How to achieve khushu in Salah?
4 min read
1. Listen to and internalize the words you’re uttering in prayer
Be present with Allah by truly sensing and experiencing the words you’re reciting in prayer.
2. Make sure you are reciting Surah Al Fatihah correctly
If we properly recite and meditate on the Fatiha, it will fundamentally alter the experience of praying. The Fatiha genuinely opens hearts and represents the true needs of every person. It serves as a reminder of our goals, needs, and anxieties. There are seven verses total.
It makes all the difference if we’re truly present while saying to Allah “It is You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help. Guide us to the straight path” [Qur’an: Chapter 1, Verses 5-6]
We’re always making choices and decisions in life. Always. Everyday. In prayer, when we remember that we come from Allah 
, and then when we tell Him to guide us to the most perfect way (which is the best choice, and the best decision), we then truly put matters in perspective and learn how to rely and bond with our Creator.I was once going to a faraway location to attend an event. I didn’t know the direction, but my brother did. So, he kept calling me every five minutes to tell me where to go, which road to take, which turn etc. At first, I thought this was really too much and unnecessary. However, when he stopped calling for 20 minutes, I got distracted in a conversation with another passenger. Hence, I completely missed the road that I was supposed to take. It wasted a lot of time, and I really then appreciated those calls that he was making.
Five times a day we do that with Allah ! Five times a day we tell Him “guide us”, to show us which way to go.
But if we’re not really listening, if we’re not paying attention and if we’re distracted, then we’ll miss the point, and we’ll miss the destination.
3. Always, always, always make dua during/after your prayer
It is a dialogue between you and Allah . It is not a monologue. Needing Allah and asking Him for what we need truly helps with achieving concentration. If you’re in a lecture or a meeting with someone important, for example, and you need to ask for a favour at the end of that meeting, you will really try to listen and be attentive to show that you’re worthy of receiving that which you’re about to ask for.
Now, Allah tells us to ask Him for everything. One hadith mentions:
“‘Let one of you ask his Lord for his every need, even until he asks Him for the strap of his sandal when it breaks.’” [At-Tirmidhi]
This is also a very important hadith, where the Prophet Muhammad 
says:
“Verily supplication is worship.” [At-Tirmidhi]
So dua itself is worship. We’re supposed to ask of Allah – all the time, every day, for every thing – not only when we need something ‘big’. We never really stop needing Allah, and dua is a reminder of that. It deepens the bond and connection between us and Him.
Remember the precious words of advice that the Prophet gave Ibn Abbas 
:
“Be mindful of Allah and you shall find Him with you. When you ask (for anything), ask it from Allah
4. Diversify the surahs you use in prayer
Each of the surahs is a world of its own. We need to enter into the world of the Qur’an. This will help us be present and enter into the mood of the prayer. The feeling that we get when we recite Surat Ad-Duhaa, is not the same feeling we get when we recite Surat At-Takwir and not the same feeling we get when we recite Surat Al-A’la, for example.
I remember one particular prayer that truly affected me the most. There were certain circumstances that were happening around me, and at the beginning of the prayer, for some reason, a particular surah came to mind. As I began to recite that surah, I realised how each ayah was describing the circumstances we were living in, and it hit me so much, as if Allah was Listening, Seeing and Responding directly to what’s happening. I was reciting words that explained my inner feelings as well as what I was witnessing externally. It felt so real, so heavy, yet reassuring at the same time.
So let us memorise more of the short surahs, at least, with their tafseer so we can understand fully what we’re saying and experience it. There are many initiatives that help with that. You can use Bayyinah podcast for tafseer of Juz‘ Amma, for example, which is a really beneficial resource.
The more we know from the Qur’an, the more we’ll allow Allah to speak to us. He speaks to us through those words. We need to know them by heart, to allow Him and His presence to enter into our hearts and manifest in our prayers.
5. Confide to Allah like you confide to your best friend
I have a friend who told me that whenever anything (good or bad) happens, she rushes to prayer to tell Allah , to complain, cry, ask for help and guidance. She says Allah is the only One who was there during the entire situation and knows it fully, inside out. She says, “I don’t need to call a friend and explain everything from the beginning. She may or may not get me. But Allah already gets what I mean and He saw everything.”
So, let us rush to prayer like we rush to tell a friend about our day and about our problems.
The Prophet used to say about prayer:
“O Bilal, call iqamah for prayer: give us comfort by it.” [Sunun Abi Dawud]
We get comfort when we pour our hearts out and tell everything to a close friend. It is like a great conversation that you don’t want to end. That’s what we need to do with Allah .
“Allah is the ally of those who believe. He brings them out from darknesses into the light.” [Qur’an: Chapter 2, Verse 257]
Let us enter into the prayer so that Allah would bring us out of the darknesses of our lives and our problems into His Light, because Allah is The Light.
Summarized from : Productive Muslim
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