Prerequisites of Salah (Shart)

Islam, which sees cleanliness as half of faith, (Jami’ at-Tirmidhi, Da’awat, 86) wants people to be physically and spiritually pure while performing certain servitude duties towards Allah (swt).  The first two of the prerequisites of salah are to cleansing oneself from invisible spiritual impurity (taharat al-hadath) and to be purified from all kinds of physical impurity (taharat al-najasat). The hadith“The key to prayer is purification”  (Sunan Abu Dawud, Taharah, 31) succinctly expresses these prerequisites. Covering of the necessary parts of one’s body (satr al-awrah), facing the Qiblah (istiqbal al-qiblah), time (waqt) and intention (niyyah) are other prerequisites of salah.