Where do We Find Prayer
in The Quran?
by Unknown Author

One of the most famous question that many Muslims ask regarding their own
religion, is their question,

"Where in the Quran do we find details how to perform Salat?"

This favorite question of potential believers exposes their ignorance with the Quran as well as proves that their religion is based purely on heresy and conjecture of their parents, scholars or local mullas.

There are three implications of the Question above:

1. An implication that challenges God's assertion and a subconscious effort to prove that God is wrong in His repeated assertions that Quran is "Complete", "Perfect" and "Fully Detailed".

2. An implication that Hadith contains the details of Salat and therefore Hadith other than the Quran can be used for religious law.

3- An implication that God is wrong in teaching us in the Quran, that all the rituals of Islam, including Salat were given to Abraham.

Those who are knowledgeable of the Quran know that there are two sources for the religion of Islam (Submission in English).

1. The Quran which is COMPLETE, PERFECT and fully details all religious LAW.

2. Religious practices given to Prophet Abraham and passed on to us generation after generation since the time of Abraham.

Quran teaches us in no uncertain terms that Abraham is the founder of Islam as it is practiced today. As such, what did Abraham contribute to our daily life as Muslims?

Quran teaches us that ALL RELIGIOUS PRACTICES IN ISLAM, (Salat, Zakat, Fasting, & Hajj) came to us from Abraham, generation after generation.

Majority of Muslims always ask, how can these practices come to us from Abraham and not from Muhammed. They do not trust that God Almighty can preserve His own religious practices (rituals) to give to us pure, clear and complete.

In other words, all religious practices in Islam existed before Muhammed. Muhammed's sole mission was to deliver the Quran.

"Your ONLY mission (O Muhammed) is to deliver (Quran), while it is we who will call
them to account." 13:40

"You (O Muhammed) have no duty EXCEPT delivering (Quran)." 42:48

"The messenger has no function EXCEPT delivering (Quran)..." 5:99

It is also interesting to know that many of these Muslims who ask the question do not know that, the Hadith and Sunna books do not have enough information about how to perform Salat, the number of Rakaat (units), or what to say in them.

The Hadiths and Sunna books are rather full of contradictory statements.

NOT a single time, was the prophet Muhammed reported as telling the people; let me tell you how to perform your Salat prayers, or let me tell you the number of Rakaat in the prayers.

Had Muhammed willed or was of his duties to teach the community their prayer and the number of Rakaat, he would have done such that, and in the public arena for everyone to witness it. It never happened. Because the Prophet Muhammed and the people before him were given the ways to pray, handed down from Abraham through generations of believers who kept the prayers intact as God promised. God would not have told Muhammed to follow the religion of Abraham if no one knows or practices that religion.

Abraham was the founder of Islam (Submission in English) as we practice it today, and the one who called us "Muslims" (Submitters in English).

"You shall strive in the cause of God as you should. He has blessed you, and imposed no
hardship in your religion; the RELIGION OF YOUR FATHER ABRAHAM, Abraham is
the one who named you "Muslims" in the beginning. Thus, the messenger serves as
witness among you, just as you serve as a witness among the people. Therefore, you
shall observe the Salat prayers, give the Zakat charity, and hold fast to God; He is your
Lord; the best Lord, and the best supporter." 22:78

"Abraham was neither Jewish , nor Christian; he was a monotheist; a Muslim; he never
was an idol-worshiper. The people most worthy of following Abraham are those who
follow him and this prophet (Muhammed), and those who believed. God is the Lord of
the believers." 3:67-68

"Then we inspired you (O Muhammed) to follow the religion of Abraham, monotheism;
never was he an idol-worshiper." 16:123

Logically, if Muhammed was a follower of Abraham, and we are followers of Muhammed, then we are followers of Abraham. What did we and Muhammad learn from Abraham ???

The Quran teaches us that we learned ALL THE RELIGIOUS PRACTICES of Islam from Abraham. The whole Arabian society before and during the time of Muhammed had many followers of the religion of Abraham. Thus Abu Lahab, Abu Jahl, and the idolators of Quraish used to observe Salat prayers as we can see in 8:33-35.

"...Their SALAT PRAYERS at the shrine were no more than deceit and repulsion. ..."

In Sura 73, few weeks after the revelation of the Quran, 73:20 is telling the Muslims to observe the SALAT and Zakat. Does it make sense that God would issue a commandment to observe something not already known.???

"......and observe the SALAT and ZAKAT, and lend God a loan of righteousness.
Whatever you advance for your souls, you will find at God better and multiplied
manyfold....." 73:20.

