The Messenger of Allah ( s ) informed Abū Dharr...

The Messenger of Allah ( s ) informed Abū Dharr: “O Abū Dharr, two rak'at s of Salat in contemplation are better than spending the whole night with an inattentive (or forgetful) heart.” [^6] The Messenger of Allah ( s ) is also quoted to have said: “Allah, the Exalted, would not look at your faces, but at your hearts.” [^7] In the Hadiths concerning the presence of heart it is stated that the more the presence of heart in the Salat , the better it is accepted, and the more the negligence of the heart, the less it is acceptable.

As long as the said discipline is not observed, no cordial invocation will happen, and the heart will not come out of its being inattentive and negligent. It is narrated that Imām as-Sādiq (' a ) said: “Make your heart a qiblah to your tongue and do not move it except by a sign from the heart.”[^8] But the heart would not become a qiblah nor would the tongue and the other organs follow it unless the said discipline was observed.

Should it happen without the observance of this discipline, it would be a rarity, and one must not take pride in it. [^1]: Sūrah al-Isrā' 17:84. [^2]: Usūl al-Kāfī, vol. 4, Book on “The Merit of the Qur'an,” ch. on “Reciting the Qur'an in a Melodious Voice,” hadīth 1, p. 418. [^3]: Al-Kāfī, (Rawdah), vol. 8, p. 167; Bihār al-Anwār, vol. 67, Book on “Faith and Disbelief,” ch. 44, hadīth, 38, p. 59. [^4]: Al-Mahajjat ul-Baydā', vol. 1, Book on “The Secrets of the Salat,” ch.

on “The Merit of Submission and its Meaning,” p. 352. [^5]: Sūrah al-Mā'idah 4:118. Rūh ul-Ma'āni fī Tafsīr al-Qur'ān by 'Allāmah al-Ālūsī vol. 7, p. 70, quoted from the Sunans of an-Nasā'ī and al-Bayhaqī. [^6]: Bihār al-Anwār, vol. 74, Book of ”Ar-Rawdah” ch. on “The Prophet's Admonitions,” hadīth 2, p. 82, quoted from Makārim al-Akhlāq, p. 465. [^7]: Ibid.; Bihār al-Anwār, vol. 67, p. 248, quoted from Jāmi' al-Akhbār, p. 117 (with a slight addition). [^8]: Refer to footnote 34. Previous…