Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to today's religious education lesson with me, Mr Green.

Today, we are going to do some top-quality theology.

In particular, we are going to look at the second pillar of Islamic practises, which is Salah.

By the end of today's lesson, you will be a fine theologian.

Now in order to become a fine theologian, you just need to get a few things.

So, can you please make sure you have a pen, a different colour pen, some lined paper, and your theology brains.

Now, if you don't have any of those things, please just pause the video now and go and fetch them.

Thank you.

So, we are learning about Salah.

Let's see how we are going to do that.

So firstly, we are going to define and explain Salah.

Then we're going to explain how Muslims prepare for prayer.

We're going to identify the differences between optional and compulsory prayers and all of that will give us a really good understanding of the second pillar of Islam.

So, before we move on to Salah, let's just recap the first pillar of Islam: the Shahadah.

The Shahadah is the first pillar of Islam.

The Shahadah is the statement of faith.

The Shahadah contains the two key beliefs of Islam.

Can you quickly, just in your mind, tell yourself what they are? Well done, hopefully you said Tawhid and Risalah.

The Shahadah states that: "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the prophet of Allah." That first part of the statement: "There is no God but Allah", that refers to Tawhid - the oneness of God.

And the second part of the statement: "Muhammad is the prophet of Allah", that refers to Risalah - prophethood.

So, what I would like you to do now is just, let's get some basic information down about Salah.

So, by Salah we mean connection or contact, therefore it means praying to and worshipping Allah.

Muslims are obliged to pray to Allah at five set times each day and Salah is the second pillar of Islam.

So, here's a word there you might not be immediately familiar with.

That was the word obliged.

If you are obliged to do something, it means you have to do something.

So essentially, Salah is a requirement for all Muslims to make at least five prayers in a day.

So, can you please pause the video, copy out the definition and then see if you can list advantages of praying five times a day and if you'd like some clues for things to think about, you can see those in the pink box there.

So, let's check your answers and please have a different colour pen ready to add to your work if you need to.

So, hopefully, the first thing you put down was that it helps to put the Shahadah into practise as praying means God is on your mind.

Secondly, it encourages a Muslim to follow all of Allah's rules and teachings as Muslims have to be accountable to Allah throughout the day on five separate occasions.

Imagine if you had to go and see your head teacher five separate times each day.

I'm pretty sure you'd make sure that you follow the rules to the letter throughout the entire day.

Thirdly, it shows that Allah is a Muslim's number one priority as five times a day, activity is stopped to pray to Allah.

No matter what you're doing, you stop it and you pray because praying and worshipping Allah is more important than anything else.

And finally, you'll need to add this bit.

Salah is the name for the five daily obligatory prayers.

Muslims can also make more optional prayers on top of that.

So the five isn't a maximum, the five is a minimum and Muslims are able to make more prayers on top of their five daily prayers if they wish or need to.

So, we're going to look at a quotation from the Qur'an now and this quotation instructs prayer, and also tells Muslims why prayer is important.

So, the words in the Qur'an say: "Praise belongs to God.

"Master of the Day of Judgement.

"You alone we do worship." And when you look at that first section, praise belongs to God, that's a clear instruction, isn't it? It's right to praise God, it's right to worship God.

The second section, Master of the Day of judgement , it tells Muslims Allah is ultimately in charge of absolutely everything.

So it's right to give praise to Allah as he's in charge of the Day of Judgement but also, you know, he is the creator as well.

He gave life.

So what I'd like you to do please, is pause the video and write down the quotation for me.

Un-pause it once you've done that.

Thank you.

So, the next thing we're going to have a look at together is the prayer times.

We've said there's five prayers every day but when do those prayers happen? Well, I can't give you a set time because the prayer times vary, because the prayer time is set by the position of the sun.

And that's our first point here.

Prayer times vary as the time is set by the position of the sun.

So Muslims pray at the following times of the day: Firstly, before sunrise.

Secondly, just after midday.

Thirdly, the afternoon.

Fourthly, sunset.

And lastly, at night time.

Now, if you were after the lesson to have a look at the weather app on your phone, you would probably see that in that weather app, it tells you the time of sunrise and the time of sunset.

And you'll see day by day, that changes ever so slightly.

Though because the prayer times are set by the position of the sun, that means the time a Muslim might undertake prayer one, prayer two, prayer three, prayer four, prayer five will also change.

Now, there is a bit of a distinction between how Sunni and Shi'a Muslims fulfil the second pillar of Islam, Salah.

