71. Mid worship (Not Midday) (salah), as proof for the number of worshiping per day is five.

In this verse (2:238) of the Quran we find a message asking people to hold on to the five times worship of the Al-Mighty particularly the middle one of the five (Asr) times.

Prophet Muhammad has explained the middle worship of the five times worship as Asr time worship.

Hadith Book Bukhari:6396. 

We need not take into consideration others view when Prophet Muhammad has explained about which is the middle of the five times worship of the day.

This verse also conveys a message. We already know Muslims must worship five times a day and the existence of several hadiths on this. This is the practice of Muslims right from the time of Prophet Muhammad, for the past fourteen centuries.

However, some foolish Muslims keep saying, there is no mention in the Quran of five times a day worship, hence five times a day worshiping is against the Quran. 

Of course, there is no mention in the Quran of the number as five times a day. But there are several verses in the Quran that indirectly convey the number of worshiping a day as five. This is one of those kinds of verses. Though this verse does not mention the number of worshiping as five directly, it conveys not less than five times. 

Let us see how? 

This verse says to keep worshiping particularly the middle one. 

The word worship is an expression of plurality, in Arabic unlike the English language there is in existence something called a doublet to refer two things together, and Arabic plural refers to when there are more than two. 

A (minimum of three times) worshiping plus (the middle) one adds up as four, and the word middle suggests the number to be even. There is no middle number when the count is four. Only when the count is five, can we choose the middle one. Hence it needs to be concluded that the number of worshiping a day is five.

Though as per their contention when we take the number (of worshiping) as three the middle one can be pointed out as the one in the middle of the two, but the mention of the plural (three and more) word (worshiping) in addition to the middle one only can be considered the number as five. 

The usage of the plural (of worshiping) in Arabic along with the middle one of the worshiping leads us to believe the number as five.

We need to understand another message about this verse. Some argue this verse states dawn as the start of the day. 

Since Asr has been declared as the middle worship of the day in hadiths, they argue the first worship of the day is Fajr, hence the beginning of the day is dawn. This argument by them runs hollow as shown in our explanations point 361. 

To get more information about the number of worshipping as five please refer to explanation point no 226.