Note: The points below are my opinion based on my knowledge of salah/prayer.

While in prayer, one must have absolute concentration and you should not be thinking about anything outside of the salah itself. Nevertheless, every now and then our mind wanders off and we begin to think and it happens to the best and the common believers. When you lose concentration remember why you are praying to bring yourself back into concentration. You are essentially speaking to Allah (SWT) who is watching you as you pray, who can hear what you say during prayer, who knows what you are thinking as you pray to him, and much more. The Islamic term to describe how one should pray is khushu which means to have humility in salah.

Outside the standard steps of prayer, you should try your utmost to not move unless it is absolutely necessary. I am talking about anything from scratching an itch, to rocking side to side, fixing your clothing/hat, etc. You should at least make an effort to control the urge before actually moving unnecessarily during prayer.

In prayer, your eyes should always be open but you should not be ‘seeing’ anything. You should not be focusing on what the person next to you is doing, what is on the floor, what is on your clothes, or anything in your sight. It is important to make sure the area you are praying on and your clothes are clean/pure.

In prayer, you should be silently reciting in a steady pace everything in a way that you are hearing what you are saying but the person praying next to you must not be able to hear you. Only the Imam leading the prayer is able to recite loudly to lead the prayer. You have to use your tongue to recite during prayer not just say it in your head, but not so loud to disturb or distract others. If you sneeze, hear someone sneeze, give salam, etc. you must not respond during prayer. The only exception would be if the Imam makes a mistake, where you must correct him.

In prayer, it is important to pray in a room where there is no sound, talking, etc. When praying behind an Imam it is important to listen to his recitation and move after him. You should not move with the Imam or before the Imam. Prayer is meant to be done together and to do that everyone must follow the Imam and move after him. In addition, we should not move too fast or too slow after the Imam has given the direction to move to the next step in prayer. Ideally, everyone should be moving simultaneously behind the Imam.

In the masjid, it is important to silence your phone or leave your phone at home. No Muslim should be calling you around the time of prayer and they themselves should be preparing to pray, praying, or know you will be praying. If you think about it, if every Muslim is praying at the time of prayer, nothing bad should happen to a Muslim during the time of any prayer in your community requiring a phone call. Finally, always pray on time and it is a great practice be ready before the adzan is given. Aim to be the first to be at the masjid and last to leave for the most blessings.

Do not disturb a person in prayer in any way while they are in prayer such as talking to someone, walking in front of them, using the phone, bumping into them, etc. because you will be responsible for any mistakes made in their prayer from the loss of concentration you cause. One should not talk loudly as long as there is someone still praying. Additionally, you should only talk about good and important things in the masjid.

Do not walk in front of anyone in prayer because it is like walking in between that person and Allah (SWT) as the person is ‘communicating’ to Allah (SWT). Go around behind the person praying or wait for the person to finish. Put something in front of you if there is the possibility of people walking in front of you.

For clothing, it is best to wear the Islamic attire called thawb or thobe to the masjid. Long sleeves shirts are the preferred alternative and short sleeve shirts are also okay as long as the sleeves are long enough to come to or cover the elbow. The clothing must be clean, not have any pictures, and not be distracting which would be things such as dangling chains, scarfs, neckless, etc. For pants, it is preferred to wear long pants and it is sunnah to not have the pants cover your ankles. Short pants can be worn as long as they go below the knee. The most important thing to mention that people do not do nowadays, which is also preferred, is to wear a cap called taqiyah or kufi to the masjid. It is okay not to wear it but are you satisfied with just being okay when you pray to Allah (SWT)?

Lastly, it is not possible to pray salah perfectly and to the extent that Allah (SWT) deserves to be prayed to as. This is why after the prayer is finished we say ‘Astagfirullah’ 3 times because only Allah (SWT) knows how well we pray. Try your best to obtain khushu which will come naturally the more you pray, the more you know about Islam, the more your practice Islam.