The Truth of the Niyah in Worship

Know that the niyah [intention] is to decide or to determine to do something. It is the soul's decision on performing some act after conceiving it and then acknowledging its advantage and judging its necessity. It is a psychological and conscientious condition which appears after the said procedures. It is, then, expressed as to be a decision, a determination, a want, a will, an objective and the like. It appears in all voluntary actions, as there can be no voluntary act without undergoing the said process, and it is there in the entire action, in reality, not allegorically. It does not need, however, that the details should be in the mind from the very beginning or even during the process, nor should one necessarily imagine the objective and the decision in detail. It sometimes happens that man does the act according to a decision, and yet he is completely unaware of the detailed picture of the act and the decision, while the fact is there, and it takes place in the outside motivated by that fact. This is quite consciously obvious in the voluntary acts.

In sum, this decision and determination, which is the niyah in the terminology of the faqihs [ may Allah be pleased with them], is, inevitably in every act, such that if one wanted to do a voluntary act without it, it would not be possible. Nevertheless, the whisperings of the wicked Satan and the sportings of fancy overrule reason and disguise the necessities in the eyes of the helpless man, and man, instead of spending his precious life in improving and purifying his deeds, and in freeing them from internal evils, and instead of spending it in acquiring monotheistic knowledge, godliness and being in quest of Allah, the vile Satan whispers in his ears and induces him to spend only half of his life in quest of a necessary and obligatory matter. Satan's snares and artifices are too many: one may be induced by him to give up the act altogether, while the other whom he despairs of inducing to drop the act, induces him to commit other follies, such as self-conceitedness and hypocrisy. If Satan could not succeed in this, he would try to falsify one's worship by way of causing him to pretend holiness: by slighting the worships of the people in his eyes, and by causing him to regard the people indifferent [heedless]. Then he induces him to spend all his life on matters such as the niyah , which is inseparable from the act , or the takbir or the recitation , which are common and ordinary acts . At any rate , Satan would not leave man alone before nullifying his worship by one way or another.

Satanic whisperings come through diverse ways, which we cannot discuss for the time being , nor scrutinize them all. But the whispering in the niyah, from among them, may be the most ridiculous and the strangest, because if someone tried, with all his powers, to do a voluntary act in all his life, without a niyah [an intention], it would be impossible for him to do it. Nevertheless, you may find some wretched, sick and feeble-minded person who spends a considerable time at every salat just to have a firm intention. Such a person is more like the one who thinks a long time whether he is to decide to go shopping or to go for a lunch. This helpless man, to whom the salat should be his ascension to His proximity, and the key to his happiness, and, by applying its cordial disciplines and realizing the secrets of this divine grace he should perfect his essence [dhat] and secure his growth [nash'ah] of life, he, on the contrary, neglects all these matters, or, much worse, besides regarding them unnecessary, he takes them all to be false, and uses his dear and valuable capital to serve Satan and to obey his slinking whispers, placing the God-given reason [`aql], which is the light of guidance, under the rule of Iblis.

`Abdullah ibn Sinan says: "I mentioned before Imam as-Sadiq (AS) [a case concerning] a man who was afflicted with frequently performing the wudu' and the salat, and described him to be a man of reason. The Imam said: "What reason has he in obeying Satan?' I asked him: `How is it that he is obeying Satan?' He said: `If you ask him wherefrom his hesitation comes to him, he will tell you it is of the work of Satan."' [236]

