Remembrance of Allah — Page 99
Twenty-two Methods of Concentration in Prayers 99 even though there is no benefit from them. The mind should never be permitted to indulge in thoughts that are only spec- ulative and conjectural. Yes, there is no harm in thinking of useful and beneficial things. Particularly, it is the height of ignorance to be bothered by thinking about the incidents that have already occurred and it could be of no use to think about them now. It is an obvious matter that in whatever direction human capabilities and powers are employed, they become attentive to those very things. Thus, when someone turns his mind towards unreasonable thoughts, he loses the ability to attend to reasonable things. Accordingly, preventing one’s mind from engaging in vain thoughts, one should employ it to work on lofty and beneficial ideas. When this effort is made, you will always become disposed towards deliberating on beneficial matters. And to think of other things while being involved with one task is vain and not beneficial, except what God wills. Thus, the mind of a person who has trained it to focus on ben- eficial matters will not wander here and there at the time of offering Prayer. 22. The twenty-second Method— This is also a method of great magnificence and takes one to the pinnacle of spirit- uality. The Holy Prophet s as was asked, ‘What is i h s a n [good- ness]?’ He responded, َ َرَاك ی ٗ ُن ْ تَرَاه ُ فَإِنَّه ک أَن ْ تَعْبُد َ هللا َ كَأَنَّك َ تَرَاه ُ فَإِن ْ لَم ْ تَ [‘To worship Allah as if you are seeing Him, but as a minimum be aware that He is seeing you’] ( S a hīh al-Bukhārī, Kitābul-Īmān, Bāb Su’āli Jibrīl an-Nabiyya ‘anil-Īmān wal-Isl a m wal-I h sān wa ‘Ilmis-Sā‘ah; Hadith 50).