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

Introduction

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send blessing onto Muhammad and his pure progeny, and may His curse be upon all their enemies, from now till the rise of the Day of Judgment.

O Allah! Our steps of traveling are too short to reach Your Sacred Court, and our demanding hand is unable to touch Your Skirt of Intimacy. The veils of desire and negligence have blocked our insight from Your Most Beautiful Beauty, and the heavy curtains of loving this world and devilry have secluded our hearts from attending to the Glory of Your Majesty.

The road to the Hereafter is narrow, and the path of humanity is tortuous, while we, the helpless, like the spiders, think of the jerked meat. We, like the silkworms, are perplexed, tying ourselves with the chains of desires and hopes, completely closing our eyes against the unseen world and the sociable gathering, except for the divine brightness with which You may light our hearts, and for Your unseen firebrand with which You may take us into rapture.

O Allah! Grant me to be exclusively dedicated to You. Light the eyes of our hearts with the light of looking at You, until the eyes of the hearts penetrate through the partitions of light so as to reach the origin of greatness, and our souls become hanging onto the glory of Your Sanctity.[^1]

Now then, some years ago, I prepared a paper [^2] in which I inserted as much as was possible of the secrets of the Salat. But as it was not suitable for the common people, I decided to write parts of the cordial disciplines of this spiritual mi'rāj, so that my brethren in faith may have a remembrance and my hard heart may be affected by it. I take refuge with Allah, the Blessed and Most High, from Satan's conduct and from failure, for He is a powerful guardian. I have arranged in this book a preface, a few discourses and a conclusion.

[^1]: “Munājāt-i Sha'bāniyyah,” Bihār al-Anwār, vol. 91, p. 99.

[^2]: He refers to the book Sirr as-Salat (Mi'rāj as-Sālikīn wa Salat al-'Ārifīn). The author (may Allah sanctify his honorable tomb, at its beginning, after praising (Allah), sending blessings (to the Prophet) and invoking, has written: “Now then, I, the bewildered in the valley of perplexity and ignorance, and tied to the wishes of I-ness and egoism, indulged in the intoxicating selfness and egotism, knowing nothing of the spiritual stations and the kingdom of existence, have sincerely decided to write about some of the spiritual stations of the great guardians in this spiritual sulūk (spiritual travel) and mi'rāj (ascension) of faith …” He has finished the said honorable book on the 21st of Rabī' ath-Thānī 1358 L.H. (19 Khordād, 1318 S.H.).