he looked and turned that way out of necessity, owing to his concern for the army’s affairs.

Further evidence of this may be his reaching out during the eclipse prayer to take the cluster of grapes when he saw Paradise, as well as his seeing (1) the Fire and, within it, the cat’s owner and the man with the hooked staff. There is also the report of his warding off an animal that tried to pass in front of him, his turning back the boy and the girl, and his placing himself between the two girls. Likewise, there are reports of his returning greetings with a gesture while praying, for he would gesture only to someone he could see. There is also the report of Satan confronting him during his prayer (2), whereupon he seized him and throttled him; this was something he saw with his own eyes (3). Taken together, these and other hadiths establish that he did not close his eyes during prayer.

The jurists differed over whether closing the eyes is disliked. Imam Ahmad and others considered it disliked, saying that it was a practice of the Jews. A number of scholars permitted it without considering it disliked, saying that it might better help one attain humble attentiveness, which is the spirit, inner essence and purpose of prayer (4).

The correct position is that if keeping the eyes open does not impair humble attentiveness, it is preferable. But if it prevents such attentiveness because of ornamentation (5), embellishments or anything else in the direction one faces that distracts the heart, then closing the eyes is certainly not disliked, and the view that it is recommended in