Salaah/Predefined Prayers

[ya.azad]

Is Salaah limited to just the predefined prayers (takbir, surat, ra'akat etc?) It seems as if this would not be conducive to forming a true and personal relationship with Allah.

[Ramadhan]

Is Salaah limited to just the predefined prayers (takbir, surat, ra'akat etc?) It seems as if this would not be conducive to forming a true and personal relationship with Allah.

Salah fard (obligatory prayers), which is 5 times a day, is predefined in the amount of rakaahs and the times when they should be performed.
But there are also other superregatory prayers which can be performed at other times.
The compulsory surah is only surah al Fatihah, but you can also read any other surahs after reciting surah al fatihah.

In Islam, we are super-encouraged to remember Allah as much as we can, in the form of dhikr, and we can also make du'a (supplications) as much and as often as we want.

I cannot see any other religions who encourage such true deep, personal and close relationships as muslims with God SWT.

[Woodrow]

The Salah are predefined as mentioned. Those are obligatory prayers. as mentioned above. Our other prayers are our Du'as and Supplications those we say anytime we wish to praise, remember, ask for forgiveness, ask for requests/favors and give thanks. Many of us try to do those every wakening moment of our life.

Every action we do and thought we have we try to begin with a prayer. this is not an obligation and should be done simply because we want to.

[ya.azad]

Cool, thanks for clarifying. Also in the obligatory 5 prayers is there any place where you can insert personal prayers?

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[Woodrow]

Cool, thanks for clarifying. Also in the obligatory 5 prayers is there any place where you can insert personal prayers?

Part of our preparation for salat is to to have an intent and to have the proper frame of mind. For personal prayers we wish to express in our own words we can say them either before or immediately after the Obligatory prayer. There is plenty of time for that. the Obligatory prayer takes only a very short time to complete. Usually only 15 minutes or less.

[Ramadhan]

Cool, thanks for clarifying. Also in the obligatory 5 prayers is there any place where you can insert personal prayers?

Actually there is.
for example : during sujoods, and sitting between sujoods.

for sitting between two sujoods I normally made personal prayer:
rabighfirlii warhamni wajburni warfa'ni warzuqni wahdini wa'afini
(Oh my lord forgive me and forgive all my sins and mistakes, and give me Your blessings, and cover up all my past sins and mistakes, and raise me/my status in this world and hereafter, and give me good rizq/wealth, and make my deen strong, and give me good health).

There is a hadith that says "Allah is closest to His slaves during prostration"
So I tend to make (by heart) personal prayers during the sujoods after I praised His beautiful attributes "Subhana robbi al a'laa wabihamd".

But as br. Woodrow has explained above, right after we finish fard prayers is amont the most mustahhab (highly recommended) time to make personal prayers. Most muslims I know would use this moment to do just that.