Ṣalāt (pl. ṣalawāt; Arabic: صلاة; Qur’anic Arabic: صلوة, ṣalawah; Persian, Bengali, Urdu and Turkish: نماز, namāz; Pashto: munz), the Islamic prayer, is one of the Five Pillars of Sunni Islam and one of the ten Practices of the Religion of Twelver Shi’a Islam, observed by Muslims in supplication to God.
Prayer is performed five times a day: at dawn (fajr), noon (dhuhr), in the afternoon (asr), at sunset (maghrib) and nightfall (isha’a). It is obligatory for all Muslims once they have reached puberty.
Namāz or نماز, the word for prayer used by Muslims speaking Indo-Iranian, South Slavic and Turkic languages, comes from an Indo-European root meaning ‘to bow, or prostrate’.
A Muslim worshipper is a muṣallī or مصلى, and the prayer mat, a muṣalla.
The salah was taught to prophet Muhammad (PBUH) through revelation. It is now the bond that strengthens man to Allah (swt).
By: The Importance Of Ṣalāt on February 20, 2009
at 5:22 pm