T h e Fo u r Pill a rs
39
The first type of prayer entitles one to paradise, but the second
type can only lead to doom:
Woe to those who pray but are unmindful of their prayer
(107:4-5).
On one occasion, when the Prophet was seated in his mosque in
Madinah, a man entered, prayed without much concentration, and
then came before him. The Prophet told him to go back and pray
again, “for you have not prayed.” On another occasion the Prophet
said:
The closest man comes to his Lord is in the act of prostration
during prayer (
Muslim
).
The difference between the two kinds of prayer does not relate
to outward appearances, or to the performance of certain rituals.
It is entirely dependent upon the inner state in which the prayer
is performed. Unmindful prayer is simply an empty ritual during
which one is not conscious of what one is doing; one goes through
the formalities of prayer, but, inwardly, one does not participate in
the prayer experience. Anas gives us the Prophet’s description of
the hypocrite’s prayer: “He sits and watches the sun go down. Then
when it has become pale and yellow (i.e. when the time is almost
up), he gets up and prays in the manner of a chicken pecking at the
ground. He remembers God but little in his prayer.” (
Nasai
).
Humble prayer is the prayer of submission, an experience
in which one’s whole being shares. Uqbah ibn Amir reports this
saying of the Prophet:
One who peforms his ablutions well, and then prays two
rakat
in which, inwardly and outwardly, he is concentrating fully on his
prayer, is assured of paradise (
Muslim
).
On another occasion, the Prophet said as reported by Usman
ibn Affan that whoever performed his ablutions as he had
demonstrated, then prayed two rakat without thinking of anything
else, would be forgiven all previous sins (
Bukhari
and
Muslim
).
One fundamental requirement of prayer is adherence to specific
outward forms, which the Quran calls “attending to prayer”
(70:34). There are certain actions by means of which one enters
