Otherwise...

Otherwise, congregational prayer has ample benefits and one should strive to always attend the congregation so that he may be spiritually uplifted. The Internal Elements The internal elements act as the closest and most dangerous of the above two categories to the musalli. Resembling a magnetic force, they attract innumerable kinds of imaginations related to them.

So long as they subsist, man should never dream of attaining even some of the rudimentary kinds of concentration in prayer, let alone attaining the higher levels. It is useless to suppose that continual forceful repulsion of stray thoughts can easily enable one to achieve the state of concentration he aspires. In his expurgation (tahdhib) of the voluminous ethical work of Ihya , Mawla Fayd Kashani quotes a beautiful example Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali mentions to illustrate the reality of the matter.

He says: ** ** ومثاله: رجل تحت شجرة اراد ان يصفو له فكره وكانت اصوات العصافير تشوش عليه, فلم يزل يطيرها بخشبة في يده ويعود الي فكره فتعود الي التتفير بالخشبة, فقيل له ان هذا سير السواني ولا ينقطع فان اردت الخلاص فاقطع الشجرة, فكذلك شجرة الشهوات اذا تشعبت و تفرعت اغصانها انجذبت اليها الافكار الجذاب العصافير الي الاشجار الذباب الي الاقذار و الشغل يطول في دفعها فان الذباب كلما ذب اب ولاجله سمي ذبابا. فكذللك الخواطر وهذه الشهوات كثيرة وقلما بخلو العبد عنها.

ويجمعها اصل واحد وهو حب الدنيا وذلك راس كل خطيئة ** ** ... Its example is that of a man under a tree who wanted his thoughts to be clear (from distractions), while the noise of the sparrows on the tree (above) disturbed him. Whenever he chased them off by a stick in his hand to resume his state of contemplation, he found them return again.

The following, thus, was said to him: 'Surely this kind of movement is like that of sawani (the camel that is used to draw water from the well and carry the same ( سير السوائي ); and (such circular movement) shall not change. [^2] Therefore if you would like to free yourself (from this state of continual distraction) chop off the tree altogether.

Likewise is the tree of material desires: when its branches multiply it attracts various thoughts the way the sparrows were attracted to the branches of the tree and the way a fly is attracted to dirt; it would take a long time to chase it off, for indeed whenever the fly is chased away it returns back ( kullama dhabba aba ) . That is why it was called dhubab (that which returns whenever it is chased). Similar is the case with imagination.