The Manner of Performing Prayers


This prayer guide is a step by step guide to learning to pray.

The Muslim prayers are a form of worship which establishes the link between man and his Creator whom we call Allah in Arabic. Through Salah (prayer) a person communes with his Lord, the Creator and the Sustainer of the Universe.

At least five times a day Muslims all over the world face the direction of the first house built for the worship of The One God (Allah) and pray the five daily prayers enjoined on every sane adult Muslim male and female. This house is called the Kabah. It is located in the Holy city of Makkah in present day Saudi Arabia. We do not worship the kabah. We simply worship God while facing the Kabah.

The five daily Prayers become obligatory from the moment a person embraces Islam. This is an extremely important tenet of Islam and has been enjoined with great emphasis both in the Holy Quran and the sayings of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). According to one saying of Prophets (peace be upon him), the prayer is the borderline between a Muslim and a non-believer.


Preparation for prayer

Before starting the prayer, a person must perform Wudhu (ablution).  

How to perform Ablution and Ghusl (Wudhu guide)


 However if a person has had a wet dream or sex then they should perform Ghusl.


 Ghusl should also be performed at the end of a   women  period of menstruation has ended and  at the end of 40 days after childbirth (unless the bleeding stops before completing the 40 days period, then she must make the Ghusl as soon as the bleeding stops).

 Ghusl in Islam means the bathing of the entire body with water. Proof of its legitimacy is embodied in the Holy Qur'an as follows:"And if ye are in a state of ceremonial impurity, bathe your whole body" (Qur'an 5:6).

 How to make Ghusl


Prayer timings vary throughout the globe and slight variations from day to day due to changes in daylight hours.


1 FAJR PRAYER  (The Morning Prayer)

It starts at dawn and ends at sunrise. Thus it can be prayed between these points. But it is best to pray at the beginning of its time (i.e. just after start of dawn)

2 DHUHR PRAYER (The Early Afternoon Prayer )

It starts when the sun begins to decline from its zenith and ends when the the size of an object's shadow is equal to the objects size.

3 ASR PRAYER (The Late Prayer )

It starts when an object's shadow is equal to the objects size and ends when just before sunset.

It is better to pray Asr before the sky becomes yellow (even though it is allowed to pray at such a time) because the Prophet ( peace be upon him) disliked Muslims praying at such as time and. He remarked that the the Munafiq (Hypocrite ) offers his pray at this time. 

4 MAGHRIB PRAYER (The Sunset Prayer ) .
 Its time begins just after sunset and ends when twilight has just disappeared

 5 ISHA  PRAYER (The Night Prayer )
 It starts when twilight has disappeared and ends before midnight



Learning to pray when your language is not Arabic can seem to be a very difficult task. However it is not as difficult as it may appear to you. A certain amount of text is memorized and the same text can be recited in all the 5 daily prayers.

Since a Muslim should pray right away after converting to Islam, it would be reasonable to say that he or she would be unable to memorize the whole text of the prayer in the same day. However,  Allah does not put a burden on anyone that they cannot bare.

 Therefore the Prophet peace be upon him instructed new Muslims to learn a short supplication  (Subhaan-Allaah wal-hamdu Lillaah wa laa ilaaha ill-Allaah wa Allaahu akbar wa laa hawla wa la quwwata illa Billaah) which they can recite in all their 5 daily prayers as you will see in the beginners prayer guides.  

It was narrated that ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Abi Awfa said: A man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and said: “O Messenger of Allah, teach me something of the Qur’aan that will suffice me, for I cannot read.” He said, “Say: Subhaan-Allaah wa’l-hamdu Lillaah wa laa ilaaha ill-Allaah wa Allaahu akbar wa laa hawla wa la quwwata illa Billaah (Glory be to Allaah, praise be to Allaah, there is no god except Allaah and Allaah is Most great, there is no god except Allaah and there is no power and no strength except with Allaah).” The man made a grabbing gesture with his hand (indicating that he had learned a lot) and said, “This is for my Lord, what is there for me?” He said, “Say: Allaahumma ighfir li warhamni wahdini warzuqni wa ‘aafini (O Allah, forgive me, have mercy on me, guide me, and grant me provision and good health).” He made another grabbing gesture with his other hand and stood up.

(Narrated by al-Nasaa’i, 924; Abu Dawood, 832. Its isnaad was classed as jayyid by al-Mundhiri in al-Targheeb wa’l-Tarheeb, 2/430. al-Haafiz Ibn Hajar indicated that it is hasan in al-Talkhees al-Habeer, 1/236)

So the point is to get started on learning and performing the prayers right away.

If one has a very good memory they should memorise Surah Fatiha, which is longer for some may be to difficult to memorise in in just a few hours. However even Surah Fatiha could be memorised by some people in around 5-6 hours if a person repeats each line over and over again. So memorising the following supplication should take even less time.


 wal-hamdu Lillaah

wa laa ilaaha


 wa Allaahu akbar

wa laa


wa la


illa Billaah


Now lets look at how to pray each of the five daily prayers

Click on the links in the box below to learn how to pray each of the 5 daily prayers


How a New Muslim or Beginner  Prayers the:

 Above guides show stage 1 and stage2 

Stage 2

After being able to recite the above in your 5 daily prayers you should try to memorize Surah Fathiha and include it in the prayer (as described in the prayer guides for the 5 daily prayers above) and incorporate that as shown in the above diagrams for stage 1.

Please do not skip stages 1 and 2 as you will end up making learning to prayer difficult for you and end up missing some of your prayers as the full text takes quite a while to memorize especially for non-Arabic speakers. But do watch the video and flash movie below to get a further idea of how the movements are preformed and eventual progress to the third stage.  If you have any questions please email.


 The following movie will give you and idea as how the movements are preformed. It is for advanced level but will be helpful for the very beginners too to see the movements in action. 

Stage 3 (final stage)

This is the final and complete stage on learning to perform  5 daily Prayers. It is for advanced level students only


How to perform the prayer (Full advanced level prayer guide )


Surah Fatiha should be recited one verse at a time
Video to teach Fatiha
1 Bismillah hir rahman nir raheem
2 Alhamdu lillahi rabbiL a lameen
3 Ar rahman nir raheem
4 Maliki yawmid deen
5 Iyyaka na'a budu wa-iyyaka nasta aeen
6 Ihdinas sirataal mustaqeem
7 Siratal latheena an a'amta alayhim ghayril maghdoobi alayhim walad daalleen

After reciting Surah Fatiha one says

 Listen to the whole of  Surah Fatiha  

3. The Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.
6. Guide us to the Straight Way

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