1- Presence of Heart in Salah
In salah (the ritual prayer), what is important and must be stressed—after promoting salah itself, for everyone must be made to pray and everyone should become people who pray—is attentiveness in salah: the very thing that is called “presence of heart” (huzur al-qalb).
1-1- The Importance of Presence of Heart in Salah
Salah with Presence of Heart, in Harmony with All of Creation
[Salah with presence of heart] brings the one who prays into harmony and alignment with all of creation, and opens the way for the realization of the divine laws in nature and history; for in the Islamic outlook, all of creation is engaged in tasbih (glorification) of the Almighty and in servitude to Him. “يسبّح له ما فى السّموات وما فى الارض”.
Training and Strengthening the Soul through Attention to the Dhikrs and Meanings of Salah
The human body, without exercise, will be weak, thin and powerless. Whoever you may be, however strong and robust a constitution you may have, if you do not exercise, and you just eat and sleep, the body remains weak; there is no doubt about this. Just as, if you do not exercise, your body will not achieve the growth it needs, it also has beauties that exercise will bring out; without exercise, it cannot be done. Your soul is exactly the same. Without exercise, without practice and self-discipline, it is impossible for you to become strong.
There are many people with strong and beautiful bodies, but with souls that are thin, ugly, powerless and weak. This is of no use. All acts of worship are for this: that we exercise, be trained and advance. Of course, one must know the acts of worship. Acts of worship, too, have a body and a spirit. The body of acts of worship, on its own, is not enough. If a person performs salah but, while praying, pays no attention to the dhikr (remembrance of Allah) itself, is not aware of what he is saying and to whom he is speaking, and utters the contents of the salah entirely out of heedlessness, this salah is a useless salah.
Giving One's Heart to the Lord in Salah
Sometimes a person performs salah like the rest of his daily habits: we brush our teeth, let us say, we exercise, and in the same way we also pray at its time. At other times, no: a person performs salah with the feeling that he wants to enter the presence of the Lord; this is something of another kind. We are always in the presence of the Lord—whether we are asleep or awake, heedless or engaged in dhikr; but there are times when you perform wudu' (ritual ablution), purify yourself, prepare yourself, and, with purity of body, purity of clothing, and the spiritual purity that comes from wudu' and ghusl (the ritual bath), you go into the presence of the Lord of the worlds. In salah we must have such a feeling: we have gone into the presence of the Lord and are humbly addressing Him; it is in this state that one must enter salah; one must feel oneself standing before Allah; one must have an Addressee in salah; otherwise, merely spreading into the air some waves produced by words and letters—this is not what has been asked of us. One can just say, “الحمد لله ربّ العالمین. الرّحمن الرّحیم. مالک یوم الدّین...”[All praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, the All-Beneficent, the All-Merciful, Master of the Day of Judgment...] and send out its waves. One can even recite this with a fine recitation, but without attention—in which case, once again, it is just spreading sound waves in the air. This is not what has been asked of us. What has been asked of us is that, while in salah, we take our hearts into the presence of the Lord; that we speak from our hearts, speak with our hearts. These things are important. In promoting salah—in the salah we ourselves perform, in the salah we teach others—we must pay attention to this point: the spirit of salah.
Salah with Attention: The Supreme Elixir
One of the people of spirituality had said: “Every day I recited such-and-such a dhikr several thousand times over this sleeping, heedless heart of mine.” What a fine expression! Salah is that very dhikr, that very water of life that a person bestows upon his heart—salah with attention: attention to the meaning, attention to the fact that we are standing before Allah. Perform salah in this way. When you stand for salah, remember that you are standing before Allah the Exalted and are speaking with Him. Try to maintain this state throughout the whole salah; then this salah will have an effect and will transform a person's heart like an elixir. The elixir is an alchemical substance which, they say, turns copper into gold. Even if our heart is made of copper, the elixir of dhikr turns it into gold. This is very important.
Salah Performed Heedlessly: A Cause of Hardness of Heart
May Allah have mercy on the late Shaykh Muhammad Bahari, who says in one of his writings that du'a (supplication), dhikr and perhaps even salah, when repeated without attention, bring about hardness of heart! We perform salah—a salah that is a cause of hardness of heart; why? Because while praying we have no presence of heart; we have no attention. So this salah is either attentive, in which case it is a source of tenderness, nearness, refinement and purity; or it is inattentive salah, in which case, as he puts it, it is a source of hardness of heart.
