© Islamic Online University The New Muslim Course - The First Day

Islamic
Online
University

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© Islamic Online University The New Muslim Course - The First Day

The New Muslim Course

(The First Day)

By Dr Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips

The Act of Salah

Module 4

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Act of Salaah (Prayer)

The prayer begins with standing up and facing the qiblah. This means you need to be
facing Makkah, and the Kaabah. This is the general direction. You are not required to
face it exactly, except when you are standing right before it. In that case, it would be
unacceptable to pray in any other direction. But if you are away from the Kaabah, you
just pray in its general direction and that will be sufficient.
Stand up facing this general direction and raise your hands with your palms facing
forward. They should be either at the level of your shoulders, or the level of your ears.
Then place your right hand over your left hand on your chest. It may be on the back of
your left hand, on the wrist of your left hand, or on the forearm of your left hand. Any
one of these is acceptable. Then there are things that you will learn to say, but as we
mentioned earlier, for now it is enough for you to just praise God, and seek His
forgiveness, etc. Thank Him in your own words. Then you bow.
The one who is leading the prayer will say, “Allaahu Akbar”. When he says, “Allaahu
Akbar,” then you will raise your hands, again with palms towards the qiblah, and then
you bow, placing your hands firmly on your knees, and bending your back until you form
a right angle of 90 degrees between your lower body and your back. This is the correct
posture. You shouldn’t be at a midpoint, at 45 degrees, instead of 90 degrees, neither
should you be too low.
Then the person leading in the prayer will say, “Sami' Allaahu liman hamidah,” Allaah
hears those who praise Him; who thank Him. At this point, you stand up, and as you are
standing up again, raise your hands to the level of your shoulders, or to the level of your
ears, and then put them down at your side. At this point, there is a prayer there also, so
just glorify God.
The imam, or the person leading you in prayer will say, “Allaahu Akbar”, Allaah is the
greatest. At that point, you will go down into prostration, placing your hands, then your
knees, and then your forehead, on the ground. Your forehead should touch the ground,
along with your nose. Your hands should be facing the qiblah, again as if you’re raising
your hands, except that now you’re on the ground. They should be either at the level of
your ears, or the level of your shoulders. Here, you can make your prayers, glorify and
praise God, or ask for God’s forgiveness.
The one leading you in prayers will then say, “Allaahu Akbar” again, 'Allaah is the
greatest, greater than all things'. You then sit up on the bottom of your left foot and
you prop up your right foot if you’re able to, with your toes facing the qiblah. If you
can’t bend your toes, you can sit on your heels, or the closest you can get to that.

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These actions represent the basic movements of the prayer; and what you have done up
to the point of sitting represents one unit of prayer. The prayers are made up of one,
two, three, or four such units. You’ll learn the details of how many units each prayer
consists of later on in your study.
For now, you just need to know what these actions are and how they are to be done.
Familiarize yourself with these actions, and take time to learn them. It is not something
that you may remember at first, but through repetition and study, they will become firm
in your mind. So don’t worry if you don’t remember all the details just now.

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