The Muslim Ritual Prayer (as-salah / namaz)

[Nuralshamal]

Assalaamu aleikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu (May the Peace, Blessings and Mercy of Almighty God be upon you)

In this post I will go over and compare the muslim ritual prayer with yoga, qigong and meditation. I will explain some of the "hidden gems" I myself have discovered with this practice.

The prayer has two parts:
1) Ritual Purification (wudhu)
2) The actual prayer itself.

1) Ritual Purification (wudhu)
You wash your hands, mouth, nose, face, arms, head, ears and feet. You say mantras when starting, and you say a prayer when finishing.

This hold some similarities to practices in yoga and qigong as well.

Yoga:
1) washing your nose is similar to the neti of the shatkarmas (six cleansing actions)
2) how you say mantras on different parts of your body is similar to kavach and nyasas (where you install protective energies in your field)
3) the idea of purification before practice is completely the same for hindu rituals and meditation

Qigong:
1) Using your body while employing mantras is also done in qigong,
2) Purification is also very important in qigong,
3) Massaging your ears is a mainstay of daoist longevity practices, this is also done daily for the muslim prayer

2) The Prayer Itself (as-salah / namaz)
The prayer is completely similar to yoga and qigong in the sense that you employ your body, breath (mantras) and mind together.

During the prayer you switch between different positions:
1) Standing (takbir & qiyam)
2) Bent over (ruku)
3) Prostrating (sujood)
4) Kneeling (jalsah)

There is stretching as well as strengthening going on when going between the movements (just like yoga & qigong exercises).
There are mantras uttered at different points during the prayer (just like yoga & qigong exercises).

That's how the physical body as well as the breath is employed (the postures and mantras mentioned above). However, what do to with the mind?

In yoga you visualise the deities (images, idols or yantras) and/or masters during your meditation to connect with their energy.
In qigong you visualise stars, planets, things from nature, animals, masters, colors, the organs, talismans etc to connect with their energy.

Here are my own personal top 4 visualisations for the muslim prayer:
1) Visualise you're in Mekka and praying before the Ka'aba

All muslims across planet Earth pray facing the Ka'aba each day. It's already a special energy point of planet earth's meridians. Just like human beings have meridians with energy points along them, so too does the planet have special energy lines with special points along them. The well of Zamzam is only 20m east of the Ka'aba, springing from an underground source. The whole area is an energy point, that's why they placed the Ka'aba there.

When all muslims pray towards this point, this point stores their energy. It's already a high energy point to begin with. When everyone prays towards it, the shared energy container is redistributed among the faithful.

So, by visualising the Ka'aba, you're connecting to a bigger, powerful storage point of energy, which will over time increase your own energy.

The word "Ka'aba" is actually in the feminine form in arabic.

Feminine simply means receptive, it receives energy from the universe, from the ground, as well as the faithful. I chose the above picture of the Ka'aba because there are two veiled women there as well.

The veil over the women and the Ka'aba symbolizes the special protection the feminine enjoys, provided by the masculine (masculine meaning active). When we're well protected, we feel safe, we feel peaceful, and we feel intimate with whoever we're with. It's the same feeling you get in a tent in the desert, or a yurt in the grasslands. You feel intimate with whoever you're with.

This energy of peace, protection and intimacy will come over you again and again, until your own soul produces the same type of energy. Then you will feel peaceful, protected and intimately connected to the Divine all throughout your daily life.

2) Visualise you're in Medina and praying close to the Masjid an-Nabawi

This masjid was built by the Prophet himself, it was the site of A'isha's house, and now it holds the tomb of the Prophet himself.

By visualising this green dome, you will be able to connect directly to the energy of the Prophet.

You will be blessed with his tender love, compassion and humanity. Your heart will be softened and opened. You'll feel tender love for all of creation.

3) visualise you're standing before the throne of Almighty God, ranked by thousands of powerful angels

Imagine God is watching you. 

Then perform your prayers.

4) Imagine it's your last prayer, the angel of death is behind you, it's your last opportunity to get right with God before your judgement

Conclusion:
As you can see, the muslim ritual prayer has many things in common with yoga, qigong and meditation. It uses the body, breath and mind to cultivate energy and connect with the Divine.

Edited December 26, 2022 by Nuralshamal

[-ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ-]

Walaikum salaam bro, thanks for starting this thread. I’ve also been wondering recently about the potential similarities between salah and other practices. I want to find out what goes on energetically during salah as the in the qiyam position the hands are placed right hand on top of left hand around the navel, which is very similar to how my hands are placed in some neigong practices that I do. 
 

I’ll post some pics of the different salah positions here so we can get some thoughts from others to see what similarities they notice with their practices. 