Salah without Dhikr and Presence: A Soulless Body
Salah is not merely uttering words and performing certain movements. All that grace and blessing does not result from producing sound waves and bodily acts without the spirit of dhikr and attention having been breathed throughout this body, even though the minimum of the obligation is discharged by it. The spirit of salah is the remembrance of Allah, and khushu' (humble devotion) and presence before Him; and these words and acts, which have been made obligatory upon the legally responsible person through divine instruction, are the best form for that spirit and the shortest path to that intended destination. Salah without dhikr and presence is a soulless body; although calling it salah is not merely figurative, the effect and property of salah are nonetheless not to be expected from it. This truth has been spoken of in religious texts under the heading of “the acceptance of salah,” and it is stated that, of a salah that you perform, only whatever has been performed with presence and attention is accepted, and nothing more.
The Meager Effect of Inattentive Salah
Salah has a form and a content; it has a body and a spirit. Let us take care that the body of salah is not left empty of the spirit of salah. We do not say that the soulless body of salah has no effect at all; yes, after all, it does have some slight effect; but the salah on which Islam, the Qur'an, the Shari'ah (sacred law), the Prophet and the Imams (peace be upon them) have placed so much emphasis is a salah whose body and spirit are both complete. This body, too, has been provided in keeping with that very spirit: it has recitation, it has ruku' (bowing), it has sajdah (prostration), it has falling down upon the earth, it has raising the hands, it has speaking aloud, it has speaking softly. This variety is to cover all the needs that are to be met by means of salah, each of which has its own secret in its place, and all of these together make up the form and shape of salah. This form is very important, but the spirit of this salah is attention—attention. Let us know what we are doing. Salah without attention, as I said, has little effect. You can use a very valuable diamond of several carats in two ways: one way is to use it as a diamond, as a precious stone; the other is to use it as a scale weight—to put it on the scale in place of a weight of a few grams and weigh, say, pepper or turmeric against it! This, too, is a use of the diamond; but what kind of use?! It is like squandering the diamond. Of course, it is still different from breaking the diamond—still, this much is true: breaking it is worse than that; but using a diamond does not mean making it a scale weight and weighing pepper and turmeric with it either. We must not treat salah like a diamond we have turned into a scale weight. Salah is very precious.
Listlessness in Salah, the Result of Inattention and of Not Addressing Allah
If Allah grants you and me the success to perform a salah that is attentive, we will see that when a person is attentive in salah, he never has his fill of salah. When a person becomes attentive to salah, he finds such pleasure as does not exist in any of the material pleasures. This is the result of attention. Inattention to salah, listlessness during salah, is one of the characteristics of the hypocrites—not that anyone who feels listless during salah is therefore a hypocrite; no! Allah introduces the hypocrites in the Qur'an and says: Know them by this! In the time of the Prophet there were hypocrites who prayed for the sake of this person and that, and had no belief in salah in their hearts. “واذا قاموا الی الصّلوة قاموا کسالی یرائون النّاس”.Yes, when someone has no one he is addressing, when he is not speaking with Allah, he grows tired, and it seems a lengthy task to him; a salah of four rak'ahs (units of prayer), which takes four minutes, five minutes, seems a long time to him; whereas how long is four minutes, after all? If, in this state, a person takes Allah as the One he is addressing, he will then see that it passed like lightning; he will feel regret and sorrow, and will wish it were longer.Try to take salah out of its tedious state for yourselves; because if we do not take salah out of being a merely rote act—a parrot-like state, as they say—it becomes something tedious; that is, a person has to get up, perform wudu' and go and do something without knowing what it is. But if you understand the meanings of these words, you will then see that salah is not tedious at all; rather, it inspires longing, and a person hastens toward salah.
1-2- Ways to Attain Presence of Heart in Salah
Practice to Create a State of Concentration in Salah
Presence of heart and attention are something that requires practice. Those who have done these things and know how teach us that, while praying, a person must feel himself in the presence of an Addressee of exalted dignity and lofty station, who is the Creator of existence and the Owner of a person's entire being. To whatever extent of the salah he is able to have this state, that salah, in the words of the narrations, is accepted salah, and it will bestow that property and effect. And the other effects of salah—the effects of salah cannot be summed up in a few sentences or in a few short points—follow from this.If you know the translation of the salah, try to concentrate while praying; this concentration is a very important matter; so that what you utter on your tongue—“حتّى تَعلَموا ما تَقولون”—you understand what you are saying. It is a verse of the Qur'an, after all; it says: do not engage in salah while intoxicated—“لا تقربوا الصَّلاةَ وأنتم سكارى حتّى تَعلَموا ما تَقولون”—until you understand what you are saying. You are engaged in speaking with Allah; this requires concentration. Our attention wanders; often, while praying, our minds go elsewhere. We must create a concentration within ourselves while praying; once this concentration is attained, the next step is presence of heart. Let me tell you: the reward Allah gives you for maintaining concentration and attention is presence of heart. If you manage to utter the words and phrases of the salah with attention to their meanings, Allah places such a ready reward in your hands, and that reward is that after a few moments, presence of heart will arise in you; you will become attentive to Allah and your heart will grow tender; sometimes your tears will flow; a state of neediness will arise in you; and this is the reward for the struggle you are making, holding tight to the reins of the mind so that it does not wander this way and that.
