Facts and Details

MUSLIM PRAYERS

salat Islam has few rituals other than prayer, which is one of the five pillars of Islam. There are no sacraments. Prayer consists of defined movements and recitations of passages of the Koran. The cycles of prayer begins after a Muslim orients himself or herself towards Mecca.

Prayers are intended to be a public avowal of faith and membership of the Muslim community. According to sura 62:9-10: “O you who believe. When the call is heard for prayer on the day of the congregation, hurry to remembrance of God and leave your trading. That is better for you if only you knew. And when the prayer is ended, then disperse in the land and seek God’s bounty, and remember God much so that you be successful.”

Prayers can be done anywhere, except a place regarded as unclean, but are ideally done in a mosque. A prayer at a mosque is supposed to bring 27 times more blessing than a prayer outside a mosque. Once a Muslim begins his prayers he is not supposed abandon them even if he or she are approached by a poisonous snake. Women who see their child in danger while they pray and supposed to keep praying while they make the rescue.

Qibla compass Often only men pray in the mosques. Women, who are sometimes not allowed in mosques, pray mostly at home and sometimes attend ceremonies conducted in a home by female religious leaders.

When entering the mosque, some of the faithful discard their canes in hope that the prayers will heal them and make them young again. The act of writing prayers is consider important. The idea behind it is similar to Buddhist concept of earning merit. Sometimes Muslims sway and bob their heads when they pray or recite passages from the Koran. This is not all that different from what Jews do when they recite passages from the Torah and what some shaman do before they go into a trance.

Websites and Resources: Islam.com islam.com ; islamicity.com ; Islam 101 islam101.net ; Islamic History Resources uga.edu/islam/history ; Internet Islamic History Sourcebook fordham.edu/halsall/islam/islamsbook ; Wikipedia article Wikipedia ; Religious Tolerance religioustolerance.org/islam ; BBC article bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam ; Islamic History friesian.com/islam ; Islam.com Timeline classicalislam.com ; Islamic Civilization cyberistan.org ; Muslim Heritage muslimheritage.com

Muslim Praying Positions

Salat positions Each formal prayer session is made up of a specific series of seven postures or movements— each accompanied by an appropriate set of recitations—collectively known as bowing ( rak’a or rakats ). The prayers are performed in the direction of Mecca and proceed as follows: 1) recitation of the phrase “ Allah akbar ” with hand open on either side of the face; 2) recitation of the Fatiha , often along with other passages of the Koran while in a standing position; 3) bowing from the hips; 4) straightening up; 5) gliding to the knees for a first prostration with the face to the ground; 6) sitting back on the haunches; and 7) a second prostration, often touching his or her head to the floor.

The second and later rak’a begin with the second movement. At the end of each pair of raka and at the conclusion of the entire prayer the worshiper recites the Shahada and ritual salutations. Less formal prayers are known as du’a . Faithful who engages in these often kneel, close their eyes, open their hands to sky, palms up, and move their lips as they mutter prayers. When making private prayers, Muslims often sit in the same position with their palms facing upwards.

The verses from the Koran can be whispered under one breath or repeated silently. Some Muslims get a faintly visible mark at the center their forehead—that looks like a scar or a bruise or birthmark—from repeatedly banging their head on the ground or the stone floor of mosque during the five-times-a-day prayers.

Facing Mecca

Muslims are required to face the shortest distance to the Kaaba in Mecca when they pray. Facing Mecca during the daily prayers is an expression of direct contact with God without intermediaries. Kneeling and prostrating during these prayers is way of showing absolute humility before God.

Qibla Sultanahmet Mosque in Istanbul Muslims can buy a simple compass or get a prayer mat with a compass woven into it that helps them orient themselves at prayer time towards the direction of Mecca. Hotel rooms in Muslim countries often have an arrow in the ceiling or on the floor that shows the direction towards Mecca. These days it is possible to get cell phones with GPS that indicate the direction of Mecca. Some planes have an arrow on the video and movie screens that shows the direction of Mecca.