Sunni Muslims pray each of these times.

Sunni Muslims make five prayers over five prayer sessions.

Shi'a Muslims, though, combine the second and third prayer, and the fourth and fifth prayer.

Shi'a Muslims make five prayers over three prayer sessions.

So hopefully, you remember that within Islam, there's lots of denominations but two particular denominations we're interested in are Sunni and Shi'a Islam.

And one of the things they differ on is how to fulfil the second pillar of Salah.

And when you re-read that information on the board, you'll see the difference is subtle.

Both are still fulfilling their obligation to make five prayers to Allah a day.

The Sunni Muslims do that at five separate times, whereas Shi'a Muslims do it at three separate times.

They do the first prayer by itself, a Shi'a Muslim will then combine the second and third prayer together and then later on, they'll combine the fourth and the fifth prayer together.

So both making five prayers but a difference in how many times a day they will stop to make those prayers.

For Sunni Muslims, it's five times and for Shi'a Muslims, it's three times.

So, let's do some quick fire questions to see if we can remember all that key information.

Very simple, I'll read the question and you just point or say to yourself whether it's true or false.

So first one, Muslims pray five times a day.

True or false? True or false, well done, it is true.

Next one, prayer times are set by the clock.

False, well done.

Next one, Muslims pray 3 times a day.

Think, think, think.

False, but you might've put true and if you put true because Shi'a Muslims make their five prayers over three set times, that's absolutely fine.

So you can have that, well done.

Next one, prayer times are set by the position of the moon.

False, well done.

Next one, Muslims pray five times a day.

True or false? Excellent, true, well done.

Next one, prayer times are set by the position of the sun.

True or false? Well done, it's true.

Next one, Muslims pray in the middle of the night.

That's false, isn't it? Well done.

Next one, all Muslims make their five prayers at five different times.

Is that true or false? It's false, isn't it? Sunni and Shi'a Muslims pray slightly differently in that regard.

So let's have a look at that.

Sunni Muslims make their five prayers at five different times.

Is that true or false? It's true, well done.

Next one, Shi'a Muslims make their five prayers at three different times.

Is that true or false? It's true, well done.

Next one, Shi'a Muslims combine the first and second prayers.

True or false? Point to it now.

It's false, isn't it? Extra bonus marks if you can tell me which prayers they do combine.

It's the second and third, and the fourth and fifth.

Next one, Shi'a Muslims combine the second and third prayers.

True or false? Well done, it's true.

Next one, Shi'a Muslims combine the first and second prayers.

False, well done.

Shi'a Muslims combine the second and third prayers.

True, well done.

Third and fourth prayers? False, well done.

Fourth and fifth prayers? True, well done.

Again, remember it's the second and third, and the fourth and fifth.

So, Shi'a Muslims combine the third and fourth.

Is that what we just said? No, it's false.

Do Shi'a Muslims combine the fourth and fifth? That's true.

Sunni Muslim make their five prayers at three different prayer times.

That's false, we've just been talking about Shi'a Muslims. Shi'a Muslims make their five prayers at five different times.

True or false? It's false, well done.

So, now we should be able to complete this task.

So, what we're going to try and do is explain how often Muslims pray and your answer should tell me three things: how many prayers a Muslim should make in a day, what sets the time of the prayers, and how Sunni and Shi'a Muslims differ in their prayers.

You can see there's some sentence starters there, should you need to use them.

So please now pause the video, then once you've finished, un-pause it and we can go through your terrific work together.

So, hopefully, your work looks a bit like this.

You've noted down bits in the white or grey box first.

A Muslim should pray five times a day.

And the times are: before sunrise, just after midday, afternoon, sunset and night.

And then you've noted down the pink box.

Sunni Muslims pray at each of these times.

Sunni Muslims make five prayers over five prayer sessions.

Shi'a Muslims combine the second and third prayer, and the fourth and fifth prayer.

Shi'a Muslims make five prayers over three prayer sessions.

If you need to add anything to your work, please just pause the video and do that for me now.

So, the next thing we're going to focus on is the process of Salah.

And you can see there are three new key terms on the board there: Adhan, Wudu and Prayer.

Now, I'm just going to give you a very, very, very brief simple description firstly, just so that you remember what we're talking about when we're talking about these three key terms. So, Adhan, you can see a picture of a speaker.

Essentially, the Adhan is a set of words that quite literally calls Muslims to prayer.

The second one is Wudu.

You can see a picture of a tap and some hands there.

That's a ritual washing that Muslims undertake before prayer and thirdly, Prayer.

