Discovering Sacred Texts

www.bl.uk/sacred-texts

Teachers’ Notes

Curriculum subject: Religious Education

Key Stage: 4

Theme: Prayer

Rationale

These activities enable students to discover what Islamic prayer looks like, including reference to the
recitations and actions a Muslim takes when praying. Students should be able to explain how
Muslims prepare for prayer and why this might be important. Students will also explore the
importance of prayer for both Sunni and Shi’a Muslims including reference to Salah as part of the
Five Pillars and Ten Obligatory Acts, and use academic vocabulary to support their answers.

Content

British Library resources from the site:

 Prayer books: from Ghana, Aceh and India.

 Film: Discovering Sacred Texts: Islam

Recommended reading (short articles):

 Prayer in Islam

External links:
Salah BBC

How Muslims pray video

Prayer BBC Bitesize

My life, my religion Islam: Prayer

Key questions
 What is a prayer?
 How do Muslims pray?
 What recitations are used in Islamic daily prayer and why?
 Why might the direction of prayer be important to Muslims today?
 How should Muslims prepare for prayer?
 Why might bowing be important in Islamic prayer?

Keywords

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  Salah: Prayer with and in worship of God, performed under conditions set by the Prophet
Muhammad.
 Qiblah: The direction of prayer for Muslims, facing towards the Ka’bah in Mecca.
 Wudu: The act of washing oneself.
 Mihrab: A niche in a wall that indicates the direction of Mecca.
 Ablution: Ritual washing before prayer
 Salah al-fajr: Dawn, before sunrise
 Salah al-zuhr: Midday, after the sun passes its highest
 Salah al-'asr: The late part of the afternoon
 Salah al-maghrib: Just after sunset
 Salah al-'isha: Between sunset and midnight

Activities

Slide 3) Introducing the set prayers: With the person next to them, students should discuss their
daily routine, e.g. what time they get up?, when do they go to school?, what time do they
eat lunch?, what do they do after school? etc. Use the attached timetable.

Slide 4) After these discussions, the teacher should pose the concept of five prayers a day at set
times. Shi’a Muslims pray three times a day rather than five times like Sunni Muslims, but
they still have five prayers.
Through a teacher led discussion, students should discuss:
a. How might this type of structured prayer change a person’s life?
b. Why do you think Muslims have five prayers a day?
c. What might this show about their commitment to Allah?
d. What do you think happens if a Muslim misses a prayer and why?

Slide 5) Prayer times and names. The five different prayers are called:
Salat al-fajr: dawn, before sunrise
Salat al-zuhr: midday, after the sun passes its highest point
Salat al-'asr: the late part of the afternoon
Salat al-maghrib: just after sunset
Salat al-'isha: between sunset and midnight

The times of these prayers change, depending on the season and the time of sunrise and
sunset. Muslims can keep up-to-date with prayer times with timetables such as these :
Islamic relief prayer timetable.

Activity: As a class look at the prayer times for your area. Add these to your own personal
timetable. Reflect again on how regular prayer would change your life.

Slide 6) This provides an opportunity to talk about the importance of prayer. Why is prayer is
fundamental to Islam?
 Because it’s one of the five pillars.
 In fact, ‘islam’ means submission: structuring life around regular prayer can show
submission to God.
 It’s a way of remembering God constantly throughput the day.
 It shows commitment to God, as well as discipline and humility.
 It can unite the Ummah (the Islamic community), because everyone is performing the
same prayers.

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Slide 7) How do Muslims prepare for prayer?
 They make sure that the place for prayer is clean.
 They put down a prayer mat and remove their shoes.
 They make sure their body is clean and purified by performing wudu (ritual ablutions).
 They make sure their clothes are clean and cover their bodies appropriately.
 They cleanse their mind/thought by making niyyah (intention) and reciting Bismillah.

Slide 8) Activity: Students should watch the Film: Discovering Sacred Texts: Islam.
What prayers did you see taking place in the video? (Clue: taking place in the park.)
Answer: the Salat al-maghrib: just after sunset.

Slide 9) Activity: Compare these three prayer books from Ghana, Aceh and India.
Ask the students if they notice a similarity?
Despite being from different countries, where different languages are spoken, they are all in
Arabic. This is because ritual prayer, and most other worship, is always performed in Arabic
throughout the Muslim world and is nearly identical with only slight variations.
How does this unify the diverse Islamic Ummah?

Slide 10) Activity: Look at the stills from the video of the different movements and positions that
Muslims use during each rak’ah of prayer. Discuss any observations with the class.

Slide 11) Activity: Ask the students to complete the ‘Positions of prayer’ worksheet. U se the images
to fill the gaps (lower ability) or annotate images (higher ability).

Slide 12) Activity: In partners ask the students to complete the ‘Investigating Salah’ worksheet.
Discuss the answers as a class. Use the last question, ‘What would you like to ask a Muslim?’
to engage in a discussion about the students’ findings and the questions they might like to
ask a Muslim.

Slide 13) Key vocabulary: Work through the key terms with the students, checking for their
understanding.

Slide 14) Homework activity: As a homework task students should read through the article
Prayer in Islam and answer the questions on the worksheet provided. (Answers are at the
end of this document).

Extension activities
1) Watch How Muslims pray video and follow the sequence as a class by either re-enacting the
actions.

2) Create a story board showing images and words of the recitations and actions a Muslim takes
during each Rak’ah.

3) Select any of the previous exam questions below.

Previous exam questions

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GCSE
AQA:
 Which one of the following words describes the daily prayers that Muslims perform? Put a
tick in the box next to the correct answer. Jihad, Sawm, Wudu, Salah.
 ‘The Friday prayer (Jummah) is more important than the daily prayers.’ Evaluate this
statement.
 Which one of the following gives the meaning of salah? Put a tick in the box next to the
correct answer: Declaration of faith, Giving money to the poor, Fasting during Ramadan,
Daily prayer.

