What is the meaning of dua or prayer? Dua is to establish contact with God Almighty. It is a great blessing -- whenever you want, wherever you are, be it in the jungle, in the midst of people, in the mosque or outside the mosque, everytime, you are in a position to establish contact with your God. This is a unique blessing for a human being. We can understand in comparison. The mountains cannot establish such contact with their Creator. In the entire universe, stars and planets also have a Creator, but they are unaware about their Creator. They don’t have a mind to think. God has blessed humans with something He has not given to anything else in the universe. The oceans, mountains, stars, galaxies or the solar system cannot establish contact with their Creator. They don’t know anything. They don’t have a single word to express anything. Words are a speciality of humans. If you think about this, you will be thrilled throughout the day. In this universe, you have God's greatest blessing: I have words to express, I have thinking capacity and I have a mind.

It is possible for me to establish contact with my Creator at any moment. I can ask him and He would provide for me. I can request Him and He would answer my request. The Quran says: الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ (1:2) I had been thinking for long about the gist of the Quran, or the central idea of the entire Quran. In the end, I realized that the first verse of the Quran indicates its central idea. That is, to live in gratitidue and praise for God. It is to live with feelings of thankfulness for God.