Statements at the Seventeenth Nationwide Prayer Conference

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

First of all, I sincerely and deeply thank the dear brothers and sisters who are responsible for promoting prayer. This is good and valuable everywhere, especially in universities. I ask the Almighty God to grant you and Mr. Qaraati, as well as the other contributors to this great work, who have planted this good tree in the ground and, thanks be to God, it has good leaves and fruits today, success and a long life so that, God willing, they can continue their work.

The importance of establishing and promoting prayer stems from the significance of prayer itself. When we see how much emphasis is placed on prayer in the sacred Islamic law—both in the Quran and in the words of the noble Prophet and the sayings of the infallibles—we discover that prayer is one of the main elements among the collection of remedies for the physical, spiritual, individual, and social ailments of humanity. All obligatory acts of worship and avoidance of all prohibitions constitute a collection of prescribed remedies from the Lord to strengthen the spiritual foundation and rectify the affairs of this world and the hereafter—rectifying society and the individual. However, within this collection, some key elements exist, and it can be said that prayer is the key element among these. "Those whom We have established on the earth, they establish prayer." (1) The believers, the warriors in the path of God, the self-sacrificers in the way of strengthening divine knowledge, are such that when "We have established them on the earth"; when we have entrusted power to them, many tasks must be accomplished: establishing justice, creating what, what, but the first thing that exists is: "they establish prayer"; what is the secret in this prayer that its establishment is so important?

Much has been discussed about prayer. Every human being has a rebellious soul within themselves, a drunken elephant that if you keep an eye on it and strike it regularly with a hammer, it will not lead you to destruction; its behavior will be controlled, and this human soul will become the source of your progress. The soul is a collection of human instincts that, if these instincts are properly controlled, utilized correctly, and acted upon rightly, will lead a person to the peak of perfection. The problem is that they become intoxicated. There must be a controller. If there is oppression in the world, it is due to the drunkenness of the instincts and desires of one or several individuals or a group; if there is immorality in the world, it is the same; if there is disrespect to humanity and trampling on human dignity in the world, it is the same; if there is poverty in the world, a large portion of the human community is deprived of divine blessings on earth because of this. The desires of the oppressive group create oppression. The arrogant powers create subjugation. The entire greedy and ruthless group creates poverty and hunger. It is these desires that have caused all these corruptions in the world from the beginning of history until today, and as much as humanity has advanced in utilizing the various abilities that God has entrusted to them, this has not diminished; it has increased. "When a thief comes with a lamp, he steals more carefully." (2) The oppressor who has an atomic bomb is different from the oppressor who only fights with a sword. These desires have become more dangerous for humans.

Such a thing exists within humans. All humans are afflicted with this drunken elephant within themselves that they must control. This control is through the remembrance of God; it is through the remembrance of God; it is through seeking refuge in God; it is through feeling the need for the Lord; it is through feeling their own insignificance in the face of divine greatness; it is through feeling their own ugliness in the presence of the absolute beauty of the Almighty God. All of these stem from remembrance. A person who is pious, meaning they are vigilant and mindful, does not become a source of evil, oppression, corruption, rebellion, and badness to this or that. This divine remembrance constantly prevents them; it constantly restrains them: "Prayer forbids." "Forbids" means it prevents, not that it binds the hands and feet of a person; it does not disable the instincts. Some think that "Prayer forbids immorality and wrongdoing" (3) means that if you pray, immorality and wrongdoing will disappear; no, it means that when you pray, that inner preacher within you, who is revived by prayer, constantly tells you about the evils of immorality and wrongdoing. And speaking, repeating, and instilling in the heart naturally has an effect and humbles the heart. Therefore, you see that prayer must be repeated. Fasting is once a year; pilgrimage is once in a lifetime; prayer must be repeated several times a day. The importance of prayer lies here.

If we pray, from the innermost being of a person, from the heart of a person to the level of society and to the level of governance over society—no matter how large that society is—by the blessing of prayer, it gains safety and security. The heart of a person gains security, the body of a person gains security, and the society of humanity gains security. This is the property of prayer; the establishment of prayer in society is this. This is what has been emphasized so much; your work is this; you, the prayer establishment headquarters and the prayer promotion headquarters in every corner of the country, in every stratum of society, and most importantly, among the elite youth and students. This means drawing society into this state of collective remembrance. Everyone should be mindful; young and old, men and women, government officials and non-government officials, individuals working for themselves, individuals working for a group, when they are mindful of the Lord, their work will be organized. Most of our sins stem from negligence. This prayer is to be repeated constantly.

