Maintaining a Prayerful Attitude
Story
During His travels in America, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá once accepted to teach a very devoted Bahá’í how to pray. He told him to come to His home at daybreak the next day. The believer’s heart was filled with joy. He rose at dawn and rushed to the home of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. When he entered the room of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, he found Him already in prayer. Realizing that he could not ask ‘Abdu’l-Bahá any questions, he decided to do the same. So he kneeled on the floor and began to pray. He prayed silently for his relatives, for his friends and for himself. When he finished, he looked up and saw that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was still deep in prayer. So he decided to pray some more. He repeated all the prayers he knew over and over. Still there was no movement from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
Now the believer noticed that one of his knees was beginning to ache and that his back was feeling uncomfortable. Next he heard the birds singing outside. Glancing around the room, he observed a large crack in the wall. Then he looked at ‘Abdu’l-Bahá again and, all of a sudden, the expression on ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s face created in him a strong desire to pray. He forgot everything else. The only desire in his heart was to be close to God and to converse with Him. He bgan to pray in a way he had never prayed before. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had taught him how to pray.
At that very moment ‘Abdu’l-Bahá arose, approached him with a smile and said: “When you pray, you must not think of your aching body, nor of the birds outside the window, nor of the cracks in the wall! When you wish to pray you must first know that you are standing in the presence of the Almighty!”
Songs
