Why five? A Muslim is called to prayer five times every day, and the number was not chosen by the Prophet ﷺ, by the scholars, or by custom. It was set on one night, in a way no other duty in Islam was set. And behind the question stands a harder one: what happens to the person who does not pray at all? This page answers both from the Qur’an, the Sunnah [the Prophet’s ﷺ teaching and example], and the explanations of the scholars. It explains the ruling as the books give it; it is not a verdict on any person.
Given on the Night Journey: Fifty Became Five
Every other duty came down to the Prophet ﷺ on earth. The prayer was given in the heavens, on the Night Journey and Ascension: the Isra [the night journey to Jerusalem] and the Mi’raj [the Prophet’s ﷺ ascent through the heavens]. Shaykh al-Fawzan notes this at the head of his chapter: the prayer, unlike all other acts of worship, was enjoined on the Messenger ﷺ that night, before the Hijrah [the Prophet’s ﷺ migration to Madinah], as five prayers every day and night (A Summary of Islamic Jurisprudence, Vol. 1, Ch. 1).
Ibn Kathir, on the first verse of Surah al-Isra, records the long hadith of that night. At its highest point the duty was laid down:
Then Allah revealed that which He revealed to me. He enjoined on me fifty prayers every day and night. I came down until I reached Musa, and he said, ‘What did your Lord enjoin on your Ummah’ I said, ‘Fifty prayers everyday and night.’ He said, ‘Go back to your Lord and ask Him to reduce (the burden) for your Ummah, for your Ummah will not be able to do that.’
The Prophet ﷺ, in the Night Journey hadith in Ibn Kathir, Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Abridged), on Surah al-Isra (17), verse 1; Ibn Kathir notes this version was also recorded by Muslim. Ummah is the Muslim nation.
So he went back, again and again, and each time it came down by five:
I kept going back between my Lord and Musa, and (my Lord) reduced it by five each time, until He said, ‘O Muhammad, these are five prayers every day and night, and for every prayer there is (the reward of) ten, so they are (like) fifty prayers.’
The Prophet ﷺ, in the same hadith (Ibn Kathir, on 17:1).
As-Sa’di tells the night in one sentence: Allah enjoined fifty prayers upon him, and after the goings back, on the advice of Musa [Moses], they became five in deed and fifty in reward (on 17:1, Vol. 5, printed p. 261).
That is the answer to “why five”: five is what Allah finally prescribed, and He kept the reward of the fifty He first prescribed. Ibn Uthaymeen puts it this way: Allah decreased them “from His gentleness, mercy and virtue, so He made them into five in action but 50 in reward on the weighing scale” (The Prophet’s Prayer Described, Ch. 3, printed p. 21).
Five Prayers, at Five Set Times
The five are spread across the day and night, and the Qur’an names their times. Allah says in Surah al-Isra:
Establish prayer at the decline of the sun [from the meridian] until the darkness of the night, and recite the Qur’an at dawn, for verily the recitation at dawn is ever witnessed [by the angels].
Allah’s words in Surah al-Isra (17), verse 78, Tafsir as-Sa’di (Vol. 5, printed p. 313).
The translation’s own footnote on this verse names the five: from dhuhr [the midday prayer] through ‘asr [the mid-afternoon prayer] to maghrib [the sunset prayer] and ‘isha [the night prayer], and finally fajr [the dawn prayer] (Vol. 5, printed p. 313, footnote 30). As-Sa’di notes that the verse mentions the times of the five daily prayers and shows them obligatory, because the command refers specifically to them (printed p. 314).
Other verses point to the same times: the two ends of the day (11:114), the evening and morning (30:17-18), and the middle prayer of 2:238, which Ibn Uthaymeen explains as ‘asr (printed p. 25).
Why the Prayer Stands Where It Stands
The salah [the prayer] stands second in the whole religion:
Indeed, the prayer has a great importance and high station in Islam. It is one of the great pillars of Islam, rather it is the most important of them after the two testifications; the testification that there is no deity worthy of worship in truth except Allah and that Muhammad (ﷺ) is the Messenger of Allah.
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymeen, The Prophet’s Prayer Described, Ch. 3 (printed p. 18), where he adds: “Hence, it is the greatest pillar after the two testifications.” Al-Fawzan opens his chapter with the same words: “Prayer is the most obligatory of the Five Pillars of Islam next to the Two Testifications of Faith” (Vol. 1, printed p. 87).
