Author's name: Ahmed Bassam Saei

The difficulty of prayer: Is it real? Is prayer inherently a punishment or a reward? What is the enjoyment of prayer? Why at these times? Why with these movements and number of rak'ahs? Why with these recitations? Why has it been imposed in all religions? Is there truly anything in it that surpasses jihad, fighting, and martyrdom on the battlefields, such that it occupies this degree of importance in the eyes of God and His Messenger?!
I had been praying for fifty years before I discovered that, through prayer, I possessed the largest commercial and cultural project, the balance of whose budget God had placed in my bank account for me to invest, and that I had to strive to discover the best way to manage and operate it so that I would reap the greatest rewards from it.
How many different fields and subjects of management science have spread in our public life and in our academic circles? It is concerned with studying the best ways to invest in industrial, commercial, agricultural, and urban projects, and even investing in everything that can achieve profit and bring benefit, whether public or private. Project management science, capital management science, business administration science, factory management science, educational management science, time management science, conflict management science, mind management science, management of management science... and others and others... sciences that lead to the invested work returning to its owner the highest profit and the best production in quantity and quality.
But who has ever thought of establishing a specialization, field, or subject in our schools, institutes, or universities to invest in something that is better than all these projects, more beneficial, longer lasting, more guaranteed in its outcome, and more beneficial for both this world and the hereafter: the management of worship?
God Almighty has placed in our hands such acts of worship as can be used to create limitless profitable projects. We invest our energies in them to reap the greatest fruits in this world, and then the greatest harvest in the Hereafter. This harvest is unmatched by any other in its magnitude, quality, and permanence, and in the guarantee of obtaining it in a sound and complete manner, without ambiguity, shortcomings, delays, or procrastination.
Prayer is at the top of this list of acts of worship or investments. According to the Prophet's (PBUH) assurances, it comes after the two testimonies of faith, followed by honoring one's parents in importance, and then, after that, jihad in the cause of God!