The Purpose of Five Time Prayers

Atheist: Allah (=God) has a big ego which is why he orders Muslims to do butt-ups 5 times a day to glorify him.

Muslim: The word “ego” means “a person's sense of self-esteem or self-importance”. Anyone who doesn’t have a sense of self-esteem or self-importance relative to his/her status needs to see psychiatrist to boost it up.  God has a sense of self-esteem or self-importance relative to his status. God is the creator and sustainer of this universe. We cannot pay God back no matter what we do for the boundless blessings God has given us. This is why God doesn’t expect us to pay him back. The only thing God expects us is to show him the respect he deserves.

God says in the Quran-“And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship me. I do not want from them any provision, nor do I want them to feed me. Indeed, it is Allah who is the continual Provider, the firm possessor of strength” (51:56-58). It is clear from these verses that God doesn’t expect us to provide him with anything as a payback for his boundless blessings. The only thing God expects from us is worship. The word “worship” means “to show respect for a deity”. We cannot pay God back but we can show him the respect he deserves. Nobody likes a disrespectful person. We respect people in our society according to their status. We show respect to our parents, friends, elderlies, teachers, leaders, and so on. God deserve more respect than anybody else for the boundless blessings he has given us. We glorify God in our 5 time prayers as an act of respect. But that is not the main purpose of the prayer because we can glorify God out of respect even when we are not praying. For example, when we see beautiful flowers when travelling on earth, we can glorify God by saying “All praises due to God who created beautiful flowers for us.”

The main purpose of the 5 time prayers is to keep ourselves away from evil deeds so we can enter into paradise hereafter. We pray 5 times a day for our own benefit. God says: “Recite, [O Muhammad], what has been revealed to you of the book and establish prayer. Indeed, prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing, and the remembrance of God is greater. And God knows that which you do” (29:45). A person who doesn’t pray 5 times a day cannot stay away from evil no matter how hard he/she tries. This is a proven experiment.