The prerequisites of Salat
Prerequisites of Salah
If one does not have wudu, then wudu should be made. If there is a need to have a bath,
then a bath should be taken. If there is any impurity on the body or clothes, it should be purified.
The place where salat is being offered should also be pure.
Apart from the face, hands and feet, the entire body from head to toe should be well covered (This ruling is only for women. Men have to cover the area between their navels till the knees. This is fard. If the rest of the body is left bare, the salat will be valid, but it is makruh to do so unnecessarily.).
One should face the qiblah. An intention should be made for the salat which one wishes to offer. The salat should be offered after the entry of that salat time.
All these are prerequisites or conditions for salat. If any one of these prerequisites are not found, salat will not be valid. We'll discuss the Fard and Wajibs of salat in a separate article.
Purity
If there is any impurity on the body or clothing but water cannot be found anywhere, then the salat should be offered with the impurity. (The person will first have to search for water within the prescribed distance (1.6 kilometres). )
If there is such an impurity on the person offering salat which is still in its actual place of formation and whose traces have not come outside as yet, then there is no harm in this.
The place on which salat is being offered has to be pure of all impurities (such as urine, stool, semen, etc.). However, if the impurity is of an excusable amount, there is no harm in this. The "place on which salat is being offered" refers to that place where the feet are placed and also those places which touch the ground when in sajdah, i.e. wherever the knees, hands, forehead and nose are placed.
If the place of only one foot is pure and the person lifts his other foot, this will be sufficient.
If a person is offering salat on a piece of cloth, even then the same extent as mentioned above will have to be pure. It is not necessary for the entire piece of cloth to be pure. This is irrespective of whether the cloth is big or small.
If a cloth is spread out over an impure place and salat is offered on it, then it is also a prerequisite that the cloth must not be so thin that whatever is under it can be clearly seen.
If the clothing of a person offering salat touches any impure place which is dry, there is no harm in this.
A person is travelling and has so little water that if he had to wash off the impurity he will not have sufficient water for wudu. And if he had to make wudu first, he will not have sufficient water to wash off the impurity. Such a person should utilise the water to wash off the impurity and make tayammum for his wudu.
Time and intention
A person offered zuhr salat. On completing his salat, he realized that the zuhr time had already expired and asr time had already entered. He will not have to make qada of that salat. The salat which he had offered will come under the rule of qada and it will be considered to be a qada salat.
But if he offered a salat even before the entry of its time, it will not be valid. salat offered before the entry of its time is not considered under any circumstance - whether it was offered intentionally or unintentionally.
It is not necessary to make a verbal intention. If a person thinks in his heart that I am reading the fard of zuhr for today, or if it is a sunnah, then I am reading the sunnah of zuhr; then this will be sufficient. All those lengthy intentions which are popular among the people are not necessary at all.
If one wants to make a verbal intention, it is sufficient to say thus: I am making intention for todays fard of zuhr, or, I am making intention for the sunnah of zuhr.
To say: I am reading four rakaats for zuhr salat, facing the qiblah, etc. is not necessary. If one wishes, he could say so, if not, then he does not have to.
In his heart a person has the intention of zuhr salat, but when he utters his intention, he mistakenly says asr salat. Even then his salat will be valid.
If he mistakenly says six rakaats or three rakaats instead of four rakaats, his salat will still be valid.
For sunnah, nafl and taraweeh salats; it will be sufficient to merely say: I am offering salat. It will be proper even if he does not mention whether it is a sunnah or nafl salat. However, caution demands that he makes a specific intention for the sunnah of taraweeh salat.
It is a prerequisite for the muqtadi to make the intention of following the imam.
The muqtadi does not have to specify the imam by name, it is sufficient for him to say that I am offering salat behind this imam. If he specifies the imam by name, and later learns that he was someone else then his salat will not be valid.
As for the imam, he has to make intention for his own salat only and does not have to make an intention for imaamat.
But if a woman wishes to follow him in salat, and she is standing in line with the men, and the salat is not a janaazah, jumu'ah, or eid salat, then in order for her iqtidaa to be correct, he will have to make the intention of imaamat for her. But if she is not standing in line with the men, or the salat is a janaazah, jumu'ah, or eid salat; then this will not be a prerequisite.
According to some ulama, the correct procedure is that apart from fard and wajib salats, it is sufficient to make a general intention for all the other salats. It is not necessary to specify that it is a sunnah or mustahab salat. Nor is it necessary to specify that the sunnah is for fajr time or zuhr time, or that this sunnah is tahajjud, taraweeh, kusuf or khusuf. However, the preferred opinion is that one should make a specific intention.
Intention for janaazah prayer
The following intention should be made for the janaazah salat: I am offering this salat for the pleasure of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) and as a dua for this deceased person. But if the person does not know whether the deceased is a male or female, it will be sufficient for him to say: For whomever my imam is offering this salat, I am also offering
Intention for Missed prayers or Qada
If a person has missed several salats and decides to make qada of them, he should specify the time of the salat when making his intention.
That is, he should make intention in this way: I am offering the fard of fajr salat. If it is the qada of zuhr, then he should say: I am offering the fard of zuhr salat. In the same way, he should make the intention of whichever salat he wishes to make qada of. If in his intention he merely said: I am offering qada salat, and did not specify which salat it is, then this qada will not be valid. It will have to be repeated.
If salat of several days has been missed, one should also specify the day and date when making the intention. For example, a person missed the salats of Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. When making his intention it will not be proper for him to merely say that he is making qada of fajr salat. Instead he will have to make intention in the following way: I am making qada for the fajr salat of Saturday. When zuhr time comes, he must say: I am making qada for the zuhr salat of Saturday. In this way he should continue making intention. Once he completes making the qada of all the salats of Saturday, he should say: I am making the qada for the fajr salat of Sunday.
In this way he should offer all his qada salats. If he is making qada for several months or years, he should also specify the month and year and say: I am offering the qada of fajr salat of a particular day in a particular month and in a particular year. Without saying it in this way, the intention will not be correct.
If a person does not remember the date, month or year, he should make his intention as follows:
Of all the fajr salats that I have to make qada of, I am making qada of the first one that I had missed, or, of all the zuhr salats that I have to make qada of, I am making qada of the first one that I had missed.
He should make his intention in this way and continue offering his qada salat. Once the heart is satisfied that qada of all the missed salats has been made, he can stop offering qada salat
For Women
It is not permissible to offer salat with a very thin, flimsy or lacy scarf. (This will apply when it is such that the body can be seen. If a woman covers the necessary parts of her body with thick clothing and then wears a thin scarf (over a thicker scarfe), salat will be valid.)
If a quarter of a woman's calf, thigh or arm gets exposed while offering salat and it remains exposed to the extent that she can read Sub'haanallah three times; then her salat will break and she will have to repeat it. But if she covers that part the moment it is exposed, her salat will still be valid. (This is when the part gets exposed when she is already in salat and remains exposed for the specified amount of time. However, if these parts were exposed even before commencing with her salat, she will have to cover them before commencing with her salat. She cannot even commence with her salat if they are exposed.)
In the same way, if a quarter of any part that is supposed to be covered when offering salat gets exposed, then the salat will not be valid. For example, if a quarter of the ear, head, hair, stomach, back, neck, bosom, chest, etc. gets exposed; then the salat will not be valid
If the scarf of a girl who has not reached the age of puberty as yet slips off while offering salat and her head gets exposed, her salat will still be valid.
