As with many Muslims I greatly admire the respect you have for your God. Sometimes I think we Christians become to familiar and blase in our relationship with our Father. Perhaps it is because Jesus Christ has made a way to enter into the presence of the Almighty, perhaps it is because we do not devote ourselves fully to the commands of the Holy Bible, but I wish it were not so.
My thanks, I pray that this respect in reality is equal to its appearance to you. It is admittedly something I do find jarring when I come into contact with some Christians, I simply took it as part of the general irreverance that has seeped into this society as a whole.
However I think you err when you place emphasis on the external appearance. God is truly only concerned with that which is eternal and can enter the life hereafter. Our faith demands that we be a living witness to the unbelievers and if they be the poorest of the poor, the richest of the rich or of ancient culture from the Middle East, Christians should dress the same to make it easier to be accepted and to reveal the Light and Truth of Christ Jesus.
I think I continue to misrepresent myself, it is not my arguement to place emphasis on the outward, rather to plead that the outward and inward are always linked. Deeply and inseperably. Muslims should be known as what they are. Proud of their deen (way of life) and uncompromising in their dedication to it. Karate required me to bow to mankind, so I stopped taking Karate
I am yet to see missionaries gettting their kit off to blend with those to whom they prosletyse.
I mean in some senses the differences is understandable. Muslims are not told to spread their religion. We are told to be, and others will recognise truth when they see it written upon our faces. 'Verily there is no compulsion in religion'.
As for the prayer you mention. I think it must be quite tedious to hear the same prayers over and over again. I wonder if God would like to hear whats really on your heart. Through Jesus we have the opportunity to speak to and hear from God. Yes God does speak to each of His children just as a natural father would speak to his children.
I do not find it such. 5 times a day one is reminded of the reality of things (and I doubt you would find problems with the following):
'In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds;
Most Gracious, Most Merciful;
Master of the Day of Judgment.
Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek.
Show us the straight way;
The way of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace, those whose (portion) is not wrath, and who go not astray.'
Of course, we also make dua (supplications) to God throughout our day, often in the same way that you do. We ask for things, and speak to God, though I would never presume Prophethood and expect to be blessed with divine speech.
Surely the role of prayer is not just asking for things, be it guidance or aid? Surely it is more important that we pray in worship, in supplication to the one whom we owe all things? Bismillah (in the name of God) when we begin to eat, Alhamdulillah (all praise is due to God) when we finish, Allahu Ackbar (God is Greater) in the face of tribulation and SubhanAllah (God is glorious, transcendant) when understanding escapes us or we are overwhelmed with the sheer magnitude of a glory beyond our ken...
Do Christians worship?
Brother, come out from under the burdensome covering of your turban and enter into the direct covering of the heavenly Father that is made possible through Jesus Christ. Put aside the natural things that seek to create an allusion and that allow for false humility and seek rather the living waters that clothe one with righteousness before God.
The Turban is my companion and my shield. I wear the clothes of my Beloved in that I may seek nearness to him. I place veils between my body and the world, in the hope that the veils between me and God are lifted in time. At night I wake as others sleep and the words of God tumble across my lips and around the room. I am exulted in glory and light, the prayer is the ascension of the believer, a raising up in prayers not asking anything of God, but rather being as we are supposed to be, a testification to Him as He is. He is One.. He beggeteth not, nor was He begotten.
All due respect, and apologies for my heartfelt reply, but I would never give that up for a religion that, as far as I can tell, only glorifies in humanity. Seperating the profane into a compartement that encompases all that we see, and leaving the sacred to the confines of their minds. I reply in kind. Seek faith and good deeds, seek submission to the One from whom all comes and all will return. A God that is not confined, and certainly can not lose anything of His nature in order to suffer.