In these areas, much has been said; we have also mentioned it many times; prayer has a physical and a spiritual aspect. This must be taken into account. That is, each of us, myself and others, must pay attention to this. Prayer has a form and a content; it has a body and a soul. We must ensure that the body of prayer does not remain devoid of its soul. We do not say that a body without a soul has no effect; yes, it does have some effect; however, the prayer that Islam, the Quran, the law, the Prophet, and the Imams (peace be upon them) have emphasized so much is the prayer whose body and soul are both complete. This body is also prepared in accordance with that soul; it has recitation, bowing, prostration, falling to the ground, raising hands, speaking loudly, and speaking softly. This diversity is to cover all those needs that must be met through prayer, each of which has a secret in its place, and the collection of these creates the form and shape of prayer. This shape is very important, but the soul of this prayer is attention; attention. We must know what we are doing. A prayer without attention—just as I mentioned—has little effect.

You can use a very valuable diamond in two ways. One way is to use it like a diamond, like a precious stone; another way is to use it as a weight on a scale and place it instead of a few grams of stone on the scale and weigh, for example, pepper or turmeric! This is also a use of the diamond; but what kind of use is this?! This is like wasting the diamond. Of course, breaking the diamond is worse; but using the diamond like this is not how one should behave with it. We should not treat prayer like a diamond that we have made a weight on a scale. Prayer is very precious.

Sometimes a person prays like other daily habits; we brush our teeth—let's say—we exercise, and we pray in the same way at the right time. At another time, a person prays with the feeling that they want to be present in the presence of the Lord. This is a different kind of prayer. We are always in the presence of the Lord; whether we are asleep, awake, negligent, or mindful. However, there is a time when you take ablution, purify yourself, prepare yourself, with the physical purity, with the purity of clothing, with the spiritual purity resulting from ablution and ghusl, and you go to the service of the Lord of the universe. We must have such a feeling in prayer. We have gone to the service of the Lord; we have presented ourselves; with this state, we must enter into prayer; we must feel ourselves in front of God; we must have an addressee in prayer. Otherwise, simply producing waves that arise from words and letters in the air is not what has been asked of us. One can say: "Praise be to God, the Lord of the worlds. The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Master of the Day of Judgment..." and spread its waves. This can also be recited well, but without attention, which again is just producing sound waves in the air. This is not what has been asked of us. We have been asked to bring our hearts to the presence of the Lord during prayer; to speak from our hearts, to speak with our hearts; these are important. This must be considered in the promotion of prayer, in the prayer that we perform ourselves, in the prayer that we teach to others; we must pay attention to this point of the soul of prayer.

Of course, this soul cannot be achieved without the body. If a person thinks that if this is the case, I will sit and say remembrance a hundred times and, for example, will not pray anymore, no. Just as we mentioned, that body, that form, is arranged according to the needs that are met through this soul. Therefore, you see that in the narrations, for various states of prayer, certain characteristics have been established; it is not obligatory, it is recommended. When standing, where to look; when prostrating, where to look; when bowing, some narrations say to close your eyes; some narrations say to look ahead; these characteristics all help to achieve the state of presence and attention that is necessary for a person.

Now, the importance of prayer, which is truly difficult to describe for us. Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) says to his successor during his illness before passing away: "He is not from me who takes prayer lightly"; (4) anyone who takes prayer lightly is not from me. Taking lightly means considering it unimportant. Now, this prayer, with all these characteristics, with all these virtues, how much time does it take from a person? Our obligatory prayer—these seventeen rak'ahs—if a person wants to perform it with attention and some consideration, let’s say it takes thirty-four minutes; otherwise, it will take less time. Sometimes we find ourselves sitting in front of the television waiting for a program we like, and before that, there are constant advertisements—twenty minutes, fifteen minutes—that are of no use to us, and we sit and listen, wasting twenty minutes of our time for the sake of that program we want. These twenty minutes of our lives are like this. We wait for a taxi, we wait for a bus, we wait for our friend to come so we can go somewhere, we wait for a teacher who is late for class, we wait for a speaker who has arrived late to the gathering; all of these—ten minutes, fifteen minutes, twenty minutes—are wasted. Well, how important is it to spend these twenty minutes, twenty-five minutes, or thirty minutes for prayer—this noble act, this great act?

