and attending to the perfection of both: the perfection of the inward state and the perfection of the outward practice.

By Allah, I say this—and I call Allah to witness—if we established the prayer as we ought, we would emerge from every prayer with renewed, strong faith. For Allah says:

“Recite, [O Muhammad], what has been revealed to you of the Book and establish prayer. Indeed, prayer restrains from immorality and wrongdoing.” [al-‘Ankabut: 45]

But we ask Allah to deal with us through His pardon. We enter it with one heart and leave it with the very same heart—the heart with which we entered—because we do not bring to it the humility, presence, and awareness of the heart that we should. We fail to reflect upon these changing postures, which are diverse spiritual gardens, comprising different actions and words: reciting the words of Allah, remembering Him, venerating Him, declaring His greatness, supplicating Him, praising Him, and describing Him with the most perfect attributes—“All greetings and prayers belong to Allah...” and so on. They are indeed magnificent gardens, but we fall short in observing these inner meanings.

It is reported in the hadith: “Allah has forbidden the Fire from consuming the marks of prostration” (1)—this concerns those disobedient believers who enter the Fire. If Allah does not forgive sinful believers, and they have no good deeds that outweigh their evil deeds, they will be punished in the Fire in proportion to their sins. Yet the limbs used in prostration are honored: the Fire neither consumes them nor affects them. Thus, one of them said:

“My Lord, through Your abundant grace, You have set free
The limbs of prostration—for You are the Everlasting.
And manumission extends when the owner is affluent; O Possessor of all riches,
So bestow upon this perishing one the freedom of what remains.”