with the Divine Spirit and purification of all evil inclinations. Thus in the Holy Qur’ān, the observance of the form of the prayer is spoken of as being meant to free a man from evil: “And keep up prayer at the two ends of the day and in the first hours of the night. Surely good deeds take away evil deeds. This is a reminder for the mindful” (11:114). And only they are said to attain self-development or success, who are true to the spirit of the prayer: “Successful indeed are the believers, who are humble in their prayers” (23:1, 2). And the mere form without the spirit is condemned in one of the earliest revelations: “So woe to the praying ones, who are unmindful of (the spirit of) their prayer” (107:4, 5). It is a mistake to think that Islām only requires the form to be observed; it no doubt enjoins a form, but only a form with a spirit in it.

Parts of Divine service

The Divine service, as already shown, is held five times a day, and each service has two parts, the congregational, which is called fardz (obligatory), and individual, which is called sunnah (the Holy Prophet’s practice). Each is made up of a number of rak‘ahs32 varying from two to four. Technically rak‘ah means one complete act of devotion which includes standing, bowing down, prostration and sitting reverentially, and is thus a kind of a unit in the Divine service. The order in which these different postures are adopted is a natural order. The worshipper first stands reverentially, and offers certain prayers; then he bows down and glorifies God; then he stands up again praising God; then falls prostrate placing his forehead on the ground glorifying God; then he sits down in a reverential position and makes a petition; then again falls down in prostration. Each change of posture33 is performed with the utterance of the words Allāhu Akbar meaning “Allāh is the Greatest”. This is called takbīr which means magnifying or extolling the greatness (of God).

The obligatory part of the prayer (fardz), which, in a congregation, is performed after the Imām, contains the following number of rak‘ahs: