Khushoo’ Beyond Salah: Learning to Be Present with Allah and Time

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I’ve been actively working on khushoo’ for months now. Strategically working to live a simple life. One where I don’t take more from the world than I give to it.

What I’ve learned is that khushoo’ begins outside of salah. It starts in the chaos of everyday life. In the messiness of the unknown and the lows of pain. 

Because if you can be present in the hard, in the ugly, in the scary things, then you can be present in the peaceful and beautiful moments of worship.

My first memory of maladaptive daydreaming was sometime in middle school. It became a way to escape my reality and circumstances at home. 

I believe this is where the disconnect began between my mind and my body. Where my body would be in one place and my mind in another. Struggling with khushoo’ in salah forced me to confront this disconnect, to merge them once again.

For years I stopped, but then when my environment felt unsafe again, I ran. I escaped to my own little world where only I could see. Until I found Islam. Now I know that I’m not the only one who sees the world I created in my head. 

Allah ﷻ sees it too. 

Since I’ve reverted, He’s been helping me to live in the world He created instead. Not the man-made world of social media and virtual reality, not the world music transports you to, nor the ones in my daydreams, but the one Al-Khalaq created with perfection and precision.

I can’t see the meticulous details of this life if I’m not paying attention. 

I can’t find beauty in the pain if I refuse to look at it.

There have been times I’ve escaped into a future where everything is perfect even though I knew that goes against the nature of this life. The only thing that’s helped has been learning more about Jannah. Thinking of it grounds me. 

It reminds me that the fleeting moments I’ve tried to run from are the very moments Allah ﷻ has given me to use wisely. It reminds me that I have work to do. I have time to use, and that I can’t get to tomorrow without going through today. 

That I can’t reach Jannah without going through the dunya. 

With maladaptive daydreaming, time just slips away. And knowing that Allah ﷻ will ask about how we spend our time terrifies me, because I know there’s no acceptable excuse for its misuse.

Wasting time feels like…arrogance. 

The arrogance of assuming that Allah ﷻ will give me tomorrow the chance to do what I could’ve done today. 

Thinking of Jannah reminds me to “Work, O family of David, in gratitude.” (34:13) 

To be thankful for the opportunity. For the ability.

It’s hard to be present in the now if you’re constantly longing for the future, sitting in the wanting.
 Or if you’ve decided that your present is something needing escaping from versus growing through.
 Or if you’re too attached to outcomes and external factors.

When my presence and focus outside of salah improved, so did my khushoo’ inside of salah.

I’ve had to stop multitasking and start doing one thing at a time. No watching videos while cooking, no listening to audiobooks while walking. 

Just being fully present in one thing at a time.

It feels inefficient at times, but I think that’s the point. 

We don’t have to cram so much busywork into our days to be considered productive. 

We don’t have to plan every waking minute in order to get the most of it.

We don’t need to stuff our lives to make them full. 

We just have to be intentionally and actively present in mind and body.

(Though I still do dhikr while doing housework.)

Alhamdulillah, I’m far more present than I’ve ever been. Sometimes I still catch myself trying to do too much at once, but I stop myself, mashaAllah, so I can truly be present and connected to whatever it is that I’m doing. Because being aware of the passing of time slows it down. It allows me to appreciate it, to make space for khushoo’ and shukr, and to work on projects that bring me joy in the present.

Projects that, in sha Allah, I can offer to Allah ﷻ as time well spent, giving to the world more than I took from it. 

Speaking of projects, I have some super exciting things coming, starting next Friday, in sha Allah. Together, we’ll prepare our hearts to make seemingly impossible duas, and we’ll work on removing limiting beliefs so we can close out the last three months of 2025 with our iman high and our duas in the strongest position for acceptance.

Today is my 30th birthday, and I’m so grateful to be sharing it with you.

With love and dua,
—Khalisa

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