Baha'u'llah, the founder of the Baha'i Faith, revealed three distinct obligatory prayers, short, medium and long, and Baha'i law requires an adult believer to recite exactly one of the three each day, a structure of mandated choice that has no direct parallel in the fixed, singular obligatory prayers of most other traditions with comparable daily prayer requirements. The Short Obligatory Prayer, to be recited once between noon and sunset, is brief enough to complete in under a minute, testifying in a few lines to bearing witness to God's existence, unity, and the truth of God's messengers, and closing with an affirmation of trust in God's guidance for the day.
Unlike the medium and long obligatory prayers, which require specific postures including standing, raising the hands, and bowing at designated points in the text, the Short Obligatory Prayer requires no accompanying physical movement beyond facing the qiblih, the direction of the Shrine of Baha'u'llah near Akka in present-day Israel, a considerably simpler physical requirement than either of the two alternatives. This combination of brevity and minimal physical requirement makes the Short Obligatory Prayer the most commonly chosen of the three among Baha'is balancing daily religious obligation against the practical demands of ordinary working life.