Becoming a Practicing Muslim: The Five Pillars of Islam [II]
30 Jan 2018
Second: Salah (Prayer)
Salah (prayer) is one of the five pillars of Islam. It is an important act of worship that is mandatory for every Muslim. During Salah, Muslims send their supplications and prayers to God, asking for forgiveness and guidance along the "Straight Path".
Performing Salah means that worshippers have the opportunity to thank God for His blessings and submit to His will. It is a way for Muslims to feel closer to their creator.
In order to pray in Islam, a worshipper must be a Muslim, of sound mind, and has reached the age of puberty. Furthermore, Salah is performed five times a day at specific intervals, where the worshipper stands facing the qibla (the direction of the Kaaba). It is important that during prayer, a person’s clothes are clean and that they cover his/her awrah [parts of the body that should be covered in front of other people].
One must also perform wudu before Salah, which is a ritual ablution where specific parts of the body are cleaned with water to ensure that your Salah is valid.
“O you who have believed, when you rise to [perform] prayer, wash your faces and your forearms to the elbows and wipe over your heads and wash your feet to the ankles. And if you are in a state of janabah, then purify yourselves. But if you are ill or on a journey or one of you comes from the place of relieving himself or you have contacted women and do not find water, then seek clean earth and wipe over your faces and hands with it. Allah does not intend to make difficulty for you, but He intends to purify you and complete His favor upon you that you may be grateful.” [Al-Ma'idah, 5]
A call to prayer (Adhan) is recited by a muezzin for the five daily prayers, from a mosque, and people in their homes start praying as soon as they hear it. Another call to prayer (Iqama) is recited shortly after for the worshippers gathered inside the mosque itself to indicate that the prayer is about to start in congregation in the mosque. To understand more about the etiquette of entering the mosque, you can sign up for our FREE Islamic Etiquette course.
Aside from the five daily obligatory prayers, Muslims also pray on different occasions and for various reasons, such as the Eid prayer, which is performed on the morning of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, in addition to Salat al-Istikhaarah, which is performed when a Muslim needs to ask God for guidance on a particular matter.
Read about The First Pillar Of Islam.
Do you want to continue? Read about The Second Pillar Of Islam.
Learn Quran: Surat Al Bakarah
Surat Al-Bakarah is the second and longest chapter or surah in the holy Quran. It has 289 verses, 6,201 words and 25,500 letters. Its name ‘Al-Bakarah’ means The Cow. The recitation of Surat Al Bakarah has many benefits for Muslims, the most important of which is that Surat Al Bakarah protects those who recite it from the devil and the evil eye. It is known to ward off the devil from the house in which it is recited for three days.READ MORE
Learn Quran with Tajweed Rules: The Meem Sakinah
In order to learn Quran with tajweed you have to encounter the Meem Sakinah and apply its three different tajweed rules for pronunciation: Idgham with Ghunnah, Oral Ikhfaa also known as Ikhfaa Shafawi إخفاء شفوي and Oral Izhar, also known as Izhar shafawi إظهار شفوي.READ MORE
Learn Arabic words and phrases: Arabic Numbers (Six to Ten)
We established in part 1 of this article that learning numbers in any language is essential, but since there are an infinite amount of numbers, we will start off with the basics, with which you can form any number. In this article we will continue to learn Arabic numbers from where we left off in our article, ‘Learn Arabic words and phrases: Arabic Numbers (Zero to Five)’. Now we we’ll learn how to write and pronounce Arabic numbers from 6 to 10.READ MORE