Title: Concentration in Prayers & Related Questions Question: Can you tell me what I can do or should do to prevent myself from drifting into irrelevant ideas during my prayer; I know the translation of most Surahs , and do read them with understanding, but even then I find myself losing my focus. Is it required to think of the meaning of the Surah recited for a prayer to be valid? And how much time roughly should be spent upon a normal 4 rakats ... are there any restrictions regarding the length of the surahs recited? And is it permissible to recite an ayat from a Surah .. like say ayat-al-kursi . Allah Hafiz Danish, Canada Answer: For my answer to the first part of your question, please refer to one of my earlier responses to a related question, titled " 'Souping-up' your Prayers ". If you are reciting the various parts of your prayers in Arabic, then you should try to concentrate your mind on the meaning of what you are reciting. Without keeping your mind on the meanings of these words, your recitation would simply be utterances and would not get you the desired results from this recitation. I would further suggest that besides the essential recitations of the prayers, as given in my referred response, you may offer all your supplications in your own language. It is not even necessary to read the translation of the supplications that you would generally recite. You may simply recite your own supplication, which comes to your mind. Nevertheless, even if one was neither aware of the meaning of the Surah that he was reciting nor knew the Arabic language to be able to make a meaning of the recitation, one's prayers would still be valid. The time taken by a four Rak`ah prayer can vary considerably from one person to another depending upon his speed of recitation, the length of Surahs or the number of ayahs of a Surah that he recites and the length and number of supplications that he recites. In view of this significant variation, we cannot make a standard for the time taken by a four- Rak`ah prayer. There is generally no restriction on the length of Surahs that one may recite during his individual prayers. However, when one is leading a congregational prayer, then one should not recite extremely long Surahs or extremely long portions of a Surah , to save the participants of the congregation from any inconvenience. As for your last question, my opinion is in the affirmative. One may recite one verse of a Surah, provided that verse, when taken independently, does not alter or invalidate the meaning implied by it in the Qur'an. Thus, for instance, one may recite Ayat al-Kursiy , as you have mentioned, but one may not recite only the fourth verse of Surah al-Ma`oon [1] (107) - which, when taken independently, may completely distort the meaning implied by it within the Quran - or the first verse of Surah Al-Qaari`ah [2] (100) - which when taken independently carries no sense. I hope this helps. Regards, Moiz Amjad May 10, 2002 [1] The verse reads as: "فويل للمصلين" . [2] The verse reads as: "القارعة" .