Comment:
There are several observations concerning this clip:
1. Encouraging people to prostrate by magnifying its worldly benefits is no part of Islam’s guidance.
2. Prostration is one of the clearest expressions of humility before God and reverence for Him. Innate dispositions and rational minds almost universally recognise this. People should therefore be encouraged to prostrate by highlighting the greatness of the Creator, who deserves worship, submission and reverence in every respect.
3. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, explained the purpose and fruit of prostration: “The nearest a servant is to his Lord is when prostrating.” Nearness to God, mighty and majestic, is the end and objective the servant pursues in this life, whether worldly benefit is obtained or not.
4. These benefits, if valid, are at most among the lowest ranks of the fruits of prostration. They should not be emphasised, let alone made an objective to pursue, because this strips worship of the spirit and reality for which it was prescribed and turns it into physical exercises in which believer and unbeliever are alike.
5. It would not have been difficult for the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, to explain to the Companions that memory and sexual potency improve in those who prostrate frequently. Yet he did not do so. He encouraged this act of worship only by connecting it to the hereafter, reward and recompense, never mentioning any worldly benefit in any of his hadiths. He said: “Keep to prostration, for you do not perform a single prostration to God without God raising you a degree and removing a sin from you.” Sahih Ibn Majah (1177).
6. Among the most conspicuous harms of this utilitarian interpretation of religion is its rejection of religious law in support of its supposed theory. Consider how this speaker rejected authentic hadiths establishing that Satan attempts to disrupt a person’s prayer by occupying him during it with his needs until he does not know how much he has prayed, although Satan had not done so before the prayer. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “When the call to prayer is made, Satan turns away, passing wind so as not to hear the call. When the call ends, he returns. When the prayer is announced, he turns away again. When that announcement ends, he returns, coming between a person and himself and saying, ‘Remember such-and-such, remember such-and-such’, things he had not remembered before, until the man no longer knows how much he has prayed.” Sahih Muslim (389), also reported by al-Bukhari (608). This speaker treated the Prophet’s words as people’s imaginings in support of his obsession with the utilitarian interpretation of religion.
God’s help is sought.