by Ulf Wolf
The Arabic word Allah means “the God,” and this God is understood to be the God who created the universe and who will sustain it to its end.
By obeying God’s commands (as received, interpreted and relayed by the prophets—and especially by Muhammad), human beings acknowledge and express their gratitude for the wisdom of creation, and thereby live in harmony with the universe.
A profession of faith is therefore a firm prerequisite for membership in the Muslim community. On many occasions during a typical day, as well as in the saying of daily prayers, a Muslim repeats this profession: “I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is his Messenger.”
There are no formal restrictions on the times and places these words can be repeated.
To enter the Muslim community, a person has to profess and act upon this belief in the oneness of God and the true prophethood of Muhammad. To represent a true relationship between the speaker and God, and to be a true profession of faith, this pledge must express genuine knowledge of its meaning as well as sincere belief.
While a person’s deeds are subject to scrutiny by other Muslims, a person’s profession of faith is sufficient evidence of membership in the Muslim community and cannot be challenged by other members.
The Five Daily Prayers
The second pillar of Islam is the religious duty to perform five prescribed daily prayers or salat.
Every adult Muslims is expected to perform five prayers—each preceded by ritual cleansing or purification of the body—at different intervals of the day.
In this regard, the Qur’an also makes mention of standing, bowing, and prostrating during prayers and facing a set direction, known as qibla.
Initially, Muslims were required to face Jerusalem during prayer, but this was revised during Muhammad’s lifetime and they were henceforth commanded by the prophet to face the Kaaba, an ancient shrine in the city of Mecca.
The Qur’an also references the recitation of parts of the Qur’an as a form of prayer. However, even with its numerous references, the Qur’an alone does not spell out exact instructions for this central pillar.
More detailed descriptions of the rituals for prayer derive from the example set by the prophet Muhammad himself as preserved in Islamic traditions. However, although some details of these rituals vary, all Muslims agree that there are five required daily prayers to be performed at certain times of day: at dawn (fajr or subh), at noon (zuhr), at midafternoon (asr), at sunset (maghrib), and at evening (isha).
However, the dawn, noon, and sunset prayers do not start exactly at dawn, noon, and sunset. Instead, in order to distinguish the Islamic ritual from earlier practices of worshiping the sun when it rises or sets, the Muslim prayers begin just after dawn, noon, and sunset.
A prayer is made up of a sequence of units called bowings (or rak’as). During each of these bowings, the worshiper stands, bows, kneels, and prostrates while reciting verses from the Qur’an as well as other prayer formulas.
Wherever Muslims live in substantial numbers throughout the world, the call to prayer, or adhan, is repeated five times a day by a crier (or muezzin) from a mosque, the Muslim place of worship. Muslims are encouraged to pray together in mosques, but group prayer is only a religious obligation for the noon prayer on Friday.
Women, travelers, sick Muslims, and those attending to the sick are granted license not to attend the Friday congregational prayer, although they may attend if they wish.
The Friday noon prayer is led by an imam, who is simply a prayer leader. This prayer differs from the other noon prayers in that as a required part of the ritual two sermons precede the prayer. On other days, Muslims can pray anywhere they wish, either individually or in groups.
They must however observe the rituals of praying at certain times of day, facing in the direction of Mecca, observing the proper order of prayers, and preparing through symbolic purification. Depending on the situation, this last ritual of ablution requires either total washing of the body or a less elaborate ritual washing of the hands, mouth, face, and feet.
In addition to the five required daily prayers, Muslims can perform non-obligatory prayers, some of which have fixed ritual formats and are performed before or after each of the five daily prayers. Others are performed at night, either individually or with other Muslims.
These additional formal and informal prayers give expression to the primary function of prayer in Islam: personal communication with God for the purpose of maintaining the abiding presence of the divine in the personal lives of Muslims.
The more formal aspects of prayer also serve to provide a disciplined rhythm that structures the day and fosters a sense of community and shared identity among Muslims.
Now, a Buddhist would look at these regimented rituals of worship and see the long shadows cast by those innumerable rituals that form the core of the Hindu religion.
Man does seem to love ritual—feeling, more often than not, that by going through these prescribed motions duty has been served, reverence has been paid, prayers delivered, and future happiness guaranteed.
Ah, that it were so.
Almsgiving
The third pillar is zakat, or almsgiving. A religious obligation, zakat is also considered an expression of devotion to God, representing as it does the act of providing for the poor and a means for the Muslim to purify his or her wealth, and so attain salvation.
The Qur’an, along with other Islamic traditions, stresses charity and constantly reminds Muslims of their moral obligation to the poor, orphans, and widows. These references, however, distinguish between general, voluntary charity (or sadaqa) and zakat, the obligatory charge on the money or produce of Muslims.
While the meaning of terms has been open to different interpretations, the Qur’an regularly refers to zakat, and also identifies specific ways in which this tax can be spent.
