The fourth book is the �Book of Prayer� (SalAt).  It is the longest, with 1,398 ahAdIs divided into 203 chapters.  But in all these pages, one looks in vain for any reference to such problems as self-exploration and self-knowledge, problems of enduring concern for the spirituality of the Indian tradition.  There is not even a remote hint of different men endowed with different natures taking different paths toward a divinity differently figured.  As there is one Allah, one Guide, one Book, there is also one Prayer, caught and fixed in a single formula.

From the titles of the 203 chapters this book contains, one can see that they all relate to the externals: azAn (the call to prayer), postures like bowing, prostrating and rising, the number and times of the different prayers, the place of imAm in the system of prayers, the merits of prayers at different times, the prayer for rain, the prayer for protection against windstorms and other calamities, the prayer relating to the dead, and so on.

author : ram swarup