Prayer is one of the most important obligations in Islam, and Imam al-Sadiq (as) praised this kind of worship in many of his speeches, as follows:
“Nothing, other than knowledge, makes a servant closer to Allah (SwT) than praying.
Prayer is the most important thing in Almighty Allah’s view on the Resurrection Day. What is better for a servant than having a good ablution?
Prayer saves all the devout.
The dearest practice to Allah, the Almighty and Majestic, is prayer. It is the last advice of the Prophet (S). So, whenever one wants to do the best, one may perform (the ritual) ablution and then change the place to somewhere quiet where no one can see him. Afterwards, one may turn to Allah (SwT) kneeling and bowing. Once a slave lengthens his prostration, Satan shouts saying: ‘Woe unto you! You obeyed and I did not, you prostrated and I denied.’”
Abu Basir narrated the following: “I visited Umm Hamidah to express my sympathy. She wept and I wept for her weeping. Then she said: Abu Muhammad! If you were looking at Abu Abdullah (as) when he was close to death, you would become astonished. He opened his eyes and said: ‘Gather all those whom there are relations between us.’ Then she added that they called all the relatives and left no one. He then looked at them and said:
‘Our intercession will not be for those who disparage prayer.’”
Many narrations have discussed the high regard and importance of prayer in the view of the Holy Imams (as). This emphasizes that prayer is amongst the best practices that draws nearer to Almighty Allah. When the Imam (as) planned to pray, his face would turn into yellow and his body would tremble because of fear of Allah (SwT) and His Majesty.
It is also worth mentioning that the Imam (as) would not miss any supererogatory prayer, which he used to perform with full submissiveness.
THE LIFE OF IMAM JAF’AR AL-SADIQ (AS) – BAQIR SHARIF AL-QURASHI