Muhammad ibn Ya'qūb...

Muhammad ibn Ya'qūb, quoting Imām as-Sadiq (' a ), says: “Whenever 'Alī ibn al-Husayn (' a ) used to stand for the Salat , his face turned pale.

Going down for prostration, he would not raise his head until he was wet with perspiration.”[^5] On the same authority he says: “My father used to say, when 'Alī ibn al-Husayn (' a ) used to stand for the Salat , he looked like a trunk of a tree, nothing of which would move unless the wind would move it.”[^6] In al-'Ilal , Abān ibn Taghlīb, quoting Muhammad ibn 'Alī ibn al-Husayn, says: “I said to Abū 'Abdullāh [as-Sadiq] (' a ): 'I noticed that when 'Alī ibn al-Husayn (' a ) stood for the Salat , his color changed.' He said to me: By Allah, 'Alī ibn al-Husayn knew before whom he was standing.' [^7] In a hadīth in Falāh as-Sā'il , on the authority of as-Sayyid 'Alī ibn Tāwūs, it is said: “...then Abū 'Abdullāh (' a ) said: 'The Salat will not be complete except for the one who has a full purity and a mature completeness, and is away from temptation and deviation, and knows [Allah] and [so] stands [before Him], submits [to Him] and persists.

He, thus, stands between despair and hope, [between] patience and worry, as if the promises to him have been done, and the threats upon him have happened, lowering his fame [' ird ] and manifesting his aim. He sacrifices for Allah his soul, treads upon the road to Him as his goal, not unwillingly, severs the relations of interest for the sake of the One to Whom he bounds and comes, and from whom he seeks help.

Should he achieve all these, the Salat would be of the ordered type and of the informed about, and it is the very Salat which forbids evil and vice.”[^8] Muhammad ibn Ya'qūb, quoting our master, Zayn al-'Ābidīn (' a ), says that he said: “As regards the rights of the Salat , you are to know that it is a visit to Allah and that in it you are standing before Him.

If you realized that, you would deserve to be, through it, in the position of a slave who is humble, desirous, horrified, frightened, hopeful, distressed, imploring, and glorifying the state of the One in front of Whom he stands with complete stillness, solemnity, submissiveness of the limbs, humility, well supplicating to Him for himself, requesting Him to free his neck, which is encircled by his faults and consumed by his sins; and there is no power except by Allah.[^9] The Prophet ( s ) is quoted to have said: “Worship your Lord as if you see Him.