Understanding Salat — Page 228
Understanding S al A t 228 so immersed that when they finished, they could not recognize one another. When one comes from some other place, the Shar ī ‘ah has commanded that he say Assal ā mu ‘alaikum. This is the reality behind saying Assal ā mu ‘alaikum when we finish S al ā t. When a per- son starts prayer and says All ā hu Akbar , it is as if he has left this world and has entered a new world. He has reached a stage of immersion. When he returns from it, then he meets the world with Assal ā mu ‘alai- kum wa ra h matull ā h. ( Malf ūzā t (10 vol edition), vol. 7, pp. 42-43) At the beginning of prayer, we raised our hands to symbol- ize that we were leaving the world behind. Our greetings of Sal ā m on returning to the world at the end of prayer are true if we had really left at the beginning. To understand the spiritual exercise of leaving this world, we can use the seclu- sion that is observed at the end of Ramadan as an example. In the same way that we leave our family and possessions behind and go into seclusion for ten days in Ramadan, we also leave the world behind each time we raise our hands and begin S al ā t. Ibn Qayyim rta explained that one purpose of i‘tik ā f [seclu- sion] is to prepare ourselves for the loneliness of the grave; it is to make our hearts find peace in Allah Almighty rather than in people. ( Provisions for the Hereafter, Mukhtasar Zad al-Ma’ad, pp. 125) The solitude of the grave is not literal; it