One unit of prayer, Rakah, step by step

How to pray, lesson 5 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.

This is one Rakah. Listen to it once, then do it once with the app open. Every prayer is this, repeated.

Step 1. Stand

Stand up straight, feet about shoulder width apart, facing the Qibla. Keep your head straight, facing forward and a little down. Do not look up, and do not turn your head to the left or the right. Arms at your sides.

Step 2. Raise your hands and say Allahu Akbar

Raise both hands, with the fingers straight, until they are level with your shoulders or your ears. Both are from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. As you raise them, say Allahu Akbar. God is greatest. This is the door into the prayer. From here until the end you do not talk, eat, or look around.

Step 3. Fold your hands on your chest

Bring the hands down and fold them, the right hand over the left. These lessons put them on the chest. Some Muslims fold them lower, below the navel. Scholars of the four schools differ on this, and the prayer counts either way.

Step 4. Recite

Standing still, say quietly:

Audhu billahi minash shaytanir rajeem. I seek refuge in God from the cursed devil.

Then the opening chapter of the Quran, Al Fatiha. Its first line is Bismillah ir Rahman ir Raheem, in the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful, and it has seven short lines in all. Every Rakah of every prayer has Al Fatiha. Lesson 7 has the words and the meaning, and the Quran tab in this app plays it.

In the first two units only, after Al Fatiha, add any short passage from the Quran. Most beginners learn Al Ikhlas, four lines. If you do not know any yet, Al Fatiha alone is enough to start.

Step 5. Bow, Ruku

Say Allahu Akbar as you bend forward from the hips. Every change of position is announced this way, and the words follow your movement. Make it natural, not too long and not too short. Your voice follows your body: you begin as you start to move, and once your hands touch your knees the Allahu Akbar is done, you have already said it.

In the bow your back is flat and level, like a tabletop, with your head in line with it, not hanging down and not lifted. Grip your knees with your hands, fingers spread. Legs straight. Say at least once, and usually three times:

Subhana rabbiyal adheem. Glory to my Lord, the magnificent.

Step 6. Rise from the bow

As you come up, say:

Sami Allahu liman hamidah. God hears whoever praises Him.

Standing up straight again, arms at your sides, say:

Rabbana wa lakal hamd. Our Lord, to You is all praise. The recording goes on with the fuller wording many people add, hamdan kathiran tayyiban mubarakan fih, much good and blessed praise. Either is fine.

Step 7. Prostrate, Sujud

Say Allahu Akbar as you go down to the floor. This move takes longer, so this Allahu Akbar is longer, until your head, hands and knees touch the ground. The easiest way to feel it is in stages. Bend the knees and lower them to the floor. Put the palms flat on the floor about shoulder width apart. Then bring the forehead and the tip of the nose down to the floor between the hands.

In the finished position seven parts touch the floor: the forehead with the nose, both palms, both knees, and the toes of both feet. The toes are tucked under so they point forward toward the Qibla, not lying flat. The palms are flat with the fingers together, pointing forward, beside the head or under the shoulders. The elbows are up off the floor and away from your sides. The belly is off the thighs. Say at least once, and usually three times:

Subhana rabbiyal aala. Glory to my Lord, the most high.

Step 8. Sit up between the two prostrations

Say Allahu Akbar and lift your upper body to sitting. The simplest way to sit is on your left foot, which lies flat on the floor under you, with the right foot upright and its toes bent and pointing forward. Hands on the thighs near the knees, fingers together. Back straight. Say:

Rabbi ghfir li. My Lord, forgive me.

Once is enough. A few times is fine.

Step 9. Prostrate again

Say Allahu Akbar and go back down into the same prostration. Same seven points, same words, at least once and usually three times:

Subhana rabbiyal aala. Glory to my Lord, the most high.

That is one Rakah. From here you either say Allahu Akbar and stand up for the next unit, or you sit for the closing. Lesson 6 shows which.

If kneeling or bowing is hard for your body, sit on a chair and do the bow and the prostration by leaning forward from the chair, further for the prostration than for the bow. The prayer counts.

Why you will see people do it differently

Pray next to ten Muslims and you will notice small differences. They come from the four schools of Islamic law, each following what different Companions reported seeing the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, do. All of them are followed by respected scholars, none of them breaks the prayer, and people usually follow whatever their family or their mosque follows. These lessons teach one way so you have one thing to learn. The three differences you are most likely to notice:

Hands while standing. Folded on the chest is what these lessons teach and what most English guides show. Some fold them lower, just below the navel. Some let the arms hang at the sides, which is common among Muslims from West and North Africa.

The last sitting of the prayer. Between the two prostrations everyone sits the way step 8 describes. In the final sitting, many people slide the left foot out to the right under the right leg and sit on the floor itself, with the right foot still upright. Others keep the same sitting all the way through, which is what these lessons teach because it is one posture instead of two. Sit whichever way your body allows.

The finger in the sitting. Some hold the right index finger raised and still for the whole sitting. Some raise it only at the words "there is no god but God." Some move it gently. Any of these is fine.

If you are learning with someone, do it their way. If you are learning alone, do it the way written here. You can change later without ever having prayed wrongly.

Sources

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