# The People of Sujood | Episode 7 | Secrets of Salah | The Hidden Gems of Prayer

**Author:** Dr. Omar Suleiman
**Series:** Secrets of Salah | Dhul Hijjah 2025
**Published:** 2025-06-02
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/N0bTuc97cm8
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/secrets-of-salah-dhul-hijjah-2025/the-people-of-sujood-episode-7-secrets-of-salah-the-hidden-gems-of-prayer
**Topics:** Faith

## Description
You bow. You rise. You whisper words you’ve said a thousand times. But what if every motion of salah held its own key to khushoo’? In this series, go deeper into the language, the postures, and the presence of salah. Join Dr. Omar Suleiman to spend the 10 days of Dhul Hijjah exploring the most...

## Transcript
**[0:00]** We're the Ummah of Sajdah. Even though you find it in other scriptures like Isa (عليه السلام) Jesus Peace Be Upon Him Himself makes Sajdah over 30 times in the Bible, falls on his face in prayer. This is the most perfect position of humility and the most noble position for the slave of Allah.

**[0:17]** Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest On the Day of Judgment, you'll have those people who Allah Azza wa Jal mentions will be called to

**[0:33]** Sujood and they will not be able to do so. Can you imagine there will be a rod in their back? They'll be called to Sujood and they can't. Allah Azza wa Jal will forbid them from doing Sujood.

**[0:49]** It's a gift, it's an honor and when the Prophet (ﷺ) enters upon Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala on the Day of Judgment to intercede, the very first thing the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) will do is he'll go into Sajdah. It's the greatest sign of

**[1:05]** closeness the Prophet (ﷺ) said, The closest that a slave is to his Lord is when he is in Sujood. It is complete submission to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. It's the perfect position. SubhanAllah, you distribute the weights to every

**[1:22]** part of your body. The scholars say of the perfection of where your hand placement is and your knee placement and your head placement is, you distribute the weight so that no part of your body is carrying the weight disproportionately and your heart always remains in Sujood to Allah

**[1:38]** Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. One of the Salaf said that once the heart falls into Sujood to Allah, it doesn't raise its head until the Day of Judgment just like an angel. Make Sajdah and come closer. Just as Wudu is an indicator of how careful you are with your Salah,

**[1:54]** Sujood is an indicator of how much Khushu' you have in your Salah. Sujood is the ultimate indicator of your internal state in Salah and your humility before Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and your closeness to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. I want you to think about if you walked into the Masjid and you saw the Prophet (ﷺ) in a long Sajdah, crying, you would not know if something

**[2:14]** very good happened to him or something very bad happened to him. Because whether it was something amazing or something tragic, it always drove the Prophet (ﷺ) to the exact same place. Abdur Rahman bin Auf (رضي الله عنه) thought he was dead because of how still and long

**[2:31]** he was in his Sujood. Imagine if the feet of the Prophet (ﷺ) were swollen from his Qiyam. Imagine the light on his head from Sujood, the mark of Sajdah. And SubhanAllah, the Prophet (ﷺ) mentioned that the place of Sajdah could not be consumed by

**[2:49]** the hellfire. Imagine the light from the place of the head of the Prophet (ﷺ). If Wudu gives light, what about Sajdah? That invisible mark that Allah Azza wa Jal will make so visible on the Day of Judgment. There are angels that have been in Sajdah for their entire existence.

**[3:07]** There are stories of people that were allowed to make Sujood for hundreds of years. And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala entered them still into Paradise by His mercy. We are the Ummah of Sajdah. If you were to go to a public place and you saw someone in Sujood,

**[3:25]** you know, I always tell people, it's funny. You see the meditation centers and the interfaith chapels and airports that practically become Musallahs because we're the people of Salah or the people of Sujood. If you see a person in a parking lot in any part of the world,

**[3:41]** in prostration, you know that's a Muslim. We're the Ummah of Sajdah. So we're the Ummah of Jum'ah. Allah Azza wa Jal saved Jum'ah for us and we're the Ummah of Sajdah. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala honored us with Sajdah. Even though you find it in other scriptures like Isa (عليه السلام), Jesus Peace Be Upon Him, himself makes Sajdah over 30 times in the Bible, falls on his face in prayer.

**[4:00]** Yet SubhanAllah, we are the Ummah of Sajdah. We are the ones who pray like Isa (عليه السلام). Nu'aym (رحمه الله) says that this is This is the most perfect position of humility and the most noble position

**[4:19]** for the slave of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And what do you say? All praise, glory be to my Lord, most high. See the more you lower yourself to Allah, the better.

**[4:35]** The lower you put your ego, the more Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala honors you. The lower you put your desires, the more Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala promises you rewards in paradise that are far greater than anything you could have ever imagined. The more that you're willing to lose in arguments

**[4:52]** and feel like, you know, you're being humiliated for the sake of Allah, the more that Allah Al-A'la will raise you, make you Ali. He'll raise you and make you high as a result of that. No one lowers themselves for Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala except that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala raises them in some

**[5:10]** regard. He is Al-A'la. He's the highest worth seeking. He's the highest worth pleasing. He's the highest worth in terms of his reward and that his reward is higher than any reward that this world could offer you. And you lose appetite for everything else when you taste the sweetness of

**[5:27]** your Sajdah. SubhanAllah, the concerns come off of you entirely. The soul elevates to Allah. It's the only time that your head is below your heart, that the heart is the most elevated place of you. And that is the connection to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, Al-A'la. Closeness, closeness, closeness.

