Salat is Central to the Practice and Guidance of Prophets Historically

[Just to let you know, the text below is a transcription of what I've said in this video. So please excuse any words or phrases that don't quite look right.]

After relating the stories and key incidents of the lives of many different prophets, including key statements, key incidents, and specific features of their missions and their lives, Allah, in Surat Al-Anbiya summarises [Quran, 21:73]:

<< وَجَعَلناهُم أَئِمَّةً >>

wa-jaʿalnāhum ʾaʾimmatan

We made all of them either prophets, leaders.

<< يَهدونَ بِأَمرِنا >>

yahdūna bi-ʾamrinā

Guiding others by our command.

<< وَأَوحَينا إِلَيهِم فِعلَ الخَيراتِ وَإِقامَ الصَّلاةِ وَإيتاءَ الزَّكاةِ >>

wa-ʾawḥaynā ʾilayhim fiʿla l-khayrāti wa-ʾiqāma ṣ-ṣalāti wa-ʾītāʾa z-zakāti

And we inspire them to do good works, to keep up their prayer, to give alms.

<< وَكانوا لَنا عابِدينَ >>

wa-kānū lanā ʿābidīn.

They were our true worshippers.

Allah put Salat and Zakat in the context of the mandate, the function, and the role of prophets. Not only in terms of personal practise, but in terms of the guidance that they should provide.

This is one of those verses where you can ask yourself that question: why are Salat and Zakat need to be mentioned here?

Because if you read the rest of the verse and you omit those two things, the verse is complete and would even contain the ideas of Salat and Zakat.

We made all of them, the prophets, leaders, guiding others by our command, we inspired them to do good work, they were our true worshippers. This is a complete sentence that would cover Salat, Zakat and all sorts of other things. 

But specifically, Salat and Zakat are mentioned. They're emphasised. There's something about these two. They're so important, central, core and critical. 

The key point here is the fact of Salat being central to the personal practise and the guidance of prophets historically. We'll see that through the lives of many narrations in relation to a whole number of prophets.