Being Mindful That Allah Is the One Addressed in Salah
Presence of heart means that a person is not heedless of what he is saying and of what passes through his mind and flows on his tongue; it should not be that he does not understand. For example, now that I am speaking with you—well, you are the ones being addressed; a person is aware that he has someone he is addressing, who is listening, and that he is speaking. In salah, too, it should be like this: we should have Someone we are addressing, and speak with Him. I would even say that if someone does not know the meaning of the salah—does not know at all what these phrases mean—but knows just this much, that he is speaking with Someone, that he is speaking with Allah, this very thing brings a person near—“قربان کلّ تقیّ”[the means of drawing near for every God-wary person]—this in itself brings nearness; as opposed to people like us, who know its meaning, know its exegesis and have read several books about it, yet when we pray, we altogetherforget what we are doing.Whoever wishes can go toward Allah, make himself acquainted with Allah and draw himself near to Him. In salah, a person must feel, in the true sense of the word, that he is addressing and speaking with Someone: he asks Him for help, takes refuge in Him, seeks strengthfrom Him, and draws in His mercy, grace and help.
The Necessity of Learning the Meanings of the Dhikrs of Salah
We must not say that we are Persian speakers and cannot understand Arabic phrases. Learning all the phrases recited in salah, from beginning to end, does not take an average person even an hour; it is very easy. Books have also been written that translate them. If you pay attention to the meanings, understand what the content of these words is and reflect on them, that is of course better. If even this much is not possible, at least when you are in sajdah, know that you are speaking with Allah; when you are in ruku', know that you are showing reverence to the Lord of the worlds; when you are reciting and saying dhikr, know whom you are speaking with. This attention in itself is important. If this attention is attained and the remembrance of Allah is secured in salah—as in “وَلَذِكْرُ اللهِ اَكْبَرُ”—this salah will be for you “معراج المؤمن” [the ascension of the believer], and it will make you ascend. Ascension is precisely this: that after salah you feel greater purity, refinement and luminosity within yourselves.
2- Praying at the Beginning of Its Time
Gaining the Merit of the Beginning of the Time and Warding Off the Harms of Delay
We must do what is right and good as soon as possible—like acts of worship, like praying at the beginning of its time (awwal al-waqt), and like other acts that are time-bound:the more a person does such an act in its first moments, and the closer to those first moments, the greater its merit; because a person feels that he has fulfilled the duty, and there are harms in delay; a person keeps himself clear of those harms.
The Necessity of Not Forgoing Prayer at the Beginning of Its Time
A believer does not abandon any good deed out of embarrassment and shyness either. Some people are asked: “Sir! Why didn't you perform your salah, or your supererogatory prayer (nafilah), or your salah at the beginning of its time at such-and-such a place?” They say: “We were embarrassed!” No; do not abandon any good deed out of shyness. They will say he is putting on a show? Let them say it. They will say he is trying to ingratiate himself? Let them say it. If something said is true and if a deed is good, do not abandon it out of regard for others.Working in a scientific workshop, an educational workshop, a research center, such-and-such a class or such-and-such a university is in no way incompatible with a person performing his salah at the beginning of its time, with attention and with a sense of presence before Allah. This washes your heart clean.
