Understanding Salat — Page 226
Understanding S al A t 226 types of treatment, one is as friends and the other is as employees. In friendship, the feeling of being an outsider no longer remains, so Allah Almighty says, “We will give to the believers without reckoning and we will treat them the way a friend treats a friend. ” ( Tafs ī r-e-Kab ī r, vol. 2, pp. 461, 2:213) If we offer our prayers and sacrifices to Allah Almighty as a transaction rather than a gift, we think like an employee and feel entitled to a reward for everything we give. We keep an account of everything we give, and on the day of reckon- ing, we can expect to be treated as an employee and required to account for everything we were given. However, if we offer our prayers and sacrifices to Allah Almighty as a gift, we become like a friend and we give without reckoning ( ِ ۡر ي ٍ بِغَ حِسَاب ). We can then hope that no accounting will be taken from us on the day of reckoning. When parents give to their children and children give to their parents, they give as a natural expression of love. They would consider it an insult to keep account of what they give because accounting has no place in pure expressions of love. When parents or children start keeping account of everything they give, it is a sign of some dysfunction in the relationship. The only way we can pass “on the day when the reckoning will take place” is if we pass “without reckoning. ” Salvation can only happen through love. This is what we seek when we offer this prayer at the end of S alāt , we beg to