ومهما فرغ من وضوئه وأقبل على الصلاة فينبغي أن يخطر بباله أنه طهر ظاهره، وهو موضع
نظر الخلق، أن يستحي من مناجاة الله تعالى من غير تطهير قلبه وهو موضع نظر الرب
سبحانه وليحقق طهارة القلب بالتوبة، والخلو عن الأخلاق المذمومة والتخلق بالأخلاق
الحميدة أولى. وأن من يقتصر على طهارة الظاهر كمن يدعو ملكا إلى بيته فتركه مشحونا
بالقاذورات واشتغل بتجصيص ظاهر الباب البراني من الدار.
As one finishes his ablution and goes to prayer, one would believe that his outer appearance is clean and pure, and that is what [the aspect that] other people see. But one should feel ashamed to have a discourse with Allah [Prayer is essentially and in its finest practice, a deep experience of having a kind of communication with God] without having cleaned and purified his Heart [one’s Essence], and that is what Allah SWT sees [probably pointing to the Hadith that “Allah does not look at your (physical) faces but at your hearts.”].
So, one should aspire to have a clean and pure heart by repentance [assuming that one might have behaved or said something that might have ‘stained the heart’, since the last prayer]. Although, not having bad/negative traits and having fine manners is better and should be one’s priority [in an attempt to reach a state of sustained purity of the heart].
Whoever is [going to prayer] content with having a clean outer appearance, is like someone inviting a king to his house, and he is busy with beautifying the outer part / the entrance to the house, while the house is full of garbage.
Notes :
