page_title: Ruku
hierarchical_section_title: Ruku
caption_attribution_description: English: Praying Pilgrims Deutsch: Betende Pilger auf der Strasse
context_page_description: Rukūʿ can refer to either of two things in Islam:
  The act of belt-low bowing in standardized prayers, where the hands are rested on the knees, before straightening up to go for sujud.
  A paragraph of the Quran.
  In prayer, it refers to the bowing at the waist from standing on the completion of recitation of a portion of the Qur'an in Islamic formal prayers. There is a consensus on the obligatory nature of the rukūʿ. The position of rukūʿ is established by bending over till the hands are on the knees and remaining in that position until one attains a relaxed state while glorifying God thrice or more in odd number of times.
  In Al-Ghazali's book Inner Dimensions of Islamic Worship, he wrote about the rukūʿ by saying:
  Bowing and prostration are accompanied by a renewed affirmation of the supreme greatness of Allah. In bowing you renew your submissiveness and humility, striving to refine your inner feeling through a fresh awareness of your own importance and insignificance before the might and grandeur of your Lord. To confirm this, you seek the aid of your tongue, glorifying your Lord and testifying repeatedly to His supreme majesty, both inwardly and outwardly.
context_section_description: Rukūʿ (Arabic: رُكوع‎, [rʊˈkuːʕ]) can refer to either of two things in Islam: 
  The act of belt-low bowing in  standardized prayers, where the hands are rested on the knees, before straightening up to go for sujud (full earth-low bowing).
  A paragraph of the Quran.
  In prayer, it refers to the bowing at the waist from standing (qiyām) on the completion of recitation (qiraʾat) of a portion of the Qur'an in Islamic formal prayers (salah). There is a consensus on the obligatory nature of the rukūʿ. The position of rukūʿ is established by bending over till the hands are on the knees and remaining in that position until one attains a relaxed state while glorifying God (سُبْحَانَ رَبِّيَ الْعَظِيم subḥāna rabbiya l-ʿaẓīm, "Glory be to my Lord, the Most Magnificent!") thrice or more in odd number of times.
  In Al-Ghazali's book Inner Dimensions of Islamic Worship, he wrote about the rukūʿ by saying:
  Bowing (rukūʿ) and prostration (sujūd) are accompanied by a renewed affirmation of the supreme greatness of Allah. In bowing you renew your submissiveness and humility, striving to refine your inner feeling through a fresh awareness of your own importance and insignificance before the might and grandeur of your Lord. To confirm this, you seek the aid of your tongue, glorifying your Lord and testifying repeatedly to His supreme majesty, both inwardly and outwardly.
  Then you rise from bowing, hopeful that He will be merciful towards you. To emphasise this hope within you, you say samiʿa -llāhu liman ḥamidah (سمع الله لمن حمده, "God heeds to those who gratefully praises Him"). Acknowledging the need to express gratitude, you immediately add, rabbanā laka l-ḥamd (ربّنا لك الحمد, "grateful praise to You, our Lord!") To show the abundance of this gratitude, you may also say malʾa s-samāwāti wa-malʾa l-ʾarḍ (ملء السماوات وملء الأرض, "as much as the heavens and the earth contain").
caption: Precants performing ruku
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