Shalah, the common heritage of Abraham's descendants

Shalah or prayer, an obligation that must be carried out by a Muslim (male) as a form of obedience and worship of a divine Creator, Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala. For a Muslim, Prayer must be carried out 5 times a day, with certain times which have been determined, but it also have 2 other prayer time that is not required (Sunnah) of Duha' and Tahajjud, so that all carried a total of prayer in a day is 7 times.

Shalah, unlike the Du'a, for shalah in Arabic shows a form of prayer in an orderly and time. Meanwhile, Du'a, a form of prayer with an undefined time nor in the form of certain movements. Shalah at the present time is identical with Islam.

For the Christian world (West), shalah is something foreign, although the reformer Martin Luther, in his book The Small Cathecisme (vol. VII, 1) is also still preserve two prayer time (breviary), namely Loudes (morning prayer) and Verper ( evening prayer), which is still known in the teachings of the early Lutheran churches.

In the liturgical tradition, the word shalah parallel with the Greek term: προσεχη (prosekee)) which is parallel * with the term Aram: tselota. From the Aramaic word is the Arabic word tselota: Shalah originated. Prayer is a form of personal daily prayers non-sacramental, which is distinguished with sacramental worship, the eucharist (Holly Communion or Holy Liturgy). The oldest reference of daily worship is contained in the book Didache, which recommend 3 times a prayer, followed the pattern of Jewish worship (Siddur). At the next time the early church developed a worship Seven Time Prayer (as-sab'ush shalawat) by observing habits of the prophets and apostles in the Bible. The most complete reference on this subject can be found in the Apostolic Constitution (in 380) and Regulae Fusius Tractate, the work of Basil the Great (330-379). Actually almost all the Church Fathers wrote about the tradition of prayer like this, for example, Jerome / Hieronymus in the West and John Chrysostomos (354-407) in the East.

The tradition of praying seven times (sab'u ash-shalawat) is maintained until today by the Eastern Churches, both Chalcedonian wing, as well as the non-Chalcedonian, though different in outward expressions of worship (ruku 'and prostration). Only the Syrian Orthodox Church which continues the Jewish ritual and other eastern culture, where worship the same pattern was also preserved by Muslims. In Surah 3:113 the Qur'an also says there is a class of people from the People of the Book (Jews and Christians) who run a prayer with prostration. 'Abdallah Yusuf' Ali noted kmetar above verse in his commentary: "according to commentators, refers to those people of the Book who eventually embraced to Islam" (Abdallah Yusuf Ali, The Meaning of The Holy Quran), but this interpretation not appropriate because even though they are being positive towards Islam, but did not mention that they received prophethood of Muhammad, so not including the Muslim faction.