A
parable to understand the value and importance of the daily
prescribed prayers
If you
would really like to understand, with the certainty that two
plus two makes four, how valuable and important prescribed
prayers (salat) are, and with what slight effort is their
reward gained, and how foolish and harmful is the one who does
not pray, then listen attentively to this parable: Once
upon a time an important ruler sends two of his servants to a
beautiful farm, giving each twenty-four gold coins. The farm
is two months’ away. He gives them these orders: ‘Use this
money for the ticket and other necessities for the journey and
after arrival. There is a station one day away where trains,
ships, cars and planes are available, any of which you may
take according to your money.’ The two
leave after receiving these instructions. One is so fortunate
that he spends only a little of his money before he arrives
at the station. He makes such profitable use of his capital
that his lord likes him. So his property is increased a thousand fold. The other man, being unfortunate and stupid,
spends twenty-three of his twenty-four coins in gambling and
the like before he arrives at the station. He has only one
coin left. His
friend says to him, ‘Spend this coin on the ticket. If you
don’t, you’ll have to go on foot and suffer hunger. Our
lord is generous; maybe he will pity and forgive you. They may
let you take the plane, so we can reach our farm in a day. If
not, you’ll have to go on foot and endure two months of
hunger while crossing the desert.’ If that
unfortunate one doesn’t listen to his friend and spend his
last coin on the valuable ticket, if he chooses, instead, to
spend it on vice for passing pleasure, even the most
unintelligent person will agree what great folly and loss that
man stands in. Now, O
man who does not pray, and O soul of mine, which doesn’t
incline to prayer, listen to the explanation! That
important ruler is our Lord, our Creator. Of the two
travelers, one is religious and performs his prayers with
fervor. The other, unmindful, represents the people who don’t
like praying. The twenty-four coins stand for the twenty-four
hours of a day. The farm is Heaven, while the station so near
is the grave. The journey is from the grave to the eternal
life. People cover that long journey at different times
according to their deeds and conduct. Some of the truly devout
pass the span of a thousand years in a day like lightning,
some fifty years in an hour with the speed of imagination. The
Quran alludes to this truth in two of its verses (al-Hajj,
22.47; al-Sajda, 32.5). The
ticket is salat, the prescribed prayer. An hour is enough for
the prayers in a day. If you spend twenty-three hours a day on
the affairs of this world and don’t reserve the remaining
hour for the important prayers necessary for the other world,
it shows your foolishness, and stands you in a condition of
grave loss. You may be tempted to pay over a half of your
money to a lottery in which one thousand people are
participating although the possibility of winning is one in
a thousand. Whereas, if you pray, the possibility of winning
is ninety-nine percent. If, then, you do not use one of your
twenty-four coins to obtain this chance, to gain an
inexhaustible treasure, wouldn’t any sensible person
understand how contrary to reason and wisdom such a conduct
is? Moreover,
in prayer, there is comfort for the soul and mind. Nor is it
difficult for the body. Furthermore, with the right intention,
all the deeds and conduct of one who prays become like
worship. In this way, his little lifetime is spent for the
sake of the eternal life in the other world. And his transient
life gains a kind of permanence.
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