Salāh (Prayer)
Twenty-First Word
THE TWENTY-FIRST WORD
بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحٖيمِIn the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate
اِنَّ الصَّلاةَ كَانَتْ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنينَ كِتَابًا مَوْقُوتًاIndeed, prayer has been prescribed for the believers at fixed times. – The Quran 4:103
Once, a man who was highly respected because of his age, stature, and rank said the following to me:
“Prayer is good. However, praying five times a day, day after day, is too much. Since it never comes to an end, one eventually grows tired of it.”
Some time after he had spoken these words, I listened to my nafsThe aspect of the soul associated with lower desires and negative traits.. I heard it complaining in exactly the same way. I realized that, through the ear of laziness, my nafsThe aspect of the soul associated with lower desires and negative traits. had received the same lesson from Satan. Then I understood that this man had spoken on behalf of every nafsThe aspect of the soul associated with lower desires and negative traits.. So I said to myself:
“One who cannot reform his own nafsThe aspect of the soul associated with lower desires and negative traits. cannot reform others. Since my nafsThe aspect of the soul associated with lower desires and negative traits. commands to evil, I shall first address my own nafsThe aspect of the soul associated with lower desires and negative traits..”
O my nafsThe aspect of the soul associated with lower desires and negative traits.! Listen to the following five admonitions in response to the words you uttered in ignorance, overcome by laziness and heedlessness.
The First Admonition
O my evil-commanding nafsThe aspect of the soul associated with lower desires and negative traits.! Do you imagine that you are immortal? Do you possess any certainty that you will remain alive until next year, or even until tomorrow?
What keeps you from prayer is your illusion of immortality. For the sake of your comfort, you neglect prayer as though you will live in this world forever. If only you realized that your life is brief and is passing away fruitlessly, then rather than becoming weary of prayer, you would feel a strong longing and great pleasure in dedicating one twenty-fourth of your day to such a beautiful, pleasant, easy, and beneficial act of worship—one that will yield happiness in eternal life.
The Second Admonition
O my gluttonous nafsThe aspect of the soul associated with lower desires and negative traits.! Day after day you eat bread, drink water, and breathe air. Do you ever grow tired of them?
No, certainly not. Because the need for them continually returns, you derive pleasure from them rather than weariness. Since you do not tire of these things, neither should you tire of prayer. For through prayer are fulfilled the needs of my heart, the sustenance of my soul, the water of life of my spirit, and the very breath of my latīfa-i rabbāniyyaA spiritual faculty through which divine realities are perceived and spiritual joys are experienced..
Indeed, the heart—which is afflicted with endless griefs and sorrows, passionately longs for boundless delights and hopes, and possesses innumerable desires—can have its needs fulfilled only by seeking refuge through supplication in Rahīm-i KarīmAllah, the Infinitely Generous One whose mercy encompasses everything., Who has power over all things.
The soul—which, in this transient world, is attached to most beings that cry out in separation and swiftly pass away—can drink the water of life only through prayer, from the spring of mercy of Mabūd-i BāqīAllah, the only One worthy of worship, whose existence is everlasting. and Mahbūb-i SarmadīAllah, the true Beloved whose existence is everlasting., Who is worth more than all else.