Khutbah - “Humility in Prayer”

Friday Khutbah (18/7/2003) delivered by Shaykh Muhammad Taher

Indeed all praise is due to Allah, we praise Him, seek His aid and ask His forgiveness. We seek shelter in Allah from the evil of our own souls and the evil of our own actions. Whoever Allah has guided then no one can misguide him and whoever Allah has caused to be misguided then no one can guide him.

I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone and I bear witness that Muhammad is his slave and messenger, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, his family and all of the righteous. Amin.

My dear Brothers and Sisters,
Prayer has a tremendous and blessed position in Islam, as the person praying stands alone with his Lord, the only deity truly worthy of worship. Prayer is the link between the slave and his Lord and we have been ordered to beautify it, embellish it and perform it as perfectly as we can.

My dear Brothers and Sisters,
Prayer is compulsory upon us and the extra prayers we pray are a means of becoming closer to Allah the Exalted, reviving our souls and illuminating our hearts, as to elevate our rank with our Creator and Sustainer.

And if we were to ask what is the essence of the revival of our souls and the illumination of our hearts? We would find that it is having humility in our prayers, as it is through having humility in prayer that our rank is elevated with our Lord.
So what is the reality of this?

Having humility in prayer is to have presence of heart in front of Allah the Exalted, bring to mind His closeness, His greatness, His exaltedness, His magnificence, His power and His might, as to cause our hearts to feel tranquil, to bring stillness to our bodies and as not to allow our attention to wander, as all of this is having manners in front of Allah, our Lord. We should pay attention to all of our statements and actions in our prayer, from the beginning to the end, so that our minds don’t wander and there are no bad thoughts, as this is the essence of establishing and perfecting the prayer, so that we may be rewarded for it in the best of ways.

As such, a prayer that has no humility in it, or presence of mind, even if it was correct in terms of its positions and movements, then its reward is little and its effect on the heart and soul is even less.

My dear Brothers and Sisters,
Allah has indeed praised those who are humble in many places in the Noble Qur`an, He the Exalted says,

“Indeed successful are the believers, those who humble in their prayers ...” (24:1-2)

They are humble worshippers whose hearts feel reverence during their prayers in front of Allah, and thus their hearts tremble, become tranquil and fearful, all of this resulting in humbleness. Consequently, this feeling spreads from the heart to the rest of the body, so that the eyes cry and tears are shed, trembling out of fear and reverence for the speech, the command and the revelation of Allah. This in turn spreads to the mind and the intellect, so that all thoughts are concerned only with Allah and they are concerned with nothing other than Him.

So if your heart became humbled to the magnificence of your Lord, then your sight, hearing and all other parts of your body will follow suit. As such the Prophet, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, would say during his bowing in the prayer, “My hearing, my sight, my mind and my body are humbled before You.” (Related by Muslim)

In addition, Allah the Exalted says in the Qur'an,

“Hasn’t the time come for those who have believed that their hearts should become humbly submissive to the remembrance of Allah and what has been revealed of the truth? And let them not be like those who were given the scripture previously, such that a long period passed and their hearts became hardened and many of them were corrupt.” (57:16)

In other words, hasn’t the time come that the believers hearts should humbled to the remembrance of Allah and become soft upon hearing the reminder, the admonition, the Qur`an and when standing in front of the All Merciful?

And it is reported that the Prophet, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, would supplicate saying, “O Allah, I seek shelter in you from unbeneficial knowledge, from a heart that has no humility, from a soul that will never be satisfied and from a supplication that will not be heard.”

In addition, Allah the Exalted also addresses us in the Qur'an saying,

“Indeed, in the Messenger of Allah there is a beautiful pattern of conduct for whoever places his hope in Allah and the Day of Judgement and remembers Allah often.” (33:21)

Indeed, the Prophet, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was the most complete of people regarding humility, as he was humble in word and deed and if he stood to pray, he would lower his head out of reverence for Allah, he neither glanced from side to side nor did he speak, as if he knew no one. If he prayed the sound of his chest heaving due to him crying could be heard and if he prayed in the middle of the night he would repeat certain verses and weep, as is it related in a hadith that he prayed in the night and repeated the verse, “If You punish them then indeed they are Your slaves and if You forgive them then You are the All Mighty, the All Wise.”

My dear Brothers and Sisters,
From the greatest reasons which cause a person to have humility is their intimate knowledge of Allah, His magnificence, His might and His power, as humility in the hearts varies according to the amount of knowledge one has of Allah, His greatness and His majesty.  Secondly, another reason which causes a person to have humility is to remember his sins, disobedience and transgressions and also remember in contrast, Allah’s forgiveness and the spaciousness of His mercy. We should also bring to mind that our prayer is our meeting with our Lord, where the slave converses with his Sustainer, to ask Him to forgive all that he has done.

Thirdly, another reason which causes a person to have humility is to imagine that the prayer we are praying is our final prayer in this worldly life and that there will be no prayer after it. We should remember that there is no action after death, indeed there is only recompense and an account to be settled. In fact, the first thing we will be questioned about is our prayers, so if they are in order then so will be all our other actions but if they are deficient then similarly, all our other actions will be deficient.

My dear Brothers and Sisters,
Indeed, the slave is closest to his Lord when he is humble in his prayers, as the prayer that Allah has made a compulsory duty on the slaves is not merely a sequence of movements that are performed, as is the case with most people, except upon whom Allah had mercy.

In fact Allah the Exalted, said in the Qur'an, “… Establish prayer …” and establishing the prayer means to perform prayer with humility, stillness and tranquillity. Due to this the Prophet, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, told a man who was hasty in his prayer, not completing its bowing and prostration, “Go back and pray as indeed you have not prayed.”

In addition, the Prophet, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, described a person who rushes his prayer as being a thief, as he is reported to have said, “Indeed, the worst of people who steal is the one who steals from his prayer .” The Companions asked, “O Messenger of Allah how does he steal from it?” He, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, replied, “By not completing its bowings and prostrations.”

As such, a person only receives a reward for his prayer according to how much he had presence of mind and how humble he was in it. Due to this the Prophet, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, is reported to have said, “Indeed, a man walks away having performed his prayer and all that it is written from it is a tenth, or a ninth, or an eighth, or a seventh, or a sixth, or a fifth, or a quarter, or third or a half.”

As for the person who performed his prayers as they should be prayed, then he will have the reward of having the minor sins he committed between prayers forgiven.

Indeed, it is Allah who grants success and it is His aid that we seek.

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