Remembrance of Allah — Page 77
Twenty-two Methods of Concentration in Prayers 77 righteous Muslims is proven and, in fact, it is reported from the Holy Prophet s as as well. Thus, since thoughts emanate through the nerves and scatter, in order to keep them under control, the Holy Prophet s as has instructed us to perform ablu- tion. And because the main points of their emanating are the arms, feet, and mouth; and it has been experienced that when water is poured over them, the stream of thoughts—which had hitherto been emanating from them—comes to a halt and thoughts cease to emerge. This is a proven phenomenon, and this is also one of the objectives for the doing of ablution. There are many other points of wisdom in performing ablu- tion, but this is also one of them that in this way the stream of thoughts comes to a halt and when this stream stops, a tranquil- lity is attained and when tranquillity is achieved, then atten- tion can remain established. Thus, ablution is a high-ranking means for maintaining concentration. When you begin to do ablution you should also be thinking that you are doing this to stop scattered thoughts. When you do this, then you will achieve tranquillity in your S al a t and thoughts will not be able to dissipate your attention. 2. The second method of achieving concentration is the one that the Islamic Shariah has prescribed—that S al a t be offered at the mosque. It is a human characteristic that when one sees something, he conceives a thought about something else. For example, a person meets person X and also asks him about his son, person Y. Even though person Y is not in front of him, upon seeing person X, he remembers person Y as well. Thus, the design of the human brain is such that when something