How to get Khushoo in Salah

Auto-generated transcript:Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillahirrabbilalameen. Wa salatu wa salamu ala ashrafil anbiya wal mursaleen. Muhammadur Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Tasliman kaseeran kaseera. Fahamna ba'du. My brothers and sisters, alhamdulillah, one of my friends asked me for some advice with regard to increasing khushu in salah. And subhanAllah, this is, I am no worry to give advice. My advice is given here in the context and in the way of reminding myself. Because khushu in salah is something that, I don't know about everybody, but certainly it's something that I sincerely believe that I need to. I need it as much as anybody else, if not more. And it's something that I am, you know, it's very important that we should have it. And khushu is one of the requirements for proper salah in the first place. I mean, it's not a frill, it's not a perk, it's not a fringe benefit, it's something which is, it's like a rukun of salah almost, that without khushu, salah is not valid. I don't mean that as a fatwa, I am just saying that the whole purpose of salah, which Allah SWT has said, aqim is salah, li dhikri, establish salah for my dhikr. Allah is saying this very specifically, aqim is salah, li dhikri. So, so ghafla in salah is literally like saying, I am hungry, I am eating, and my hunger is not going away. I mean, it's technically impossible, but this is the nature of things. So therefore, khushu and salah is absolutely critical. Now, how do we get there? The important thing to understand is that khushu and salah does not begin with salah. It doesn't begin when we stand there and say Allah Akbar. It begins in our whole life itself. First and foremost, khushu begins with our understanding of who Allah SWT is, and by understanding I don't mean, uh, cognitive or intellectual, uh, or theoretical understanding of who Allah SWT is, but what that feels in the pit of your belly. Uh, what is the first thought in the mind as soon as there is a problem? Do we think Allah, or do we think of something else? As one of my shaykhs used to say, if you have a headache, what is the first thing you think? Allah or Tylenol? Do you make dua, or do you look for a medicine? Nothing wrong in looking for a medicine, but is that, which is the first thought? So where is the khushu, where is the sincerity in asking? So do we ask Allah SWT, or we ask Allah only when, uh, you know, as an afterthought? Take for example, all the, uh, efforts, and the protests, and the marches, and the what not happening, uh, against this and that cause, uh, this and that situation, where Muslims are involved in. Um, but how many times have you seen people saying, let us make tawbah and istighfar? Let us make tawbah and istighfar, because Allah SWT's help comes to those who, Allah SWT, to those who have sought forgiveness, and who have turned towards Allah SWT. Faqultu istaghfiru rabbakum innahu kana ghaffara. You see, yusri al-samaha alaykum midrara, wa yumdidkum bi anbali wa baneen, wa yaj'al lakum jannati wa yaj'al lakum anhara. In Surah Nuh, Allah SWT mentioned and said that, faqultu istaghfiru rabbakum, and the Prophet says, oh my Rabb, I asked them, I told them to make istighfar, and I said to them, make istighfar, turn to your Rabb, apologize to him, be contrite, seek forgiveness, innahu kana ghaffara, surely he is the one who forgives. yusri al-samaha alaykum midrara, and then he will send down rain to you from the heavens, wa yumdidkum bi anbali, and he will help you with wealth, wa yaj'al lakum jannati wa yaj'al lakum anhara, yumdidkum bi anbali wa baneen, and he will help you with wealth, and with children, with meaning tribe, and which means influence, and, wa yaj'al lakum jannati wa yaj'al lakum anhara, and he will give you garden, then he will give you food, then he will give you food, then he will give you rivers, which refers to material benefits and wealth, and so on and so forth. The point being, all this will happen, faquldu astaghfir rabbakum, if you make istighfar to your Rabb. So salah begins with this sense of the greatness and glory and magnificence of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala in the heart, 24-7, and that comes from thinking about Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, reflecting on the glory and majesty of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, and that is the way of the Prophet Muhammad, and that is the way of the Prophet Muhammad, representing His Majesty, the Majesty of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, being grateful to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala for all that He has given us, and all that He chose not to give us, this is very, very important. This is very critically important. When we think about all this, then we become grateful to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. We continuously think about Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. That is when we stop playing games. That is when we get our ikhlas. That is when we become