Prayers (salat) in Islam emphasize as in all the messages of God - the relation between the human being and his/her Creator. The human being in his/her prayer is repeatedly admitting to being a mere creation of the One Creator and Lord to whom he/she stresses his/her subjection. In spite of the great and unique physical, intellectual and spiritual abilities granted to the human being by the Almighty Creator, he/she admits through prayer the human limitations and the need for the Creator's guidance and support. A Muslim repeats several times in every prayer these significant verses of the Quran: "You alone do we worship; and unto You alone do we turn for help. Guide us to the straight way." (1:5-6)

Besides this conceptual emphasis and continuously open spiritual channel or hot line between the human being and the Gracious Almighty Creator, prayers in Islam provide a comprehensive training for the whole human life. The call for prayers stresses the Oneness of God to whom all human beings, whatever their gender, ethnicity, wealth or power may be, are equal. It calls people to recognize and worship their Only Creator and Lord, and to do what is good for this life and for the eternal life to come. The prayers themselves, which represent a combination of speech and actions, teach the Muslims, in practicing them, cleanliness through their purification requirements, collectiveness and organization, and discipline through the procedure of the congregational prayers (salat ul-Jama`a). Every individual has to strictly follow the leader of the prayer (the imam) as long as the imam is practicing the prayer properly, but as soon as the leader makes a mistake, any of the followers who notices the mistake and knows what it should be, whoever this follower may be, has the obligation to correct the mistaken leader.

Moreover, the human being is always reminded through the prayers, which in Islam are distributed throughout the whole day, that God is watching over him/her, and thus he/she is repeatedly conscious of His presence. Accordingly, a moral sensitivity towards doing what is good and avoiding what is evil is developed through such a unique constant spiritual contact, as it is impressively condensed in the Quran "... and be constant in prayer: for, behold, prayer restrains (man) from loathsome deeds and from all that runs counter to reason; and remembrance of God is indeed the greatest (good). And God knows all that you do." (29:45)

Teaching children to pray is meant to let them be trained to develop gradually in themselves the spiritual and moral inspirations of the prayers, not merely to imitate its physical actions. As it has been impressively expressed in the Quranic advice of a father to his son: "O my dear son! Be constant in prayer, and enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong, and bear in patience whatever (ill) may befall you: this, behold, is something to set one's heart upon! And do not turn your cheek away from people in (false pride...." (31:17-18)