Can you pray in English?

You can pray to Allah in English. Duʿāʾ, the personal prayer in which you speak to Allah about your life, may be made in any language, as the great majority of scholars hold. Allah created every language and hears every heart. The formal prayer (ṣalāh) has its Quranic recitation in Arabic, the language in which the Quran was revealed. A new Muslim who has not learned it yet still prays, with whatever they are able to say, and learns step by step. The tradition is gentle with beginners, and so is Allah.

Can you make dua in English?

Yes, and the great majority of scholars permit it. Allah says:

وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌۖ أُجِيبُ دَعۡوَةَ ٱلدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِ

“When My servants ask you about Me, I am near. I answer the call of the one who calls, whenever he calls on Me.”

Quran 2:186

The verse places no condition of language on the caller. The Quran counts the variety of human tongues among Allah’s signs:

وَٱخۡتِلَٰفُ أَلۡسِنَتِكُمۡ وَأَلۡوَٰنِكُمۡ

“And the diversity of your languages and your colors.”

Quran 30:22

Every messenger, it says, was sent “in the language of his people” (14:4). Allah understands English, Urdu, Swahili, and Spanish as He understands Arabic, and He understands the prayer that has no words at all. Pour out your heart in the language you dream in. Practical guidance is in How do you make dua?

Can you pray salah in English?

The formal prayer has a fixed form: standing, bowing, prostrating, sitting, and the recitation of al-Fātiḥa and other passages of the Quran. Most jurists hold that this recitation must be in Arabic, because the Quran is the revealed Arabic words, and a translation is a human rendering of their meaning (see Can you read the Quran in English?).

Within that view, the scholars took great care to make room for people who cannot yet recite Arabic. Imam Abu Hanifa (d. 767), may Allah have mercy on him, allowed the meaning of the Quran to be recited in Persian in the prayer. His students Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani limited this to someone unable to recite Arabic, and later Hanafi authorities report that Abu Hanifa came to agree with them. The school’s position, then, is that a person who truly cannot manage the Arabic is not turned away from prayer.

The Persian-speaking lands carried this spirit forward. The Samanid ruler Mansur I (r. 961–976) sponsored a Persian translation of al-Ṭabarī’s great commentary on the Quran, so that Persian Muslims could understand what they recited.

What should a new Muslim do before learning Arabic?

The Prophet ﷺ answered this question himself. A man came to him and said he could not manage to learn any of the Quran, and asked what would suffice him. He said:

«قُلْ سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَلاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ وَاللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ وَلاَ حَوْلَ وَلاَ قُوَّةَ إِلاَّ بِاللَّهِ»

“Say: Glory be to Allah, all praise belongs to Allah, there is no god but Allah, Allah is greatest, and there is no power and no strength except through Allah.”

Sunan Abi Dawud 832

The man asked what he could say for himself, and the Prophet ﷺ taught him: “O Allah, have mercy on me, provide for me, keep me well, and guide me.” When the man left, the Prophet ﷺ said he had filled his hands with good (graded hasan by al-Albani).

So a new Muslim can begin praying on the first day. Stand, bow, and prostrate with the community or alone, say these few words in each position, and learn al-Fātiḥa one line at a time. Allah asks of each soul only what it can bear (2:286), and “be mindful of Allah as much as you are able” (Quran 64:16). A step-by-step guide is in How do Muslims pray?

How can I learn the Arabic of the prayer?

• Start with al-Fātiḥa. Seven short verses, recited in every unit of prayer. Listen to a recording, read it in transliteration, and repeat it line by line.
• Pray in congregation. Standing behind an imam who recites aloud lets you hear the words every day.
• Learn the meanings as you learn the sounds. Knowing that “al-ḥamdu lillāhi rabbi l-ʿālamīn” means “praise belongs to Allah, Lord of all the worlds” turns sounds into prayer.
• Keep your own duʿāʾ in English. After the formal prayer, sit and speak to Allah in your own words.
• Be patient with yourself. Learning takes months for many people. Missing words or making mistakes is part of learning (see What if I miss prayers or struggle to pray?).

A closing word

The first word of revelation was “Read” (96:1), and it was given to a man who had never read. Every Muslim learns, one word at a time, and the Prophet ﷺ said that the one who recites the Quran with difficulty, stumbling over it, receives a double reward (Sahih Muslim 798a). Begin where you are, in the language of your heart, and let the Arabic grow in you as a gift.