Remembrance of Allah — Page 76
76 [Eugen] Sandow was a champion bodybuilder in Europe. He writes that you should exercise for health and vigour but at the same time as you do it, you should also be thinking that your arms are becoming stronger and muscles are becoming hardened. It is indeed true that the arms get stronger with exercise, but when this is done thinking it to be an exercise and what effect it is having on the body, then the body becomes even more ready to accept this impact upon it. And if this is not kept in mind, then much of the impact is lost and the benefit is relatively reduced to a great extent. The Islamic Shariah has also established some rules for main- taining concentration: 1. The first METHOD is the performance of wu du [ablution for Prayer] which everyone who is to offer S al a t must carry out. The wisdom in this is that Allah the Exalted has created certain means for communicating thoughts and feelings to others. One of them is the nervous system. Through them the thoughts and feelings of man effect other things and the nervous system serves as a path. This is indeed why the Holy Prophet s as used to recite the A yatul-Kurs i and then blow upon his body. Was this just a frivolous act? Certainly not! On the contrary, the truth is that the effect of thoughts is transferred using the nerves, the voice, and the breath. Thus, the Holy Prophet s as would combine all three of these ways. He would recite A yatul-Kurs i, then blow upon his hands, and then pass his hands all over his body. In short, the voice, the nerves, the sight, and the breath etc. are all ways for the thoughts to disperse; that is why the practice of رنا ك دم — insufflation [blow- ing on someone after reciting some words of prayer etc. ] by