Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.. May this post serve as a reminder for myself, and only then to others.
Often when do stuffs so regularly or routinely, over time they are rendered meaningless and void of emotions. Just like sports, music, movies, or going to school. And yet, for some of us, we manage to stick it out as we've found a spiritual or emotional attachment to those routines.
Such is the case for salah. And this is quite generally common among us whom were born into muslim families. When done void of emotions, the salah becomes dull and dry, and eventually (nauzubillah) people starts to have a lesser regard towards them . It is no longer a form of comfort nor rest as it was for Rasulullah s.a.w and the sahabah. Thus, to be so 'dissolved' in salah, it will require an emotional attachment. And that's not easy. Aptly put (in 9-gag-ish terms), "One does not simply enjoy salah".
Scholars have outlined the mainframe of the state of spirituality one should be in to be able to enjoy salah. They have used a 'bird' as a parable to put their ideas into perspective.
Love for Allah
For a bird to be able to live, it requires its head. The head have precedence above all parts of the bird. If it is blindfolded, the bird will fly aimlessly, reaching nowhere near its objective. If the head is cut off, the bird will probably die. And such is what love is to salah. The love for Allah is like the head of a bird, without it, our salah is useless, tampered with and our salah becomes aimless. Thus, above all emotions, love for Allah took precedence.
Fear and Hope for Allah
For a bird to fly, it needs a pair of wings. And those wings are balanced as neither can function without the other. Those wings resembles fear and hope. One can't be too fearful of Allah after committing a sin, until he has lost all hope for his mercy. And one can't be too hopeful for Allah's mercy that he feels it is okay to commit sin. Ergo, the wings of hope and mercy needs to be balanced at all times.
Now that we know the emotional essence in salah, let us strive to encompass these emotions, love, fear and hope for Allah into our salah, in hopes that it will make it more meaningful and exciting routine :D Insyaallah.
Wallahualam.