Establishing Salah at the Beginning of Its Time in Government Offices
Bring religiosity to life in your workplaces. I have said this to the military as well; I say it to the government offices too; I have said it to the universities as well, to students and professors alike: make the environment a religious environment. It is bad that there should be a prayer room in an office and that you, the head of the office, do not show up there. Go and perform salah in the prayer room. Salah has to be performed anyway; at the beginning of its time, which is better than later in its time; in congregation, which is better than alone; the obligatory prayer, which is better in public than in private. Yes, supererogatory prayers and the like are performed in private; but the obligatory prayer should be performed in public. At the start of noon, come out of your room for just ten minutes; perform wudu' beforehand and be ready. Of course, I was opposed, even back then, to the practice that existed some years ago; and now too, whoever asks for a ruling or asks a question, I say that I do not accept that practice—as though the recess bell has rung; the gentlemen come out of their rooms, chat, laugh, smoke cigarettes; slowly, slowly go to the washroom, slowly, slowly perform wudu'; waste an hour of the people's time because they want to pray four rak'ahs! I am opposed to this... They should get themselves ready; perform wudu' beforehand and be prepared; when the time for salah begins, they should go into the masjid (mosque) and pray right away. The noon and afternoon prayers take a quarter of an hour at most; a quarter of an hour later, they should come back to their rooms. And the first person to go should be you, since you are the head; that is very good. The environment of our government offices must become a religious and Islamic environment.
3- Ikhlas (Sincerity)
One of the qualities that is very important for us to attend to for self-building—and which perhaps even takes a certain precedence—is “ikhlas.” Ikhlas consists in doing a deed purely, and in not doing a deed in an adulterated way. Sometimes a person does not worship, and sometimes he worships, but in an adulterated and impure way; this, too, is like the former. The purity of worship and the purity of a deed lie in its being for Allah. Unfortunately, it is very common among people to put their own good deeds into words and speak of them—as if they are unaware that one should not voice a good deed and say, “We want to do this,” or “We do these things.” Of course, there are exceptions in some places. In some places, certain deeds must be done openly. In the narrations on charity, it is stated that “secret charity” has such a reward and “open charity”such a reward. Or, for example, collective acts of worship are performed—and must be performed—before the eyes of the people; and this is among the rites of Allah. But many acts of worship, or most acts of worship—those relations that exist between a person and Allah: dhikr, attentiveness, du'a, supererogatory prayer, keeping vigil at night, rising before dawn, beneficence and good deeds—must remain between the person himself and Allah. Let a person never do something so that others will see it! A deed that a person does to draw others' attention to himself is worse than not doing that deed; because not doing a deed means that a person simply does not do something. A deed that a person has done to attract others' attention to himself is as if he had not done it. Of course, its being worse is due to the fact that he has committed an act tainted with shirk (associating partners with Allah), and this act tainted with shirk is a forbidden act and one that distances a person. Therefore, all of us, wherever we are and in whatever position, must strive hard to do our deeds purely.
One Rak'ah Equal to Thousands of Salahs
It is narrated from the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his household) that he said: “إنّ لكلّ حقّ حقيقة”; everything possesses a reality, and has a spirit, a meaning and a reality. “وما بلغ عبدٌ حقيقة الإخلاص”; a servant does not attain the reality of ikhlas, that true meaning of ikhlas, “حتّى لا يحبّ أن يحمد على شيء من عملٍ لله”;(this is very difficult; its rank is among those very high ranks) unless he does not like people to praise him for any of the deeds he does for Allah. For example, there is a person who does not do things for others: he performs salah for the sake of Allah, completes a recitation of the whole Qur'an, does a good deed, gives kindness, help and charity, and strives for Allah; but he likes people to say: “What a good person he is!” He has not done his deed for the people; he has done the deed for Allah, and that is that; but he is pleased by people's praise and by people speaking well of him. He says this is not that lofty rank of ikhlas. The lofty rank of ikhlas is that he should not like even this. He should have no concern at all with the people! Let them know, or let them not know; let them be pleased, or let them not be pleased. He should look and see what Allah has asked of him and do exactly that.
...Allah the Exalted says: “If I were to give even the whole world to a sincere (mukhlis) or purified (mukhlas) servant, his due would not have been paid.”Therefore, his recompense is not commensurate with the deed he does. One salah of his equals thousands of salahs that Allah's good servants might perform.
Salah with Ikhlas: The Highest of Acts of Worship
The salah a person performs—if he performs it with the intention of drawing near to Allah, with his attention on Allah, performing it with ikhlas—is the highest of acts of worship; if he performs this same salah for riya' (showing off), this salah becomes disobedience, and that salah itself becomes a sin. Riya' is a major sin; and its instance is that very salah which was performed out of riya'.
Du'a: The Cure for the Great Ailment of Insincerity
Speaking with Allah and seeing oneself near Him gives a person the spirit of ikhlas. Ikhlas means doing a deed for Allah. All deeds can be done for Allah. Allah's good servants perform even all the ordinary, everyday tasks of life with the intention of drawing near to Allah, and they are able to do so. And there are some who cannot perform even the acts most bound up with seeking nearness and most devotional in nature—such as salah—for Allah. Insincerity is a great ailment for a person. Du'a breathes the spirit of ikhlas into a person.
