Understanding Salat — Page 178
Understanding S al A t 178 initial stages of spirituality, we do have to force ourselves to establish a basic discipline in worship. Sometimes, we try to do the bare minimum in fulfilling our spiritual obligations. In these stages, offering our worship as a tax is acceptable because it is better than offering nothing at all. This kind of behaviour is tolerable from someone in spiritual childhood who is just learning the ways of expressing love, but it is not acceptable from an adult. If a husband finds the cheapest thing he can get away with, and he gives it to his wife like an obligation he is trying to get rid of, we can call that a tax, but we cannot call it a gift. When we present any sacrifice to Allah Almighty, we should find in our heart a willingness to offer the best that we can. For it to be a gift, we should not feel regret that we could have given less, if anything, we should feel regret that perhaps we could have given more. Only then can it be considered a gift. Secondly, our worship is not a sale, it is a gift. If a per- son gives a gift as if he is buying something and expects a gift in return, then this mentality is so disgraceful that it ruins the concept of gifts. ( Khu t b ā t-e- Tā hir, vol. 10, pp. 631- 633, 2 Aug 1991) In the initial stages of spirituality, some are motivated when they hear stories of how people mirac- ulously received financial rewards after their worship. Some people need materialistic incentives to move towards spirit- uality, but this approach is only tolerable as an initial stage of spirituality. Sacrificing with that intention can be called an attempt at a sale, but it cannot be called a gift. A gift is