The Tongue & the Heart

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

Shaykh Farid ad-Din ‘Aththar Abu Hamid ibn Abu Bakr Ibrahim (q.s.) wrote, in his Tadzkirat al-Awliya’, that Shaykh Abu Sa’id ibn Abu al-Hasan Yasar al-Baswri (q.s.) arrived at Shaykh Habib ibn Muhammad al-‘Ajami al-Baswri’s (q.s.) meditation cell at the time for ‘isha’.  Shaykh Habib al-‘Ajami (q.s.) continued praying.  He pronounced “praise” as “phrase”.  Shaykh Hasan (q.s.) thought to himself, “It is not right to pray behind him," and he performed his prayers by himself.”

That night, Shaykh Hasan (q.s.) saw the Most Glorious Lord in a dream.  “My God, what is Your Pleasure?” he asked.

“You had found what Pleases Me, but you did not recognise its worth.”

“O Lord!  What was that?”

“Praying behind Habib.  That prayer was to be the seal on your lifetime of prayers, but correct expression held you back from sound intention.”

Shaykh ‘Aththar (q.s.) concluded by saying, “There is a big difference between making the tongue right, and making the heart right.”