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Prayer is an effort to communicate with a God, or to some deity or deities, either to offer praise to the deity, to make a request of the deity, or simply to express one's thoughts and emotions to the deity.

There are a variety approaches to understanding prayer:

The belief that a god listens to prayer, and may or may not respond;
The belief that prayer is intended to inculcate certain attitudes in the one who prays, rather than to influence a god;
The belief that prayer is intended to train a person to focus on a god through philosophy and intellectual contemplation;
The belief that prayer is intended to enable a person to gain a direct experience of a god;
The belief that prayer is intended to affect the very fabric of reality itself.

The existence of prayer is attested in written sources as early as 5000 years ago. Anthropologists believe that the earliest intelligent modern humans practised something that we would recognize today as prayer.

1 The act of prayer

Praying has many different forms. Prayer may be done privately and individually, or it may be done corporately in the presence of fellow believers. Some outward acts that sometimes accompany prayer are: ringing a bell; burning incense or paper; lighting a candle or candles; facing a specific direction (i.e. towards Mecca or the East); making the sign of the cross.

A variety of body postures may be assumed, often with specific meaning associated with them: standing; sitting; kneeling; prostrate on the floor; eyes opened; eyes closed; hands folded or clasped; hands upraised; and others. Prayers may be recited from memory, read from a book of prayers, or composed spontaneously as they are prayed. They may be said, chanted, or sung. They may be with musical accompaniment or not. There may be a time of outward silence while prayers are offered mentally. Often, there are prayers to fit specific occasions, such as the blessing of a meal, the birth or death of a loved one, other significant events in the life of a believer, or days of the year that have special religious significance. Details corresponding to specific traditions are outlined below.

2 Prayer in the Abrahamic religions

2.1 Prayer in Bible

In the Bible various forms of prayer appear; the most common form is petition. This in many ways is the simplest form of prayer. Some have termed this the "social approach" to prayer. In this view, a person directly confronts God in prayer, and asks for their needs to be fulfilled; God listens to prayer, and may or may not choose to answer. This is the primary approach to prayer found in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, most of the Church writings, and in rabbinic literature such as the Talmud.

More detailed articles exist about prayer specifically in the Hebrew Bible and in the New Testament.

Prayer in the Hebrew Bible
Prayer in the New Testament

2.2 Jewish prayer

The siddur is the prayerbook used by Jews the world over, containing a set order of daily prayers. The siddur article describes the general order of Jewish prayer services, and how the siddur has developed. There is a separate entry on the specific prayers that appear in the siddur, what they mean, and how they evolved Jewish services.

The most important Jewish prayers are the Shema Yisrael ("Hear O Israel") and the Amidah ("the standing prayer").

2.3 Christian prayer

Jesus provided a model for prayer in The Lord's Prayer. Many Christian denominations also have their own local prayerbooks. Many Christians also devise their own, personal prayers. Prayers said by Christians are described in the article on Prayer in ChristianityThis article is about the many forms of prayer within Christianity. Liturgical Elements of the oldest Christian liturgies may be found in liturgies such as the modern Roman Catholic Mass, the Orthodox Divine Liturgy and Anglican services. Seasonal prayers.

2.4 Islamic prayer

MuslimA Muslim is a believer in or follower of Islam. The word Muslim means one who submits and implies complete submission to the will of God ( Allah). Muslims believe that nature is itself Islamic, since it follows natural laws placed by God. Thus, a Muslim ss pray a brief prayer service called SalahSalah (other terms and spellings exist) is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. It refers to the five daily prayers that Muslims offer to Allah ( God). Being a Pillar of Islam, it is compulsory for every Muslim. Under some circumstances, it may be prescribed in ArabicArabic is a Semitic language, fairly closely related to, for instance, the Hebrew language and the Aramaic language, spoken throughout the Arab world and widely known outside it. It has been a literary language for over 1500 years, and is the liturgical l, facing Makka, five times a day. The "call for prayer" is called AdhanAdhan ( Arabic: an; also: aazan, athan is the Islamic call to prayer, recited by the muezzin. It is pronounced as aathan (the first vowel is prolonged, and th is pronounced as in the English word the''. The root of the word is A/tha/na which means "to per or Azaan.

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