Understanding Salat — Page 142
Understanding S al A t 142 way my knees had ever been bent before. I had to force myself to bend my knees. And waves of shame and embarrassment would force me back up. For evil to bend its knees, admitting its guilt, to implore the forgiveness of God, is the hardest thing in the world. It’s easy for me to see and to say that now. But then, when I was the personification of evil, I was going through it. Again, again, I would force myself back down into the praying-to-Allah posture. When finally I was able to make myself stay down -- I didn’t know what to say to Allah. (Autobiography of Malcolm X, Chapter 11) Just lowering ourselves gives us an ability to rise that we did not have before. Our ego always refuses to prostrate. We may do Sajdah every day out of habit, but our ego will not let us think about what we are doing because of its embarrass- ment in that posture. When we truly prostrate before Allah, it is only after having overcome our ego. That prostration in itself is a glorification of Allah. The act of acknowledging our insignificance to our Lord in itself raises us. We acknowledge how low we are in front of the One who is the Most High. When we reflect on the loftiness of Allah Almighty as only a concept, it can be a passive and detached glorification. But when we reflect on that loftiness while lowering our- selves to our most humble state, that has to become an active glorification of Allah.