The 'Prayer', the 'Contact Prayer' or the 'Salat'
Question:
I read other translations and I noticed that the majority of them translate the word 'Salat to 'Prayer'. Others use the words 'Contact Prayer', and a smaller number use the word 'Worship'. However, I noticed that in all your work you use the word Salat as it is without translating it. Can you please shed more light on this matter?
Reply:
There are good reasons as to why it is not accurate to use any of the 3 translations that you mentioned:
1- Let us start with the word 'Worship'. This word is not at all accurate as a translation of the Quranic Salat. For even though the Salat is an act of worship, there are a whole host of other worship practices. In addition, the act of worship in the Quranic sense is not restricted to the worship rituals. The acts of obeying God, glorifying God, thanking God are all acts of worship.
For more details, please go to: Worshipping God
And so, to use the word 'Worship' would be too general and not exactly descriptive of the Quranic Salat. This would not be any different from translating the Arabic word 'kharoof', which means sheep, into the general word 'meat'!
2- As for using the word 'Prayer'. The Quranic Salat is not any prayer. The Quranic Salat has very specific pre-requisites and rules. The word 'Prayer' once again is too general. Prayers can be offered at all times and not only during the Salat. In fact, prayers can be offered at any minute of the day. We may say a one-sentence prayer while we are walking, cooking, showering, etc. The Salat is a specifically structured ritual that is more elaborate than a simple prayer. Therefore, the word 'Prayer' is not an accurate representation of the Quranic Salat.
3- As for the phrase 'Contact Prayer', besides the limitations mentioned regarding the word 'Prayer', the word 'Contact' is also not the right word to use.
Indeed, we make contact with God during the Salat. But we make contact with God in other worship practices too. To use the word 'Contact' only when we translate the word Salat is therefore inaccurate.
When we observe the Hajj for example, we glorify God and establish contact with Him, should we then call the act the 'Contact Hajj'?
The same when we utter the Shahada, we also make contact with God. However, we do not call it the 'Contact Shahada'.
Besides, there is no prayer observed by a believer that does not establish contact with God. And so, to add the word 'Contact' when it is already a given ingredient of prayer is unnecessary. It is like saying for example: 'fatal death', when every death is fatal.
Adding the word 'Contact' also suggests the possibility of there being a non-contact prayer!
Adding the word 'Contact' also suggests the possibility of there being a non-contact prayer!
4- Believers who follow other Scriptures, they too have their own prayers through which they establish contact with God. Their prayers are not similar to the Quranic Salat. However, since they are observing 'a prayer', and they seek to make 'contact' with God, then in principle, their prayer can also be called a 'Contact Prayer'. How then would their 'Contact Prayer' be distinguishable from the Quranic Salat?
5- Finally, the phrase 'Contact Prayer' is not found in the Arabic Quran. So using this phrase would be an addition to the Quranic text.
Conclusion
For the same reasons we do not call the Hajj the 'Contact Pilgrimage', we should not call the Quranic Salat the 'Prayer' nor the 'Contact Prayer'.
Hajj is not any pilgrimage. Nor is the Hajj the only time we make contact with God.
Salat is not any prayer. Nor is the Salat the only time we make contact with God.
The ritual of the Salat, as prescribed in the Quran, has no equivalent word in the English language. Hence, we should leave the word 'Salat' as it is without attempting to translate it.