Islamic Shari‘ah of the Prayer (1)

To do good deeds is the foremost requirement of Islam after professing faith. In as much as salvation in the Hereafter is dependent on faith it is a result of how well we have fulfilled this requirement. Of all the good deeds, the prayer (salah) occupies supreme importance. So much so, any negligence in offering this all-important ritual is considered tantamount to kufr (disbelief). It is simply self-contradictory that a person has faith in God but shows indifference to worship Him.

To properly understand its importance in Islam, how it is offered and other relevant details about it should therefore be our first priority. The present article is the first episode of a detailed dissertation of Mr Javed Ahmad Ghamidi on this topic. The present episode covers topics like importance of the prayer, history of the prayer, pre-requisites of the prayer and the utterances of the prayer.

The article will be completed in the next issue.