Note: The table is populated with data obtained from the Quran.corpus.com.
Out of 99 instances of sallaa and its derived forms, 12 instances of sallaa and 26 instances of salat are detailed out below to better understand their meaning in different contexts, while an Arabic word may have different meanings in different contexts:
- Details of Instances of sallaa in verb form II meaning to pray or perform
[3:39] Then the angels called him (Zacharia) while he was standing to pray the salat prayer in the prayer house (wa-huwa qaaiman yusallee fee al-mih’raabi), “Indeed, God gives you a good news of John, confirming with a word from God, and an honorable and honest, and a prophet from the righteous.”
[4:102] When you (prophet) have been with them, then you have led the salat prayer for them, then let stand a group from them with you and let them take their arms. Then when they have prostrated, then let them be of their behind; and let come another group, they did not pray the salat prayer (wal-taati taaifatun ukh’raa lam yusalluu), then let them pray salat prayer with you (falyusalluu ma`aka) and let them take their precautions and their arms. Those who have disbelieved have wished if you neglect of your arms and your baggage, then they can assault upon you in a single attack, while there is no blame upon you if it has been a trouble with you from rain or you have been sick that you lay down your arms and you shall take your precautions. Indeed, God has prepared a shameful punishment for the disbelievers.
[9:84] And do not pray the funeral prayer for any of them ever who has died (wa-laa-tusalli `alaa ahadin minhum maata abadan), nor do you stand by his grave. Indeed, they have disbelieved in God and His messenger, and have died, while they were disobedient.
[9:103] You (prophet) shall take a charity from their wealth to purify them and to strengthen them by it, and shall advise to them (for fulfillment of it) (wa-salli `alayhim) and your advice may be a reassurance for them, while God is Hearer, Knower.
[33:43] He is the One who helps you and (so do) His angels (huwa alladhee yusallee `alaykum wa-malaaikatuhu) that He may bring you out of the darkness into the light. And He is Merciful to the believers.
[33:56] Indeed, God and His angels help the prophet (inna allaha wa-malaaikatahu yusalluuna alaa al-nabiyi). O you who have believed, you shall help him (yaa’ayyuhaa alladheena aamanuu salluu `alayhi), and shall greet him befitting greeting.
Note: The word “sallaa” has been mentioned in 33:43 and in 33:56 meaning to help, and there are 12 verses between them. If the surah and verse numbers are added, the sum is a multiple of 19 => 627 (19x33), which is a fact based confirmation to avoid any misinterpretation except that in 33:56 God has commanded the contemporary believers that they shall help the prophet as He and His angels are helping him, while to send blessing on the prophet to be an order for the contemporary believers or the believers down the generations is no doubt is the misinterpretation.
[75:31] [A disbeliever at the moment of death knows] That he has not accepted truth nor has he prayed the salat prayer (fa-laa-saddaqa wa-laa-sallaa).
[87:15] And he has remembered his Lord’s name, while he has prayed the salat prayer (wa-dhakara is’ma rabbihi fa-sallaa).
[96:10] A servant (of God) when he has prayed the salat prayer (`ab’dan idhaa sallaa)?
[108:2] So, you (prophet) shall pray the salat prayer for your Lord (fa-salli li’rabbika), and you shall dedicate (yourself).
Note: Review of 12 instances of sallaa in the verb form found in 10 verses of 8 surahs in the Quran confirms that even the word “sallaa” primarily means “to pray/perform”, can also be translated “to advise” and “to help” to better understand messages in the verses depending on the contexts, but what is important to reflect that it is not just word to say but associated with action as well.
- Details of instances of salat in noun form meaning salat prayer
[2:3] Those who believe in the unseen, and establish the salat prayer (wa-yuqeemuuna al-salata), and spend from what we have provided them.
[2:43] And you shall establish the salat prayer (wa-aqeemuu al-salata) and shall give the zakat and shall bow down with those who bow down.
[2:45] And you shall seek help with the patience and the salat prayer (wa-is’ta`iinuu bi-al-sabri wa-al-salati). And indeed, it is surely difficult except for the humble ones.
