Showing posts with label basic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label basic. Show all posts

Tuesday, 17 December 2013

Creed: Monotheism Studies

Assalamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah


I would like to share with brethren about our creed here. Basically, there are many methods employed by our medieval scholars for this study but this one is from my previous school. I did not really read the book but after few years that I tried to open my heart to return to my family religion that I read it in full...

In this side, I would like everyone to know that there are the Maturidi and Ash'ari method. There are also the method proposed by Ibn Taymiyyah. Many polemics exists within the studies. These branches of studies only exists during medieval era. They are not discussed within "proper academic" circles until they turn out to be specific studies like today. The same goes to Fiqh, Hadith, Tajwid, Tasawwuf, Tafsir, Sirah and so on. Sometimes, the adherents of certain movements are so fanatic that they begin to attack each other views and opinions besides proclaiming themselves as the "sole" representative of Muslim. I read all of the books of Neo-Salafi movements as well as the books of Wahhabi movements and others. When we study something, we need to open up our mind, respecting other opinions besides analyzing things with the light of the Glorious Quran and basic traditions as the bench-mark for everything.

I would first introduce the basic book that we read so people could find and read it for themselves. The book is Tawḍhīḥ al-'Aqīdat al-Mufīd fī 'Ilm al-Tawhīd Part I by Ḥussain 'Abd al-Rahim Makky, a specialist in Logic and Monotheism. Well, the title simply means Useful Clarification of Creed in Monotheism. This is the basic book for those who study in "religious" stream within the schools in communion with the al-Azhar University of Egypt. I was educated within this system but I am not an official of the government. Simply a layman practitioner without any position in religious authority or movement...

Subjects of the Method

Introduction

Definition of Monotheism Study
Branches of the Subject
Benefits from the Study
Judgment from the Mental: Sub-Branches

Theology

Qualities of the God the Highest
Explanations of the Qualities
Establishment of Mental and Supportive Evidences

We know the God the Highest only by His glorious Names described through Revelations to His messengers such as the noble prophet Muhammad s.a.w. So, we could not speculate anything which is not mentioned by Himself for Himself in the Revelation. I have to make the note again in English because my notes are all in Arabic. I have to find suitable words as not to repeat mistakes of previous translators and interpreters besides including the original title of the source so others could also discuss the topic and not simply dependent to this site which is a wrong way to study something!   

We pray may the God the Highest forgives us our mistakes hidden or obvious and may He grants us with His peaceful love and mercy always...

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace, and love, amin!

Friday, 18 October 2013

Basics

Assalamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah



I am constructing again the parts after realizing that I have many notes to dump here. As to make sure that they would not be messed up so I am separating them simply for my reference in the future... If the Highest giving me the chance to continue this life.

Basic Things: Public Muslim

Pillars of Faith
Pillars of Islam
Qualities of a Believer
Daily Prayer Services
Istinja'
Najis
Ablution
Tayammum
Ghusl
Adhan and Iqamat
Salat Services
Funeral Prayer Service
Fasting 

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!

Wednesday, 5 June 2013

Transactions in Islam

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

I just returned home from USM Penang and arrived here in KL just after 'Asr time. I had submitted my thesis. Anyway, for postgraduate students who take full-time classes we actually have to write a five chapters mini-thesis other than hundreds or maybe thousands of weekly assignments. I shut myself down for about a year since the Gregorian New Year 2013 after my thesis being rejected for about.... Well, I do not know how many times.

For this time, I wish that they could accept my thesis and let me go through the candidature as a master graduate student. I did not sleep for about a week to manage my thesis right. Grateful to both sisters, Aida and Premawati. Because they contacted me and reminded me to the thesis, so I came to realize that I had wasted my time in the campus for another three years of my life just after I graduated from undergraduate class. Six years as a higher institution student, plus with my schooling times. I am not trying to brag myself but one could compare our maturity with those who had started their working life since after their schooling times or after their undergraduate times. We could analyze the situation better and not just working for the sake of saving our ass. We learned to be compassionate to other beings and feel others' sufferings.

Well, tonight I am connecting myself with the mosque again which is the al-Najah Mosque at the religious primary school in Precinct 9. I just love that imam guy. I feel connected spiritually to him and also some other guys but only specific people. It is like being connected to another brother when seeing him or other specific people. Coincidentally, there was a religious lecture related to communal activity component in Sharia Islamiyah or the Way of Islam. The ustad talked about the interest or in Arabic we call it as al-Ribaa. This is quite interesting because I learned about this but I had forgotten, lol. 

