When reading the ninth word, it may come to mind one does not always fully think or feel these wisdoms behind prayer while praying. That one does not always fully concentrate and as a result that one’s prayer loses its meaning. However, this couldn’t be further than the truth.

This thought could be dangerous and discourage one from prayer. In fact, this is a usual trick of the devil. Whenever one is unable to do something in the best way, one is inclined to give it up completely. Yet doing something imperfectly is much better than not doing it at all.

Ustadh Bediuzzaman explains this in The Twenty First Word, First Station, Fifth Warning. He states that there are numerous levels to prayer and the meaning behind prayer exists in all of them to varying degrees. In an analogy, he compares it to a date palm. There are many levels to a palm tree starting from a tiny seed to a humongous tree. Yet despite the tree being much larger and more significant than its seed, they both belong to the same plant type and contain similar DNA.

Similarly, even though the prayer of prophets (عليهم السلام) and other great Muslims is much more significant than ours, they all have the same meaning in varying degrees. Thus we must not lose hopes and be discouraged from prayer.