By Cyril Anderson

 The obligatory, ritual prayer, or salat, forms an essential part of the practice of any serious Muslim.  These prayers play a number of vital roles, in the life of the believer.  They first of all regulate the life of the person and putting his life in tune with the movements of the sun and moon, with the order of his life being transformed and shaped to reflect the order of the cosmos.  Secondly, the prayer represents a daily effort to make a spiritual journey, striving to draw closer to God.  This fundamental element of the faith acts then as a foundation and anchor of the belief and life of the individual, with the ordering of the life and close relationship with God acting as a base for everything else.  In this article, you are invited to join me as I describe the important parts of this essential journey towards God that we are called upon to embark on five times each day.

 Adhaan – The adhaan is a formal calling of the faithful to prayer.  It is melodious call, attracting the believers to come to prayer.  It calls the believers toward prayer (hayyah a’las salat), reminding them at the same time that they are also being called toward prosperity,  (hayyah a’lal falah’)  toward the “best of actions.”  (hayyah a’laa  khairil a’mal)  In a city or in a mosque, it serves this social purpose, and also serves a ritual purpose as another stage in the preparation for our attempts to approach God in prayer.  When we enter into prayer with focus and concentration, it is as if we are going on a great journey; we enter into a different space from our everyday activities.  We journey away briefly from our normal activities, putting away the details of our life for a time and seek meaning and foundation for our lives in communion with God.  In any profound journey, one must prepare himself, and the adhaan is such a preparation, a sign to prepare ourselves to put aside our daily activities and prepare our mind for this serious journey.

 Wudhoo/tayyammum – To prepare for the prayer, to symbolically purify oneself using either water or, lacking water, clean earth, both symbols of purity and cleanness.  This is not a literal physical cleaning, since one’s body is supposed to be clean as a pre-requisite to getting ready for prayer.  Rather, it is a sort of symbolic, spiritual cleansing, a removing of one layer between oneself and God in preparation to approach Him in prayer.  The coolness of the water splashing on the face wakes you up, brings you to alertness, preparing you to make a transition from our ordinary activities to the sacred activity of prayer.  When we prepare for an appointment to meet an important person, it is normal for us to wash and groom ourselves to look and smell nice, and what more important Being to meet than God, our Creator and Sustainer?  This is but part of the reason why we wash ourselves and perfume ourselves before prayer.

 Iqamah – The iqamah is a final warning before the journey begins, a final notice to put off his everyday concerns to get ready for prayer.  It is, in a sense, a “final boarding call” before the flight leaves.  The adhaan is long, slow, unhurried, and is more like the first call for the flight.  The iqamah is faster and more urgent.  It echoes the words of the adhaan, but adds that “the prayer is about to begin.” (qad qamat as-salat)  It is the last warning to put aside ones ties to this world, to say one’s last goodbyes to material concerns before boarding the express flight that leads to God.  And if you don’t take heed of this last call?  If you linger, holding on to the world instead of letting it go to board for the prayer?  You will miss the flight, and be left behind. 

Niyyat – One of the obligatory parts of the prayer is the niyyat, or intention.  In Islam, in any action, the intention behind the action is essential.  An action is considered void without the correct intention behind it.  In prayer, one takes a moment to concentrate and remind oneself about what one is trying to do before launching into the prayer.  One reminds oneself that he is performing salat, an obligatory act, for the purpose of drawing near to God.  (qurbatan ilallah)  The niyyat is a final reminder to oneself about what one is seeking to do as one begins to board the flight.

 Takbirat al ih’ram – When one has made his intention, one settles himself, calming himself and clearing his mind of worldly concerns before beginning the prayer.  When one is steady and calm and clear-headed, he recites the takbiratul ih’ram by saying “Allahu akbar.” (God is greatest)  With this, the journey begins.

 Recitation – Each prayer consists of a number of structural units, called rakaat.  The five required daily prayers have different numbers of prescribed units.  The first part of each unit consists of a recitation of God’s Word from the Qu’ran.  One is not to recite just anything from the Qu’ran, but specifically the first surah, surah al-fatihah, The Opening,  surahs (chapters) that glorify God, speaking of His greatness and majesty.  Usually the short surahs at the end of the Qu’ran are selected.  One of the purposes of reading these verses is to reflect with concentration on the greatness of God, who we try to approach in the prayer.

 Rukoo – When the recitation is finished we bow down in rukoo.  This action of bowing has clear significance, universally understood across different cultures as a showing of respect.  In rukoo, we bow to God, to whom we are directing ourselves in the prayer.  It is a symbol of our humbling ourselves toward God.  In rukoo, we show respect and humbleness before approaching closer and more intimately to God in the steps of the prayer that follow.

 Sajdah – After the rukoo, we stand up again, and pause for a moment before descending to the ground, prostrating ourselves with our face on the ground.  It is important that in this prostration, that the head touches either earth, or something that grows from the earth, rather than manmade materials.  In this way, we show great humbleness by lowering the highest part of us, our forehead, behind which lies the highest, most powerful part of our brain, the part that helps us to do our most sophisticated thinking, to dirt, to earth, to a base material.  After the first prostration, we sit up for a moment, seeking forgiveness from God.  Then we lower ourselves once more in prostration.  There is a reason for this pattern of prostration, sitting up, and prostration given by the Prophet Muhammad that also clarifies the symbolic importance of prostrating on earth.  The first prostration represents the creation of Adam, the first man from earth.  The brief sitting up represents the brief course of our life in this world.  The second prostration represents the return to the earth at the time of our death.

When we lower ourselves in this way, with concentration, we put aside fully our arrogance and pride, and in this humbling, approach closest toward God.

 Standing – After the second prostration, we sit up again, and if we are not in the last unit of prayer, we then raise ourselves up, standing to begin the next unit.  This standing represents the resurrection after death.

 Tashahud and Tasleem – At the finish of the last unit of prayer, we go through two final parts to close the prayer.  First, we recite the tashahud, a summary of our key beliefs.  And then, to close, we send greetings of peace, on, respectively, the Prophet, on our fellow passengers on the journey toward God, and, finally, on all.  The prayer then finishes.