Humility in Prayer By Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali

And seek help through patience and prayer, and indeed, it is difficult except for the humbly submissive [to Allah]

— Surah al-Baqarah 2:45 (Saheeh International)

About This Book

Humility in Prayer by Imam Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali is a concise treatise on khushu — the quality Allah singled out in the verse above as the thing that makes the prayer light rather than burdensome. Ibn Rajab defines it, traces it to its source, shows how it manifests, and explains what its loss means for a person's religion.

The basic meaning of khushu, as he presents it, is the softness of the heart — its being gentle, still, submissive, broken, and yearning. And when the heart is humble, the limbs follow: the hearing, the sight, the head, the face, even the speech. The outward stillness of a person in prayer is not the cause of khushu but its evidence.

What This Book Covers

The Meaning of Khushu and Where It Comes From

Ibn Rajab locates the source of khushu in knowledge of Allah — His greatness, His magnificence, and His perfection. The more a person knows of their Lord, the more khushu they possess. This makes khushu a fruit of knowledge rather than a mood that visits some worshippers and not others, and it explains why it can be sought and cultivated deliberately.

Why the Prayer Is Where Khushu Appears

Of all the acts of worship, the prayer is the one in which the body's humility before Allah is most fully expressed — which is why Allah praised those who have khushu specifically within their prayer. The treatise draws out the connection between the inward state and the outward posture, including the supplications the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) made in bowing, in which he described his hearing, his bones and his marrow as humbled before Allah.

The Statements of the Salaf on Presence of Heart

Ibn Rajab gathers the observations of the early generations — among them the remark of one of the Salaf, on seeing a man fidgeting in his prayer, that if this person's heart were humble his limbs would be also; and al-Hasan's warning against standing before Allah asking for Paradise and refuge from the Fire while the heart is heedless and does not know what the tongue is saying.

The First Thing Lost from the Religion

Among the most sobering material in the treatise is the report from Hudhayfah that khushu is the first thing a person loses of their religion and the prayer is the last — and that a time would come when a person could enter a large masjid and not find a single worshipper with khushu in it. Ibn Rajab uses this to establish the urgency of the subject rather than to induce despair.

About the Author

Imam Zayn al-Din Abu al-Faraj Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali (736–795 AH) was among the imams of Ahl as-Sunnah who followed the way of the Salaf as-Salih — a leading scholar of hadith, fiqh and tazkiyah in the Hanbali tradition, educated in Damascus under the foremost scholars of his era. His shorter treatises on the states of the heart are among the most widely read works of their kind in English. Published by Dar as-Sunnah Publishers.

Who This Book Is For

Every Muslim who prays five times a day and knows, honestly, that their heart is often somewhere else. Those who have tried to concentrate in salah through effort alone and found it does not hold. New Muslims who have learned the form of the prayer and want to understand what is supposed to be happening inside it. And any student of knowledge who wants a short, dense, classical treatment of khushu from one of its finest expositors.

Continue Reading

Browse more works by Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali. Khushu is treated by several of the imams we carry — compare Ibn al-Qayyim's Inner Dimensions of the Prayer and Ibn Qudamah's The Inner Secrets of Worship. Browse the full salah and Islamic prayer collection, or see the rest of this author's works in Books by Ibn Rajab: where to start.