ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Radiance of the Secrets of Prayer Let’s Welcome Prayer! To embark on the constructive form of worship, i.e. prayer, we shall cite a set of physical and spiritual preliminaries in terms of cleanliness and purity of body and soul as well as other preparations. Preliminaries of prayer Preliminaries are those essentials whose performance or provision prior to prayer is necessary.

They are as follows: Purification {taharah} For the performance of the prayer, the one praying must be in a state of ritual and spiritual purification { taharah }. Sometimes, he does so by ablution { wudhu’ }, taking a bath { ghusl }, and under certain circumstances, by performing dry ablution { tayammum }.

Ablution is part of faith { iman }, and in the words of Imam al-Baqir ( ‘a ), “Prayer without ablution is not prayer at all,”[^1] and in some hadith s ablution has been described as the “key to faith” and “half of faith.[^2] Imam ar-Rida ( ‘a ) made an interesting statement regarding ablution when he said: Ablution is a courtesy toward God ensuring that the servant is clean while praying and standing before God; It aims at purging him of all pollution and contamination; In addition, it is the shedding of laziness and discarding sleepiness; and It makes the heart and soul ready to stand in front of God, the Exalted.[^3] In this noble hadith , the Imam ( ‘a ) has pointed out all the physical and spiritual dimensions of ablution, i.e.

cleanliness and purity as well as preparation of the soul, acquisition of enthusiasm to worship and the paving of the spiritual ground for worship. The late Faydh Kashani said: “Rising from materiality all at once toward spirituality is hard, but performance of ablution gradually prepares man for it.”[^4] Ablution {wudhu’} in every state The inner luminosity and purity blessed by ablution { wudhu’ } is significant.