The Importance of Salah (Prayer) in Islam

A look at importance of salah in Islamic teaching, drawn from the Quran and authentic hadith.

Among the five pillars of Islam, salah occupies a distinct place: it was the one act of worship prescribed directly to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in the heavens, during the night journey known as al-Isra wal-Mi’raj, rather than revealed to him on earth as the other pillars were.

Importance of Salah: Prescribed During the Night Journey

Hadith describe the prayers as originally set at fifty per day, reduced through a series of exchanges between the Prophet ﷺ and Allah – at the repeated urging of Musa (AS), who warned him that his community would not manage fifty – down to the five daily prayers observed today, with the reward of fifty preserved despite the reduced number, according to the account recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. Scholars have long noted the significance of prayer being the only pillar established this way, distinct in origin from zakat, fasting, and Hajj.

The Line Between Belief and Disbelief

A hadith recorded in Sahih Muslim states plainly that between a person and shirk and disbelief is the abandonment of prayer – language scholars have debated at length regarding its precise legal implications, but which is consistently cited as evidence of how seriously the neglect of salah is treated in Islamic teaching, distinct from the neglect of other obligatory acts.

What Prayer Removes

The Prophet ﷺ is reported in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim to have asked his companions whether, if a river flowed outside a person’s door and they bathed in it five times daily, any dirt would remain on them. Told no dirt would remain, he explained that the five daily prayers work the same way, wiping out the sins committed between them. This image, drawn from something as ordinary as washing, is used repeatedly in classical teaching to explain why prayer is described as a continual, renewing purification rather than a single act performed and then set aside.

A Restraint Against Wrongdoing

Surah al-Ankabut describes prayer as restraining a person from immorality and wrongdoing (29:45) – a claim scholars connect to the discipline prayer imposes on daily life: fixed times, ritual purity beforehand, and a posture of humility repeated throughout the day, which classical commentary treats as gradually shaping a person’s character even outside the prayer itself, provided it is performed with genuine presence of heart rather than as an empty routine.

The First Thing Judged

A hadith recorded by al-Tirmidhi and an-Nasa’i states that the first matter a servant will be brought to account for on the Day of Judgment is their prayer – if it was sound, the rest of their deeds will be sound, and if it was deficient, the rest of their deeds will be deficient. Scholars point to this hadith as summarizing why prayer holds the position it does among the pillars: not merely one obligation among five, but the one treated as the first indicator of a person’s overall standing before Allah.

Prayer as the Coolness of the Eyes

A hadith recorded by an-Nasa’i and Imam Ahmad has the Prophet ﷺ describing prayer as the coolness of his eyes – a phrase in Arabic idiom denoting deep comfort and contentment rather than distress – language scholars contrast with how many people today experience prayer as a burdensome obligation to be completed rather than a source of genuine relief. Classical commentary points to a related account in which the Prophet ﷺ would tell Bilal ibn Rabah (RA), his companion responsible for the call to prayer, “Give us rest, O Bilal,” using prayer as respite from the pressures of the day rather than an additional pressure layered on top of them. Scholars read this framing as central to correcting a common modern misunderstanding of salah’s place in a believer’s life: rather than one demand competing against work, family, and rest for limited time and attention, it was presented in the Prophet’s ﷺ own described experience of it as the activity that made the rest of those demands easier to bear, precisely because it was treated as a direct conversation with Allah rather than a ritual performed at Him.

Taken together, these points are why importance of Salah continues to shape how practicing Muslims think and act today.

For a closely related topic, see our discussion of The Etiquette and Virtues of Wudu (Ablution). The verses and hadith cited above can be cross-referenced in full at Quran.com.