Welcome to Gaia! ::

When I was younger (actually like maybe a year or two ago) I had the HARDEST time getting myself to pray. In all honesty, I didn't pray at all, except during Ramadan. I was just too lazy...too apathetic. My excuses were always "I have alot of homework", "Ugh...I don't feel good", "I don't have the time...maybe the next prayer.", and "I don't know what time I'm supposed to pray."

But the whole time, inside I KNEW that I actually knew what time I'm supposed to pray, that I was feeling just fine, and taking maybe about 7 minutes from homework isn't going to do anything. I knew that it was a simple and harmless task. Yet, I just didn't do it. I really just have no idea why I didn't pray...I seriously don't. I just didn't. I didn't even think about it more than half the time.

But then, in october 2005, my mom became extremely ill. She had already had cancer for about 7 years and running now, and I had all my faith in today's medical science. I seriously just though that she would never die. But suddenly, one day, the cancerous tumor, which was against her chest wall on the left side, started rapidly increasing in size, It expanded over her lungs and heart. She couldn't breath and she collapsed...we called the ambulance. She was hospitalized. During the short period in which she was in the hospital and her funeral, I just couldn't stop praying. Suddenly I remembered every surah that I had ever learned, suddenly I always felt like praying...

When I started praying constantly then, I noticed that it gave me a sense of completeness, it made me stronger. I could feel that I wasn't in this alone, and that what I asked for would be given to me and my family, in the oddest way, but it will be given. Because after all, Allah is all merciful.
:]
" Ya Allah, please bless my ma with the best possible choice. Whatever puts her in place and at peace. I don't want you to cure her, I don't want you to make her suffer anymore, I don't want anything except what is best for her."

And she died.

At the time, my aunt told me that Allah always grants and listens to the wishes and needs of children prior to anything else, especially children who pray for their parents. It pissed me off...seriously. All I could think about was, if God was all Merciful and if my prayers were being listened to and supposedly aided to, why the **** did my mom die? It wasn't till later that I realized that death was the best choice for her. She'd be in peace, just like I asked for. She wouldn't go through anymore pain. And that death given by God was a better place than this disgusting life on earth which was given to us as punishment in the first place.

And then I realized that maybe if I had prayed earlier on in my life for my mom's well being, she wouldn't have died at all. In the back of my head, I can't help but think that my mother's death and illnesses were a result of me, her oldest daughter, never praying. It one of those things that I will never know.

Praying is what keeps everything running smoothly. Praying is the only personal connection that we have to God. So really, seriously, pray. It's your one on one time with Allah, 5 times a day. Isn't that amazing? We get to talk to God 5 times a day and we know that "he" is listening.

All your sins are being forgiven and aided to, all your prayers are being consulted to...at the end of the day, Praying is something that actually benefits yourself.

Nothing bad can come out of it, so just do it. Because only God knows what bad CAN come from not doing it....

So just do it.

And to indirectly and awkwardly answer the original question-
my aunt once said that for every prayer that we miss we spend 1500 years in hell.

o.O

who knows?
lmao.
xD

Asslaamu Alaikum,

Do NOT miss your prayers.

The Beloved Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam said, "Salah is the line between Islam and Kufr (disbelief)."

The 5 daily prayers show that no matter what we do, we are Muslims. 5 times a day we drop everything and run to our Lord and remind ourselves that our loyalty belongs to Him.
What else has Allah commanded we do DAILY that distinguishes us as Muslims?

It's one thing to miss some prayers here and there, but to not do it at call pretty much equates to disbelief.

Ibn Abbas (Radiallaho Anho) narrates that once Rasulullah (Sallallaho Alaihi Wassallam) said, “Ask Allah (Subhanahu wa Taala) to cause not anyone of us to be an unfortunate penniless.” He then said: “Do you know who is an unfortunate penniless?” At the request of the Sahabah he explained to them, saying, “An unfortunate penniless is he who neglects his Salaah. In Islam there is nothing for him.” In another Hadith it is said, “Allah (Subhanahu wa Taala) will not care a bit for the person who has been neglecting Salaah intentionally and for him shall be an awful punishment.


When was Salah commanded? It was during al-Miraj when Muhammad [sallallahu alayhi wasallam] went up to Jannah and actually MET Allah. This issue was so important that all the prophets were commanded Salah in a direct meeting with Allah. Everything else is commanded through revelation, indirectly.