Such specific uses include spending zakat on the poor and the needy, spending it on those who collect and distribute zakat, spending it on those whom Muslims hope to win over and convert to Islam, on travelers, on the ransom of captives, to relieve those who are burdened with debts, and spending it on the cause of God (which, of course, in turn is wide-open to interpretation).
The Qur’an provides less-than-detailed information about what money or produce are subject to the zakat tax and what is not, nor does it provide details of the precise share of income or property that should be paid as zakat. Rather, these determinations are provided in the traditions of the prophet Muhammad himself and have since been the subject of elaborate discussions among Muslim jurists—as would any subject this intimately involved with one of man’s favorites obsessions: Money.
For example, a consensus today prescribes that one-fortieth of the assets accumulated during the year (including gold, silver, and money) is payable at the end of the year, while one-tenth of the harvest of the land or date trees is payable at harvest time.
On the other hand, cattle, camels, and other domestic animals are subject to a more complex taxation system that depends on the animals in question, their age, the numbers involved, and whether they are freely grazing.
As for trade, traditional zakat laws do not cover this, but commercial taxes have been imposed by various Muslim governments throughout history.
Fasting
The fourth pillar of Islam is sawm, or fasting.
The Qur’an prescribes fasting during the month of Ramadan, the 9th month of the 12-month Islamic lunar year, during which the first revelation of the Qur’an is said to have occurred.
During this sacred month, Muslims must fast from daybreak to sunset by refraining not only from eating, drinking, but also from sexual intercourse. Menstruating women, travelers, and sick people are exempted from fasting but have to make up the days they miss at a later date.
The intention of this fast is to introduce physical and spiritual discipline, which should serve to remind the rich of the misfortunes of the poor, and which should foster, through this
act of worship, a sense of solidarity and mutual care among Muslims of all social backgrounds.
Most Muslims also engage in acts of worship beyond the ordinary during Ramadan, such as voluntary night prayer, reading sections from the Qur’an, and paying voluntary charity to the poor.
Muslims may even (and mostly do) choose to wake before daybreak to eat a meal that will sustain them until sunset. Once the fasting is over, the holiday of breaking the fast, ‘id al-fitr, begins, lasting for three days.
During the rest of the year, fasting can be required as a compensation for various offenses and violations of the law.
Pilgrimage to Mecca
The fifth and final pillar requires that Muslims who have the physical and financial ability should perform the pilgrimage, or hajj, to Mecca at least once in a lifetime.
The hajj takes place during the 12th lunar month of the year, known as Dhu al-Hijja, and it involves a set and detailed sequence of rituals that are practiced over the span of several days.
These rituals take place in Mecca and its surroundings and their primary focus is a cubical structure called the Kaaba—or the House of God, which, according to Islamic tradition was built at God’s command by the prophet Ibrahim—that would be Abraham of the Hebrew and Christian Bibles—and his son Ismail.
The Qur’an gives detailed descriptions of these rituals and portrays many of them as reenactments of the activities undertaken by Ibrahim and Ismail while building the Kaaba.
Set into one corner of the Kaaba is the sacred Black Stone, which, according to one Islamic tradition, was given to Ibrahim by the angel Gabriel.
Another Islamic tradition tells that this stone was first set in place by Adam.
During this pilgrimage to Mecca, before returning home, most Muslims also visit Medina, the home of the Prophet’s tomb. Many Muslims pilgrims also travel to Jerusalem, which is the third sacred city for Islam.
The Mosque
The mosque is the physical manifestation of the public presence of Muslims and serves as a point of convergence for Islamic social and intellectual activity.
The Arabic word for mosque is masjid, which means a “place of prostration” (before God). Mosques are mentioned in the Qur’an, and the earliest model for a mosque was the residence that the prophet Muhammad built when he moved to Medina.
This first mosque was simply an enclosure marked as a special place of worship. A small part of this compound was sectioned off to house the Prophet and his family, while the remaining space was left open as a place for Muslims to pray.
Although later mosques developed into complex architectural structures built in diverse styles, the one requirement of all mosques continues to be based on the earliest model: a designation of space for the purpose of prayer.
These early mosques served an equally important function, a function that mosques continue to serve to this day: as a place where Muslims foster their collective identity through prayer and attend to common concerns.
Normally, a Muslim city has numerous mosques but only a few of these would serve as congregational or Friday mosques where the obligatory Friday noon prayers are performed.
As Islam began to spread outside Arabia, Islamic architecture was, understandably, influenced by the various architectural styles of the conquered lands, leading to construction of both simple and monumental mosques of striking beauty in cities of the Islamic world.
However, despite the influence of diverse civilizations, certain features became characteristic of most and thus serve to distinguish them from the sacred spaces of other religions and cultures, the most important of which is that a mosque must be oriented toward Mecca.
Many mosques also have separate sections for women.
Most also have one or more minarets, or towers, from which the muezzin calls Muslims to prayer five times a day. In addition to this obvious functional use, these minarets have also become distinguishing elements of mosque architecture, and in large mosques in particular minarets have the architectural effect of tempering the size and splendor of the dome by conveying the elevation of divinity above the pretensions of human grandeur.
