How many times is the word salah mentioned in the Quran?

Dear Brother / Sister,

The word namaz, which means “bowing down in reverence, servitude, worship” in Persian, is used in Turkish as the equivalent of the Arabic word salah (plural form salawat), which lexically means “praying, worshipping, asking for forgiveness, begging”.

As a term, salah refers to physical worship that begins with takbir and ends with salutation (salam) and consists of certain acts and words.

The fact that the rituals of prayer are at the same time like an actual and verbal prayer confirms the relationship between the term and lexical meanings of the word salah.

Musalli, derived from the same root as the word salah, means “one who prays” and musalla means “place of prayer”.

In the Holy Quran, in addition to the word dhikr, derivatives of the word tasbih are also used to express salah. (e.g. al-Ankabut, 29/45; al-Jumu’a, 62/9) (ar-Rum, 30/17)

On the other hand, it is seen that in the Islamic literature, the term “ahl as-salah” (people of salah) is used to refer to Muslims belonging to different madhhabs who adopt different interpretations on some matters of belief based on the worship of salah, which is one of the five pillars of Islam and constitutes one of the most important common denominators of the adherents of this religion.

The word salah and its derivatives are mentioned in ninety-nine places in the Quran both lexically (e.g. see at-Tawba, 9/103) and terminologically (e.g. see al-Baqara, 2/43, 238; Hud, 11/114). (M. F. Abdulbaqi, al-Mujam, “slw” item)

The command to send blessings (salah) to the Prophet (pbuh), which is given to the believers in verse 56 of al-Ahzab, is related to the prayer (dua) said to show respect and devotion to him, and the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) himself taught its form to his companions. (Bukhari, Tafsir, 33/10)

It is seen that the word salah is frequently used with its lexical and terminological meanings in hadiths. (Wensinck, al-Mujam, “slw” item)

History of Salah

It is understood from the Holy Quran that the worship of salah was present in almost all divine religions:

- Generations who missed salah would come after the prophets Adam, Nuh and Ibrahim (Maryam 19/59),
- The Prophet Zakariyya performed salah (Aal-i Imran 3/39),
- The Prophet Isa (Jesus) mentioned the duty of salah in his miraculous talk in the cradle (Maryam 19/31),
- Along with the Prophet Ibrahim, Lut, Ishaq and Ya’qub were revealed the commandment salah (al-Anbiya 21/73),
- The Prophet Ismail commanded his people/family to perform salah (Maryam 19/55),
- Luqman advised his son to perform salah properly (Luqman 31/17),
- The Prophet Ibrahim said that he performed salah only for the sake of Allah (al-An’am 6/162),
- The Prophet Ibrahim prayed to Allah to make him and his descendants among His servants who performed salah properly (Ibrahim 14/40),
- The Prophet Musa (Moses) was commanded to perform salah in remembrance of Allah (Taha 20/14),
- And it is seen that salah is among the duties that Allah made Sons of Israel promise to fulfill. (al-Baqara 2/83; al-Maida 5/12)

Furthermore, it is possible to infer from the mention of the word masjid in the narration of the story of Ashab al-Kahf (al-Kahf, 18/21) that the worship of salah existed at that time.

It is understood from hadiths and history books that the effects of the religion of tawhid (oneness) and some types of worship continued in the pre-Islamic Hejaz-Arab society albeit with a change in form and nature, and that the followers of this religion, such as Abu Dharr al-Ghifari and Zayd b. Amr b. Nufayl, who were called Hanif, performed salah facing the Kaaba. (Muslim, Fadailus-Sahaba, 132; Jawad Ali, VI, 473-475)

Salah in the Quran and Sunnah.

The Quran repeatedly includes the absolute command to perform salah.

- In some verses, the importance of salah is pointed out in various ways and those who performed salah are praised. (al-An’am, 6/92; al-Mu’minun, 23/9; al-Maarij, 70/22-35),
- Those who do not take prayer seriously and move away from its essence are criticized. (al-Maun, 107/5)

In many verses, the word “iqama” and its derivatives are used together with “salah” (e.g. al-Baqara, 2/110, 277; al-Maida, 5/55; al-Anfal, 8/3) to attract attention to the necessity of performing the prayer on time, in a complete manner, in accordance with its rules, and regularly.

However, it is also stated that the expression “iqama as-salah” means “to confirm the prayer” in some verses. (Muqatil b. Sulayman, p. 139)

On the other hand, the frequent use of the word salah in the Quran together with zakah and the word infaq, which is close in meaning to zakah (e.g. al-Baqara, 2/83; at-Tawbah, 9/18; an-Nur, 24/56) can be said to emphasize the parallelism between the function of salah in purifying the soul and the function of zakah in purifying wealth.

It is stated in a verse, that salah is an obligatory duty for believers (an-an-Nisa, 4/103), and the times of its performance are mentioned explicitly or by way of indication in the Quran’s unique style.

For example, while fajr (salatul-fajr) and isha (salatul-isha) are mentioned by name (an-Nur, 24/58), there are references to other daily prayers (salat).

It is indicated in tafsir sources that in verses 17 and 18 of the chapter of ar-Rum, the phrase “when you reach the time of evening” refers to maghrib and isha, “when you rise in the morning” refers to fajr, “in the late afternoon” refers to asr, and “at noon” refers to zuhr. It is also stated that “duluk ash-shams” refers to zuhr and asr, “ghasaq al-layl” refers to maghrib and isha, and “quran al-fajr” refers to fajr.

Apart from those two verses, in the verse “And establish regular prayers at the two ends of the day and at the approaches of the night” (Hud, 11/114), one of the prayers commanded to be performed on both sides of the day is interpreted as fajr and the other as zuhr and asr when taken as the part before sunset, and as maghrib and isha when taken as the part after sunset.

Considering that the word zulaf (hours close to the daytime) in the verse refers to the first hours of the night close to the daytime, the view that the prayer commanded to be performed during these hours is isha is accepted.

The majority of scholars believes that the phrase “the middle prayer” (as-salatul-wusta) in verse 238 of al-Baqara refers to asr; a hadith of the Prophet (Bukhari, Jihad, 98) also supports this view. There are also those who say that this prayer is fajr, especially on the basis of some narrations about the virtue of this prayer.

It is written in the hadith sources that in the days following the incident of Mi’raj, Jibril (Gabriel) led the Prophet (pbuh) in five prayers at Kaaba, and showed him the beginning and end times of each prayer in practice, and also explained them verbally. (Muslim, Masajid, 176, 179)

It is understood from verse 9 of al-Jumu’a that, in addition to the five daily prayers, Friday prayer (instead of zuhr) is also fard and that it has to be performed in congregation.

There are different interpretations about the verse concerning tahajjud prayer (al-Muzammil, 73/20) and the verse that is said to refer to Eid prayer. (al-Kawthar 108/2)

For more information, please click on the link given below;

What is the meaning of the word salah / prayer in the Quran?

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