The prayer
What you are saying, five times a day
Most of the Qur'an a person meets in their life, they meet inside the prayer. Yet the words go by in Arabic and the meaning stays outside. This page walks the prayer from the first takbīr to the last word after the salām: the wording, what each word means, why it belongs at that point, and what the scholars require of it.
01Takbīr — the opening
Standing
The four words that begin the prayer and shut the world out.
Pillar — the prayer is not valid without it
02The opening words (thanāʾ)
Standing
A short praise said quietly before any Qur'an is recited.
Sunnah — recommended, the prayer stands without it
03Isti'ādhah and Bismillah
Standing
Seeking refuge, then beginning with the name of Allah.
Sunnah — recommended, the prayer stands without it
04Al-Fātiḥah, line by line
Standing
The one surah no prayer is valid without — a conversation, split in half.
Pillar — the prayer is not valid without it
05The surah after Al-Fātiḥah
Standing
What people commonly recite next, and why those surahs.
Sunnah — recommended, the prayer stands without it
06Rukūʿ — bowing
Bowing
The back level, the hands on the knees, and one sentence repeated.
Pillar — the prayer is not valid without it
07Rising from the bow
Standing again
Allah hears the one who praises Him — and you answer.
Pillar — the prayer is not valid without it
08Sujūd — prostration
Prostration
The lowest place the body can go, and the closest you can be.
Pillar — the prayer is not valid without it
09Sitting between the two prostrations
Sitting
A short sit, and one of the densest requests in the prayer.
Pillar — the prayer is not valid without it
10Tashahhud
Sitting
The greeting the Prophet ﷺ taught word for word, like teaching a surah.
Pillar — the prayer is not valid without it
11Ṣalāt on the Prophet ﷺ
Sitting
Asking Allah to honour him, in the words he was asked for.
Pillar — the prayer is not valid without it
12The duʿā before the salām
Sitting
Four things to seek refuge from, then anything you want.
Sunnah — recommended, the prayer stands without it
13Taslīm — the ending
Sitting
Turning right, then left, and giving peace away.
Pillar — the prayer is not valid without it
14The adhkār after the prayer
After the prayer
What the Prophet ﷺ said before standing up.
Sunnah — recommended, the prayer stands without it
The Cave of Ḥirāʾ — the first revelation
Prayer before it had a timetable
From the earliest days the Prophet ﷺ and those with him prayed, but not yet the five prayers as we know them. Reports describe two units in the morning and two in the evening. The first thing taught was not the timetable — it was standing before Allah at all.
Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah; al-Ṭabarī, Tārīkh
Read the chapterGoing public — and the persecution
Praying where they could be seen
Once the message went public, prayer became the visible act that marked a Muslim out. Some prayed in the valleys outside Makkah to avoid being attacked mid-prostration; the harassment of those praying at the Kaʿbah is reported repeatedly in this period.
al-Bukhārī 240; Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah
Read the chapterThe boycott and the Year of Sorrow
Held onto through the hardest years
Through the boycott and the loss of Khadījah رضي الله عنها and Abū Ṭālib, the prayer is the one thing that does not pause. Sūrahs revealed in these years — al-Muzzammil among them — speak directly about standing at night.
Qur'an 73:1–4; Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāyah
Read the chapterThe journey to Ṭāʾif and the Night Journey (al-Isrāʾ)
The five prayers are given
On the Night Journey the five daily prayers were made obligatory — first fifty, then reduced, with the reward of fifty kept. Of everything in the religion, this is the only obligation given directly, above the heavens, rather than through revelation sent down to earth. That alone tells you where it sits.
al-Bukhārī 349; Muslim 162 (ṣaḥīḥ)
Read the chapterThe Hijrah — migration to Madinah
A community shaped around it
In Madinah the prayer gets a building, a call and a congregation: the masjid is the first structure built, the adhān is settled after ʿAbdullāh ibn Zayd's dream, the qiblah turns to the Kaʿbah, and Jumuʿah begins. Prayer stops being private and becomes the timetable of a whole city.
