Book of Prayer
Introduction
In Arabic, the word ṣalāh originally means “supplication.” Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ states that this is the opinion of most linguists and jurists, and calling supplication “ṣalāh” is well attested in Arab speech. The link between the two is partial: supplication is one element of the ritual prayer, for the prayer contains it.

In the Sharīʿah, prayer is defined as “words and movements that open with the takbīr and close with the salām, performed with intention.” The five daily prayers are one of the five pillars of Islam—indeed the greatest after the two testimonies of faith. Their obligation is established by the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and consensus; whoever denies this obligation has disbelieved.

The benefits for which prayer was legislated, whether religious, worldly, medical, social, political, or organizational, are beyond enumeration. Were the author to attempt to list them, the discourse would become protracted. Allah—the wisest of judges—imposed it, and by its proper observance the wellbeing of this world and the next is maintained.

Prayer possesses obligatory elements, conditions, and perfections, just as it has nullifiers and detriments. One of its conditions, purification, has already been discussed; the remaining rulings will appear, Allah willing, in the forthcoming ḥadīths.

Chapter: The Appointed Times
“Mawāqīt” is the plural of mīqāt; here it refers to the prescribed intervals that delimit the performance of the obligatory prayers and other prayers. The entry of the due time for an obligatory prayer is the second of the conditions of prayer.

Hadith 1
Abū ʿAmr al-Shaybānī—whose name is Saʿd ibn Iyas—said: “The owner of this house”—and he pointed with his hand to the house of ʿAbd Allah ibn Masʿūd—“told me: I asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ which