Adab as-Salat: The Disciplines of the Prayer Second Revised Edition

Author’s Preface

In His Most Exalted NameIn His Most Exalted Name
Alas! My life has passed in vain,
Loaded with sins, with no devotional gain;
Tomorrow when I am brought to the Scene of Judgment,
They will say that repentance chance did not remain.

The book Ādāb as-Salat, which I present to my dear daughter [-in-law], Fātī [Fātimah Tabātabā'ī, wife of Hujjatul-Islām wal-Muslimīn Hāj Sayyid Ahmad Khomeinī], whom may Allah make one of the musallīn (Salat performers), was finished more than forty years ago. A few years before that, I had completed the book of Asrār as-Salat (The Secrets of the Salat). From that time till now more than forty years have elapsed, while I have neither perceived the secrets of the Salat nor applied its disciplines, for “perceiving” is other than “conceiving”, and “forming” is different from “performing”.

These books are as a proof [hujjat] from the Lord on this poor servant. I take refuge in Allah from being among those referred to by these back-breaking noble āyahs (Qur'anic verses):

“O you who believe, why do you say what you do not do? It is most detested in the sight of Allah that you say what you do not do” *(*Sūrah 61:2-3).

I have no refuge but His vast mercy.

O my daughter, I hope you will be successful in applying the disciplines of this grand divine ascension, and be guided by this divine Burāq (the Prophet's heavenly horse) through a migration from the dark room of the self to Allah. I entrust you to Allah's custody lest reading these papers should increase your sensual longings, or make you like the writer a plaything in Satan's hands.

Dear daughter, although I found in you, thank Allah, such a spiritual fineness that I hope you will be guided by Allah, the Glorified and High, favored with His patronage, and be saved from nature's deep pit to the straight path of humanity, yet do not be heedless of the deceit of Satan, and of that of your own soul, which is even more dangerous. Take refuge in Allah, the Great, for He has mercy upon His servants.

My daughter, if there was no result from reading these pages Allah forbid! Except self-conceit, pretence and intrusion, it would be better to forgo reading them, or rather beware of them, so that you may not, like me, be subject to remorse and regret. But if you Allah willing prepare yourself to be benefited by the subject-matters of this book, which have been taken from the Book, the Sunnah, the hadīth of the infallible Ahl al-Bayt (The Prophet's progeny) and the statements of the people of knowledge, and to make use of your delicate God-given talent, then here you are!

Here is the ball and here is the ground! I hope you will, by this human ascent and divine mixture, empty your heart from others, rinse it with the water of life, say four takbīrs (Allāhu Akbar = Allah is Greater!) and release yourself from selfness in order to reach the Friend:

***“And whoever leaves his home migrating to Allah and His Messenger, and then death overtakes him, his reward is indeed with Allah” (***Sūrah 4:100).

O Allah! Make us of the immigrants to You and to Your Messenger, and take us to “annihilation” [fanā']. Grant Fātī [Fātimah] and Ahmad Your assistance to serve (Your servants), and let them attain happiness.

Was-Salām.

Rūhullāh al-Mūsawī al-Khomeinī
2nd of Safar al-Muzaffar 1405 A.H.