People rarely take pleasure in their dependency. As a child and teenager, you are usually dependent upon your parents to feed, clothe and shelter you. If one day they decided to turn you out, you would be rather alone. Likewise, once you are at university, you are dependent on your degree to get you somewhere, and perhaps your student-loan to pay for that degree. If the university one day decided you weren’t good enough anymore, you would again be rather lost and alone. None of these dependencies are particularly pleasurable; but they are often a part of life and we tolerate them until we must, and give them up as soon as we can.
There is a dependency, and reliance, however, from which one can render great satisfaction. The total and absolute need of Allah: the realisation that you are nothing without Him, and with Him you are barely, but just about, something.
The people of spirituality translate “faqri fakhri” (my poverty and neediness is my honour and pride) not just in the literal sense, i.e. that to be (voluntarily) poor is an honourable state (which it is), but also that your neediness of Allah is your honour. It is the making of you. That’s why sujood (prostration) is the pinnacle and crux of your prayer; it is the absolute humbling of yourself before the One in whose need you will forever be. To prostrate yourself before anybody else would be humiliating, but before Allah it is beautiful, honourable. It is the one point in your day when you are living out your purpose in life. In that moment, you are saying to Allah: I need you. And not only that you need Him, but that you are glad you need Him, and thankful that you recognise that.
Our teacher recently told us, in the Realm of the Souls, when the entire creation was asked by Allah“Am I not your Lord?”, we all said “Bala!” (i.e. "of course!"). We were then commanded to prostrate; but only the believing souls did so. The unbelievers found that they could not prostrate. When the believing souls raised themselves and saw that some hadn’t been able to, they went down in a second prostration out of shukr and thanks to Allah, for having given them the ability and opportunity to prostrate. And that is one of the wisdoms in the two prostrations of prayer: the first is your fulfilling the command of Allah, the second is your thanks to Allah for allowing you to worship Him.
Because your need of Him, that is your honour.
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