Yesterday, a friend of mine asked me to keep me in his prayers as he has concerns with his health, I promised him I would.I was wondering this morning about my own prayer habits. I do my five daily prayers on time, a ritual I have kept since I was 11 years old. I prayed in cars, restaurant, libraries, classrooms, workplace, offices, public transportation, trains airports and even airplanes. offices. when traveling, I do combine prayers as we are encouraged to do. I mean for one thing, it teaches me discipline, humility, restraint and respect.
But reflecting back on my prayer patterns, I can remember that I rarely ask God for something in specified. I mean I do all the tings I am supposed to do and try to keep a clear head, but it's hard for me to remember to ask for specific things. With the exceptions of times of crisis such as troubles back home or a hard exam, I often do not ask for a thing in specific. I may have asked for peace during an emotional meltdown, but this only happened once.
Also I feel weird being very forward and asking God to do me favors, like i only worship him because I want things from him. As when I pull my rug to pray I feel sort of like tit for tat; here I am, I am checking in with you, where are you God? I know he knows what I need and what I do not need; I also realize he fully understand how much trouble I can absorb, I do not need to tell him what he already know. I do not want to waste his time. I know some might find this wrong, because I know we are asked to be persistent and ask God more than once for the things we want in life. I cannot do this, I might be just too lazy, but prayer is not an occasion to network with the Lord
Awhile ago someone told me a quote that I highly treasure, "When I pray, I pray like everything depends on God; when I work I work like everything depends on me" also in Arabic we have a saying that goes like this "E'eqilha wa Tawakal" which means tie your camel first and then God will watch over it. This is in response to a man who left his camel (without securing the tie, thinking that God will keep it for him) it outside the mosque when he got in to pray. The man lost his camel.
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While you are praying, you talk to God about your wish, you say God you know what I wish, if it is alright to grant my wish I appreciate it with all my heart and if it is not alright humbly I accept my destiny. But if you pray for peace, you are not praying for yourself, you are praying for human beings, their suffering and sorrow and for the mercy of their souls.
Even when you pray for peace, you benefit as well as others. Had peace not been a good thing and that makes you feel good, you would not ask for it. Also because the though of the absence of peace (war) disturbs you, you hit the prayer. In other words, you are as selfish.
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