Salat Pre-Requisites

Before observing the Salat, believers are to adhere to a number of pre-requisites. These are Intention, Devotion, Ablution, and Direction.

1- Intention

This first pre-requisite is the conscious intention to establish contact with God Almighty. The believer does not need to utter an intention declaration as is commonly practiced, for God knows our intentions, we do not need to declare it. The intention to observe the Salat cannot be present if one is under intoxication:

O you who believe, do not approach the Salat while you are intoxicated until you know what you are saying. 4:43

The Salat is not accepted from anyone who is intoxicated from the effect of alcohol or drugs. As a matter of fact, intoxicants present the only case in the Quran where the human being is deprived from the blessing of Salat. This does not mean that intoxication is the greatest of all sins; it only means that a person who is intoxicated would simply not know what he/she is saying.

It is not the sin of taking intoxicants in itself that robs a person from the blessing of Salat, but it is the effect of the sin on the mind that is the cause of the prohibition. What this means is that as soon as the person is free from the effect of intoxication, they must resume observing the Salat.

The Quran asserts the fact that no believer is ever deprived of the gift of Salat, provided that he/she are in their full senses, even after committing the most gruesome of sins. Sins and good deeds are independent of each other; each will be recorded and judged equitably. No sin will erase a good deed:

Whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it, and whoever does an atom's weight of evil will see it. 99:7-8

However, and because God is the Most Merciful, He has decreed that for the believers, their good deeds will wipe out their sins:

The good deeds wipe out the bad deeds. 11:114

And if that was not enough to demonstrate God's boundless mercy He has also decreed that for those who believe and lead a righteous life, He will even transform their sins into credits:

God replaces their bad deeds with good deeds. Indeed, God is Forgiver, Merciful. 25:70

For all that it becomes apparent why we should increase our good deeds, especially and immediately after committing a sin.

2- Ablution

O you who believe, when you get up to observe the Salat, wash your faces and your arms to the elbows, and wipe your heads and your feet to the ankles. 5:6

This is the ablution that is decreed in the Quran, it consist of four simple steps:

1- Wash the face 2- Wash the arms to the elbows 3- Wipe the head 4- Wipe the feet to the ankles.

In spite of this very clear command in the Quran, the majority of Muslims today perform their ablution in a different way. The ablution they perform is taken from the 'sunna' (methodology) of the prophet. Somehow they believe that the prophet left the ablution prescribed to him by God and devised an amended ablution! In addition to the four steps prescribed in the Quran they add washing the hands to the wrists, the mouth, the nose, the ears and the neck.

They argue that since 'cleanliness is part of a good belief (as a famous hadith states), then the cleaner one is before the Salat the better. These additional measures that are not found in the Quranic ablution raise the following questions:

1- Is it conceivable that the prophet whom we are told in the Quran was a "good example" for the believers (33:21), and who was blessed with receiving the Quran, and who was commanded by God to follow the Quran and nothing else (5:48 and 46:9), has in fact ignored the Quranic ablution and devised a different format?

2- Is the ablution prescribed by God inadequate?

3- The previous question ultimately leads to the crucial question; is the purpose and aim of ablution cleanliness after all?

The reply to all these three questions is the negative. For more details about the purpose of ablution, please check the following article: The Purpose of Wudu (Ablution)

3- Devotion

Say, "My Salat, my worship practices, my life and my death, are all devoted to God, the Lord of the worlds. He has no partner. This is what I was commanded with and I am the first of the Submitters." 6:162-163

I am God, there is no god except Me. Therefore, you shall worship Me and observe the Salat to commemorate Me. 20:14

In accordance with the above Quranic commands, believers must devote and dedicate all their Salat (as well as all other rituals) to the name of God alone. The commemoration of any names other than God in the Salat is in total violation of the Quranic rules and immediately voids the Salat.

Those who dedicate all their religion to God alone are given the title of 'Ebad Allah Al-Mukhlaseen' which translates to God's pure servants. The word "Mukhalseen" comes from the Arabic word 'Khales' which means pure. The phrase 'Al-Deen Al-Khales' as in 39:3 means the Pure Religion and it describes the religion that is devoted absolutely to God alone.

Indeed devotion to God and total submission is an important pre-requisite for the Salat:

4- Direction

With the revelation of the Quran, the direction to face during the Salat has been set towards the Masjid Al-Haram (2:144). In addition, we are given a command to turn our faces towards the Masjid Al-Haram wherever we are when we observe the Salat (2:149-150):

For more info about the Qibla please check the following page: The Qiblah: Old & New