Picture a man of ninety-nine years in the land of Canaan. GOD speaks to him, and the Book of Genesis records what he does next: “And Abraham fell on his face” (Genesis 17:3, KJV). Picture a garden outside Jerusalem on the last night before an arrest: “And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed” (Matthew 26:39, KJV). Between those two scenes lie two thousand years and most of the Hebrew Bible, and the posture never changes.
Anyone who has walked past a mosque at the hour of prayer has seen that posture; the Quran calls it sujud, and it is the heart of the Contact Prayer, Salat. The warrant for setting the two side by side is the Quran's own: "We have sent a messenger to every community" (16:36), and the message was one: "You shall worship GOD, and avoid idolatry." (16:36). GOD "decreed for you the same religion decreed for Noah, and what we inspired to you, and what we decreed for Abraham, Moses, and Jesus" (42:13). If the religion is one, the prayer should look alike across the books. It does.
The posture of the prophets
The King James Bible records the prayer of the prophets in a single recurring phrase. Abraham: “And Abraham fell on his face” (Genesis 17:3). Moses and Aaron, when the congregation rebelled at Kadesh: “And they fell upon their faces” (Numbers 20:6). Joshua before Jericho: “And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship” (Joshua 5:14). Elijah on Carmel “cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees” (1 Kings 18:42). And Jesus in Gethsemane: “And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed” (Matthew 26:39).
Now the Quran. "O you who believe, you shall bow, prostrate, worship your Lord, and work righteousness, that you may succeed." (22:77). To Mary, the mother of Jesus, the angels say: "O Mary, you shall submit to your Lord, and prostrate and bow down with those who bow down." (3:43). Of the believers around the Prophet: "You see them bowing and prostrating, as they seek GOD's blessings and approval. Their marks are on their faces, because of prostrating. This is the same example as in the Torah." (48:29). The Quran does not claim to have invented the prostration; it says the Torah already shows it.
It adds that those who truly know the earlier scripture will recognise the prayer when they hear the Quran: "Those who possess knowledge from the previous scriptures, when it is recited to them, they fall down to their chins, prostrating." (17:107). The project's Quran-aligned edition of the Testament of Abraham keeps the same memory: “So Abraham rose and fell on his face to the ground and prayed to God.”
One caution, because the Quran insists on it. The prostration is for GOD alone: "Do not prostrate before the sun, nor the moon; you shall fall prostrate before the GOD who created them, if you truly worship Him alone." (41:37).
Washed hands and feet
Before Moses and Aaron entered the tent of meeting, they washed. “And Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet thereat; when they went into the tent of the congregation they washed as the Lord commanded Moses” (Exodus 40:31–32, KJV).
The Quran gives the believer the same preparation, in order: "O you who believe, when you observe the Contact Prayers (Salat), you shall: (1) wash your faces, (2) wash your arms to the elbows, (3) wipe your heads, and (4) wash your feet to the ankles." (5:6). The reason given is gentle: "GOD does not wish to make the religion difficult for you; He wishes to cleanse you and to perfect His blessing upon you, that you may be appreciative." (5:6). The laver of Moses and the ablution of the Muslim are one rite.
Shoes off on holy ground
At the burning bush the first thing GOD said to Moses about worship was about his feet: “Put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5, KJV).
The Quran records the same moment and the same command: "I am your Lord; remove your sandals. You are in the sacred valley, Tuwa." (20:12). Two verses on, it tells us what Moses was told next: "I am GOD; there is no other god beside Me. You shall worship Me alone, and observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) to remember Me." (20:14). The same prophet, the same bush, the same bare feet, in both books; this is why every mosque has a rack for shoes at the door.
Fixed times, a fixed direction
Daniel in Babylon is the Bible's clearest witness to prayer kept at set hours and facing a set place: “his window being open in his chamber towards Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed” (Daniel 6:10, KJV).
The Quran decrees a direction, and says that the people of the earlier books will know it is right: "Henceforth, you shall turn your face towards the Sacred Masjid. Wherever you may be, all of you shall turn your faces towards it. Those who received the previous scripture know that this is the truth from their Lord." (2:144). The direction is for unity; the Kaaba is a point to face, never an object of worship, the shrine Abraham was told to purify "for those who visit, those who live there, and those who bow and prostrate." (2:125).
