How Should We Establish Salat According to the Qur’an?

This article uses “prayer-connection” to describe the Qur’anic concept commonly called Salat or prayer. The purpose is to avoid reducing the concept to mechanical recitation or inherited terminology.

Contents

By Name of The God The Merciful The Compassionate

In understanding the Qur’anic prayer-connection, one of the first mistakes—especially among Persian speakers—is translating “establishing the prayer-connection” as “reading prayer.” This incomplete translation changes the meaning from its root. The Qur’an does not use the Persian word “namaz” for this act of worship, nor does it use the verb “to read.” What the Qur’an says is to establish the prayer-connection, not to read prayer.

When The-God says:

Establish the prayer-connection, give the purifying contribution, and bow with those who bow.
Qur’an 2:43

The word used here means establishing, upholding, making firm, and keeping something standing. This is a living and continuous act, not a momentary act like “reading.” If the Qur’an had meant “read,” it could have used words such as “read” or “say,” but it did not.

So the first correction is this:

The prayer-connection in the Qur’an is not something to be “read.” It is something to be established.

But what is “namaz”? Where did this term come from?

“Namaz” is a Persian word that existed in Iranian languages before Islam. It carried meanings such as reverence, bending, and a form of humble gesture. Later, this word was used to translate the Qur’anic term for prayer-connection. But over time, this translation pushed the meaning toward an outward and repetitive ritual act, while the Qur’anic concept is much deeper and wider. This is the point where a translation, instead of carrying the meaning, limited it.

The Meaning of the Prayer-Connection Itself

The second step is to understand the word itself.

Over time, the prayer-connection has been reduced to “supplication,” “sending blessings,” or “reciting certain phrases.” But when we return to the Qur’an itself, this meaning alone is not enough.

The-God says:

Indeed, The-God and His angels perform the prayer-connection upon the Prophet. O you who believe, perform the prayer-connection upon him and submit with full submission.
Qur’an 33:56

Here we must pause.

If this term simply means “sending greetings,” what does that mean when applied to The-God? Does The-God “recite greetings”? Do the angels merely repeat a sentence?

The verse itself shows that the prayer-connection is an act, not merely the saying of a phrase. It is an act that comes from The-God, the angels, and the believers. But at every level, its reality is one: entering a path, connecting to it, and aligning with it.

If the common translations were correct, and if “The-God and His angels perform the prayer-connection upon the Prophet” only meant “sending greetings” or “saying peace,” then The-God could easily have used clear and direct expressions in Arabic. For example, He could have said that The-God and His angels “send peace upon the Prophet.” If the meaning were supplication, He could have said “they pray for him.” If the meaning were asking mercy for him, He could have said that directly.

These expressions are known and clear. They contain no ambiguity. But the Qur’an does not use any of them. Instead, it uses this specific word. And in the same verse, it mentions peace separately by saying, “and submit with full submission.” This separation shows that the prayer-connection is not the same as peace-greeting, nor is it merely supplication. It is an independent act beyond those meanings. The Qur’an deliberately chose a specific word for it. If the intended meaning were those simple and common meanings, it could have stated them plainly and without complexity.

The peak of this meaning appears in a verse that takes the discussion far beyond a narrow legalistic framework. The-God says:

Do you not see that whoever is in the heavens and the earth glorifies The-God, and the birds with wings spread? Each has known its own prayer-connection and its glorification. And The-God knows what they do.
Qur’an 24:41

The importance of this verse is that it removes the prayer-connection from the narrow prison of purely legalistic understanding. When the Qur’an says that the bird also knows its own prayer-connection, it becomes clear that the root meaning is not limited to a few fixed human body movements.

A bird does not perform human bowing in the legal sense. It does not perform human prostration in the technical sense. It does not recite verbally the way we do. Yet the Qur’an still attributes a prayer-connection to it.

This means that, in its deeper sense, the prayer-connection is each being entering the awareness-giving orbit of its own creation, knowing its relation to its Lord, and doing what it was created to do in a state of glorification and submission.

From here, the prayer-connection is no longer merely a closed religious ritual. It becomes a way of entering the living network of existence and knowing one’s place before The-God.

The human prayer-connection, within this greater horizon, is the special and conscious form of this universal law.

Essence Before Form

The verses about the prayer-connection during fear and movement are among the strongest Qur’anic proofs that, in the logic of revelation, essence comes before form.

The-God says:

When you travel through the land, there is no blame upon you if you shorten the prayer-connection, if you fear that those who reject the truth may harm you. Indeed, the rejecters are a clear enemy to you.
Qur’an 4:101

Then He says:

When you are secure, establish the prayer-connection. Indeed, the prayer-connection has been prescribed for the believers at appointed times.
Qur’an 4:103

And in another verse He says:

Guard the prayer-connections, and the middle prayer-connection, and stand before The-God with devotion. But if you are afraid, then on foot or riding. Then when you are safe, remember The-God as He taught you what you did not know.
Qur’an 2:238–239

These verses close the door to rigidity. If fixed outward form were the absolute essence of the prayer-connection, The-God would never have allowed a person to establish it while afraid, moving, walking, or riding.

