What Is Salah?
The Messenger of God ﷺ described the salah, our five daily prayers, as the delight of his eyes and the most beloved thing to him in this world. When the time for prayer came in, he would instruct his Companion, Bilal, to “comfort us” with the call to prayer. Likewise, the salah was the last thing he emphasized to his Companions on his deathbed. Salah is our primary act of worship as Muslims. It draws us into a state of remembrance of God, purifies our souls, and it will testify on our behalf when we finally stand before our Lord in judgement. Developing a healthy practice around the prayer is therefore the first step we take toward living as Muslims, and it is the path we walk towards God over the course of our lives.
This article is intended to be an introduction to the salah rather than a how-to guide. We highly recommend that you learn the prayer directly from another Muslim. This is not only the quickest way to learn, but also conveys much of the etiquette and spirit of the prayer that is difficult to relate through online guides. What we can do here, however, is provide some insight into the meaning of the prayer and, God willing, point you towards its beauty so that you are ready to fully embrace it as you begin learning.
Intentions and Preparations
God judges all of our actions by their intentions. We understand that, in fact, the road to heaven is paved with good intentions! Forming appropriate intentions for our salah will shape how we benefit from it and how God receives it. Understanding the meaning of the Arabic can help us with this. Some Arabic grammarians connect salah to salawayn, the name of the two tendons that run along our spine when we bend over. These are the tendons that contract when we bow or prostrate in prayer, when we pick up our children, or anytime we bend over to pick up something off the ground. What we are doing when we use these tendons is lowering ourselves to receive something that is dear to us like the embrace of a child, money lying on the ground, or God’s blessings. Bowing and prostrating during the prayer is the outward manifestation of the inward state we cultivate when we pray: humble submission to God seeking His care. Holding this intention in our hearts will transform the outward movements of the salah into a genuine opportunity to draw nearer to God multiple times per day.
The most important physical preparation for the salah is wudu, or the ablutions we make by washing our face and limbs before prayer. Wudu is more accurately translated as “illumination.” The the Messenger of God ﷺ teaches us that he will recognize his followers on the Day of Judgement because our faces and limbs will shine from our wudu. Like the salah itself, wudu is an outward act of worship with an inward reality that we can actualize through the intention to purify our bodies and souls. The Messenger of God ﷺ tells us, “When the servant of God washes their face (in course of ablution), every sin he contemplated with his eyes, will be washed away from his face along with water; when he washes his hands, every sin he wrought will be effaced from his hands with the water; and when he washes his feet, every sin towards which his feet have walked will be washed away with the water with the result that he comes out pure from all sins.” Wudu is an invitation to humility through remembering our sins and the great mercy God extends to us through the ability to literally wash them away.
Timings
Allah tells us in the Qur’an that “The Prayer has been enjoined upon the believers at set times.” Indeed, the one thing that many people know about Muslims is that we pray five times per day. This provides one of the most beautiful reorientations in the daily life of a new Muslim. Our days are usually punctuated by mundane affairs like commuting, meetings, and lunch breaks. Beginning a regular prayer schedule allows us to divide up our days instead with regular, direct interactions with God. And whereas our worldly life is scheduled on the clock, our prayer is scheduled according to the position of the sun in the sky.
Many Muslims today determine the time for prayer with an app on their smartphones or a schedule printed from a website. Apps are an especially convenient way of reminding ourselves to pray. However, knowing the times of the prayer according to the position of the sun puts us directly in touch with one of God’s greatest signs and can inspire a sense of awe for God that will benefit us in our prayers. When God sent the Angel Gabriel to teach the Prophet ﷺ the times of the prayer, Gabriel came on two separate days, beginning the prayer at slightly different times each day. We therefore understand Fajr, the pre-dawn prayer, to fall between the time that the sun’s rays first break the horizon to the time that the land begins to glow; Dhuhr, the noon prayer, can begin shortly after the sun’s zenith or after shadows become as long as the things casting them; Asr, the afternoon prayer, can begin at this time as well or once shadows become twice as long as the things casting them; Maghrib, the sunset prayer, always begins once the sun sets; and Isha, the evening prayer, can be prayed from the end of twilight to the end of the first third of the night.
As days become longer or shorter depending on the season and our location, the times for prayer shift also. For example, there is a very short window for Asr in the winter when the sun’s path across the sky is very low. If we are praying five times a day, this naturally means our schedule is shifting around the times for prayer. This takes some getting used to, but it teaches us submission in its true sense because we are moving with the rhythms God placed in His creation rather than the demands of our worldly life.
The Fatihah
The heart of the salah is the Fatihah, the opening chapter of the Qur’an. We say this in Arabic during each cycle of prayer. It is akin to the Lord’s Prayer for Christians or the Shema for Jews in that it is a prayer that captures the essence of what it means for us to worship God. In it, God describes Himself to us and teaches us how to call upon Him in any situation. The Messenger of God ﷺ described the Fatihah as “the mother of the Qur’an” because it distills our scripture’s knowledge of God, and humanity’s relationship to Him, down into seven simple verses. You can learn more about it in our article, Who Is Allah?
Dua
The Prophet ﷺ also teaches us that dua, or calling upon God for our needs and desires, is “the essence of worship.” Ultimately, calling upon God to ask Him of our needs and to praise Him for our blessings is the ultimate point of worship. The Salah gives us a script, including the fatihah, that we use to supplicate God. But there is room within the salah for our own free form prayer as well. Prostration, when we place our foreheads upon the ground, is an especially good moment for this as this is the time when the Prophet ﷺ informs us that we are closest to our Lord.
Consistency
A final key to salah is consistency. We ought to start small with what we can do on a regular basis and then grow from there. The Prophet ﷺ tells us that “The most beloved of deeds to Allah is that which is done persistently, even if it is little.” Adopting this religion is a marathon not a sprint. Aiming for consistency allows you to escape two traps that are, unfortunately, very common for newcomers to Islam. We tend either to be very zealous and then burn out after a period of time, or we feel so overwhelmed with everything there is to learn that we hesitate to start. Know your limits but push them a little each day. God gave the salah to the Prophet and his Companions after ten years of revelation. This first decade of Islam gave the early believers the opportunity to attach their hearts to God and His Messenger before they became responsible for fulfilling the demands of the law. So too with us today, our outward worship ought to rise from a sincere state of loving devotion to God. With God’s help, the day will come that the salah feels like an old friend who’s always been a part of your life.