In short, man should uproot this by whatever means of austerity and strife, for it deprives him of all happiness and good. It may be that forty years of a man's worship be not correctly performed even in the outer appearance or according to the juristic formal details, let alone the internal religious disciplines. More ridiculous is that some such fastidious persons think that the worships of all people are invalid and take them to be negligent in respect of religion, whereas their religious authorities-whose instructions they follow-are also among the ordinary people. If he is a learned man, let him refer to the Prophet's tradition to see that the Messenger of Allah (SA) and the Imams of guidance (AS) were also like the ordinary people in these matters. From among all the people only this group of fastidious persons, act contrary to the Messenger of Allah (SA), the infallible Imams (AS), the jurists of religion and the scholars of the `ummah, regarding the acts of worship of all of them worthless, believing their own to be done according to precaution and that they take good care of religion. Take, for example, the case of the wudu'. The narratives about the wudu' of the Messenger of Allah (SA) are many and successively transmitted. It seems that the Messenger of Allah (SA) used a single handful [of water] to wash his face, another for his right hand and a third for his left hand. [237] The Imami faqihs are unanimous on definitely regarding this wudu' to be the correct one. The Book of Allah , too, apparently confirms it. As to the second washing, or the second handful, it is objected by some, while there is no harm in the second handful, or the second washing, although its recommendation is questionable. But the third washing is undoubtedly an innovation and renders the wudu' invalid, according to both the narration and the fatwa. Now, look at the acts of this helpless fastidious person who is not satisfied with twenty handfuls [of water], each one of which is enough to fully wash the hand and to consider it a " Complete Wash". In this case his wudu' is undoubtedly invalid. But this wretched, feeble-minded person, who performs this act in obedience to Satan's orders and whispers, thinks that what he does is correct and according to precaution, then, by contrast, he takes the acts of all others to be incorrect and invalid. Here the noble hadith proves true in respect of calling this man insane. The one who thinks correct an act which is contrary to the act of the Messenger of Allah (SA), and regards an act which is in conformity with the Prophet's to be incorrect, is either a renegade or an insane. But as this desperate person is not a renegade, he must be insane, obedient to Satan and disobedient to the Beneficent [rahman].

There is no remedy for this acute disease except through contemplation and reflection on the afore-mentioned matters, making a comparison between his act and that of the pious, the scholars and the faqihs [may Allah be pleased with them]. If he sees that his act differs from theirs, he is to push Satan's nose into the dust and to completely ignore that evil creature. Then, after that if Satan tries and whispers in his ears several times that: "Your act is invalid," let him reply: "If the acts of all the faqihs of the 'ummah are invalid, mine is invalid, too." It is hoped that after some time spent contradicting Satan, taking refuge with Allah, the Exalted, with invocations and imploring, from his evils, this disease will be cured and Satan's greedy eye will be lifted from him. The same instructions are also recommended in the noble hadiths to remedy excessive doubt, which is also of the Satanic inspirations.

In the noble al-Kafi, on the authority of Imam al-Baqir (AS),it is stated that he has said: "When doubts in the salat become too frequent, do not give heed to them , and regard the salat to be correct . It is hoped that this state would leave you, as it is not caused but by Satan." [238]

In another narrative, Imam al-Baqir (AS) , or Imam as-Sadiq (AS) , is quoted to have said: "Do not make it Satan's habit to frequent you by breaking your salat, as this will stir his greed against you. Satan is evil and gets accustomed to what he is habituated to."

Zurarah says that the Imam added: "That malignant wants to be obeyed. So, if he is disobeyed he will not come back to you." [239]

This is an important cure for all cases of Satan's intrusions and of the jestings of devilish fancies.In some hadiths invocations are also recommended. You may, in this respect, refer to Wasa'ilush-Shi`ah, Mustadrakul Was'il at the end of book of al-khalal.

Notes:

[236]. 'Usulul Kafi, vol. 1, p. 13, "Book of Reason and Ignorance", hadith 10.

[237]. Furu `ul Kafi, vol. 3, p. 24, "Book of Purity", ch. on the "Description of the Wudu".

[238]. Ibid., p. 359, "Book of the Salat", ch. on "The One Who Doubts in his Salat", hadith 8.

[239]. Ibid., hadith 2.

Sincerity

One of the important disciplines of the niyah, which is of the important parts of all worships and of the general and comprehensive instructions, is "sincerity". Its nature is purging the act of worship from the impurity of doing it for other than Allah, and clearing the heart from discerning anything other than Allah, the Exalted, in all formal, intellectual, external and internal acts. It achieves its perfection by absolutely neglecting the other [than Allah], and decisively pounding upon I-ness, selfishness, the other and the otherness. Allah, the Exalted, says: "Surely Allah's is the pure religion." [240] So, if the religion was mixed with any selfish and Satanic desires, it would not be pure; and that which is not pure is not acceptable to Allah, and that which has a blemish of otherness and selfishness is outside the limits of Allah's religion.

Allah, the Exalted, says: "And they were not enjoined except that they should worship Allah, making the religion His sincerely." [241]

And He also says:" ... And whoever desires the tillage of this world, We give him thereof, but in the Hereafter he will have no portion." [242]

It has been narrated that the Messenger of Allah (SA) said: "Every person gets according to his intention. So, the one whose intention is to migrate to Allah and His Messenger, his migration will be to Allah and His Messenger; and the one whose intention of migration is to attain to this world [to get something of it] or to marry a woman, his migration is to what he has intended." [243]

Allah, the Exalted, says: "And whoever leaves his house migrating to Allah and His Messenger, and then death overtakes him, his reward is, indeed, with Allah." [244] Maybe this noble ayah covers all degrees of sincerity: One is the formal migration of the body. If this migration was not purely for the sake of Allah and His Messenger, but was for the sake of personal desires, then it would not be a migration to Allah and His Messenger. This is. the formal juristic degree of sincerity.

