WHAT IS PRAYER ACCORDING TO YOU ?
According to me.. Prayer is Whim which comes out of human mind when in the danger of loosing something. For example: loosing exams, loosing any result, loosing rank, loosing near and dears, loosing business, loosing name-fame, loosing any treatment, or loosing body etc.
Such Whims aren't dependent of any particular time, place, posture, method, words, language, religion, etc. Its just the natural automatic happening process which happens during the danger of loosing something (As I mentioned above)
Atheist, or Theist, Everyone pray, ..When needed
Peace be on you.
According to Ahmadiyya Muslim Promised Messiah Mahdi (on whom be peace):
QUOTE
"..........Do not think that we already pray everyday, and that the
Salat we offer is also prayer; for the prayer which follows true knowledge and is born of Divine grace is of an altogether different colour and complexion. Such prayer is a thing that consumes, it is a fire that melts, it is a magnetic force that draws Divine mercy, it is a death but ultimately gives life, it is a raging flood but finally turns into a boat. through it every wrong is redressed and every poison finally becomes an antidote.
Blessed are the prisoners who never tire of supplication, for they shall one day be freed. Blessed are the blind who are not listless in their prayers, for they shall one day see. Blessed are those lying in graves who supplicate to God for help and succour, for one day they shall be taken out of their graves. Blessed are you who never tire of supplication, your soul melts in prayer, your eyes shed tears, and a fire kindles in your breast which takes you to dark closets and wildernesses so that you may taste solitude and drives you to restlessness and near madness, for you shall finally receive Divine bounties.
The God to Whom I invite is very Gracious, Merciful, Modest, True, and Faithful. He bestows His mercy on the humble ones. You too should be faithful and pray with all sincerity and faith so that He may bestow His mercy on you. Dissociate yourselves from the commotion of the world and do not give religious complexion to your egoistic disputes. Accept defeat for the sake of God so that you may become heirs to great victories. God will show miracles to those who supplicate and those who ask will be blessed with extraordinary grace. Prayer comes from God and to Him it returns. Through prayer God becomes as close to you as your very life.
The first blessing of prayer is that it brings about a holy change in a person, as a consequence of which God also brings about a transformation in His attributes. His attributes are indeed immutable, but for such a transformed person He shows a different manifestation of which the world knows nothing. It would seem as if He had become another God, whereas, in fact, there is no other God. The truth is that it is a new manifestation of His which portrays Him in an altogether different light. It is then that God, in honour of this special manifestation, does for the transformed one what He does not do for others. These are what are known as miracles.
In short, prayer is the elixir which turns a handful of dust into pure gold. It is water which washes away inner impurities. With such prayer the spirit melts and flows like water to fall prostrate on the threshold of the Holy One. It stands in the presence of God, bows down and prostrates before Him.
The
Salat taught by Islam is only its reflection. The standing of the spirit signifies that it shows readiness to suffer every hardship and to obey every command for the sake of God. The bowing down of the spirit before God means that, by renouncing all other love and relationships, it has turned to God and belongs to Him alone. Its prostration is that it falls on the threshold of God and, forsaking all personal thoughts, loses the very identity of its existence. This is the prayer which helps to establish communion with God, and this is the prayer that Islamic Shariah has depicted in the prescribed daily
Salat so that physical prayer may inspire spiritual prayer.
God Almighty has fashioned man in such a way that the spirit influences the body and the body in turn influences the spirit. When the spirit is melancholy, the eyes shed tears; and when the spirit is glad, the face glows with happiness and one even feels like laughing. Similarly, whenever the body is afflicted with pain or distress the spirit also partakes of the suffering. When a cool breeze enlivens the body the spirit feels it too. Thus, the object of worship is that, through mutual relationship between body and spirit, the spirit may move towards the Holy One and engage in spiritual standing and prostrating
............"
Source:https://www.alislam.org/egazette/updates/the-essence-of-prayer-faith/