How to Pray — everything you need to know

Six things must be true before the prayer begins: (1) ritual purity — valid wudu, or ghusl if needed; (2) clean body, clothes, and place; (3) covering the ʿawrah (for men: navel to knee; for women: everything except face and hands, with some scholarly variation); (4) facing the qibla; (5) the prayer's time has entered; (6) intention (niyyah) for that specific prayer.

Without these the prayer is invalid: opening takbīr (Allāhu Akbar), standing if able, reciting Al-Fātiḥah (Hanafi: any Quran in fard rakahs after the first two; the other three schools require Al-Fātiḥah in every rakah), bowing (rukūʿ) with stillness, rising upright after rukūʿ, two prostrations (sujūd) with stillness and a sitting between them, the final sitting and tashahhud, and finally the closing salām.

Speaking deliberately, eating or drinking, laughing aloud (Hanafi: also breaks wudu), excessive unrelated movement (about three deliberate movements that don't belong to the prayer), turning the chest away from the qibla without need, and anything that breaks wudu (passing wind, sleep, blood — schools differ in detail). If any of these happen the prayer must be repeated from the start, after fixing whatever was broken.

If you accidentally add or omit a non-pillar (e.g. forgot the first tashahhud, doubt about whether you prayed 3 or 4 rakahs, added an extra rukūʿ), perform two extra prostrations of forgetfulness — the sajdat as-sahw. Hanafi method: in the final sitting, give salām to the right only, then perform two sajdas with takbīr each, then tashahhud + final salām on both sides. The other three schools: do the two sajdas before the final salām.

A missed fard must be made up later — sleep and forgetfulness are excuses, but laziness is not. Make up missed prayers in the order they were missed. Hanafi: the rule of tartīb (chronological order) is binding when fewer than six prayers are missed; you must make them up before the next current prayer. The other three schools: chronological makeup is recommended but not strictly binding once a long time has passed.

On a journey of about 80 km / 48 miles or more (Hanafi specifies ~78 km), the four-rakah fard prayers (Dhuhr, Asr, Isha) are shortened to two — this is qaṣr. Maghrib stays at three; Fajr stays at two. Hanafi: qaṣr is wājib (you must shorten); the other schools: qaṣr is a recommended permission. For illness: stand if able, sit cross-legged if you cannot, lie on your right side facing qibla if you cannot sit. Indicate rukūʿ and sujūd with the head, leaning lower for sujūd. Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity (Quran 2:286).

During menstruation (ḥayḍ) and post-natal bleeding (nifās), prayer is suspended — and there is no makeup later. Fasts are different: missed Ramadan fasts must be made up. Once cleansing is complete (a ghusl), prayer resumes immediately. This is a mercy, not a deficiency, and it is the unanimous Sunni position.