THE RIPPLE EFFECT OF JAMA’AT: HOW THE MUSLIM CONGREGATION SERVES AS A PERFORMANCE ENHANCER IN THE LIVES OF MUSLIMS

Abstract

This research paper studies the Muslim congregational prayer as a performance performed by Muslims all around the world with a primary focus on how the acts leading to the prayer and the prayer itself serves as a performance enhancer in their daily lives. Performance enhancers [PE] are usually associated with drug use in sports, where athletes illegally use drugs to enhance their performance. However, this paper uses this term to claim that the congregational prayer and/or the acts leading to it serve as PE for Muslims and explains how this impacts the worshippers and the onlookers simultaneously in a spiritual and scientific way. Moreover, it attempts to investigate how the acts leading to the Jamaat such as ablution and clean clothes serve as the PE for the main prayer and how the main prayer fulfils the purpose of being a PE for enhancing the quality of life for the worshippers. Through various theories given by Emile Durkheim, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Andrew Newberg, Jonathan Edwards, Pierre Bourdieu, Richard Schechner, Erika Fischer-Lichte and others on prayer serving as a performance enhancer and a performance itself, this paper attempts to highlight the socio-economic psychological impact of the Islamic congregational prayer on Muslim lives.