How to Pray a Good Prayer

THIS IS THE FULL COLOUR VERSION

What is the most essential and important attribute of a good prayer?
How can we enjoy prayer?
What is the important problem with our prayers?
What stages are involved in achieving a loving prayer?
What is the most important method for promoting prayer?
Why are the sins of all those who don’t pray on the shoulders of those who do pray?

Many benefits from praying have been mentioned in the traditions. If you ask mystics or scholars about how to reach heights in spiritual matters, they will emphasize “prayer.” If prayer is truly this important and effective, why doesn’t it affect us?! After praying all of these prayers, why haven’t we become mystics? If “prayer is the ascension of the believer” and it is enjoyable, why don’t we ever enjoy praying?! And actually, prayer has become a repetitive and tedious task for us! What’s wrong with our prayers?! What can we do for our prayers to help us to grow and have an effect on us?
If the people who pray, pray well, those who don’t pray will fall in love with praying.

We consider the sins of all those who don’t pray to be the fault of those who pray. Why? Because, if those who pray, pray well, enjoy their prayers enough and gain ample benefit from them, naturally most of those who don’t pray will gravitate toward praying. This is the way to promote religion. If we wish to struggle to encourage those who don’t pray to pray, the best way is to first pay more attention to our own prayers and to improve them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ali Reza Panahian was born in Tehran in 1965. Along with his studies in a regular school, he also studied in a school for religious sciences. He continued his studies in the religious sciences to a high level in the Qom Seminary and his expertise is in education and ethics. He studied psychology and western philosophy for a period too.

 With this background and his unique talents, he has become an expert strategist and theorist who is responsible for a think tank on strategic studies, a member of different councils for strategic planning in cultural fields, the head of a department in the field of "Propagating Religion" in Tehran, and a member of the board of trustees of the University of Art. Panahian is currently the trustee of a seminary and several schools are being run in accordance with his educational theory. In addition, he is a popular speaker who analyzes events in a new, thought-provoking way.

 His talent in presenting fresh, practical, systematic ideas has resulted in him presenting new theories in different fields. He has creatively presented a fundamental, comprehensive, practical theory inspired by religious teachings about knowing and analyzing the human being. He presented his most important theory, "The Main Strategy in the Religious Educational System," in 40 sessions in 2013 and it was greatly welcomed. Due to the interest of the people themselves, educated people who have studied this theory are teaching it throughout the world.

 In addition, he played an important role in setting up the new field of "Propagating Religion." In his opinion, the main requirement to being successful in propagating religion is to have a deep understanding of religion and to know the human being correctly.

 He is creating new currents in cultural-religious fields and has played an effective role in reviving some religious traditions in society. At the same time, his 12-year presence in the University of Art has made him a strong and creative thinker in the field of art and a critic of cinematic works. It has been more than 20 years that Panahian is busy teaching and speaking for young people, university students, seminary students, managers and cultural planners. On certain occasions of the year, about 20,000 young people gather to listen to his speeches.

 Up until now, he has published 13 books, and some of these books have been republished 27 times. A number of these books have been translated into Arabic and have been among the bestselling books in Lebanon. Some of these books have also been translated into English and French.