Basically, there are six matters which is mentioned in a Hadith I guess reported by Abu Sa'id al-Khudry r.a as interest matters. They are:

1. Gold 
2. Silver
3. Wheat grain
4. Dates
5. Salt
6. Barley

Well, because this country and most regions in South East Asia are following the jurisprudence of imam al-Shafi'ie rahimahullah then I am offering him my honor, love and respect. I will just mention about his method of jurisprudence other than my family in majority follows his method. In modern days, there are matters subjected to interests such as money and they are reasoned through a process known as deductive analogy by jurisprudence scholars. Not by commoners.

The imam al-Shafie jurisprudence method categorized interests into three categories:

1. Ribaa' al-Fadhl
2. Ribaa' al-Nasee'at
3. Ribaa' al-Yad

The adherents of Hanbali jurisprudence usually would follow the method of Ibnu al-Qayyim and other scholars from the particular school of jurisprudence where they recognize two categories of interests in transaction. It is not a problem at all but do not impose the method on others like they do not have their schools of jurisprudence or scholars of jurisprudence. 

I guess these are the summary for basic things in our daily transaction whether with money or barter system. These form the basis of our financial law and economic system where Islam is not based on any Enlightenment products from European continent but it is an "Enlightenment" product from Arabian Peninsula where the people there were regarded as barbarians although it is perhaps an overgeneralization by Orientalists or Western academicians.

I just read some books written in Malay language from our library in Hamzah Sendut USM. I guess I took two books about tariqas in South East Asia and one is the Book of Aphorism written by Ibn Athaillah al-Sikandari and compiled again by Sheikh Fadlullah al-Haeri of Karbala. The book about tariqas among them is known as the "Syariah: Ilmu Fekah Menurut Tarekat Qadiriyah" or "Sharia: Jurisprudence according to Qadiri Lineage" written by Haji Abu Bakar Aceh and published by Pustaka Aman Press. Another one is the "Tarekat Ahmadiah in Malay World" but I cannot remember the author's name and publication. Qadiri lineage is actually my paternal family lineage but we had forgotten and leave the practices behind when our elders passed away. My father was not properly educated (religiously speaking) and I am lamenting him because he is unfortunate. Basically I have some basic knowledge about the Qadiri lineage where I just look at the contents and I could elaborate them again from my basic understanding of Islam. Some of the practices I had already get from elders at our "centers" when I was little child. I am just referring to the book as to recall my memories back while waiting the time to take the bus to return to Kuala Lumpur. Did not have much time to xerox the book and violating the publication copyrights because I was rushing with thesis submission and others.

Tomorrow will be my first day working in an organization. It is just a contract based job but anything will do because I need some experience in working areas and getting used to whatever that I had left before. Thank you brothers and sisters for visiting this humble site. I am grateful for brothers and sisters prayers.

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!        

Thursday, 7 February 2013

Najis

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah


Basically, this word refers to excrement or filth which prevents one from a valid salat service. Contact with it would bring a person into a state of ritual impurity. It requires one to undergo purification process before performing religious obligations and duties for e.g salat services.

Different school of jurisprudence have their own system on classifying the condition that a person would be regarded as impure. I am quite familiar with Shafi'ie school of jurisprudence classification on what kind of najasa or najis that requires different way of cleaning them. Shafi'ie school is not so much different to Hanbali school of jurisprudence in classifying the najasa. Types of najas would be subject to the studies of hadith in all school of jurisprudence. 

In our school curriculum generally based from the Shafi'ie jurisprudence, I found that we have three types of najasa. This basically comes from a systematic book of imam al-Nawawi rahimahullah known as al-Minhaj. Then, they are followed with the method to clean them. These are the basic ones for Sunnah Muslims and they are....

1. Mukhaffafa
2. Mutawassita
3. Mughallaza

1. Mukhaffafa

This refers to the impurity caused only by the pissing of little baby boy below two years old and only depends on his mother breasting feed. In order to clean it whether it messed the floor where people is going to perform worship or on the cloth that people use to perform worship, just remove the filth by wiping it and then splash some clean water on it. Then dry the place or wipe it clean. 

