Asr

Asr is the afternoon prayer. We pray it when the sun has moved well past its highest point, but is still up in the sky. For most kids, that means sometime in the late afternoon, when school might be ending or you are getting ready for dinner.

Asr has 4 rakat, the same structure as Dhuhr. Like Dhuhr, it is a quiet prayer, which means when you pray it for real, you say the words softly to yourself. Sofia will recite them out loud here so you can hear and learn.

Asr is sometimes called "the middle prayer" because of a special verse in the Quran (2:238) that says to guard all the prayers, and especially the middle one. Many scholars say this middle prayer is Asr, because it comes in the middle of the busy afternoon when people might forget. So when you remember to pray Asr, you are doing something extra special.

Every rakat begins with Al-Fatiha (the opening of the Quran). In Asr, you only add a short surah after Al-Fatiha in the first two rakat. In rakats three and four, you say Al-Fatiha by itself.

You get to choose which surah comes after Al-Fatiha in the first two rakat. When you tap practice, you'll pick from the surahs you have learned. Here's what each rakat looks like:

Short surahs like Al-Ikhlas, An-Nas, and Al-Falaq are great choices, and it's nice to pick a different one for the second rakat.

After the second rakat, you sit for a short moment to say the tashahhud, then stand back up for the third rakat. The full sitting with tashahhud, durood, and salaam happens at the very end, after the fourth rakat.

If you don't know how to pray one rakat yet, that's okay! Start with the Start Here lesson first. Layth and Sofia will teach you each posture and recitation, one step at a time.

Once you've learned one rakat, you'll be ready to practice any of the five daily prayers.