Next to the unity of God, Islam enjoins five daily prayers upon its followers. It is curious that the Qur´an lays down no rule as to the manner in which the prayer should be offered. Apparently, as Mr. Ameer Ali[17] points out, the practice of the prophet has associated certain rights and ceremonies to the due observance of prayers. In the Mohamedan prayer we observe the Jewish practice of standing erect, the Christian of prostration and a third of inclination.[18] Originally the prophet instituted three daily prayers.[19] Their extension to five was an innovation of the late Meccan period; the details of the purity legislation appear to have still later. “Yet the theory,” says Prof. Margoliouth, “that God should be approached only by persons in a state of purity was known in South Arabia before Mohamed’s time, whence it is probable that his earliest converts were instructed therein.”
Prayers are to be performed five times in course of every day: between daybreak and sunrise, between noon and the “asr” (which later period is about mid-time between noon and nightfall) between the ‘asr’ and sunset, between sunset and the “asha” (or the period when the darkness of night commences) and at, or after the “asha.” It is considered more meritorious to take part in the public _salat_ of the community conducted by a leader (Imam) than to discharge the _salat_ by oneself.[20] Von Kremer has rightly emphasised the importance of the Muslim prayer by recognizing the mosque as the drill ground for the warlike believers of early Islam. In stern discipline, in unconditional obedience, says Von Kremer, the author of the _Culturgeschichte des orients_, lay the greatest achievement of Mohamed and the real secret of the strength of Islam.[21] The five daily prayers where the leader (the Imam) stood before the community, closely arrayed behind him, and where every movement of his was imitated with military preciseness, by the hundreds of the faithful assembled in the mosque, served, among the Muslims, in those times, the purpose of that what is known now as the drill ground: a school where the people learnt to assemble, to move in a body and to follow the Commander.
In the Qur´an[22] the command to pay the poor-tax (zakat) directly follows the command to pray: perform the prayers and pay the poor-tax. This tax had a strong communistic complexion which is evidenced by the following tradition: “The prophet sent Ma´dh to Yaman and told him: summon them to accept the confession of faith namely, there is no God but Allah and I that am his prophet; if they listen to it; teach them further that God has ordained five daily prayers; if they are also agreeable to this; teach them further that God has enjoined the poor-tax (sadakah) payable by the wealthy upon their property for distribution among the poor.”[23] This tax was annually payable upon camels, oxen (bulls and cows) and buffalos, sheep and goats, horses and mules and asses and gold and silver (whether in money or ornaments, etc.,) provided the property was of a certain amount; as five camels, thirty oxen, forty sheep, five horses, two hundred dirhams, or twenty dinars.[24] The proportion is generally one-fortieth, which is to be paid in kind or in money or other equivalent.