The Importance of Salah (Prayer) in Islam

Abdullah ibn Umar (RA) reports a figure the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ gave for prayer performed with others rather than alone: twenty-seven degrees higher in reward, a multiplier recorded in both Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. It is a striking number for an act that, on the surface, looks identical whether performed by one person or fifty – the same movements, the same recitation – and it is part of why salah, among the five pillars, is treated as an act whose communal form was never meant to be optional in practice, even though it remains valid alone.

Salah occupies a distinct place among the pillars for another reason too: it was the one act of worship prescribed directly to the Prophet 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.

Fifty Prayers, Negotiated Down to Five

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 established this way, distinct in origin from zakat, fasting, and Hajj.

Where Neglect Crosses a Line

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

Five Washings a Day, and No Dirt Left

The Prophet ﷺ once asked his companions, according to a hadith recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, whether any dirt would remain on a person who bathed five times daily in a river flowing outside their door. Told no dirt would remain, he explained that the five daily prayers work the same way, wiping out the sins committed between them. Classical teaching returns to this image repeatedly to explain why prayer functions as a continual, renewing purification rather than a single act performed and set aside.

A Discipline That Restrains, Not Just a Ritual

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

The First Deed Weighed

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

“Give Us Rest, O Bilal”

A hadith recorded by an-Nasa’i and Imam Ahmad has the Prophet ﷺ describing prayer as the coolness of his eyes – an Arabic idiom for deep comfort rather than distress. Classical commentary pairs this with 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,” treating prayer as respite from the pressures of the day rather than an additional pressure layered on top of them. Twenty-seven degrees of extra reward for praying with others, set against fifty prayers negotiated down to five, are two very different kinds of evidence pointing at the same conclusion – that salah was built to be lived with rather than merely completed.

For a closely related topic, see our discussion of The Etiquette and Virtues of Wudu (Ablution).