2. Mutawassita

This refer to something which comes out from human body or animals but in liquid form. Once it comes out of a human body, he has to perform ablution, no need for full dipping into the water. The e.g are...

a. All types of poops or feces except of the dog and pig as both animals are included in the list to come.
b. Vomit.
c. Pus.
d. Pissing except of the dog and swine as these animals are in the list to come.
e. Blood.
f. Bile liquid.
g. Milk from non-halal animals which consist of several different kinds of animals mentioned in Quran.
h. The madzi or wadi liquid (please refer to specific teachers for definition).  

To clean these, remove the excrement or filth from the infected area and wash it until the smell, color and the feel are not there no more.

3. Mughallaza

This refer to subject matters which is najas in all of the cases. They are...

a. Dog, its offspring and every part of the animal.
b. Pig, its offspring and every part of the animal.
c. Alcohol.
d. Carcass

To clean ourselves or area contaminated with the mentioned subject matters, first of all remove the najas for example if our cloth was contaminated with pig's feces or dogs' licking by wiping them clean with other cloth or toilet paper which would be thrown away. Then wash with the water mixed with clean soil once. Later, it must be followed by six times splashing of clean water.

Miscellenous

1. Semen

Some schools of jurisprudence consider semen as ritually impure. It is ritually impure if a person is ejaculating the subject matter and one needs to perform ritual dipping. But it is not ritually impure for both Hanbali and Shafi'ie jurisprudence if one unintentionally touched the subject matter or if it sticks at ones' cloth. Just enough by washing it with clean water. One does not have to perform the ablution as it does not invalidate his ablution only having a contact with it. The evidence for this as according to Imam Nawawi of Shafi'ie school comes from the hadith reports by Imam Ali r.a, Sa'ad bin Abi Waqas r.a and our lady 'Aisha r.a.

2. Dead Body

For some school of jurisprudence such as Hanbali school there is an opinion that the dead body of a non-Muslim would cause one to face ritual impurity or najas. This is a minority opinion by Ibnu Qudama al-Hanbali. Other than that, Shi'a Muslims and some minority of Muslims like myself also consider dead body as ritually impure whether of Muslim or non-Muslim but also with terms and conditions which I am lazy to state here as people are free to follow their school of jurisprudence as long as they are "recognized" by the majority and makes our life easy.

3. Non-Muslims

Twelver Shi'a Muslims and the Zaydi Shi'a Muslims who are closer to the Kufa Twelver Shi'a Muslims consider non-Muslims will cause them ritual impurity. However, there are some terms and conditions related to this subject matter where some of the Twelver Imami Marjas consider people of the scriptures such as the Jews and Christians or even the Zoroastrians who possess scriptures as clean and ritually clean. For Shi'a Muslims, they can get the help from their own Marjas or jurisprudence scholars. I have several books and notes about Shi'a jurisprudence too but I am not a Shi'a. This is only for the conduct of respect when visiting Shi'a Muslim brothers' mosques as I sometimes walked by their area like in Thailand.

For a Hanbali Sunnah Muslims like myself, everyone are human-being. So, we can touch or having contact with them without having to perform ablution or performing ghusl after the conduct. The conditions are just the same like those applied to Muslim fellows. 

Opinion of People of the Books

As for people of the books, I personally consider Orthodox Indian Brahmins as resembling the people of the books. They posses the Vedas as according to their clans' adherence and Puranas just like Zoroastrians of Persia who posses Avestan scriptures. They also perform dipping in the water almost the same like us. Regarding civilization, Middle East Civilization is far more earlier in its development than Hindu Civilization and I am not surprised with parallel conducts within our traditions or customs. I read Hindu scriptures as well as I studied history subjects while I was a form six student. I also believe in the prophethood of prophet Noah a.s, the ancestor of all nations.

Close

Those mentioned methods and the classification are just the studies of scholars. It is not by any way intended to make ones life in a burden but to make our life easy. So, if there are some differences here and there. Please be tolerant and do not force what we had learned on others. Just respect our fellow Muslim brothers as long as we have basis on every deeds. If there are no basis, just tell them but if they do not want to listen just do not argue or quarrel. It is not the manner to be a follower of Muhammad s.a.w and his traditions.

This post is just a basic reminder of a fellow Muslim to himself and to others who stepped by. It is not a complete lesson from a qualified teacher! To know in detail, there are specific teachers for this topic of cleanliness. Never stop at one point once we already know but further it as we are trying to reach perfection. Cleanliness is among the branches of the faith.

