Fare thee well brothers and sisters,
Salat means as the word implies, a connection/communication/conversation by contacting the Lord as a focused session. This is at least what I have understood from reading Quran and my interpretation and independent tinkering.
The seemingly extra-religious practices such as repeating the first chapter of Quran several times may however not belong to this 'salat' and be inventions belonging to fairytale authors. If we think about it from a logical viewpoint (God is certainly a being of logic) it seems illogical to believe God would appreciate parroting of the same words several times in a row.
The prostration is a gesture belonging to how people paid homage to respected individuals 1000 years ago and beyond. It may not be a necessity when we perform salat, but is certainly a valid act should people wish to express themselves this way. It did not necessarily originate in religion, but was practiced in all sorts of ways.
I have thought about the so-called 'rakah system' and it is just as weird as the hadith which talk about how many stones Muhammad use to wipe himself after answering the call of nature. I think frankly that it is a human invention just like the hadith about the sanitary procedures.
That does not say salat cannot be something we use uniformly as to make it easily practiced but making it different number of prostrations per salah is causing it to make God's religion complicated. People who have chosen to simply prostrate in sets of two twice may have made it sufficiently convenient and makes it more focused on God than like a meaningless ritual.
Personally I do not live as I teach as I have up until now still practiced the traditional rakah system out of fear lest I do wrong, but I begin to realize I may do the same level of error by doing it the way I do now.
Ironically I have convinced myself all the things I talk about yet I cling on to my old ways as if I do not believe in what I utter. Yet I do but stubbornly retain my current practices. I need to let go of my old perception of God's religion and trust I know better. There are no prescribed three stones to wipe myself when I go to bathroom and the same there are no specific three rakah at a prayer traditionally called maghrib.
Even hadith indicate that asr and maghrib were prayers which Muhammad himself voluntarily observed and later became "Sunnah".
Although brother Wakas disagree I am certain that there is at least one prayer during daylight. I believe 2:238 to talk about that. It is not overly important as a righteous Believer will observe regular prayers more than God prescribed as minimum anyways. I suspect that, for example, Muhammad did asr and maghrib prayers as his own preference of regular prayers.
God bless you
