- “When you have completed the prayer, remember Allah while standing, sitting, and lying on your sides. Then, when you are secure, establish the prayer. Indeed, prayer has been prescribed for the believers at appointed times.”
That is: When you have finished your prayer—whether the fear prayer or any other prayer—remember Allah in all your states and postures. The fear prayer, however, is singled out for this instruction for several reasons.
One is that the heart’s rectitude, success, and happiness lie in turning lovingly to Allah Most High and in being filled with remembrance and praise of Him.
The greatest means of attaining this purpose is prayer, whose true essence is a bond between the servant and his Lord.
Another is that prayer contains such realities of faith and knowledge grounded in certainty that Allah prescribed it for His servants every day and night. It is well known that these praiseworthy aims are not fully attained in the fear prayer because the heart and body are preoccupied and fearful. They were therefore commanded to remedy this deficiency by remembering Allah afterward.
Another is that fear produces anxiety and alarm in the heart, which may weaken it; and when the heart grows weak, the body becomes too weak to resist the enemy. Remembering Allah abundantly is among the greatest means of strengthening the heart. ⦗199⦘
Another is that remembering Allah Most High, together with patience and steadfastness, is a cause of success and victory over one’s enemies. Allah Most High says, “O you who believe, when you encounter an enemy force, stand firm and remember Allah often so that you may succeed.” Thus, He commanded that He be remembered abundantly in this situation, in addition to the many other wisdoms involved.
His words, “Then, when you are secure, establish the prayer,” mean: When you are safe from danger and your hearts and bodies are at ease, perform your prayer completely and in the most perfect manner, both outwardly and inwardly, fulfilling its pillars, conditions, humility, and all that perfects it.
“Indeed, prayer has been prescribed for the believers at appointed times.” That is, it is obligatory at its prescribed time. This establishes that prayer is obligatory and that it has appointed times outside of which it is not valid. These are the times firmly known among all Muslims—young and old, learned and unlearned—which they received from their Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, through his words: “Pray as you have seen me pray.”
His words, “for the believers,” indicate that prayer is the measure of faith: a servant’s prayer, its completeness, and its perfection are commensurate with his faith. They also indicate that disbelievers—even if they are subject to the laws of the Muslims, like protected non-Muslim subjects—are not addressed by the subsidiary rulings of the religion, such as prayer, nor are they commanded to perform them. Indeed, such acts are not valid from them so long as they remain in disbelief, although they will be punished for neglecting them and all the other rulings in the Hereafter.