5 Ways to Deal with Prayer Distractions
16 June, 2020
QI have been bothered by this thought of mine about sinning. During this year 2020, many bad things happened to the world and it affected me specially my prayers. During the past 5 months, I have been offering distracted prayers wherein i cannot convey my true intentions because I am interrupted by negative thoughts and images keep popping in my head. I feel very guilty about this and I'm asking for your advice on how can I overcome this.
ANSWER
Dina Mohamed Basiony
16 June, 2020
Short Answer:
Allah won’t hold us accountable for those evil thoughts if we don’t act on them. But do try to purify your thoughts and ward off those negative thoughts about sinning by busying yourself with healthy, productive activities.
Read on to learn these 5 Ways to Deal with Prayer Distractions.
Peace be upon you, our Dear Sister,
Thank you for sending your question.
Muslims Meditate
Do Muslims Meditate?
How to Get Rid of Negative Thoughts in Prayer
Regarding the negative thoughts that come to your mind while praying, The Prophet (peace and blessings upon him) taught us how to deal with it. Uthman b. Abu al-‘As reported that he came to Allah’s Messenger (peace and blessings upon him) and said:
Allah’s Messenger, the Satan intervenes between me and my prayer and my reciting of the Qur’an and he confounds me. Thereupon Allah’s Messenger (peace and blessings upon him) said: That is the doing of Satan 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]
So, do try this next time you get prayer distractions and just continue normally.
If you get distracted still that you forget parts or get confused inside the prayer, then here is what you need to do as prescribed in the hadith. It was narrated from Abu Hurairah that the Prophet (peace and blessings upon him) said:
“Satan comes to anyone of you while he is praying and comes between him and his soul until he does not know whether he as added something or omitted something. If that happens, then he should prostrate twice before the Salam, then he should say the Salam.” [Sunan Ibn Majah]
Dhikr and Quran to Ward off The Devil and his Whispers
In addition to that, to keep the negative thoughts away, it is highly recommended that you devotedly recite the morning and evening adhakar because they protect from the devil and his whispers.
Also, if you managed to recite Surat Al Baqarah at home that would help greatly as the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings upon him) says:
“Do not turn your houses into graveyards. Satan runs away from the house in which Surat Al-Baqarah is recited.” [Muslim]
And always seek refuge in Allah from the evil whispers saying ‘a’udhu biAllahi min asShaitan asRajeem‘ (I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed devil).
Negative thoughts are from Satan and Satan’s plots are always weak when we seek the help of Allah the All-Powerful, The Master of everything, and everyone in the heavens and the earth.
Contemplating on the Powerful Conversation in Prayer
To help you focus on prayer, remember that when you recite Al Fatiha (The Opening Chapter) you immediately enter into a conversation between you and Allah, The King of the Universe. The Prophet [saw] explained how this conversation goes:
He [saw] said that Allah the Exalted had said:
“I have divided the prayer into two halves between Me and My servant, and My servant will receive what he asks. When the servant says: Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the universe, Allah the Most High says: My servant has praised Me. And when he (the servant) says: The Most Compassionate, the Merciful, Allah the Most High says: My servant has lauded Me. And when he (the servant) says: Master of the Day of judgment, He remarks: My servant has entrusted (his affairs) to Me. And when he (the worshipper) says: You alone we worship and of You alone do we ask help, He (Allah) says: This is between Me and My servant, and My servant will receive what he asks for. Then, when he (the worshipper) says: Guide us to the straight path, the path of those to whom You has been Gracious not of those who have incurred Your displeasure, nor of those who have gone astray, He (Allah) says: This is for My servant, and My servant will receive what he asks for.” [Sahih Muslim]
The Thought of Sin & Allah’s Mercy
Regarding your question on thinking about sinning, narrated Abu Huraira, The Prophet (peace and blessings upon him) said,
“Allah forgives my followers those (evil deeds) their souls may whisper or suggest to them as long as they do not act (on it) or speak.” [Sahih Al Bukhari]
5 Ways to Deal with Prayer Distractions
Allah won’t hold us accountable for those evil thoughts if we don’t act on them. But do try to purify your thoughts and ward off those negative thoughts about sinning by busying yourself with healthy, productive activities.
To say goodbye to prayer distractions, make a productive plan for your day that includes:
1- Marinating your adhkar & prayers.
2- Listening to lectures that have beneficial knowledge and reminder.
3- Engaging in volunteering and helping others for the sake of Allah.
4- Being among groups of righteous companions who aid one another in doing good works.
5- Studying the meaning of the Quran. It’s very powerful and keeps your heart and mind engaged and ward off the thoughts of sin.
4 Things To Overcome Anti-Blackness & Racism Within Ourselves & Our Communities
Made a Mistake? Repent and do a Good Deed to Wipe out the Bad Deed
Most importantly, if you make a mistake, then immediately repent and do a good deed to wipe out the bad deed.