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!

Sunday, 23 October 2011

Jurisprudence : What is Fiqh or Jurisprudence?

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

This is the Chinese or perhaps Sino-Japanese depiction of King Yama. Buddhists always talk about him when it is regarding punishment that a person will get as a way to cleanse up one's karmma. Usually elders will threaten youngers that King Yama will cut our tongue if we tell lies to others as lying will also bring bad karmma. King Yama is a judge and the guardian of hell. Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms in South East Asia also had used Brahminical texts such as Tharmmasastram to derive code of conduct and legislation provisions in the kingdom or anachakra ruled by a king or chakravarttin. One of the law practiced in ancient Buddhist kingdoms such as of ancient Malay kingdoms are like Sulo or impalement to execute a woman who commit adultery or treason against the king.

We have many branches of knowledge and sciences in the studies of religion after the noble prophet Muhammad s.a.w who is our seal of prophethood had returned to His Mercy. One of them is called as Fiqh. 

So, straight to the point, what is Fiqh brethren? Roughly it is a science related to the Islamic jurisprudence. It is an expansion of the code of conduct where we call it as Shariah and expounded from the glorious Quran. Shariah usually is supplemented by the tradition of prophets and we call tradition as Sunnah of prophets. Sunnah of prophets were re-introduced again by the noble prophet Muhammad s.a.w and some came from him according to the period where he live. Shariah which consists of the conducts of life from the sources of Quran and Sunnah then will be implemented through rulings and interpretations of jurists whom we call as Qadhi. 

Sometimes I would also refer to Jesus Christ as a future Qadhi. I will always wait for his arrival and rulings if I do not die yet. It actually signifies the end of the world : ) We already have our own guidelines and we do not need others to teach us especially in our own countries. The God is teaching us with basic rulings and the observance of morality is considered as apart of the prevention of evil and crimes. We don't need secularism or French concepts of looking at this world. French are just human-being and human-being are imperfect. We also don't need Karl Marx to teach us or whatever ideology proposed by these people. Those ideologies are anathematized and not natural. I would translate the word anathematize for my Malaysian compatriots as dilaknat.  We refuse to accept their ideas as they also refused to accept others' ideas. If they perceive others as barbarians, we also perceive them as barbarians. 

我詛咒歐鬼的思想... 他們多數人不接收啟示然後他們學的事沒有天的指導和聖靈... 別人都可以說出來他們的偏見對我們的道,我們的聖人和穆斯林所以我也想嘗試看感覺是怎樣,哈哈哈... 我感覺很蠢...  

Fiqh deals with the observance of rituals, morals and social legislation in Islam. For Orthodox Sunnah Muslims, we have four schools of Fiqh established by four honorable imams which are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'ie and Hanbali. Our Shi'a Muslim brothers have two major schools of Fiqh inherited from Ja'afar as-Sadiq and Isma'ili Fatimiyya. Those who are trained in this science will be called as Fuqaha' (sing. Faqih). I am following and learning the method of Hanbali and most of brothers in Saudi Arabia are also following Hanbali methods. My brothers in Malaysia, Yemen, Lower Myanmar, Indonesia, and Southern Thailand are following Shafi'ie methods. My brothers in China and India are following Hanafi and those in Northern Africa in general are following Maliki methods. 

Definitions of Jurisprudence

Fiqh literally means the science of something in order to understand something, common sense in it, and the thought for the honor of the science of law as the quote from the glorious Quran where the God mentioned again what the people of Sho'ayb (Jethro) said to Sho'ayb a.s : "They said, o Sho'ayb! We do not understand many of what you had said and we indeed only see you as a weak person in front of us. If not because of your family, we would have thrown you with stones. And you are not respected for us." (Surah Huud verse 91). And the word understand in the verse signifies anything which lead people to think and ponder.

Terminologically, Fiqh means the science on the rulings of the way of leading life, practices, benefits, based from valid and accurate proofs in accordance to the origin of the fiqh or understanding.  

So, basically when newspapers wanted to tell everyone about this, they should also check the books and sources regarding this from the root source and not just from internet googling or by reading something at the surface. Reporters today are just as ignorant and irresponsible as the mat rempits who illegally racing on the road and later banging young bitchy girls if they won the illegal race. Orientalists, they went to study these too but they were also bias. The same thing also happen to some Muslims who just google up this and that about other system of belief or faith or reading certain blog related to some nonsense conspiracy theories which denies the Wisdom of the God the Most Highest. 

