The Humility in Prayer

This is a treatise we have written concerning humility (Khushu) and the
hearts meakness and breaking (inkisar) before the Lord.

The basic meaning of Khushu, 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 would say in his bowing (ruku), ‘My hearing, sigh, bones, and
marrow are humbled to You,’ another narration has, ‘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 Khushu, 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 Khushu he has. The greatest action of worship which
manifests the Khushu, of the body to Allah is the prayer (salah). Allah
has praised those who have Khushu, in the prayer.

al-Hasan, may Allah have mercy on him, 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 be 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.

Hudhayfah said, ‘The first thing you will lose of your religion will be
Khushu 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 Khushu.

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