So this saying indicated that the prayer is a commander and a prohibiter, and that the one who mentions the name of his Lord is a "prayer" [Musallin/one who prays], and that these are movements of limbs, so how can it be a commander and prohibiter1?
If you say: Then why did He say it and urge2 it?
The answer: We have informed you that He established a Zahir [Outer] which He made a guide to the Batin [Inner]; and had He not done that, neither the Zahir nor the Batin would be known. And among what clarifies the corruptness of the [literal] Zahir is that it would have been obligatory, by way of Justice, when Allah sent Muhammad with this Law, that He send a messenger in the farthest land of China commanding them with what He commanded us, equally regarding obligations of [fasting, prayer, pilgrimage, Zakat, and Jihad] and other than that.
And it has been narrated to us that in China there are a people who have not heard the mention of Muhammad, nor did a messenger come to them with this meaning. Rather, the Creator [Al-Bari], Exalted is He, appears in every genus like them, indicating His existence, and He is not denied in the difference of Sharias [Laws] and manifestations [Zuhurat].