The Salaah is the way that Allaah prefers to be worshipped. He taught it to His Messenger and from him we learnt how to do it.
The Salaah was taught to Muhammad (peace be upon him) when he was taken on the Night Journey by Allah to be shown the marvels of His creation.
Salaah was Allaah’s gift to His Messenger. It is His gift to the Ummah of His Messenger. Allaah called His Messenger into His presence and He spoke to him and the Messenger spoke to his Lord.
For his Ummah, Allah gave them the privilege to enter His presence any time they wish. Salaah is the way to enter the presence of Allaah.
The Salaah is the physical affirmation of faith. It is the Muslim showing by his actions that he believes in Allaah and worships only Him and seeks help only from Him which is Islaam.
The Salaah is the means for the Muslim to connect to his Rabb (Lord, Sustainer, Maintainer, Protector, fulfiller of all needs). It is the highest and most powerful of means; the most potent tool that a Believer has to invoke for anything that he needs in life.
The Salaah is also a tool that Allaah has not only blessed the Ummah of Muhammad (peace be upon him) with but rewards them when they use it.
The Salah is the permission that Allaah has given the Ummah of Muhammad (peace be upon him) to come into His presence at will – and compulsorily five times a day.
This is to remind them that they are subservient first and foremost to Him over and above anyone and everyone else in this life.
This is to remind them of their meeting with Him one day when this (Salaah) will be the first thing that they will be questioned about.
This is to inculcate in the Muslims the habit of asking only from Allaah and bowing only to Him.
It is to inculcate in them the discipline of cleansing themselves from impurity and sin, repenting their sins, returning to Allah, planning their lives, having a timetable, following a leader, standing shoulder to shoulder with their brothers and collectively demonstrating their brotherhood of faith.
It is important to understand the benefits of Salaah and to realize what a big honor it is so that we fulfill its responsibility and benefit from its power.
It is because Muslims today don’t understand the value of Salaah that they neglect it and don’t realize that their problems and fears are a result of this neglect. Even many of those who do pray, do it as if discharging a burden. They don’t look forward to it. They perform it as quickly as they can, eager to get out of the Mercy and Grace of Allah. Sounds strange when I put it like this, but what else would you call our unseemly haste in finishing our Salaah?
Muslims today don’t realize that he Salaah is the answer to their problems in this life itself.
If they paid attention to Salaah and worked to improve its quality then it would become the means of eradicating all fear, anxiety and worry from their lives and the means of invoking the help of Allah for them.
That is what the Salaah is for. That is why Salaah is so important in Islaam that if anyone denies it by word or action (deliberately not praying), he exits Islaam.
It sounds strange to us when we hear how Rasoolullah (peace be upon him) used to wait for the Salaah and used to say to his Muadh-dhin, Sayyidinaa Bilal (may Allah be pleased with him): 'Call the Adhaan O Bilal and provide for the coolness of our eyes.'
Is the Salaah the coolness of our eyes today? And if not, let us seriously ask, ‘Why not?’
The same behavior is reported from the Companions (Sahaabah) of Rasoolullah who would wait from one Salah to another and would recite the Qur’an in the interim.
Source: Islam for Beginners.