We must understand God's attributes in detail by heart and by mind before we start to understand the contents of the Quran or God's message.

God is Most Loving...so how could He literary meant the cutting of the hands for petty theft??
God is Most Loving....and so when he explains about he pain of being in hell, He explains it from His perspective of being the Most Loving, whereby a slight pain is a very big pain for Him, the Most Loving, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.!!

"Thee do we worship; Thee do we ask for help". We should ask for and refer to His Guidance all the time.

A question about prayers.....
Pray = Salat = PHYSICAL ACT of prostrating, bowing and bending of the body??
Is this what GOD wants us to do...and is this supposed to be a way of life for all mankind to follow?? 5 times a day (from 50 times a day thought of earlier by the hadith fabricators!!)

Real salat is bowing to what is TRUTHFUL for there is God in every truth.
When we perform the salat, its our soul that performs the salat and nothing associated with physical body.
When we salat...and doing the right things and bowing to the truth, we actually purify our souls to be good and clean.
When our soul is clean, then it would direct us to do all the right things in life and we rid ourself from easily being influenced by the jinns and the satan who causes disorder and mankind to be led astray.
What about the prayers performed by all the previous messengers which should not change from day one as God is Most Perfect.
Anything that is from God is devoid of any doubts or any bad comments. Whatever is not from God will easily be questionable and made a mockery!!
Think about it.