like a mustard seed in the palm of one of us. All those heavens, vast as they are, He folds up in His right hand, and He grasps the earth, huge though it be, as one of us would close his fist around some small object. Then the worshipper converses with Him in speech, bows in reverence with his body, and glorifies Him with his tongue, saying: subḥāna rabbī al-ʿaẓīm (Glory be to my Lord, the Majestic). He then rises, and after that he prostrates. This rising serves only to separate between the pillar of magnification—the bowing—and the pillar of humility—the prostration. For that reason the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “As for the bowing, magnify the Lord therein.”

Next, the servant prostrates before Allah in utter lowliness and submission, placing the most honored part of his body level with his feet, the lowest part of him; he sets his forehead upon the ground in deference and surrender to Allah. He then says: subḥāna rabbī al-aʿlā (Glory be to my Lord, the Most High), declaring his Lord to be exalted far above any baseness, as though he were saying, “Glory be to the One who is utterly free of all that is low and is higher than everything.”

Prayer, therefore, is a momentous act of worship. We ask Allah to open our hearts—and yours—so that we may appreciate its worth. A sign of its virtue, its greatness, and Allah’s love for it is that every other obligation was laid upon the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, by means of revealed inspiration conveyed through an angel—except for the prayer. Allah imposed it on His Prophet directly, speaking to him about it and prescribing it for him in the highest place attainable by any human being, on the most honored night granted to the Messenger— the Night of the Ascension. He initially made them many in number: fifty prayers in every day and night, because Allah loves the prayer and its reward is immense. Yet, out of His gracious kindness, He reduced them until