Why Should I Bow?
All acts of devotion have been prescribed by our Creator Allah Ta’ala for our benefit; sometimes the benefits are quite apparent while occasionally it is not so obvious.
A Musallee (Mosque goer) wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to Mosque. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 lectures. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the Imams are wasting theirs by giving lectures at all."
This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher.
"I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu and ingredients for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to Mosque for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!"… Thereafter no further comments were received by the editor.
The medication prescribed by a doctor has its benefits even though we don’t know its ingredients! Having precise knowledge on how an act of devotion benefits us is not always so important. What is important is that we carry out our duties and obligations to our Creator who no doubt has in His Infinite Wisdom created such acts of devotion for our benefit in this temporary life as well as for our eternal journey to the hereafter!
Allah Ta’ala says: “I did not create jinn and men except that they may worship Me.” (Qur'an: Adh-Dhariyat 51:56).
www.eislam.co.za
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