The part where they are actually worshipping Allah.

So, Adhan - call to prayer.

Wudu - ritual washing before prayer, and Prayer - worshipping Allah.

So, tell me which word's missing here.

How do we define prayer? Worshipping Allah, well done.

Now tell me what's missing.

What's Wudu? Look at the picture if you need it to help.

Well done, ritual washing before prayer.

What's Adhan? Look at the picture if you need to.

Well done, the Adhan is the call to prayer.

What's Wudu? Well done, Wudu is the ritual washing before prayer.

What's prayer? Well done, worshipping Allah.

What's the Adhan? The picture's gone this time, can you remember? The picture was a speaker and what does that mean? The call to prayer, well done.

What's Wudu? The ritual washing before prayer, well done.

What's a key term for the call to prayer? Can you remember? Search yourself.

Adhan, well done.

What word's missing now? Worshipping Allah.

Prayer, well done.

What word's missing now? The ritual washing before prayer.

That's Wudu.

And can you now remember all three terms? Say them to yourself.

Well done, Adhan.

The next one, Wudu, well done.

And the next one, prayer.

Excellent, well done.

So, now, hopefully you are able to do this.

I would like you please to pause the video and then copy and complete the following table.

If it's helpful for you, you can also do a very quick sketch of those three images.

So pause the video now and then join me again once you've done it.

Excellent, so hopefully, your work looks like this.

Adhan: call to prayer.

Wudu: ritual washing before prayer.

And prayer: worshipping Allah.

If you need to make any corrections, again, just pause the video and do that for me now.

So we're going to look at these things in a little bit more detail now.

So, let's start off with the Adhan.

The Adhan is the call to prayer.

It is used five times a day.

The call to prayer reminds Muslims of the key Islamic beliefs and includes the Shahadah: "There is no God but Allah, "and Muhammad is the prophet of Allah." So let's think, why might this serve a practical purpose for Muslims? Have a think.

Remember that prayer times are set by the sun.

So one practical purpose it serves is actually giving Muslims a very clear indication of this is the time to pray because the prayer times change but it also fulfils a spiritual purpose.

It reminds Muslims of those key beliefs in the Shahadah that there's one God and he is worthy of worship.

The second part we were looking at just then was Wudu.

So Wudu, we know, in its simple sense is a ritual washing before prayer.

So, before each prayer Muslims should undertake ritual cleansing.

And that involves cleaning your hands, arms, feet, mouth, and all the main parts of your face three times.

And there are many reasons why Wudu is important within Islam.

Firstly, a spiritual preparation.

Secondly, separating out your activities and thirdly, it's respectful.

So, spiritual preparation.

It's true to say that when Muslims are undertaking that Wudu, they are cleaning themselves physically.

But it represents something deeper, something spiritual.

They're getting themselves ready to worship Allah.

Washing away their sin.

Secondly, separates out activities.

You can imagine, the day is really busy, isn't it? If you go straight from work, for example, to prayer, you might carry with you the worries and the stresses of work.

Wudu gives you that timeout, mentally getting ready to speak to God and Allah.

Putting a very significant and important divide between the everyday and worshipping.

And thirdly, it's respectful.

If you could do anything really important, really significant, say you're going to visit someone really terrifically important, you would get ready for that.

This is a getting ready to speak to Allah.

A sign of respect, acknowledging how great Allah is.

So, I would now like you please to once again, in a moment, pause the video to complete this task.

So, I've put four statements on your screens and I'd like you to tell me whether each statement is true or false.

If it's true, just write down the statement.

If it's false, write the statement in its correct form for me.

So, for example, the first one.

It says Wudu is only about physical cleaning.

That's false.

So what you'd write is 1 - false and then you'd correct it to say it's not just about physical cleaning, it's also about a spiritual cleaning.

So pause the video now and then re-join once you've had a go at this task.

Excellent, so hopefully you got on well with your work there and this is what your work should look like.

If you need to make any corrections, please do.

And if you need to pause the video to do that, again, that's absolutely fine.

So the first one was false, so what you should have written is that Wudu is a physical cleansing that symbolises a spiritual cleansing.

The second one was true, so it just needed writing out as it was.

Wudu involves cleaning the main parts of your hand and face three times.

You might have added in some of the extra things as well.

The feet, for example.

The third one was false, so that needed correcting.

And you could correct it by saying that Wudu helps to separate out a Muslim's normal daily activities from prayer.

It's a time to mentally get ready to address Allah.