The mosque is not a symbolic microcosm of the universe, as are some places of worship in other religions; rather, the mosque is always built in alignment with and as a connection to Mecca, the ultimate home of Muslim worship that metaphorically forms the center of all mosques.
The God of Islam
The Qur’an, and further elaborations of Islamic doctrine, not only stress the oneness, but also the uniqueness, the transcendence, and utter otherness of God. As such, God is different from anything that the human senses can perceive or that the human mind can even imagine.
The God of Islam encompasses all creation, though no mind can fully encompass or grasp Him. God, however, is manifest through his creation, and through honest reflection man can discern the wisdom and power required to create a universe such as ours.
Because of God’s oneness, otherness, and his transcending all human experience and knowledge, Islamic law forbids representations of God.
Islamic law also forbids representations of the prophets—including, obviously, and famously, Muhammad. Nor, among some branches of Islam, can representations of human beings be made.
As a result of this belief, Islamic art came to excel in a variety of decorative patterns including leaf shapes later stylized as arabesques, and Arabic script.
In modern times the restrictions on creating images of people have been considerably relaxed, but any attitude of worship toward images and icons is strictly forbidden in Islam.
In several modern societies, the proscription against any form of pictorial representation of the prophets is viewed as a restriction upon freedom of speech and various publications and other outlets have published such images despite the often violent protests staged by local (and worldwide) Muslims as a result.
Commercial interests, however—since money is at stake—shows more consideration for these proscriptions, as illustrated by the online catalog of a large retailer, whose Arabic versions includes no representation of humans (a gargantuan retouching effort).
Islamic Monotheism
Even before the advent of Muhammad, many Arabs already believed in a supreme, all-powerful God who was responsible for creation. However, they also believed in a host of lesser gods.
The arrival of Islam put an end to the subordinate gods and the Arab concept of the Deity was purged of elements of polytheism and turned into an uncompromising belief in one God, i.e., monotheism.
Whether truly the case or not, current Islamic view holds that all Arabs before Muhammad were ignorant of God, and that Islam brought about a complete break from earlier Arab concepts of God and thus brought about a radical transformation in Arab belief about God.
Islamic doctrine also maintains that Islam’s monotheism carries on that of Judaism and Christianity; however, the Qur’an stresses the distinctions between Islam and those other two monotheistic religions; for according to Islamic belief, both Moses and Jesus, like others before them—such as Abraham—were prophets commissioned by God to preach the essential and eternal message of Islam.
They were all forerunners of Muhammad, the final, the holiest, the ultimate prophet
While the legal codes introduced by Moses and Jesus—that is, the Ten Commandments and the Christian Gospels—took different forms than the Qur’an, according to Islamic understanding (at the level of doctrine) they are in fact the same teaching.
By Islamic lore, the recipients of scriptures are called the people of the book or the scriptured people. Like the Jews and the Christians before them, the Muslims became scriptured when God (via Archangel Gabriel) revealed his word to them through (the last, and ultimate) prophet: when God revealed the Qur’an to the Muhammad, and in the process commanded him to preach it to his people and later to all humanity (and never to take “no” for an answer).
Although Muslims (by tradition) believe that the original messages of Judai
sm and Christianity were indeed handed down by God, they also hold that both the Jews and the Christians eventually distorted God’s word.
The self-assigned mission of Islam, therefore, has been—and to this day continues to be—to restore what Muslims believe is the original, pure, and unadulterated monotheistic teaching and to supplant the older (and now perverted) legal codes of the Hebrew and Christian traditions with the newer (purer) Islamic code of law that corresponds to the evolving conditions of human societies.
Accordingly, Islamic traditions maintain that Jesus was a prophet whose revealed book was the Christian New Testament; later, however, Christians distorted the original scripture and inserted into it the claim that Jesus was the son of God.
Muslims also maintain that the strict laws communicated by Moses in the Hebrew Bible were appropriate for their time. Later, however, Jesus—in a breakdown of moral integrity—introduced a code of behavior that stressed spirituality rather than ritual and law.
God eventually grew tired of this ongoing perversion of law, and so contacted Muhammad (via Gabriel) and handed him the last and perfect version of a legal code that balances the spiritual teachings with the societal law, and which, therefore, supplants the Jewish and Christian codes.
The upshot: The Islamic code, called Sharia, is the final code, one that will continue to address the needs of humanity in its most developed stages, for all time to come.
The Qur’an actually mentions 28 pre-Islamic prophets and messengers, and Islamic belief maintains that God has, in fact, sent tens of thousands of prophets to various peoples since the beginning of creation.
Some of the Qur’anic prophets are familiar from the Hebrew Bible, but others are never mentioned in the Bible and seem to be prophetic figures from pre-Islamic Arabia.
For the Muslim then, Islamic history unfolds a perfect and divine scheme starting with creation and lasting till the end of time. Creation itself is seen as the realization of God’s will. God created humans to worship Him, and human history is sprinkled with prophets to ensure that the world will never lack for knowledge of proper worship of their creator.