Muslims pray a brief ritualistic prayer called salah or salat in Arabic, facing the Kaaba in Mecca, five times a day. There is the “call for prayer” (adhan or azaan), where the muezzin calls for all the followers to stand together for the prayer . There are also many standard duas or supplications, also in Arabic, to be recited at various times, e.g. for one’s parents, after salah, before eating. Muslims may also say dua in their own words and languages for any issue they wish to communicate with God in the hope that God will answer their prayers.

Muslims performing Salah.

Salat (Arabic:pl. ṣalawāt) is the name given to the formal prayer of Islam. Its supreme importance for Muslims is indicated by its status as one of the paradigmatic Five Pillars of Sunni Islam and of the Ten Practices of the Religion of Shi’a Islam. Salah is a ritual prayer, having prescribed conditions, a prescribed procedure, and prescribed times.

Muslims praying during the Hajj at Masjid al-Haram, Mecca.

Salat in Hadith
The Ahadith provide further details; as for example, when the Qur’an refers to three daily prayers (suras 11:114; 17:78–79; 30:17–18 and possibly 24:58), while the five daily prayers stipulated by the later Ahadith have been adopted by Muslims.

Typical prayer content (One rakat)

Intentions

There is no need to say your intentions outloud. Just know that you are either going to pray your obligatory prayers or nafl prayers. An an example is that if you walk to the moasque for salah, you dont say it outloud. Same goes for praying.

Mujahideen in prayer during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Prayer

Allah is the greatest (Allahu Akbar)

Highly glorified are You oh Allah (Subhana kallah humma wa bi hamdaka)

And thine is praised and blessed is your name and exalted is your majesty (Wa taba rakas muka wata’ala Jadduka)

And there is none worthy of worship besides You (wa la ilaha ghairuk)

I seek refuge in Allah from the rejected Satan (Aoothu billahi mina shaitan ir rajim)

In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful (Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim)

All praise is due to Allah (Alhamdu lillahi)

The Lord of the Worlds (Rabbil ‘alamin)

The Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful (Arrahmanir Rahim)

The Master on the Day of Reckoning (Maliki yaw middin)

You alone do we worship, You alone do we seek for help (Iyyaka na’budu wa Iyyaka nista’in)

Guide us on the straight way (Ihdinas siratal mustaqim)

The way of those whom You favored (Siratal lazina an’amta ‘alayhim)

Not the way of those who incur your wrath (Ghayril maghzubi ‘alayhim)

Nor of those who go astray. (Walad dhallin)

Amen. (Amin.)

In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful (Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim)

Say: He is Allah, the One and Only (Qul huwallahu Ahad)

Allah, the Eternal Absolute (Allahus Samad)

He begetteth not, nor is he begotten (Lam yalid walam yulad)

And there is none like unto Him (Walam yakul lahu kufu wan ahad)

Allah is the greatest (Allahu Akbar)

Glory to my Lord the Great, (Subhana Rabbiyal ‘Azim)

Glory to my Lord the Great, (Subhana Rabbiyal ‘Azim)

Glory to my Lord the Great (Subhana Rabbiyal ‘Azim)

Surely Allah hears whoever praises Him (Sami’ Allahu Liman Hamida)

Our Lord, all praise belongs to You (Rabbanaa lakal hamd)

Allah is the greatest (Allahu Akbar)

Glory to my Lord the Most High, (Subhana Rabbi yal A’la)

Glory to my Lord the Most High, (Subhana Rabbi yal A’la)

Glory to my Lord the Most High (Subhana Rabbi yal A’la)

Allah is greater (Allahu Akbar)

Oh Allah, forgive me and have mercy on me (Alla-hummagh-firl war’hamni)

Allah is greater (Allahu Akbar)

Glory to my Lord the Most High, (Subhana Rabbi yal A’la)

Glory to my Lord the Most High, (Subhana Rabbi yal A’la)

