ভূমিকা

Today we discuss further on the subject. One person, with true spirit, Qurbatan ilallah , wants to go on Hajj this year. He also has the fear that he might expire before the time for Hajj arrives, and his end might be like that of Yahood and Nasara .

Incidentally he also wishes that one thing that is rare in his place, and available in plenty at the Haramain ash-Sharifain he would like to buy and bring along or he would take a Persian carpet along with him while going for the Hajj and sell it there for profit.

These thoughts and acts will not affect the quality of his pilgrimage that the motivation is incidental As against this, another person who wants to transact worldly business and his motive is only to acquire monetary gains through his journey for the Hajj , his trip will not be acceptable as a pilgrimage. From such an effort one cannot expect to get Allah (S.w.T.)'s Rewards. In a nutshell, for every act we have to understand the true motive behind it.

Compensation is not Justified Now that the talk has reached this stage, I shall recount what is said in Urwat al-Wuthqa . We have already said that if prayer is accompanied with fear of retribution and expectation of Allah (S.w.T.)'s rewards, then it is correct. The only condition is that it should not be with a desire for worldly compensation as is generally with the Mustahab (desirable) acts. Briefly, every act that is for commercial transaction of give and take is not counted as a prayer.

For example, we hear that someone offered the prayer of Sayyida az-Zahra for the dissolution of his difficulties and he was successful, then it will be considered as compensation for his labors. It will not be termed as prayer and the reward he got was like the return for his labor in this world.