The prayer begins. The words flow, but they are a blur.
The bowing is a quick dip, the prostration a brief touch of the head to the floor. Before the heart has a chance to settle, the body is already rising for the next movement.
It looks like Salah. It sounds like Salah. But it is a body without a soul.
The Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) described this as the “pecking of a rooster.”
A hurried, frantic motion, devoid of peace, devoid of presence. It is the single most common mistake we make in our prayer, and it is a silent poison that drains the life from our spirituality.
This is the mistake: Rushing.
Treating your appointment with the Lord of the worlds like a chore on a to-do list.
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You stand before the Creator of Time itself, and yet you feel you have no time. You rush back to your phone, your work, your meal. Ask yourself, and be honest: who are you rushing to meet that is more important than the One you are currently standing before?
This mistake is not small.
Its consequences are catastrophic for your soul.
1. It is a Theft from Your Own Soul
The Prophet (ﷺ) called the person who does not complete his bowing and prostration properly the “worst of thieves.”
You are not stealing from anyone else. You are stealing from yourself. You are robbing your own soul of the peace, forgiveness, and divine connection it was created to receive in these moments. You walk away with an empty sack, having stolen the treasure from your own prayer.
2. It is an Act of Profound Disrespect
Imagine you were granted an audience with a powerful world leader.
Would you speak your words in a hurried mumble and then turn your back and walk away before they could even respond?
Never.
It would be the ultimate sign of disrespect.
Your Salah is your audience with Al-Malik, the King of all kings.
Rushing through it is a subconscious declaration that your time is more valuable than His audience, that your worldly tasks are more urgent than His remembrance.
3. It Annihilates the Purpose of Prayer
Allah tells us in the Qur’an,
“…and establish prayer for My remembrance” (20:14).
The very purpose of Salah is to remember Allah.
Rushing is a deliberate act of forgetting. It turns the most profound act of worship into a mindless, robotic ritual.
It is the reason so many of us finish praying and feel nothing.
We feel no peace, no change, no tranquility, because we gave the prayer our body, but not our time or our heart.
The rush in your prayer is merely a symptom of a deeper spiritual disease: the love of the dunya has grown so large in your heart that it leaves little room for Allah.
Your prayer becomes a brief interruption to your worldly life, rather than your worldly life being a brief interruption between your prayers.
The cure is not just to “slow down.” The cure is a pillar of the prayer itself, known as Tuma’ninah.
Tuma’ninah is the moment of stillness. It is allowing every bone in your body to settle into its position before moving to the next. When you bow, you are still. When you rise, you are still. When you prostrate, you are still. It is in these moments of physical stillness that the heart has a chance to become still and present before its Lord.
Before your next Salah, make this pact with yourself.
When you bow, stay there long enough to say “Subhana Rabbiyal ‘Adhim” three times, with intention. Feel the words. When you place your forehead on the ground, the highest part of you on the lowest part of the earth, linger.
This is the closest you will ever be to your Lord.
Why are you in a rush to leave?
One day, you will be prayed over. Your body will be brought forth for its final prayer, the Janazah. You will be completely still.
You will have no choice. You will not be able to rush.
Do not wait for that day. Find your stillness now. The few extra seconds you give to Allah are the most powerful investment you can make in your life. They are moments that will echo in your grave and speak for you on the Day of Judgment.
Stop the pecking. Stop the theft. Slow down.
Your conversation with your Lord has begun. Be present. Your soul depends on it.
