When we glance through the spiritual regiment of a Muslim, we see that it is composed of various acts of devotion towards Allah (SwT). Some of these are obligatory and must be performed - such as the fast of the month of Ramadhan, the ‘religious tax’ (khums) on one's net excess savings, the five daily canonical prayers (salat) and the major pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca. Some other acts are highly recommended and have been emphasized by the leaders of the faith - actions such as the minor pilgrimage (‘umrah), recommended charity (sadaqah), and the optional (mustahab) prayers - of which salat Al-Ghufaylah is one of these highly recommended and ‘easy’ to perform - for those who have earned the Divine providence (tawfiq) to adopt it into their spiritual program.

This book, Salvation Through Patience and Perseverance: Salat al­Ghufaylah, is our latest endeavour to elucidate upon the jurisprudence of Islam in the realm of the salat, while striving to present such acts of worship in a clear and easy to understand language,1 and at the same time, expounding on the philosophy, wisdom and etiquette of these acts of worship, which we sometimes perform out of habit or ritual without studying their spiritual aspects.

What follows in this book is the first ever comprehensive analysis in English about one of the most important recommended prayers in Islam - Salat Al-Ghufaylah - a joint recommendation from at least two of the Infallibles. The final Messenger, Muhammad Al-Mustafa (S) taught us the importance of recommended prayers in general, and specifically the ones between Maghrib and 'Isha; and it was the 6th Imam, Ja'far Ibn Muhammad as-Sadiq, born on the same day as Prophet Muhammad - the 17th of Rabi' Al-Awwal - but 72 years later, who taught us one of the specific methods of Salat Al-Ghufaylah which not only carries with it a high reward, but also a profound way to change the course of our lives - when done with a thorough understanding.

Although the prayer itself is only two rak'at and can be performed in five minutes or less, there is truly an ocean of spiritual benefit and lessons that one can learn and practise, when we take the time to study the contents of what is being recited and the deeper understanding of every word that is uttered. Therefore, one needs to carefully read, study and reflect over the commentary of the verses used in this prayer (as presented in this book and also as have been described in various other authoritative works), and also study the life history of one of Allah's prophets, Yunus (‘a), if we truly wish to turn our own lives around and turn back to complete servitude of Allah - like this great prophet of Allah did.

This book will take the reader through a journey into various areas of Islamic teachings which may at first seem trivial. However, when looked at from a holistic point of view, one will realize that the performance of any act of worship in Islam actually requires learning and understanding multiple disciplines. These acts of worship are not given to us in a vacuum. They are multi-dimensional.

It is for this reason that before we even begin to discuss the method of its performance, we need to educate ourselves with the underlying concept of salat, and from there the importance of spending time on personal development through acts of worship which are not obligatory upon us, but highly recommended (mustahab) - such as the optional prayers.

Once we have understood the importance of going above and beyond what is required from us, we are then then able to better appreciate what Salat Al-Ghufaylah is, how it was taught to us, how to perform it and all of the periphery discussions in this regard.

This prayer is formulated around two main concepts - the forgiveness of Allah (SwT) in our lives, and the all-encompassing knowledge of Allah (SwT). We will thus also delve into the commentary of the two verses recited in this salat because without knowing what Prophet Yunus (‘a) went through in his mission and what form his repentance took, it will be difficult for us to appreciate our life challenges and how we can work on altering our conditions. In addition, we also need to delve into the comprehensive knowledge of Allah (SwT) to better appreciate our role as servants and how vast His forgiveness is.

We then present two other prayers which are highly recommended to be recited between Salat Al-Maghrib and ‘Isha, and some general jurisprudential issues regarding the recommended prayers.

We conclude by recounting some final points on the life of Prophet Yunus (‘a) which give us further inspiration for our own struggles then present a response regarding an issue which has circulated within some communities that orators have been inappropriately attributing to the Infallibles (‘a) in relation to the spiritual power of salat Al-Ghufaylah and how it relates to the perpetrators of the tragic events of Karbala' and the role of the guilty individuals in the massacre of Imam Husayn Ibn 'Ali (‘a) and his family and companions.

To round up this work, we quote the entire section of the Bible (the Old Testament) and the Book of Jonah for the readers to be able to compare and contrast the Qur'anic and Islamic narrative with that is found in the Bible.

As human beings, we are only here for a limited duration, and we realize that we have very little time at our disposal. We may generously assume that an average person lives for 70 years in the period of being baligh2. If we subtract an average amount of hours spent at work or school, and the amount of time spent on sleeping, eating and all of the other vicissitudes of life, then we are left with a little over 23 years of actual "available time" - to engage in recreation, pleasure, entertainment - and of course the specific acts of worship.

