The word · Worship
سِواك
Siwak
A twig used to clean the teeth, recommended before prayer, wudu, and on waking.
Also written · Miswak · Meswak · Siwaak · Misvak · Arak stick · Salvadora persica · tooth stick · chewing stick
The meaning
What Siwak means in Islam
It is cut from the arak tree, softened at one end into bristles. The Prophet said that were it not a hardship, he would have ordered it before every prayer. It is a sunnah of cleanliness rather than a condition of anything, and a toothbrush achieves most of the same purpose for anyone who has no arak wood.
Evidence · Sunnah · Established in the authentic Sunnah
Read beside it
Rooms that name it
Words that sit beside it
- WuduThe washing done before prayer: face, arms to the elbows, wiping the head, and feet to the ankles.وُضوء
- TaharahRitual purity, the state a person must be in before praying and, for most scholars, before touching the Qur'an.طَهارَة
- SalahThe formal Muslim prayer, performed five times a day at set times, facing Makkah.الصَّلاة
More from Worship
- AdhanThe call announcing that a prayer time has entered, given aloud before each obligatory prayer.أَذان
- HalqShaving the head after the rites, which releases the pilgrim from the state of ihram.حَلْق
- KaffarahA fixed expiation owed for certain deliberate breaches, heavier than simply making the act up.كَفّارَة
- NiyyahThe intention in the heart that turns an ordinary act into an act of worship.نِيَّة
- Salat al-IstikharahTwo voluntary rak'ahs followed by a supplication asking Allah to choose the better of two paths.صَلاةُ الاسْتِخارَة
- Tamattu'One of the three ways to perform hajj: umrah first, then leaving ihram, then hajj from Makkah.تَمَتُّع