Salah Isn't One-Way Communication... It's Two-Way Conversation

If you search up the definition of the word "prayer" or "pray" online, you'll come across a few different things... Asking or requesting God for something. Expressing love and adoration for God,. Expressing gratitude and thanks for God. Speaking or talking to God. These are the common definitions you'll find.

Now, you might be thinking, well, all of that sounds good. Because we do indeed do all of those things in salah. We do ask Allah for what we want in salah. We do make dua. We do express love and adoration. We do praise Allah and thank Allah. Right? We do all of these things in salah. So what's the issue? Isn't "prayer" a good translation for salah then?

See, in everything I just mentioned in terms the definitions of the word "prayer," there's one big thing that's missing. You'll notice that it's all one-way communication. It's all about what YOU are saying to Allah, to God. What YOU are expressing.

But salah is not one-way communication. Rather, salah is two-way conversation.

Salah is not one-way communication where we are speaking to God and that's it. No. Salah is two-way conversation. So when we are doing salah, we are connecting with God. We are connecting with our Creator. And we are also having a conversation. In fact, you could say that the conversation leads to connection. Because you are saying certain things, and Allah is saying certain things back to you. You are speaking to Allah, and Allah is speaking to you.

The question is: how exactly is that the case? If we say that salah is a conversation, it's two-way between us and Allah, between you and your Creator. The question is: well, how? Let's dive into that a bit. 

The first way that salah is a conversation is within the chapter of the Quran that we have to recite in, and a central core element of, every single unit of salah, every rak'ah. A required, essential element of every unit is reciting Surat al-Fatiha, the opening chapter of the Quran.

And we are taught in a Hadith Qudsi, which is essentially a narration in which the Prophet (peace be upon him) tells us that God has said something. And in this narration, the Prophet says that Allah says that the Fatiha is a conversation. It's basically split into two halves between Me and My servant. And then He says that when he says Alhamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen, that all praise and thanks belong to God, the Caring Master of all that exists. Then Allah responds in that very moment to what you just said by saying: My servant has praised Me. And then when you say Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem, then Allah responds and He says: My servant has exalted Me.

And we're not going to go through the entire Fatiha, the conversation, today. I just want you to understand that salah - number one - is a conversation in that the Fatiha itself is a conversation.

Whether or not you knew it was happening, whether or not you realize it, whether or not you're conscious of it when it's actually happening. The fact is that Allah is responding to you after every verse of Fatiha. This is one of the reasons our teachers and our scholars will say that when you recite Surah Al-Fatiha, recite it slowly. Because when you are cognizant of the fact that Allah is responding, there's a certain way - a certain respect - that one should have knowing that a conversation is taking place. We're going to delve more into that in just a moment. But that's the first way that salah is a conversation.

The second way that salah is a conversation is that in middle of the Fatiha, there's a request happening, which is ihdinas siratal mustaqim: Guide us to the straight path.

In every single unit of salah, the core is Fatiha. And the core of Fatiha is the request for guidance, which is right in the middle: ihdina siratal mustaqim. We're asking Allah to guide us. Because there is nothing more important than guidance for you and me. There's nothing more important than Allah guiding us to Him, and to the Truth, and to His way, and to the Right Path, to the Straight Path. That is the most important thing, for sure.

And so in every unit, we refresh this and we say, "Allah, please continue guiding us. Please guide us." And Allah responds to that request right away. Not only within Surah Fatiha, the conversation that we just talked about... but after, when you recite a portion of the Quran. Whether it's one, two, or three verses or more - the Quran is guidance. In the verse of Ramadan, what does Allah say? He says, "The month of Ramadan, it's the one in which the Quran was sent down, was revealed." Then Allah gives three descriptions of the Quran. The first description of the Quran being that it is guidance for people. And of course, Allah refers to the Quran as guidance in many parts throughout the Quran. Many, many times.

So Allah is saying that this book, this Quran, is guidance. It is God's Speech. It is God's Words. And so after we say, "Ya Allah, guide us." Allah says, "Here's your guidance." Here, recite My Guidance, My Words. This is My Guidance to you.

So that's the second way in which Salah is a conversation. Number one, within the Fatiha itself, and the response that Allah is giving after each verse. And number two, after we finish the Fatiha, then the whatever we recite is actually the response to that request for guidance that we make in Fatiha because the Quran is guidance.

Now, here's the question: If salah is a conversation, doesn't it matter how you actually have that conversation? The way you express yourself and the way you speak to Allah, and the way you recite His speech to you... isn't it a big deal? Shouldn't we be very careful and put importance into how are we actually expressing ourselves?

What is the status quo? It's basically memorized rote memorization. No expression. No meaning. Just mindless recitation. If you can even call it "recitation." It's more like mumbling instead of meaning. That's the typical way in which we express ourselves. And the same applies to the Quran that we recite after the Fatiha. And the same applies pretty much throughout the entire salah. All of the phrases which are us speaking to Allah, that's the way most of us express ourselves. And the way we express Allah's speech back to us as well.

And so the question is: would you ever do that to someone else? Would you ever do that to a friend, a close friend, a loved one, a family member, your child, your partner, your parent. Anyone you care about, anyone who you care about that relationship, and you care about what you're saying to them and you care about what they're saying to you. Would you ever do that? Would you ever have a "conversation" with them the way we do with Allah? Because the way we do it with Allah is not a conversation, is it? It's more like we're just saying memorized things, not realizing that we're actually before Allah and having a conversation. And it could be it could come across as very disrespectful, you know?

If we've been doing that up until now, and we didn't know or realize that it was a conversation, it's okay. But from now on, now that we know that salah is a means to connect with our Creator, and the fact that salah is a conversation, and that conversation is meant to lead to connection - then we need to be careful about the way we have that conversation. 

And it's the two parts: (1) the way that you are expressing yourself and speaking to Allah, the phrases and the words that you say in salah, and (2) the way you recite Allah's Words and His Speech to you.