Prayer of the Heart: With Mindfulness and Consciousness
By Shaykh Taner Ansari

Some translate salat as worship. We translate it as prayer, especially prayer of your heart. Prayer of your heart is very important.

Establish the prayer when you are eating, establish the prayer when you are sleeping, establish the prayer whatever you are doing. Establish the formal prayer, which we call namaz. Allah said this to all the nations.

"My Lord, please help me to establish salat, and do the same for my offspring. Our Lord, please accept my dua [supplication]." (Ibrahim:40)

Establish the prayer does not just mean you have to establish namaz which means formal Islamic worship that is observed five times daily. Establish the prayer means all of that, and especially zikr [repeated remembrance of Allah]. Some people say Sufism is bid'a [harmful religious innovation]. First of all, Sufism is not bid'a. Second, our Prophet (peace be upon him) himself established zikr for everybody. Zikr, in Sufism, is special to those people who want Allah's Zat, Essence.

BE CONSCIOUS

What I am trying to do is to bring you to the consciousness of your actions and your acceptance and the belief so that you do not do actions blindly. You have to be conscious of what you are doing and acknowledge the importance of being conscious of what you are doing.