The order to perform mandatory prayers1 was conveyed to Prophet Muhammad SAW during Isra' Mi'raj. Those who don't know what Isra' Mi'raj is can read it here: wikipedia and IslamiCity.
All Muslims know that the number of mandatory prayers per day was 50 at first. However on the way back, Muhammad SAW met Prophet Moses AS (peace be upon him). He advised Muhammad SAW to go back to to ask for reduction. There's no way Muslims would be able to perform 50 prayers every single day. So, Muhammad SAW went back to do what Moses AS suggested. Basically, Muhammad SAW went back and forth asking from Allah SWT for reduction as Moses AS kept telling him that the number was too many. In the end, 5 is the final number of mandatory prayers Muslims must do, until this day.
Now, read this carefully. Allah SWT is God. Did He not know that Moses AS would tell Muhammad SAW to go back and forth asking for reduction from Allah SWT? Of course Allah SWT knew, He's the Almighty and the All-knowing. So, why did He do this? Why didn't He order 5 the first time? Why did He start from 50?
There's a wisdom behind this. If we had to pray 50 times every single day, how much time left for anything except praying? Let's do the computation roughly: 24 hours / 50 prayers = 2 or 3 prayers per hour. Thus, you would only have a few minutes to eat, study, work, and sleep! Imagine you sleep for a few minutes and then have to wake up to pray. You see that most of our time would be spent in prayer if we had to perform it 50 times a day. It shows that Allah SWT wants us to constantly worship Him. That's the purpose of our life. However, Allah SWT is the most merciful (one of His 99 names/attributes). He knows that we won't be able to perform 50 prayers a day. So, He reduced it to 5.
The order to pray was the only revelation that was conveyed from Allah SWT directly to Muhammad SAW (other revelations were delivered to Muhammad SAW through the angel Gabriel). Why was that? There's also a wisdom behind this. By praying, we, as His creation, can worship Him directly, pray to Him directly, confess our mistakes/sins to Him directly, ask for forgiveness from Him directly, ask for anything from Him directly, without any intermediary whatsoever. No human-being can be an intermediary between you and God. It's like having a direct plug-in to your Creator. He's the most powerful, the Almighty, the All-knowing, so your relationship with Him doesn't need anyone/anything in between.
1"prayer" or "pray" is actually not the precise word to describe the prayer Muslims do as it has specific rules and procedures regarding movements and recitations (unlike "pray" in general). So, in Islam the prayer is called "shalat/salah". However, for reading convenience, I'm using the word "prayer" or "pray" in this post.
Source of the picture above: http://bahesti.wordpress.com.
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