Jack’s Asalatu Empowerment - Empowering Asalatu Members

2. Asalatu Explained: Origins, Purpose, and Why It Still Matters Today When you walk into almost any Yoruba Muslim community in Nigeria on a Sunday morning, you will find something happening that has no obvious equivalent in mainstream understandings of Islamic practice, which is a full auditorium, printed prayer books in hand, a missioner at the front, and hundreds of people reciting together in unison.  Ask what's going on, and you'll get one word which is Asalatu. Ask what it actually means, why it exists, or where it came from, and most people, and even regular attendees will struggle to give you a full answer. This piece tries to. Where the Word Comes From Asalatu traces its root to the Arabic word "Salat," meaning prayer which is the same root behind the five daily obligatory prayers every Muslim performs. But over time, in Yoruba Muslim usage, the word picked up a more specific meaning. Rather than referring to a single prescribed prayer, Asalatu came t...