Understanding Salat — Page 18
Understanding S al A t 18 of these things to come into motion after which this finger appeared in front of him. ” ( Tafs ī r-e-Kab ī r, vol. 2, pp. 316) When we play with an infant, he sees our face and smiles because he recognizes us. Then if we give him our finger to play with, he gets distracted from us and starts playing with our finger. He doesn’t yet have the understanding that we are connected with our finger, that when he is playing with our finger, he is playing with us. Similarly, when we are unable to make the connection between the world and its Creator, then the world distracts us away from our Creator rather than reminding us of Him. As an infant gets a little older and develops the motor skills to understand how his hands are connected to his mind, then he starts to understand how our hand is also connected with our mind. Then, when he sees our finger, he recognizes it, and he looks for our face. When he finds our face, then he smiles and recognizes us and then plays with our finger. He connects the two. Now, when he plays with our finger, it doesn’t turn his attention away from us, it turns his attention towards us. He plays with our finger knowing that he’s playing with us. Our finger reminds him of us; it no longer distracts him away from us. In our spiritual infancy, we also have to gradually develop the insight to connect the creation with The Creator. When we recite that Allah Almighty is The Creator of ‘the heavens and the earth’ ( َ مٰوٰت ِ وَالَۡرۡض َّ اَلس ), everything in existence we can