The Prophet ﷺ also promised a covenant to the one who keeps the five: Ibn Uthaymeen quotes his words that Allah has prescribed five prayers upon the servants, and that whoever performs them, not neglecting anything of them while belittling their right, has a covenant from Allah that He will enter him into Paradise (The Prophet’s Prayer Described, Ch. 4, printed pp. 29-30; the book’s footnote: Abu Dawud 1420, an-Nasa’i 462, Ibn Majah 1401).
And the five do their work in the person who prays them. Allah says:
Recite what has been revealed to you [O Muhammad] of the Book, and establish prayer, for verily prayer keeps [one] away from obscenity and wickedness. And indeed your remembering Allah is of greater merit [than other acts of worship]. And Allah knows all that you do.
Allah’s words in Surah al-‘Ankabut (29), verse 45, Tafsir as-Sa’di (Vol. 7, printed pp. 270-271).
As-Sa’di explains the reason: the prayer established properly, with its conditions fulfilled and proper humility, illuminates and purifies the heart, increases faith, strengthens the desire to do good and reduces or eliminates the desire to do evil; prayed regularly in that manner, it will inevitably keep a person away from both, and this, he says, is one of the great aims and outcomes of prayer (on 29:45, Vol. 7, printed p. 271).
The five also wash the day clean. Ibn Uthaymeen counts among their benefits “expiation for the minor sins and purification from errors”, and quotes the Prophet’s ﷺ picture of it:
If there was a river at the door of anyone of you and he took a bath in it five times a day, would you notice any dirt on him? They said, “Not a trace of dirt would be left.” The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “That is the example of the five (daily compulsory) prayers with which Allah wipes away evil deeds.”
The Prophet ﷺ, quoted in The Prophet’s Prayer Described, Ch. 4 (printed p. 31); the book’s footnote: al-Bukhari (528) and Muslim (667). The Shaykh comments: “So these five prayers wash away the sins for the one who prays, so he is cleansed of the sins.”
The One Who Does Not Pray at All
So what of the person who leaves the prayer altogether? The Qur’an speaks of generations who did:
But after them came generations who neglected prayer and pursued their desires. So they will meet with perdition.
Allah’s words in Surah Maryam (19), verse 59, Tafsir as-Sa’di (Vol. 6, printed p. 85).
They neglected the prayer which they had been instructed to establish and offer regularly, and were heedless about it. As they neglected the prayer, which is the foundation of religion and the gauge of faith and sincerity towards the Lord of the worlds, and is the most important of deeds and most virtuous of characteristics, they were even more negligent with regard to other matters of religion.
Abdur Rahman as-Sa’di, Tafsir as-Sa’di, on Surah Maryam (19), verse 59 (Vol. 6, printed pp. 85-86). Perdition, he explains, is “multiple and severe punishment” (printed p. 86).
And in the Hereafter, the people of Paradise ask the people of the Fire how they came there, and their first answer is the prayer:
(“What has caused you to enter Hell” They will say: “We were not of those who used to offer the Salah, nor did we feed the poor.”) meaning, ‘we did not worship Allah, nor did we do good to His creatures of our own species (i.e., other people).’
Ibn Kathir, Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Abridged), on Surah al-Muddaththir (74), verses 42-43.
The Ruling: Two Kinds of Abandoning
The books divide the abandoner into two kinds, and the ruling is not the same for both:
Abandoning the Prayer is two types: The First Type: That it is abandoned with rejection of its obligation; this is Kufr (disbelief) no doubt, since rejecting the obligation of the prescribed prayer is disbelief due to belying Allah, His Messenger, and the believers (companions).
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymeen, The Prophet’s Prayer Described, Ch. 6 (printed p. 39). Kufr is disbelief.
The Shaykh at once builds in the case of the one who does not know: rejection is not counted against the new Muslim who may be ignorant of the ruling, for “he does not disbelieve until he is made aware of the ruling. If he then persists upon opposing after that then he has disbelieved.” (Printed p. 39.) Al-Fawzan states the denier’s ruling in the same terms, “So, whoever denies this fact is considered to be an apostate”, and records the scholars’ unanimous agreement on it (Vol. 1, printed pp. 87-88).