Another one is the spiritual migration, and internal journey, which starts from the dark house of the self, with its goal being Allah and His Messenger. It, after all, returns to Allah Himself, because the Messenger, as a messenger, has no independence of his own; rather, he is an ayah, a mirror and a representative. So, to migrate to him means migrating to Allah: "The love of Allah's close friends is loving Allah."

So, the gist of the meaning of the noble ayah, based on this possibility, is that the one who leaves the house of the self, and gets out of the mansion of selfishness, on a spiritual migration and a gnostic cordial journey to Allah, disregarding his self, dignity and prestige, his reward will be with Allah. But if the salik to Allah demands, in his suluk to Allah, a personal desire , such as attaining stations, or even attaining to Allah's proximity for himself, this suluk will not be to Allah. Actually, the salik has not even got out of his self; that is, his journey is inside his own house, roaming from side to side and from corner to corner.

Therefore, if the journey is within the limits of the self [nafs] for the sake of attaining to self perfections, it will not be a journey to Allah, it is, in fact a journey from self to self. Nevertheless, the salik in his journey to Allah, will, inevitably, experience this kind of travel. No one, except the perfect walis [friends of Allah] (AS), can commence his divine journey without a journey within himself, as that exclusively belongs to the perfect ones (AS). Perhaps the noble ayah: "Peace it is till the break of the dawn," [245] is a hint at this safety from the Satanic and selfish conducts during all the stages of the journey in the dark nights of nature, which is the night of Qadr in respect of the perfect ones, till the dawn of the Resurrection Day, which means, to the perfect ones, seeing the Beauty of the One. But the others would not be safe in all the stages of the journey. As a matter of fact, no salik would be free from Satan's intrusions in the early stages.

So, it has become clear that this degree of sincerity-whose first stage in the journey to Allah is safety, till its last, which is the attainment of real death, or rather till after the second real life, which is the "sobriety [sahw] after the self-effacement [mahw]-would not happen to the people of suluk and the common people of gnosticism and of austerity. The sign of this kind of sincerity is that Satan's temptation will have no way into those possessing it, and Satan's covetous eye will turn in complete despair away from them, as is said by Satan in the Qur'an: "By Your Might I will tempt them all, except Your sincere servants from among them." [246] Here, sincerity is ascribed to the servant himself, not to his act, which is a state loftier than sincerity in act. Perhaps the well-known noble hadith of the Prophet (SA) who said: "The one who keeps being sincere to Allah for forty mornings, fountains of wisdom will flow from his heart to his tongue," [247] refers to all the degrees of sincerity, i.e. sincerity of act, of attribute and of essence, and probably it appears in sincerity of essence, for which the other degrees of sincerity are requisites.

To explain this noble hadith, and to state what is meant by "fountains of wisdom", the way they flow from the heart to the tongue, the effect of sincerity in this flowing and the significance of "forty mornings", are out of the scope of this thesis, as they need a separate book. The thesis titled Tuhfatul Muluk fis-Sayr-i was-Suluk, ascribed to The knower of Allah , the late Bahrul `Ulum, is mostly concerned with the explanation of this noble hadith. It is a nice thesis, though somewhat arguable. For this reason some say that it was not written by the said great personality, which is quite possible.

Notes:

[240]. Surah az-Zumar: 3.

[241]. Surah al-Bayyinah: 5.

[242]. Surah Shura: 20.

[243]. Mustadrakul Wasa'il, chs. on "Preliminaries to the Acts of Worship", ch. 5, hadith 5.

[244]. Surah an-Nisa': 100.

[245]. Surah al-Qadr: 5.

[246]. Surah Sad: 82 and 83.

[247]. Biharul Anwar, vol. 67, p. 242, "Book of Faith and Disbelief', ch. on "Sincerity", hadith No. 10., quoting `Uyunu Akhbarir-Rida, vol. 2, p. 69, with a slight difference. The same content is stated in the latter source, p. 249, hadith 25.

