What the prayer is

How to pray, lesson 1 of 8

These lessons are shared with the GABLVM app. Where a lesson mentions the app, this site has the same tools: Prayer Times, Qibla Finder, and the Quran Player.

Muslims pray five times a day. The prayer is called Salah. It takes about five minutes. You stand, you bow, you put your forehead on the floor, you sit, and at each position you say a few short Arabic phrases. That is what these lessons teach.

The five prayers are spread through the day. Fajr is before sunrise. Dhuhr is just after midday. Asr is in the late afternoon. Maghrib is right after sunset. Isha is at night. The Times screen in this app shows when each one starts where you are.

Each prayer is made of units. One unit is called a Rakah. A Rakah is one round of standing, bowing, prostrating twice, and sitting. The prayers only differ in how many units they have. Fajr has two. Dhuhr has four. Asr has four. Maghrib has three. Isha has four. Once you can do one Rakah, you can pray all five.

You do not need to know Arabic to start. You do not need to get it perfect. Start, and it gets easier.

المصادر

Hadith from Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim are authenticated collections. Other hadith show their grading and who graded them.