My past experience as a "deviant Muslim" boy for few years in my life had also helped me to understand many things and I found that bashing others are just making people mind restless and later it affects the environment around. These kind of people would put some information in their sites or books and they later including their opinions based from their hatred to others, irrationality, unstable emotion or based from their perception game. Nothing is better than whatever they think because the thing which they prefer will eventually come to their favor. They could not propagate anything without telling that others are less better than them. Later others who had never read root sources and sharing the same hatred would also use the points from that and spread it worldwide. Again, these sick people no matter Muslims or non-Muslims need heart and soul purification. They would also easily being affected by diseases and die early I could assure this because not only glorious Quran talked about people who bite their fingers because of baseless anger but also the teachings that I had followed for some times which was Buddhism : )

Regarding science in religion, Ibnu Khaldun in his book Muqaddima (Introduction) had divided science into two branches :

I. Rational ones which have been generated by human intellect. Another one is revelational which is received through revelation and transmitted to others such as what happened to prophets for example the noble prophet Muhammad s.a.w who had received knowledge through revelation and not from studying it in school and he then transmitted it orally to his companions, contemporary, people around him, and later generations.

II. Excludes the use of intellect as far as its reception, reporting, and transmission are concerned. It relates to injunctions of secondary report, derived from usool or origin, calls it into play one's intellect and ability to exercise analogical reasoning. Fiqh is included in this second category. It is a product of later generations since companions of prophet Muhammad s.a.w do not need its formulation into a new branch of science as the law-submitter or the prophet and messenger of the God was still around with them. They may straight away ask the prophet s.a.w for clarification or looking at how he acts when they are not clear on something.

Sources for Legislation Reference

Many people can understand about British Common Law on how the decisions were derived. Whether from past cases as examples for rulings of court or from the jurists decision like some raping cases in the United States. I do watched American short series but I can't remember all of them. Some scene, I still could remember. 

I also learned legal language which involved the Common Law and Tort Law during our translation and interpretation class where one of our lecturer is a Sikh lawyer whose name is Harpal Singh. Well, many students especially girls love him and he is a single guy in the middle age. For me, he is a generous guy who donated a lot to students in order to make class more lively and interactive. I gave all of the food that I get from his class to my roommate, brother Zaydi simply because his father name is Hussein and I want him to be my imam in prayer services in our room. I think he must thought that I was crazy, hahaha. I was also fasting to calm down my mind at that time but I could not waste the food so I just offer them to my roommate and sometimes if I have vegetarian meals I would also offer them to some Hindu friends neighboring my room. At least my acquaintance and friends are healthy and they could save their money, I would be very happy : ) I treated brother Zaydi badly in the beginning simply because he is a Kelantanese and I was also influenced by bad talks of people around. It has to do with misconception and generalization too that we become racist, no? We never have any contact with majority of certain people that we don't really like so we created some negative image for something that we had never experienced. Just get a life and do beneficial things like enhancing amity among human, environment, and animals instead of spreading hatred just because of differences and misconception...

From what I had also learned in our masjids and school for final exam for the course of Islamic Rulings and Legislation, our sources for rulings and details must be obviously come from :  

1. The Glorious Quran.
2. Sunnah or the prophetic traditions and Orthodox Sunnah Muslim have four major methods.
3. Ijma' (agreement) between jurists and ulamas.
4. Qiyyas or common sense for matters which had never happened during prophetic era like smoking which kills others because of the smoke is harmful for human health and environment or rulings regarding the selling of harmful drugs or cracks. It needs human intellectual consideration and jurists need to think or using their head. It also needs researches and evidences.
5. Sources of rulings and legislation from the Ahlul Bayt.     

The Root of Fiqh

What is the root of Fiqh? It refers to methods which had been implied within the derivation of the development of legal provisions of the way from detailed and discreet proofs. On the other hand, the root of Fiqh which places the root or basic methods to develop jurisdiction and legal provisions according to clear Divine guidance and guidelines. The relevance of Fiqh is for jurists to derive legal provisions and rulings with clear evidence in order to implement the execution of nature laws from it.