 

Takbir

 

Qiyaam

 

Ruku

 

Brief Qiyaam

 

Sujud

 

Brief Sitting

 

Sujud

 

Tashahhud 

 

Peace to the Right

 

Peace to the Left 

Edited December 26, 2022 by Pak_Satrio

[Nuralshamal]

@Pak_Satrio

Thanks for your post bro

Yes, it's very interesting.

When you do the tasleem "salaam/peace to the right/left" what have you heard about the meaning of this?

I always thought it was for that feeling of community, recognizing your brothers praying next to you.

However, when I was in a weekly sufi dhikr circle at the first half of this year, they said that you're greeting and recognizing the two angels walking with you, writing down your good and bad deeds.

[-ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ-]

2 minutes ago, Nuralshamal said:

However, when I was in a weekly sufi dhikr circle at the first half of this year, they said that you're greeting and recognizing the two angels walking with you, writing down your good and bad deeds.

I was taught that you are greeting the two angels like you said, the angel on your right is recording your good deeds, the angel on your left is recording your bad deeds. As far as I know it’s quite a common belief, I was taught this outside of Sufi circles. 

[Nuralshamal]

12 minutes ago, Pak_Satrio said:

I was taught that you are greeting the two angels like you said, the angel on your right is recording your good deeds, the angel on your left is recording your bad deeds. As far as I know it’s quite a common belief, I was taught this outside of Sufi circles. 

Okay, thanks  

[damdao]

A sufi sheik here once told us that the takbir position may be related to the chinese medical theory of the phoetus shape in the ears and touching lightly the lobule acts like a kind of stimulation in the head faculties and senses (because the ear lobule corresponds to the head of the phoetus in auriculotherapy).

[-ꦥꦏ꧀ ꦱꦠꦿꦶꦪꦺꦴ-]

On 27/12/2022 at 5:17 PM, damdao said:

A sufi sheik here once told us that the takbir position may be related to the chinese medical theory of the phoetus shape in the ears and touching lightly the lobule acts like a kind of stimulation in the head faculties and senses (because the ear lobule corresponds to the head of the phoetus in auriculotherapy).

Very interesting. I’m curious if qiyaam has anything to do with the lower dantian, or sujud with the third eye as you put pressure on it from the ground.

[freeform]

Ritual washing is definitely a thing in some Daoist lines… 

 

[Nuralshamal]

On 30.12.2022 at 3:06 PM, Pak_Satrio said:

Very interesting. I’m curious if qiyaam has anything to do with the lower dantian, or sujud with the third eye as you put pressure on it from the ground.

I'm quite sure that the prophet had knowledge of energy: how to build it up, how to use it, and how to transfer it.

There are 2 hadith stories I heard when attending a sufi dhikr circle in the beginning of 2022. 

1) a companion got a doubt about something, and instead of explainin the doubt away, the prophet simply put his hand on his chest. Then he transferred energy. Then the doubt in the heart of the companion went away.
2) there was an older companion living in another village than the prophet. When visiting the prophet, he complained that his memory was starting to fail him. He sometimes couldn't remember which daily things was sunnah, and which ones was from the old pagan beliefs. Instead of giving him verbal advice, the prophet took a cloth for the head, recited and blew on it, and gifted it to the old companion. Whenever he had a doubt, he simply but on the headcloth, and he would in a crystal clear way be able to remember everything the prophet had ever taught him.

The first instance is a direct transfer of energy through touch from person to person (sparsa diksha in sanskrit), the other is empowering of an item with energy.

Salah, dhikr and eating and living halal and sunnah is the prescribed way to build the energy stronger each day.

When standing, the blood floods the legs and feet, the lower part of the body. When prostrating, the blood floods the brain, the top part of the body. When kneeling the blood is circulating in the inner organs in the middle part of the body. That's at the physical level. Qi and blood are extremely connected: qi guides the blood, blood nourishes and builds the qi. Qi is the commander of blood, blood is the mother of qi.

So by circulating the blood using the body, you're also circulating the energy. By building the body, you're also building the energy.

At the energetic level, I'm sure with correct guidance, intention and visualisation during salah, the energy will also build in the different energy centers.

I would say that the specialty of qigong is the body, the specialty of islamic cultivation is the heart, and the specialty of hinduism and buddhism is the mind. All paths contain all elements, however, for me personally, that's what my experience has been with different systems. Each is specialized in a particular area.

All paths hint at energy cultivation: hindus and buddhists put a dot on the third eye, Christians touch the third eye as well as different points of the heart center when doing the cross on themselves, Muslims touch the navel during qiyaam and the third eye during sujood.

If we isolate the energy cultivation component of each path, we can see some of these very interesting similarities.

To conclude this post: transmission from an authentic teacher is the king component of cultivation, the one piece of every system that ensures the quickest, easiest and safest path to succes with that tradition.