In the Name of Allah, the All-beneficent, the All-merciful
O Allah, send blessings upon Muhammad and the family of Muhammad
I thank you, Your Eminence Sayed, for your distinguished efforts. May Allah protect you, with His eye that does not sleep, from every evil and harm ....
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Your Eminence Sayed, for two weeks I have been suffering from mental distraction in prayer. I notice in myself a lack of concentration on what I say in the prayer, and I repeat the prayer afterwards, but I feel that Allah has not accepted my prayer because my mind was occupied?? I know that it is Satan who brings these thoughts to me in my prayer, but I cannot control my thoughts: a thought comes to me even if I do not think about it. So what is your advice, Your Eminence Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi, so that I may treat this thing and keep it away from myself??
A. al-Zahraʾ
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Answer
In the Name of Allah, the All-beneficent, the All-merciful
Peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings
Thanks are extended to you in turn for your good opinion and for keeping in touch..
Regarding the problem of distraction and lack of concentration in prayer: one should know that Satan redoubles his work in the believer's acts of worship in order to weaken them, and the prayer in itself is a place of struggle between man and Satan. That is why the prayer niche is called a miḥrāb, because it is the place of war (ḥarb) with him.
So it is natural for some thoughts to come one after another during prayer, but one should confront them and overcome them little by little.
Because presence of heart in prayer is a relative matter, and it is difficult, comes with practice and training, and changes from one state to another, the legal ruling has not made presence of heart a condition of the prayer—that is, the prayer is not invalidated by the absence of presence of heart. That is because making it a condition would constitute great hardship for the one praying, and because the matter is relative, as we said..
The Exalted has said: “Woe to those who pray but are heedless of their prayers” (Qurʾan 107:4–5); so the verse said (of their prayers—ʿan ṣalātihim) and did not say (in their prayers—fī ṣalātihim)..
So it is upon a person always to attain the greatest measure of presence of heart in prayer, because the humble one attains salvation, as the Exalted said: “Certainly, the faithful have attained salvation—those who are humble in their prayers,” (Qurʾan 23:1–2) and the benefits of the prayer will return to him—the prayer that “restrains from indecent and wrongful conduct” (Qurʾan 29:45), and raises the soul to where there is divine nearness and connection with the source of tranquility.
It has been reported from the Prophet (s): Of prayer there is that of which a half, a third, a quarter or a fifth, down to a tenth, is accepted; and of it there is that which is folded up as a worn-out garment is folded, and is struck against the face of the one who performed it. You have of your prayer only that to which you attend with your heart. (Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 81, p. 261).
As for how to attain concentration and humility in prayer, Imam al-Rida (a), from the Commander of the Faithful (a), gives us an important program for that, in his words:
(Blessed is he who devotes worship and supplication sincerely to Allah, does not let his heart be occupied with what his eyes see, does not forget the remembrance of Allah because of what his ears hear, and whose breast is not grieved by what has been given to others).
The advice in light of this hadith is:
1/ Keeping away from visual distractions in the place of prayer: the more the place of prayer is free of drawings and of whatever the one praying might occupy himself with, the better.
2/ Part of keeping away from visual distractions is the commitment to directing one's gaze during prayer: when standing, the one praying directs his gaze toward the place of prostration; when sitting, to his lap; and when bowing, to between his feet, as is recommended; and adhering to the other recommended acts, such as not praying in front of an open door, or in front of a picture, or in front of a mirror.
3/ Keeping away from auditory distractions: one avoids praying in noisy places, or places where there are conversations, or television sets that are on, and so on.
4/ Contentment with what one has, not casting one's eyes toward what others have, and renouncing all that is in people's hands, because that occupies the heart continually: a person remains constantly thinking about what he wishes for and what others have been singled out for instead of him, and this feeling pursues him everywhere, because it is usually connected with everything in life.
5/ Renunciation (zuhd), and non-attachment to what a person owns, and non-attachment to everything he owns, as in the hadith: (Renunciation is not that you own nothing; rather, renunciation is that nothing owns you)—that is, that it does not make you attached to it such that your decisions are tied to it. Here the heart turns away from thinking about most of the things that pass by it in life, so the circle of preoccupation narrows and the power of concentration increases.
And there are other things, such as:
6/ Seeking refuge from the outcast Satan at the beginning of every prayer.
7/ Knowing the rank of those who are humble in prayer and the greatness of their reward.
8/ Knowing the meanings of the prayer, even in a general way, reflecting on them, and attending to them during prayer, such that a person says them as though he were composing them from his heart. So when he says “to You [alone] do we turn for help” (Qurʾan 1:5), he is affirming and requesting the help of Allah in everything he seeks in life.
Presence of heart and humility remain dependent on practice and attentiveness in every prayer.
And Allah is the Grantor of success, and the One whose help is sought
