Understanding Salat — Page 229
Qa‘dah 229 is a metaphor for leaving the world and being alone with Allah Almighty. When we enter our tent of seclusion in the Masjid, it is empty and there is nothing we can distract our- selves with. Our only preoccupation is the worship of Allah Almighty. There is no friend whose company can comfort us and no activity that can entertain us. When we observe i‘tik ā f [seclusion], we imagine the loneliness of our tent to be like the loneliness of our grave. If we find that seclusion to be hopelessly boring and miserable, it is because all of our com- fort and peace is in the distractions of the world. When we left the world behind, we left our peace behind. We can then imagine how we will feel when we leave the world behind forever and enter the solitude of the grave. The Holy Prophet sas said, So increase in remembrance of death, the severer of pleasures. For indeed no day comes upon the grave except that it speaks, saying: “I am the house of the estranged, I am the house of solitude” ( Tirmidh ī , Book 37). To achieve immersion in S al ā t , we should imagine that the rectangle of our prayer mat is the rectangle of our grave. Once we have entered it, everything outside ceases to exist. If the solitude of our S al ā t is miserable, the solitude of i‘tik ā f [seclusion] will also be miserable, and the solitude of the grave will be even more miserable. During S al ā t , we should