A Thought on the Origins of Islamic Salat

“The combination of standing, recitation of scripture, and repeated prostration characteristic of salat … appears to most closely parallel the documented practices of contemporary Eastern Christians… In contrast, whereas prostration is characteristic of Israelite Temple worship as described in the Hebrew Bible, the formal daily prayers prescribed by rabbinic Judaism involve only standing, bowing, and recitation.

Katz, p. 14

While Katz is intentional in noting the similarity between Islamic and Eastern Christian prayer practices, he does not devote any time (at least within the section we were assigned) to delineating the similarities between the two traditions or investigating the question of why there is such a similarity.

This is in contrast to Katz’s later note that: “the lack of data [regarding the practice of prostration being customary among Arabs in the Prophet’s immediate environment before the rise of Islam] may reflect the Islamic tradition’s lack of interest in tracing the genealogy of this practice into the pagan Arabian past.” (Katz, p. 15) We therefore do not see Katz offering any sort of suggestion as to why such a similarity might exist.

Is it plausible that a revisionist reading of Islamic history might look to Muhammad’s purported encounters with Bahira as a possible source of this similarity? Immediately, several thoughts come to mind regarding the development of Christian liturgical prayer. First, the development of the liturgy of the hours appears to correspond to the development of daily prayer in Islam. The Christian hours were only prayed twice a day at the beginning, in the morning and evening, which appears to correspond with Katz’s description on page 19, citing various Qur’anic passages, and eventually developed to five, as is also the case with Islam. Secondly, the practice of prostration did not appear to be particularly well-accepted in the beginning by the Arabs in the peninsula because prostration was seen to have a connotation of humiliation. This is in contrast to the liturgical practice of prostration that was already prevalent in Syriac-speaking Christian communities and was not understood to damage one’s honor. These are just a couple of examples among many.

It appears plausible, therefore, that several of Islam’s liturgical practices appear to have been based on Eastern (or, more specifically, Syriac) Christianity and entered into Islamic practice through Muhammad’s encounters with Bahira.