Remembrance of Allah — Page 98
98 thoughts would come into his mind which would try to dis- tract his attention towards any other direction, he would take a stick and start hitting his body with it until the stick would break and then he would recommence offering (his Naw a fil ). In the beginning he used to keep a bundle of sticks with him. What he did was excessive and in my view Islam does not look favourably upon it. However, since the matter is related entirely to his personal self, I do not level any criticism upon him. There is, however, a way of disciplining the self in my view. If in any rak‘ a t a distracting thought develops, you should iden- tify the portion which you were reciting when this happened. When you determine this, you should again start offering the Prayer from that very point. By doing this when the self will see that this man is actually inclining to God Almighty and is not listening to me, it will cease creating dispersion [of thoughts] and calm will be attained. 21. The twenty-first Method— This is, in a way, a very great and very highly useful method. And that is: S u rah al-Mu’min u n, 23:4 َنْوُضِرْعُم— ِوْغَّللا ِنَع Believers do not do anything vain. Those people who are used to vain thoughts are the very people in whose hearts the other thoughts arise during Prayer, but if they act to prevent such thoughts from arising on the very first day, the condition of dispersion will not arise. Nonetheless, most people remain engrossed in vain thoughts like [the proverbial] Shaikh Chilli,