After reciting the Tashahhud, the Ta’uz and the first chapter Al Fatiha of the Holy Quran, Hazrat Amirul Mo’menine, Zafrullah Domun read verse 187 of chapter 2 and then said :

By the grace of Allah, Ramadan is almost half gone. We have only fifteen or sixteen fasting days left. I hope that by Allah’s Grace you are all enjoying this blessed month to the best of your capacities. For all of us, because we eat and drink and sleep less we should be having some discomfort. But you should all bear in mind that Allah is not imposing these discomfort upon us to harm us. He has prescribed these fasts upon us in order to elevate us. He wants us to become righteous human beings. He does not want us to live our lives like other negligent and worldly persons whose whole attention and efforts are geared to enjoy only material benefits. Most older people can easily understand how being without food and drink for some time may benefit the body. But for our youngsters this understanding may be lacking. The fact is that being at a stage in their development where they need food to grow they fail to understand how going without it can help. But in life there are some things, the benefits of which cannot be immediately recognized. To this effect there is a verse in the Holy Quran which says “ wa asa an taqrahou shay’an wa howa khay’rul lakoum wa asa an tohibbou shay’an wa howa sharrul lakoum wAllaho ya’lamo wa antoum laa ta’lamoune .” The translation is “but it may be that you dislike a thing while it is good for you, and it may be that you like a thing while it is bad for you. Allah knows and you know not.”(2:217).This is a very important advice. Do remember it. It can apply to a lot of situations in your life.

The translation of the verse that I read in the beginning is as follows: “And when My servants ask thee about Me, say “I am near. I answer the prayer of the supplicant when he prays to Me. So they should hearken to Me and believe in Me, that they may follow the right way.”

This is the third verse in a series of four where Allah speaks about the month of Ramadan in the Holy Quran. From this verse we can easily infer that the month of Ramadan and supplications to Allah are closely related. The fact is that in this month we get plenty of occasions to supplicate to Allah. Since we are not busy preparing and eating food we have plenty of time to devote to worship and hence we have plenty of time to make supplications to Allah. In other months we do not get these opportunities. Since Allah tells us that He is near especially with regard to instructions concerning fasting we can legitimately conclude that He means a special type of nearness. The reason for this is that in many other places in the Holy Quran Allah has told us that generally speaking He is very close to all human beings. Verses to this effect are “ Nahnon aqrabo elayhi min hablil warid” and “ Innahu sami’oune qarib” which means “We are nearer to him than his jugular vein”(50:17) and “ Verily He is all-hearing , Nigh”(34:51). In addition from the hadiths we learn that the Holy Prophet Mohammad saw was more assiduous in prayers and supplications in the month of Ramadan. It is written that at times he used to stand up all the night in worship especially in the last ten days of Ramadan.

Hence we understand that we should engage ourselves in seeking forgiveness and in supplications if we really want to be forgiven or to have our sins effaced completely. Since this subject is of utmost importance to all of us I have chosen some extracts from the writings of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as to share with my brothers and sisters today. In fact Hazrat Ahmad as has spoken so much about the subject of prayer in general and supplications in particular that it is difficult for me to choose . Any how I will give you some of his gems of spiritual knowledge. He says:

“The subject of the acceptance of prayer is a branch of the subject of prayer. A person who does not comprehend the principle encounters difficulty in comprehending a branch. This is at the bottom of the misunderstanding of Syed Sahib. The principle of prayer is that there is a mutually attractive relationship between a pious servant and his Lord. To begin with, the Rahmaniyyat of God Almighty draws a servant to itself. Then through his sincerity the servant approaches close to God Almighty and in prayer that relationship, when it arrives at a certain stage, manifests its wonderful qualities. When a servant being confronted with a great difficulty leans towards God Almighty with perfect certainty, perfect hope, perfect love, perfect fidelity and perfect resolve, and becoming extremely alert and tearing aside the veils of heedlessness advances far into the fields of the discarding of self, he beholds in front of him the court of the Divine and perceives that He has no associate. Then the soul prostrates itself at that threshold and the power of attraction that is invested in him draws the bounty of God Almighty towards itself. Then God, the Glorious, addresses Himself towards fulfilling the purpose of the supplication and casts the effect of prayer on all those preliminary means which give rise to the means that are necessary for the achievement of the purpose of the prayer. For instance, if the prayer is for rain then on its acceptance the natural means that are needed for rain are created by the effect of the prayer. If the prayer is for famine the All-Powerful One creates the contrary means. It has been proved to the satisfaction of those who have frequent experience of visions that in the prayer of a perfect person a power of fashioning is created. That is to say, by the command of God the prayer exercises control in the lower and higher world and turns the elements and heavenly bodies and the hearts of people to the direction that is desired.”