While for the root of Fiqh, its motive is to to find clear evidence from where emerged the object of evidence on the legal provisions. And each that had been stated from the agreement and consideration based on common sense which falls under the name (of legal opinion) which includes :

1. Plaudits : It is reversing the jurisdiction of the way for example on the provisions on what had been perceived to face is stronger and reversing the jurists.

2. Sent Interests : The meanings or the matters which are linked to the jurisdiction and developed upon it and causing damage or harmful to human society however yet it is always being discussed. 

3. Known to people : It means legal opinions which is based on customs and norms. Custom or norms which is known to people, whatever had been in the character of speech, verbal, their way of thinking, and whatever is accepted and not accepted by the norms of society being repeated until it is accepted by the jurists and there are also other sources to derive opinion on jurisdiction between trained jurists in addition to whatever had already existed in agreement of jurists and various of considerations whether the past or through any other methods proposed by jurists. Sometimes those in India or Pakistan also seeking Brahmin priests to derive law and the effect is that, we can see people without nose or ears because those priests are using Tharmmasastram and Puranas in the derivation of customary law. Media then capture the pics and showing it to lazy people or those who has no feet to come to talk with real people asking this and that.

Saturday, 20 August 2011

Act of Worship: How We Perform Salat?

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah!


I believe that there are many books and materials talking about this particular matter. I just want to revise again what I have in my head regarding this subject matter. When we keep our own notes, we tend to remember more rather than just reading. Salat is one among those basic things in acts of worship and core matter in pillar of Islam. If our salat is not perfect and we do it without understanding, we will face the problem regarding our daily life. This temporary life is the bridge for us to the hereafter.

First of all, what does salat mean? Salat means the act where we seek connection with the God. It is a formal prayer for us where we prostrate to Him with several rules. This word comes from the semitic root word which is صل sil. From this word only, we could derive many other words related to soul and connection between souls and the God such as صلاة salat, صلوات salawat, صلاة الرحيم silaaturraheem and etc.

In our national language, we simply say sembahyang when refering to salat. It literally means respecting the heaven. Hyang refers to anything up the heaven and our forefathers who came by to South East Asia since 10th C as missionaries had used local words used by natives when teaching the path to people around as to make it easy for everyone to grasp the essence of teachings. Northern Muslim Indians may say namas which means bowing to the God and it was derived from Sanskrit root word. When we perform salat, we are communicating with the God through these categories of acts...

Categories of the Acts in Salaat

There are 3 categories of the acts in salaat:

1. قلبِ qalbi which means heart and mental related to intention.
2. قولِ qawli which means oral related to recitation
3. فعلِ fi'liy means acts performed in salat.

These three categories can be seen in the pillars of salat which consists of 13 articles. There are also conditions which obligate a person to perform salat and also the condition for a validate salat. We could check it ourselves after we slowly learn about these, don't worry.

Pre-Salat Acts

First of all before we perform any salat, we have to perform ritual washing which is called as wudhu'. As for me, I am following the method of Hanbali angle of sunnah. Not much different to Syafi'ie jurisprudence. I would like to inform that, most Wahhabis whom most people in Malaysia always associate with those from Hejaz are following Hanbali method of jurisprudence. There is no such thing of madzhab Wahhabi and I also despise those 'Wahhabis' who simply accuse this and that as innovation because they are not masters of Quran, hadiths and sunnah while just depending on their syeikhs. I would talk about how to perform wudhu' maybe later if I am free and I could find my notes that I jot down. Those from Syafi'ie angle of sunnah please perform it according to the imam which you have your naqal (riding for practices) on him.

Pillars of Salat   

Basically, pillars of salat altogether consists of 13 articles in it. They are:

Beginning the salat

Standing straight

For those who are able to stand straight since leaning or not standing upright in salat will invalidate the salat. For those who can't because of illness, they may perform it in postures that they are comfortable with.

Intention

In Arabic it is called as النية an-niyyah. Usually we will recite the intention such as: "I perform this obligatory salat (the name of salat) (how many units) only for Allah the Most Highest." We also mentally recite it in our heart because heart is the place where sincerity comes. Niyyah is to make sure that we are aware that we are performing the salat.   

Takbeeratul Ihram

It is spelled like this تكبيرة الأحرام in Arabic. What does it mean? It literally means saluting to magnify the God. It is done simultaneously with intention. Raising our hands up to the level of shoulders. Our fingers slightly apart and touching earlobes. When doing this, we say الله أكبر Allahuakbar which means, the God is the Almighty.

