Grace of Your Lordship; and upon his Family and Companions. Have mercy on us and all believers. Amin. For the sake of Your Compassion, O Most Compassionate of the Compassionate.