Sometimes the direction a Muslim faces is not the direction you would think. For example a Muslim in Detroit faces northeast not southeast as many would suspect. Why? The curvature of the earth. The shortest line between two points often look like a big curve on a flat map.

Mohammed initially asked the faithful to their prayers towards Jerusalem but after the Jews of Medina rejected his teachings he told his followers to pray towards Mecca. This decision and the make Mecca the destination for the Hajj may have been influenced by his desire to keep the pilgrimage trade in his hometown of Mecca and thus help merchants and trades people there.

Muslim Daily Prayers

salat times Sunnis pray five times a day. Shiites pray three times: before sunrise and two times in the afternoon at one's discretion.

The Sunnis praying regimen is as follows: 1) two r’akas at dawn ( fahr ), or one hour before sunrise, often as early as 4:30am; 2) four r’akas at noon ( dhuhr ); 3) four r’akas in the afternoon ( asr ), generally between 2:00pm and 4:00pm; : 4) three r’akas at sunset ( maghred ); and 5) and four r’akas at one hour or 90 minutes after sunset ( isha ).

Prayer times vary according to the time of the year and geographical location. Ideally prayers should be performed congregationally in a mosque under the leadership of a prayer-leader, or imam , with all worshippers facing in the direction of the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, marked by the mihrab (a niche in the wall of the mosque). Prayers can also be performed individually anywhere on clean ground or a rug. Additional or “supererogatory” prayers are frequently recommended, especially during the night.

Muslim life often revolves around daily prayer. Alarm clock goes off at 4:30 or 5:00am to wake up for morning prayer. Muezzins sound off at the same time, calling out in Arabic: "Come to prayer; prayer is better than sleep..." Some Muslims are alerted to prayer times by chimes on their computers. There are websites that Muslims can turn to for prayer times at different locations around the world. Employers allow workers to take the time to visit a local mosque.

Ablution (Wudu) in Turkey Friday noon prayers are the one time when Muslim are expected to gather together and listen to a short sermons. Men kneel or sit cross legged on prayer rugs while the preacher ( khatib ) gives a 15- to 30-minute sermon that usually follows a regular form: praises to God, blessings invoked on the Prophet, a story the good deed performed by Mohammed or homily regarding the Muslim community, and an invocation of God’s blessing on the local community or leader. Afterward everyone prays together. Similar services are held on major holidays, particularly the Breaking of the Fast after Ramadan and the Feast of the Sacrifice.

Mohammed said its is better to pray than sleep. According to Muslim tradition he devised the custom of praying five times a day during his night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem to heaven. In one story, Mohammed talked God down into reducing the number of prayers from 50 a day to five a day after being advised by Moses.

Muslim Praying Rituals, Prayer Mats and Worry Beads

Qibla mat Muslims are supposed to state their intention to pray, wash themselves before praying and find a clean place to pray. Ablution (washing or bathing) is a sign of purification or. Following a custom known in Arabic as wudu Muslim worshipers are expected to wash their face, head, arms, feet. and ankles before praying. All mosques are expected to have a water basin to perform these ablutions. If no water is available Muslims are supposed to wash themselves with clean sand.

The Koran tells the faithful: “O believers, when you stand up to pray, wash you faces, and your hands up to the elbows, and wipe your heads, and your feet up to the ankles.” In the scripture there are also details about cleaning the nostrils. Dirty feet in a mosques are regarded as an insult to Islam. Some say the custom also exists so Muslims don’t dirty themselves when they touch their foreheads to floor during prayer. Many faithful carry prayer mats ( sajjada ). They are recommended but not required. The idea of behind the mats is that they clean and purify the place where a Muslim is praying.

