love of Him, He has elevated you to an all-encompassing light.

O soul! You have received this wage and you are charged with the pleasurable, bountiful, easy, and light duty of worship. But you are lazy in this too. If you perform it half-heartedly, it is as though the former wages are insufficient for you and you are overbearingly wanting greater things. Also, you are complaining: “Why was my prayer not accepted?” But your right is not complaint, it is supplication. Out of His pure grace and munificence, Almighty God bestows Paradise and eternal happiness. So constantly seek refuge in His mercy and munificence. Trust in Him and heed this decree:

Say: “In the bounty of God, and His mercy – in that let them rejoice;” that is better than the [wealth] they hoard.(10:58)

If you say: “How can I respond to these countless, universal bounties with my limited and partial thanks?”

The Answer: With a universal intention and boundless belief. For example, a man enters a king’s presence with a gift worth five kurush, and he sees that other gifts worth millions have arrived from acceptable people and have been lined up there. It occurs to him: “My present is nothing. What shall I do?” Then he says suddenly: “My Lord! I offer you all these valuable gifts in my name. For you are worthy of them. If I had the power, I would have given you gifts equal to them.” Thus, the king, who has need of nothing and accepts his subjects’ gifts as a sign of their loyalty and respect, accepts the wretched man’s universal intention and wish and the worthiness of his elevated belief as though it were the greatest gift.

In exactly the same way, while performing the five daily prayers a powerless servant of Almighty God declares: “Salutations be to God!” That is, “I offer You on my own account all the gifts of worship all creatures offer you through their lives. If I had been able, I would have offered You as many salutations as them, for You are worthy of them and of more besides.” Such an intention and belief comprise extensive, universal thanks. The seeds and grains of plants are their intentions.

And for example, the melon utters a thousand intentions in its heart in the form of the nuclei of its seeds: “O my Creator! I want to proclaim the embroideries of Your most beautiful names in many places on the earth.” Since Almighty God knows how future things will come about, He accepts their intention as actual worship. The rule, “A believer’s intention is better than his actions” [^12] alludes to this mystery. The wisdom in offering glorifications in infinite numbers is understood from this mystery. For instance:

[^12]:al-Munāwī, al-Fayḍ al-Qadīr, vi, 291.