Feel Allah’s Hayba! – which means to have a sense of fear and awe paired
with a deep reverence and veneration that one feels when standing in His
hands. An example of a small element of Hayba is what is felt towards a parent
or one in authority. Hayba is the highest level of fear. Recall the duas the
Prophet taught us which arouses in us this Hayba: “There is no salvation from
You except through You.” And “I seek refuge in You, from You.” There are angels
who have been in prostration and bowing since the day they were created and
will remain so until the Day of Judgment, saying - “Exalted are You, we have not
worshiped You as You deserve to be worshiped..”
With attributes such as “The Mighty”, “The Compeller”, “The [justifiably]
Proud”, “The Avenger”- the more you know about Allah [and the more you
know about yourself in comparison to Him], the more Hayba you will feel
towards Him. Everything is under His supremacy and His total control.
Who are we to defy His commands?! “What is the matter with you that you
are not conscious of Allah’s majesty..” Allah Almighty addresses us all, “O
mankind, it is you who are in need of Allah… If He wills, He can do away
with you and bring forth a new creation.”
The Prophet was describing the Hayba angel Jibreel felt before His Lord on
the night of Israa and Miraaj - He said, “Jibreel was like a worn-out camel’s cloth
from the fear of Allah!” Enter Salah with Great Love for Allah - For his beauty,
for his kindness in dealing with you and for His favours and blessings upon
you.
Feel a shyness and a shame - We commit much wrong but He continues to
be so patient with us and he continues to cover and protect us despite all our
transgressions. Allah says, “Certainly will the believers have succeeded - They who during
their prayer are humbly submissive.”
The above secrets will help you attain that “Khushu’”- that feeling of genuine
humbleness and submissiveness that must be reached in Salah for you to
benefit and succeed in this world and the next and for you to magnify the rewards
of your prayer. Do you notice how the flood of thoughts and distractions only comes once you start Salah [it’s not present before]? It is this very
Khushu’ that Satan always tries to steal away from you in Salah. A thief would
not bother stealing from a king’s palace because it is well guarded, nor from a
poor man’s house because it is empty.
The house he always aims for is the rich man’s house because it has the
wealth, but without the guards. This is what you are. You are the rich man-
You have the Khushu’ [the wealth], but you don’t have the guards that those
who have reached Khushu’s highest levels have [those of the palace]. And so
Satan will keep trying to distract you to steal away from your prayer’s worth.
But as you start applying what you’ve learned from this series and as you begin
to feel that happiness and peace that Salah was prescribed for, you will easily
begin to overcome these distractions and the quality of your Salah will improve
significantly.
Ask yourself, in which month do you feel you attain the most “khushu’”? It is
Ramadhan, isn’t it? And during which time in Ramadhan, specifically? It is
during the Taraweeh or night prayers, right? And in which segment of those
prayers, in particular? It is during the dua at the end - where everyone raises
their hands together and repeats a unified “Ameen” behind the Imam. That’s
when the eyes swell with tears and the sobs echo throughout the Masjid. Why
at that moment do we feel the Khushu’? What is different in this segment of
the prayer?
This is because at this moment, you suddenly feel that you are actually talking
to Someone.. You realize that you are conversing with Allah directly! Therefore,
to live these precious moments and achieve the needed Khushu’ not just
once a year, but in each and every Salah you perform everyday, feel with your
total being that you are: Talking to Him - Addressing Him - Conversing
with Him. Most people think Salah is a monologue and have forgotten that
our Salah is really a dialogue from beginning to end. Live this dialogue - Feel
the other side!