Average life duration (post-baligh)	70 years
Total number of days	25,500 days
Total number of hours	613,200 hours
Time spent at work/school, sleeping and other activities	409,200 hours
Total hours remaining	204,000 hours
Equivalent in days	8,500 days
Equivalent in years	23.29 years

With such a short duration of time available at our disposal to work to earn the pleasure of Allah (SwT) and towards the attainment of paradise, we see that time is truly 'flying by' and 'slipping away' from us. Thus, we need to make the most of the 'spare time' in our lives, rather than drowning ourselves in other activities since before we know it, we will be gone from this world - and forgotten.

Thus, we need to ensure that we make the most of the time that we have available to build our next life. Therefore, let us ensure that if we are not able to spend that limited number of years in 'prescribed worship', that we make the most of whatever time we have in our lives before that too withers away - not only quantitatively but more importantly, qualitatively.

We are humbled for the opportunity to have his eminence, Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi, write a concise introduction for this book - while maintaining his busy schedule - may Allah reward him amply for his services to Islam.

This work was accomplished with the support and encouragement of my family - my wife and editor, Arifa Hudda, for her hard work on this project; and in addition, our dear daughter, Muhadditha, for her assistance. Indeed, their rewards are also with Allah (SwT) for their devotion in helping to spread the teachings of Islam as taught by Prophet Muhammad (S) and his Noble Family (‘a).

The funding for this project was done primarily via our Kickstarter campaign3 and in an astounding three days, we managed to secure donations from generous contributors around the world to help publish this book - we are truly humbled to receive such support in such a short period of time.

In addition to all of the online donations, many other anonymous individuals approached us personally with their contributions for which we are eternally grateful.

Last but not least, we would like to acknowledge the generous and continuous support of the Academy for Learning Islam (www.AcademyofIslam.org ), and the Mohsin and Fauzia Jaffer Foundation towards the publication of this work. Our gratitude is also extended to the World Federation of Khoja Shia Ithna-Asheri Muslim Communities (www.world-federation.org ) for their contribution towards the printing and distribution of this work within the United Kingdom.

We would also like to recognize the valuable assistance from the Organization of North American Shia Ithna-Asheri Muslim Communities better known as NASIMCO (www.nasimco.org ) towards the shipping expenditures and assistance of their office staff to ensure that ample copies of this book, distributed free of charge, make their way to the respective member communities across Canada and the United States of America.

We ask Allah to reward all of the donors and institutions, and to bless their families and loved ones and to shower their deceased family and friends with His special mercy.

Keeping the readership of this book in mind, we have done our best to maintain English terminology for the Islamic terms used, but have also used their Arabic equivalent in parenthesis in order to further acquaint the readers with these terms. When it comes to the names of the prophets and saints, we have maintained their Arabic names and have included a glossary at the back of the book providing their Anglicized equivalents.

We ask the readers to overlook any spelling or typographical errors in this book and to inform us via e-mail if you find any of the same so that these may be corrected for an online version or future printings.

Finally, when you - the reader - are given the Divine providence to recite this beautiful salat, we request that you remember everyone who was instrumental in completing this project -including the author, editor, reviewers, donors and their families and everyone else. May Allah accept all of our prayers, and grant us that which we have prayed for others - with no reduction in what anyone is given, for surely with Him are the treasures of the heavens and the earth, and He does not tire in giving to His servants in abundance, nor do His bounties ever decrease by Him bestowing upon His creations.

لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ سُبْحَانَكَ إِنِّي كُنْتُ مِنْ اَلظَّالِمِينَ

“….There is no Allah save Thee. Be Thou Glorified! Lo! I have been a wrong-doer” (21:87).

Saleem Bhimji

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

June 27th, 2016 CE • Ramadhan 21^st 1437 AH

Anniversary of the martyrdom of the

Commander of the Faithful ‘Ali Ibn Abi Talib (‘a)

• 1. Our first project was Salat al-Ayat - the special prayers performed during the occurrence of natural events such as earthquakes, solar and lunar eclipses, etc. Published by the Islamic Humanitarian Service (www.al-haqq.com ) and co-published by the Islamic Publishing House (www.iph.ca ).
• 2. What is termed as baligh or the beginning of maturity, for girls this is 9 years of age and for boys approximately 12-15 years of age.
• 3. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1357654719/salvation-through-patience­and-perserverance