“During your prayers raise your hands to engage in...

“During your prayers raise your hands to engage in supplication because the prayer time is the best time. At that time Allah looks on His servants mercifully and if they call on Him, He will respond.” Al-Koleyni, on the issue of the requirements of supplication writes: “First, say “ya rabb: O God” ten times and then say “rabb”. This is because man feels himself distant from Allah. He will call Him with vocative sign. Sometimes this sign is explicitly mentioned and sometimes it is deleted.

But when he comes closer to Allah, he will use the vocative sign less and will resort to whisper. The Third Stage At this stage Allah is so close to His servants that He says: وَنَحْنُ أَقْرَبُ إِلَيْهِ مِنْكُمْ وَلَكِنْ لَا تُبْصِرُونَ. “And we are nearer to it than you, but you do not see. 56:85” This verse refers to the generosity and pardoning of Allah.

The verse indicates a significant secret and discloses a strange hidden point: God has not employed distance as a measure; rather, He introduces His Closeness in such a way difficult to be comprehended. This verse notifies the one, who is embracing a dying man that Allah is close to him. Concerning this, Imam As-Sadiq (s) says: “Imam Hasan (s) was busy praying when somebody crossed in front of him. Some one of the attendants prevented him.

When Imam Hasan (s) finished his prayer, he said to the man: why did you prevent him from crossing? The man said: “O son of the messenger of Allah, he crossed between you and your mihrab. Imam Hasan (s) said: وَيْحَكَ! إنَّ اللهَ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ أقْرَبُ إلَيَّ مِنْ أنْ يَخْطُرَ فِيما بَينِي وَبَيْنَهُ أحَدٌ. “Woe to you! God is so close to me that no one can intervene between Him and me.” Here, mihrab (praying-place) is used to absorb one's attention to one specific point.

The Fourth Stage In the Qur'anic verse: وَنَحْنُ أَقْرَبُ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ حَبْلِ الْوَرِيدِ. “And We are nearer to him than his life-vein. 50:16” God refers to another secret and gives good news to the true believers and the monotheists, i.e., God is closer to man than his life. This verse depicts the relation between God and man.

This shows firstly that if we comprehend the situation, we do not have any other choice than to resort to Allah and secondly it clarifies the sacred tradition (O Moses, I am your necessary piety). And let us know that the only resort at the time of depression is Allah.

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