Al-Ghazali prescribed forms for morning and evening prayer which do not differ greatly from the prayers recommended in Christian manuals of devotion. His teaching on prayer is an effort to spiritualize the ceremony, and in this he follows the teaching of the older Sufis. Absorption in God during prayer was their ideal. To avoid distraction men were advised to pray towards a blank wall, lest any architectural ornament might distract their attention. Others boasted that they could attain to absorption under any circumstances. “There were saints who when they started their _salat_ told their women-folk that they might chatter as much as they liked and even beat drums; they were too much absorbed in prayer to hear, however loud the noise. When one of them was saying his _salat_ in the Mosque of Basrah a column fell, bringing down with it an erection of four storeys; he continued praying, and when after he had finished the people congratulated him on his escape, he asked, what from? Great names were quoted for the practice of praying hastily, and so shortening the time taken by the devotion as to give Satan no chance of distracting the thoughts.” Al-Ghazali, however, believed in reverence and emphasized outward and inward preparation for this act of devotion. “Prayer,” says he, “is a nearness to God and a gift which we present to the King of kings even as one who comes from a distant village brings it before the ruler. And your gift is accepted of God and will be returned to you on the great day of judgment, so that you are responsible to present it as beautiful as possible.” He quotes with approval a saying of Mohammed: “True prayer is to make one’s self meek and humble,” and adds that the presence of the heart is the soul of true prayer and that absent-mindedness destroys all its value. “True prayer,” he continues, “consists of six things: the presence of the heart, understanding, magnifying God, fear, hope, and a sense of shame.” He then treats successively these elements of true prayer, showing in what they consist, how they are occasioned and how they may be secured. We secure the presence of our hearts by a deep sense of the eternal. What he says in regard to God’s greatness may well be compared with such passages as the eighth Psalm, “What is man that Thou art mindful of him?” Our sense of shame is quickened, he says, by remembering our shortcomings in worship. The only way we can secure the presence of the heart in prayer is by drawing our thoughts away from outward diversions and from those within. We should not pray in the public streets, for there our mind is diverted. If we can pray towards a dead wall on which there is nothing to see it will be helpful. But the inward withdrawal of the heart is still more important.