Salat: Physical Ritual

The Claim That the Quranic Salat Is Not a Physical Ritual

There have been a number of YouTube videos and websites promoting the idea that the Quranic Salat is not a physical ritual, but merely the maintenance of one's commitment and duty to God by closely following His commands in the Quran - or, in short, obeying God.

From this premise, they further claim that the Salat is not the physical act observed by Muslims worldwide today, which consists of standing, bowing, and prostrating.

It can be said that those who advocate such claims belong to the same category as those who assert that Zakat is not a payment given from one's income to the poor and needy, that Hajj is not a pilgrimage to the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, and that fasting is not observed during the Islamic month of Ramadan.

Those who deny that the Salat is a physical ritual begin by stating that the Arabic word Salat comes from the root word Silah, which means a connection. This is correct. However, from that premise they then conclude that Salat is therefore not a physical ritual.

The logic behind this claim is flawed. When believers observe the Salat with its physical movements - standing, bowing, and prostrating - while glorifying the name of God, they establish a connection with God.

The proponents of such claims regarding the Salat may sound convincing to gullible readers who are not sufficiently knowledgeable about the Quranic input and the Quranic verses on this subject. However, it can easily be demonstrated that all such claims are in total violation of numerous Quranic verses.

This article addresses the claims made about the Salat. The following are eleven Quranic pieces of evidence that debunk such interpretations of the Salat.

FIRST

The first piece of Quranic evidence that indicates the Salat is an act of worship comprising specific physical acts is found in the following verse:

[5:6] O you who believe, when you observe the Contact Prayers (Salat), you shall: (1) wash your faces, (2) wash your arms to the elbows, (3) wipe your heads, and (4) wash your feet to the ankles. If you were unclean due to sexual orgasm, you shall bathe. If you are ill, or traveling, or had any digestive excretion (urinary, fecal, or gas), or had (sexual) contact with the women, and you cannot find water, you shall observe the dry ablution (Tayammum) by touching clean dry soil, then rubbing your faces and hands. GOD does not wish to make the religion difficult for you; He wishes to cleanse you and to perfect His blessing upon you, that you may be appreciative.

Let us first focus on the words "when you observe the Contact Prayers (Salat)".

Now let us substitute the word Salat with the claimed meaning of being committed to God. The verse would then read as follows:

"O you who believe, when you observe being committed to God…"

Do such words make any sense? Does being committed to God require observing something at a specific moment?

In addition, the act of ablution decreed in 5:6 - which is an integral part of the Salat - requires the physical washing and wiping of various parts of the body. Why would any believer need to wash his face and arms, then wipe his head and feet, before being committed to God and performing his duty to God?

Is being committed to God an act that is observed at specific times, or is it a perpetual state of the believer? The instructions in 5:6 regarding washing must be observed before the Salat, and therefore apply to specific times of the day. The outcome of this interpretation is that it turns commitment to God into an act that occurs only at specific times of the day.

SECOND

[4:102] When you are with them, and lead the Contact Prayer (Salat) for them, let one group of them stand with you, while holding their weapons. When they prostrate, let them retreat behind you. Let the other group that has not prayed take their turn praying with you, while remaining alert and holding their weapons. Those who disbelieved wish that you would neglect your weapons and your belongings, in order to attack you once and for all. You commit no error, if you are hampered by rain or injury, by putting down your weapons, so long as you remain alert. GOD has prepared for the disbelievers a shameful retribution.

The above Quranic words confirm a number of matters:

• The words "lead the Contact Prayer for them" would make no sense if the Salat meant duty or commitment to God. The verse speaks of a leader (Imam) leading the Salat. How can one lead a duty or commitment?

• The words "while holding their weapons" while observing the Salat raise an important question. Do believers need to be armed in order to be committed to God? Or does it make more sense that when believers observe the physical ritual of the Salat during wartime, they become vulnerable to attack and therefore need to remain armed?

• The words "let them retreat behind you" indicate that while one group observes the Salat, another group stands behind them for protection. If Salat meant commitment to God, believers would require guards simply to remain committed.

• The words "When they prostrate… let the other group that has not prayed" would imply that the second group had not yet committed to God. Are they waiting their turn to be committed?

• The verse also shows that the Salat is observed in groups. Does commitment to God require group participation or leadership? No.

• The statement "Those who disbelieved wish that you would neglect your weapons…" only makes sense if believers are physically vulnerable during the Salat - such as during bowing and prostration.

All these points confirm that the Salat is a physical ritual, observed in congregation, under the leadership of an Imam.

