Congregational Prayer

In 'Struggle to Surrender' by Jeffrey Lang, there is this section:

"Here I am, trying to concentrate all my attention on God, and yet I am
constantly conscious of someone's body brushing against me on my right and
left!"

I told him that I thought he had arrived at an important
observation that uncovers a fundamental precept of Islam: even in your most
intense worship, you are not to forget your brother or sister on your
right and on your left. In other words, your personal and spiritual
welfare and salvation is inseparably linked to your response to your fellow
human beings.

The complain to Jeffrey Lang brought back a recurring question in my mind. Why is it that Islam puts such great emphasis in congregational prayers, even to the point of making it compulsory at least once a week (and for brothers) to have such a congregational prayer in the form of the Friday prayer? And in the second chapter, verse 43, God specifically say:

Bow down in prayer with all who thus bow down.

which really puts the emphasis on congregational prayer.

Jeffrey Lang stated in a few words a convincing answer to my question. In truth, the Qur'an has hinted at this with its emphasis of combining prayer and zakah (alms-giving). Iterated several times, we first comes across it in the second chapter, verse 3:

"Who believe in [the existence of] that which is beyond the reach of human
perception, and are constant in prayer, and spend on others out of what We
provide for them as sustenance."

Here, Muhammad Asad commented that

Ar-rizq ("provision of sustenance") applies to all that may be of benefit to
man, whether it be concrete (like food, property, offspring, etc.) or abstract
(like knowledge, piety, etc.). The "spending on others" is mentioned here in one
breath with God-consciousness and prayer because it is precisely in such
selfless acts that true piety comes to its full fruition. It should be borne in
mind that the verb anfaqa (lit., "he spent") is always used in the Qur'an to
denote spending freely on, or as a gift to, others, whatever the motive may
be.

The coupling of prayer and zakah tells us that prayer, which is ultimately a direct communication with God and therefore quite personal, is incomplete without the outer dimension and manifestation of zakah, which links us to our fellow human being. But in order to 'spend freely' as Muhammad Asad puts it, it is indeed a selfless act, in that we have to deny ourselves of our love for wealth and recognise the rights of others on the wealth that God has given us. This is not an easy act unless we know and love our fellow human being.

Thus Islam ensures the building of the rapport with our brothers and sisters in Islam by instituting the congregational prayer among other forms of worship. Through the congregational prayer, the sense of belonging to the community of believers is developed and thus makes it easier to identify with the poor, needy and to give out of what God has allocated for us to them. For when we are praying side by side, aren't we likely to notice those who are distressed, the disabled, those whose faces are starving and more? When that happens, the inner instinct that God has equipped us with will not allow us to look away and ignore our brothers and sisters in need of our help, be it material, emotional, or other forms of support.

And in giving, especially of wealth, it cleanses our hearts of greed and avarice, of pride and all other diseases of the heart, making it easier to see our own status vis-a-vis God and developing our sense of God-consciousness. So the symbiosis of the relation between us and Allah and the relationship between us and our fellow human being is thus captured in the essence of congregational prayer. Symbolically, at the end of the prayer where we have been communing with God, glorifying Him, asking Him for help, and gaining inner peace from the prayer, we turn to our right and give the greeting of peace to our brother or sister there and similarly on our left. That the peace we obtain from Him is being spread to the whole community.

There are of course other dimensions to the benefits of congregational prayer which are not covered here but can be found within various books and on the internet.

Wallahu'alam.