Understanding Salat — Page 148
Understanding S al A t 148 our mind. For example, when a mother gives birth and sees her child and hears it cry, she doesn’t wonder whether she is feeling pleasure yet or not, the way we sometimes wonder in S al ā t whether we are feeling pleasure yet or not. She is overwhelmed by love from seeing her child for the first time. The question of pleasure is the last thing on her mind; in fact, she even forgets the pain she is in. It is an insult to the beauty of motherhood to imagine that she would think in this way. Similarly, to observe the beauty of Allah Almighty is an experience in and of itself. The pleasure that results from that experience is completely secondary. Pleasure in S al ā t can be experienced in two ways; the first is the remembrance of Allah, and the second is prayer. In both cases, the path to pleasure is through hardship. As for pleasure in the remembrance of Allah, we can only experience the pleasure of seeing Allah Almighty after making ourselves blind to the world. We have to bear the hardship of striving against our lower self to the point where we cease to exist, and the only being left is Allah Almighty. When we lose our selves, then we find our Allah. As for pleasure in prayer, we can only experience pleasure after facing our helplessness and embracing that pain. This pain causes us to melt before our Creator, which automat- ically brings a feeling of euphoria. Pleasure in prayer comes only after we let go of any control we think we have in prayer. There is no direct path to pleasure. Our purpose in S al ā t is not to find pleasure. That would