In 2:128 we see Abraham and Ismail implore God to teach them "THE RELIGIOUS PRACTICES OF ISLAM"

"As Abraham raised the foundation of Kaaba, together with Ismail, they prayed, 'Our
Lord, accept this work from us; You are the Hearer, the Omniscient. Our Lord, and
make us Muslims (Submitters) to You and from our descendants let there be a nation of
Muslims (Submitters) to you; AND TEACH US HOW TO PRACTICE OUR RELIGIOUS
DUTIES, and redeem us; You are the Redeemer, the Merciful'" 2:127-128

The Prophets and Messengers prior to Abraham were not given any religious practices. The human society was so primitive, only BELIEF IN GOD ALONE was all that is required for salvation. See for example Sura 71, entitles "Noah" Thus, religious practices appear in Quran ONLY after ABRAHAM; never before him.

"(O Children of Israel) you shall observe the SALAT PRAYERS & ZAKAT charity; you
shall bow down with those who bow." 2:125


MORE PROOFS THAT SALAT OBSERVED BEFORE MUHAMMED.

"O Mary (Mariam), you shall obey your Lord, and shall prostrate and bow down with
those who bow down." 3:43

"(Jesus said) God has made me blessed wherever I go, and He commanded me to
observe the SALAT PRAYERS and ZAKAT charity for as long as I live." 19:31

But the Jews and Christians lost the SALAT PRAYERS, changed it and invented
their own.

"Generations came thereafter who LOST the SALAT prayers, and pursued their lusts."
19:59

If we look in the oldest prayer books for the Jews we can still see their prayers very similar to what the Muslims do today, they bow down and fall prostrate. There are remnant of the SALAT prayers among the Jews, namely the Samaritans, and the Christians (the Russian Orthodox Church).

Unfortunately, this plain Quranic truth is not accessible by those who keep trying to prove that Quran is not complete. First they have to come to sincere conviction that Quran is complete, perfect and fully detailed; they have to believe their Lord. Once they attain this conviction, the shields will be removed from around their hearts, the deafness will be removed from their ears and they will become worthy of the Quranic truth.

MORE PRAYERS or SAME PRAYERS ?!

All Muslims (Submitters) know that God ordered us to do five contact prayers (salat) every day. Traditional sectarian Muslims, call these five prayers, "fard" or obligatory. They believe that there are other prayers (Sunnah) which should also be done for extra credit. However we will illustrate here how the number of prayers, number of units, and even the names of the prayers are mathematically coded. This means that adding prayers disrupts the intricate code that God has created and designed into the contact prayers. Adding extra prayers to what God ordered is like a person taking extra medicine on his own to feel much better than what his/her doctor told him to take, it can kill him instead of helping him. Of course that does not mean that we should not worship to gain extra credit! On the contrary, God tells us exactly what we should do for extra credit.

"During the night, you shall meditate for extra credit, that your Lord may raise you to
an honorable rank. And say, "My Lord, admit me an honorable admittance, and let me
depart an honorable departure, and grant me from You a powerful support." 17:79-80

In this verse and several others, God tells us to meditate on Him and to fall prostrate during the night for extra credit. He does not tell us to do extra Contact prayers (Salat). In fact God tells us :

"...the contact prayers (Salat) are decreed for the believers at specific times. " 4:103

SALAT (CONTACT PRAYERS ) IN THE QURAN:

Many Muslims do not know that all the five prayers are mentioned in the Quran, their time is clearly mentioned in several verses and that all the steps we do are found also in the Quran.

{1} FIVE PRAYERS A DAY AND THEIR TIME :

God gave us the times for the Salat (contact Prayers) in the Quran :

(1) The Dawn Prayer (Fajr in Arabic) given in 11:114, 24:58
(2) The Noon Prayer (Zuher in Arabic) , given in 17:78 and 30:18
(3) The Afternoon Prayer (Asr in Arabic), given in 2:238
(4) The sunset Prayer (Maghrib in Arabic), given in 11:114
(5) The Night Prayer (Isha in Arabic), given in 24:58

As you can see from the Quran, God tells us to do our Contact prayers (Salat) at specific times, and then He tells us what these times are.

BUT WHY CAN'T WE........... ?

But why can't we pray more than what God told us to pray ? There are two parts to the answer of this question. The first part has to do with the source of our religious practice. If God tells you in the Quran to pray five specific prayers, and you say,"But the Hadith books said to pray more" . Does this mean God does not know what to order ?! Does this mean God is not clear ? when He said the prayers are set for specific times. All Muslims world-wide agree on the five Contact Prayers (Salat), how many units they should be, and when they should be prayed. But no two sects agree on the Sunnah prayers. Isn't this exactly like the example given in the Quran :

"God cites the Example of a man who deals with disputing partners (i.e. Hadith),
compared to a man who deals with only one consistent source (i.e.Quran). Are they the
same ? Praise be to God; most of them do not know. (39:29)