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Everything you need to pray correctly: the conditions, ablution, prayer times, the prayer step by step, and the cases of the traveller and Friday. Each page presents the ruling, the evidence and the useful differences among the 4 schools.
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Updated on 06 October 2026 at 10:50 PM
Before raising your hands to say "Allahu akbar", a few conditions must be met. The most fundamental comes in this hadith:
Allah does not accept a prayer without purification.Muslim 224
The scholars of all the schools agree: it is forbidden to pray without purification, whether from water or from earth. The rule applies to the obligatory prayer as well as the voluntary prayer, the prostration of recitation, the prostration of gratitude and the funeral prayer. A few early scholars, such as Ash-Sha'bi and At-Tabari, allowed the funeral prayer without purification, but the scholars rejected that view.
Prayer is only required from a person who carries religious responsibility. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said:
The pen is lifted from 3 people: the sleeper until he wakes up, the child until he reaches puberty, and the insane person until he recovers his mind.Abu Dawud 4398, Ibn Majah 2041
The insane person and the one who loses consciousness therefore owe no prayer during that state. According to the Shafi'is, when consciousness returns and enough time remains for a single takbir, the prayer of that time becomes obligatory; otherwise making it up afterwards is merely recommended. As for the apostate, the majority view (Hanafis, Malikis, Hanbalis) is that prayer is not demanded of him during his apostasy and he owes no makeup if he returns to Islam.
The niyya is the resolve to perform an act of worship for Allah alone. It is a pillar of the prayer by consensus, because the prayer is not valid without it:
Actions are only by intentions.al-Bukhari 1, Muslim 155
The Shafi'is specify that the intention must accompany the opening takbir, neither before it nor after.
The believer prays toward the Kaaba. Al-Bara' ibn 'Azib reports that the Prophet prayed 16 or 17 months toward Jerusalem after arriving in Medina, then the direction was turned toward Mecca; believers who were already praying turned around on the spot (al-Bukhari 4216).
Before each prayer, check 3 things: am I purified, am I within the time of this prayer, and do my body and clothes cover what must be covered. These checks take seconds and protect the validity of the whole prayer.