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The conditions for the acceptance of prayer (shurut qabul al-salah)

شروط قبول الصلاة

The conditions for the acceptance of prayer as Abdul Hamid Kishk presents them from a hadith qudsi: that the one who prays humbles himself through it before God's greatness, does not lord it over His creation, does not pass the night persisting in sin, spends his day in remembrance of God, and shows mercy to the poor, the wayfarer, the widow and the afflicted. For him they are conditions of acceptance, beyond the conditions of validity set out in fiqh.

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Region
Global / Diaspora
Review

Worship and the pillarsEthics and character

Summary

'The conditions for the acceptance of prayer' is the title of a sermon series by Abdul Hamid Kishk, built on a hadith qudsi he relates, whose sense is that God accepts the prayer of one who humbles himself through it before His greatness, does not lord it over His creation, does not pass the night persisting in sin against Him, spends his day in His remembrance, and shows mercy to the poor, the wayfarer and the widow, and to the afflicted. 1 2 3 He counts them as five conditions and gives a sermon to each. 4

Conditions of validity and conditions of acceptance

Kishk sets what is usually said about the conditions of a valid prayer, such as covering the body and ritual purity, beside the conditions he speaks of, those of its acceptance (needs_source: some words of the line are garbled). 5

The five conditions as he presents them

  1. Humbling oneself through prayer before God's greatness. He makes it the first condition and joins it to speaking of the Prophet ﷺ as teacher and guide. 1 6
  2. Not lording it over God's creation. He explains it as not harming people, and says harm comes in kinds according to the limbs: the eyes harm when they look at what God forbade or wish a blessing away from someone, the ears when they listen to people's secrets and to what God forbade hearing, and so do the tongue, the belly, the hands, the feet and the heart. 7 8 9 10
  3. Not passing the night persisting in sin. He opens this sermon with the oneness of God as the ground for leaving sins. 11 12 13
  4. Spending the day in remembrance of God. He calls it 'the matter of matters' and explains the reality and manners of remembrance. 14 15
  5. Mercy to the poor, the wayfarer, the widow and the afflicted. He makes it the humane and social side of the hadith and gives it two sermons. 16 17

How he groups the conditions

Kishk sorts the five conditions into five aspects, moral, communal, psychological, creedal and humane, and holds that the hadith thereby gathers every side of the Sharia. 18 2

Prayer and action

In the last sermon he says that what is heard in the mosques must settle in the heart, and that when people leave the mosques they must turn it into practice, because speech without action is of no use. 19 20 21

Connections

Explore the connections

Subject of
Shurut Qabul al-Salat: the conditions for the acceptance of prayer (sermon series)

People and things also explored

Mosque (masjid)· Humility (tawadu')· Nikah (marriage contract)· Salah (the prescribed prayer)· Shurut Qabul al-Salat: the conditions for the acceptance of prayer (sermon series)· Remembrance of God (dhikr)· Trial and testing (ibtila')· What accompanies a person to the grave

Sources

  1. Assabile archive of Abdul Hamid Kishk's lessons , Shorut Kobol Assalat, episode 1, at 00:25:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  2. Assabile archive of Abdul Hamid Kishk's lessons , Shorut Kobol Assalat, episode 5, at 00:15:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  3. Assabile archive of Abdul Hamid Kishk's lessons , Shorut Kobol Assalat, episode 5, at 00:16:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  4. Assabile archive of Abdul Hamid Kishk's lessons , Shorut Kobol Assalat, episode 2, at 00:12:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  5. Assabile archive of Abdul Hamid Kishk's lessons , Shorut Kobol Assalat, episode 1, at 00:23:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  6. Assabile archive of Abdul Hamid Kishk's lessons , Shorut Kobol Assalat, episode 4, at 00:14:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  7. Assabile archive of Abdul Hamid Kishk's lessons , Shorut Kobol Assalat, episode 2, at 00:13:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  8. Assabile archive of Abdul Hamid Kishk's lessons , Shorut Kobol Assalat, episode 2, at 00:14:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  9. Assabile archive of Abdul Hamid Kishk's lessons , Shorut Kobol Assalat, episode 2, at 00:14:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  10. Assabile archive of Abdul Hamid Kishk's lessons , Shorut Kobol Assalat, episode 2, at 00:15:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  11. Assabile archive of Abdul Hamid Kishk's lessons , Shorut Kobol Assalat, episode 3, at 00:10:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  12. Assabile archive of Abdul Hamid Kishk's lessons , Shorut Kobol Assalat, episode 3, at 00:11:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  13. Assabile archive of Abdul Hamid Kishk's lessons , Shorut Kobol Assalat, episode 3, at 00:12:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  14. Assabile archive of Abdul Hamid Kishk's lessons , Shorut Kobol Assalat, episode 4, at 00:13:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  15. Assabile archive of Abdul Hamid Kishk's lessons , Shorut Kobol Assalat, episode 4, at 00:15:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  16. Assabile archive of Abdul Hamid Kishk's lessons , Shorut Kobol Assalat, episode 5, at 00:14:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  17. Assabile archive of Abdul Hamid Kishk's lessons , Shorut Kobol Assalat, episode 7, at 00:16:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  18. Assabile archive of Abdul Hamid Kishk's lessons , Shorut Kobol Assalat, episode 5, at 00:14:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  19. Assabile archive of Abdul Hamid Kishk's lessons , Shorut Kobol Assalat, episode 7, at 00:14:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  20. Assabile archive of Abdul Hamid Kishk's lessons , Shorut Kobol Assalat, episode 7, at 00:15:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  21. Assabile archive of Abdul Hamid Kishk's lessons , Shorut Kobol Assalat, episode 7, at 00:15:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “The conditions for the acceptance of prayer (shurut qabul al-salah)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/shurut-qabul-al-salah/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-01.

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Ideas

Beliefs, concepts, sciences and schools, explained in plain words. Related

Mosque (masjid)

The Sheikh relates a hadith to the effect that when God wills punishment for the people of the earth, He looks to those who build and frequent the mosques and lifts the punishment from them (needs_source). He contrasts the condition of the believer in the mosque with that of the hypocrite in it.