Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland
Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland
Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland
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220 t CHAPTER NINE<br />
Eucharist (5:117–118) suggests that it was thought of as some<br />
kind of meal sent down from heaven to sustain the believers. <strong>Islam</strong>ic<br />
liturgy lay not in those directions, however; it was more akin<br />
to that of rabbinic Judaism in that it was grounded in prayers. The<br />
pagans at Mecca had prayed, after a fashion, a practice the Quran<br />
characterizes as “whistling <strong>and</strong> clapping of h<strong>and</strong>s” (8:35). Muhammad<br />
substituted, on God’s comm<strong>and</strong>, <strong>for</strong>mal liturgical prayers<br />
(salat). These daily prayers are largely unspecified as to their content,<br />
frequency, <strong>and</strong> times in the Quran, but the details were<br />
quickly supplied from the Prophet’s sunna. Muslim prayers are<br />
made up principally from God’s own words in the Quran. They<br />
are preceded by a ritual ablution <strong>and</strong> accompanied by appropriate<br />
gestures <strong>and</strong> prostrations. Though private prayers (duat; “callings”<br />
on God) are approved <strong>and</strong> encouraged, the <strong>for</strong>mal salat are<br />
the heart of the <strong>Islam</strong>ic liturgy <strong>and</strong> the chief <strong>for</strong>m of divine worship<br />
that lies on the Muslim.<br />
Muslim liturgical prayer is composed of units called “bowings”<br />
(rakas). The first in any series always begins with the phrase “God<br />
is great” (Allahu akbar), recited with the h<strong>and</strong>s placed, palms outward,<br />
at each side of the face. This is followed by the recitation of<br />
“The Opening” (al-Fatiha), the initial sura of the Quran, <strong>and</strong> one<br />
or more other passages from that Book. Next is a bowing from the<br />
hips, after which the worshiper returns to an erect position. The<br />
worshiper then kneels <strong>and</strong> touches <strong>for</strong>ehead to the ground, then<br />
sits back on the haunches. This is followed by a second bowing<br />
like the first. Though the practice is still somewhat fluid in the<br />
Quran, prayer soon became st<strong>and</strong>ardized at five times a day—<br />
<strong>Jews</strong> are required to pray three times a day—when the faithful are<br />
summoned by a “caller” (muadhdhin; English, “muezzin”) at the<br />
appropriate times. These were at daybreak (subh or fajr), noon<br />
(zuhr), midafternoon (asr), after sunset (maghrib), <strong>and</strong> finally, the<br />
early part of the night (isha). At first, the prayers were said facing<br />
Jerusalem, as the <strong>Jews</strong> did—<strong>Christians</strong> faced toward the east—but<br />
later the direction of prayer, the qibla, was changed toward the<br />
Kaaba at Mecca.