Answer
Asalamu Alaikum,
Thank you for contacting About Islam with your question.
Dr. Shabir Ally addresses this question in the video below:
Transcript:
Aisha Khaja: Today’s question is interesting. I’ve never heard it before. So, some people, so some viewers are saying: some people, among them are some Quranists Muslims, say that our five daily prayers are borrowed from Zoroastrianism.
Because according to their claim, Zoroastrians pray five daily namaz, or prayers, at the same time frames. And according to them, this is too much coincidence. So, how can we refute this strange theory?
Dr. Shabir Ally: Well, we can look at this from several directions. One is that in the Muslim conception of things, we are following basically the religion of Abraham. And we know from the book of Genesis in chapter 15 verse number three that Abraham fell on his face before God.
So, the manner of praying for Muslims, it goes back all the way to Abraham. And in the Jewish faith, there is the idea of praying three times per day. And when in Muslim practice, when one is traveling, one actually will stop only three times in the journey.
If the morning prayer has a fixed time, and there are two afternoon prayers which are combined together for the traveler, and there are two night prayers which are again combined, so that we have basically three stops.
One for the morning prayer, one for the two afternoon prayers, and one for the two night prayers. so basically, it comes back to three when we are traveling. The similar facility is available to one who is sick. Or due to some circumstances, one can avail to this permission occasionally, even if one is a resident.
So basically, there are three prayers that get expanded to five when one is a resident. And one has all of the facilities available and to spread it out and worship more, which is not a bad thing.
And now, so that’s from the one angle that this follows a series of revelations given to God’s prophets over time. Now looking at it from another angle from the point of view of what is the Zoroastrianism and its place among the world’s religions.
Actually, what is being described now by academic scholars is that Zoroastrianism influenced not only Islam, but even before Islam it influenced Judaism and then Christianity. And then subsequently Islam.
So, if one talks about this influence, then we look at some basic ideas, like belief in the life hereafter and the judgment of our deeds weighing in the scales after death. These ideas are traced all the way back to Zoroastrianism and have actually influenced Christianity as well.
So, sometimes people look at this and say, well okay Islam must be some kind of a man-made religion: it takes the elements from existing faiths. But one has to go back and see that one can make the same kind of claim for Judaism and Christianity as well.
Now, from the Islamic point of view, this is not problematic at all because let’s say Zoroastrians were praying five times a day. Let’s say, Zoroaster himself was a prophet of God.
Well none of that is strange to Muslim thinking because we understand that Islam is a religion that God has revealed to prior prophets before our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
And some of the things that we are given as prescriptions now in our faith like fasting, for example, is clearly said to be following the example of people before us, as God has prescribed for those before us, he’s prescribing the fasting for us as well.
Aisha Khaja: And we also don’t know how many prophets in total God has sent, right? We only know of the ones we … know of …
Dr. Shabir Ally: Precisely … mentioned in the Quran. Right. Zoroaster is not mentioned in the Quran. But he could very well have been a prophet of God. In fact, when one looks at his teachings, one finds it difficult to think how could he not have been a prophet of God?
I hope this helps answer your question. Please keep in touch.
Walaikum Asalam.
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https://aboutislam.net/reading-islam/finding-peace/remembering-allah/daily-prayers-five/