41.

٤١. عَنْ أَنَسِ بْنِ مَالِكٍ رَضِيَ اللّٰهُ عَنْهُ أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللّٰهِ صَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ كَانَ يَقُولُ:

«اَللّٰهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ صَلَاةٍ لَا تَنْفَعُ».

41.  As narrated from Anas b. Malik, the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) used to pray as:

 “O Allah, I seek refuge in You from the prayer which is not beneficial!” (Abu Dawud, Witr, 32/1549)

 

Explanations:

The significance and virtues of salah (prayer) mentioned previously refer to a well-performed salah that is performed by following the obligatory acts before and during prayer. The best elixir that will accomplish this is having awe in our prayers.

As a result of reverence towards Allah the Almighty, awe (hushu’) can be described as tranquility and modesty during the performance of the acts of worship especially during prayer. It is also the reflection of this state in our daily life. Awe is softening the hearts and obeying Allah and being feared from Him due to high respect and love for Him.

When we talk about awe, the first thing that comes to mind is the state of tranquility while performing a prayer. Therefore, one must perform his prayers being aware of that he is the presence of Allah and feeling His Magnificence and Grandeur in his heart. It is expressed in the following verses of Qur’an:

“The believers must (eventually) win through, those who humble themselves in their prayers.” (Al-Muminun; 23:1-2)

“Nay, seek (Allah’s) help with patient perseverance and prayer: It is indeed hard, except for the humble ones, who bear in mind the certainty that they are to meet their Lord, and that they are to return to Him.” (Al-Baqarah; 2:45-46)

That is to say, only a prayer that is performed in awe helps one find salvation. A prayer which is not performed with the feeling of tranquility in the heart and feeling of reverence in the body movements is not considered a true prayer. For this reason, it is said:

إِنَّ الْمُصَلِّينَ كَثِيرٌ وَالْمُقِيمِينَ لَهَا قَلِيلٌ

“The number of people who perform prayers is a lot but there are very few of them who truly perform it.”^[1]

The permission for the sick and weak to perform their prayers without doing some of the body movements shows that the essence of prayer is feeling awe in the heart.

The best way to ensure the feeling of awe is to perform the prayer as if it is our last prayer in this world. All the prayers should be performed in a state of a person whose time is up and is spending his last minutes and how he feels being in front of his Lord. Actually, this is what the reality is. As a matter of fact, there is no guarantee that a person will reach to the next prayer time. Accordingly, a person who is performing a prayer should sincerely turn to Allah and stay away from all kinds of material thoughts, think about the meaning of the verses which he is reciting, shed tears, look at the place of prostration, and say prayers. Only a prayer performed in this manner benefits the performer by preventing him from wrongdoings and idle talk which would hurt others. It also protects the believer by turning him towards Allah and the Hereafter away from useless desires such as holding grudge against people and hoping to get something from them.

In the second hadith, the way we should say the supplications is explained by emphasizing the importance of having awe during praying. Allah’s servants should acknowledge their weakness, be extremely modest and humble, and pray sincerely to Allah.

A prayer is not complete unless it is performed by feeling such deep awe. For this reason, the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) advised us to stay away from actions which would affect the awe in our prayers such as looking around.^[2] Muslim scholars also found it contrary to the state of awe playing with one’s hair, beard, nose, or something on the floor^[3] while praying.

Indeed, Said bin Musayyab said when he saw someone who was playing with his bread while praying:

“If his heart had felt awe, his body parts should also have been in awe.” (Abdurrazzak, Musannaf, II, 266-267)

The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) did not consider it right to pray when the food is ready^[4] or when one has to use the bathroom if there is no issue of expiration of the prayer time.^[5] That is because these conditions keep the heart busy and affect the awe.

The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) would perform his prayers in awe as he prescribed in this hadith. During night prayers, he used to experience such a deep awe that he would lengthen his prayers. He used to say that the prayers with long standing are more virtuous than the shorter ones. (Muslim, Musafirin, 165)

Abdullah ibn al-Shikhkhir (r.a.) describes Prophet’s (pbuh) state of awe in his prayers:

“I saw the Apostle of Allah (pbuh) praying and a sound was coming from his breast like the rumbling of a mill owing to weeping.” (Abu Dawud, Salah, 156-157/904; Ahmad, IV, 25, 26) 

The Messenger of Allah would not permit anything that diverts his attention away during his prayers. One day, Abu Jahm (r.a.) gifted a nicely embroidered khamisa (a square garment). The Messenger of Allah wore it and performed a prayer. When he finished the prayer he said to the mother of believers Aisha (r.a.):

“Take this khamisa back to Abu Jahm as I looked at its marks and it diverted my attention from the prayer.” (Muwatta, Salah, 67; Bukhari, Salah, 14)

The most important requirement for achieving awe is to perform prayer by following the right order. In other words, fulfilling the acts of prayer perfectly; bowing, standing after bowing, prostration, and sitting between the two prostrations, and to perform them very calmly. For this reason, the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) perfectly explained in our third hadith what it means to perform a prayer by following its rules. According to this, while praying, one must keep still for a moment while performing each acts of the prayer, must place all the body parts where they are supposed to be and when someone looks, he should see him staying still. As a matter of fact, it is reported that the amount of time that the Messenger of Allah was spending during bowing, or prostration, or sitting in between the two prostrations, or standing after bowing were almost the same. (Bukhari, Adhan, 121)

The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) warned his companions about performing a prayer in awe and by following its rules saying:

“Do you consider or see that my face is towards the Qibla? By Allah, neither your submissiveness nor your bowing is hidden from me, surely I see you from my back.”

