Should he achieve all these...

Should he achieve all these, The Prayer would be of the ordered type and of the informed about, and it is the very Prayer which forbids evil and vice. In Mustadrak al-Wasa’il, Book of The Prayer, Muhammad, son of Ya’qub (RA), quotes al-Sajjad (AS) as having said: As regards the rights of The Prayer, you are to know that it is a visit to Allah (SWT) 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, and imploring. He is also glorifying the state of The One in front of Whom he stands with complete stillness, solemnity, submission 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 (SWT).

The Reality Of Prayer Saying your Prayer on time is a highly recommended act, and none other than Allah (SWT) reminds us of this obligation: And when he (the worshipper) knows that it is time of Prayer and he does not pray, he is indeed careless about Me. (Hadith al-Qudsi) In Wasa’il al-Shi’ah, vol.

3, Page 90 , al-Sadiq (AS) is reported to have said: Whoever performed the obligatory Prayer at the beginning of their times and observed their restrictions, the angels would raise them white and pure into heaven. The Prayer would say (to the performer): ‘May Allah (SWT) preserve you as you preserved me and entrusted me to a generous angel’ . But whoever performed them after the appointed times with no excuse, and did not observe their restrictions, the angels would raise them, black and dark.

The Prayer would shout at the performer: ‘You have lost me, may Allah (SWT) lose you, and may He not care for you as you did not care for me’ . Prayer has several built in properties that make the worshipper far better than the angels and makes life worth living. Only when the true reality of Prayer is understood then one is awestruck by its daily performance.

In explaining the true nature of Prayer, al-Ridha (AS) comments: The reason for Prayer is that it is the acknowledgment of The Lordship of Allah (SWT) and negating all kinds of partners and plurality for Him. Prayer is standing before The Omnipotent, with humility, humbleness and confession (of sins), and begging forgiveness of the previous sins.