Advice of Scholars - THE PILLAR OF DÎN

Hadrat Muhammad Ma’sûm says in the 14th letter of the first volume of his Maktûbât:

Know that namâz is the pillar of dîn. A person who performs namâz has put his dîn right. The dîn of a person who does not perform namâz will be demolished. You should perform your prayers of namâz at their mustahab times, suitably with their conditions and adabs. These are explained in books of fiqh. You should perform the prayers of namâz in jamâ’at, try to say the first takbîr together with the imâm, and find a place in the first line. [It is not permissible, if one has come to the mosque rather late, to annoy the assembly by breaking one’s way through the lines in order to go up to the first line. ] In case you have not observed one of these, you should mourn.

When a mature Muslim begins to perform namâz, he sort of goes out of the world. For, very little of the blessing of approaching Allâhu ta’âlâ is attainable in the world. It is, if any, an approaching to the zil, to the shade, to the vision. But the Hereafter is the place for being close to the essence. So, in namâz one goes to the Hereafter and enjoys one’s share from the great felicity there.

Those who have been thirsty, burning with the fire of separation, can cool and assuage themselves only with the life-giving water from the fountain of namâz. Only under the tent-flaps of the bride of namâz can those who are paralysed in the sahara of the greatness of the Supreme Being perceive the astounding smell of approaching the beloved one. The Messenger of Allâhu ta’âlâ said, “When a Believer begins to perform namâz the gates of Paradise will open for him. The curtains between his Allah and him will go up. The hûru’în of Paradise will meet him. This state will go on until the namâz is over. ”