INVOKING GOD’S INFINITE MERCY
IT is only by the grace of God that one can pray, taking the great name of God. Such grace is bestowed only upon one who experiences the greatness of God before setting himself to pray. Taking the great name of God in prayers has no mystery about it. It only means that the suppliant, being a seeker after truth, has found the truth in the form of God and then his state is described in the Quran as “one who was dead, to whom We gave life, and a light whereby he could walk among people.” (6: 122)
When a person of faith remembers God, he is overawed by the greatness of the Lord; he trembles at the thought of coming before Him in all His majesty. His emotion at this point involuntarily takes the form of words.
The Quran (33: 41) asks a rhetorical question about a human being who lives in the remembrance of God: “Who speaks better than one who calls to God and says, ‘I am surely of those who submit.” That is, he is one who remembers God all the time, thinks of God all the time and experiences glimpses of God at every moment. On extraordinary occasions, he gives vent to his latent spiritual feelings in a torrent of words. At that time, he starts calling on God in inspired words of a special kind. This is taking the great name of God in prayer. It is the inspiration of a righteously prepared mind.
When a person of faith remembers God, he is overawed by the greatness of the Lord; he trembles at the thought of coming before Him in all His majesty. His emotion at this point involuntarily takes the form of words. Such is the nature of remembrance of God. It is the reaction that sets in with tremendous force from within a man’s heart when God enters therein. Remembrance of God is the result of discovering God Himself. Remembrance of God is not a mere repetition of words. Rather it is a feeling that wells up from the very depths of a man’s soul, a spontaneous expression of the joy and anguish that are kindled in his heart when he remembers his Lord.