As-Salaam alaikum, On/about chapter 109 of the Holy Qur'an, Surat al-Kafirun (those who reject faith), it has been narrated by an-Nisaa'i, Tirmidhi, al-Hakim and at-Tabarani and others on the authority of Anas ibn Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, who said the Messenger of Allah, Sallallahu alaihi Wasallam, said: -- ''Qul ya ayuhal Kafirun [reading chapter 109 of the Holy Qur'an] equals a fourth of the Qur'an.'' In another narration of Sa'ad: ''Whoever recites 'Qul-Ya ayuhal Kafirun' it is as if he recited a fourth of the Qur'an.'' And it has been related by Ahmad, Abu Dawud on the authority of Nufayl ibn Mu'awiyya who said that the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi Wasallam, said: -- ''Whenever one of you retires to his bed at night he should recite: 'Qul ya ayuhal kafirun' and then goes to sleep after reading it will be free of polytheism [shirk].'' And it has been related by al-Daylami on the authority of Abdullah ibn Jaraad who said that the Messenger of Allah, Sallallahu alaihi Wasallam, said: - ''The hypocrite cannot pray the forenoon prayer (duhaa) nor can he recite: Qul ya ayuhal kafiruun.''

As-Salaam alaikum, Our Sheikh, al-Harith ibn Asad al-Musasibi, may Allah be pleased with him, in his book titled 'Kitab al-Mustarshid (Book of the Traveller on the Right Road)' wrote that: -- ''Know, O my brother, that sins produce heedlessness (ghafla)-- that is, the sinner is forgetful of God and His Law- and the heedlessness produces hardness of heart, and hardness of heart leads to alienation from God, and alienation from God leads to Hell.'' Whether a sin committed is small (saghira) or big/great (kabira), both types are to be avoided. Sheikh al-Muhasibi teaches that one cannot attain to the conquest of sin except by a sound purpose and a firm intention to combat desire; and by controlling one's inward self, for if the servant controls his/her self, he dominates his organs and he has knowledge of his own heart, and self-examination in what it desires becomes easy for him, by the leave of Allah Most High; but if you lose control of your inward self, God's command will seem hard to you, and your organs will go astray and your heart will be lost.... you will find yourself unfit for self-examination. Therefore keep to what is lawful, control your tongue except in what will aid you in approaching God Most High. Many Regards.

As-Salaam alaikum, In verse/ayat 32 of chapter 17 of the Holy Qur'an, Surat 'Isra, our Lord Allah Ta'ala says: -- ''AND COME NOT NEAR UNTO ADULTERY, VERILY! IT IS AN OBSCENITY AND AN EVIL WAY'' (17:32) Here, we are prohibited from even approaching Zina/adultery; thus educating us to the fact that: Any cause that leads to Haram act is also Haram, and thus should totally be avoided. Human instinct is such that no sooner do a strange man and woman meet in privacy, that a sensation of mutual attraction permeates the atmosphere between them. This attraction develops from stage to stage, from affection to uncontrollable passion and ultimately into the irreversible stage, where it is almost impossible to control the nafs, and finally the shameful deed of Zina is perpetrated. Therefore, Allah Ta'ala has made easy for us the beautiful pathway to chastity, purity and piety (taqwa), by declaring unlawful all those factors that contribute to the commission of Zina. Best Regards.

As-Salaam alaikum, In the Hadith-Qudsi, we read it where Allah Ta'ala says:-- ''I am the companion of him who remembers Me.'' (see Muslim, Ibn al-Hajjaj, al-Qushayri, Sahih Muslim, ed. Salim Hasim). In this hadith, it is discernable to hold that when someone is in the presence of the one he is remembering, he sees his companion, and as such, there is contemplation and vision. Seeing the other is a means of knowing the other, and knowing the other is, of course, necessary to consciousness of the self. In other words, if prayer is the road to self-consciousness, then he who does not pray, or does not do so in a manner true to its meaning, will not reach the desired destination, he who is not present with his Lord in prayer, neither hearing nor seeing Him, is not really praying. Rather, joy and knowledge are the fruits of mushahada [vision of God] that are endowed only upon those who have truly experienced the contemplative state exemplified in prayer/al-Sallah.

As-Salaam alaikum, In the Hadith, the Noble Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu alaihi Wasallam, said: -- ''QALB AL-MU'MIN BAYT AR-RABB... The heart of the believer is the House of the Lord.'' And in a Hadith-Qudsi, Allah Ta'ala says: -- ''NEITHER EARTH NOR HEAVENS CONTAINED ME, BUT THE HEART OF THE BELIEVER CONTAINED ME.'' This is when the believer's heart is free of any impurities and all that is other than Allah Ta'ala.... the heart becomes Allah's Mansion... Allah's House when it becomes a place of His Self-Manifestation, a place to contemplate Him and keep His secret, the right place to receive the responsibility of Allah's Trust, as the means to know Allah with Allah, as He says in the Holy Tradition (hadith-qudsi): -- '' I have built inside the heart of the Son of Adam, a palace (qasr); in the chest there is a heart (qalb); in the heart, there is the inner heart (fu'ad); and in the inner heart, there is an innermost heart (shaghaf); and in the shaghaf, there is the kernel (lubb); and in the kernel, there is secret (sirr); in the sirr/secret, there is Me, that is the secret refers to the place for My manifestation and the place to know Me.'' We get to understand this more, when we recall another Hadith-Qudsi where Allah Ta'ala says:-- '' Man is My secret and I am his secret''... meaning that Allah Ta'ala place His secret or illuminative knowledge (Ma'arifah) in man -- with which man hears and sees Allah in all he does... nay, he exists only by Allah's Eistence. For further details/readings on this, see the source from which it is culled: 'Manhal al-Safi (Signs of the Sufis)', by Sheikh Dawud al-Fatani.