4- Khushu'
The fourth of the counsels that the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his household) gave to Amir al-Mu'minin (the Commander of the Faithful) is this: “کثرة البکاء من خشیة الله تعالی”;abundance of weeping—weeping a great deal—out of awe of Allah. Well, weeping is a state in a person that is the result of certain inner actions and reactions. Weeping by force is either impossible, or—if we suppose that it, too, does not stem from inner actions and reactions—this kind of weeping is of no benefit. That weeping which stems from conceiving a truth—and the most important of these truths is that a person feels himself standing before Allah the Exalted, and that, out of the divine grandeur, out of the divine majesty, a state of humility, khushu' and self-abasement arises in him that causes his tears to flow. That state of transformation of the heart in a person which causes tears to flow—this is what a person must bring about. And the way to it is this very attentiveness to Allah the Exalted. In salah, in du'a, if a person feels that he is standing before Allah the Exalted, this sense of being in the divine presence transforms him and makes his tears flow. This is the property of presence of heart in salah. Of course, presence of heart is not only that a person construes the words of salah in his own mind; rather, it is that he feels present before the Lord and feels that he is speaking with Allah the Exalted. It is this feeling that brings about the state of khushu' in a person, and this state of khushu' leads to weeping; that is usually how it is. The great ones used to advise that what matters is that you take care not to leave the state of presence in salah deliberately; that is, do not take your mind somewhere on purpose. Sometimes, while praying, a person naturally slips out of the state of attentiveness, which is often not voluntary. Of course, if a person can prevent the scattering of his mind during the hours of the day and night and remain attentive to and mindful of Allah, this state of dhikr in salah will be more available to him. Naturally, while praying, a turning of attention away from salah and from attentiveness to Allah does happen to us. Well! As soon as we notice that our mind has wandered, let us bring the mind back toward presence; this is exactly what is desired, and this is how the great ones used to advise us and people like us. In any case, if this state of attentiveness comes about, then this weeping also follows in its wake. This is inevitable! This state of weeping—which stems from that awe—comes upon a person naturally.
5- Performing Salah Correctly
It is obligatory (wajib) that all the obligatory dhikrs of salah, such as the recitation of al-Hamd and the Surah and others, be recited correctly; and if the one who prays does not know how to pronounce the Arabic words correctly, it is obligatory for him to learn, and if he is unable to learn, he is excused.Some people, in imitating foreign languages, are particular about observing the accent without fail—which, of course, is necessary too; after all, if you want to speak with someone in English or Arabic, you cannot speak to him with that same Persian accent; it must be in his own accent; but when they come to salah and the Qur'an, unfortunately a temptation takes hold of them and they say: What need is there for us to give madd (vowel lengthening) to this “و لا الضّالّین” [nor of those who are astray]? Let us just pronounce it normally, like the other words! They are unaware that this “و لا الضّالّین” without madd is not what was revealed; in fact, “و لا الضّالّین” was revealed with madd. The principles of the language dictate to us that we say it this way; if we do not say it this way, it is as if we have not said it at all!
6- Not Taking Salah Lightly
Devoting Time to Salah, at Least as Much as to Other Tasks
Imam al-Sadiq (peace be upon him), in the illness in which he passed away, says to his executor: “لیس منّی من استخفّ بالصّلوة”;he who takes salah lightly is not of us. Istikhfaf means taking lightly, regarding as of little importance. Now, this salah, with all these characteristics, with all these virtues—how much of a person's time does it take? Our obligatory salah—these seventeen rak'ahs—if a person wants to perform it carefully and with some deliberation, takes, let us say, 34 minutes; otherwise it will take less time. It sometimes happens that we sit in front of the television waiting for a program we are interested in, and before it there are constant advertisements, advertisements, advertisements—twenty minutes, fifteen minutes—none of which is of any use to us; we sit and listen and lose twenty minutes of our time for the sake of the program we want. The twenty minutes of our lives are like this. We wait for a taxi, we wait for a bus, we wait for our friend to come so we can go somewhere, we wait for the teacher who is late to class, we wait for the preacher who has arrived late at the gathering; all of these—ten minutes, fifteen minutes, twenty minutes—go to waste. Well, how big a deal is it, really, to spend these 20 minutes and 25 minutes and 30 minutes on salah—this sublime act, this great act?