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Islam’s most important and fundamental commandment is that of the Five Daily Prayers: Fajr (before sunrise), Zuhr (just after midday), Asr (late afternoon), Maghrib (after sunset), Ishaa (late evening).
These Five Daily Prayers are literally the quintessence of Islam; they are the most perfect embodiment and representation of the whole religion.
In Arabic, the Holy Language of Islam, the word for one of these Prayers is ‘Salah’ (‘صلاة’) also pronounced ‘Salat’ from the root ‘salla’ (‘صلى’) which means ‘pray’.
When referring to their religious duties, English-speaking Muslim often use the Arabic word ‘Salah’ or ‘Salat’ alongside the English word ‘prayer’ (which ultimately comes from the Latin ‘precari’ meaning ‘to beg’ via the Old French ‘preier’ meaning ‘to pray’).
Yet, interestingly, there is often a third word used by many English-speaking Muslims to refer to prayer. This word is also used around the whole Muslim world, in Iran, Albania, Central Asia, Iran, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Turkey. Approximately half of the world’s 2 billion Muslims use this word when referring to their most sacred religious duty. It’s the most commonly used word among Muslims after ‘Salah’ or ‘Salat’.
It’s a Persian word that comes from Iran and is a testament to Iran’s lasting legacy and influence throughout the whole Muslim world.
That word is ‘Namaz’ (‘نماز’) which means ‘prayer’ or ‘prostration’ in Persian.
Persian (referred to by its native speakers as ‘Farsi’) belongs to the Indo-European language family and is therefore distantly related to languages like English, Welsh, Russian, Latin, Greek and Sanskrit. All of these languages are descended from the Proto-Indo-European language and therefore they all have certain words in common which they retained from their ancestral language even though they have all diverged significantly from each other after thousands of years.
For instance, can you guess the meanings of the Persian words ‘madar’ (‘مادر’), ‘daukhtar’ (‘دختر’) and ‘baradar’ (‘برادر’)?
In English, these are ‘mother’, ‘daughter’ and ‘brother’ respectively and the resemblance is no coincidence; these words all come from the same ancient root.
Persian is closely related to Sanskrit, the Holy Language of Hinduism. Both Persian and Sanskrit belong to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European Language Family. Old Persian and its sister language Avestan (the sacred language of Zoroastrianism) are especially similar to Sanskrit.
For instance, the Persian word ‘namaz’ comes from the same root as the Sanskrit word ‘namas’ (‘नमस्’) which also means ‘bowing’ and has connotations of reverence. You can find the root ‘namas’ in the well-known Hindu greeting ‘Namaste’ (‘नमस्ते’), which literally means ‘I bow to you’ and is a sign of respect.
This greeting is used throughout India and around the world by approximately one billion Hindus. Interestingly, this is roughly the same as the number of Muslims who use the word ‘Namaz’ to refer to their five daily prayers.
During times of global conflict, it’s important to remember the cultural, religious and civilisational ties that bind us all together in the vast and shared heritage of collective human civilisation. Destroying or threatening to destroy one civilisation invariably means destroying or threatening to destroy important parts of all civilisations, including one’s own. It is only through understanding each other that we are truly able to understand ourselves.
About the author: Mansoor Dahri is an online editor for The Review of Religions. He graduated from UCL in BA Ancient Languages.
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