Imagine: you hear the adhaan for dhuhr, you get up, make wudu, lay down your prayer mat and begin. “Allahu Akbar.” You have begun a conversation with your Lord, your Creator. You recite Fatihah asking for guidance. You go down in ruku and glorify your Lord, the Mighty and Powerful. You proceed to the ground to make sajdah. With your head on the ground, glorifying your Master, you are in the closest position to Him.
The prophet (saw) said,
أَقْرَبُ مَا يَكُونُ الْعَبْدُ مِنْ رَبِّهِ وَهُوَ سَاجِدٌ
“The closest that a servant is to his Lord is when he is in prostration.” (Muslim)
In that moment, you are fully immmersed in your conversation with Allah. You glorify Him and praise Him and seek His forgiveness and seek refuge in Him…
But.. while you are in this state, someone walks in. Your spouse or your mother, a sibling or a friend, perhaps a colleague or even just a stranger. Someone walks in and sees you in this state. Your attention is immediately diverted: you start to think, “Is my back straight and my posture correct? Let me fix my posture so this person doesn’t think I’m making sajdah all wrong.”, “If I get up now this person will think my sajdah was so short, I should prolong it.”
Right then, in that moment, you’ve committed shirk (minor shirk: riyaa). You’ve committed shirk while being the closest you could possibly be to Your Lord.
What a sad situation that is. You put so much effort in to this act of worship, and in a split second and tweek of intention, you ruined it.
This is something that has happened to a lot of us – or at least the thought has crossed our mind even if we didn’t act upon it. This is a trap which shaytaan sets for us and he is quite skilled at it. But, don’t worry, all hope is not lost. You can still redeem yourself. If this happens to you.
1. Rectify your intention: adjust your intention and purify it for the sake of Allah.
قُلْ إِنَّ صَلَاتِي وَنُسُكِي وَمَحْيَايَ وَمَمَاتِي لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ
“Say, Indeed, my prayer, my rites of sacrifice, my living, and my dying are for Allah, Lord of the worlds.” [6:162]
2. Still prolong your sajdah and correct your posture, but with the intention of doing so for the sake of Allah. This way you destroy shaytaan’s plot in two ways: you have already saved yourself from minor shirk by rectifying your intention, but now you prolong and perfect your sincere worship and he is unhappy with this as well.
إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ فَاتَّخِذُوهُ عَدُوًّا
“Indeed, Saytan is an enemy to you; so take him as an enemy.” [35:6]
3. Seek forgiveness from Allah: اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ أَنْ أُشْرِكَ بِكَ وَأَنَا أَعْلَمُ ، وَأَسْتَغْفِرُكَ لِمَا لَا أَعْلَمُ
“O Allah, I seek refuge with You lest I should commit shirk with You knowingly and I seek Your forgiveness for what I do unknowingly.”
قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا ۚ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ
“Say, “O My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the mercy of Allah . Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful.” [39:53]
Ahmad Bukar @ knoislam.com.ng.
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