Today, in the philosophy class, somebody mentioned that the Arabic word Salat has several meanings, one being ‘dancing’. Is this correct?
Answer
It doesn’t matter even if it is correct. The important thing is that the word Salat is also used in Arabic for praying and worshiping, and in Quran Salat is always preceded by the letter ‘al’ which means ‘the’; thereby implying that this is a special form of prayer that has to be formally gone through. The Arabs never doubted that when the word was used in the Quran, it meant the same prayer that they knew was performed by Ibrahim and Ismail, alaihissalaam. They knew that it had undergone religious innovations and was brought back by the last prophet, alaihissalaam, in its original form.