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al-isl§m and al-Êm§n 33indigent’); instead, they did what was bad and harmful (‘we used totalk vanities with vain talkers’). Then came, all of a sudden, the LastHour and they ended up in the Fire.Some misguided exegetes interpreted the words ‘those who areconnected to God’ as ‘those who prayed the ritual ßal§h prayer’.However, the Arabic term al-mußallÊn in 74:43 does not refer to theritual prayer. Otherwise it would mean that those who omit the ritualprayer or a fasting day also deny the existence of God, which issimply not the case. It would be a gross injustice to call them ‘thosewho cut off their ties with God’ ( al-mujrimån) only because they misseda prayer. Evidence for this can be found in the following verses:[Prophet], have you considered the person who denies the Judgement?It is he who pushes aside the orphans and does not urge others to feedthe needy. So woe to those […] who are heedless of their [ßal§tihim],those who are all show and forbid common kindness. ( Al-M§#ån107:1–7, AH)In these verses we hear that those who deny the Day of Judgementand those who deny the existence of God are regarded as those whohave left the realm of al-isl§m and have instead entered the realm ofal-ijr§m. We therefore do not interpret the expression ‘those who areal-mußallån’ in both såras as literally ‘those who perform the ritualprayer’, in the sense of a prostration of the body, but more figurativelyas ‘those who connect themselves to God’ (ßila). 20 Surely, onedoes not need rituals if one wants to strengthen one’s ties with God.One may perhaps say ‘Oh Lord, help me!’ or ‘Praise and Glory beto God’, but no specific bodily gesture is needed to enhance one’sspiritual attachment to Allah. There is clearly a difference betweena person’s individual attachment to God and a ritualised way toexpress it. This distinction is evident in the way the Book uses wordsderived from the triliteral root ß-l-w. If it wants to refer to the connectionbetween the believer and God by way of rituals, it uses ßalawa,with the letter waw (as in Al-Når 24:37), 21 but if it refers to thepersonal, spiritual link with God which does not need to be outwardly20All translators render al-mußallån as ‘those who pray’ as they go back to the rootß-l-w, whereas MS prefers an association with the root w-ß-l ‘to connect’ and itsderivation ßila (connection, link, tie); see also his distinction between ß-l-w and ß-l-§below.21‘By men whom neither trade nor sale can divert from the remembrance ofAllah, nor from regular prayer ( al-ßalawa), nor from paying zakah, their only fear isfor the day when hearts and eyes will be turned about’ ( Al-Når 24:37).