Remembrance of Allah — Page 86
86 need, he can offer them. But after ‘Ish a’ , since it is the time to go to sleep and temperament is inclined towards rest after a whole day’s work, two Sunnah and three Vitr [three rak‘ a t prescribed as essential] are appointed afterwards from which the Vitr may also be performed at a later time. There are two Sunnah appointed before Fajr [morning Prayer] so that there should not be any negligence in the S al a t due to just having woken up from sleep. Those Sunnahs stop the carelessness and the thoughts resulting from sleep. There are no Sunnah afterwards because generally no particular work may be done thereafter until the time of sunrise. However, dhikr has been prescribed. These are the ones that have been attached with the S al a t by the Shariah to maintain concentration in the S al a t, but bene- fit can be drawn from them only when man makes an effort to understand them as well. This is verily why I have mentioned them so that you may become acquainted with them and ben- efit from them, and—God willing—those people who act upon them, keeping in mind the underlying wisdom, will cer- tainly derive benefit. It should, however, be remembered well that just as the human body has joints, in the same way the words that are recited during standing, bowing, prostrating, etc. are the joints of S al a t. Special attention must be paid to the words that are recited at these joints. If this is done, then the S al a t will become very strong; otherwise, it will fall. Now I will explain those methods for maintaining attention in S al a t which are not included in the conditions of S al a t, nor has