[2:83] And when we had taken a covenant from the Children of Israel: “You will not worship except God and with the parents being good and with the relatives and the orphans and the poor, while you shall speak nice to the people and shall establish the salat prayer (wa-aqeemuu al-salata) and shall give the zakat.” Then you had turned away, except a few from you, and you were averse.
[2:110] And you shall establish the salat prayer (wa-aqeemuu al-salata) and shall give the zakat. And of whatever good you send forth for yourselves, you will find it with God. Indeed, God is Seer of what you do.
[2:153] O you who have believed, you shall seek help through the patience and the salat prayer is’ta`iinuu bi-al-sabri wa-al-salati). Indeed, God is with the patient.
[2:157] Those on them have blessings from their Lord and mercy (ulaaika `alayhim salawaatun min rabbihim wa-rahmatun), and those – they are the guided ones.
[2:177] It has not been the righteousness that you have turned your faces to a direction of the east or the west, but the righteous is whoever has believed in God and the Last Day and the angels and the scripture and the prophets, and has given the wealth out of his love to the near relatives and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and in freeing the slaves, and has established the salat prayer (wa-aqaama al-salata) and has given the zakat; and the pledge keepers of their pledge when they have made it and the patient during the suffering and the hardship and at time of the stress, those are the ones who have made trustworthy and those – they are the righteous.
[2:238] You shall be consistent on the salat prayers (haafizuu `alaa al-salawaati), and the middle salat prayer (wa-al-salati al-wus’taa), and shall stand up for God being obedient.
[2:277] Indeed, those who have believed and have done the righteous deeds, and have established the salat prayer (wa-aqaamuu al-salata), and have given the zakat, for them there is reward of them with their Lord, and there is no fear for them, nor will they grieve.
[4:43] O you who have believed, you do not go near the salat prayer (laa-taq’rabuu al-salata), while you are in intoxication until you know what you are saying; nor are you impure until you take bath except being on road. And if you have been ill or on a journey, or anyone of you has come from the toilet, or you have touched the women, but you do not find water, then you shall do dry ablution with clean soil that you shall wipe of your faces and your hands. Indeed, God has been Pardoning, Forgiving.
[4:77] Have you not seen to those? It has been said to them, “You shall restrain your hands and shall establish the salat prayer (wa-aqeemuu al-salata) and shall give the zakat.” Then when the fighting had been decreed upon them, after a group from them fear the people as they fear God or a greater fear, and they said, “Our Lord, why have You decreed the fighting for us? Why You have not postponed for us to a near term!” Say, “An enjoyment of the world is little, while the Hereafter is far better for whoever has feared (God), and you will not be wronged even like a hair on a date seed.”
[4:101] And when you have travelled in the land, then it has not been any blame upon you that you shorten of the salat prayer (fa-laysa `alaykum junaahun an taq’suruu mina al-salati), if you have feared that those who have disbelieved may harm you. Indeed, the disbelievers have been an open enemy for you.
[4:102] When you (prophet) have been with them, then you have led the salat prayer for them (fa-aqamta la’humu al-salata), then let stand a group from them with you and let them take their arms. Then when they have prostrated, then let them be of their behind; and let come another group, they did not pray (the salat prayer), then let them pray (the salat prayer) with you and let them take their precautions and their arms. Those who have disbelieved have wished if you neglect of your arms and your baggage, then they can assault upon you in a single attack, while there is no blame upon you if it has been a trouble with you from rain or you have been sick that you lay down your arms and you shall take your precautions. Indeed, God has prepared a shameful punishment for the disbelievers.
[4:103] Then when you have completed the salat prayer (fa-idhaa qadaytumu al-salata), then you shall remember God at standing, and sitting, and on your sides. Then when you have been secure, then you shall establish the salat prayer (fa-aqeemuu al-salata). Indeed, the salat prayer has been a decree upon the believers at specified times (inna al-salata kaanat `alaa al-mu’mineena kitaaban mawquutan).
[4:142] Indeed, the hypocrites think to deceive God, while He who makes deceivers themselves. And when they have stood up for the salat prayer (wa-idhaa qaamuu ilaa al-salata), they have stood up in reluctance to show off the people, while they do not remember God except a little.
[4:162] But those who are well founded in the knowledge among them and the believers believe in what has been sent down to you (prophet), and what has been sent down from before of you (prophet), and the observers of the salat prayer (wal-muqeemeena al-salata), and the givers of the zakat, and the believers in God and the Last Day – those, we will give them a great reward.
[5:6] O you who have believed, when you have stood up for the salat prayer (idhaa qum’tum ilaa al-salata), then you shall wash your faces and your hands to the elbows, and shall wipe of your heads and your feet to the ankles. And if you have been impure (for sexual contact), then you shall purify. And if you have been ill, or on a journey, or one of you has come from the toilet or has contacted the women, then you do not find water, then you shall do dry ablution from clean soil that you shall wipe of your faces and your hands with it. God does not intend to make any difficulty upon you; but He intends to purify you and to complete His blessing upon you that you may appreciate.
[5:12] And that certainly, God had taken a covenant from Children of Israel, and we have raised twelve patriarchs from them. And God said, “Indeed Me, I am with you, that if you have established the salat prayer (la’in aqamtumu al-salata), and have given the zakat, and have believed in My messengers and have honored them, and have loaned a good loan to God, that I will surely remove your evil deeds from you, and that I will surely admit you into gardens the rivers will flow from underneath of them. But whoever has disbelieved from you after that, then certainly, he has strayed from the right path.”
[5:55] Your only ally is God and His messenger and those who have believed, those who establish the salat prayer (alladheena yuqeemuuna al-salata) and give the zakat, and they are those who bow down.
[5:58] And when you have called to the salat prayer (wa-idhaa nadaytum ilaa al-salati), they have taken it in ridicule and fun. That is of that they are a people who do not understand.
[5:91] The Satan only intends that he may cause the animosity and the hatred between yourselves through the intoxicant and the game of chances, and hinders you from remembering God and from the salat prayer (wa-`ani al-salata). Will you then be the refrainers?
[5:106] O you who have believed, a testimony between yourselves at the time of the will when the death has approached to one of you, are two just men from you or two others from other than you if you had traveled in the land, then there has befallen you a disaster of the death. You will detain both of them after the salat prayer (tah’bisuunahumaa min ba’di al-salati), then they both will swear by God if you have doubted, “We will not exchange of it for a price even if he has been of a near relative, nor will we conceal a testimony of God. Indeed, we then surely would be with the sinners.”
Note: Out of 83, reviewing 26 instances of salat in the noun form found in 23 verses of 3 surahs in the Quran confirms that the word “al-salata” means the salat prayer including meaning blessings for the instance of salawaatun and the salat prayers for the instance of al-salawaati to better understand messages in the relevant verses depending on the contexts.
The core messages from reviewing 12 instances of sallaa found in 10 verses of 8 surahs and 26 instances of salat found in 23 verses of 3 surahs are: God’s servants pray the salat prayer to remember Him, even they are to remember God at standing, and sitting, and on your sides; there was a commandment for the contemporary believers to help the prophet as God and His angels were helping him; those who have blessings and mercy on them from their Lord are the guided ones; the believers shall be consistent on their salat prayers and shall not go near the salat prayer when they are impure; the salat prayer has been made a decree on the believers at specified times; the Satan hinders the believers from remembering God and from the salat prayer; those who have believed and have established the salat prayer and have given the zakat and have bowed down are ally of God and His messenger; the salat prayer is passed down from the past, which is a ritual to be performed by meeting precise requirements given by God.
However, the words “sallaa” and “salat” from the same root confirm the practice of the salat prayer at specified times of a day, even there are other meanings for sallaa “to help” and “to advise” as well as for salat “blessings” and “advice” found in certain verses, while a group in the electronic media, who claims they understand the Quran better advocates that the Quran does not tell the believers to perform the salat prayer 5 times a day except to stand on the words of God from getting up from sleep in the morning to going bed in the night focusing on the words “aqim” and “qaama”, failing to acknowledge the confirmation from the Quran that the Satan hinders the believers from remembering God as well as from the salat prayer, which is a formal way to praise and glorify God.
Peaceful Friday, salaam and God bless.
Tafazzal (04/17/2026).