Semantic Analysis of Salat (prayer) in the Quran

Following the methodology of Izutsu, the present article seeks to explain the semantic position of Salat as a focal word based on historical and descriptive semantics. In historical semantics, the basic meaning of the root is taken into consideration relying on the poetry of the Days of Ignorance, historical books, and Quranic commentaries. In descriptive semantics, the semantic relation of the term "Salat" with its syntagms and substitutes in the Quran is analyzed. The outcome of the historical study is that ignorant Arabsconsidered Salat as a devotion and supplication. The descriptive study shows that Salat in its revealed usage is put in the semantic field of such words as supplication, remembrance, and glorification of God, in terms of paradigmatic axis. It is also placed in the semantic field of performance, patience, and modest ones, in terms of syntagmatic axis. One of the important results of the descriptive study is revealing the deep semantic link of Salat with other terms of the same semantic field. These links have causedSalat to be influenced completely by the neighboring words and continue its life in a distinct and transcendent meaning.