Credits: Why were Muslims supposed to pray 50 times a day, not 5?

On the night of the Isra and Mi'raj, Allah prescribed fifty daily prayers; Musa (peace be upon him) advised the Prophet ﷺ to ask for it to be lightened, and Allah reduced it to five, with the reward of fifty. A hand-made-style paper-collage animation, rendered live in your browser with plain JavaScript and canvas.

Sources for the story

Sahih al-Bukhari 349 (Anas from Abu Dharr): Allah enjoined fifty prayers on the night of the Mi'raj; Musa (peace be upon him) said "Go back to your Lord, for your Ummah will not be able to bear it"; it was reduced until Allah said "They are five and they are fifty; the word does not change with Me"; the Prophet ﷺ said "I feel shy before my Lord".
Sahih Muslim 162a (Thabit from Anas): fifty prayers every day and night; "My Lord, make it lighter for my Ummah"; reduced by five each time; "I kept going back between my Lord and Musa"; "they are five prayers every day and night, for each prayer ten, so that is fifty prayers".
Sahih al-Bukhari 3207 (Malik ibn Sa'sa'a): the same night, wording of the reductions and "I reward a good deed tenfold".
Ibn Hajar, Fath al-Bari 1/462-463: five in number as deeds, fifty in reward; reading of the steps of five in Muslim 162.
Ibn Battal and al-Qadi 'Iyad (quoted in Tuhfat al-Ahwadhi 1/533-534; Ikmal al-Mu'lim 1/503-504): the fifty were lifted before any of them was prayed; the reduction as a mercy for this Ummah.
Ibn Battal, Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari 2/5-7; Ibn Abd al-Barr (in Imta' al-Asma' 3/55): the prayer was made obligatory in Makkah on the night of the Isra, before the Hijrah.

Out of respect, the Prophet ﷺ, Musa (peace be upon him) and the angels are never depicted, and the night of the Mi'raj is told only through paper, text and places on earth.

Made with

Narration: Google Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS (voice “Algieba”), directed and edited for this film.
Illustrations: Google Gemini 3.1 Flash Image (backgrounds) and OpenAI GPT Image 2.5 (cut-outs), art-directed and reviewed frame by frame.
Typefaces (SIL Open Font License): Caveat Brush, Caveat, Patrick Hand, Aref Ruqaa.
Animation engine, sound design and mix: written for this series.

Sound

No music is used. All sound effects are CC0 unless noted.

amb_desert_wind_gentle: Looping Gentle Wind Ambience on an Open Desert Plain.wav (Freesound) by dhallcomposer, CC0 1.0. Edits: source 2.0-38.0 s; highpass=f=50:poles=2; gentle dry wind on an open desert plain (Hijaz wadi, dusk); 30 s seamless loop, -24 LUFS; 48k/16-bit
amb_quiet_room_day: #837996 "windy roomtone ile callot" by bruno.auzet, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 190.0-216.0 s; HPF 40 Hz, LPF 14 kHz; 24 s seamless loop (2 s crossfade), -26 LUFS
sfx_card_thud: #824385 "Softcover book hitting table" by nyxlitten, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 3.80-4.25 s; HPF 60 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_cloth_swish_2: #391448 "Shirt Whoosh 1.wav" by saturdaysoundguy, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 9.60-10.30 s; HPF 80 Hz,FFT denoise 10 dB (floor -72); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_dream_shimmer_short: synthesized for this series: Same engine, 1.6 s dense sparkle sting.
sfx_page_turn_1: #136778 "Page Turn" by davidbain, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-1.98 s; HPF 80 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_page_turn_2: #397548 "Page Turn 01" by LilMati, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-0.50 s; HPF 80 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_paper_rustle_1: #181774 "rustling paper.wav" by keweldog, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.30-2.55 s; HPF 80 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_paper_rustle_2: #181774 "rustling paper.wav" by keweldog, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 2.50-4.45 s; HPF 80 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_paper_rustle_3: #449127 "Rustling Paper" by HarpyHarpHarp, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 1.45-2.15 s; HPF 80 Hz,FFT denoise 10 dB (floor -60); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_paper_rustle_4: #449127 "Rustling Paper" by HarpyHarpHarp, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 5.70-6.41 s; HPF 80 Hz,FFT denoise 10 dB (floor -60); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_paper_rustle_5: #211246 "PageRustle" by Tomoyo Ichijouji, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.10-1.90 s; HPF 80 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_paper_slide_1: #464302 "PaperSlide.wav" by eyesonlegs, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-1.64 s; HPF 60 Hz,FFT denoise 10 dB (floor -55); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_paper_slide_2: #444431 "Sliding Envelope.wav" by MTJohnson, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.20-1.10 s; HPF 80 Hz; trim, fades, peak -3 dBFS
sfx_paper_tear_1: #272028 "Ripping Paper" by aldenroth2, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-1.96 s; HPF 60 Hz,FFT denoise 8 dB (floor -60); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_paper_tear_2: #342541 "Fast Paper Rip" by sgrowe, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-0.89 s; HPF 60 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_paper_tear_3: #170311 "Tearing paper" by ludde44, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.20-1.52 s; HPF 60 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_pen_tick_1: #85703 "Pencil_scibble.aif" (via house `sfx_pencil_scribble_2.wav`) by tmkappelt, CC0 1.0. Edits: one tick cut from sfx_pencil_scribble_2 at 0.545-0.785 s; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_pen_tick_2: #85703 "Pencil_scibble.aif" (via house `sfx_pencil_scribble_2.wav`) by tmkappelt, CC0 1.0. Edits: one tick cut from sfx_pencil_scribble_2 at 1.245-1.505 s; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_pencil_scribble_1: #257518 "Scribble_short.wav" by waldram, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-1.27 s; HPF 150 Hz,FFT denoise 12 dB (floor -50); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_pencil_scribble_2: #85703 "Pencil_scibble.aif" by tmkappelt, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-3.20 s; HPF 150 Hz,FFT denoise 12 dB (floor -62); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_tick: synthesized for this series: A short synthesized key click for typing in the Qaf app screen (made for this series). Non-instrumental.
sfx_whoosh_soft_synth: synthesized for this series: White noise through a time-varying log-Gaussian band-pass sweeping 300 Hz -> 2.2 kHz, swell envelope, slow L->R pan.