2. Salaah:
Our pious predecessors gave unprecedented focus on Salaah, given its importance.
It is reported that Abū Al-'Āliyah - Allāh have mercy on him - said:
I would travel for days to a man to hear [knowledge/ḥadīth ] from him, and the first thing I would check about him is his prayer: if he performed it properly I would stay and hear [knowledge] from him, but if he neglected it, I would return without hearing from him, and I would say, 'He will be even more neglectful of other matters.'
(Al-Khaṭīb Al-Baghdādī, Al-Riḥlah fī Ṭalab Al-Ḥadīth article 22; Al-Dhahabī, Siyar A'lām Al-Nubalā' 4:209.)
'Abdullāh b. Shaqīq Al-'Uqaylī - Allāh have mercy on him - said:
The Companions of Allāh's Messenger SA did not consider the leaving of any action to be kufr (unbelief), except the prayer (Salāh).
(Al-Tirmidhī, Al-Sunan ḥadīth 2622. Graded ṣaḥīḥ by Al-Albānī in his edition of Sunan Al-Tirmidhī.)
They were specific in the way they approached Salaah and gave it its due right in each and every position.
'Abdullâh b. Mubârak said:
I asked Sufyân Al-Thawrî, "When a man stands to pray, what should he intend by his recitation and prayer?" He replied, "He should intend that he is personally entreating his Lord."
(Muhammad b. Nasr Al-Marwazî, Ta'dhîm Qadr Al-Salâh Vol. 1 p199.)
Al-Rabī' b. Sulaymān reports:
Al-Shāfi'ī used to divide the night into three parts: he would write (knowledge) for the first third, pray during the second third and sleep during the last third.
It is reported from Ḥusayn Al-Karābīsī that he said:
I spent the night with Al-Shāfi'ī. He would pray for about a third of the night. I hardly ever saw him recite more than fifty verses (in the prayer), one hundred at most. Whenever he came to a verse about mercy, he would ask Allāh for His Mercy, for himself and for the believers; and whenever he came to a verse about punishment, he would seek Allāh's refuge from it, and ask salvation for himself and for all the believers. So it is as if both hope and fear were brought together for him.
(Al-Bayhaqī, Ma'rifatu Al-Sunan articles 362, 365.)
Abū Al-Dardā' - Allah be pleased with him - said:
It is from a person's knowledge and understanding that he sees to his needs first in order to turn to his prayer with a heart free of distractions.
(Ibn Al-Mubārak in Al-Zuhd wa Al-Raqā'iq Vol.2 p726)
Zayd b. Wahb reports:
We were once sitting in the masjid with Ḥudhayfah (ibn Al-Yamān) - Allah be pleased with him, when a man entered from the gates of Kindah and stood to pray; but he did not complete the bowing or prostration postures. When he had finished praying, Ḥudhayfah asked him, "How long have you been praying in this manner?" The man replied, "For forty years." Ḥudhayfah said, "You have not prayed for forty years! And if you were to die praying in this manner you would die upon a way (fiṭrah) other than the way of Muḥammad SA."
(Al-Bukhārī, Al-Ṣaḥīḥ, The Book of Adhān, without the mention of 40 years. A version in Al-Nasā'ī, Chapter on the Deficient Prayer, mentions the question and reply about 40 years. Shaykh Al-Albānī graded its chain of transmission ṣaḥīḥ in Sahīh Sunan Al-Nasā'ī no. 1311.)
Their adept khushoo (humble submissiveness) made their Salaah extraordinary.
'Alī b. Husayn, known as Zayn Al-'Ābidīn for his devout worship, was the great-grandson of the Prophet ﷺ. He was the only surviving son of Husayn, son of ʿAli b. Abī Tālib - Allah be please with them.
A fire once broke out in a house where 'Alī b. Husayn - Allah have mercy on him - was prostrate in prayer. He didn't raise his head until the fire went out. When asked about this he said:
"The other fire kept my mind busy."
(Al-Dhahabī in Siyar A'lām Al-Nubalā' under the biography of 'Alī b. Husayn Zayn Al-'Ābidīn.)
Al-Dhahabī reports that Zādhān was seen praying and it was as if he was a piece of wood or a tree in his stillness and humility in prayer.
(Al-Dhahabī, Siyar A'lām Al-Nubalā', in his biography of Zādhān.)
How did they attain such a level of khushoo?
It is reported that Bakr b. ʿAbdillāh Al-Muzanī - Allāh have mercy on him - said:
If you want your ṣalāh to benefit you, say (to yourself): perhaps I will never pray another (my life will end before the next prayer).
(Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Qaṣr Al-ʾAmal article 104.)
May Allah grant us the best gift of praying Salaah with the level of khushoo like that of our beloved Salaf. Aameen.
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