This flexibility shows that the core of the prayer-connection is that the connection and remembrance must not be cut off. It is not about being trapped inside a form that can only be performed under normal conditions.

In safety, it takes its fuller and calmer form. But in fear and movement, the essence remains, even if the form changes.

This is one of the clearest Qur’anic proofs that, in the logic of revelation, the prayer-connection is a living connection that must be preserved. It is not a dry form whose essence disappears when its outward shape changes.

The Purpose of the Prayer-Connection

Another verse is decisive for understanding the purpose of the prayer-connection:

Indeed, I am The-God. There is no deity except Me. So worship Me and establish the prayer-connection for My remembrance.
Qur’an 20:14

Here the purpose is stated clearly: remembrance.

But this needs explanation. In the Qur’an, remembrance is not merely repeating words. It is living awareness, conscious presence, and real connection.

Another verse says:

Recite what has been revealed to you from the Book, and establish the prayer-connection. Indeed, the prayer-connection restrains from indecency and wrongdoing. And the remembrance of The-God is greater. And The-God knows what you do.
Qur’an 29:45

This verse gives a practical criterion: the prayer-connection must have an effect.

If what we are doing does not restrain us from corruption, then we must reconsider our understanding.

The meaning of remembrance in the Qur’an is not merely repeating a fixed phrase or reciting a formula. It is a kind of re-awakening: returning human awareness to a truth that a person is constantly in danger of forgetting.

When The-God says, “Establish the prayer-connection for My remembrance,” it does not mean: establish it only to repeat a few sentences. It means: establish it so that you do not forget your relationship with The-God, with truth, with responsibility, and with your place in this world.

From this angle, the prayer-connection is a living and repeated reminder. It is a conscious return. In modern language, we could call it a daily “update” for the soul and direction of the human being, so that one is saved from heedlessness, inner scattering, and losing the path.

But if this same prayer-connection becomes empty of this truth and falls into mechanical repetition without presence, then it loses its Qur’anic function.

The Qur’an has given a clear measure for whether this connection is succeeding or failing:

Indeed, the prayer-connection restrains from indecency and wrongdoing.
Qur’an 29:45

So if this living reminder cannot affect a person’s behavior, ethics, and choices, and cannot restrain them from evil, then we must honestly say that the process of connection has not been performed properly. What remains may be the outward form of the prayer-connection, but it is not its spirit.

What the Qur’an Shows About the Prayer-Connection

From all these verses, it becomes clear that the prayer-connection means establishing a living, conscious, and continuous relationship with The-God, in the path of truth, with presence, remembrance, and real effect in life.

The fact that this concept was later limited to “supplication” or “sending blessings” is more the result of not understanding the depth of the word than a complete explanation of it.

Even in some historical reports, we see that early Muslims themselves had questions about the nature of the prayer-connection. This shows that, from the beginning, this concept required deep understanding.

But the important point is this: we do not rely on those reports to prove the reality of the prayer-connection. We return to the Qur’an itself. The Qur’an is sufficient for guidance, and it is the final criterion.

For example, in earlier commentary traditions on Qur’an 33:56, several different explanations were given. Some said that The-God’s prayer-connection upon the Prophet means His praise of him among the angels, while the angels’ prayer-connection means supplication for the Prophet. Others explained it as mercy. Others explained it as blessing or honoring.

When one word in one verse receives so many different explanations — praise, mercy, supplication, blessing, honoring — this itself shows that early commentators did not reach one fixed and certain understanding of its exact meaning. Each one explained it from a particular angle.

The same situation appears in other early commentaries. Some said The-God’s prayer-connection means mercy. Others said it means praise. The angels’ prayer-connection was sometimes explained as seeking forgiveness.

Then, when believers are commanded to perform the prayer-connection upon the Prophet, we again see difference in explanation. In some reports, the companions ask the Prophet in effect: “We know how to greet you with peace, but how do we perform the prayer-connection upon you?”

That question itself is important. It shows that even among those closest to the Prophet, the prayer-connection was not simply obvious as “saying one fixed sentence.” It needed explanation.

The more important point is that the answers preserved in those reports are usually presented as teaching a phrase, not as defining the nature of the prayer-connection itself.

Instead of explaining what the prayer-connection truly is, the discussion moved toward what words should be said.

This is exactly the shift that gradually happened over time: from an act to a phrase.

That shift shows how the original understanding of the prayer-connection was gradually simplified and reduced to verbal formulas.

Still, mentioning these reports is not for proving religion or deciding the final meaning of the prayer-connection. Their value is that they show that the earliest generations themselves were engaged with this concept and did not receive it as something fully closed, simple, and self-evident.

So when we face the question today — “What is the prayer-connection?” — the right path is not to choose one scattered opinion from history over another.

The right path is to return to the source that used the word in the first place.

The Qur’an itself is the final criterion for understanding the word it established.

And when the Qur’an connects the prayer-connection with standing, bowing, prostration, remembrance, and effect in life, it becomes clear that we are dealing with a living structure of connection, not merely a sentence to be repeated.

The Prayer-Connection Did Not Begin With the Final Prophet

The third step is to make this point clear: the prayer-connection was not a new phenomenon that began in the time of the final Prophet.

The-God says about Jesus:

He made me blessed wherever I may be, and He instructed me in the prayer-connection and the purifying contribution as long as I live.
Qur’an 19:31

And about Abraham:

My Lord, make me one who establishes the prayer-connection, and from my descendants as well. Our Lord, accept my prayer.
Qur’an 14:40

And about Ishmael:

He used to command his family to the prayer-connection and the purifying contribution, and he was pleasing to his Lord.
Qur’an 19:55

These verses show that the prayer-connection is a deeply rooted prophetic tradition. The final Prophet did not invent something from himself. He continued the same path.

But now we reach one of the most important questions — a question often used as pressure against the Qur’an:

If written reports attributed to the Prophet did not exist, and if the Qur’an alone were sufficient, then where would the details of the prayer-connection come from?

Those who build religion on those reports often take a gap in their own understanding and present it as a gap in the Qur’an.

They say: because what they do today — with all its details — is not written in the Qur’an exactly as they practice it, therefore the Qur’an must be incomplete and in need of another source.

But this argument is upside down from the beginning.

Instead of measuring their practice by the Qur’an, they measure the Qur’an by their practice.

Even if we look carefully at the very sources they present as the answer — the written reports attributed to the Prophet, even in the most trusted collections — we do not find one unified, explicit, and disagreement-free system for the basic pillars of the prayer-connection.

They do not give, in a single clear and consistent way, the exact number of units, one fixed structure of establishment, or one final form of bowing and prostration beyond dispute.

Rather, in many cases, those very reports produced minor differences, varied interpretations, and later secondary obligations. These matters were not foundational to the act itself, but over time they became centers of disagreement and even conflict.

This shows that what is presented as “the completion of details” did not actually produce one clear and unified system.

So when we turn to those reports, we are not facing a precise, unified, and certain system whose details came clearly from a divine source. We are facing a collection of understandings, narrations, and historical interpretations that formed over time and became subject to disagreement.

One Example: Reciting the Opening Chapter Behind the Leader

This disagreement can be seen clearly in one specific example, not from the margins, but from within the prayer-connection itself: the issue of reciting the opening chapter of the Qur’an behind the prayer leader.

The Qur’an gives a simple and clear principle:

Recite whatever is made easy for you from the Qur’an.
Qur’an 73:20

This verse establishes recitation within the prayer-connection, but it leaves it flexible, within what is made easy. It does not turn it into a system of complicated and conflicting obligations.

Yet in this one issue, three major legal schools reached three completely different and even contradictory conclusions.

One school said that reciting the opening chapter is required in every unit, whether one is praying alone or behind a leader. According to this view, if a person does not recite it, the prayer is invalid.

Another school said the exact opposite: the follower behind the leader should not recite anything, and the leader’s recitation is enough for everyone. This view even used a Qur’anic verse as support:

When the Qur’an is recited, listen to it and remain silent, so that you may receive mercy.
Qur’an 7:204

A third school took a middle path and said recitation for the follower is optional: in quiet prayers, the person may recite; in loud prayers, it is better to listen.

So what happened?

In one single issue, three different rulings formed:

In one school, if you do not recite the opening chapter, your prayer is invalid.

In another school, if you do recite behind the leader, your prayer may be treated as wrong.

In the third school, both possibilities are allowed.

This means that a Muslim can be told in one school that their prayer is invalid, while the same action is treated in another school as a condition for the prayer’s validity.

This is not a minor difference. This is contradiction inside the core of the act.

This example clearly shows that what is presented as “completing the details through reports” did not lead to one certain and unified system. It did not remove disagreement. It became a source of disagreement.

The Qur’an gives a simple and broad principle: recite whatever is made easy from the Qur’an.

But later legal systems, relying on reports and interpretations, divided this simple principle into three contradictory rulings: required, forbidden, and optional.

So we must ask ourselves:

If early legal scholars could not agree even on such a basic part of the prayer-connection — whether the opening chapter should be recited behind the leader or not — how can any single later report be treated as the absolute criterion of religion?

And beyond that, how can heavy rulings be issued based on these disagreement-prone collections? How can people be declared outside faith, or accused of abandoning religion, on the basis of material that was itself subject to disagreement?

At this point, the issue is no longer merely legal disagreement.

The issue is assigning certainty to something whose very nature was historically uncertain and disputed.

These disagreements show that these details were not preserved as one single, decisive, and unified text.

The Qur’an Clearly Gives the Foundations

In contrast, the Qur’an has clearly stated the essential foundations of the prayer-connection.

For example, regarding purification before it, The-God says:

O you who believe, when you rise for the prayer-connection, wash your faces and your hands up to the elbows, and wipe your heads and your feet up to the ankles.
Qur’an 5:6

Regarding bowing and prostration, He says:

O you who believe, bow, prostrate, worship your Lord, and do good, so that you may succeed.
Qur’an 22:77

Regarding standing, He says:

Stand before The-God with devotion.
Qur’an 2:238

In the Arabic language itself, the word used for “establishing” comes from a root connected to making something stand, such as a pillar, a post, or a tent.

A tent only has meaning as long as its central support stands. It becomes shelter, and a person lives under its shade. But if that support collapses, the tent is no longer a shelter. It becomes nothing more than cloth fallen on the ground.

When the Qur’an speaks of establishing the prayer-connection, it uses this same logic.

The prayer-connection is not something that is merely performed and then finished. It is something that must be established so that life can take shape under its shade.

You establish the prayer-connection so that you may stand within it, remain within it, and live under its shelter.

Here the fundamental difference becomes clear:

In the Qur’anic logic, the prayer-connection is an environment, not a passing duty.

It is a structure, not a moment.

And if this structure is not established, what remains may be only repeated movements and words, not the establishment of the prayer-connection.

The Times of the Prayer-Connection

Just as we saw in the case of fear and movement that form follows essence, the Qur’an keeps the same logic when it speaks about time.

Regarding the times of the prayer-connection, the Qur’an clearly establishes the principle. But it expresses the timing through windows of time and signs of day and night, not through the later technical schedule of legal manuals.

The Qur’an first states that the prayer-connection is appointed by time. It is not random or loose. It is to be established at known and appointed times:

Indeed, the prayer-connection has been prescribed for the believers at appointed times.
Qur’an 4:103

But this verse gives the principle of time. To understand the actual windows of time, we must place other verses beside it.

One of the most important verses in this discussion is:

Establish the prayer-connection from the decline of the sun until the darkness of the night, and the recitation of dawn. Indeed, the recitation of dawn is witnessed.
Qur’an 17:78

In this verse, three important elements appear:

  • The decline of the sun.

  • The darkness of the night.

  • The recitation of dawn.

From here, two major readings emerged.

Some have said that this verse points to three main time windows: one after the sun’s decline, one in the night, and one at dawn. When this is read together with other verses that mention the two ends of the day and parts of the night, they conclude that the Qur’an identifies three main times, not five separate and independent times.

The verse commonly placed beside this one is:

Establish the prayer-connection at the two ends of the day and in parts of the night. Indeed, good deeds remove bad deeds. That is a reminder for those who remember.
Qur’an 11:114

Those who understand three times from the Qur’an usually say:

  • The first end of the day is dawn.

  • The second end of the day is the later part of the day.

  • The parts of the night include the beginning of the night.

Another verse used in this reading is:

So glorify The-God when you enter the evening and when you enter the morning. And to Him belongs praise in the heavens and the earth, and in the late afternoon, and when you reach midday.
Qur’an 30:17–18

From these verses, some see four time signs that, in practice, return to three larger windows: morning, midday, and evening/night.

Accordingly, they say that the Qur’an speaks of three main times, even though more prayer-connections may be performed within those windows, or some may be joined together.

In this view, the Qur’an does not explicitly name five independent times in direct language. Instead, it presents three large time zones, which were later expanded in practical tradition.

The Five-Time Reading

Another group, from these same verses and from combining them with one another, inferred five times.

Their argument is that although the Qur’an does not list the later legal names in the order found in legal manuals, it gives time markers in a way that together covers five occasions.

They say that in the verse, “Establish the prayer-connection from the decline of the sun until the darkness of the night, and the recitation of dawn,” dawn is one independent time. The span after the sun’s decline until before sunset includes two sections. And from sunset until the darkness of night includes two more sections.

They also add this verse:

O you who believe, let those whom your right hands possess and those among you who have not reached maturity ask your permission at three times: before the dawn prayer-connection, when you put aside your clothing at midday, and after the night prayer-connection. These are three private times for you. After them there is no blame upon you or upon them. They move about among you, some of you among others. Thus The-God makes the signs clear for you. And The-God is Knowing, Wise.
Qur’an 24:58

Those who support five times from the Qur’an focus on the fact that the Qur’an explicitly names the dawn prayer-connection and the night prayer-connection. Then, by combining this with the decline of the sun, the darkness of the night, and the two ends of the day, they say that midday, afternoon, and sunset can also be derived.

They also refer to this verse:

Be patient over what they say, and glorify your Lord with praise before sunrise and before its setting, and in parts of the night glorify Him, and at the edges of the day, so that you may be pleased.
Qur’an 20:130

In this reading:

  • “Before sunrise” points to dawn.

  • “Before its setting” points to the afternoon period.

  • “Parts of the night” points to sunset and night.

  • “Edges of the day” points to other parts of the day.

But honesty requires us to say that these verses, in their wording, do not provide the final legal schedule exactly in the later technical form. That division comes from placing the verses together and from the practical tradition of the community.

So why do some say three times while others say five?

Because the first group focuses more on the large time windows in the Qur’an and says that the direct text shows three main ranges.

The second group says that when those same windows are read with greater detail and combined with other verses, they can be separated into five occasions.

Therefore, the disagreement is mostly about the level of separation, not about the principle that the prayer-connection is tied to time.

One reads the Qur’an at a broad level and sees three times.

The other reads the same verses with more detailed separation and infers five times.

The important point is that both groups take their foundation from the Qur’an, not from the assumption that the Qur’an is silent.

So what must be made clear is this:

The Qur’an establishes beyond ambiguity that the prayer-connection is time-bound. Its times are also taken from the Qur’anic verses themselves. But whether these times are understood as three large windows or five separated occasions is a matter of reading and interpretation.

Therefore, once again, we see that the Qur’an gives the foundation. The differences arise mostly at the level of later organization and detailed arrangement, not in the original divine legislation.

Time Windows, Not Sectarian Micromanagement

In the discussion of the times of the prayer-connection, if we pay attention to the Qur’an’s own language, we see that the Qur’an does not define the times like a legal manual, through exact points and counted labels.

Instead, it expresses them as limits and time ranges.

It does not say: perform the prayer-connection at this exact minute, with this numbered slot.

Rather, it builds the time framework and places the human being inside that framework.

From here, we can understand that dividing these ranges into five specific occasions in the history of the community was a structural choice for organization. It was not an explicit number that the Qur’an made a condition of acceptance.

In other words, the community separated these limits into five parts in order to perform them with more precision and order. This may be useful and organizing. But turning it into an absolute boundary that invalidates every other form would require a text that the Qur’an does not provide in that manner.

Here, we only point to the principle of ease.

Therefore, if someone establishes the prayer-connection within the Qur’anic framework — within these time limits — but does so in three occasions, for example by joining some prayer-connections together, it cannot be easily said that such a person has left the Qur’anic framework.

The Qur’an itself sets the vital minimum and places the principle on capacity and the removal of hardship:

The-God does not burden any soul beyond its capacity.
Qur’an 2:286

And:

The-God does not wish to place hardship upon you.
Qur’an 5:6

So in the logic of the Qur’an, the times of the prayer-connection form an open and living system. Its limits are clear, but the form of performance within those limits is left to reason, social order, and human capacity.

It is not a closed mold where every minor departure means departure from religion.

Awareness in the Prayer-Connection

Regarding awareness in the prayer-connection, The-God says:

O you who believe, do not approach the prayer-connection while you are intoxicated, until you know what you are saying.
Qur’an 4:43

The Qur’an has also spoken about what should be recited within the prayer-connection. The-God says:

Establish the prayer-connection from the decline of the sun until the darkness of the night, and the recitation of dawn. Indeed, the recitation of dawn is witnessed.
Qur’an 17:78

And He also says:

Recite whatever is made easy for you from the Qur’an.
Qur’an 73:20

From all these verses, it becomes clear that what should be recited in the prayer-connection is the Qur’an itself.

It is not that the Qur’an remained silent on this matter and others later came to define the main content.

Of course, the Qur’an does not name one specific chapter as exclusively and compulsorily required for all situations and all units. Rather, it establishes the principle of Qur’an recitation and whatever is made easy.

This also agrees with the spirit of ease and removal of hardship in the religion.

The Qur’an also does not only say what should be recited. It even gives a measure for how loudly or quietly it should be recited:

Do not raise your voice too loudly in your prayer-connection, and do not make it too quiet, but seek a way between them.
Qur’an 17:110

This verse clearly shows that, contrary to the disputes of later legal thinkers and report-based systems, even the tone and level of voice in the prayer-connection were not left completely undefined.

The Qur’an accepts neither excess in loudness nor excess in quietness. It makes the middle way the measure.

Here again we see that the principle itself is present in the Qur’an, but not in a way that creates obsession and sectarianism. It comes as a clear and balanced criterion.

So, in summary, the Qur’an has stated:

  • purification before the prayer-connection,

  • standing, bowing, and prostration,

  • that the prayer-connection is tied to appointed times,

  • remembrance and awareness as its spirit,

  • that what is recited in it should come from the Qur’an,

  • and even the measure of voice: not too loud and not too quiet, but balanced.

Therefore, the essential foundations of the prayer-connection, and an important part of its content, are present in the Qur’an itself.

Living Practice and Written Reports Are Not the Same

The Prophet also established the prayer-connection according to these same Qur’anic instructions.

People learned from him, not through complicated written texts, but through living practice within the community. This is what was transmitted as continuous practical inheritance.

When people object and say, “If the Qur’an did not explain every technical detail like a legal manual, then how do we know how to establish the prayer-connection?” we must distinguish between two things:

One is the living practice that continued within the community.

The other is written individual reports from later transmission.

These two are never the same.

The prayer-connection, as a living bodily act, belongs to the kind of inheritance that communities carry through practice. It is not the kind of information that can only be known through scattered written reports.

The same is true of pilgrimage and many of its rites. These were known among people even before Islam. The Prophet did not come to invent the original act from nothing. He purified it from corruption, removed its distortions, and returned it to the foundation of divine unity.

In the same way, as we saw earlier, the prayer-connection was an Abrahamic inheritance and a known prophetic practice. The Prophet of Islam did not construct it from nothing. Rather, under the light of new revelation, he corrected it, purified it, and re-established it upon truth.

This is where reliance on continuous practical inheritance becomes meaningful.

By continuous practical inheritance, we do not mean that everything people do becomes divine proof. Rather, we mean that a bodily and communal act of worship is transmitted in its basic practical form through shared life and direct observation, not through isolated reports written later.

A child does not learn the prayer-connection from books of reports.

A child learns it by seeing, standing, bowing, prostrating, and joining the community.

That is the logic of practical transmission.

Therefore, the Prophet did not take the practical details of the prayer-connection from books of reports, because those books were written later. He established it within the living and known Abrahamic practice, under Qur’anic guidance. The community then received it from him as practice.

The essential difference is this:

  • Living practice is a continuing exercise within the community.

  • Written reports, at best, are uncertain historical reports about the past.

  • The first belongs to life and observation.

  • The second belongs to narration and transmission.

The great mistake is to treat these two as the same, and then imagine that if later written reports are removed, the original practice itself collapses.

What the Qur’an Does Not Say

But there is a very important point:

Nowhere in the Qur’an does it say:

If you do not perform this exact technical form, your prayer-connection is invalid.

Nowhere does it say:

A specific number of units, with one fixed and unchangeable form, is the condition of acceptance.

In contrast, the Qur’an repeats another principle many times:

The-God does not burden any soul beyond its capacity.
Qur’an 2:286

And:

The-God does not wish to place hardship upon you.
Qur’an 5:6

So if we gather the whole discussion together, the prayer-connection in the Qur’an is:

  • an act to be established, not merely read,

  • a living connection, not the repetition of a series of rituals and body movements,

  • clear in its foundations, but flexible in details,

  • for remembrance and presence, not performance,

  • and placed within the framework of ease and human capacity.

What Must Not Happen in the Prayer-Connection

The Qur’an does not only tell us what should be done in the prayer-connection. It also makes clear what must not happen within it.

This part is extremely important, because many deviations begin exactly here: the outward act remains, but the spirit of the act is lost.

The first Qur’anic warning is about the condition that empties the prayer-connection from within: intoxication of awareness.

The-God says:

O you who believe, do not approach the prayer-connection while you are in a state of impaired awareness, until you know what you are saying; nor in a state requiring full purification, except when merely passing through, until you wash yourselves. Indeed, The-God is Pardoning, Forgiving.
Qur’an 4:43

Here, the word usually translated as intoxication should not be limited only to drunkenness from alcohol. Its root meaning points to a closing, blocking, or covering of perception.

It means a state in which human awareness is disrupted, and the ability to discern, focus, and be present is lost.

This blockage can come from outside causes, such as alcohol or substances. But it can also come from inner causes: anger, anxiety, mental obsession, drowning in imagination, extreme exhaustion, or even sleepiness.

The verse itself gives the criterion:

Until you know what you are saying.

So the main issue is not alcohol alone. The main issue is the loss of awareness.

If a person stands in the prayer-connection while their mind is trapped in worldly distraction, while they do not know what they are saying, what they are reciting, or before Whom they stand, then in the Qur’anic sense they are in a state of impaired awareness.

Not the intoxication of alcohol, but the intoxication of heedlessness.

This verse is not merely a legal rule. It is a deep measure for evaluating the prayer-connection:

A prayer-connection without awareness is not truly a prayer-connection.

And this is exactly where many prayer-connections become empty from within, without the person even realizing it.

Purity of Body and Purity of Awareness

The second warning in the same verse concerns purity.

After warning believers not to approach the prayer-connection in a state of impaired awareness, The-God immediately says that a person should not approach it in a state requiring full purification until they wash themselves.

This shows that, in the logic of the Qur’an, the prayer-connection does not only require mental presence and awareness. It is also connected to bodily purity.

Just as covered and disrupted awareness empties the prayer-connection from within, lack of bodily purity also prevents proper entry into this state.

So in this one verse, the Qur’an places two foundational conditions side by side:

purity of awareness, and purity of the body.

A person must know what they are saying, and they must stand before The-God in a purified state.

From here, it becomes clear that the Qur’anic prayer-connection is neither a purely physical movement nor a purely mental remembrance. It is a state in which the human being enters the field of connection with The-God through both awareness and purity.

Heedlessness Inside the Prayer-Connection

The third warning concerns heedlessness within the prayer-connection:

Woe to those who perform the prayer-connection — those who are heedless of their prayer-connection.
Qur’an 107:4–5

Notice carefully: the verse does not say, “Woe to those who abandon the prayer-connection.”

It says:

Woe to those who perform it.

But which performers?

Those who are heedless of their own prayer-connection.

This means the outward act exists, but presence and awareness have disappeared.

This is exactly the fall of the prayer-connection from remembrance into habit.

Showing Off

The fourth warning concerns showing off in the prayer-connection:

Those who show off.
Qur’an 107:6

They perform the prayer-connection, but not for The-God.

They perform it to be seen.

Here, the prayer-connection changes from a true connection into a social performance.

This is where worship becomes a tool of identity, image, and judgment over others.

When the Prayer-Connection Has No Effect on Behavior

The fifth warning concerns the cutting off of the prayer-connection from actual conduct:

Indeed, the prayer-connection restrains from indecency and wrongdoing.
Qur’an 29:45

This verse is a criterion.

If the prayer-connection does not restrain a person from corruption, then the prayer-connection has failed in its function.

Here the Qur’an indirectly tells us that a prayer-connection without effect is not the true prayer-connection, even if its outward form is performed.

When the Prayer-Connection Becomes Heavy

The sixth warning concerns the prayer-connection becoming heavy when humble presence is absent:

Indeed, it is heavy except upon those with humble presence.
Qur’an 2:45

This means that if the prayer-connection has become heavy, exhausting, and empty of life, the problem is not in the prayer-connection itself.

The problem is the absence of humble presence and connection.

What should have been a shelter becomes a burden.

And this is a sign that the inner connection has been cut.

The Qur’an Identifies How the Prayer-Connection Is Ruined

From all these verses, it becomes clear that the Qur’an does not define the prayer-connection merely as a set of movements.

It also identifies the ways it becomes corrupted:

  • prayer-connection without awareness is rejected in meaning,

  • prayer-connection with heedlessness is warned against,

  • prayer-connection done for display is worthless,

  • prayer-connection without effect on behavior is incomplete,

  • prayer-connection without humble presence becomes heavy and lifeless.

This means the Qur’an has not only explained how to perform the prayer-connection. It has also explained how the prayer-connection is ruined.

And perhaps this part is the most important of all, because many people perform the prayer-connection while bringing into it the very things the Qur’an warned against.

So How Should We Pray?

Establishing the prayer-connection was not a new and unprecedented act.

Before Prophet Muhammad, the People of the Book, the upright God-oriented believers, and other God-conscious communities already had forms of worship, standing, bowing, prostration, supplication, glorification, and devotion. The Qur’an itself confirms this.

About Abraham, it says:

My Lord, make me one who establishes the prayer-connection, and from my descendants as well.

About Jesus, it says:

He instructed me in the prayer-connection and the purifying contribution as long as I live.

About Ishmael, it says:

He used to command his family to the prayer-connection and the purifying contribution.

So the prayer-connection was not a new invention of the Prophet of Islam. He did not come to create a completely unknown act of worship from zero. He came to correct, purify, and re-establish the living Abrahamic and divine tradition in the light of the Qur’an and upon the foundation of divine unity.

The Qur’an is not silent about the prayer-connection. On the contrary, the Qur’an gives its main foundations. What the Qur’an does not give are the later sectarian and binding details. And whatever The-God has not made binding, we have no right to make binding upon people in the name of The-God.

The Qur’anic foundations of the prayer-connection are these:

1. Purity and Washing

The Qur’an says:

O you who believe, when you rise for the prayer-connection, wash your faces and your hands up to the elbows, and wipe your heads and your feet up to the ankles.

So the prayer-connection is joined with bodily purity and readiness.

2. Standing Before The-God

The Qur’an says:

Stand before The-God with humility and obedience.

So standing, presence, humility, and orientation toward The-God are among the foundations of the prayer-connection.

3. Bowing and Prostration

The Qur’an says:

O you who believe, bow, prostrate, worship your Lord.

So bowing and prostration are present in the Qur’an. No one can honestly say that the Qur’an says nothing about the practical form of the prayer-connection.

4. Remembrance of The-God

The Qur’an says:

Establish the prayer-connection for My remembrance.

So the spirit of the prayer-connection is remembrance: a living remembrance of The-God, not the empty repetition of words without presence.

5. Awareness in Speech

The Qur’an says:

Do not approach the prayer-connection while your awareness is impaired, until you know what you are saying.

So the prayer-connection must be performed with understanding, mental presence, and awareness. If a person does not know what they are saying, the spirit of the prayer-connection is lost.

6. Recitation From the Qur’an

The Qur’an says:

Recite whatever is made easy for you from the Qur’an.

So the main content of recitation in the prayer-connection is the Qur’an itself. But the Qur’an does not restrict this to one specific chapter in every unit and every situation.

7. Appointed Times

The Qur’an says:

The prayer-connection has been prescribed for the believers at appointed times.

It also speaks of dawn, the decline of the sun, the darkness of night, the two ends of the day, and parts of the night.

So the principle that the prayer-connection is tied to appointed times is Qur’anic. But exactly how these times are divided into numbered occasions belongs to the level of arrangement and detail, not to the boundary between faith and disbelief.

8. Balance in Voice

The Qur’an says:

Do not make your prayer-connection too loud, and do not make it too quiet; seek a way between them.

So even the principle of balance in voice is found in the Qur’an.

Now let us use a simple example.

Imagine The-God says: prepare food.

Then He says the necessary ingredients are pure water, fire, a vessel, clean grain, herbs, salt, and cleanliness.

In this example, “preparing food” is like establishing the prayer-connection. The necessary ingredients are like the Qur’anic foundations of the prayer-connection: washing, standing, bowing, prostration, remembrance, recitation, time, awareness, and humble presence.

Now the Prophet of Islam, using these necessary ingredients, prepared five complete and beautiful meals. In other words, with these Qur’anic foundations, he established and organized five daily prayer-connections within his community.

These five forms may be among the best and most complete ways of establishing the prayer-connection, just as the Prophet’s food may be the purest, healthiest, and most nourishing food.

But the important difference is this: if The-God has said, “These are the necessary ingredients,” we have no right to say that whoever does not prepare the exact same dish, in the exact same form, and in the exact same order, has not prepared food at all.

What matters is that the food is good: pure, healthy, life-giving, and beneficial.

The same is true of the prayer-connection. What matters is that it returns the human being to the remembrance of The-God, restrains them from indecency and wrongdoing, trains the self, and brings the person closer to mindfulness of The-God.

The Qur’an gives the criterion this way:

Indeed, the prayer-connection restrains from indecency and wrongdoing.

So if someone performs the outward form of prayer precisely, but remains a liar, an oppressor, arrogant, performative, treacherous, and merciless, then their food may have the appearance of food, but it has not become a healing remedy.

The prayer-connection must heal. It must change the human being from within.

So if the Prophet prepared “soup” with these necessary ingredients, not everyone is forced to eat that exact soup unless The-God Himself made that exact form binding. Someone else, within their own tradition and law, may prepare another food with the same essential ingredients.

That means a Jew, a Christian, an upright God-oriented believer, or a Sabian-like believer, if they worship upon the axis of The-God, purity, standing, bowing, prostration, remembrance, supplication, recitation, and mindfulness of The-God, it cannot be said that the essence of the prayer-connection is completely absent from them.

Our mistake is that we have imagined the Qur’anic prayer-connection to belong only to “Muslims” in the later sectarian and identity-based sense.

But the Qur’an speaks of the prayer-connection before Prophet Muhammad as well. Abraham had the prayer-connection. Ishmael had the prayer-connection. Jesus had the prayer-connection. The Children of Israel were commanded to the prayer-connection and the purifying contribution.

So the prayer-connection is a broader Abrahamic and divine reality, not the private property of one historical sect.

Even the first community of the Prophet is described in the Qur’an more often as believers, not as “Muslims” in today’s later religious-identity sense. A believer is someone who believes in The-God, the Hereafter, revelation, righteous action, and moral responsibility.

In that horizon, the Prophet’s community was a front of faith, not a closed sectarian religion like the later structures that developed over time.

Therefore, the final answer is this:

The Qur’an did not leave the prayer-connection vague. The Qur’an gave its main foundations. But the Qur’an did not turn the prayer-connection into a dry, sectarian, numerical, and inflexible mold.

The Prophet established the best and most complete example of the prayer-connection within his community. But we have no right to make every detail that the Qur’an did not make binding into an obligation upon all human beings in the name of The-God.

The-God gave the necessary ingredients.

The Prophet prepared the best food with those ingredients.

But the final criterion is that the food must be pure, life-giving, and healing.

Likewise, the prayer-connection must restrain the human being from indecency and wrongdoing, and must draw the person toward mindfulness, humble presence, remembrance of The-God, and reform of life.

If the prayer-connection does not have this effect, then even if its form is complete, its spirit is deficient.

And if the prayer-connection, with the same Qur’anic foundations, brings a person toward remembrance of The-God, purity, humble presence, and mindfulness, then it cannot be declared invalid merely because it differs in sectarian details.