Edexcel:
 “Salah is the most important of the Five Pillars.” Evaluate this statement considering
arguments for and against.
 Explain why salah is important for Muslims.
 Do you think praying makes someone a better person? Give two reasons for your point of
view.
 ‘Prayer is the only way to become close to Allah’. Discuss.
 Explain the importance of salah for Muslims.
 What is prayer?
 Outline three ways Muslims prepare for prayer.
 What is wudu?
 What is the ummah?
 Explain how belonging to the ummah affects a Muslim’s life.
 Explain why people think the ummah is important.
 “Unanswered prayers show Allah does not exist.” In your answer you should refer to Islam.
Do you agree? Give reasons for your opinion. Give reasons why some people may disagree
with you.
 Explain why unanswered prayers may lead to disbelief for some.

OCR:
 Explain how belief in Allah might affect the way a Muslim lives their life.
 Explain why some Muslims might want to worship in private.
 Private dua prayers are more important than public prayers. Discuss.
 State the name given to: (i) private prayer (ii) public (formal) prayer.
 State the name of the Friday prayers.
 List three ways in which a Muslim might prepare for Salat-ul-Jumu’ah.
 Explain how observing Salat -ul-Jumu’ah might affect a Muslim.
 What do all Muslims face when they perform Saleh?
 Describe one practice that Muslims should perform before Saleh.
 List three things a Muslim must do before they start Saleh prayers.
 List three things that take place during Saleh.
 State three ways in which Muslims use the Sunnah.
 Muslims should always worship in the same way.
 What is Qiblah?

CIE:
 State what is meant by: Adhan, Iqamah, Aqeeqah.
 Describe the purpose of the following features of a mosque: Qiblah.
 Explain how and why Wudu is performed.

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  ‘You can pray without making any extra effort to be clean.’ Discuss this statement. Give your
own opinion and show that you have thought about other points of view. You must refer to
Islam in your answer.
 Describe how Muslims make preparations for Salah (Prayer).
 To what extent is preparing for prayer as important as actually praying? Discuss this
question. Give your opinion and show that you have thought about other points of view. You
must refer to Islam in your answer.

ALEVEL:
OCR:
 Explain the significance of the preparations and movements when Muslims pray in a
Mosque.
 ‘Intention is more important than action for Muslims’. Discuss.

Positions of prayer worksheet

Answers:

The daily prayers are made up of a number of rak’ah. This is a set sequence of actions and
recitations. For example the morning prayer is made up of two rak’ah and the night prayer is made
up of four rak’ah. The rak’ah changes slightly depending on which prayer it is used in and where
about it occurs in the overall sequence but it includes the following basic actions (all recitation is said
in Arabic):

1. To begin prayer, Muslims face towards Mecca and make the intention to pray. They say
'Allahu Akbar' (meaning God is great) and raise their hands.

2. While standing, Muslims recite the first chapter of the Qur’an.

3. While bowing, Muslims say in Arabic ‘Glory be to my Lord who is the very greatest’ three
times.

4. Returning to an upright position they make a recitation praising Allah/God.

5. They then kneel with their forehead, nose, hands, knees and toes touch the floor. This is
called prostration and shows complete obedience to God. They recite ‘How perfect is my
Lord the most high’.

6. Muslims then sit while reciting ‘God is the greatest’ and after pausing for a few seconds
prostrate themselves once more while repeating ‘God is the greatest’.

7. Once the required number of rak’ah is completed, in a kneeling position Muslims turn their
face to the right.

8. They then turn their face to the left, reciting in Arabic ‘Peace be upon you and the mercy
and blessings of God’.

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Homework task

Prayer in Islam comprehension: Answers

1) Why do Muslims pray five times a day?

By performing this ritual prayer five times a day, Muslims remember their Lord,
express their love and respect for Him and invoke and strive to express their
gratitude towards Him. The notion is that this activity brings the individual face to
face with God and since it is both done in congregation and individually it also
emphasises group solidarity as well as being in the presence of God.

2) What is the adhan?

It is a call to prayer that was introduced by the Prophet Muhammad. This call to
prayer was designed to congregate worshippers and remind them that it is time to
pray.

3) How do Muslims prepare for prayer?

In Islam the rules of cleanliness are a matter of sanctity, not just hygiene; for
Muslims to perform ritual prayers it is necessary to wash away impurity through
ablution.

4) When do Muslims pray?

The five ritual prayers are prescribed in the Qur’an, but it is the hadiths that specify
their times. It is interesting to note that the names of the ritual prayers are related to
the times of the day that they are prescribed within, which are: Fajr or Subuh
(dawn), Zuhr (afternoon), ʽAsr (late afternoon), Maghrib (just after sunset) and Isha
(night).

5) What is the Friday prayer?

On Friday the Zuhr salah is known as Jummah, and it is obligatory for men, and
recommended for women, to perform this salah with the congregation at the
mosque. Nevertheless, there are legitimate reasons for why someone may miss
Jummah.

6) What does the Ka’bah have to do with prayer?

When performing the salah all Muslims are obliged to face towards the direction of
the Ka‘bah in Mecca; this is commonly known as the qiblah (also spelt kiblah).

7) What are the units or cycles of prayer called?

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 All of the ritual prayers in Islam consist of units or cycles (rak‘ah).

8) Which chapter of the Qur’an is always recited in prayer?

This is followed by further words of praise to God, the recitation of al-Fatihah (the
first chapter of the Qur’an).

9) How is the Friday prayer different from normal prayers?

It is performed behind an imam in a congregation; it also includes a sermon
(khutbah).

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