Mumbled words of prayer
Faculties devoid of reasoning
Closed hearts, numb souls
Mumbled words of prayer
Left hand steals
As your right slaughters
Mumbled words of prayer
The same tongue spreads hate
Brother against brother
Mumbled words of prayer
Though one eye is open
Suspicious of neighbourly intentions
Mumbled words of prayer
Counted on rosaries of incitement
Mindless recitations
Mumbled words of prayer
All that changes
Only remains the same
Mumbled words of prayer
Leading the flock to futile worship
Barren seeds of hope
Mumbled words of prayer
A mockery of God
and His beneficence to mankind
SONYA KASSAM 
This reminds me of something I saw one evening in Cairo that haunts me till today… It was the time of Maghrib prayer and I happened upon a “praying” man outside a restaurant… He had stopped to pray and was going through the motions (the physical motions) while yelling out, every few seconds, to those inside the restaurant (who I can only imagine were the staff) about preparations for the evening menu…
Faculties devoid of reasoning
Closed hearts, numb souls…
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I wrote this because we are so quick to hold National Prayer Days and not change a single thing after that. It is like we are convincing ourselves all that us happening is out of our control.
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I can understand your sentiments. It happens in Mauritius too. Like we believe in ticking the box: performed prayer function to appease the gods. Yet the real solution is a change in behaviour and many times a very minor change is really required! Your poem captures this so very poignantly…
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Dear Sonya,
Thank you very much for this post.
It immediately brought to this person’s mind Hazrat Ali who generously shares so much with us, including:
“The best form of piety is hidden from others.”
Thank you again for this powerful poem.
All good wishes,
robert
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Thanks Robert for that wonderful quote and as always, for your comments. This poem was expressing my frustration at the frequent prayer meetings that are called, instead of putting in effort to take positive action.
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Dear Sonya,
I share with you the wish to see positive action.
All good wishes,
robert
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Very powerful, Sonya. <3 MashaAllah
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Thank you so much Julie :-)
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So profound and true. Very many of us claim to be religious and pray and yet our hearts are devoid of love and care. Our prayers no matter how many are just robotic acts that bear no good result. Dead hearts lead pathetic lives. Thank you for sharing.
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Spot on Sean, thanks for your comments.
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It’s very true about mumbled words of prayer, very original thoughts,I like it Sonya.
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Lovely comment Ranu, thanks :-)
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