The second kind is the one who believes the prayer is obligatory, and still leaves it:
The second type: Abandoning the prayer due to laziness and carelessness with an acknowledgement and acceptance of its obligation. This type of person is called to it and commanded with it, and so if he prays then so be it (he has rectified), but if he continues upon abandoning it then the scholars have differed regarding him. Some of them said he has disbelieved and is prescribed the capital punishment as a disbeliever and is not prayed upon (Janazah) and he is not buried with the Muslims.
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymeen, The Prophet’s Prayer Described, Ch. 6 (printed p. 40). Janazah is the funeral prayer.
The other group of scholars, as the Shaykh records them, held back from calling him a disbeliever, while treating his crime as one of the gravest:
Some scholars, however, took the opinion that the one who abandons the prayer is killed as per prescribed punishment upon a Muslim, and not as a disbeliever. So he is killed (for abandoning the prayer and not returning to it after admonishment), and he is washed and shrouded, and prayed upon (Janazah prayer), and he is buried along with the Muslims (graveyard of Muslims).
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymeen, The Prophet’s Prayer Described, Ch. 6 (printed p. 47).
The first group’s evidences are the Prophet’s ﷺ own words. Jabir reported that he said:
Indeed between a man and shirk (polytheism) and disbelief is the abandonment of the prayer.
The Prophet ﷺ, in the hadith of Jabir, in The Prophet’s Prayer Described, Ch. 6 (printed p. 44); the book’s footnote: Muslim (82). Shirk is ascribing partners to Allah.
The covenant between us and them is the prayer, so whosoever abandons it has disbelieved.
The Prophet ﷺ, in the hadith of Buraydah, in The Prophet’s Prayer Described, Ch. 6 (printed p. 45); the book’s footnote: at-Tirmidhi (2621), an-Nasa’i (464), Ibn Majah (1079).
The Shaykh also records ‘Umar’s words, “There is no share of Islam for the one who abandons the Prayer”, and ‘Abdullah ibn Shaqiq’s: “The companions of the Prophet (ﷺ) did not used to consider the abandonment of anything from the actions as disbelief other than the prayer.” (Printed p. 45.)
Shaykh al-Fawzan weighs the two opinions and states where the evidence stands:
As regards those who abandon performing prayer out of negligence or slackness, even if without denying the fact that it is obligatory, they are considered disbelievers according to the more valid of the two juristic opinions in this regard.
Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan, A Summary of Islamic Jurisprudence, Vol. 1, Ch. 1 (printed pp. 90-91). He supports it with the hadith related by Imam Muslim, in his book’s words: “Verily, between man and between polytheism and disbelief is the negligence of prayer.”
On one point the Shaykh says the two groups meet: “both groups are agreed upon capital punishment for the one who abandons the prayer, either as a disbeliever as the texts apparently indicate, or as a prescribed legislative punishment (such that he is still Muslim)”; and that agreement itself, he says, “indicates the severity of the crime of the one who abandons the prayer” (printed p. 48).
Does the line fall only at abandoning prayer altogether? The books draw no softer line for the one who leaves even one prayer on purpose: Ibn Uthaymeen quotes Ibn Hazm’s report from the Companions, among them ‘Umar, ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn ‘Awf, Mu’adh ibn Jabal and Abu Hurairah, “that whomsoever leaves one obligatory prayer purposely until the time exits for it then he is a disbeliever, an apostate” (printed p. 46). What the books excuse is sleep and forgetfulness, for which the Prophet ﷺ prescribed praying as soon as one remembers (al-Fawzan, printed p. 89).
Two cares belong with all of this. The ruling above is the ruling on the act, stated as the scholars state it; the books attach further rulings to it in this world and the next, which stand in the chapter for whoever reads it in full. And this page names no person and declares no one a disbeliever: judging a specific person has its conditions, among them that he knows the ruling and has no excuse of ignorance, as the Shaykh’s exception for the new Muslim shows, and applying rulings to individuals belongs to the people of knowledge.
The Door Back Is Open
The verse of warning makes its exception in the very next breath:
Except those who repent and believe, and do righteous deeds; they will enter paradise and they will not be wronged in the least.
Allah’s words in Surah Maryam (19), verse 60, Tafsir as-Sa’di (Vol. 6, printed p. 85).
