Introduction: Humility in Prayer (Khushu' in Salah)

Humility in Prayer — al-Khushu' fi al-Salah — is an authoritative and deeply practical work by Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali (d. 795 AH / 1393 CE) on the essential inner quality that the Quran describes as the defining mark of the truly successful believers: "Certainly will the believers have succeeded: they who are during their prayer humbly submissive (khashi'un)." (Al-Mu'minun 23:1-2).

Khushu' in prayer is the presence of the heart before Allah — awareness of His majesty, consciousness of His gaze, a sense of standing before the Lord of the worlds. It is what distinguishes a prayer that is merely physical movement from a prayer that is a genuine act of worship. The Prophet ﷺ was known to stand in prayer with his chest making a sound like a boiling kettle out of weeping and awe; this is the standard that khushu' points toward.

Ibn Rajab's work is comprehensive in its scope. He addresses the definition of khushu' and its categories; its status in the Quran and Sunnah; the accounts of the Companions and the righteous predecessors regarding their experience of it; the causes of its absence — chief among them sins, excessive attachment to the world, too much eating and socializing, and heedlessness; and the practical means of cultivating it. These means include: purifying the heart through repentance and remembrance of Allah; preparing carefully for prayer before entering it; reflecting on the meanings of what is recited; imagining that this prayer might be one's last; and choosing the best times and places for worship.

Alongside Ibn al-Qayyim's Inner Dimensions of Prayer, this work forms one of the two most important classical treatments of the spiritual interior of Islamic prayer, and remains as relevant and practically valuable today as when it was written.