THIRD

[4:103] Once you complete your Contact Prayer (Salat), you shall remember GOD while standing, sitting, or lying down. Once you are secure, you shall observe the Contact Prayers (Salat); the Contact Prayers (Salat) are decreed for the believers at specific times.

We also read in 4:103 that God appointed specific times of the day for the Salat.

If Salat were to mean being dutiful or committed to God, would this imply that God is instructing believers to be committed to Him only at specific times of the day? What about the rest of the day? Does such an interpretation make any sense?

Surely, commitment to God and fulfilling one's duty to God are independent of time, whereas the Salat is clearly bound to specific appointed times.

FOURTH

[4:101] When you travel, during war, it is not a sin to shorten your Contact Prayers (Salat), if you fear that the disbelievers may attack you. Surely, the disbelievers are your ardent enemies.

How is it possible to shorten one's commitment to God? The proponents of the "not a physical ritual" claim state that the Salat is an abstract noun. Can an abstract noun be shortened? Or does the act of shortening necessarily refer to a physical act that can be shortened?

FIFTH

[62:9] O you who believe, when the Congregational Prayer (Salat) is announced on Friday, you shall hasten to the commemoration of GOD, and drop all business. This is better for you, if you only knew.

We read in 62:9 about a "call" announced for the Salat on Friday.

• Do our duties and commitment to God require a call or announcement?

• The words in 62:9 speak of a congregational Salat. Are believers meant to commit to God as a group, and on a fixed day every Friday?

SIXTH

[3:39] The angels called him when he was praying in the sanctuary: "GOD gives you good news of John; a believer in the word of GOD, honorable, moral, and a righteous prophet."

The sanctuary being a place of worship, what was Zachariah standing and doing when the angels called out to him? Does the state of being committed to God require a person merely to stand inside a place of worship?

The words in 3:39 state that Zachariah was praying. What duty was Zachariah observing inside a sanctuary? Was he not observing his worship practice of Salat, which requires standing to commence?

Naturally, Prophet Zachariah lived long before the revelation of the Quran, and some may therefore ask how he was observing the Salat. The answer is given in the Quran itself. The Salat was not initiated with the Quran, nor is it an act unique to the recipients of the Quran. Salat was decreed by God since the time of Abraham and his sons:

[21:73] We made them imams who guided in accordance with our commandments, and we taught them how to work righteousness, and how to observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) and the obligatory charity (Zakat). To us, they were devoted worshipers.

It follows that all believers, since the time of Abraham, were observing the act of Salat.

SEVENTH

[20:14] "I am GOD; there is no other god beside Me. You shall worship Me alone, and observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) to remember Me."

Let us examine the words "observe the Contact Prayers to remember Me."

These words clearly state that the purpose of the Salat is to commemorate God.

Now let us replace the word Salat with the claimed meaning of following God's commands in the Quran. The phrase would then read:

"Follow My commands in the Quran to commemorate Me."

Does this make any sense? The act of commemorating God is itself one of the Quranic commands. If Salat were to mean following God's commands in the Quran, how could one follow God's commands in order to follow one of His commands?

Or does it make far more sense to understand that during the ritual of the Salat - in which we praise and glorify God with both our words and our physical actions - we are indeed commemorating Him?

EIGHTH

[17:110] Say, "Call Him GOD, or call Him the Most Gracious; whichever name you use, to Him belongs the best names." You shall not utter your Contact Prayers (Salat) too loudly, nor secretly; use a moderate tone.

Once again, if Salat were to mean duty or commitment to God, why would such acts require instructions regarding volume - neither loud nor whispered? The command to use a moderate voice clearly indicates that the Salat is a spoken ritual. Being committed to God does not require spoken words.

The words in 17:110 once again confirm that the Salat is a physical ritual.

NINTH

Those who deny that the Salat is a physical practice also deny that the act of sujood, mentioned frequently in the Quran, refers to physical prostration. Once again, God Almighty is always a step ahead of the promoters of such falsehoods. God consistently provides Quranic evidence to confirm the correct meanings.

[25:33] Whatever argument they come up with, we provide you with the truth, and a better understanding.

The confirmation that the act of sujood means physical prostration is found in the following glorious verses:

[68:42-43] The day will come when they will be exposed, and they will be required to fall prostrate, but they will be unable to. With their eyes subdued, humiliation will cover them. They were invited to fall prostrate when they were whole and able.

In Chapter 68, beginning from verse 33, we read about the punishment on the Day of Judgment. In the verses above, it is stated that those who disbelieved will be called to perform sujood to God on that Day. This is followed by two statements of great significance:

• "they will be unable to"

• "They were invited to fall prostrate when they were whole and able"

The act of sujood which the condemned will be unable to perform on the Day they face God cannot mean duty or commitment to God, as some claim.

