Prayer

"The person who prays is knocking at the heavenly gate, and verily it shall be opened unto him who knocks.."
--Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him)--

One of the Main pillars in Islam is Prayer; it is performed five times a day, every day by more than 2 billion Muslims around the world. The Muslim Prayer, known as Salat, literally means "to call" and is one of the most prominent aspects of Islam. During the Salat, the seeker’s recitation, bodily postures and heart are all remembering God in unity.  

Before one performs the Salat, he/she must first take the Ablution or Vozou. The purpose of Vozou is to cleanse and purify physically as well as mentally from all worldly attachments and thoughts. The place of Salat must also be clean. To begin Salat, one must face Qiblah (the direction toward Mecca) physically as well as the Qiblah within one's heart.  

Salat is not just a ritualistic practice – it requires full presence of heart. As salat is performed, the heart, recitations and body postures are saying and emulating the central and holy phrase “La Ilaha Illa Allah” (there is no god but God).  

The five daily prayers must be done at their designated times.  The importance of this is described by Hazrat Shah Maghsoud Sadegh Angha as follows:

"The sunset prayer is the sowing of a seed, the night prayer is the growing of its roots in darkness and concealment, the morning prayer is the emergence of the first bud from the ground, the noon prayer is the growth of its branches and leaves, the afternoon prayer yields the fruit of the tree of devotion..."