Khushu and Concentration in Salah
Khushu and concentration is Salah is mentioned by Allah Subhana wa Taala in the Quran. In Surah AlMuminum (23:1-2) Allah says,
"Indeed successful are those believers, who are humble in their Salah (prayers)"
Khushu is something that I have had to build over time. Initially when the faith had not fully entered my heart, I had no real connection to Allah in my prayer (salah).
Never really understood why we needed to pray. I used to just follow my grandfather and father to the mosque and did not understand the true meaning of salah. I mean I knew that Allah existed and I knew that we asked Him for anything and everything. Just did not have the full faith flow into my heart to truly understand what connection to Allah through salah is.
I used to pray was in the real sense of the word disconnected from Allah Almighty.
But as I got back to my original state of being a slave and servant of Allah, I slowly got back some elements of the concentration in salah that I was trying to achieve. These are my personal opinions and thoughts and I am by no means a scholar.
I found one portion of a lecture I heard recently of Nouman Ali Khan in which he touched on the topic of khush in salah. It was interesting to note his thoughts and ideas which I feel were in conformity with the age we live in.
He basically said that when entering salah, prepare your mind for it. Prepare yourself in a way that you flush out whatever else that you had in your mind. E.g if you are a software programmer and you are going for your Zuhr salah in the middle of your work time. Then forget that zone, forget the codes that you were writing, forget the world that you exist in for that period of time. Imagine yourself in one of those scifi movies, where a person enters another world another dimension. Or imagine yourself in a glass ball and forget anything outside of it for that time period in which you are going to perform your salah. Remember Allah as how you imagine Him to be. Think of Allah and His Majesty. Think of Allah's magnificience. If you think of Allah, then it will be helpful in fulfilling your objective. Think of it as a small meeting between yourself and the Lord of the Worlds, in which you are going to communicating with Him and Him communicating with you.
As we see from the following hadith, that Allah responds to the Surah al Fatihah in the manner described.
Muslim recorded that Abu Hurayrah Razi Allah Taala Anhu said that the Prophet
said, (Whoever performs any prayer in which he did not read Umm Al-Qur'an, then his prayer is incomplete.) He said it thrice. Abu Hurayrah Razi Allah Taala Anhu was asked, "﴿When﴾ we stand behind the Imam''
He said, "Read it to yourself, for I heard the Messenger of Allah
say,
(Allah, the Exalted, said, `I have divided the prayer (Al-Fatihah) into two halves between Myself and My servant, and My servant shall have what he asks for.' If he says,
(All praise and thanks be to Allah, the Lord of existence.)
Allah says, `My servant has praised Me.' When the servant says,
(The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.)
Allah says, `My servant has glorified Me.' When he says,
(The Owner of the Day of Recompense.) Allah says, `My servant has
glorified Me,' or `My servant has related all matters to Me.' When he
says, (You (alone) we worship, and You (alone) we ask for help.)
Allah says, `This is between Me and My servant, and My servant
shall acquire what he sought.' When he says,
(Guide us to the straight path. The way of those on whom You have
granted Your grace, not (the way) of those who earned Your anger,
nor of those who went astray), Allah says, `This is for My servant,
and My servant shall acquire what he asked for.').''
These are the words of An-Nasa'i, while both Muslim and An-Nasa'i collected the following wording, "A half of it is for Me and a half for My servant, and My servant shall acquire what he asked for.''
For kids of today who play video games, understand the concept of different zones, different worlds, scifi concepts. Imagining ourselves disconnected from this dunia for a while and connected to a zone where we are standing in front of Allah will help us attaining khushu in our salah.
Another point is when we do ruko and sujood. In olden days or in some movies, you can see in the kingdom of a king of ruler, people bowed down or prostrated even to that king.
We Muslims bow down or prostrate to no man or king except the Lord of the Worlds, Allah subhana wa Taala the Mighty the All Powerful and the all worthy of Worship and Praise. Allah who is free from imperfection.
So during rukoo and sujood imagine yourself humbling yourself in front of the King of Kings the Ruler of the universe.
Another very important point that Nouman Ali Khan stressed of is learning Arabic and at least memorizing those little phrases and ayat that we say in our everyday salah so that we know what we are saying to Allah subhana wa Taala. Or in case of Quran recital, what Allah is saying to us. Because in every ayah there is guidance from Allah, we wouldn't be able to grasp that guidance and build that connection if we don't know what we are saying.
Simple phrases we can remember can be found in this link:
http://www.muslims.studentorgs.umich.edu/downloads/prayer%20times/Meaning%20of%20the%20Prayers.pdf
Slowly InshaAllah as we memorize these small phrases we can move on to bigger things and memorizing ayah of the Quran InshaAllah be iznillah.
Thank you for reading.
Anything that I have said right is from Allah Subhanawa Taa'la's guidance and help and anything I've said wrong is from the evils of my own self. Please correct me brothers and sisters if you find anything wrong with what I have written.
Wassalam.
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