“Perform your bowings and prostrations properly!” (Bukhari, Adhan, 88)

He warned about the prayers which are not performed as prescribed:

“Allah does not look at (does not value) prayers of those who do not strengthen their backs in between bowings and prostrations.” (Ahmad, II, 525)

That is because, in order for a prayer to be ascended to the divine presence, it should be performed perfectly. Otherwise, it comes back without going to heavens and returns to its owner.

In a hadith, it is said that:

“If a person performs his prayer well by fulfilling the bowings and prostrations right, that prayer says to him:

“As you protected me, may Allah protect you!” The prayer gets glorified and accepted. If a person does not perform his prayer well by fulfilling the bowings and prostrations right, the prayer says to him:

“As you lost me, may Allah lose you!” The prayer is thrown up to his face like a scrap.”  (Baihaqi, Shuab, III, 143; Suyuti, Jami, I, 58/364)

Due to such warnings of the Prophet (pbuh), his companions paid extra attention to follow its rules and to achieve awe while praying. One day Hudhaifa (r.a.) entered into a praying room and saw a man praying without paying attention to his bowing and prostrations. After the prayer, he asked the man:

“For how long have you prayed like this?”

The man said:

“For forty years.”

Hudhaifa (r.a.) said:

“You have not prayed for forty years. If you die continuing to pray like this, you will not die in a state of Muhammad’s (pbuh) nature” and taught him the way he should pray.

Then he said:

“One can perform his prayer lightly, but one must perform the bowings and prostrations properly!” (Ahmad, V, 384; Bukhari, Adhan, 119, 132)

As it can be understood from our fourth hadith, the prayer that is performed without paying attention to its acts and without achieving awe eventually gets meaningless and its rewards lessens to one tenth. And the angels record it to the Book of Actions as:

“So and so reduced one fourth of his prayer, or this one omitted half of his prayer…” (Abdurrazzak, Musannaf, II, 371)

Prayers performed in such an incomplete manner in time become fruitless. As they do not protect its owner from wrongdoings, they do not advance his level in the sight of Allah. The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) sought refuge in Allah from such prayers that do not benefit. Also, in one of his noble hadith, he said:

“The prayer that does not enjoin its performers goodness and prevent them from wrongdoings does not do anything else than alienating them from Allah.” (Haythami, II, 258)

These kinds of sayings of the Prophet are revealed to forbid people from performing prayers unconsciously. That is not to say that “It is better not to perform a prayer at all than performing it deficiently!”  As a matter of fact, even it is not complete, its performance is better than not performing it at all. (Abdurrazzak, Musannaf, II, 368)

We must express it one more time that, in order to benefit from a prayer, the body should be turned towards Ka’bah and the heart should turned towards Allah the Almighty. As a matter of fact, it is expressed in the noble verse:

“…bow down in adoration, and bring yourself closer (to Allah.)!” (Al-Alaq; 96:19)

The Companions of Allah paid extra attention to perform their prayers in awe. Aisha reported that her mother Ummu Ruman (r.a.) had said:

“I was moving left and right while I was praying. Abu Bakr (r.a.) saw me and he scorned me so bad that I was about to nullify my prayer. Then he said to me:

“The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said: “When anyone of you is praying, all his body should be calm and in a state of awe. It should not move to sides like the Jews. As a matter of fact, the calmness of the body parts is one of the essences that complete the prayer.” (Abu Nuaym, Hilye, IX, 304; Alusi, Ruhu’l-Ma‘ani, XVIII, 3)

Abdullah b. Abu Bakr (r.a.) reported the following:

“Abu Talha (r.a.) was performing a prayer in his yard. A bird called dubsi wanted to fly away from the yard but could not find a place to fly out and kept flying. Abu Talha liked it and followed it with his eyes for a moment. Then he returned to his prayer but forget how many units (rak’ahs) he performed. Later, he informed the Messenger of Allah what had happened in his yard thinking that his wealth caused unrest and affected his awe:

“O Messenger of Allah!  I am giving all my wealth as charity, you can spend it as you wish or you can give it to whomever you wish.” (Muwatta, Salah, 69)

 Zainalabidin, one of the grandchildren of the Messenger of Allah, used to grow pale when he prepared to make ablution and his feet used to shiver when he stood up to pray.         He answered those who asked why:

“Don’t you know to whose presence I am going to?” (Abu Nuaym, Hilya, III, 133)