In the youth community of the country, more than others, attention must be paid to prayer. A young person’s heart becomes illuminated through prayer, they gain hope, they find spiritual vitality, they experience joy. These states are more characteristic of youth, more characteristic of the season of youth; they can enjoy it. And if God grants me and you success, if we pray with attention, we will see that a person does not become satiated with prayer when they focus on it. When a person becomes attentive to prayer, they experience such pleasure that does not exist in any of the material pleasures. This is due to attention. Negligence in prayer, lethargy during prayer, are characteristics of hypocrites—not that anyone who feels lethargic during prayer is a hypocrite; no—God introduces hypocrites in the Quran and says, recognize them by this. In the time of the Prophet, there were hypocrites who prayed for the sake of this and that, but in their hearts, they had no belief in prayer. "And when they stand for prayer, they stand lazily, showing off to the people." (5) Yes, when someone has no addressee, they do not speak to God, they become tired, and it seems to them that it is a long task. Four rak'ahs of prayer that take four minutes or five minutes seem like a long time to them; while how long is four minutes? If a person speaks to God in this state, they will see that it passes like lightning; they will regret it, feel sorry, and wish it could be longer.

Promote this meaning among the youth. If young people get used to good prayer from now on, when they reach our age, praying well will not be difficult for them anymore. At our age, a person who has not gotten used to good prayer may be able to pray well, but it is difficult. Because from youth, they have gotten used to praying well; that is, prayer with attention—good prayer does not mean prayer with a pleasant voice and good recitation; it means prayer with attention, with the heart present; their heart should be present before the Lord; they should speak from the heart and with the heart—then this will become their nature, and it will not be a burden for them; they will pray well like this for the rest of their lives.

One point that Mr. Qaraati just mentioned, and has repeatedly said before, we have also said; regarding the shortage of mosques and prayer houses in densely populated centers. This must be raised seriously by the friends from the government who are here—honorable ministers who are present here—in the government. All major engineering projects must have a mosque and prayer house attached. When we design the metro, a mosque must be considered for the metro station; when we design a train station, when we design an airport, a mosque must definitely be included. When we design a town, a mosque must be considered in the necessary centers, where more than one may be needed. Is it possible for us to design a town and forget its streets? Can a town exist without streets? With this perspective, we must view mosques. A town without a mosque has no meaning. When builders want to obtain permission for construction and build, the prayer house must be included in the plan they present, based on which the permit is issued. We must treat prayer houses in this manner.

They mentioned flights; not just pilgrimage flights, but in various flights—domestic, international, long-distance—that cover prayer times, the issue of prayer must be observed. If possible, there should be time for prayer before and after the flight; it should not be that, for example, they leave before dawn and arrive after sunrise; no, the schedule should be arranged so that people can pray; either before or after. If it is not possible—sometimes there are necessities regarding domestic and international flights that make it impossible—then facilities for praying must be provided inside the airplane, which can certainly be done; that is, pilots are knowledgeable, they understand, they know; so that individuals who wish to pray inside the airplane can do so. Of course, the issue of train movements is even more important in this regard.

Today, in our country, these aspects are incomparable to before the revolution. Most of you do not remember the time before the revolution. It was strange! Both here and in some other places. We had gone to Iraq, and during a pilgrimage trip, no matter what we did for the morning prayer, we could not stop; it was arranged in such a way that it was impossible. I had to throw myself out of the back of the train—close to the station or at the beginning of the station—so that I could pray; because it was dirty inside the train, and it was impossible to pray. In any case, these things were not observed at all. Now, there has been a significant change; however, more is expected than this. The importance of prayer must be recognized.

We have repeatedly advised the honorable Friday prayer leaders, congregational prayer leaders, and respected clerics in the cities, in Tehran, that mosques must be prosperous; the call to prayer must be heard from the mosques. All signs of attention to prayer and the establishment of prayer must be seen in the Islamic city—especially in cities like Tehran and the large cities of the country—people must feel it; both our own people and those who enter these cities. Islamic signs must be clear and evident; just as in our engineering works, Islamic signs must be evident. Whenever the Zionists wanted to build a building anywhere in the world, they tried to establish that cursed symbol of the Star of David in some way. Their political work is like this. We Muslims must observe Islamic signs and Islamic engineering in all our works, including in engineering.

In any case, we hope that the Almighty God grants success. The work of prayer is not a small task; it is a very great task. All those involved in this work, God willing, are among "those who establish prayer" (6) who are specifically mentioned in the Quran regarding the pure, clean, and sincere believers. God willing, may you all be among those who establish prayer, and may the Almighty God assist, grant success, and may all of us benefit from the blessings of prayer, God willing.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings.