Guide

How to Pray Salah — The Five Daily Prayers Explained

Salah — the five daily prayers — is the second pillar of Islam and the most frequently repeated act of worship. Once you understand the structure of a single rak'ah (unit), every prayer is just that structure repeated a set number of times.

The five daily prayers

Prayer Roughly when
Fajr Dawn, before sunrise
Dhuhr Just after midday
Asr Mid to late afternoon
Maghrib Just after sunset
Isha Night, after twilight fades

Exact times shift daily with the sun and vary by location — most people use a prayer times app or a local mosque's schedule rather than calculating it manually.

Before you start

You need wudu (see our wudu guide), clean clothing, a clean place to pray, and to face the qibla (the direction of the Kaaba in Makkah) — most prayer apps and mosques can tell you this direction for your location.

The structure of one rak'ah

  1. Takbir — raise your hands and say "Allahu Akbar" to begin.
  2. Qiyam (standing) — recite Surah al-Fatiha, then (in most rak'ahs) a portion of another surah.
  3. Ruku (bowing) — bow with hands on knees, back flat, saying "Subhana Rabbiyal Adheem" three times.
  4. Rising from ruku — stand back up, saying "Sami Allahu liman hamidah" then "Rabbana wa lakal hamd."
  5. Sujood (prostration) — forehead, nose, palms, knees, and toes touching the ground, saying "Subhana Rabbiyal A'la" three times.
  6. Sitting briefly, then a second sujood, same as the first.

That full sequence is one rak'ah. Each prayer is made up of a set number of rak'ahs:

Putting it together

After every two rak'ahs (or at the end of a 3 or 4 rak'ah prayer), you sit for the tashahhud — a short recitation while sitting, said quietly. At the very end of the prayer, you turn your head to the right, then the left, saying "Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah" each time — this is the tasleem, and it closes the prayer.

A simple way to start learning

If this feels like a lot at once, focus first on memorizing Surah al-Fatiha (required in every rak'ah of every prayer) and the short phrases used in ruku and sujood. Praying alongside someone experienced, or following a local mosque's congregational prayer, is genuinely one of the fastest ways to pick up the rhythm — the movements become natural much faster through practice than through reading alone.

Common questions

What if I forget a step partway through? There's a correction for this called sujood as-sahw (prostration of forgetfulness), performed at the end of the prayer — it's a normal, built-in allowance for mistakes, not something to worry over.

Can I pray in any language? The Fatiha and Qur'anic recitation must be in Arabic for the prayer to be valid, though supplications outside the fixed structure can be made in any language you understand.

Do I need to pray exactly on time? Praying within each prayer's time window is what matters — there's flexibility within the window (for example, Dhuhr's window extends until Asr begins), though praying earlier in the window is generally preferred.

Related guides: How to Make Wudu · How to Pray Tahajjud · How to Make Dua

More guides

See all guides to halal & Islamic practice, or browse mosques in Birmingham.