Conditions Of Acceptance Of Prayer

“Even if we were to concede that the phrase 'Call on Me' means prayer, we would have to affirm that by prayer is meant such prayer as complies with all required conditions and that is not within the power of man unless he is helped by God. Humility alone is not enough for prayer, but righteousness, purity, truthfulness, perfect certainty, perfect love and perfect attention are all needed, and it is also necessary that the object prayed for should not be opposed to the Divine design for the welfare in this world and in the hereafter of the supplicant, or of the one on whose behalf supplication is made. Very often, despite all other conditions being fulfilled, the object for which supplication is made is opposed to the Divine design and there is no good in its fulfillment. For instance, if a child should cry that his mother should hand over to him a burning brand, or a serpent, or should feed him a poison, which appears agreeable, the mother would not comply with his wish. Were she to do so, and though the child might escape with his life some limb of his should become useless, then arriving at years of discretion the child would have a grievance against his foolish mother. There are many other conditions in the absence of which prayer does not deserve that name and so long as a prayer is not inspired by full spirituality and there is not a close connection between him who supplicates and him on whose behalf supplication is made, there is little hope of the acceptance of prayer. Unless there is Divine willingness for the acceptance of prayer all these conditions are not fulfilled and full attention remains lacking. Syed Sahib acknowledges that the good fortune of the hereafter and its bounties and delights and comforts which constitute salvation, are the result of faith and sincere prayers. That being so, Syed Sahib would be compelled to acknowledge that a believer's prayers have effect and become the cause of the removal of calamities and the achievement of objectives. If that were not so, then how would they be of help on the Judgment Day? If prayer is truly a vain thing and cannot be the cause of removal of any calamity in this life, then how will it become a cause for their removal on the Judgment Day?

If our prayers truly possess the effect of safeguarding us against calamities that effect should be manifested in this world also, so that our faith and hope might be fostered and we should pray more earnestly for our salvation in the hereafter. But if prayer amounts to nothing and that which is written is bound to happen, then as, according to Syed Sahib, prayer is vain for the calamities of this world, it will be vain for the hereafter also and no hope could be placed in it (Barakatud Dua pp 5-14).”

Be Sincere And Possess High Resolve

The same is the case with prayer, which is nurtured in the same way and brings forth fruit. Those who are in haste get tired quickly and give up, and those who are steadfast persevere and arrive at their objective. It is true that there are many stages in prayer, ignorance of which deprives the supplicants ,of the fruits of their prayers. They are in a hurry and cannot wait, whereas there is progression in the works of the Almighty. It never happens that a man should marry today and a child might be born to him tomorrow. Though God is All Powerful and can do whatever He wills, yet compliance with the law and the system that He has appointed is necessary. In the first stages of child bearing nothing is known, like the nurture of vegetation. For four months there is no certainty. Then a movement begins to be felt and after the expiry of the full period the child is born after great travail. The birth of the child is also the birth of the mother. It is difficult for a man to form a concept of the troubles and travails which a woman has to endure during her pregnancy, but it is true that the coming of a child is a new life for the mother. She has to accept death so as to have the joy of bearing a child. In the same way, it is necessary for a supplicant that he should discard haste and endure all troubles and should never imagine that prayer is not accepted. At last the time arrives for the result of the prayer to be manifested; the child which is the objective is born. A prayer should be carried on to the limit until it produces a result. You will have observed that a piece of cloth is placed under a burning glass and the rays of the sun concentrate upon it and their heat arrives at the degree which sets the cloth on fire. In the same way, it is necessary that a prayer should be carried on to a stage where it should develop the power of burning up failures and frustrations and to fulfill the desired purpose. One has to be occupied with prayer for a long time and then God Almighty manifests the result. It is my experience, which is borne out by the experience of the righteous in the past, that if there is silence for a long time, there is hope of success, but if there is a quick reply the purpose is not likely to be achieved. When a beggar goes to someone and begs with humility and earnestness and does not move from his place, even after he is rebuked, and continues his supplication, then in the end the person supplicated is moved and bestows something on the beggar despite his miserliness. Then should not a supplicant have at least so much steadfastness as an ordinary beggar? When God Almighty Who is Benevolent and possesses Majesty sees that His humble servant has been prostrate at His threshold for a long time, He does not lead him to a bad end. If a pregnant woman should become impatient after four or five months and should take some abortive medicine, the child would not be born, but she herself would be involved in despair. In the same way, he who is in a hurry before the due time only suffers loss and puts his faith in danger. In this condition some people become atheists. There was a carpenter in our village whose wife fell ill and then died. He said that if there had been a God, his multiple prayers would have been accepted and his wife would not have died. In this way he became an atheist. If a serious person practices fidelity and sincerity, his faith is fostered and he achieves his purpose. The riches of this world have no value in the estimation of God Almighty. He can do everything in a single moment. Have you not seen that He bestowed sovereignty on a people who were entirely unknown and made great kingdoms obedient to them and made kings out of slaves? If a person is righteous and becomes wholly God's, he would lead an excellent life, but the condition is that he should be sincere and possess resolve. His heart should never be shaken and there should be no showing off and shirk in it. What was there in Abraham which made him the father of his people and the father of those who are devoted to God, and God Almighty bestowed numberless great blessings on him? It was his righteousness and his sincerity. Abraham had offered a prayer that a Prophet should appear in Arabia from among his progeny. Was it accepted at once? For a long time after Abraham no one paid any attention to that prayer, yet it was fulfilled in the advent of the Holy Prophet and how grand was its fulfillment (Malfoozat, Vol. IV, pp. 4I5--420).