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AlGhazalisIhya-Book_of_Prayer, page : 42
causes of distraction.
This is bitter medicine, so bitter that we instinctively recoil from taking it. The
sickness remains chronic and the disease becomes incurable. Great men have
endeavored to perform two cycles of prayer without having any internal
conversation about worldly matters, only to find themselves unequal to the task.
No hope, then, for the likes of us! If only we may be safe from temptation during
half of our prayer, or one third, so that our deeds are at least a mixture of good
and bad.
In short, the worldly and spiritual aspirations in the human heart are like water
poured into a cup full of vinegar; as water goes in, an equal volume of vinegar
inevitably goes out and the two can never combine.
Chapter Four
Stories of the Humble,
(May Allah be Pleased with Them, and their Prayers)
This is bitter medicine, so bitter that we instinctively recoil from taking it. The
sickness remains chronic and the disease becomes incurable. Great men have
endeavored to perform two cycles of prayer without having any internal
conversation about worldly matters, only to find themselves unequal to the task.
No hope, then, for the likes of us! If only we may be safe from temptation during
half of our prayer, or one third, so that our deeds are at least a mixture of good
and bad.
In short, the worldly and spiritual aspirations in the human heart are like water
poured into a cup full of vinegar; as water goes in, an equal volume of vinegar
inevitably goes out and the two can never combine.
Chapter Four
Stories of the Humble,
(May Allah be Pleased with Them, and their Prayers)