This month is exclusively associated with the worships and prayers aimed for the cleanliness of the soul and thoughts and it is the reason why, the worships and prayers done in this holy month cannot be compared to any other month of the year. This is due to the fact that the return or the reward of worships and prayers increases manifolds. But without considering the reward as well, the mental and physical circumstances get seasoned in a way that offering prayers and doing other worships become more easy, joyful and meaningful.
Teachings of religion and the sermons and speeches of religious scholars also encourage of bringing change in your thoughts, physical and emotional world in this month that you should get the benefits for the remaining eleven months of the year. Anyhow, when this month is considered important due to prayers and people try their best to get more and more benefitted from the prayers, it also becomes an occasion when large number of people get involved in activities that are aimed for earning respect, importance, social status and other gains using the means of prayers and worships which are absolutely contrary to the spirit of this holy month. I felt myself compelled to write on this topic due to a large number of stories and events that I witnessed myself or heard from other people.
The visitors of a mosque witnessed that a person always remained busy in offering prayers near the entrance of the mosque. He always chose the same place for his prayers and this place was especially important as anyone who entered the mosque, noticed the person busy in prayers and worshipping. Usually, people go to mosque for the congregational prayers and soon leave the mosque after it but the person arrived almost half an hour before others and left almost half an hour after that and in the time before and after the congregational prayers, he remained busy in extra, non-obligatory prayers (called NAWAFIL). One day, two people came to the mosque. One of them used to notice this man busy in prayers at the same place and admired him for this.
When they were passing by this man who was busy in prayers as usual, he told to his friend, ‘May Allah bless his mother and father as he remains busy in prayers all the time!’ Hearing this, the man at once broke the continuity of his prayers and said, ‘Also pray some more for my parents as I not only pray but I am also fasting.’ This was not the month of Ramadan when people usually fast but another month so he wanted to let them know that other than offering prayers, he also used to observe extra fasts (NAFILA).
Another man had created so many problems to the Mullah and the workers of a mosque by his habits aimed to appear more pious and grab the attention of others. He had made it his habit to arrive before anyone else in the mosque and leave after everyone had left and always occupied the place right after the place of Imam. He was so much serious in this regard that no one had broken his record. In the beginning, people took him to be a nice, pious person who liked to worship in the mosque but later on they discovered that he was more of a crazy person who wanted to grab the attention of others by his habit. If anyone arrived new into the neighborhood, he would go to him and tell him about his habit.
He had become a laughing matter for others but he did not know about this. Usually, the morning prayers are offered almost an hour before the dawn and mosques are opened some half hour before the prayers time. This time is also very early in the morning when the darkness of night still prevails everywhere. As the mosque was opened in the morning, the man would enter the mosque and occupy his seat. One day, he saw that someone had come a bit earlier than him. The next day, he arrived like an hour before the prayers when it was too dark at night and the workers of mosque were also asleep. He started beating the door of the mosque. The attendants woke up and went to open the door to see if there was any emergency.
When they opened the door, they saw that the man was standing. On their inquiry, he told that he had come for the congregational prayers. They were both surprised and angry as it was very early for the prayers time. Anyhow, they let him in but it was just the beginning. He started coming to the mosque so early and used to tell others with a pride that, ‘I arrive to mosque at 3 in the morning and awaken the workers there!’ But it was not an easy work for the workers to open the door for him. They handed him over a key of the door so that he should not disturb them and open the door by himself but it was not the end of the problem. He started complaining that he is not let into the mosques by the workers. This was a very serious accusation and they were very angry of the attendants for creating obstacle in the worship of a person. But when they were told the truth, they also understood the nature of the problem but they could not ask an old and short-tempered person not to come to mosque.
These are two major examples but except these, we can notice large number of people using the prayers, worshipping and religious activities to earn social respect and importance. Worships and prayers are such important that they change a person both internally and externally and it is the reason why, we see large number of people trying to appear extraordinary serious during their presence in the mosque. They usually do so by closing their eyes and moving head in different directions. There are also present those who show that they are counting and revising the words of worship on their finger tips by moving their fingers. Not only this, even our Mullah also doesn't let go a chance to raise his voice and appear important during the prayers.
It looks as if this has become a general problem. Although it has repeatedly been said that if you use the religious worships as a mean of showing-off to others, you would not only lose all the benefits and rewards of the prayers but would also face the punishment for misusing it. There may be many reasons for this but this is a fact that it is becoming a reason of making criticism on prayers, worshipping and even the religion itself. This shows another trait of our society; our people have not well-understood their own psychology that they should have come out of the intense desire of longing for the attention of others. Reading few simple rules of psychology could have easily solved this problem. Anyhow, having all my respect for the religion and the worships and prayers it offers, I suggest to work more and more on informing people about importance of being important in our own eyes and not depending on any other source for this.