Every time i pray i cannot seem to pray with full concentration
Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa
Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)
One of our brothers/sisters has asked
this question:
assala
mu allaikum
dear
brother,
i am
some who prays five times a day, however, every time i pray i cannot seem to
pray with full concentration, i allways have other thoughts running through me,
which i know is very bad. i am trying hard to get myself to concentrate on what
im saying in prayer, can you please give me some guilines or ideas of how to
improve my concntration while praying.
jazzak
allah khayr
(There may be some grammatical and spelling
errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from
questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in
confidentiality.)
Answer:
Concentration khushu humility in prayer
In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask
for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever
He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that
there is none worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that
Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.
Beloved sister in Islam, no matter how pious and God-fearing a
believer is, very very few amongst the
believers can control their flow of thoughts in their prayers, for our avowed enemy, the Shaitaan, always tries to put thoughts into our minds
when we offer our prayers.
There are a few basic things one
can do to minimize these thoughts:
- Seek the refuge in Allah Subhanah from the
accursed Shaitaan, before starting
the prayer.
- Understand the simple and basic meaning of the
prayers, so that one may try to
concentrate on the meanings of what one is beseeching his Merciful Lord
when in prayer.
- Remember that when one is in prayer, he is actually in audience of the Lord
of the Worlds; and try to bring
himself to a state as if he is reciting his prayers in the Presence of his
Lord.
- If one cannot bring himself to that state
while in prayer, he should at least
try to remember and know for sure,
that his Lord is watching over him;
for indeed, Allah Subhanah
is All-Seeing, All Knowing.
Sahih Al-Bukhari
Hadith 6.300 Narrated by Abu
Huraira
Hadrat Jibrael (a.s.)
(who came in the form of a human being)
asked the Messenger of Allah (saws) : , "O Messenger of Allah, what is Ihsan (i.e. perfection or
benevolence)?" The Prophet (saws)
said, "Ihsan is to worship Allah as if you see Him, and if you do not achieve this state of
devotion, then (take it for granted that) Allah sees you."
Beloved
sister, this feeling and pain of yours, and your ardent desire to remove the
worldly thoughts when you are in state of prayer, is in itself a sign of your
‘emaan’ and your love for Allah Subhanah and His devotion! And it is your this ‘emaan’ and love for
Allah Subhanah that the evil Shaitaan is trying to negate, for the cursed Shaitaan hates nothing more
than when he sees a believer worshipping his Lord with humility and
devotion! Shaitaan is the avowed enemy
of the believer, and if he cannot hold
back the believer from his prayers, he
will try to put thoughts into the believer when he prays, and tries to despair the believer of Allah’s
Worship!
Allah Says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 114 Surah An-Naas verses 4-5:
4 (Say, I seek refuge in Allah) from the mischief of the
Whisperer (of Evil), who withdraws
(after his whisper)
5 (The same) who whispers into the hearts of
mankind.
Allah Says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 7 Surah Aaraaf verses 16-17:
16 He (Shaitaan) said:
"because Thou (Allah) hast thrown
me out of the way; Lo! I will lie in wait for them (the believers)
on Thy Straight Way.
17 "Then will I
assault them; from before them, and behind them, from their right, and their left: nor wilt Thou find in most of
them gratitude (for Thy mercies)
Abu Hurairah
reports that the Prophet (saws) said: "When the call to prayer is made,
the Satan takes to his heels... and when it is finished, he returns. He flees again when the iqamah is made, and when it is finished, he returns until he comes between the man and
his thoughts, saying: 'Remember this and remember that,' which he had not
recalled, until the person does not know how much he has prayed, [i.e.,] three
or four rak'at.”
(This is narrated
by al-Bukhari and Muslim.)
Thus, my beloved sister in Islam, don’t let the thoughts bother you, and as
soon as you realize that this is a ploy and tactic of the Shaitaan to take you
away from your prayers, try your best to
concentrate on your prayers and continue your supplications to the Merciful
Lord in humility and in sincere devotion.
Such
thoughts also came into the hearts of some of the most noblest companions of
the Messenger of Allah (saws), and he (saws)
advised them thus:
Sahih Muslim Hadith
5463 Narrated by Uthman ibn Abul'As
Uthman came to
Allah's Messenger (saws) and said: “O Allah's
Messenger (saws), the Satan intervenes between me and my prayer, and my reciting of the Qur'an and he
confounds me.” Thereupon Allah's
Messenger (saws) said: “That is (the
doing of the Shaytaan) who is known as Khinzab,
and when you perceive its effect, seek refuge with Allah from it, and spit three times to your left.” I did that and Allah dispelled that from me.
Sahih Muslim Hadith
6623 Narrated by Hanzalah Usayyidi,
I met AbuBakr. He said: “Who are you?” I (Hanzalah) said: “Hanzalah has turned out
to be a hypocrite.” He (AbuBakr) said: “Hallowed be Allah, what are you
saying?” Thereupon I said: “I say that
when we are in the company of Allah's Messenger (saws), we ponder over Hell-Fire and
Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to
Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only
Source of Strength.
Your brother and
well wisher in Islam,
Burhan
Wister