The Benefits of Salat (Prayer)

Prayers that we perform have many benefits to our body, soul, and social life. Following are some of the benefits that praying brings us:

Prayer ensures that we remember God in the best way

Our almighty Lord has let us know that “Only in the remembrance of God do hearts find peace.” That is because remembering our Lord that we love the most and mentioning His name stills our troubled souls, expands our chests, and relaxes our hearts. The best way to remember God is to perform a ritual prayer. Each prayer that we perform reminds us our Lord. Thus, praying is a valuable gift that God had offered us. Our beloved Prophet knew the value of this gift and seized every opportunity to pray. He expressed the happiness and peace that he experienced in praying, saying: “My happiness is in the prayers.”

Praying reminds us of the Day of Judgment and the hereafter

There are many things in the world that make us forgetful of the hereafter. People who forget the hereafter, who do not think that they will render an account of their actions would do anything for their own benefits. For this reason, there should be a warner for people that reminds them of the hereafter. Prayers that are performed consciously and carefully remind us of God, the hereafter, and the Day of Judgment five times a day. As we remember the hereafter and the Day of Judgment, we stay away from evil. We would not harm anyone or their property, and would not be unfair to anyone.

Prayer purifies us from sins

Prayer time is the time of meeting with our Creator. As we pray, we know that we are in front of our Almighty Creator. If we contemplated committing a sin, we would change our mind by thinking of praying and being in front of God. By this, we would purify our hearts from evil feelings and thoughts and other parts of our body such as our hands and tongues from wrongdoings.

Praying improves our characters

Praying is a good chance for us to realize our wrongdoings and sins and ask for God’s forgiveness by repenting from them. By means of praying, we ask our Creator’s pardon and forgiveness. We stand in front of God five times a day, mindful that He knows of everything that we have done, and we pay more attention to our acts. As such, we become well-behaved human beings.

Prayer makes our day more fruitful and blessed

When we regularly perform our prayers, we schedule our day according to the prayer times. We even wake up before sunrise and start our day earlier. When most (non-praying) people are still asleep, we would be done with some of our tasks. By this, we take advantage of our Prophet’s prayer: “My Lord! Let the early hours of my Community be fruitful.” With the noon and late afternoon prayers that are performed at the busiest hours of the day, we remember God and relax our souls. We take a break with prayer, mentally relax and regain energy for our work. With the Sunset and Night Prayers, we reflect on the day and go to bed with the peace of performing our responsibilities.

Prayer gives us the habit of being clean

When we make ablution in order to perform a prayer, we clean parts of o u r body that get dirty the most in our daily life. We pay attention to our body, our clothes, and the place we perform the prayer to make sure they are clean. By making ablution a few times daily, we clean our hands, face, and feet. We gain the habit of remaining clean.

Once our Prophet asked his Companions:

- What do you say? If there is a river in front of the house of one you and if that person takes a bath in that river five times a day, would there be any filth left on him?

The Companions said:

- There would not be any filth left on him. Our Prophet said:

- “Praying five times a day is just like that. Allah forgives our sins through our five daily ritual prayers.”

(Bukhari, Mawaqit 6;)

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