Remembrance of Allah — Page 90
90 one stands up to offer the S al a t, he should fix his sight toward the place of prostration. There are many people who shut their eyes after standing up and think that in that way their atten- tion will take hold, whereas attention can be maintained by keeping the eyes open. This is indeed the reason why the Holy Prophet s as has advised us that upon standing up for S al a t, we should fix our gaze upon the place of prostration. In his book Aw a rif-il-Ma‘ a rif, Hadrat Shih a b-ud-Deen Suhrawardi rta writes that during ruk u ‘ [bowing posture in Prayer], the eyes should be focused between the two feet and in my view this is correct ( ‘Aw ā rifil-Ma‘ ā rif, al-Bāb as-Sābi‘ wath-Thalāthūn fī Wasfi S alāti Ahlil-Qurb. vol. 2, p. 340, pub- lished by Maktabat ath-Thaqāfah ad-Dīniyyah, Cairo 2006). 22 This is also beneficial for the eyes and causes greater reverence to develop as well. There is a very great wisdom in limiting the scope of view and it is that God Almighty has placed this feature in the creation of man that when one of his senses is functioning, the other senses become senseless. For example, when the eyes concentrate perfectly, the ears become disengaged. Thus, when the eyes are busy looking at something with full power, if someone hollers, it will not be heard. And, when the ears are so totally occupied in listening to something, the nose’s ability to smell is suspended. And when the nose is fully occu- pied in smelling something with all its ability, the ears and eyes suspend the execution of their tasks. Thus, when one sense is engaged in operation and reaches its optimal performance, the other senses do not function, but when all the senses are