Salah

•  Salah is a compulsory prayer that all Muslims have to pray 5 times a day.  Allah commanded Muslims to complete this prayer during Muhammed’s* Night Journey (the Miraj).   Salah is a very spiritual act of worship as during the five predetermined points in a day, Muslims are directly communicating with their creator.  Praying five times every single day ensures that a Muslim is constantly drawing Allah to mind in remembrance, which will help them to stay focused onto the right path
• “establish Salah to remember Me.”
• As with all of the pillars, Salah is a compulsory act and it is believed that Salah will be one of the first things that Allah will question a person on during their judgement in the afterlife.  

   
• Completing Salah is clearly beneficial for a Muslim and the benefits include:

  • It brings Muslims closer to Allah

  • It instils discipline and structure in their life

  • It purifies their heart and comforts the soul

  • It can bring a sense of calm and mindfulness during their day

  • It will be rewarded by Allah
• Apart from the five obligatory prayers, Muslims can also pray at any other time, these prayers are known as Duas (personal prayers) 
• Wudu- The washing cleans them physically, but also cleanses them spiritually by purifying them from their sins.  If travellers through the desert were unable able to use water, they could still complete a version of wudu known as Tayammum which displays the symbolic importance of this act in order to spiritually prepare someone for prayer.
• • qiblah- Facing towards Mecca is symbolic of facing the place on earth which is associated with Allah (the Ka’ba).
  •  Making niyyah which is the conscious intention to pray for the sake of Allah.