sincere, and we give this. And we think only of the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So salah begins with that. And this is 24-7 in our homes, in our workplaces and so on. Then there is a focus on and there is the importance of purification and purity, which is wudu, which is usul, the physical aspects of it, which is that must be done when we need to do it, because this is from the requirements of salah. So making perfect wudu, if usul is needed, make a usul, making sure that always our bodies, our clothes and so on are in a state of purity, both ritual purity and physical purity. Then the issue of keeping the heart pure, the internal purity, which comes and that's the reason why tasqeet and nafs is so important. That the heart must be free from all the impurities that fill the heart. So from jealousy and hatred, from greed, from envy and so on. All of this, the list is long. So remove all of this from the heart. Then the issue of purity of our actions. So our lives and our tongues, no swearing, no... ghiva, no backbiting and no slander, no lying and cheating and bearing false witness and all of the rest of the stuff which happens. So all of this must be very clearly, you know. So the issue of making sure that we do all that, make sure that we are pure in our actions. All of these relate to the purity of salah. Then the important... to get khushu and salah. Salah must become the most important... most important thing in our lives. Salah is the most important thing in our lives, but it should become even more important. Yesterday I was witness to a really beautiful little incident here in Hyderabad, where I am. The masjid is directly below my apartment. And my apartment is on the second floor. So on the first floor there is... somebody lives there and they have three or four small kids. So one of them who must have been about... he probably is about nine years old. He was standing in the balcony and his little brother was down below. And the little brother is probably about seven or so, seven or eight. So he had a football in his hand and he was bouncing it and he is... calling out to his brother and saying, come down and play. So he said, play. Come down and play. So this little fellow from the top, he doesn't reply to his call to come and play. He is telling him, did you pray Zohar? This little fellow says, no, I didn't pray. Then he says, he said, did you pray Asar? He said, I prayed at home. He said, did you pray Maghrib? He said, did you pray Maghrib? Because this was after Maghrib. And the little fellow didn't come with a muslim. He is probably about seven or eight, so he is not even farzani. But anyway, he said, no, I didn't pray. Then this older brother tells him, you don't feel ashamed to say that I did not pray. Now imagine, this is a conversation between two brothers. One of them is about nine. The other one is about seven. So I was thinking to myself that somebody is doing a good job raising this child. He said, aren't you ashamed to say you did not pray? Aren't you ashamed saying that you didn't pray? Then he is asking his little brother. So I'm thinking to myself, somebody is doing a good job raising these children, where the importance of Salah has been ingrained in them so strongly that, you know, they, they correct each other. I mean, the parents are not required for this reason. And they all come, they all come to the masjid, including a tiny little sister. She must be about five. So she comes there completely, yeah, with a proper hijab and everything else. And she comes and stands in the back. So beautiful. Now, on a side note, this brings me always to my pet peeve that today the root cause is absence of parenting or lousy parenting, or parenting by smartphones. You know, instead of parents doing their job, parents don't do their jobs and then they expect the job to be done by somebody else, which is nonsense. Anyway, so the issue of Salah, important of Salah, must be absolutely, Salah must be absolutely critical in our lives where we think of Salah as the number one important thing. So when we go to Salah with that sense of importance, then automatically khushu will happen. Like now imagine, supposing you're going to the, you know, may Allah keep all of you and all of us safe and free from all ill-wishes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And patients basically, you'll have all these ailments and diseases and so on. But imagine if you, uh, suspect that you have this absolutely, uh, life threatening illness, right? So some terrible thing, uh, and then you're going to see your doctor. You won't see a specialist to make sure that you are free from this, this, whatever it is, this cancer, right? Very, you're going there for that. So make sure that this is there. This is not that now imagine you are in this meeting with his doctor. I don't think you will have any issues about khushu, any issues about concentration, right? You won't be thinking about football scores or something. You are there because it is a life-threatening thing and you want to make sure it's not there