elements that inspire hope. Among them is the fact that the five daily prayers wipe out whatever sins preceded them, as is clear from the story of the man who had kissed a woman and from the man who had incurred a prescribed punishment and asked the Prophet ﷺ to carry it out upon him. Prayer is the finest bodily act of worship, and it removes sins. Allah the Exalted says, “Establish prayer at the two ends of the day and during parts of the night; indeed, good deeds erase misdeeds” (Hud 11:114).

However, the prayer must be performed in the manner that pleases Allah. In the report of ʿAmr ibn ʿAbasah, the Prophet ﷺ ordered him to make wudūʾ (ablution) and explained that prayer has fixed times and that there are other times when one is forbidden to pray.

The Prophet ﷺ then guided ʿAmr ibn ʿAbasah to the correct manner of wudūʾ, for when a person performs ablution in this way, his sins depart; and when he prays with a heart wholly devoted to Allah, Allah expiates his sins.

This condition must be kept in mind, for some people pray yet leave their prayer with only a tenth—or even less—of its reward recorded for them, because their hearts are heedless. It is as though they are buying and selling or engaged in some other activity until the prayer ends.

One of Satan’s whisperings is that, when a person pronounces the opening takbīr of the prayer, thoughts assail him from every side, but as soon as he finishes the prayer they vanish. This clearly shows that such distractions come from Satan, who seeks to ruin the person’s prayer so that he is deprived of this tremendous reward.

The narration of ʿAmr ibn ʿAbasah contains many benefits, among them that the Prophet ﷺ began his mission as a stranger, fearful and in concealment. ʿAmr ibn ʿAbasah came to him and saw the situation he was in