Why Do We Pray?
Prayer is a practice common to both Christians and Muslims. Followers of both faiths pray for similar reasons : to engage their minds on the ways of God; to gain understanding of His will and find the strength to pursue it; to seek comfort and help; as a means of sharing the deepest thoughts of their hearts with the One in whom they put their trust.
So, why do we pray for Muslims?
Here are two great reasons:
1. To Change Our Hearts
We develop our understanding about those who are different from us in different ways. You will gain your understanding of Muslims through what you experience of them and what you hear about them, but your experiences and knowledge will be limited. For some, their experiences and knowledge will lead them to view Muslims with fear or hatred, others will view them with warmth and concern, others with indifference.
When we pray for others as Jesus taught us we begin to see who we pray for through His eyes. The 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World began with a group of Christians praying in the Middle East and repenting as they realized that they had not been seeing the people of that region in the way God does. Many of our readers over the years have identified with this, testifying that the prayer guide has caused them to recognise the need for a change in the way they understand Muslims.
The first command of Jesus was to love others as He loves us. To love Muslims we must be willing to allow Him to direct our understanding of who they are and to see them as He does. So we pray to gain an understanding of God’s heart for Muslims the world over.
2. To Change The World
Christians also believe that through prayer we can affect change in the world. We believe God works with us to accomplish His will and that in prayer we can encourage miraculous things to happen.
Many of the articles in the 30 Days prayer guide focus on the needs of Muslim people. Muslim people come from enormously diverse cultures and societies and their needs are varied and unique. From immigrant families struggling to adapt to a foreign culture to rural tribesman who have never been outside of their remote village; wealthy businessmen to illiterate fishermen; refugee women desperate to protect their families and angry young men wanting their voices to be heard. Prayer helps us to understand these needs and how to respond to them. We pray for the needs of Muslims because that is one way we can love.
We pray also for Muslims to gain a greater understanding of Jesus. We recognise that as His followers, we often fail to represent Jesus well. Therefore, we do not pray for Muslims to become like us – we pray for them to become like Jesus. We pray that they will join us on the journey towards experiencing that abundant life of which Jesus spoke and towards establishing His Kingdom of peace on earth.
MALAK says
He certainly does not. And He certainly is the Only One to decide who enters the Eternal Life and who does not. He is also the Only One who can forgive my sins and Whom i should beg of forgiveness. I feel many people here praying for Muslims to turn away from God do not realize what’s going on when some “muslim” converts to christianity. It’s not due to their prayers. This happens because God is the Only One to decide whom of his creatures to guide or send astray. And He is the One who turns hearts. Ya Rabb in this night of Ramadhan i beg you to strengthen the faith of Muslims, give them the necessary knowledge of their religion and to protect them for being lead astray. Ya Allah, make us worship you the way you deserve to be worshipped! AMEEN AMEEN AMEEN YA RABB!
The obligation on every muslim is to learn his or her religion, because if they have the necessary knowledge they would not convert to any other religion inshallah.
Jibriil says
I like the two points of why should pray. Especially the way it has started with “To change our hearts”. That’s the key and it’s my prayer that the Lord will help me to continually work on my attitude and the generalization of others in a judgmental way. The gentle voice of our Lords guidance as He speaks to our hearts is truly the right voice to listen to. Amen. Thank you for this it is so helpful and a key and foundation to begin with.