al-Bukhārī 3906; Abū Dāwūd 499 (ṣaḥīḥ); Qur'an 2:144
Read the chapterConquest, completion and farewell
The last instruction
In his final illness the Prophet ﷺ instructed that Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه lead the prayer, and among his last spoken words were: 'The prayer, the prayer, and what your right hands possess.' He left with it on his tongue.
al-Bukhārī 664; Ibn Mājah 2698 (ṣaḥīḥ)
Read the chapter
al fatihah
Recited in every unit of every prayer — no prayer is valid without it.
al-Bukhārī 756; Muslim 394 (ṣaḥīḥ)
al kafirun
Paired with al-Ikhlāṣ in the two units before Fajr and after Maghrib.
Muslim 726 (ṣaḥīḥ)
al ikhlas
Paired with al-Kāfirūn in the sunnah units, and a man who kept repeating it was told Allah loved him for it.
Muslim 726; al-Bukhārī 7375 (ṣaḥīḥ)
as sajdah
Recited at Fajr on Friday, together with al-Insān.
al-Bukhārī 891; Muslim 880 (ṣaḥīḥ)
al insan
The second half of the Friday Fajr recitation.
Muslim 880 (ṣaḥīḥ)
al ala
Recited with al-Ghāshiyah at Jumuʿah and the two ʿĪd prayers.
Muslim 878 (ṣaḥīḥ)
al ghashiyah
Recited with al-Aʿlā at Jumuʿah and the two ʿĪd prayers.
Muslim 878 (ṣaḥīḥ)
al jumuah
Recited with al-Munāfiqūn in the Friday prayer.
Muslim 877 (ṣaḥīḥ)
al munafiqun
The second unit of the Friday prayer.
Muslim 877 (ṣaḥīḥ)
qaf
Recited regularly in the Friday sermon and in Fajr.
Muslim 872 (ṣaḥīḥ)
at tur
Heard being recited at Maghrib by Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim before he accepted Islam.
al-Bukhārī 765 (ṣaḥīḥ)
al falaq
One of the last three surahs said after every prayer.
Abū Dāwūd 1523 (ṣaḥīḥ)
an nas
One of the last three surahs said after every prayer.
Abū Dāwūd 1523 (ṣaḥīḥ)
al baqarah
Āyat al-Kursī (2:255) is recited after every obligatory prayer.
al-Nasāʾī 1337 (ṣaḥīḥ)
Qur'anic wording is loaded from the canonical text; everything else is ḥadīth, given with its collection, number and grading. Where the schools differ, the difference is stated rather than settled.
Qur'an3
Ḥadīth34
- Abū Dāwūd 499 (ṣaḥīḥ)
- Abū Dāwūd 61
- Abū Dāwūd 850
- al-Bukhārī 1377 (ṣaḥīḥ)
- al-Bukhārī 240
- al-Bukhārī 3370
- al-Bukhārī 349
- al-Bukhārī 3906
- al-Bukhārī 664
- al-Bukhārī 743 (ṣaḥīḥ)
- al-Bukhārī 744 (ṣaḥīḥ)
- al-Bukhārī 756
- al-Bukhārī 757
- al-Bukhārī 776
- al-Bukhārī 793 (ṣaḥīḥ)
- al-Bukhārī 796
- al-Bukhārī 812 (ṣaḥīḥ)
- al-Bukhārī 831
- al-Nasāʾī 1337 (ṣaḥīḥ)
- al-Tirmidhī 284 (ḥasan)
- al-Tirmidhī 3 (ṣaḥīḥ)
- Ibn Mājah 2698 (ṣaḥīḥ)
- Muslim 162 (ṣaḥīḥ)
- Muslim 394 (ṣaḥīḥ)
- Muslim 397 (ṣaḥīḥ)
- Muslim 399
- Muslim 402 (ṣaḥīḥ)
- Muslim 406 (ṣaḥīḥ)
- Muslim 409 (ṣaḥīḥ)
- Muslim 462 (ṣaḥīḥ)
- Muslim 479
- Muslim 482
- Muslim 588
- Muslim 591
Tafsīr2
- al-Ṭabarī, Tārīkh
- Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāyah
Seerah & history1
- Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah