The 'Ending' of the Salat

Researched by A.Muhammad

.

Muslims all over the world end their Salat with the words:

'Al-Salamu alaykum wa Rahmat Allah wa Barakatu'. These words translate into (Peace and Allah's Mercy and Blessings be upon you). This phrase is uttered twice at the conclusion of the Salat, once with the head turned to the right and once with the head turned to the left.

However, have we ever stopped to think of the validity of this phrase? Does this practice conform to Quranic teachings?  In an attempt to examine these questions we are immediately faced with the following questions:

1- Who are we addressing when we utter these words? Who are we sending God's Blessings and Mercy? Surely we are not addressing God because we cannot be saying to God, 'may God's mercy and blessings be upon you'!!

Some will say that these words are addressed to the other fellow believers who would be praying alongside us. However, this explanation does not make much sense in the case of someone doing the Salat on their own, they would have no one beside them to address with these words, yet they still utter these words at the end of their Salat!

Some others will say that these words are addressed to the two angels who are recording all our deeds, one of whom is on our right and one is on our left (see 50:17).

Here we must inquire why should we address the angels, after all our Salat is not directed to them! The Quran makes the point very clear that every word in our Salat should be to God and nobody else:

"Say, 'My Contact Prayers (Salat), my worship practices, my life and my death, are all devoted absolutely to God alone" 6:162 (also see 39:11 and 20:14)

To direct any words in our Salat to any other than God is indeed against the teachings of the Quran and must be rejected.

2- If these words are not devoted to God and thus must not be spoken in our Salat, we must wonder how should we end our Salat? We are told that the Quran contains all the details we need to practice our religion. Yes, indeed God has given us in the Quran the exact words that must be uttered to end the Salat. These are found in the following verse:

"As for those who believe and lead a righteous life, their Lord guides them by virtue of their belief. Rivers will flow beneath them in the garden of bliss. Their prayer therein is, 'Be You Glorified our God' their greeting therein is, 'Peace' and the ending/conclusion of their prayer is, 'Al-Hamdu l'Allah Rab Al-Alameen' (Praise be to God, Lord of the universe)" 10:9-10

This verse speaks of the model believers who will be rewarded with the gardens of heaven. We are told about the last words in their prayers 'Al-Hamdu l'Allah Rab Al-Alameen'. It makes perfect sense that this verse gives us a model to follow (that is if we would like to be among those destined to heaven), it is thus well for all of us to end our Salat in praise of Almighty God (Al-Hamdu l'Allah Rab Al-Alameen) and not by bidding farewell to the angels and sending them blessings!

.

back to Salat Related Topics page

back to 'SALAT' main page