Salath is an Arabic term used for Prayer. In Urdu
& Farsi -Persian, it is
called as NAMAZ. The book of God tells us:
| "Verily
Salath
prevents one from shameful and
forbidden things; And
the remembrance of
Allah is the greatest."
(29:25)
|
Further, the Holy Qur'an says that the Salath is a time bound
Obligation for the
believers.
The Holy ProphetPBUH
say
that:
| "Salath is the best of all
that has been ordained by Allah." |
The Holy ProphetPBUH
is also reported to have said that:
|
"Salath is the difference between a believer and a
KAFIR-
disbeliever."
|
He is also reported to have
said:
| "One who intentionally gave
up Salath has committed KUFR-disbelief." |
The Importance of
Salath is evident from a saying of the ProphetPBUH
in which he describes the Salath as one of the Pillars
of Islam. This
is because God has ordained all believers in Qur'an about 72
times:
| "WA AQEEMUS
SALATH"
-And establish Salath.
|
The Salath is obligatory for a believer five times a day, along with the
obligatory Salath, the Sunnah (Practice of the ProphetPBUH)
is also necessary. Since the Salath is a time bound obligatory
worship a believer has to be watchful to offer it on time. All the Obligatory Salath's are to be offered
in a congregation (Jamaat). It is permissible to offer Salath individually, if offering it in congregation is not
possible, for valid reasons. However, it is said in the traditions of the
ProphetPBUH that
the reward for a Salath offered in congregation is 27 times more than offering it
individually.
The utmost importance of offering obligatory prayers in
a
congregation is evident from the practice of The Promised Imam MAHDIAS. It
is reported in several books of NAQLIAT-E-MAHDIAS
(Narrations), that on hearing the AZAN (call for the congregational
Salath) Imamuna MahdiAS,
if he was taking food, used to leave
the morsel into the plate and go to
join the congregation.
The scheme of the
five daily prayers is given below:
|