**[5:48]** You should imagine yourself as if you are at the throne of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala as you make that Sajdah, as if you've been elevated to the highest position of the heavens and the earth and ask and ask and ask. Ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala for anything. The one who doesn't ask

**[6:05]** Allah, Allah Azza wa Jal becomes angry with them. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala loves that you ask. So you ask and ask and ask. This is the cream of the crop of your Salah. It is called a Masjid, a place of Sujood because it's the perfect part of your Salah. And the Salah is most indicated

**[6:26]** by that Sajdah. And then you have between the two Sajdahs. SubhanAllah, there's a beautiful narration. Thabit narrates from Anas (رضي الله عنه), who taught the Salah exactly as he saw the Prophet (ﷺ). He says,

**[6:52]** that after the Rukoor or between the two Sajdahs, I want you to imagine, because this is how I saw the Prophet (ﷺ), that you would think because of how long the Prophet (ﷺ) took between the two Sajdahs that he forgot to do the second Sajdah. All right, you start making the assumption that maybe he forgot that there's

**[7:09]** a second Sajdah because of how much Du'a the Prophet (ﷺ) would then make after he returned from the Sajdah. You see in the Sajdah, go ahead and ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala for anything. The best of this world, the best of the next. Ask Allah Azza wa Jal even in your own language. Just let it go. Pour it out. Cry, exert yourself. Between the two Sajdahs, there's also a time.

**[7:31]** You see, after a Rukoor, standing, there's Hamd and anything you can build on Hamd, the praise of Allah Azza wa Jal, you just glorified. Al-Azim, right? Now it is a Maqam,

**[7:46]** a station of seeking forgiveness. So, wa li rabbi al-hamd, wa rabbana laka al-hamd. Here, rabbi ighfirli, rabbi ighfirli. My Lord, forgive me. My Lord, forgive me. This is actually, SubhanAllah, something powerful that the closer you get to

**[8:02]** Allah, the more inclined you are to seek forgiveness from Him, right? And you'll notice that with Ibad ar-Rahman, you'll notice that with the slaves of the most merciful. You'll notice that with people as they come into an intense relationship with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that they start asking Allah for forgiveness because you realize just how perfect He is and how imperfect you are and

**[8:22]** that you should be seeking forgiveness even for your worship, for your devotion, while other people don't even seek forgiveness for their disobedience. Like, ya Allah, how great you are. Ya Allah, how much I've wronged myself. Ya Allah, how short I have fallen in properly making up that gap

**[8:39]** of honoring you as you deserve to be honored, of worshiping you as you deserve to be worshipped. Rabbi ighfirli, Rabbi ighfirli. My Lord, forgive me. My Lord, forgive me. And what is built upon that then are variations, are extensions of that seeking maghfira, that seeking of forgiveness. And so

**[8:59]** Ibn Abbas (رضي الله عنهما) said that the Prophet (ﷺ) used to say between the prostrations, Allahumma ighfirli warhamni wa'afini wahdini warzuqni. Allahumma ighfirli warhamni

**[9:14]** wa'afini wahdini warzuqni. Which means, oh Allah, forgive me. Oh Allah, have mercy on me. Oh Allah, cure me. Oh Allah, or wa'afini, of course, is to be safe in regards to your health. Wahdini, oh Allah, guide me. Warzuqni, oh Allah, provide for me. Now, SubhanAllah, what is incredible here

**[9:37]** is that we also have authentic narrations that when someone would convert to Islam, when someone would become Muslim, this was the du'a that the Prophet (ﷺ) would teach them. Like just as a comprehensive du'a as a whole, how do you call upon Allah now? Just say, Allahumma ighfirli warhamni wa'afini

**[9:53]** wahdini warzuqni. That'll cover all of your affairs in this life and the next. So that was the du'a the Prophet (ﷺ) would teach a new Muslim. And that is the du'a, the supplication the Prophet (ﷺ) would make between the two sajdas. Now, why the second sajda? Why are there

**[10:09]** even two sajdas? Imam al-Ghazali (رحمه الله) said it's as if you wait for permission from the Lord to go down into sajda again, to be gifted that again. Like it's the closest you get to the Lord, you taste the sweetness, you come back, you realize there's something you forgot to ask for.

**[10:24]** Imagine when the king gives you an extension or says, come back in, I delayed my next appointment. Of course, to Allah, Azza wa Jal, belongs the highest example. And Allah, SubhanAllah, is not limited by the appointments like we are, right? But imagine the king welcomes you back in once again, or extends your time. So al-Ghazali says, as if you're in this waiting room and you get more time,

**[10:46]** wait for permission. Also, this shows the superiority of the sujood to the rukoor. The sujood you do twice, the rukoor you do once. And this is like in hajj, there's the tawaf of umrah

**[11:01]** and the tawaf of hajj, right? And then there's even tawaf al-wada, right? So there's the tawaf when you initially come, there's the tawaf of ziyarah, the tawaf of hajj, and there's the tawaf at the end. So that shows the superiority of tawaf. Likewise, the sujood is such. Everything

**[11:19]** in the salah is an introduction to the sujood. And if you miss something from the wajibat, what do you make it up with? From the mandatory actions, not the pillars, the second category, which are the wajibat, you make it up with sujood at the end, right? Sujood as-sahw,

**[11:35]** the prostration of forgetfulness. So the sajda can make things up, but nothing can make up a sajda, right? The sajda is profound enough that it can make up for things that are missed, but nothing can make up for the sajda. So it is the greatest position. And we ask Allah

**[11:53]** for a death in our place in sujood. Allahumma ameen.

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