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INTRODUCTION
This prayer guide is a step by step guide to
learning to pray.
The Muslim prayers are a form of worship which establishes
the link between man and his Creator whom we call Allah in Arabic. Through
Salah (prayer) a person communes with his Lord, the Creator and the
Sustainer of the Universe.
At least five times a day Muslims all
over the world face the direction of the first house built for the
worship of The One God (Allah) and pray the five daily prayers enjoined on
every sane adult Muslim male and female. This house is called the Kabah. It is
located in the Holy city of Makkah in present day Saudi
Arabia. We do not worship the kabah. We simply worship God while
facing the Kabah.
The five daily Prayers become obligatory from
the moment a person embraces Islam. This is an extremely important
tenet of Islam and has been enjoined with great emphasis both in the
Holy Quran and the sayings of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
According to one saying of Prophets (peace be upon him), the prayer
is the borderline between a Muslim and a non-believer.
Preparation for prayer
Before starting the prayer, a person
must perform Wudhu (ablution).
However if a person has had
a wet dream or sex then they should perform
Ghusl.
GHUSL
Ghusl should also be
performed at the end of a women period of menstruation
has ended and at the end of 40 days after childbirth (unless
the bleeding stops before completing the 40 days period, then she must make the Ghusl as soon as the bleeding
stops).
Ghusl
in Islam means the bathing of the entire body with water. Proof of its
legitimacy is embodied in the Holy Qur'an as follows:"And if ye
are in a state of ceremonial impurity, bathe your whole body"
(Qur'an 5:6).
How
to make Ghusl
PRAYER
TIMES
Prayer timings vary throughout the globe and slight
variations from day to day due to changes in daylight hours.
There are five obligatory prayers which are performed
at five different times of the day.
1 FAJR
PRAYER (The Morning Prayer)
It starts at dawn and ends at sunrise. Thus it can
be prayed between these points. But it is best to pray at the
beginning of its time (i.e. just after start of dawn)
2 DHUHR PRAYER (The Early Afternoon
Prayer )
It starts when the sun begins to decline from its
zenith and ends when the the size of an object's shadow is equal to
the objects size.
3 ASR PRAYER (The Late Prayer )
It starts when an object's shadow is equal to the
objects size and ends when just before sunset.
It is better to pray Asr before the sky becomes yellow
(even though it is allowed to pray at such a time) because the
Prophet ( peace be upon him) disliked Muslims praying at such as
time and. He remarked that the the Munafiq (Hypocrite ) offers his
pray at this time.
4 MAGHRIB PRAYER (The Sunset
Prayer ) .
Its time begins just after sunset and ends
when twilight has just disappeared
5 ISHA
PRAYER (The Night Prayer )
It starts when twilight has
disappeared and ends before midnight
HOW TO PRAY
Stage1
Learning to pray when your language is not Arabic
can seem to be a very difficult task. However it is not as
difficult as it may appear to you. A certain amount of text is memorized
and the same text can be recited in all the 5 daily prayers.
Since a Muslim should pray right away after
converting to Islam, it would be reasonable to say that he or she
would be unable to memorize the whole text of the prayer in the
same day. However, Allah does not put a burden on anyone that they
cannot bare.
Therefore the Prophet peace be upon him instructed
new Muslims to learn a short supplication (Subhaan-Allaah
wal-hamdu Lillaah wa laa ilaaha ill-Allaah wa Allaahu akbar wa
laa hawla wa la quwwata illa Billaah) which they can recite in all
their 5 daily prayers as you will see in the beginners prayer
guides.
It was narrated that ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Abi Awfa
said: A man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him) and said: “O Messenger of Allah, teach me something of
the Qur’aan that will suffice me, for I cannot read.” He said,
“Say: Subhaan-Allaah wa’l-hamdu Lillaah wa laa ilaaha ill-Allaah
wa Allaahu akbar wa laa hawla wa la quwwata illa Billaah (Glory be
to Allaah, praise be to Allaah, there is no god except Allaah and
Allaah is Most great, there is no god except Allaah and there is
no power and no strength except with Allaah).” The man made a
grabbing gesture with his hand (indicating that he had learned a
lot) and said, “This is for my Lord, what is there for me?” He
said, “Say: Allaahumma ighfir li warhamni wahdini warzuqni wa ‘aafini
(O Allah, forgive me, have mercy on me, guide me, and grant me
provision and good health).” He made another grabbing gesture with
his other hand and stood up.
(Narrated by al-Nasaa’i, 924; Abu Dawood, 832. Its isnaad was
classed as jayyid by al-Mundhiri in al-Targheeb wa’l-Tarheeb,
2/430. al-Haafiz Ibn Hajar indicated that it is hasan in al-Talkhees
al-Habeer, 1/236)
So the point is to get started on learning and
performing the prayers right away.
If one
has a very good memory
they should memorise
Surah Fatiha, which is
longer for some may be
to difficult to memorise
in in just a few hours.
However even Surah
Fatiha could be
memorised by some people
in around 5-6 hours if a
person repeats each line
over and over again. So
memorising the following
supplication should take
even less time.
Subhaan-Allaah
wal-hamdu Lillaah
wa laa ilaaha
ill-Allaah
wa Allaahu akbar
wa
laa
hawla
wa la
quwwata
illa Billaah
Now lets look at how to pray each of the five
daily prayers
Click on the links in the box
below to learn how to
pray each of the 5 daily prayers
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How a
New Muslim or Beginner Prayers the:
Above guides show stage 1 and stage2 |
Stage 2
After being able to recite the
above in your 5 daily prayers you should try to memorize Surah Fathiha and include it
in the prayer (as described in the prayer guides for the 5
daily prayers above) and incorporate that as shown in the above diagrams
for stage 1.
Please do not skip stages 1 and 2 as you will end
up making learning to prayer difficult for you and end up missing
some of your prayers as the full text takes quite a while to
memorize especially for non-Arabic speakers. But do watch the
video and flash movie below to get a further idea of how the
movements are preformed and eventual progress to the third
stage. If you have any questions please email.
PRAYER MOVIE
The following movie will give you
and idea as how the movements are preformed. It is for advanced
level but will be helpful for the very beginners too to see the
movements in action.
Stage 3 (final stage)
This is the final and complete stage on
learning to perform 5 daily Prayers. It is for advanced
level students only
How to perform the prayer (Full
advanced level prayer guide )
Note:
Surah Fatiha should be recited one verse at a time
Video to teach Fatiha
Listen to the whole of
Surah Fatiha
1. In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most
Merciful.
2. All the praises and thanks be to Allah, the Lord of the 'Alamin
(mankind, jinns and all that exists).
3. The Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.
4. The Only Owner (and the Only Ruling Judge) of the Day of
Recompense ( i.e. the Day of Resurrection)
5. You (Alone) we worship, and You (Alone) we ask for help
(for each and everything).
6. Guide us to the Straight Way
7. The Way of those on whom You have bestowed Your Grace, not
(the way) of those who earned Your Anger (such as the Jews),
nor of those who went astray (such as the Christians).
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