Finding Khushū' in Ramadan

Finding Khushū' in Ramadan

As we begin the early days of Ramadan, the excitement, the enjoyment, the feel of community, the sweetness of the fast, the love of the Quran — it envelops us from every corner and from every direction. As we stand up for the night prayer, at the beginning of the night prayer, we are excited, we are listening, we are in full focus. But as the moments go by and the minutes go by, we start to lose that focus and we start to lose that motivation.

Many of us have the objective and the goal of a certain number of rak'ahs, a certain number of units of Salah, a certain number of pages that we want to recite. But there is something greater than this that we have to look for, we have to search for, we have to find, we have to seek in this Ramadan. It is not the number of rak'ahs we have to look for — it is the khushū', the humility, the connectedness that we find in Salah.

But this very Salah that we talk about, that we want to enjoy in the nights of Ramadan and the days of Ramadan — this Salah will feel like a burden, a heavy burden, except for one group of people: the Khāshi'īn. Who are the Khāshi'īn?