All Praise is for Allah Alone and Salutations are for His Mes‐
senger, Muhammad (), his companions and his family and
all those who follow them with Ehsaan.
To proceed:

Salaah (Prayer) as is defined by the Scholars of Islam is an act
of worship consisting of specific sayings accompanying spe‐
cific actions, at specific times. It begins with “Takbeer” and
ends with “Tasleem”.
This sacred and noble act of Salaah maybe divided into sepa‐
rate but interrelated components.
First: The body or the external aspects of the Salaah (Prayer).
This comprises of its mechanical components and includes pu‐
rification, standing, bowing, prostrating, sitting, recitation of
the Quran and all the other apparent aspects. All these aspects
must be performed correctly before anyone’s Salaah can be
said to be Sahih (correct). This aspect is dealt with in all its de‐
tails in the books of Fiqh.
Undoubtedly, those who translate and write about Islam in
English have excellent works that would assist Muslims in
understanding performance of the external aspect of the Sa‐
laah (i.e. the body of the Salaah). However, very little time is
spent on emphasizing the importance of consciousness of Al‐
lah in the Salaah. Consequently, what we find is that most of
the translated and written works deal with the rules governing

the various components of the external aspects of Salaah. Due
to this lack of emphasis on Al‐Khushoo’ by the various au‐
thors its significance has therefore, been also de‐emphasized
by the average worshipper.
The importance of the external aspects of the Prayer cannot be
de‐emphasized and we must warn our brothers and sisters
that if they are negligent in learning the outward manifesta‐
tions of the Salaah that this can lead to destruction. All aspects
of the Prayer must be well understood so that they can pray as
the Messenger of Allah () did.
He () commanded:

“Pray as you see me pray.” [Al‐Bukhari]

This command directly relates to the outward aspects of the
Salaah. Hence all Muslims must make every effort to know
how the Prophet () prayed, so that we can obey this com‐
mand of his.
However, this work is not related to the external aspects, so
much time would not be spent here dealing with the Fiqh
(rules governing the performance) of Salaah.
This short exhortation should suffice to create an interest in
our brothers and sisters so that they would make much more
effort to learn all aspects of Salaah properly.
Second: The spirit or the internal aspects of the Salaah which
comprises of the following:

 A Book discussingthe importance of khushoo in prayer and how to achieve it