“I place the Ka‘bah between my eyebrows, the Bridge beneath my feet, Paradise on my right, the Fire on my left and the Angel of Death behind me, and I think of it as my last prayer.”

Hatim al-Asamm (d. 237 AH / 851 CE) of Balkh was asked how he prayed, and al-Ghazali records his answer in the Ihya’: he made his ablution well and sat in the place of prayer until his limbs were still, then stood with this picture before him, “between hope and fear,” recited slowly, bowed with humility and prostrated with awe. He ends: “and then I do not know whether it has been accepted from me or not.”