How to Achieve Khushoo in Salah?

Once a righteous man named Hatim al Asam was asked how to attain concentration in prayer. He replied:

“I imagine that the Ka’bah is in front of me, Al Sirat is under my feet, Jannah (Paradise) is to my right and Jahanam (Hell) is to my left, that the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) is watching me praying and the Angel of Death is behind me waiting for me to finish praying so he can take my soul. Then I would stand between hope and fear. Carefully pronounce “Allahuakbar (God is Great)!” Then recite the Qur’an harmoniously, bow in humility and prostrate submissively. Then with a big hope in Allah’s mercy, I wonder if He accepted my prayer. Always perform prayer as if it’s your last one because you never know when you will die.”

Isn’t this great advice? This is a small but effect advice for the Muslims to who are seeking Khushoo in salah. Khushoo is concentration. Concentrate with full soul and mind towards Allah in salah. Allah doesn’t need salahs that are carelessly thrown at him without heart. Muslims who pray salah just to fulfill the obligation are doing wrong and should stop it as soon as possible. We don’t know about our life, maybe the salah we are praying might be our last one. So every salat is important and should be performed with khushoo and heartedly!!!   

Khushoo in Salah

Salah is the first pillar and an important practice of Islam. To do this practice Muslims are encouraged to perform it with concentration (Khushoo). Iblees, the enemy of Islam has made it his mission to divert Muslims from the right path. The best way he uses is to whisper immoral thoughts (waswass) to believers when they are standing in front of Allah during salah.

Allah says (interpretation of the meaning) in the holy Quran: “Successful indeed are the believers, those who offer their salah (prayers) with all solemnity and full submissiveness.” [Al-Mu’minoon 23:1-2]

Khushoo’ means calmness, serenity, tranquility, dignity and humility. It is the fear of Allah and the sense that He is watching your every step. As the ayat says that salah requires full submissiveness and earnestness in its performance and those who do this are the most successful believers. Obedience, humbleness, solemnest or submissiveness all combine to form i.e. khushoo. Khushoo lies in the heart and its effect is seen in the physical practice. Heart can be a home of many vile articles. It can be corrupted by negligence or insinuating whispers from Satan. The heart is like a king and the faculties are like his troops who follow his orders and go where they are commanded. If the king is deposed, his followers are lost, which is like what happens when the heart does not worship properly.

Our feelings, emotions, carnal desires and wishes are objects that deviate our attention. We think about worldly matters and forget what we are supposed to do actually. We and Satan are to blame partly for this behavior. Satan deviates us and we carelessly let him do it. If we keep ourselves focused then it might not be a problem at all. Khushoo is not hard to obtain. It can be obtained with patience and help from Quran and Hadith.