Ṣalāh — the Ritual Prayer

Five daily prayers, performed at set times facing Mecca, are the second pillar of Islam and the rhythm of a Muslim's day.

At a glance

Ṣalāh is the formal, prescribed prayer that punctuates the Muslim day at dawn, midday, afternoon, sunset and night. Preceded by ritual purification (wuḍūʾ) and performed facing the Kaʿba in Mecca, it combines standing, bowing and prostration with recitation from the Qur'an, chief among them the opening chapter, al-Fātiḥa.

Prayer may be offered alone or in congregation; the Friday midday prayer (jumuʿa) gathers the community and includes a sermon. Its purpose is described in the Qur'an as the remembrance of God and a restraint from wrongdoing — a discipline of the body that is meant to school the heart.

Because ṣalāh is both an act of worship and a matter of detailed practice, it sits at the meeting point of creed and law: the belief that God alone is worshipped, expressed through rulings on its times, conditions and forms.

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Curated reference on Islamic belief and thought. On matters where traditions differ, positions are attributed rather than adjudicated; verify points of doctrine with qualified scholars.