In 2010, a Malaysian company called AACE Technologies introduced a machine which it said would allow Muslims to purify themselves without wasting water. The ornate green-colored machine is 1.65 meters tall and has automatic sensors, a basin and recordings of many Koranic verses. It limits water usage to 1.3 liters per person, much less than is used by worshippers who usually keep the faucet running during the entire washing process. The machines cost $3,000 to $4,000 and took two years and $2.5 million to develop. Many of the world’s 1.7 billion Muslims live in places where water supplies are scarce. Washing before five daily prayers can use up a lot of water, During the Hajj it estimated hat the 2 million pilgrims use more that 50 million liters of water a day, a lot of liquid in waters-strapped Saudi Arabia. An AACE spokesman told Reuters that if Meccan authorities invested in their machine only 10 million liters would be used each day.

Many Muslims carry misbaha or subha beads (sometimes called "worry beads"), which are used to like Christian rosaries and Buddhist perater beads to count the number or prayers that have been recited. They also give away the mood of the their owners. They way the beads are carried, fingered and moved around can convey nervousness, boredom and anger. Endangered black coral is prized for making prayer beads.

Written and Spoken Muslim Prayer

Most prayers are passages in Arabic from the Koran that Muslims know by heart. One Islamic scholar told Newsweek, the act of saying prayers in Arabic “is to experience the presence of God with the same kind of intimacy as Catholics feel when they receive Christ as consecrated bread and wine at mass.” Some non-Arabic-speaking Muslim have no idea what they are saying when they recite some Arabic passages.

The most basic and essential prayer is the shahada. It goes: " La ilaha ill Allah; wa-Mohammed rasul Allah ” —“There is no god but God; and Mohammed is the Prophet.” These are the first words that are whispered into Muslim baby and the last words a person hears when he or she is on her deathbed. They are also the words Muslims say when they are praying or are in a great deal pain.

During prayers time the faithful say:


God is Great
God is Great
God is Great
God is Great
I attest that Mohammed is the Messenger of God
I attest that Mohammed is the Messenger of God
Rise up to Worship
Rise up to Worship
Rise up to Well Being
Rise up to Well Being
God is Great
God is Great
There is no God if not God Himself

“God’s mercy be upon him” is a common Muslim blessing. All the chapters of the Koran, except Chapter 9 begin with the words: “In the name of Allah, the Merciful and the Giver of Mercy.” This is often recited whenever an activity is begun. The end of the first chapter of the Koran—"Guide us on the straight path, the path of those you have blessed...not those who have gone astray”—is often recited.

Crescent Moon and Other Muslim Symbols

Shahada on Royal flag of Saudi Arabia The bilal , or crescent moon, is the primary symbol of Islam. It signifies the importance of the lunar calendar in organizing the religious life of Muslims. The moon has ancient connections with royalty in the Middle East.

The crescent moon is seen on the flags of many Muslim flags and it used as a symbol for the Muslim version of the red cross: the red crescent. As early as the thirteenth century it was the religious and military symbol of the Ottoman Turks.

Green is the traditional Muslim color of hope. A hand symbolizes the five pillars of Islam.

The shahada is the basic statement of Muslim belief and one of the Five Pillars of Islam. Confirming a belief in God it goes: "there is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is the messenger of God." It is often featured in calligraphy artwork in mosques. According to Sunni beliefs no person who repeats the shahada can be called an infidel or excluded from the Muslim community.

New convert declare the Shahadah as a confirmation faith. Pious Muslims repeat it many times every day. The first phrase ("there is no God but Allah”) both repudiates polytheism and declares that it is a sin for any person or creature to imply they have the powers of God. The second phrase (“and Mohammed is the messenger of God”) does not imply there was anything wrong with other prophets such as Adam. Abraham and Moses but rather than Mohammed was the bearer of the final and perfect revelation from God.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: World Religions edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); Encyclopedia of the World’s Religions edited by R.C. Zaehner (Barnes & Noble Books, 1959); Arab News, Jeddah; Islam, a Short History by Karen Armstrong; A History of the Arab Peoples by Albert Hourani (Faber and Faber, 1991); Encyclopedia of the World Cultures edited by David Levinson (G.K. Hall & Company, New York, 1994). Also articles in National Geographic, the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Times of London, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

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© 2009 Jeffrey Hays

Last updated March 2011