Documents of the Right Word

Allâhu ta’âlâ at evening and morning times. The hamds performed
by heavenly and earthly beings and done in the afternoons and at
noon times are for Allâhu ta’âlâ.” The ‘tesbîh’ to be done ‘at
evening time’ represents the prayers of namâz to be performed in
the evening and at night. The tesbîh to be done in the morning
stands for the namâz to be performed in the morning. The ‘hamds
done in the afternoons and at noon times’ symbolize early and late
afternoon prayers of namâz. The âyat-i-kerîmas command to
perform namâz five times daily.” Those who deny the five daily
prayers of namâz become startled when they hear this âyat-ikerîma.
They say that this âyat-i-kerîma does not contain the word
‘Salât’. When they are quoted the âyat-i-kerîma commanding to
‘make salât’ and told that there are more than sixty-five such âyats,
they make a U-turn and say that “Salât means prayer. We obey
these âyats and pray in seclusion. Namâz is not an Islamic
commandment.”
The two hundred and thirty-ninth (239th) âyat of Baqâra sûra
purports, “Protect the salâts and the salât of wustâ! [That is,
perform namâz continuously]. Obey Allah and make salât!”
‘Protect the salât’ means ‘Perform the five daily prayers of namâz
at their proper times and observing their conditions.’ It is stated in
a hadîth-i-sherîf, which is written in the book Musnad by Imâm-i-
Ahmad and in Imâm-i-Munâwî’s book Kunûz-ud-deqâiq: “The
salât of wustâ is the late afternoon namâz.” Hadrat Alî ‘kerrem-
Allâhu wejheh’ narrated: Our Prophet stated in the combat of
Hendek (Trench), “The enemy did not let us perform the wustâ
[late afternoon namâz]. May Allâhu ta’âlâ fill their abdomens and
graves with fire!” Salât means both prayer and namâz. Hence the
word ‘salât’ used in this âyat-i-kerîma means the ‘namâz’ which we
know. The âyat-i-kerîma says to perform the prayers of namâz and
the late afternoon prayer. According to the Arabic grammar, the
word ‘salâts’ means ‘three salâts in the least’. Since the late
afternoon salât is called (Wustâ), which means ‘the namâz in the
center’, the number of salâts meant here cannot be only three.
There have to be at least four salâts in addition to the late
afternoon so that the late afternoon salât be exactly in the center,
that is, between the second and the fourth salâts. Kemâleddîn-i-
Shirwânî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ aleyh’ quotes the fifty-ninth âyat-ikerîma
of Nûr sûra in his book Miftâh-us-sa’âda to prove that the
number of salâts to be performed daily is five. The names of
morning and night prayers of namâz are written clearly, i.e. as
‘Salât-i-fejr’ and ‘Salât-i-ishâ’, in the fifty-ninth âyat of Nûr sûra.
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