10. The right of your ritual prayer is that you know that it is an arrival before God and that through it you are standing before Him. When you know that, then you will stand in the station of him who is lowly, vile, beseeching, trembling, hopeful, fearful, and abased, and you will magnify Him who is before you through stillness and dignity, reverence of the limbs, the good secret discourse (with God), and beseeching Him to save your neck which is surrounded by your faults.
All power belongs to God.
11. The right of fasting is that you know it is a veil, which God has set up over our tongue, your hearing, your sight, your stomach, and your private part to protect you from the Fire (of Hell). This meaning is asserted in the hadith: “Fasting is a shelter against the fire (of Hell).” If your limbs settle beyond the screen of fasting, you will wish for being screened (from Hell). If you leave your limbs shaking behind the screen and raising its margins to look at matters that are un-lawful for them to look, since they incite to an appetite, and exceed the limits of God-fearing, you will have torn God’s protective covering away from yourself.
All power belongs to God.
12. The right of charity is that you know it is a storing away with your Lord and a deposit from which you will have no need for witnesses. If you know that and deposit it in secret, you will be more confident of it than if you deposit it in public. You will also be worthy of keeping the matters that you publicize secret with God and making all your affairs of charity secret with God in every condition. You should also not let your hearing and sight witness the alms that you give as if they are more confidential and as if you do not guarantee that your deposits will be given back to you. Finally, you should not remind others of your favors because you have done these favors for yourself, not anyone else. If you remind others of your favors, you will not be saved against being reminded of others’ favors to you. Moreover, this will prove that your intendment of giving charity was not purely for yourself. If you have intended yourself purely, you will not feel that others owe you great obligation for your giving alms.
13. The right of the offering is that through it, you desire God exclusively and through it, you desire only the exposure of your soul to God’s mercy and acceptance, not the observers’ eyes. If you are so, you will not be excessive or artificial. You will only intend for God’s sake. You should know that God is sought through moderation, not excessiveness. He also wants His creatures to offer Him easily, not excessively. In the same manner, modesty is preferred to arrogance, for the latter causes excessiveness and artificiality. Modesty and humility are empty of excessiveness and artificiality because they are the scenery and they exist in nature.
All power belongs to God.2