they became five prayers instead of fifty. All praise is Yours, O Allah.

Prayer yields momentous and splendid fruits. Among them:
1 – What Allah, Exalted is He, states in the verse with which the author opened this chapter: “Indeed, prayer restrains from indecency and wrongdoing.” Indecency refers to the flagrant sins—such as fornication, sodomy, and the like—whereas wrongdoing is whatever falls below that. Prayer keeps a person away from both indecency and wrongdoing.

But when does it do so? Only when the prayer is performed in its most perfect form. For this reason we often pray yet do not find our hearts changed, do not sense a dislike for indecency or wrongdoing, and are not better after the prayer than we were before it. That is because the prayers we perform are not the kind that restrain from indecency and wrongdoing—yet Allah’s word is true and His promise is certain.

Prayer averts indecency and wrongdoing whenever you have resolved to commit a sin or your heart inclines toward disobedience; if you then pray, that inclination is wiped away—provided the prayer you offer, and intend solely for Allah, is as complete as it can possibly be.

Therefore, it is incumbent upon us—and we ask Allah to help us—to give our prayers due care, perfecting them as much as we are able, fulfilling every pillar, condition, obligation, and recommended element. Indeed, they do restrain from indecency and wrongdoing. One of the early generations said, “Whoever’s prayer does not keep him from indecency and wrongdoing only grows farther from Allah because of it.” We ask Allah for safety and well-being. Such a prayer is not the prayer required of us; the prayer required is one that lives up to the very meaning of the word. Some of the predecessors, when they entered into