Salah

Most of the Five Pillars are absent from the Qur'an. Thus it only mentions three daily prayers; salat al-Fajr (dawn prayer),^[1] salat al-Isha'a (night prayer)^[1] and salat al-Wusta (the middle prayer, now al Zuhr).^[2]. It is the hadith that put the number of daily prayers at five.

Prescribed Times

The prescribed time periods (waqt) for daily prayers are as follows:

1. Salat Al Fajr – Dawn to sunrise.
2. Salat Al Zuhr – After true noon until Asr.
3. Salat Al Asr - Afternoon.
4. Salat Al Maghrib – After sunset until dusk.
5. Salat Al Isha'a – Dusk until dawn.

According to the Qur'an^[3] Muslims must pray towards the Ka'aba (qiblah being the direction that one has to face in order to do this). This would only be possible if the earth was flat, and is just one of the problems which indirectly indicate that the narrator/writer of the Qur'an believed in a flat earth model.

Problems

Praying from a Sphere

Due to the sphericity of the earth, a prayer in any direction will point towards the sky/outer-space, not Mecca.

Praying from a Great Distance

For people who are praying a great distance from Mecca, their qiblah would be somewhere down towards the ground, and the people who are located on the opposite 'side' of the earth would have to pray vertically downward towards the center of the earth.

So, for example, Muslims in the Solomon Islands in fact blaspheme against Allah, because they defecate toward the direction of the Ka'aba when they answer the call of nature.

Using a Great Circle

Even if we were to use the traditional Muslim method of determining qiblah (i.e. a great circle) this would still be blasphemous because you would be simultaneously praying with your face and backside aimed towards the Ka'aba.

Praying from the Opposite Side

There would also be one location on Earth where a Muslim could be standing at the opposite side of Earth in relation to the Ka'aba (for example if the Ka'aba was at the North Pole and the Muslim was standing on the South Pole). For this location, any direction for all 360 degrees would be facing 'towards' Mecca and consequently, there would be no one direction that would be the correct one.

Children

According to Prophet Muhammad, a child should be commanded to pray at the age of seven, and be beaten for prayer when they reach the age of ten.^[4][5]

This has often resulted in the abuse of children by Muslim parents, guardians and teachers for not praying/reciting the Qur'an. For example, in Muslim-majority countries like Bangladesh^[6] and Saudi Arabia,^[7] and even in non-Muslim countries like the United Kingdom,^[8][9] Italy^[10] and Canada where a 13-year-old girl was killed by her father for not praying.^[11][12][13]

Missing Prayers

Muhammad once commanded a call-maker to lead the prayer, then "take a fire flame to burn all those who had not left their houses so far for the prayer along with their houses."^[14] An old man who refused to prostrate in prayer was also "killed as a non-believer."^[15][16]

Passing Women

It was reported by Aisha in several sahih hadith that Muhammad said, "Prayer is annulled by a dog, a donkey and a woman (if they pass in front of the praying people)." She also protested about how this rule equated women to animals.^[17][18]

The Friday prayer (Jumu'ah) is a congregational prayer performed in mosques that replaces the zuhr prayer performed on the other six days of the week. It is compulsory for men to attend and has been mentioned in the Qur'an.^[19] According to Sahih Muslim, prayer is regarded as a dividing line between a believer and a non-believer, and under the Hanbali school of thought, a person who does not perform the required prayers is a disbeliever.

Attendance Rates

Muslim World

Attendance is dropping in some Arab countries, principally among younger Arabs.^[20] Iran has the lowest mosque attendance of any Muslim country, with no more than 1-1½% attending Friday prayers, and a lot of those who do are "dragooned into being there."^[21]

Europe

Muslim immigrants who have lived less than a year in Europe regularly go to the mosque. But after they've lived more than a year in their new homeland, the figure drops to 48.8%. More than half rarely or never go to the mosque to pray.^[22]

Netherlands

In the Netherlands, mosque attendance is actually dropping faster than church attendance. In 1998, 47 percent of Muslims would attend mosque at least once a month. This figure fell by 12 percent in 2008 to only 35 percent. Whilst church attendance for Catholics fell by only 8 percent, and church attendance amongst Protestants showed no change, remaining at 63 percent.^[23]

United Kingdom

Similarly in the United Kingdom, 48% of Muslims never attend a mosque, with another 6% only attending for special occasions rather than Friday prayers.^[24]

United States

According to Ahmed Nassef (co-founder and editor in chief of MuslimWakeUp.com) less than 7 percent of American Muslims attend mosque regularly, compared with 38 percent of Americans who attend church weekly.^[25]

Al Fatiha

Surah al-Fatiha is recited as part of all daily prayers and repeated within each prayer. A Muslim who says all their prayers would recite this surah at least 17 times a day, and over 5,000 times a year. According to hadith, "those who went astray" are the Christians and "those who earned Allah's anger" are the Jews.^[26][27][28] Thus the daily prayers of every Muslim include a rejection of Christians and Jews as misguided and objects of Allah’s wrath.

• Flat Earth and the Qur'an
• Prayers - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Prayers

• Longueuil girl, 13 dies after father slapped her - A Muslim child killed in Canada. Neighbours say she was under pressure to pray