After this verse there is another one relates to the shortening of the prayer, noticing that the word of (prayer) is repeated more than six times to refer to its importance.
Prayer is one of the five pillars of Islam, moreover it is the basic fundamental of Islam, who performs it so he established the religion, and who neglecting it is as if destroying the religion. The Prophet (saws) when he faced a serious matter, he used to say: “O’ Bilal, declare that the time for prayer has come, give us rest by it.”[1]
There are excuses for not performing all the pillars of Islam except the prayer, pray standing, but if you are unable, do it sitting; and if you are unable to do that, do it while lying on your side. The reason is that the prayer represents the relation with Allah (swt) and should be reflected in manners with the humans, so if these two matters are not applied equally, in this case your prayer is just actions. Realizing this fact, if the Muslim starts his prayer without thinking of the greatness of whom he is standing for, consequently, his prayer does not connect him with Allah (swt). Even that, all the pillars were imposed on Muslims by the angel Jibril, except the prayer, for it was imposed by bringing the Prophet (saws) to the heavens and was imposed directly by Allah (swt). This is a message to all the prayers, that when you pray, you are standing in the presence of His majesty (swt). Therefore, the prayer has this significant position because it is for achieving relation and reformation. That is why it has many conditions as the ablution, hiding certain parts of body, directing to the Ka’ba, in addition to its specific acts such as bending, prostration and others….
قَدْ أَفْلَحَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ % الَّذِينَ هُمْ فِي صَلَاتِهِمْ خَاشِعُونَ
(Certainly will the believers have succeeded % They who are during their prayer humbly submissive) (Al-Muminoon: 1-2)
Whereas people nowadays, because of the problems of this life, they perform their prayers in a hurry with absent minds, not considering His majesty (swt), so that they do not achieve the relation with Him (swt), a result, they lose the mercy and the bestowments of the prayer, while Allah (swt) commands us to support ourselves against the trials and ordeals of life by the prayer:
وَاسْتَعِينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَاةِ ۚ وَإِنَّهَا لَكَبِيرَةٌ إِلَّا عَلَى الْخَاشِعِينَ
(And seek help through patience and prayer, and indeed, it is difficult except for the humbly submissive [to Allah]) (Al-Baqara: 45)
On the other hand, the prayer should guide you to the straight path. This is reflected in treating with people. If I do the prayers and at the same time I backbite, lie, steal, hurt my neighbors, throw dirts on the roads, and do not do good to people, the result is as the Prophet (saws) mentioned:
“The one whose prayer does not forbid him from immorality and evil, he grows further away from Allah”[2]
Prayer is the only pillar which includes all the other Islam pillars in it; it contains the testimony that there is no God but Allah (The first Islam pillar), you head to Ka’ba (Hajj pillar), you do not eat or drink (fasting pillar), and it contain the (Zakat pillar) because Zakat means to take part of your money which you gain by work which takes time and during the prayer you stop work, that is pause earing the money and spend your time for praying.
Shortening of prayers are explained in details by all the Islamic schools. However, it is limited only for the three prayers (adh-Dhuhr prayer; Midday prayer (‘Asr), Noon prayer (‘Eisha)) as for the other two prayers (Fajr prayer and Mughrib prayer) there is not shortening.
[1] Sunan abi-Dawood: Book of behaviours, Chapter of the Prayer of Night, Hadith NO. 4985.
[2] Mu’jam al-Kabeer of Tabari: Chapter of the letter (‘), Hadiths narrated by Ibn Abbas, Hadith No. 11047.