Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | The Sunday Guardian | Oct 6, 2019, p. 12
The phrase Allahu Akbar (or God is Great) is the most important part of the Islamic form of ritual prayer. If you add up the number of times this phrase is used in the azan, the call to prayer, and while performing the ritual prayers 5 times a day, it comes to around 300 times every day! This declaration of God being the Greatest is the phrase that is heard and uttered the most number of times in a Muslim’s life.
This shows that in Islam the most important thing is that a person should discover the greatness of God. The glory and greatness of God should be the most important part of his consciousness. God’s greatness should be an integral of party of his consciousness in such a way that under no condition should he lose awareness of it.
The phrase “God is Great” enjoys the status of a master-stroke in a person’s life. If you truly discover God you will experience the most enormous possible positive earthquake in your life. You will be transformed into a completely new person. God will become the only focus of your thinking. Your life will become a truly God-centred one. God will become your sole concern.
Everything other than God will become secondary for you. You will stop thinking in materialistic terms. Instead of thinking on communal lines, your thinking will be shaped on the basis of certain principles. You will seek success in the Hereafter. You will be fully cleansed of negative thinking.
You will become modest and will be freed from arrogance.
In a sense, the phrase Allahu Akbar speaks of a belief. In another sense, it embodies a complete way of life for a person. In fact, Allahu Akbar is the essence of faith.