Larger than Life: Prayer during wartime in Islamic law

Authors

• Nesya Rubinstein-Shemer

Abstract

Prayer is the most frequently performed and arguably the most important Islamic ritual. Abundant material on the subject in Islamic sources serves to emphasize this ritual’s unparalleled religious significance. Evidence of the preeminence of prayer in Islam is found not only in theological texts, but in legal texts as well. In particular, prayer’s precedence over even one of Islam’s highest values – the sanctity of life (iḥtirām al-ḥayāt) – captures our attention. A Muslim believer is commanded to pray, even if doing so might involve serious and immediate risk to his life, as demonstrated here by an analysis of the issue of prayer during battle (ṣalāt al-khawf) in classical and modern fiqh.