I reluctantly perform my daily prayers; Are they accepted by Allah? Even though I prompt myself to do the opposite, something always tells me to delay the prayers or to perform the fards only...

I reluctantly perform my daily prayers; Are they accepted by Allah? Even though I prompt myself to do the opposite, something always tells me to delay the prayers or to perform the fards only...

Dear Brother / Sister,

There are some reasons for our unwillingness to perform worship:

1. It may be because we do not comprehend the value and significance of our worship properly. It is necessary to benefit from works that tell about the essence of worship regarding this issue.

2. The places in which we live may be spiritually awful. As a matter of fact,  our sense of smell is disturbed when a carcass is near. Just like this, as our spirit is affected negatively in places where harams are performed mostly, we may not get pleasure from worship.

3. A sick man cannot get pleasure in full from what he/she eats. For example, someone whose tongue has a sore cannot get the taste of the food that he/she eats. Then he must be treated. Similarly, we wound our hearts and souls and make them sick with the sins that we commit. So we cannot get pleasure fully while we perform worship, which is the nutrient of the spirit. That is why we need to have treatment. The treatment of souls is achieved firstly with repentance and asking for forgiveness and then avoiding committing sins again.

There is an important issue here: A sick person cannot get pleasure from the foods that he eats but he continues to eat and drink. For, he must feed himself. Similarly, we must continue to worship though we do not get pleasure. For, our soul needs nourishment. Inshallah, we will start to get pleasure from them in time and our worship will protect us from sins.

Questions on Islam