How to Muslim
Five times a day you stop what you are doing and stand in front of God. Every prayer is the same handful of positions and words repeated, so once you have learned one you have essentially learned them all. Salah, the second pillar of Islam, is prayed five times a day — see how it fits with the other pillars, and shares the same worship rhythm as Zakat and fasting.
Indeed, I am Allah. There is no deity except Me, so worship Me and establish prayer for My remembrance.
Each prayer has a window, and praying before it opens does not count. A prayer times app set to your city will tell you when each one begins and ends. The windows are in tab 3.
You need to be in a state of wudu before you pray. If yours has broken since you last washed, do it again first.
See our step-by-step Wudu guide →Your body, what you are wearing and the patch of floor you pray on all need to be free of filth. If something has splashed onto your clothes, wash it out or change them.
Men cover at least from the navel to the knees, and put something over the shoulders rather than praying bare-chested. Women cover everything except the face and hands, including the hair. See how to dress modestly for what this looks like outside prayer too.
Face the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca. Any free Qiblah app will point you there, and if you cannot work out the exact line, facing the general direction is enough.
Know in your heart which prayer you are about to pray. That is the whole intention. There is no phrase to recite, and nothing to say out loud.
Stand straight, raise your hands level with your shoulders or earlobes, and say:
Rest your right hand over your left, and look at the spot where you will prostrate. Then say the opening supplication (Du'a al-Istiftah), which comes in the first unit only:
Quietly seek protection from Satan, then say the Bismillah quietly too:
Now recite the opening chapter of the Quran (Al-Fatiha). Every unit of every prayer needs it:
When you finish, say "Ameen". It is not part of the chapter, it is your amen to the dua you just made.
Note: In the first two Rak'ahs of any prayer, recite another short Surah (or a few verses) right after Al-Fatiha (e.g., Surah Al-Ikhlas).
Read & Listen to Short Surahs on Quran.com →Raise your hands again, say "Allahu Akbar", and bow. Palms on your knees with the fingers spread, elbows held out from your sides, back and head in one straight line. Settle there before you say:
Raise your hands and come back up, saying as you rise:
Once you are standing upright again, say:
Praying behind an imam, you say only this second phrase.
Say "Allahu Akbar" and go down, this time without raising your hands. Seven parts touch the floor: forehead and nose, both palms, both knees, and the toes of both feet.
Keep your forearms off the ground and your elbows away from your sides. Settle, then say:
This is the closest you get to God in the prayer, so ask Him for whatever you want here.
Say "Allahu Akbar" and sit up. Sit on your left foot laid flat, right foot upright with the toes pointing forward, hands resting on your thighs. Pause properly here, do not bob back down, and say:
Say "Allahu Akbar" and go back down into a second prostration, exactly like the first. Say 3 times:
That is one full unit (Rak'ah). Say "Allahu Akbar" and stand up for the next one, or stay sitting for Tashahhud if you have just finished the 2nd or the final Rak'ah. The second unit runs exactly like the first, minus the opening supplication.
Sit as you did between the prostrations. Curl your little and ring fingers in, make a circle with your thumb and middle finger, point your index finger forward and look at it as you recite:
If the prayer has more units left, stand back up here (raising your hands) and carry on. In the final Rak'ah, stay seated and add the prayers upon Prophet Muhammad (Salawat):
In a 3 or 4 unit prayer, this last sitting is done differently: slide your left foot under your right leg and sit on the floor rather than on your foot.
Turn your head to the right, far enough that someone behind you could see your cheek, and say:
Then turn to the left and say the same thing again. That is the prayer finished.
From the first light of dawn until the sun rises. Recited out loud.
From just after the sun passes its highest point until an object's shadow equals its own height. Recited quietly.
From the end of Dhuhr until sunset, though you should not leave it until the sun turns yellow. Recited quietly.
From the moment the sun has fully set until the red glow leaves the sky. Pray it early. First 2 Rak'ahs out loud.
From the moment that red glow has gone until halfway between sunset and dawn. That is not the same as midnight on the clock, so check your app. First 2 Rak'ahs out loud.
If a prayer's window closes before you have prayed it, you still pray it, as soon as you can. Do not skip it and move on to the next one.
Keeping a card or your phone in front of you with the words on it while you learn is completely fine. Nobody memorised all of this on day one.
If learning the lot at once feels like too much, start with the positions, Allahu Akbar and Al-Fatiha. Add one phrase at a time after that. Playing an audio guide and following along in real time works well too.
Settling into each position before you move on is not optional politeness, it is part of the prayer. Let your body come to rest in the bow, in the prostration and in the sitting before you say anything.
Forgetting a phrase or losing count of your units does not ruin the prayer. Carry on with the lower number, and add two extra prostrations at the end before the Taslim. It is called the prostration of forgetfulness and it exists precisely because people forget.
The phrases in bowing and prostration are said three times. If you are still finding your footing, once is enough for the prayer to be valid. Once you've learned the movements, add depth to your prayer with the 33 Praises of Allah the Prophet (peace be upon him) himself used to say.
Do not stress over pronunciation while you are learning. You are standing in front of God with a sincere heart, and that is the part that counts. Once salah feels steady, Hajj is the pillar most people learn about next.
New to all of this? Start from the beginning.
Where to take this further.
A curated hub of Sunni videos, books, and dawah resources.
islamic-library.org · FreeResearch-driven answers to the doubts and questions Muslims actually have.
yaqeeninstitute.org · Free