Documents of the Right Word

actually means Namâz, with the word Prayer. It is stated as follows
in the thirty-eighth page of the Turkish book Dürr-i yektâ şerhi:
“Recently some zindiqs have been misleading young people by
disguising themselves as Shaikhs of dervish convents. They put
forward some heretical beliefs in the name of Islam. They assert
that ‘the word (Salât) which is written in âyat-i-kerîmas and
hadîth-i-sherîfs does not mean actions of bowing, prostrating and
getting up as practised by people today. It means Dhikr and
Murâqaba. That is, it means mentioning the name of Allah, sitting,
closing one’s eyes, and meditating on the existence and the
greatness of Allah.’ The fact, however, is not so simple as that;
Dhikr, which means to remember Allâhu ta’âlâ through the heart,
is a very difficult job. Performing namâz facilitates making Dhikr.
Murâqaba means to meditate over the fact that Allâhu ta’âlâ sees
and knows you every moment. And this, in its turn, can be
managed by performing namâz. The zindiq (mentioned above)
puts forward the spiritual maturities that will be attained through
the namâz and then denies the namâz. He who denies the namâz
will be a disbeliever. He who believes in it but neglects it out of
laziness will be a sinner. He is to be imprisoned until he begins to
perform namâz again. Every Muslim should, before anything else,
learn the procedures that are farz, wâjib and mufsid in namâz. If
there are daily prayers of namâz he has omitted, he must perform
them as soon as possible. It is equally sinful to delay such omitted
prayers, which are called qadhâ (qazâ). When a child reaches the
age of seven, it is necessary to teach him how to perform namâz by
having him perform it in your presence. And when he is ten you
should sort of force him – if he is unwilling to perform namâz – to
perform it. This you can do, if necessary, by hitting him gently with
your hand.” Other types of prayers can be done any time. But
there are certain times prescribed for each of the daily prayers of
namâz. This fact is detailed in the Bukhârî hadîth, which is an
account of the night of Mi’râj. There are many hadîth-i-sherîfs
commanding the five daily prayers of namâz. Our beloved Prophet
would perform the five daily prayers of namâz even at the hardest
times of trouble, during combats, for instance, and would
command all those around him to follow his example. He was
extremely ill before his death when he walked with utmost
difficulty to the mosque, appointed hadrat Abû Bekr ‘radiy-
Allâhu ta’âlâ anh’ imâm for his place, and performed namâz
behind hadrat Abû Bekr.
That the meaning of the word Salât is Namâz is explained
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