Concentrate when do do your Salat

I thought I was going mad and it was just me.  I felt a sigh of relief when another brother jokingly brought this to the open, so I thought I ought to share this with you.

Have you ever started thinking  whether you locked the car after "Hayya Ala Assalat" or that you need to email Jo about xyz after "Bismillah".  I cracked up when this brother said it and were talking about ways in which one could focus when conducting the salat.

What about this kind of distraction?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTwh6p1kyRQ

This is an interesting extract from a book by Nick Herbert
""It could be said that the working memory staging areas are where the brain makes order out of chaos. Estimates of how many bits of information our brains process each second vary. In his book Elemental Mind, Nick Herbert estimates that our brain receives 100 million bits of information per second from each eye, 10 million bits of information per second from the skin, and 30,000 bits of information per second from the ears. When all this external information is combined with the billions of bits of internal information our mind is processing, Herbert estimates that our brain is dealing with an incredible 10 trillion bits of information each second. Working memory can be looked at like the editor of a book or a movie deciding which bits of information are relevant and should be retained for later use and which are irrelevant and should be discarded."


So, now, I do not feel so bad, but still need to do something about it, as now, stop and start again 4 or 5 times before I am totally focussed on the salat.


So, here are a few tips that I would like to share, but would welcome more:


.Know the meaning of Allah Akbar. Know the value of that.

2.Know Allah is watching you. Worship as if you’re seeing him and if u don’t have that level remember that he’s watching you.

3.Fold your hands and always look down.

4.Slow the speed of your recitation. Think about how long an imam will take to pray his fajr prayer and how much you will take.

5.Du3a and adthkar before u start recitation in salah.

6.Know what the meaning of what you’re reciting. If you don’t know Arabic atleast focus on the words. Recite slowly.

7.Beautify your recitations.

8.Remember that allah divided this salah between him and you.

The Prophet (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 for. 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. When he (the servant) says: Master of the Day of Judgment, He remarks: My servant has glorified Me, and sometimes He will say: My servant entrusted (his affairs) to Me. When he (the worshipper) says: Thee do we worship and of Thee 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 Thou hast been Gracious -- not of those who have incurred Thy 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. [Muslim 4: 395]

9.Look at one place. Focus on the spot.

10.Athkhaar al salah. In sujood or ruku’. 

11.Never look up when you go back from ruk3i. Prophet forbids us from doing that. 

12.Don’t get distracted by things around you.

13.Du3a (supplication) the closest servant to Allah is in his sujood so Increase your du3a.


I would love to hear about any other tips on how to better focus when doing your salat.


Insha Allah, next time I would like to share with you my discussions on making up for missed prayers v.s the non obligatory prayers