Developing Khushu in the Prayer

Prayer is the greatest of the practical pillars of Islam, and khushu in the prayer is required by share'ah. One of the shaytan's most significant plots became to divert people from prayer by all possible means and to whisper to them during their prayer so as to deprive them of the joy of this worship and cause them to lose the reward for it.

As khushu will be the first thing to disappear from the earth and we are living in the last times, the words of Hudhayfah (radiyAllah anhu) are particularly pertinent to us, “The first thing of your religion that you will lose is the khushu and the last thing that you will lose of your religion is prayer. There may be a person praying who has no goodness in him, and soon you will enter the masjid and not find anyone who has khushu.”

Because of what every person knows about himself, and because of the complaints that one hears from many people about waswaas (insinuating thoughts from shaytan) during the prayer and the loss of khushu, the need for some discussions of this matter is quite obvious.