Thread by @shahanSean

5 canonical prayers (al-ṣalawāt al-ḫams) constitute a mainstay of daily piety for millions of Muslims worldwide. But why 5 prayers? Why this particular number? Historians have sought to answer this question in numerous ways. Here's one take on a potential answer...

Firstly, the 5 canonical prayers:
1.Pre-dawn (ṣalāt al-fajr)
2.noon (ṣalāt al-ẓuhr)
3.afternoon (ṣalāt al-ʿaṣr)
4.sunset prayer (ṣalāt al-maghrib)
5.evening prayer (ṣalāt al-ʿišāʾ)
Note how the prayer times avoid the Sun at its zenith as while sits on the horizon.

Secondly, the Qurʾan *does* specify prayer times, but many argue that it seems to specify only *three* times--not five. Theses are:
1)Before sunrise
2)Before sunset
3)At night
Let’s look at some passages. I’ll put brackets around the prayer times [like this].

For example, Q. Ṭāhā 20:130 reads, “Celebrate with praise for your Lord [before the rising of the Sun] and [before its setting]. And [from the hours of the night] celebrate [as daylight begins and ends], that you may find contentment.”

Likewise, Q. Qāf 50:39-40, “Celebrate with praise for your Lord [before the rising of the Sun] and [before sunset] / and [at night] celebrate Him and at the end of prostrations.

Also, Q. Hūd 11:114, “Perform the prayers as [the daylight starts and ends] and [at the hours of the night].”

Also, Q. Isrāʾ 17:78-79, “Perform the prayers [as the Sun sets until the darkness of night] and [during the recitation of dawn (qurʾān al-fajr)’. The recitation of dawn is witnessed. / And [during part of night]. Pray during sleeping hours for additional blessing."

Elsewhere, it tells us that prayers are held “in the evening and morning (bi-l-ʿašiyyi wa-l-ibkār)” (Q. Ġāfir 45:55), speaks of “those who call upon their Lord morning and evening (bi-l-ġadāti wa-ʿašiyy)” (Q. Anʿām 6:52).

Often it is said one needs the ḥadīth to determine that Islam prescribes 5 prayers; however, some of the earliest arguments for *five* prayers rely exclusively on the Qurʾān. The Umayyad caliph ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz does this in a letter:

In the Late Antique world there existed two models for prayer-times before Islam, both taken from the Psalms. Psalm 55 mentions, for example, three times a day. (Sound familiar?) This practice is attested as early as the biblical book of Daniel.

Psalm 119, on the other hand, mentions 7 prayer times. A cursus of seven daily prayers was widely practiced among the Christian monastic communities of the Judean desert of Palestine and is well-attested by the sixth-century CE. See here:
books.google.com/books?id=OrZe9…

A sound theory, in my view, is that there are 5 daily prayers because the early Muslims saw themselves as a ‘middle community (ummatan wasaṭan)’ (Q. 2:143). 5 prayers is a middle number between the Christians’ 7 and the Jews’ 3 daily prayers.

This argument is basically that put forward by Goitein many years ago. You can read it here:
books.google.com/books?id=ru15D…