Chapter three

A Brief Account on Some Stages of Sincerity To Fit Within These Papers

One of these stages is to purge the act, whether cordial or formal, form the blemish of acquiring the creatures' pleasure and attracting their hearts for the sake of a praise, and advantage or anything else. And the counterfeit of it is the act performed hypocritically, which is a juristic hypocrisy and is the meanest of all degrees of hypocrisies, and such a hypocrite is the lowest and meanest of all hypocrites.

The second stage is to purge the act from wanting the fulfillment of mundane objectives and transient desires, although these acts may be fulfilled in order to attain to Allah's grace, such as performing night salats [nafilah] for improving one's sustenance, or performing the salat of the first day of the month, for example, in order to be safe from the plights of the month, or giving out alms to ward off diseases, and other worldly objectives. Some jurisprudents [may Allah's mercy be upon them] regard this degree of sincerity to be necessary for the correctness of the acts of worship, in case the objective of performing the act is to attain to it. But this is contrary to investigation according to the juristic rules. Yet, this salat has no value, whatsoever, in the eyes of the people of knowledge, and it is like all other lawful gains, or maybe even lower.

The third stage is to purge the act from trying to attain to corporeal paradises, houris, luxurious abodes and the likes of the corporeal pleasures. Its counterfeit is the worship of the traders, as is described in the noble hadiths. This, too, is, to the people of Allah, similar to other gains, though the wage of the acts of this trader is more and higher, in case he carries them out and rids them from the formal viles.

The fourth stage is to purify the act from being afraid of the threatened bodily punishment and torture. The counterfeit of this is the worship of the slaves, as is mentioned in the narratives. [248] To the people of the heart, this kind of worship is also of no value and far from being a service to Allah, while, to the people of knowledge, it makes no difference if a man performs an act out of fearing the penalties and punishments of this world or the tortures of the Hereafter, or for the purpose of attaining to worldly women, or for attaining to the paradisiac women, none of them will be for Allah, and they [only] show the intention [reason=da'i] for the performance of an act, which, according to juristic rules, takes the act out of formal invalidity. But in the market of the people of knowledge this stuff is of no value.

The fifth stage is to purge the act from trying to attain to intellectual happiness and everlasting spiritual pleasures, and to join the Cherubim, the group of the sacred intellects and the favourite angels. Its counterfeit is acting for this purpose. Although this stage is great and an important goal, and the wisemen and researchers attach great importance to this stage of happiness and regard it very valuable, yet, in the ways of the people of Allah, this stage has also its shortcomings in suluk, and its salik is also regarded as a trader or a worker, though his trade and business are different, in many ways, from those of others.

As regards this stage, I mean the sixth one, it is to purge the act from being afraid of not attaining to those pleasures and of being deprived of this happiness. Its counterfeit is to act for this stage out of fear. Although this is a lofty stage and is beyond the desire of one like the writer, yet, to the people of Allah, this is also the worship of the slaves, for it has causes.

The seventh stage is to purge it from attaining to the delights of the Divine Beauty and enjoying the pleasures of the lights of limitless glories, which are the Paradise of Meeting [the Lord]. This stage, I mean the stage of Meeting Allah, is one of the most important goals of the people of knowledge and those of heart, and the hands of the hopes of the common people are too short to reach it. Only a few of the people of knowledge are favoured with the happiness of this honour. And the people of love and attraction are of the perfect ones among the people of Allah and His chosen ones. Yet, this perfection is not the most perfect degree of the people of Allah. It is one of their many common states. What we read in some invocations, such as the Sha'baniyah supplication, that Imam 'Ali (AS) and his pure progeny demand the said state, or allude to their being in that state, does not mean that their states are limited to this one, since the eighth stage, which is on the same level as this one, and which is purging the act from the fear of separation, is also not of the perfect states of the perfect ones. Imam 'Ali's saying: "How could I forbear separating from You?" [249] is just a reference to a brim-full common state of him and of one like him.

Generally speaking, purging the act from these two stages is also a must to the people of Allah, for to act with them will be endued with causes and not free from selfish wants. It is, thus, perfect sincerity. Next, there are other stages which are out of the limits of sincerity, and fall under the criterion of monotheism, abstraction and guardianship, all of which do not fit here.

Notes:

[248]. As in Wasa'ilush-Shi`ah, vol. 1, p. 45, chs. on "The Preliminaries to the Acts of Worship", the narratives of chapter 9. Usulul Kafi, vol. 3, p. 131, "Book of Faith and Disbeliever', ch. on "Worship", narrative No. 5.

[249]. Misbahul Mutahajjid, p. 778 (Kumayl's invocation)