3A-salah (prayers)

• Prayer in Islam: Salah

  5 daily prayers and other prayers and the purposes of each
• Significance of niyat (intention)


  • To dedicate each prayer to God and not to pray to be seen by others
  • To follow a routine including washing (wudu) and set ritual forming a unit of a rakat
• Friday Jummah prayers


  • Bringing together the community and teaching them about Islam
  • Encouraging strength and unity for the Ummah (worldwide community of Muslims)
• Types of prayer in Islam

  • Salah, the five times a day prayer commanded in the five pillars of Islam
  • Optional sunnah and nafila prayers
  • Sufi Muslims' Wird prayers
  • Personal du'a prayers
• Salah ritual


  1. Standing

  2. Bowing

  3. Prostrating

  4. Reciting words from the Qur'an and the statement of faith, in complete submission to Allah
• The five daily prayers may also be said alone if a Muslim is not able to join a congregation in a mosque
• Sufi Muslims' Wird prayers

  Read under the direction of a Murshid, to strengthen their awareness of God and rise through the stations of ascension towards a state of contemplative or even ecstatic awareness
• Personal du'a prayers


  • Do not follow the same form as salah and are very much individual and private
  • A Muslim asks God for help and guidance on matters
  • Can be a way of deepening awareness of God
• Other prayers in Islam

  • Prayers for marriage
  • Prayers for funerals
  • Prayers for rain for their crops
• Jummah prayers


  • Friday midday congregational prayers, compulsory for adult male Muslims in Muslim countries who can attend without hardship, danger
  • Optional if on a journey or on the day of id; for women, for children and for those unable to attend the normal Zuhor prayers are said instead
• Jummah prayers


  • More than an ordinary prayer; it includes a sermon; a recitation of a khutbah (sermon) in Arabic containing the words of Muhammad
  • Collections for good causes support for Muslims
  • Opportunity to build rapport and strengthen the ummah
• "It strengthens the conscience and reaffirms total dependence upon God" - Esposito