27-11 A man can say his prayer in a piece of clothing which he fastens up to his neck and in a shirt which he buttons up.You should not perform a prayer on an image or on a carpet on which there is an image. However, it is allowed to stand on such a carpet on which there is an image or throw a cloth on it so that it becomes covered. You should not tie a coin upon which there is an image onto your clothes in which you pray. However, you can put the coin into a bag or in other clothing. If you are worried about it being stolen, you may tie it onto your waist.You should not say your prayers upon wheat, barley, other nutrients or bread.You should not make ablutions before mentioning God’s name.Before touching the water to make ablutions one must say ‘In the name of God. By God. O my Lord! Please accept me as one of those who repent. Please accept me as one of the purified ones. Once you finish making ablutions, you should say ‘I bear witness that there is no god save Allah and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger,’ so that you may deserve to benefit from God’s Mercy.Anyone who prays with recognition of its truthfulness would be forgiven.One should not say the recommendable (Nafila) prayers at the time of the obligatory prayers unless he has an excuse. He can say the recommendable (Nafila) prayers after saying his obligatory prayers. He can make them up later.When God the Blessed the Sublime said, ‘Those who remain steadfast to their prayer; ’ He meant those who make up what they missed at night during the daytime and make up what they missed during the day at night.You should not say the recommendable (Nafila) prayer at the time of the obligatory prayers. You should say the obligatory prayers first, then you can pray as much as you wish.The reward for saying prayers in Mecca or Medina equals that of saying one-thousand prayers elsewhere, and the reward for spending one Dirham in Hajj equals giving one-thousand Dirhams in charity.One should be humble in his prayer. None of the body parts of anyone whose heart has fear of God would move. You should not play with anything while praying.The Qunut on Friday prayers should be said before bowing down in prostration (the Ruku). You should recite the Opening Chapter (Al-Fatiha ) and the Chapter Al-Jumuah (Friday) in the first unit and the Opening Chapter (Al-Fatiha ) and the Chapter Al-Munafiqun in the second unit of Friday prayer.You should sit down after prostration after having said two units of prayers so that your body gets calm, then you may stand up. This is the way we did it.Whenever you stand in front of the Mighty the Exalted God, you should place your hands on your chests. Whenever you are standing in front of the Mighty the Exalted God you should extend out your chest, stand up straight and do not bend.Whenever you finish saying your prayers, you should raise your hands up towards the heavens and seek what you want.Abdullah ibn Saba asked, ‘O Commander of the Faithful! Is it not true that God exists everywhere?’ The Commander of the Faithful (MGB) replied, ‘Yes.’ Then Abdullah ibn Saba asked, ‘Why is it then that one should raise his hands up towards the heavens when he prays?’ He (MGB) replied, ‘Have you not read the following verse, ‘And in heaven is your Sustenance, as (also) that which ye are promised.’ Would you then seek your sustenance elsewhere? The heavens is the place where our sustenance and whatever the Honorable the Exalted God has promised lies.You should not finish your prayer without asking God for heaven, seeking refuge to God from hell and asking God to marry you to a green-eyed Houri .Whenever you stand to say your prayers, you should say it as if it is going to be the last prayer you are ever going to say in your life.Smiling would not void one’s prayers but laughing out loud would.Whenever you fall asleep, you should renew your ablutions.Whenever you start to doze off or fall asleep in the middle of saying your prayers, you should stop praying since in such a prayer you might curse yourself instead of saying supplications.Whoever who loves us by heart and helps us with his tongue and fights our enemies would be along with us and in the same rank as we are in Paradise.Whoever loves us by heart and helps us with tongue, but doesn’t assist us in fighting our enemies would be two ranks lower.Whoever loves us by heart, but doesn’t help us either with his tongue or hand would be in Paradise.Whoever is our enemy by heart and doesn’t harm us with tongue and hand would go to Hell along with our enemies.Whoever is our enemy by heart and doesn’t harm us with his tongue would go to Hell.Whoever is our enemy by heart and harms us with his tongue and hand would go to Hell.