The Light of the Believer's Heart

Number six: ṣalāh is the nūr of a believer's heart — the source of nūr, the source of light, divine light, guidance, into the heart of a muʾmin. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says that ṣalāh is a nūr that enters the heart of a believer; whoever wishes to have a share of that nūr, let him do so — let him perform his ṣalāh. When a Muslim prays his ṣalāh properly, and tries to pray it on time, and follows all of its farāʾiḍ, its wājibāt, its ādāb and all its mustaḥabb things, that creates such a nūr in the heart of a believer. Allah (swt) says in the Qur'an — and the imams say this constantly, at every Jumuʿah:

The very ṣalāh will stop a person, will restrain him — from what? From faḥshāʾ, from munkar and from baghy^****: from evil deeds, transgressions, sins. Someone may ask whether ṣalāh is really going to stop him — is that some secret? No, it is not a secret. Ṣalāh will stop a person, if he is performing a proper ṣalāh. That is certain. If someone is praying and is still doing ḥarām things, his ṣalāh is not proper. He is merely imitating the ritual — up and down, a physical exercise — but his heart is not in the ṣalāh; his mind is not in the ṣalāh; he has no khushūʿ in it; he does not realise what he is doing. He is like a little child. Anyone who has watched the small children of a family — at two years old, at nine months old — knows how they begin to imitate their parents; that is how people learn. They put their heads down and their backsides up, and everyone loves them; they are so cute, going down into sajdah so nicely. Sometimes the parents put a little ḥijāb on them, and they have a little prayer mat brought back from ḥajj, and they put their heads down — so cute. But does a child understand ṣalāh? No. And that is how some of our ṣalāh are. It is not the ṣalāh of an adult who knows what he is doing. Inna ṣ-ṣalāta tanhā: ṣalāh will stop a person — from what? — ʿani l-faḥshāʾ: from faḥshiyyāt, from evil deeds.

It might then be asked: since a person is still doing the wrong things, and cannot seem to stop these days, and is praying at the same time, may he stop praying? No, he may not. He continues praying. In shāʾ Allāh, because of his persistence — because of his persistence upon ṣalāh — Allah (swt) will begin to change his heart: his heart will slowly, slowly change and be purified, and his actions too, in shāʾ Allāh, will slowly, slowly become correct. May Allah (swt) put that nūr into our hearts. Allah (swt) says:

If something is wanted from Allah, it is to be asked through ṣalāh — and through ṣabr, persistence, it is to be asked of Allah (swt). And this asking and giving — this responding to their prayer — is especially for those people who pray in khushūʿ, with humility and presence of mind. In the moment of stress, when a person goes to ṣalāh with all the humility he has, and puts his head — the purest place of his nobility, his dignity — upon the ground, and asks Rabb al-ʿālamīn: by Allah, He will respond. Always. But there must be khushūʿ. Turn to Him in repentance, ask Him sincerely, and He will always respond.