If sujood meant commitment to God, then the words "they will be unable to" would not apply on that Day. This is because all humans, willingly or unwillingly, will have no choice but to submit to God on that Day:

[16:87] On the Day of Resurrection, they will totally submit to GOD, and the idols they had fabricated will disown them.

However, when we apply the correct meaning of sujood - physical prostration - the verses become fully consistent with Quranic truth. Such people will be unable to physically prostrate on that Day. The reason for this is given in the following verse, which describes the condition of the condemned on the Day of Judgment:

[40:71] They will be tied up in chains.

Such confinement will severely restrict their movement. Consequently, when they are "called to prostration" on that Day, "they will be unable to." In contrast, when they were sound and able to move freely in their worldly life and were "called to prostration," they refused to prostrate.

These two glorious verses in Chapter 68 present a stark warning to all who are too haughty to humble themselves in prostration before the Almighty.

TENTH

Finally, we have a number of Quranic verses that define the exact aim of the Salat. These verses state that the principal aim of the Salat is the remembrance (commemoration) of God:

[29:45] You shall recite what is revealed to you of the scripture, and observe the Contact Prayers (Salat), for the Contact Prayers prohibit evil and vice. But the remembrance of GOD (through Salat) is the most important objective. GOD knows everything you do.

[20:14] "I am GOD; there is no other god beside Me. You shall worship Me alone, and observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) to remember Me."

We do not find any verses stating that the aim of the Salat is maintaining our duty or commitment to God. Moreover, maintaining one's duty or commitment to God is a very broad and general concept. Such commitment compels us to submit to God, to believe in and follow the Quran, to obey God's law, and to comply with every command and every word in the Quran.

In other words, maintaining our duty or commitment to God is synonymous with being a believer, a submitter, and a righteous person who abides by all Quranic teachings.

Needless to say, this undefined and general duty is markedly different from the very specific aim that God assigns to the Salat - namely, the remembrance of God.

On the other hand, we also learn that it is the devil's aim to cause people specifically to desert the Salat, and thus forget the remembrance of God:

[58:19] The devil has possessed them, and has caused them to disregard GOD's message. These are the party of the devil. Absolutely, the party of the devil are the losers.

The devil also uses distractions - particularly those prohibited by God - to achieve the same objective: to cause people to desert the Salat and thus turn away from the remembrance of God:

[5:91] The devil wants to provoke animosity and hatred among you through intoxicants and gambling, and to distract you from remembering GOD, and from observing the Contact Prayers (Salat). Will you then refrain?

Those who succumb to the deception of the devil by deserting their Salat automatically allow him to gain a firm grip on them. Whether they realise it or not, they are labelled as the "party of the devil", and they will be the losers (58:19).

The Second Allegation

When faced with the overwhelming volume of Quranic evidence presented above, some of those who deny the physical ritual of the Salat have introduced yet another interpretation. They claim that the Salat has two meanings in the Quran:

• The first meaning, as previously stated, is being committed and submissive to God, or performing righteous deeds.

• The second meaning they have devised is that, at times, the Salat refers to sermons or lectures delivered by the Prophet or other leaders for the benefit of the believers.

This hastily introduced second allegation - the lecture or sermon interpretation - appears to be a reaction to the inability to respond to the Quranic evidence cited earlier. However, it too collapses when examined in light of the Quran:

• Why would believers be instructed to wash their faces and arms before listening to a lecture or sermon?

• How does the lecture interpretation explain the words: "…then once they have done sujood (prostrated), let them be positioned behind you, and let another group, who has not yet observed the Salat, observe the Salat with you" (4:102)? What could "once they have done sujood" possibly mean in the context of a lecture?

• The Salat decreed in the Quran are the Fajr, Zuhr, Asr, Maghrib, and Isha. All verses commanding the observance of the Salat confirm that it is a mandatory act to be observed at specific appointed times. Is it rational to claim that God ordained five lectures per day, every day of a believer's life?

• When the angels called out to Prophet Zachariah (3:39), he was standing alone in the sanctuary observing the Salat. What exactly was he doing? Was he delivering a lecture to himself?

Just as with the first allegation - that Salat means duty or commitment to God - the second allegation that Salat refers to lectures or sermons stands in clear contradiction to the Quranic evidence.

Conclusion

The evidence presented above decisively confirms that the Salat is a physical ritual, involving physical standing, bowing, and prostration, and that it is decreed by God to be observed at specific times of the day.