“And establish prayer at the two ends of the day and at the approach of the night. Indeed, good deeds do away with misdeeds. That is a reminder for those who remember.” (Qur’an 11:114)
Don’t give up or lose hope ever. Remember Allah says:
“‘O son of adam, I forgive you as long as you pray to Me and hope for My forgiveness, whatever sins you have committed. O son of ‘Adam, I do not care if your sins reach the height of heaven, then you ask for my forgiveness, I would forgive you. O son of ‘Adam, if you come to Me with an earth load of sins, and meet Me associating nothing to Me, I would match it with an earth load of forgiveness.”‘ [At- Tirmidhi].
How Can I Improve Focus and Spirituality During Prayer?
02 August, 2017
QAssalaam Alaikum, Alhamdu-li-Allah, I pray and fast and read the Quran. But when I go to pray, things come to my mind about this world like what am I gonna do after praying and things like that. I start thinking while I am praying. I feel I am not praying and am not in khushu’ to Allah (humbly submitting to Allah). What should I do? I want to pray while I am feeling I am praying and not thinking about this world. I want to feel when I am praying that I am really close to Allah. How could I do that? Please help me and may Allah help you. P.S. I heard that this happens with lots of people. Also they say if you pray and after you are done you still remember what you read, its not haram, but if you are done and you can’t remember what u read, it is I think haram. When I am done with praying I try to remember what I read but I can’t remember all of them, just sometimes the last things I read. What should I do????? Jazakum Allah alf kheir
ANSWER
Daud Matthews
02 August, 2017
Salam Dear Sabah,
Thank you for your question and for contacting Ask About Islam.
Many Muslims are aware they could pray in a better manner so you are not alone in your concerns. The point, as you say, is what can be done about it?
Prayer Is A Relationship
Prayer in Islam is a pillar of the religion, not a ‘ritual’ as many people seem to think. It is the establishment of a close and special relationship with our Creator, Allah.
Of course, the prerequisite for prayer is purity. This applies to clothes and to ablution, which are the requirements for physical cleanliness.
Then comes the intention, which is the requirement for spiritual cleanliness and purity.
When one stands up in prayer, one begins with ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is Great), raising one’s hands (at least shoulder-high), facing the Ka’aba (the direction for Muslims to pray) and entering the state of prayer.
It is as if we are saying goodbye to the physical world and ‘entering’ the spiritual world, dwelling in the presence of Allah.
It is as if we are entering into the Court of the Greatest Authority, King of Kings and Lord of the universe.
Beginning the Prayer
We can start our prayers with Glorification of Allah by saying, in Arabic:
‘Glory to You, O Allah and with Your praise.’
‘Blessed is Your Name.’
‘High is Your station.’
‘And there is no God besides You.’
What a beautiful way of starting a dialogue with our Creator!
Then we recite the opening chapter of the Quran, Al-Fatihah, which starts:
In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Praise be to God, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds… (Quran 1:1-2)
He is Lord of all the worlds: my world, your world, the world of every human or creature, the world of the winds, of the oceans, trees, stars and galaxies; all the worlds we know and those we don’t.
This is as well as the worlds in each of the seven heavens and the world of the angels, etc.
Thus, the enormity of His Kingdom and His Glory dawns upon us as we praise Him as the ‘Lord of the Worlds’. The magnificence of His creations and His worlds dawns upon us.
This creates humility and submission in facing Him — it is the basis of khushu’. How can we not be humble, in front of such a Creator and such an Owner of all things?
Most Gracious, Most Merciful…
Here, Allah says: ‘My servant has praised me.’ Then the Fatihah continues:
Most Gracious, Most Merciful… (Quran 1:3)
His Mercy and His Compassion are for all His creation, whether they believe in Him or not and whether they obey Him or not.
His beneficence is flowing for all His creations. Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim mean He is the Most Merciful.
According to a hadith qudsi, God’s mercy is divided into 100 parts. One part has been sprinkled throughout the universe and 99 parts have been retained, by Allah, for the believers on the Day of Judgment.
Here Allah answers: ‘My slave has recognized My mercy.’
These are just some bits and pieces from a longer dialogue Allah shares with us during the prayer.
Ways to Maintain Khushu and Khudhu
According to our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), whose example we follow, you can maintain khushu’ (humility) and khudhu’ (concentration) by doing certain things:How to Increase Humility in Prayers
We should learn the meaning of every word we say in the prayer (salat), understand it, and make sure we mean it when we say it.
Only then, we can maintain and establish the meaning of what we say, not only by our tongues, but deep in our hearts.
Each time you pray, think that this prayer may be your last prayer and give complete attention to it. It might be our last chance to worship Allah and show Him our sincere belief!
Always know you are in the presence of Allah and worship Him as if you see Him with your physical eyes. This is called ihsan — the best possible practice.
If we cannot achieve this spiritual closeness, then we should know that Allah sees us anyway.
A Couple of Practical Tips
Try to be ready for prayer a little earlier
In a mosque, one uses the time to pray two rak’as (units of prayer), as a salutation and respect to the mosque (tahiyyatul–masjid) and/or in reading Qur’an.
