Assimilating the Prescribed Prayer

To take on the spirit of the prescribed Prayer, to observe the Daily Prayers in its full meaning.

“… the prescribed Prayer loses some of its luminosity when mixed with other emotions. Yes, such a Prayer is just workout and getting tired. Prayer is valuable because our Lord attributes it to Himself and calls it an ascension. Only by thinking about this and by eliminating the bees that swarm in his mind will a person assimilate the prescribed Prayer.”¹⁾

“Our noble Prophet comes to a point in time and says, ‘I sense your desire for food, drink and sexual relations in the prescribed Prayer.’²⁾ In just the same way, If you are duly persistent in this matter and have patience, If you wait for the veil of meaning of the prescribed Prayer to be opened for you, if they finally say to you, ‘Tables are prepared in Paradise,’ you attain a state and say, ‘First, I will perform my Prayer. I cannot sacrifice my Prayer.’ If Azrail, peace be upon him, comes to take your soul, you say, ‘If you allow me, I will observe my Prayer before its time is due. You can do whatever you wish after that!’ Such a mood will arise that you will try to observe your Daily Prayers even if you are going to die. You assimilate the prescribed Prayer now. In this way, we can understand why the honorable Khubayb refused all offers and only wanted to observe the prescribed Prayer before he was martyred. Now the prescribed Prayer was assimilated by his spirit.”³⁾

“The honorable Abu Bakr had profundity in his worship. In fact, it would be more correct to call what he did not worship, but ultimate devotion. Because he, so to speak, assimilated the prescribed Prayer, Fasting, and Pilgrimage, and almost became a symbol of our noble Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. As he resembled him in appearance, he followed him step by step with his life of worship.”⁴⁾

“Even if it is not in the manner of every obligatory Prayer and every Prayer time, the heroes of the spirit and the heart come and go, at least a few times a day, between pre-eternity and post-eternity, often see the past and the future with the prism of thought, and contemplates the golden segments of time that seem like the past, together with the lush emerald hills of the future gleaming with hope, and experience and lives our lives at the same time as the lives of others, and as if sipping the blessed water of Paradise, they find memories of a thousand pleasures and happiness. We cover distances just like in dreams, wander in the realms beyond time, experience all the pleasures of extraordinariness, sense feeling after feeling, idea after idea, and spend every moment in a different deluge of spiritual knowledge, love, and pleasure. (These considerations are for those whose horizon of wisdom has reached this point). Especially when the spirit and the heart assimilate the prescribed Prayer, this luminous quality inverts and transforms, replacing our usual deeds with its own harmony, its own poetry, and its own heavenly nature.”⁵⁾

“Takbir (saying God is the All-Great) uttered at the beginning of the Prayer is called ‘iftitah’ (beginning, opening) takbir because the worship begins with it. Since doing some things in the Prayer is forbidden after this takbir, it is also called ‘tahrim’ (prohibition) takbir or ‘ihram’ (state of sacredness) takbir. In fact, this takbir is to make a promise to step into a private place, leaving all worldly affairs behind the door, and to turn your attention only to the Sultan of the Universe, by forbidding everything that belongs to all things other than God. From that moment on, it means praising the spirit of tasbih (glorifying God), tahmid (praising God), and takbir (exalting God) in all the minutes, seconds and milliseconds of the Prayer, in a sense, uniting with the Prayer and making a covenant of of assimilating the prescribed Prayer. If the angels paint a picture of a worshiper, who fulfills the requirements of this covenant and observes his Prayer accordingly, which is reflected in the Realm of Representations, perhaps the prescribed Prayer appears. That person can only be pictured as an embodied Prayer.”⁶⁾

“… We should be very diligent in realizing the truth of the prescribed Prayer. We should beg God Almighty for the love of worship of the predecessor, and their deliberation in servanthood. In order to observe the Prayer consciously, we must demand Divine grace. Maybe each of us should say: ‘O my God! Please, grant me the perspicacity of the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, when he used to observe the prescribed Prayer, and let my spirit sense the meaning of the Prayer. My Lord, I want to pray as our Prophet did and to sense it in every part of my being. During the Prayer, I want to be closed against all considerations other than You and to assimilate the prescribed Prayer completely. Please, my God, grant me this grace of Yours!’”⁷⁾

Assimilating Ramadan

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