page_title: Salah
section_title: Kneeling/sitting
hierarchical_section_title: Salah / Gestures and postures / Kneeling/sitting
caption_attribution_description: English: Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani in the Syrian Desert during a local pro-government offensive.
context_page_description: Salah or Salat among most non-Arab Muslims, is the second of the five pillars in the Islamic faith as daily obligatory standardized prayers. It is a physical, mental, and spiritual act of worship that is observed five times every day at prescribed times. While facing towards the Kaaba in Mecca, Muslims pray first standing and later kneeling or sitting on the ground, reciting from the Qur'an and glorifying and praising Allah as they bow and prostrate themselves in between. Ritual purity is a precondition.
  Salah is composed of repetitive cycles of bows and prostrations, divided into prescribed units called a rakʿah. The number of rakaʿahs varies according to the time of day.
context_section_description: The worshipper kneels or sits on the ground with legs folded under the body (the precise posture differs between schools), and recites a prayer called the tashahhud. 
  The tashahhud consists of the testimony of faith (the shahadah) and invoking peace and blessings on Muhammad (salawat). Many schools hold that the right index finger is raised for these prayers. After the tashahhud prayer, 
  If there are further units to follow, a new unit is begun by returning to the standing position, uttering the Allahu akbar as before.
  If it is the last unit, the worshipper adds a short supplication called the Ibrahimiyya, which emphasies the relationship between Muhammad and Abraham (Ibrahim), then the salah is then brought to an end as below.
caption: Iranian major general Qasem Soleimani praying in the Syrian desert
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