Chapter: Urging Devotional Humility (khushuʿ) in the Prayer

Introduction

A number of the early scholars defined khushuʿ in prayer as inner stillness throughout it.

Al-Baghawī added that khushuʿ must appear in one’s body, gaze, and voice.

Abū al-Shaymāʾ described it as humbling and submitting oneself to Allah with both heart and limbs.

Ibn al-Qayyim said: “The essence of khushuʿ is to humble oneself before the One who commands, to surrender to His ruling, and to comply with the truth—receiving every command with acceptance and obedience, yielding to every decree without objection or personal opinion. One’s heart is lowered and broken, knowing that the Lord is looking at his heart and limbs.”

On the basis of such definitions the scholars disagreed: Is khushuʿ an act of the heart, an outward act like bodily stillness, or a combination of both?

Al-Rāzī stated the third view: it encompasses both heart and limbs. His proof is the sound report from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib: “Were this man’s heart to be humble, his limbs would be humble as well.” This confirms the legal-linguistic sense that khushuʿ pertains to heart and body together. The optimum state, then, is for both to concur: the heart present and broken before Allah, the limbs motionless and quiet in meekness before Him—all of it rooted in vigilance of Allah.

Ibn al-Qayyim also said: “Know that khushuʿ grows only by keeping watch for the soul’s flaws and the defects of one’s deeds. When a person anticipates the emergence of his own shortcomings and the blemishes in his actions, his heart is inevitably humbled by observing the soul’s vices and the imperfections of its works—such as arrogance and self-admiration.”