Understanding Salat — Page 131
Qaumah 131 someone else, our words of praise were not pure, but they were flattery. Hadrat Khalīfatul Masīh IV rta said, Those who praise Allah with empty words, it is as if Allah did not hear them. People have similar experi- ences daily. In some regions where people are in the habit of giving false praise, they will always flatter you when they meet you. Sometimes they praise to the extremes of exaggeration. If you are not false within yourself, rather than feeling love developing for them, you will feel aversion. If you are false within yourself, then you will always be pleased with false praise. Your truthfulness within will tell you the extent to which you are true. A person who is true within can never be pleased with false praise; he does not even listen to it. It is as if he never heard it. Rather, he hates it and is irritated by it. He wishes that the conversation would end quickly. Thus, that praise which does not rise from the heart and does not carry deep truth is not heard by God. ( Dhauqe ‘Ib ā dat , pp. 494-495) When we recite the word ‘pure’ ( طَيِّب ) in S al ā t , we should try to analyze the purity of our praise ( حَمْد ) of Allah. If our heart is at conflict with our words, then that praise is not pure. We should find what our heart believes is worthy of more praise than Allah because that is what taints the purity