By the remembrance of God the heart is moistened and softened, but by the remembrance of one’s passions and appetites it grows hard and dry.  The heart may be likened to a tree which derives its moisture and suppleness from water: If it is too preoccupied with its appetites to remember God, it is as if it had been deprived of water.  As a consequence, its roots dry up and its branches wither.  If it is not watered, it will be beset by the summer heat and its branches will become dry and brittle; then, if you draw one of its branches toward you, it will fail to bend and, instead, break off.  Such a tree is good for nothing but to be cut down and become fuel for the fire.

So also will the heart grow dry and brittle if it lacks the remembrance of God: It will be afflicted by the heat of the soul and the pleasures of the appetites, as a result of which one’s bodily members will be too brittle to bend to God’s will and will cease obeying Him.  If you bend them they will break, and will be good for nothing but to become tinder for the Great Fire. ¹

al-Tirmidhi on Prayer

Every prayer is an act of repentance, while the period between one prayer and the next is a time for heedlessness and alienation, of lapses and sins.  By virtue of heedlessness one grows distant from his Lord, and when he grows distant he is filled with wantonness and pride, since he lacks reverence and fear.  By virtue of alienation he becomes a stranger; by virtue of his lapses he falls and his foot slips and breaks; and by virtue of sins, he removes himself from a place of safety and is taken captive by the enemy.

The motions of prayer reflect different states in which the servant finds himself or herself.  By standing [in preparation for prayer] one ceases to be a fugitive; this is because, when one’s bodily members are free to do as they please, the spirit of servant-hood is weakened and one flees from one’s Master.  However, when one stands in His presence, one gathers one’s members together again and places oneself in the position of a servant.  By facing the qiblah, one ceases turning away from and spurning [God].  By uttering the words, ‘Allahu akbar’ [God is the Greatest], one abandons arrogant pride.  By uttering words of praise to God, one abandons heedlessness.  By reciting passages from the Qur’an, one surrenders oneself anew and renews one’s acceptance of the covenant which binds one to God.  Through the act of bowing, one is delivered from alienation.  By prostrating, one is delivered from guilt, by coming up again into a sitting position to utter the confessions of faith, one is delivered from perdition, and by uttering the closing phrase, ‘Al-salamu ‘alaykum wa rahmatu Allah’ [Maybe peace be upon you, and the mercy of God], one is delivered from supreme peril. ²

Taken from al-Tirmidhi al-Hakim’s book Al-Salah wa Maqasiduha.

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¹ Al-Salah wa Maqasiduha, pg. 9-10.
² Ibid., pg. 12.