Salat
or Contact Prayer
A Gift from God
God reminds us in the Quran 67 times about the Salat or
contact prayer. This has been decreed for us in order to grow our souls through
a direct contact with our Creator. God mentions that Salat
is decreed at specific times as it is stated in 4:103;
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فَإِذَا
قَضَيْتُمُ
الصَّلوةَ
فَاذْكُرُوا
اللَّهَ
قِيَمًا
وَقُعُودًا
وَعَلَى جُنُوبِكُمْ
فَإِذَا اطْمَأْنَنْتُمْ
فَأَقِيمُوا
الصَّلوةَ
إِنَّ
الصَّلوةَ
كَانَتْ
عَلَى
الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
كِتَبًا
مَوْقُوتًا And
when you finish your contact prayer, then you shall commemorate God622 while standing, sitting or lying
on your side. And once you are secure, you shall continue upholding the
contact prayer. Surely, contact prayer
has been decreed upon the believers at specific times. |
Salat has been decreed for us at least 5 times during the
day in specific time intervals. These times intervals are:
Dawn, (24:58), during declining
sun from the highest point towards the darkness of the night, (17:28), middle
(2:238), early evening, (11:114) and after when twilight is over in the evening
(24:58).
Above and beyond these
specific times God also encourages us to do some voluntary prayers as it is
stated in 17:79.
I want to emphasize that
these are only reminders and the Salat cannot be
taught or forced upon people, but it is inspired to people by God as it is
stated by God in 21:73;
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وَجَعَلْنَاهُمْ
أَئِمَّةً
يَهْدُونَ
بِأَمْرِنَا
وَأَوْحَيْنَا
إِلَيْهِمْ
فِعْلَ
الْخَيْرَتِ
وَإِقَامَ
الصَّلوةِ
وَإِيتَاءَ
الزَّكَوةِ
وَكَانُوا
لَنَا عَبِدِينَ And We made them leaders who
guided according to Our command and We inspired them to be doers of good and
to observe the contact prayers and to give the cleansing charity and to Us
they were worshipers. |
In the past decade, there
have several attempts to reduce the numbers of contact prayers to three or two.
These efforts will eventually cancel contact prayers altogether and we should
be alert and do not fall into the trap, or we fall into the same category of
people described in
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فَخَلَفَ
مِنْ
بَعْدِهِمْ
خَلْفٌ
أَضَاعُوا
الصَّلوةَ
وَاتَّبَعُوا
الشَّهَوَتِ
فَسَوْفَ
يَلْقَوْنَ
غَيًّا Afterwards, another generation
replaced them who then wasted the contact prayer and followed their lust.
They will therefore soon find out the evils of this. |
Finally a sincere study of
the Quran reveals that the number of daily contact
prayers is more than three and definitely more than two. This is stated in
2:238;
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حَفِظُوا
عَلَى الصَّلَوَتِ
وَالصَّلوةِ
الْوُسْطَى
وَقُومُوا لِلَّهِ قَنِتِينَ Remember the contact prayers, as
well as the middle prayer and rise up for God205
humbly. |
The word “salawat”
which I have highlighted in red in the Quranic text
in Arabic is plural and refers to a number greater than two and at least three.
Now if we add the “middle prayer”, we end up with a minimum of four (4) daily
contact prayers, however, an even number cannot have “middle”, so it has to be
at least five (5) daily contact prayers.
Again remember that
everything in this article is only a reminder, pointing to verses in the Quran. The sincere believers already know this since God
has inspired them.