The Quran also fixes the hours. "You shall observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) at both ends of the day, and during the night." (11:114). "You shall consistently observe the Contact Prayers, especially the middle prayer, and devote yourselves totally to GOD." (2:238). And the principle behind them: "the Contact Prayers (Salat) are decreed for the believers at specific times." (4:103).
Daniel's three times a day is not the Quran's count, and this article does not pretend it is. What the two books share is the thing itself: prayer by the clock and by the compass. The Secrets of Enoch (Quran-aligned edition) advises: “Morning, midday and evening it is good to go into the house of the Lord to glorify the Creator of all” (2 Enoch 51:4).
Hands spread, and a GOD who is near
When Solomon finished his prayer at the dedication of the temple, he “arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven” (1 Kings 8:54, KJV). The Odes of Solomon (Quran-aligned edition), an early Syriac hymn-book, open several songs the same way: “I stretched out my hands and hallowed my Lord” (Ode 27:1).
Jesus, before raising Lazarus, “lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me,” and said why he said it aloud: “that they may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 11:41–42, KJV).
The Quran gives the promise that stands behind every spread hand in every scripture: "When My servants ask you about Me, I am always near. I answer their prayers when they pray to Me. The people shall respond to Me and believe in Me, in order to be guided." (2:186).
The call to assembly
Moses was told to “make thee two trumpets of silver” for “the calling of the assembly” (Numbers 10:1–3, KJV). The Quran: "O you who believe, when the Congregational Prayer (Salat Al-Jumu`ah) is announced on Friday, you shall hasten to the commemoration of GOD, and drop all business." (62:9). The parallel is one of function, a public summons to common prayer, and the project grades it so.
Fasting, as it was decreed for those before
Here the Quran does the work of the comparison itself: "O you who believe, fasting is decreed for you, as it was decreed for those before you, that you may attain salvation." (2:183). The rule is a dawn-to-sunset abstention: "You may eat and drink until the white thread of light becomes distinguishable from the dark thread of night at dawn. Then, you shall fast until sunset." (2:187). It adds that "GOD wishes for you convenience, not hardship" (2:185).
The Bible's reader will think of Moses' forty days and of Jesus' forty days in the wilderness. The project's own editions supply the witnesses it can quote. In the Apocalypse of Abraham (Quran-aligned edition), Abraham is told to “abstain from every kind of food that comes from the fire, and from drinking wine, and from anointing yourself with oil, for forty days,” and reports: “I ate no bread and drank no water.” In 4 Ezra (Quran-aligned edition): “So I fasted seven days, mourning and weeping, as the angel Uriel had commanded me” (4 Ezra 5:20).
Whose prayer is it?
The Quran answers plainly: Abraham's. Of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: "We made them imams who guided in accordance with our commandments, and we taught them how to work righteousness, and how to observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) and the obligatory charity (Zakat)." (21:73). Of the believer's religion: "He has chosen you and has placed no hardship on you in practicing your religion - the religion of your father Abraham." (22:78). Abraham's own prayer is recorded: "My Lord, make me one who consistently observes the Contact Prayers (Salat), and also my children. Our Lord, please answer my prayers." (14:40). Khalifa draws the conclusion: the Contact Prayers “were originally revealed through Abraham (21:73, 22:78)” (Khalifa's footnote to 2:3).
The chain runs on through the prophets the Bible's reader knows. Ismail "used to enjoin his family to observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) and the obligatory charity (Zakat); he was acceptable to his Lord." (19:55). Israel's covenant at Sinai included it: "You shall observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) and give the obligatory charity (Zakat)." (2:83). And Jesus, speaking from the cradle: "He made me blessed wherever I go, and enjoined me to observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) and the obligatory charity (Zakat) for as long as I live." (19:31).
So when a Jew reads of Abraham on his face, or a Christian reads of Jesus on his face, and then sees a Muslim on his face, the Quran's claim is not that the Muslim has copied them. It is that all three are doing what Abraham was taught. And the purpose is one sentence any reader of the Psalms would sign: "the Contact Prayers prohibit evil and vice. But the remembrance of GOD (through Salat) is the most important objective." (29:45).
Add nothing, take nothing away
Moses closed his law with a rule about the law: “Whatsoever thing I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it” (Deuteronomy 12:32, KJV). The Quran lays down the same rule for itself: "The word of your Lord is complete, in truth and justice. Nothing shall abrogate His words." (6:115).
This is why the article has quoted only what GOD says about the prayer; where the Quran is silent, the article is silent, and what tradition adds is labelled as tradition. It is Moses' principle.
What to show first
To a Jewish or Christian listener, do not begin with a rule; begin with a picture. Read Genesis 17:3, Numbers 20:6, Joshua 5:14, 1 Kings 18:42 and Matthew 26:39 in their own King James Bible, one after another, and let the phrase “fell on his face” do its work. Then show Exodus 40:31–32 beside 5:6, Exodus 3:5 beside 20:12, and Daniel 6:10 beside 2:144. Only then read 22:77 and 48:29, with its line about the Torah, and 2:183, "as it was decreed for those before you" (2:183). Close with 21:73 and 19:31, so the listener hears the Quran credit their Abraham and their Jesus with this very prayer. Keep the number of daily prayers and the details of the rite for later; the posture is the common ground.
Where the evidence is strong, and where it is not
The prostration texts are the strongest material in this series: five Biblical prophets, in the KJV, in the posture the Quran decrees (ledger row 6.1). The ablution (6.2), the bare feet (6.4), the direction and fixed hours (6.3), the spread hands (6.5), the Quran's own statement that fasting was decreed for those before (6.7), and the rule against adding and diminishing (6.22) are all graded STRONG. The silver trumpets beside the Friday call (6.6) are a parallel of function only, graded MODERATE, and the article uses them as nothing more.
Three honest limits. Daniel's three times a day is not a proof-text for the Quran's count of prayers; the article leaves the count to the Quran's own verses and to Khalifa's footnotes, which are footnotes, not verse. The Bible's own fasting texts (Leviticus 16, Isaiah 58, Matthew 6) are not yet transcribed in the project in a named translation, so they are not quoted; the Apocalypse of Abraham and 4 Ezra stand in, and they are late Jewish writings, confirmations rather than authorities. Exodus 30:19–21, the command behind the washing in Exodus 40, is likewise only referred to.
Two popular claims are deliberately left out. The popular presentations' list of medical benefits of prostration is at most an illustration and never a proof (Methodology R5). And Matthew 27:46, the cry from the cross, is not used in this series as a saying of Jesus, because the Final Testament holds that "they never killed him, they never crucified him - they were made to think that they did" (4:157), and that GOD said, "O Jesus, I am terminating your life, raising you to Me" (3:55); on Khalifa's reading (footnote to 4:157–158; Appendix 22), the soul of Jesus was raised and the body on the cross was an empty shell. The prayers of Jesus quoted here are those of Gethsemane and Bethany, before any arrest.
The reader is asked, in the Quran's own words, to check all of it: "You shall not accept any information, unless you verify it for yourself." (17:36).
The prophets' prayer is one prayer. The next article, The same table, sits down at their table, and finds the same four prohibited foods in the Torah and the Quran, and the same warning against wine from Solomon to the Tamil sage.
Sources
- The Holy Bible, King James Version: Genesis 17:3; Numbers 10:1–3; 20:6; Joshua 5:14; 1 Kings 8:54; 18:42; Daniel 6:10; Exodus 3:5; 40:31–32; Deuteronomy 12:32; Matthew 26:39; John 11:41–42.
- Quran: The Final Testament, Authorized English Version, Rashad Khalifa (AEV): 2:83, 2:125, 2:144, 2:183, 2:185, 2:186, 2:187, 2:238, 3:43, 3:55, 4:103, 4:157, 5:6, 6:115, 11:114, 14:40, 16:36, 17:36, 17:107, 19:31, 19:55, 20:12, 20:14, 21:73, 22:77, 22:78, 29:45, 41:37, 42:13, 48:29, 62:9; Khalifa's footnotes to 2:3 and 4:157–158.
- Theory of Everything project, Quran-aligned editions: The Testament of Abraham; 4 Ezra 5:20; The Secrets of Enoch 51:4; The Odes of Solomon 27:1; The Apocalypse of Abraham.
- Theory of Everything project, master document One Message, Many Witnesses, Strand 6, rows 6.1–6.7 and 6.22; §12; §13.
- Popular presentations consulted: Ahmed Deedat, The Muslim at Prayer; Zakir Naik (IRF) lectures on the similarities between Islam and Christianity.