This helps one to be in the right frame of mind, to help reduce the clutter we carry in our minds, and to help us feel more devoted to Allah.
Take a little longer in each position.
I do not mean to excessively prolong the time in a specific position for prayer. We are required to be stationary in any given position. Sometimes we rush and are hardly steady in one position before we move to the next position.
Seeking Guidance in Quran
Finally, perhaps I may add, that the one thing we are asking from Allah is guidance. He has sent the guidance in the form of a book — the Quran. What is the point then in asking for guidance, receiving that guidance and then not reading the Quran?!
We should spend a little time, ideally at the time of the morning and evening prayers, in reading the Quran and making sure we understand what we read.
Then, we should practice what we understand from the Quran in our daily lives. This way we put the guidance from Allah — the Quran into action, following the practice of Muhammad (peace be upon him) — the Sunnah.
May Allah help us in all our acts of worshiping Him.
Developing Khushu in Prayer – Learning a Life Skill
Theresa Corbin
13 October, 2019
Air whooshes over my head. I can feel the circumambulation of the blades of my old fan rustle my khimar. My eyes focus on the rough, oatmeal colored rug that feels like a massage under my feet.
I stand, I bow, I prostrate. I repeat. What can I cook for dinner? Will it even be any good? I need to focus. I Bow. Is that a stain on the rug or a bug?! No matter how much I clean, I am never able to keep up. Focus.
If I have to wake up early on Thursday, what time should I go to bed or can I just get away with drinking more coffee? Either way, my mind will be foggy so what does it matter? Focus!
I prostrate. My phone buzzes from the other room. Who is that? Focus!! How difficult it must be to focus in prayer when you have children running around. FOCUS. I stand. I recite. And I repeat.
17 years in practice and I am still in a constant fighting with my mind as khushu slips in and out during prayer.
Sometimes it feels like everyone has this down and I am the only sad sack that is still trying to get it right. I am a child at the salah while everyone else has matured vastly in their practice. I am in a sea of experts pretending to fit in.
My mind drifts with these thoughts outside of prayer: Everyone is better than you. You are pathetic and a failure at even the basic, fundamental practice of your faith. Why do you even try? You have already failed. Why get back up just to fail again?
Read: 12 Amazing Tips to Love Your Prayer Like Never Before!
These thoughts are of course absurd. Most people have a hard time with khushu in prayer and the only true failure is quitting. Fighting or doing your best is success. But if I let them, these mean-spirited ruminations will take over. They develop like a fast-growing vine, strangling the life out of everything in its path.
For me and the many like me, it is not the connection to Allah (SWT) or even the prayer that gets in the way. It is this dark internal dialogue. For those who have yet to establish the prayer in their lives, it is usually this same issue. The discouraging thoughts like:
“Why start now? Do you even think you can be consistent? Probably not, so why even try?…”
It is funny that most of us let this mean voice in our heads bully us around when in real life, most of us would never let other people talk to us like that.
Who would stand around and listen to someone say awful things like:
“You’re so dumb! And fat! No one will ever love you. I don’t even know how you have accomplished what little you have. Must have been a fluke.”
But many people allow these thoughts to take over the dialogue in their mind and control them. The thing is that we actually have more control over this dialogue than we think.
Whether it is in salah, or praying regularly, or even just our own self-image, we let this voice – whether it is Satan or just our own internal dialogue – push us around.
How to Stop it?
But why? And how can we stop this pattern of putting ourselves down with mean and defeating thoughts in life and in deen?
The answer is simpler that many assume.
Just like getting rid of a creeping, strangling vine; this negative dialogue can be beaten back. Every time a negative thought pops up in our mind, actively thinking of something affirming, positive, or constructive will cancel out the negative.
Rewrite the dialogue!
This sounds like overly simplified self-help-y nonsense. Guess what? That’s the dark dialogue telling you to quit before you can succeed. That is the mean girl voice we all have in us, telling us to not even bother because we aren’t strong enough to make a change.
Read: How to Achieve Spirituality in Prayer?
Redirecting negative, self-defeating thoughts takes time and practice. But every time you think you aren’t enough, tell that thought to sit down and shut up, because Allah (SWT) made you enough.
Anytime that mean-girl chatter in your mind tells you that you will never be able to be consistent in prayer so why try, tell her to get lost because if Allah (SWT) has made it obligatory that means you are capable.
When you are standing in prayer and the thoughts of the day creep in even if they aren’t negative, it’s the same voice trying to distract you from the life-affirming action you are doing. Replace it. Think of what you are saying instead. Think of standing before God. And think of your connection with Him.
I still struggle with this internal distraction during prayer and beyond. But with practice, it has become easier. I have allowed myself to grow in confidence and khushu’. But I also know it is a lifelong struggle.
This is a kind of jihad to affirm that, as a part of Allah’s (SWT) creation, we were all created perfectly the way we are with success written into our DNA. We just have to Hayya ‘ala-l-Falah—Hurry to success.