As-Sa’di explains what that repentance is: “(Except those who repent) from ascribing partners to Allah, following innovation and committing sin, so they give up these things, regret them and resolve firmly not to do them again” (on 19:60, Vol. 6, printed p. 86). For the one who has left the prayer, the return is the prayer itself, taken up again with repentance; the conditions of sincere repentance are set out on the pages linked below. Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen ends his chapter on the abandoner with this appeal: “So fear Allah, and guard over your prayers – what remains of your religion if you have lost the prayer?” (printed p. 53), quoting with it the hadith: “Indeed the final affair that will be lost from your religion is the prayer.”
So, Why Five Prayers, and What If a Person Does Not Pray at All?
Gathering the page together:
- Muslims pray five times a day because Allah prescribed five, on the Night Journey and Ascension (17:1; al-Fawzan; Ibn Kathir).
- The five began as fifty. The Prophet ﷺ went back to his Lord again and again, at Musa’s advice, until they became five, and Allah kept the reward of fifty: five in deed, fifty in reward (17:1; as-Sa’di; Ibn Uthaymeen).
- The five have set times across the day and night, named in the Qur’an (17:78; as-Sa’di).
- The prayer is the greatest pillar of Islam after the two testifications (Ibn Uthaymeen; al-Fawzan).
- Prayed as it should be prayed, it keeps a person away from obscenity and wickedness, purifies the heart, and washes away sins like a river at the door (29:45; Ibn Uthaymeen).
- The generations who neglected the prayer are promised perdition, and “We were not of those who used to offer the Salah” is the first answer of the people of the Fire (19:59; 74:42-43).
- Denying the prayer’s obligation is disbelief by the scholars’ agreement, once the person knows the ruling; leaving it from laziness, while believing it obligatory, is disbelief on the more valid of the two opinions, and on the other a crime under the gravest punishment (Ibn Uthaymeen; al-Fawzan).
- Repentance is open: the verse of warning excepts those who repent, believe and do righteous deeds, and they will enter Paradise (19:60).
So the five are five by Allah’s own prescription, given in the heavens at fifty and brought down in mercy to five with the fifty’s reward; and leaving them altogether is the gravest abandonment a Muslim can fall into, while the door back stands open in the same verses that warn. It can be read in full in Tafsir as-Sa’di and the Abridged Tafsir Ibn Kathir on Surahs al-Isra, Maryam, al-‘Ankabut and al-Muddaththir, in The Prophet’s Prayer Described, and in al-Fawzan’s Summary of Islamic Jurisprudence. I hope this short page answers the question clearly, and sends the reader back to those books.
Further Reading
- The Prayer (Salah)
- What Is Sharia?
- What Is the Purpose of Life in Islam?
- Does Allah Forgive Every Sin?
References
- Tafsir as-Sa’di, Shaykh Abdur Rahman ibn Nasir as-Sa’di, International Islamic Publishing House (IIPH), English Edition 1, 2018, translated by Nasiruddin al-Khattab. Vol. 5, printed p. 261 (17:1) and printed pp. 313-314 (17:78, with footnote 30); Vol. 6, printed pp. 85-86 (19:59-60); Vol. 7, printed pp. 270-271 (29:45).
- Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Abridged), the ten-volume set, on Surah al-Isra (17:1) and Surah al-Muddaththir (74:42-43). The held copy prints no page folios for these passages; locations are by surah in the sources file.
- The Prophet’s Prayer Described, Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymeen, Hikmah Publications, First Edition, March 2015, translated by Abu Mu’adh Taqweem Aslam, ISBN 978-1-4951-9677-5. Ch. 3, printed pp. 18, 21; Ch. 4, printed pp. 25, 29-31; Ch. 6, printed pp. 39-53. This is Ibn al-Uthaymeen’s book of this title, not the well-known work of the same name by Shaykh al-Albani.
- A Summary of Islamic Jurisprudence (Al-Mulakhkhas al-Fiqhi), Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan, Vol. 1, Book of Prayer, Ch. 1, printed pp. 87-91. The held copy is a text extraction with no legible publisher line, so none is stated.
Verified on 2026-10-24 against: Tafsir as-Sa’di, Vols. 5, 6 and 7 (IIPH, English Edition 1, 2018); the Abridged Tafsir Ibn Kathir set; The Prophet’s Prayer Described, Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen (Hikmah Publications, First Edition, March 2015); and the held text of Shaykh al-Fawzan’s Summary of Islamic Jurisprudence, Vol. 1.