Salah and Science (Part 1)
 
Salah is the form of Worship of Allah (S.W.T), performed by Muslims and is one of the most important pillars of Islam. Allah (S.W.T) has mentioned the benefits and importance of Salah over 500 times in the Holy Qur’an.

Salah is also one of the best forms of exercise you can do on a regular basis. It is the most essential obligatory duty which a Muslim must perform. This is the most obvious act which a Muslim does to show his/her obedience to Allah (S.W.T).

Allah (S.W.T) gave Salah as a gift to our Beloved Prophet (S.A.W) for his Ummah on the night of Miraj Shareef. During prayer a person leaves everything and devotes himself to the Worship of Allah (S.W.T), this can be done individually or in congregation (Jamaat).
 
When a person sleeps at night the body is lifeless; the circulation also slows down. It is in need of something to get the circulation going again and for this the prayer of Tahadjud has been prescribed together with the prayer of Fajr. After a short period the Ishrak, then the Chast prayer. A person then starts his/her worldly affairs and pressure and stress starts building up.

The Zuhr prayer calms us down relieving stress. After comes Asr then Maghrib prayer to remind us of our family business. After we have eaten the last meal of the day but before a person retires to bed the longest prescribed prayer is Isha. It helps to digest the food we have eaten so as not to cause the body any strain.
 
What the blessed Companions (R.A) of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W) went through in a day, we would probably not go through during our entire life. Even in the battle fields they would not leave Salah. Half would leave for Salah whilst the other half would carry on fighting. When the other warriors returned to the battle field, the second half would pray.

It is unfortunate today we are working in the comfort of our work places yet we leave Salah. How can we have blessing in our lives when we leave the command of Allah (S.W.T) in which he has placed tremendous benefit for us? It is due to the weakness of our faith that we are depriving ourselves of these benefits.