[So woe to those who pray] Mā’ūn:4
At first glance, how strange does this sound? Woe to those who pray. Woe to those who perform ṣalāh. Does it not catch your attention? Does it not conjure a sense of bewilderment?
The next āyah clarifies this āyah and tells us why exactly those who pray have been cursed:
[But who are heedless of their prayer] Mā’ūn:5
They pray but they are heedless in their ṣalāh and so Allah the Most Exalted curses them.
Scholars have commented that this heedlessness constitutes a number of things, including:
– Those who delay their prayer beyond its time.
– Those who delay prayer till a later time (even if it is within its time).
– Those who perform ṣalāh but their hearts are not present (and neither do they make the effort to make their hearts present).
– They recite but do so without reflecting on what they are reciting.
Elsewhere in the Qur`ān, Allah subḥāneh wa ta’āla adds to this description of heedlessness in ṣalāh: when they get up to pray they get up lazily.
May Allah not make us of them.
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