Salaat

By Hina Azam

There is a saying in Urdu that goes something along these lines: If you can’t solve a problem, go do salaat. You’ll come back with the answer. Experience has shown me that people do some of their best thinking on the prayer rug, it being second only to the shower stall. Humorous, but unfortunate. Is this why God has asked us to kneel before Him five times a day? More than asked, it is required of us, demanded. If Allah emphasizes it so much, it must have a function beyond allowing us to daydream.

The reason it is so easy for our attention to wander while we do salaat is that we don’t know its purpose. We really don’t know why we do it, what we are supposed to accomplish through it, or why we say the words we do. Most of us have learned that it is a large part of our ticket to heaven, and so we go through the motions. To begin with, we do not do salaat for Allah. Allah gains nothing by our performance or non-performance. This seems obvious, but is critical: there is something we are to gain by doing salaat. The question is, what?

About the Qur’an, which is recited during salaat, Allah says, “We sent down (stage by stage) in the Qur’an, that which is a healing and a mercy to those who believe.” (Bani Isra’eel:82). And, “Therefore be patient with what they say, and celebrate (constantly) the praises of thy Lord, before the rising of the sun, and before its setting; yea, celebrate them for part of the hours of the night, and at the sides of the day, that thou may have (spiritual) joy.” (TaHa:130)

Through correctly performed salaat, we can attain joy, and through intimacy with the Qur’an, we are healed and shown mercy. Healing and mercy take many shapes, and have various effects. Among them are peace, faith, courage (because it takes much courage to live in the way of Allah) and stamina. These rewards are good in themselves, as well as tools to allow us to accomplish our Islamic work in this life.

Do any of you feel any of these rewards when doing salaat? If not, it is not because Allah has misjudged. It is because your salaat is ineffective. I hesitate to treat it as an art, but it is true that faith takes work. Islam runs along the notion that you get what you put in. The following are guidelines I’ve found useful to improving if you will my salaat.

1) Learn the meanings of the surahs you read. Commit them to memory, line by line. How can you expect your salaat to mean anything if you don’t know what you’re saying? Is it not precisely what Allah commands against “Oh ye who believe! Approach not prayers with a mind befogged, until ye can understand all that ye say - (Nisaa’:43). What do you get out of saying meaningless sounds? If you can remember key ideas, you’re on the right track, because you have something to focus on. But unless you can reflect on each line, you will not receive full benefit. Learn the meanings. Your mind will wander much less.

2) Don’t rush into salaat. We tend to say the intention quickly because it seems so unimportant. As soon as we say the intention, (niyat) we rush to begin. SLOW DOWN. Stand on the rug for a few moments before you say anything. After your niyat, wait again. You’re using this time to focus on the task at hand - to listen to Allah. When Allah speaks you want to be at attention, to “stand before God in a devout frame of mind.” Baqarah: 238. When you have a feeling for what you are about to do, begin.

3) Allahu Akbar is a fantastic opening. You may still not be completely disciplined by your niyat. You may still be preoccupied with the details of the day. But Allahu Akbar - God is Greater - declares itself upon your consciousness and draws you to full attention. The line is not formula. It is a statement of fact. When all is said and done, only the face of God remains. God is greater than the test you might fail, or your angry parents, or some girl you like, or the gulf crisis. Know this reality.

Fortunately, God knows how we are distracted and gives us a chance to repeat this phrase many times throughout the session. When you straighten from ruku, you say, “Our Lord, to You is praise.” Like an exclamation mark, you repeat that God is Greater and sink to your knees.

4) Islam is for our benefit, and what is written in the Qur’an is to be followed for our own well-being. Salaat allows us to contemplate, so many times a day, on that which God has told us. So when you recite the surahs to yourself, recite them as God’s words - commands, admonitions, or encouragements - to you. “Have you seen him who denies faith?...So woe to those who do salaat, those who are far away when they do it Ma’un. You cannot say this surah, knowing the translation, without fearing that He may be speaking about you, and that in it He is giving you fair warning. I’m trying to tell you to take the surahs you recite to heart, because there is no doubt in them.

5) Try closing your eyes. You may feel silly at first, or be tempted to keep opening them. But gradually it may benefit you. You cannot be as easily distracted by what you cannot see. When you begin to fidget, remind yourself that God is Greater, so His word is more important than looking out the window or at that fly on the table. All that you would be looking at anyway is God’s creation and is necessarily less important than the Creator.

In your mind, imagine yourself facing Allah on an empty plain. His presence is overwhelming, all around you, and you are there completely alone, as in fact you are, receiving His revelation.

Perhaps our difficulty with salaat lies in calling it prayer. Prayer connotes supplication, communication from the prayer to the object of prayer. Salaat is not supplication. It seems to actually be communication from the Deity to the prayer. To do salaat is to meditate upon this communication. In the Qur’an Allah refers to how He causes understanding in the hearts and minds of those who recite those verses with care. Salaat is the opportunity for this understanding to be created.

Originally published in the July/August 1991 print edition of

.  At that time Hina Azam was a student at Loyola University in Chicago.  She is now a Professor.