Welcome to the five pillars of Islam – Salaat. In this entry we will be looking at Salaat, or in English, prayer and hopefully by the end of this entry we should have a better understanding of Salaat and opinion on the Islamic way of life. Before getting started on Salaat it would be worth mentioning that Salaat is considered the second pillar of five that makes up the key things Muslims belief in and do. The other four pillars are called Imaan , Saum, Zakat and Hajj.

Salaat

Prayer (Salaat) is the most important pillar of Islam as it is the dividing line between belief and disbelief. Prayer is compulsory on every Muslim who has reached puberty and is of sound mind. In Islam prayer is considered the primary method of worship. In fact prayer is deemed so important that intentionally missing one is a sin.
It is a sin because in Islam, Muslims believe that not praying is not only against God but also against Human nature itself, and as such is considered an act of crime to a persons soul.

There are many verses in the Qur’an that tell Muslims to observe prayer regularly.

The Prophet Mohammad constantly reminded people the importance of prayer. Here are a few hadith (words and sayings of the prophet) on the subject.

The Prophet Mohammad asked his companions: 'Tell me, if one of you had a river at his door and took a bath in it five times a day, would any dirt remain on his body?' The companions replied 'No, no dirt would be left on his body.' The Prophet (pbuh) then said 'This is an example of the five prayers by which Allah washes away the sins'.

In another hadith Abdullah bin Mas'ud narrated :

I asked the prophet: 'which of these actions is the best?' He replied 'Prayer at its stated time' I said 'What comes next?' He replied 'Kindness to parents' I further asked 'what comes next?' and He replied 'Struggle in the cause of Allah'.

Why prayer?

Muslims believe that prayer is the best way to cultivate a sound personality and to set a person’s aspirations in a mature way of development. To neglect prayer is to suppress the good qualities of human nature and to deny the soul its right to love and worship, the right to excel in goodness and to achieve noble aims. Though it is incumbent for all Muslims to pray it is not done because God needs mans prayers, as God is free from all wants, needs and desires. God is only interested in mankind’s prosperity and well being as any good we do is for our own benefit, and whatever offences we commit are against our own soul. As such prayer is not only a form of worship in Islam but also a reminder that we will be judged for our own deeds and helps Muslims doing bad deeds as he is more aware of his actions. Muslims also believe that there are many other benefits bought to you by prayer, here are a few of them:

As we can see above Muslims believe that Islamic prayer is not simply a sequence of physical movements and recital of the Qur’an. To Muslims it is a method of spiritual devotion, moral elevation, intellectual meditation and physical exercise. For Muslims Islamic prayer is a lesson in discipline and will power and a practice in devotion to God. It is a reminder of God's greatness and an aid to help against indecency, evil, deviation and away to increase one's own faith. To Muslims it is also a source of patience, courage, hope, confidence, inner peace, stability, equality, unity and an expression of thankfulness to God all rolled up into one package.

Fard, Sunnah or Nafl

In Islam there are three different types of prayer a person can perform.
The first type of prayer is fard or obligatory prayer.

The fard prayer is made up of the five daily prayers

The funeral prayer is also a fard prayer, but it is a collective obligation on the whole Muslim community. In other words once one or more of them perform it, it is not then necessary for every one else to do it.

The Sunnah prayers or supererogatory prayers are extra prayers that one should do but there is not actual sin if he/she does not perform it. It is considered harmful negligence and reproachable conduct to intentionally miss one when you have time to perform it. These prayers are mainly made up by those accompanying the 5 daily and two Eid prayers, such as the noon congregation on Fridays (Jummah), the Hajj prayer (Tawaf) and prayers that have become necessary due to a vow or oath..

The last type is the Nafl or optional prayer and as its name suggests is made up of voluntary prayers. Voluntary prayers basically come in two types. Those being :

The five daily prayers

The most important of all the prayers are the five daily prayers normally referred to as just Salah. These must be done by all Muslims unless there is a valid reason not to, which will be discussed later.

These five prayers individually are:

Conditions to pray

As twice mentioned before prayer must be performed by all Muslims unless with a reasonable excuse. Prayer is not obligatory on:

Requirements of Dress in Salah

Another requirement for valid prayer is that proper clothing should be worn.
The conditions for proper dress in prayer are:

Along with these conditions there is the least possible clothing that can be worn, which is for men something that covers the navel to the ankles and for women the whole body and hair except the face, hands and feet. Though men can pray bare chested it should not be done and it is preferred if a man covers his whole body as well. The covering of hair for men is optional.

While on the subject of clothing it should be mentioned that there are instances where it is permissible to wear unclean clothing.
If a person has an abscess, wound or cut which is bleeding, and cleaning the blood away could be harmful then it is permissible to pray. But if the blood spreads to an area immediately close to the wound it must be cleaned away.
Blood from the mouth, nose and due to haemorrhoids does not invalidate prayer as long as blood is cleaned away at the start of prayer.

In situations like the above if there is some compulsion to pray in these circumstances then prayer is allowed.

Ablution

In Islam it is a must that a person performing prayer is in a pure clean state. So to make sure of this purity Muslims perform Ablution before prayer. There are two types of ablution called wudu and ghusl.
If someone has done wudu or ghusl and has not done anything to make them selves impure then they do not have to repeat it before each prayer.

Wudu is essentially what Muslims do before each prayer if they have done some thing to make them selves unclean.
It involves cleaning the hands up to the wrists three times and arms up to the elbow, cleaning the mouth and nose, face and neck three times and cleaning the feet up to the ankles three times.
Wudu must be done when some one does one of these things:

Ghusl on the other hand involves the washing of the entire body. Ghusl must be performed if some one has intercourse or ejaculates, after menstruation, child birth, touching a corpse, washing a corpse and when some one converts to Islam.

Muslim’s should also remove under arm and pubic hair at least once a month. This is because it is seen that the two areas that sweet a lot is the private parts and under the arm pits and so it is considered unclean to have long hair in those area’s as the hairs soak up the smell of perspiration.

Intention to pray

Before a Muslim starts to pray it is important for them to make intention. This involves either them saying or thinking that they are going to perform whatever prayer they intend to perform facing the ‘Qibla’ for the sake of Allah. For example before praying fajr a Muslim would think to himself, I am now going to perform a two rak'ah prayer of fajr facing the ‘Qibla’ for the sake of Allah.

The Qibla is the direction a Muslim faces while praying. This 'Qibla' is not a set direction but changes from country to country. The Qibla indicates the direction of Mecca as all Muslim's pray facing towards the Kabah in Mecca. Though it is important to face the direction of the Kabah during prayer it is not essential if someone does not have the means to find out which direction the 'Qibla' is. For instance someone who is travelling may wish to pray at a train station but does not know which direction to pray in will simply pray in the direction he thinks is right.

Their are many reasons why a Muslim must make intention before prayer, but the main reason is because prayer should be for the sake of Allah and not for any other reason. For example someone who prayers in public because he wants people to think better of him and not out of worship of Allah is praying for the wrong reasons. By making intention it helps remind Muslims that prayer should be focused on the worship of Allah and not for personnel goals in this world.

The place of prayer

When a Muslim prays he or she may not always do so in a Mosque.
In those circumstances when one is not praying at a Mosque some rules have to be observed.
These rules are the following

Of course for Muslims the best place to pray is inside a Mosque as there is more reward in praying in Mosques especially in congregation.

Hopefully this article has helped you understand why Muslims pray and the requirements that go in to it. For Muslims Prayer is a very serious and important thing as it is the difference between belief and disbelief.