And the fourth one was true, so it just needed writing out again.

Another reason a Muslim performs Wudu is to show respect to Allah's greatness.

So, we're going to look at a prayer in a little bit more detail now.

We're going to look at things they say and do in prayer and then some additional details as well.

So let's start off with things said and done during prayer.

So, Islamic prayer involves rak'ahs: a sequence of actions and words.

So when we talk about rak'ahs, it's movements Muslims make during prayer and it's words Muslims say during prayer.

And these are set and you can see a picture of a Muslim making a prayer there.

That picture is prostration, making seven points of contact with the floor in order to show submission to Allah.

And you can also see a picture of the Qur'an there.

Some of the words they say come directly from the Qur'an.

So, let's have a look at a rak'ah in a bit more detail.

Rak'ah involves bowing and prostrating to show your submission to Allah and that also involves reciting the first verse of the Qur'an: "Praise belongs to God.

Master of the day of judgement ." Some other details you want to be aware of is how it builds the Ummah.

The Ummah being the Islamic community, the brotherhood, the nation of Islam.

So when praying in the mosque, Muslims will perform these rak'ahs together and that builds a community feeling in the Ummah.

All are together, are together physically demonstrating their submission to God.

And secondly, Muslims will also pray towards Mecca.

This is where Islam originated from.

All Muslims facing the same way also helps to build the Ummah as well as reminding them of the history of their religion.

Let's do some more quick fire questions.

Again, all you need to do is point to true or false on your screen or to say true or false to yourself.

So, a rak'ah only involves doing actions, like bowing and prostrating.

Tell me whether that's true or false.

Indeed, it's false, well done.

Next one, a rak'ah only involves reciting verses from the Qur'an.

False, well done.

A rak'ah involves both actions and words, true or false? True, well done.

Prostration is lying flat on the floor, true or false? False, remember it's seven points of contact.

Prostration is to show submission to Allah's greatness.

True or false? It's true, well done.

Next one, the chapter of the Qur'an recited only reminds Muslims of Allah's greatness.

That's false, isn't it? It also reminds them that they have to worship him and all the things he's done for them.

Muslims can face in any direction at all when they pray, true or false? It's false, bonus mark.

What direction would a Muslim face when praying? Say it to yourself now.

That's right, it's Mecca, well done.

Next one, Muslims only face Mecca as it's where the religion originated from.

Is that the only reason, true or false? Well done, it's false.

It also helps that community feeling, isn't it? Building the Ummah.

Salah helps to build the Ummah, true or false? True, well done.

Remember we said two things, didn't we? One, performing rak'ahs together.

Two, all facing in the same direction.

Shi'a Muslims make their five daily prayers over three sessions, true or false? True, well done.

Sunni Muslims make their five prayers at five different times, true or false? True, well done.

The Adhan doesn't contain any important Islamic beliefs, true or false, true or false? Well done, it is false.

Remember it contains the Shahadah and the Shahadah contains two key Islamic beliefs.

Say them to yourself now.

I can almost hear you, you're saying Tawhid and Risalah, aren't you? Brilliant, well done.

Wow, so, let's take a bit of time now just to make sure we've got everything we need down in our notes.

So in a moment, I'll ask you to pause the video.

I'm going to ask you to summarise these three important aspects we've just spent some time together going over: Adhan, Wudu and Prayer.

So, please can you copy and complete the table to explain the different elements of Salah? Use the key words given.

Pause the video, have a go at that, then un-pause the video and join me for some feedback.

Right, let's go through your work then.

So hopefully, under Adhan you've written something like this.

The call to prayer.

It serves a spiritual purpose of reminding Muslims of the key beliefs in the Shahadah.

It also has the practical purpose of reminding them that it's time to pray.

For Wudu, preparation for prayer.

A ritual purification that is symbolised by cleaning the arms, feet, hands and face three times.

It shows respect to Allah's greatness and helps a Muslim to spiritually prepare.

And finally, prayer.

Made up of a set of rak'ahs that show submission to Allah.

Muslims bow and prostrate, and recite the first chapter of the Qur'an to show Allah's greatness.

Helps to build the Ummah as Muslims can pray together and will all face in the same direction, Mecca.

Well, that is everything we need to do together today.

Please make sure you check your learning by completing the quiz.

I hope to see you again very soon.

Thank you very much for joining me.

I hope you feel now that you are a fine theologian.

If you wish to share your work with the Oak National Academy, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on either Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and using the hashtag #LearnwithOak.

Thank you very much.

I hope to see you again very soon.