Salat (Muslim prayer)

Salat, also known as salah, is the set of ritualistic prayers that Muslims, who practice the religion of Islam, are obligated to perform five times a day. Salat is meant to humble Muslims before Allah, or God, and involves numerous physical actions that represent submission. These include sitting and prostrating oneself on the ground. The five times to pray salat are dawn, midday, midafternoon, dusk, and after dark.

Salat originated in the Quran, the Islamic holy book, and other traditional writings about the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam. Praying salat is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, five separate actions or prayers that Muslims are required to perform throughout their lives to be considered faithful followers of Allah. To Muslims, being members of the Islamic faith means nothing if they do not practice it in their daily lives. Salat focuses on ensuring that Muslims fully develop their spiritual relationship to Allah.

Background

Salat, and the Five Pillars of Islam more generally, is based in the Quran and various other Islamic writings on the Prophet Muhammad, who founded Islam in the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century. These texts describe five practices in which Muslims should engage throughout their lives to demonstrate their faith in Allah and their adherence to the principles of Islam. The Five Pillars of Islam are the shahada, the recitation of Muslim faith in Allah as God and Muhammad as his Prophet; salat, the prayers recited five times daily; zakat, the giving of charity to the poor; sawm, fasting during the holy month of Ramadan; and hajj, a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca (in Saudi Arabia) that all Muslims are encouraged to make at least once in their lives.

While the Islamic pillars of zakat, sawm, and hajj involve various aspects of Muslims' secular lives to certain degrees, salat focuses on Muslims' spiritual relationship to Allah. Praying salat five times a day is required of Muslims. The mosques, or Muslim places of worship, in many Muslim countries feature calls to prayer, or adhan, that announce to the public that it is time to pray salat.

Salat is meant to be ritualistic. For this reason, it is always prayed the same way, with the prayers scattered throughout the day at mostly evenly spaced intervals. Muslims first must wash themselves so they are clean when they begin praying. Many Muslims then place on the ground a small rug or mat on which they will pray. The prayer itself usually involves repeating the first sura, or chapter, of the Quran and other words of praise to Allah from the holy book. While praying, Muslims position themselves in a variety of ways meant to show submission to Allah. These positions include standing, sitting, bowing, and prostrating themselves, or placing themselves face-down on the ground. Wherever they are in the world when they pray salat, Muslims are to face the holy city of Mecca, particularly the Kaaba, the building at the center of Islam's most sacred mosque.

Muslims may pray salat individually or in groups that gather in mosques. Muslims who convene in mosques receive the additional benefit of being directed in prayer by prayer leaders called imams. After salat, an imam may read an excerpt from the Quran, recite additional prayers, and teach about a particular religious subject.

Overview

Praying salat is meant to be a deeply spiritual act that connects all Muslims to Allah and to one another. The placement of the prayers at five separate times each day establishes a pattern by which Muslims can organize their day and reminds the faithful that Allah is present in every part of their lives. Meanwhile, the words of the prayers themselves force Muslims to temporarily forget their worldly cares to focus on the core doctrines of Islam.

For instance, some prayers of salat reaffirm that Muslims have committed themselves to Allah and owe him their lives. Other prayers recall to Muslims the Day of Judgment, when they will appear before Allah and be judged for their actions in life. These concepts, when examined five times daily during salat, place Muslims' lives in new perspectives. The prayers assert that Allah is always in control of his people, even when they are managing daily troubles such as work and family issues. Muslims conclude salat by repeating the shahada and expressing the Islamic peace greeting, which wishes peace upon everyone and upon the deeds of Allah.

The noon salat on Fridays is different from any other salat performed during the week. This is because Friday is the holy day of the Islamic week and involves a different scale of praying than other days. The Friday Prayer supplements the standard noon salat and is the most important prayer service of the week in Islam. Muslims should participate in Friday Prayer with others in mosques, as Islam discourages praying it individually.

Friday Prayer is announced with the usual adhan at noon. Imams then deliver sermons to the congregations that gather in the mosques. The sermons conclude with the imams' lauding of Allah and wishes of blessings on the Prophet Muhammad. Then the imams lead their congregations in the typical salat, which includes reciting the first sura and various other passages of the Quran. This concludes Friday Prayer.

Although salat is meant to be an important part of Muslims' daily lives, surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center in the early 2010s revealed that substantial portions of Muslims around the world do not actually participate in all five daily prayers. About 60 percent of Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa reported praying several times a day. Approximately 83 percent of Iraqi Muslims claimed they prayed salat five times every day.

These figures were markedly lower in the countries of Central Asia, Southern Europe, and Eastern Europe. In Turkey, for instance, about 42 percent of Muslims admitted to praying salat several times daily. Only minorities of Muslims in Southern and Eastern Europe claimed they prayed a few times a day, while less than one-third prayed salat five times.

Bibliography

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