The Humility in Prayer

This is a treatise we have written concerning humility, or khushuʾ, the heart's meakness, and its breaking before the Lord.

The basic meaning of khushuʾ is the softness of the heart, its being gentle, still, submissive, broken, and yearning. When the heart is humble, so too is the hearing, seeing, head, and face; indeed all the limbs and their actions are humbled, even speech. This is why the Prophet ﷺ would say in his bowing (rukuʾ), "My hearing, sigh, bones, and marrow are humbled to You," another narration having, "and whatever my foot carries."

One of the Salaf saw a man fidgeting in his prayer and remarked, "If the heart of this person was humble, so too would his limbs be." The source of khushuʾ that takes place in the heart is the gnosis of Allah's greatness, magnificence, and perfection. The more gnosis a person has of Allah, the more khushuʾ he has. The greatest action of worship which manifests the khushuʾ of the body to Allah is the prayer. Allah has praised those who have Khushu, in the prayer.

al-Hasan said, "When you stand in prayer, stand in due obedience as Allah has ordered you, beware of negligence and looking (here and there), beware that Allah is looking at you while you are looking at something else, asking Allah for Paradise and taking refuge with Him from the Fire; yet your heart is heedless, not knowing what the tongue is saying." And Hudhayfah said, "The first thing you will lose of your religion will be khushuʾ and the last thing you will lose of your religion will be the prayer; and it is well possible that there is no good in a person who prays; and soon will come a time when you shall entre a large Masjid and not see a single person with khushuʾ."

This small treatise deals with the correct and accurate meaning of khushuʾ, along with three extremely beneficial appendixes.