for committing the indecency and wrongdoing he has been forbidden. He therefore has the reward of one who intended to do no indecency or wrongdoing. Most people refrain without this understanding, because they lack the presence that calls the more fitting course to mind.
If it were otherwise, the words “Prayer restrains from indecency and wrongdoing” would yield no benefit. Prayer is the servant’s act, so through his prayer he is among those who restrain from indecency and wrongdoing. Through prayer he has the reward of one who restrains from them, though he has not spoken. He has the reward of two acts of worship, the prayer itself and restraining from indecency.
Few of our companions direct their minds in worship toward such forms of watchfulness in what God makes known through the Lawgiver in the Book and the Sunnah.
Then He said, “And remembrance of God is greater” [al-ʿAnkabut 29:45], meaning within prayer. It is greater than all its acts. Prayer contains words and acts, and He said that remembrance of God in prayer is the greatest of its states. Some words of prayer are supplication, and the Real distinguished remembrance from supplication, saying, “Whoever is occupied with remembering Me rather than asking Me,” the latter being supplication. The remembrance here is the remembrance within prayer. It is not remembrance outside prayer that we might rank above prayer. This belongs to the linking of prayer to place and state.
(Beginning with Oneself and Persevering in Prayer)
Among the states involved in establishing prayer, in the case of one who
Notes
Translator’s note TN2285-1: The passage derives an active role in restraining from wrongdoing from prayer itself. It thereby distinguishes the reward of the prayer from the reward for the restraint effected by performing it.
