Surah 2. Al-Baqara

262After enunciating rules and regulations for ensuring social welfare and for leading a civilized life, Allah has impressed the importance of the Salat as a finishing touch because it alone can produce fear of Allah and feelings of virtue and piety and create the attitude of obedience to the Divine Law and keep one on the right path. None can remain firm in one's obedience to the Law of Allah without Salat, for one is liable to swerve into one kind of disobedience or the other like the Jews.

263Interpreters differ in regard to the meaning of "Salat-al-wusta"but the majority of them are of the opinion that it refers to one of the five Prayers, and most of them have opined that it is the "Asr Prayer." There is, however, no definite saying of the Holy Prophet in support of any of these interpretations. Those who are in favour of the " `Asr Prayer" infer their opinion from this Tradition: In the "Battle of the Clans," the Holy Prophet was so engaged in repelling the invasion of the enemies that he got no time to offer the " `Asr Prayer" till sunset. Then he said, "May Allah fill their graves with fire for depriving us of our 'Salat al-wusta'." From this they infer that by "Salat al-wusta" is meant the " 'Asr Prayer." But in my opinion what the Holy Prophet meant by this was that they were responsible for the spiritual loss the Muslims had suffered by their inability to offer their " 'Asr Prayer" in time and with peace of mind. As the Prayer whose loss the Holy Prophet regretted happened to be the " 'Asr Prayer," the interpreters were led to conclude that the "'Asr Prayer" itself was the Salat al- wu.sta.

The Arabic word "wusta" means both middle and excellent. Thus, Salat al-wusta implies both the middle Prayer and also an excellent Prayer which is said in time and with full attention to Allah, that is, a Prayer which has all the excellent qualities of Salat. The subsequent sentence, "Stand before Allah like obedient servants", itself supports the interpretation that it meant an excellent Prayer offered to Allah, having all the excellent qualities of Salat, and not any one particular Prayer out of the five prescribed Prayers.