Why do Muslims pray five times a day?

The obligatory prayer is five times a day and night, and it is one of the five pillars of Islam ¹. The Qur'an calls it "a decreed book", meaning an obligation with set times, and An-Nisa 103 is the verse that establishes this.

The root of the obligation is in the Qur'an, while the number of prayers and their times were explained by the Sunna. The narration of Jibril in al-Bukhari reports that he led the Prophet ﷺ in prayer at the beginning and the end of the time on two days, explaining the times ².

• The five daily prayers are the obligatory ones, and anything beyond them is supererogatory.
• The schools of law differ on the details of the times and the rulings, and this is set out in the entry Prayer.

The rulings on prayer, its conditions and its pillars, and the details of disagreement between the schools, will be added later from the books of jurisprudence.