Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Let your real prayer be doing justice; let your real creed be knowing the One who can't be fully known.
Roll out your prayer-mat by mastering your five inner troublemakers — that's true religion.
Now Kabir does something wonderful: he takes each piece of Islamic devotional practice and fills it with inner meaning. Let your prayer be the doing of justice — real prayer is treating people fairly. Let your creed be knowing the unknowable One — real belief is a living relationship with the One, not just words. Spread your prayer-mat by conquering your five desires — real worship is mastering the grasping, angry, greedy pulls inside you. This is Kabir honoring the form by revealing its soul: the outward acts were always pointing at these inner realities — justice, knowing, self-mastery. For a child of any faith, it's a golden key: the real meaning of every good practice is to make you just, aware, and kind.
If 'real prayer is doing justice,' what would a day of that kind of praying look like?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI