Meaning of Salat

Salamun aleykum guys

I'm new to this community so if any mistakes are made, please let me know.

I wrote a paper on this issue in length but on this post, I would just like to make a few short points and we'll take it from there.

I dont know what your views are on this but I am of the opinion that there is no "5 times a day ritual prayer" in the Quran. As far as my research has taken me the word "Salat" means following closely/adhering. In the Quran I've found this to be either general (all the things God wants us to ahdere to/adhering to God in general) or something specific within the context of the Ayah.

No doubt you have heard some of these already but I will share a couple of the problematic translations that occur, if we take "Salat" to mean ritual prayer.

-[Ahzab 56: Verily, God and His angels bless the Prophet: [hence,] O you who have attained to faith, bless him and give yourselves up [to his guidance] in utter self-surrender! (Asad)]

As you can see from this translation, Salat, which is supposed to mean ritual prayer, has suddenly turned into blessing. The only reason for this is of course had it been translated consistently, Allah and His Angels would be "praying" to the Prophet. Not grammer or that Salat ever meant blessing. Had the ayah switched the words Allah and Prophet, you can bet your bottom dollar that "Salat" in this verse would have been translated to "prayer". (The mistranslation of this verse is also the reason why people say SAW after they pronounce Prophet Mohammads name)

-[Hud 87: "Said they: "O Shu'ayb! Does thy [habit of] praying compel thee to demand of us that we give up all that our forefathers were wont to worship, or that we refrain from doing whatever we please with our possessions? Behold, [thou wouldst have us believe that] thou art indeed the only clement, the only right-minded man!" (Asad)]

It is clear Asad here has noticed the illogical statement and has tried to salvage the situation by inserting (habit of) and "compel thee " etc but the verse says COMMAND (amr) i.e " does your prayer command us...". Other translators put (deen) or (ibadah) in brackets for the same reason and most miss it altogether and leave it as prayer. The verse doesnt say deen or ibadah or habit of. It says Salat. As Im sure you've all noticed this doesn't make sense as PRAYER CANNOT COMMAND. Translators usually change Salat to a few other things, rather than orayer when it clearly doesn't make sense, like in Ahzab 56, however in this verse, it can slip by them as the error may not be clear at first glance. Another nonsense translation. How can Prophet Shu'aybs prayer command Prophet Shu'ayb himself?!?

Another point is, Im sure you all know, Wudu in the Quran is very detailed. Wash from here to here, wipe here and here. Its very precise and detailed. However we find no such thing for Salat. God calls the Quran, complete, detailed and explained. He says He left nothing out. Why would God explain the wash procedure before the ritual in such detail and then say nothing about the actual prayer ritual much less in detail. There is no verse that even tells us how to do this supposed ritual prayer. People just pick random verses that contain the words "Sajdah and Ruku" that are talking about something else entirely to piece together, like Frankensteins monster, a ritual prayer that simply does not exist. The only verse where we find "Sajdah Ruku and Salat" together is Bakarah 125 and it has nothing to do with any ritual prayer.

Salat is so important that it says in Al Muddathir 41-42: "What has landed you in hell? They will reply, we were not of those that prayed (Salat)".

So Salat is so important that it can land us in Hell but God hasn't told us how to perform it, though he calls the Quran complete and detailed? It doesn't make sense.

There are other points to make but I think this is a good start. Please let me know if any mistakes are made. Looking forward to hearing your views.

Regards

Cihan