TRANQUILITY AND PEACE

1. The length of your life has already been decided upon, for everything takes place according to preordainment and decree. So there is no need to feel anxious in that regard.

2. The decision of how much sustenance any one of us receives is with Allah alone: no one else owns that sustenance or has the power to take it from you.

3. The past is gone and has taken with it its woes and miseries. It cannot return even if the whole of mankind worked as one unit to bring it back.

4. The future is from the unseen world and has not yet arrived. It brings with it matters, showing no regard to your permission of feelings, so do not call it forth until it actually arrives.

5. Doing good to others brings happiness to both the heart and the soul. A good deed provides greater benefits to the benefactor - in terms of blessings and recompense and peace - than it does to the receiver.

6. Among the noble qualities of the believer is that he doesn't concern himself with spurious criticism. No one has been saved from curses and criticism, not even Allah, the Lord of all that exists, Who is Perfect and Exalted.

PRAYER

As for the prayer, its significance - or rather part of its significance -is that it empties the heart from bad feelings and fills it with strength and pleasure. During prayer, one's heart and soul are in communication with Allah. Closeness to Him, the comfort realised from asking of Him, and the spirituality felt from standing in front of Him - these are all realised during the prayer. Every limb is used in the prayer, but what is more importantly is the heart must be wakeful as well. When one prays, tranquility and peace are achieved, as one travels away, at least spiritually, from enemies and troubles.

Thus the prayer is one of the most potent of remedies for the diseases of the heart. Yet only the worthy heart benefits from prayer; the weak heart, on the other hand, is like the body, in that it seeks its sustenance from material matter.

Therefore prayer is the greatest way to help us achieve the blessings of both this world and the Hereafter. The prayer precludes one from sins, defends against diseases illuminates both heart and face, makes one active, in general, brings good upon the person who performs it sincerely.