« a short deliberation on quranic word «salat

the word salat is one of the most significant qur’anic words, which is used in various verses. the researchers have suggested various concepts for this word in their researches. however, since these suggestions were not scholarly well-grounded, the choice of the equivalents have somehow suffered disorder and inconsistency. there is also disagreement concerning the root of the word and its being deficient in waw or ya. etymological study indicates that salat is among the common words in the semitic group of languages, which the early arab poets have employed and it has been a quite familiar word in the pre-islamic era. also, the root salu has been used in the south arabian epitaphs by the meaning of supplication and ritual prayer. relying on these researches and examining the historico-semantic evolution of the word, this article proposes its equivalent in four sections: a. ritual prayer (the muslims’ doctrinal invocation), b. prayer (personal invocation), c. invocation (in its absolute sense), d. salutation (with the intention of honoring).