The Test Of This World
Yes – Is to remind us about God and this is how He is. (By making us be like Him). We know how He is, by what He wants from and for us. What He wants from and for us is what we can know through His laws for us. Those laws are to be applied, obviously. Then their application alone can leave us affirming whether Hes Just etc – the way He describes Himself. And whether that’s the only true way or good way to be. So yes I think worship would then constantly be reminding us about the ‘source’ that provides us with those very laws to improve our action. (Only so we can perform better).
Goes back to his intention i guess. Whether he understood this point as we discussed it above, and then chose otherwise consciously. Or whether he genuinely believed that isolated lifestyle to be better in the sight of God.
How is it equally important to know about the world? Is it so important as to spend 6+ years chasing after it? I don’t understand your last artist comment but I would raise the question that the artist is not helping anyone- instead of spending hours painting something- go pray some nawafil.
I haven’t read all the responses, but based on your question, I would say that going to jungle and praying to Allah is good, but not what Allah has put us in this World for. Allah doesn’t need anyone’s prayer and he did not need to create a new creation to have more creatures praying to him. There were plenty of Angels already doing that and they are perfect without making mistakes like humans. Allah created human to test. If someone sits in a jungle and only performs prayer, then his test is easy and so is his rewards per prayer are lower. On the other hand if someone is living among people and has to strive very hard to stay on the right path and for that person it is not possible to pray all the time and actually it is hard for that person to even pray 5 times….then one prayer of that person or one good deed of that person would be lot more valuable than 100s of prayers and good deed by the one living in jungle. Same goes for bad deeds. The one living amongst human will be punished much less for the same bad deed than the one in jungle. The point is that reward and punishment is in proportion to how much you strive or control tempetation and that is the proof of your strength of your belief in Allah. The one sitting and praying in jungle is proving less of his strength of belief in Allah as he is not fighting difficulties and tempetations. So as a conclusion the one in jungle is not better off by just sitting and praying all day and avoiding making mistakes. Also, since Allah doesn’t need our prayer, I believe prayer is to remind us to maintain our belief in Allah strong and to remind ourselves to do good deeds and follow Allah’s instructions. That is the test we are sent here to pass.
Ok I should say commonly known first revelation or in Quran. Sorah Fatiha is the first according to Ustadh Sahab research. JAK for reminding. Shura with Sahaba shows his excellency as a commander. And he was not a farmer so by accepting his mistake, shows his best ikhlaq. Please let us know before you go to the jungle. You deserve a party.