Salaat-According to The Quran
by Yousef Al Shamsi

The Traditionalists are fond of saying that the Quran does not have the details of Salaat & that we need to refer to man made "books of Traditions" to get our details in salaat.This theory falls flat on their face because

(1)The Quran is fully detailed for our salvation & some details God left out on porpuse (5:101-102)

(2)There is absolutely no Hadith that explains salaat. The only hadith that supposedly explains salaat is one that says "pray like you see me pray" yet even this hadith leaves much doubt since the hadith doesn't say how the Prophet prayed.

The Quran tells us we have to make salaat. But what is salaat?& how do you preform salaat?

SALAAT-A DEFINITION

To make salaat means to keep contact or "link" with someone. The salaat mentioned here is to make a contact with God.For example chapter 2 verse 125 says that the Sacred Shrine is a place to keep contact with God since it is a place where people meet to remember God & focus on how to impliment his laws.We make contact with God everytime we implore God.Yet the Quran asks us to make a special type of contact (the salaat we shall talk about here) at least 5 times a day.

The salaat is done at dawn,noon,afternoon,sunset & night as a symbolic way of showing that people keep contact with God all the time(at the 5 stages of the day/night).The schedule is mentioned as followed

FAJAR: 20:130, 52:48-49, 76:25-26, 11:114, 5039-40, 30:17-18 & 24:58.

ZUHAR: 17:78 & 30:17-18.

ASAR: 2:238, 76:25, 20:130, 30:17, 50:39-40.

MAGHRAB: 11:114, 20:130, 30:17 & 50:39-40.

ISHA: (As Salatal lail) 52:48, 76:25.

(As Isha) 20:130, 11:114, 30:17-18.

WHAT DO WE DO DURING SALAAT?

Salaat,as the name implies, is a way for us to keep contact with God. The Quran mentions salaat as a way to seek help

[2:45]And seek assistance through patience and salaat......

When a person is preforming salaat he implores God in a moderate tone(17:110) & bows & prostrates(22:77).Salaat is not a mechanical or "rehersed" form of worship as to make it such is to lose its meaning & ultimately contact with God is brocken & lost (19.59).We see from the many verses of the Quran that all prophets & righteous people had different implorations in their salaat. For example,in chapter 3 verse 38 we learn that Prophet Zecheria implored for a child while in his salaat & in chapter 14 verse 37 & 40 we see Abrahams prayer which was that God will accept his prayer & that the generations after him keep up the prayers.This also disaproves of the Traditionalist's theory that the order of salaat come on the myth known as Mi3raj in which Muhammad bargained with God to have 5 prayers instead of 50.!!!!!.The gross blasphemy of this fairy tale is apparent from the beggining,which tries to depict Muhammad as being more merciful than God.

HOW TO END SALAAT?

[4.103] Then when you have finished the prayer, remember Allah standing and sitting and reclining; but when you are secure (from danger) keep up prayer; surely prayer is a timed ordinance for the believers.