After visiting the Raleigh masjid website, I found the explanation of Islamic prayer, and why, to be quite interesting and insightful towards the Islamic religion and culture. It starts off by talking about the 5 daily compulsory prayers, Salah, and how it keeps followers close with God as well as to keep yourself and the area around you clean and pure.
When performing Salah, one must clean their prayer area of bodily fluids, dirt, foods, etc. To keep yourself clean and pure, water is used to purify almost anything. It’s said that washing anything 3 or 7 times, depending on the circumstances, will fully cleanse an item when in doubt.
If water is not an option or would do more harm than help, especially if one is ill or time doesn’t allow to bathe before prayer, then one can perform a “dry ablution”. A dry ablution involves kneeling, placing your hands over the ground then passing your hands over your face, and then again for each arm.
The site then goes on to talk about the times of the 5 daily prayers. The call to prayer is called the Adhan. The first prayer happens from dawn to sunrise (Fajr), second is “after the sun’s zenith (highest point) until late afternoon”(Dhuhr), third takes place between late afternoon and before sunset (Asr), fourth is from sunset to before it gets completely dark (Maghrib), and the last happens between dark to dawn (Isha’). It’s said that you can do some of the prayers one after another if time doesn’t allow you to do each prayer separately.
After, it describes how to “offer Salah”, or do daily prayer. You start by standing facing the direction of the Kaaba, a holy site in Mecca. Second, before you start, you must have good intentions of accepting prayer into your heart. Third, you raise your hands up and say, “Allahu Akbar” before holding your hands over your heart and reciting a prayer or two. Then you bow, pray, stand up and proceed to then kneel to the ground praying touching your forehead to the ground then sitting back up. Finally, while kneeling after prayer, you turn to the people beside you and say, “peace and the mercy of Allah be upon you.”
The introduction to prayer has helped give insight into the connection Muslim followers have with Allah and with those around them. Often times prayer is done in the presence of others and ends with you blessing those around you, emphasizing the importance and role of community. Finally, it changed my thinking on the rigidity of Islam, talking about how it’s acceptable to combine prayers when time doesn’t allow as well as how accommodations can always be made for those physically unable to pray or observe the religion.