Prayer (Salat

The Four Pillars 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