Aslam

Prayer should be observed with humility of mind. God says :
'Pray to remember Me.' Presence of mind is opposed to absence of mind or heedlessness. If one is heedless throughout his prayer, how can he say prayer with the purpose of remembering God ?
God says : Don't be of the heedless. He says : 'Prayer is modesty and humility.' Therein there is injunctions, prohibitions and blocks. The Prophet said : If a man does not refrain from thought of absence and evil things, it does not add to it but distance,' There are two kinds of prayer of a heedless man. The Prophet said : There are many praying men who do not gain anything in their prayer except fatigue and effort§. The prayer of a heedless man has been spoken there. The Prophet said : Nothing is written for a praying man except what he understands in his prayer. Its speciality is that there are entreaties and seekings to God in prayer. Monazat with inattention is not considered as Monazat.
There are God's remembrance in prayer, Quran reading, bow, prostration, standing and sitting. God's remembrance means prayer and Monazat to Him. Without them, it ends in voice and tongue.

The object of fasting is to bring under control belly and sexual passion, or else it ends in depriving this body from food and drink. Body is tried by the troubles of pilgrimage. Troubles are given to mind if Zakat is paid out of wealth and thus mind is tried. There is no don't that the object of these religious acts is to remember God. If that object is not attained, there is no use in prayer, as it is very easy to move the tongue with inattention. The object of word is to talk and it does not occur except in mind. It does not exist in mind without humility of spirit and presence of mind. If you recite in prayer : Show us the right path, and if you are inattentive at that time, it is only the movement of your tongue and nothing else. The object of Quran reading and God's remembrance is to praise and glorify God and to entreat Him and invoke Him with humility of spirit, but if his mind remains absent at that time and does not know that He is present with whom he is speaking, it must be understood that his tongue

Vol-I PRAYER 141

moves only owing to habit but he is far away from the object of prayer to enliven God's remembrance and with that to make firm the tie of faith.

Sifiyan Saori said : The prayer of one who has got no God-fear becomes void. Hasan Basari said : The prayer which is not said with attention hastens towards punishment. The Prophet said : There are many praying men whose prayers are written to the extent of one sixth or one tenth. In other words, the portion of prayer which is Said with attention is only written. The sage Abdul Wahed said : The portion of prayer which is said with humidity of mind is accepted. This is the consensus of opinion of the sages. In short, earnestness of mind is the life of prayer.

LIFE OF PRAYER AND ITS INTERNAL CONDITION