Glory to my Lord the Most High (Subhana Rabbi yal A’la)

Allah is greater (Allahu Akbar)

All good whether rendered by speech, by prayer, by deed, or by worship is for Allah only (Attahiatu lilahi wasalawatu watayibatu)

Peace be unto you oh Prophet (Assalamu alayka ayuhannabiyu)

and the mercy and blessings of Allah (wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu)

Peace be unto us and the righteous servants of Allah (Assalamu alayina wa ala ibadillahissalalihiyn)

I bear witness that there is no God except Allah (Ash hadu an la ilaha illal lahu)

And Muhammad is His slave and Messenger (wa ashadu anna Muhammadan ‘Abduhu wa Rasuluah)

Oh Allah, bless Muhammad and the followers of Muhammad (Allahumma salliy ala Muhammadin wa ala aali Muhammadin)

As you blessed Abraham and the followers of Abraham (Allhuma salaita ala Ibrahima wa’ala ali Ibrhaima)

Oh Allah, praise and venerate Muhammad and the followers of Muhammad (Allahuma barik Muhammadin wa ala aali Muhammadin)

As you praised and venerated Abraham and the followers of Abraham (Kama barkta ala Ibrahima wa ala aali Ibrahima)

In the worlds, surely You are praised and magnified (Inaka Hamidon Majid)

Amen (Amin)

Peace be unto you and the mercy of Allah, (Assalamu alai kum wa rahmatu Allah)

Peace be unto you and the mercy of Allah (Assalamu alai kum wa rahmatu Allah)

The Black Stone is broken into a number of fragments, with varying accounts putting the number at between seven and fifteen, held together by a silver frame. There are differing accounts of how the damage occurred. According to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, the damage occurred during a siege in 638. The editors of Time-Life Books state that the damage occurred during a siege launched by a general of the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik (646-705). Other sources, including the 2007 Britannica, state that the damage occurred as the result of a theft in 930 CE, when Qarmatian warriors sacked Mecca and carried the Black Stone away to their base in Ahsa, in medieval Bahrain. According to the historian Al-Juwayni, the Stone was returned twenty-two years later, in 951, under somewhat mysterious circumstances; wrapped in a sack, it was thrown into the Friday Mosque of Kufa accompanied by a note saying “By command we took it, and by command we have brought it back.” Its abduction and removal caused further damage, breaking the stone into seven pieces.

The Black Stone has been described variously as basalt lava, an agate, a piece of natural glass or most popularly a stony meteorite. A significant clue to its nature is provided by an account of the Stone’s recovery in 951 AD after it had been stolen 21 years earlier; according to a chronicler, the Stone was identified by its ability to float in water. If this account is accurate, it would rule out the Black Stone being an agate, basalt lava or stony meteorite, though it would be compatible with it being glass or pumice.

It has been suggested that the Black Stone may be a glass fragment from the impact of a fragmented meteorite some 6,000 years ago at Wabar, a site in the Rub’ al Khali desert some 1,100 km east of Mecca. The craters at Wabar are notable for the presence of blocks of silica glass, fused by the heat of the impact and impregnated by beads of nickel-iron alloy from the meteorite (most of which was destroyed in the impact). Some of the glass blocks are made of shiny black glass with a white or yellow interior and gas-filled hollows, which allow them to float on water. Although scientists did not become aware of the Wabar craters until 1932, they were located near a caravan route from Oman and were very likely known to the inhabitants of the desert. The wider area was certainly well-known; in ancient Arabic poetry, Wabar or Ubar (also known as “Iram of the Pillars” was the site of a fabulous city that was destroyed by fire from the heavens because of the wickedness of its king. If the estimated age of the crater is accurate, it would have been well within the period of human habitation in Arabia and the impact itself may have been witnessed. However, a recent (2004) scientific analysis of the Wabar site suggests that the impact event happened much more recently than first thought and might have occurred only within the last 200–300 years.