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How to Pray
Before you learn to pray, it is important to know ‘when’ to pray. We have 5 prescribed times of prayer each day, and we must try to complete each prayer, before the adhan (call to prayer) for the next upcoming prayer time.
Find Your Local Prayer Times
You can find your local prayer times HERE . Simply search your city’s name to get the timings for your locality. The time provided for sunrise is not a prayer time, it is listed because you need to complete the morning prayer (fajr) before this time.
Qibla Locator – Find the Direction of Prayer
When you pray, you must also know which direction to pray facing, called the ‘qibla’. You can find the direction of prayer for your specific locality HERE .
After making wudu (the purifications for prayer) you are ready to pray. If you do not know how to do wudu, click HERE to learn about it.
How to pray
Prayer is our primary way to worship our creator, so after accepting Islam, the most important thing that should take your focus is learning how to pray, since it is obligatory for all Muslims to pray five times every day.
Be patient, as it will take you time to learn all the prayers. Don’t allow yourself to feel overwhelmed, it is a learning process. It is perfectly normal for it to take time to learn the prayers. We recommend that you practice the prayers at non-prayer times to speed up the learning process, instead of only at the prayer times.
There is a beginner’s method of prayer that you can do to help you familiarize yourself with the prayer positions before learning everything that is to be said. It will suffice until you get this part of the prayer down. Once you feel comfortable with the positions, you can move on to learning the words of the prayers.
These two lessons (1 & 2) below will help you to learn this beginner form of the prayer.
Once you feel comfortable with that prayer methods, you need to then learn the original form of prayer.
The next two lessons (3 & 4) will teach you the full prayers.
If you need visual aids, you can watch a video for each of the prayers listed below:
Fajr Prayer
Dhur Prayer
Asr Prayer
Maghrib Prayer
Isha Prayer
It is easier to learn prayer with someone there to show you, so if you have a friend, or know someone that is a Muslim, ask them to help you. Also, it would be helpful to write the transliteration of the Arabic texts that are said in prayer on a piece of paper, then to read from it during prayer, until you have it memorized.
This video helps with the transliteration having audio of what is said provided, to learn the words easily
Regarding prayers for women…
If you are female, you do not pray or fast during the times you are menstruating. Once you finish your menstrual cycle each month, you will redo the ritual spiritual shower (called ghusl) before you return back to doing your prayers, and/or after having intercourse with your spouse. Any obligatory fasts you miss due to menstruation should be made up later, but the prayers do not need to be made up.