Reciting the al-Fatihah

In every unit of salat, we need to begin with al-Fatihah. The first verse of al-Fatihah is بسم الله basmallah which means "in the Name of the God, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful." In obligatory salat, we must also recite another surah for first two units. But in superoregatory salat, al-Fatihah is sufficient. If a person could not yet memorize the Arabic version, just recite them in his or her mother tongue. But make sure to learn the Arabic verses for recitation time by time. Al-Fatihah is a supplication and it ends with amin.

In Every Units of Salat   

Ruku' and Tama'ninah

ركوع ruku' means bowing like we see the Japanese always do when greeting others. We bow after the recitation of surah al-Fatihah and another surah. What is طمأنينة tama'ninah? Tama'ninah is not my girlfriend, lol. Tama'ninah means tranquility or stopping for a second after we perform such an act like ruku' or others. While performing ruku' we will recite three times, سبحان ربِّىَ العظيم وبحمده subhaana rabbiyal 'azeemi wa bi-hamdihi which means glory be to the God the Most Greatest.

I'tidal and Tama'ninah

After we perform ruku', we will perform إعتدال i'tidal. I'tidal is standing again after bowing. While we raise up to stand again, we would raise up also our hands to the level of shoulders and saying سمعَ اللهُ لِمَن حمدَه samee'allahu li-man hamidah. It means, the God is listening to those who praise Him. Say ربنا و لكَ الحمد rabbanaa wa la-ka-l hamd which means our Lord, for You praises and say الله أكبر Allahuakbar before perform the sujud or prostration.

Prostration

Prostration or سجود sujud involves seven of body parts placed upon the floor where we prostrate. Those parts are: bare forehead including the point of nose, both palms, both knees, and base of toes for both feet. While prostrating, we say سبحان ربى الأعلى و بحمده subhaana-rabbiya-l a'alaa wa bihamdihi which means glory be to the Lord the Most Highest and praises only for Him. For each unit of salat, we have two prostrations. Between those prostrations, there is a sitting posture. We say, اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لِي، وَارْحَمْنِي، وَاهْدِنِي، وَاجْبُرْنِي، وَعَافِنِي، وَارْزُقْنِي، وَارْفَعْنِي allahumm-aghfirli-wa-r-hamni-wa-hdini-wa-jburni-wa-'aafiniy-wa-rzuqniy-wa-r-fa'niy and it means our Lord please forgive us, and have mercy on me, and guide me, and support me, and protect me, and sustain me, and elevate me from evil. 

Concluding Salat

Sitting for Tashahod Akhir

Tashahod akhir must be done in sitting posture. It is the conclusion of every salat.

Tashahod Akhir

تشهد أخر tashahod akhir is the last testimony. We have several things that we say to conclude our salat. I just provide their meanings here as it is tedious to alternately write in Arabic. We would say: "the respect for the God, blessings and greeting and the goodness and peace may it be poured upon prophet Muhammad s.a.w." We then say, "the peace may it be poured upon us and to all of the servants of the God who are pious." Say: "I bear witness that there is no gods except the God, and I bear witness that Muhammad s.a.w is His servant and His messenger to us." 

Prayers for prophet Muhammad s.a.w and patriarch Abraham a.s
 
Then say the greeting and prayers for both prophets Muhammad s.a.w and patriarch Abraham a.s: "Our Lord please be in connection with our prophet Muhammad s.a.w and his family as you had been in connection with our patriarch Abraham a.s and his family. Our Lord, please bless our prophet Muhammad s.a.w and his family. As you had blessed our patriarch Abraham a.s and his family before. In the Universe and worlds, indeed only You are the One worth receiving praises and glory."

First Greeting 

We call this as duruud. Turn to the right side and say: "peace be upon you and mercy of the God and His blessings." Turning to the left and say the same to our brothers or sisters if in congregational salat service.

Tartib

Movements are done step by step. Other movements and recitations while performing these steps are prophetic traditions (make sure they are with valid evidence). 

For Muslim brothers and sisters of Shi'ite branch, please refer Ayatullah's and Imam Ja'afar guidelines regarding articles of salat and recitations. I wish that we could get benefit from our learning, making us closer to Allah day by day.

Sealed with prayers for peace, mercy, and love, amin!
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