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Islam Handout

Muslim

Minaret

Allah

Muhammad (story of)

Religion Prior To

Receiving the Message

Makka (Macca)

Hegira (flight) to Yathrub (Medina)

Where is Islam?

The Muslim Way of Life (The 5 Pillars) (pg. 104-106)

I. A profession of faith (Shahada)

II. The Obligation to pray (Salat)

Masque

III. The giving of alms (Zakat)

IV. The obligation to fast (Ramadan)

V. The pilgrimage to Makkah (Hajj)

Ka’ba

Jihad (Holy War)

The way of Life:

The Achievements of Muhammad

Changed a cultures religion from polytheistic to monotheistic

Increased women rights in his culture, and limited Polygamy

Racial equality

The Quran

Hadith (book of Muhammad’s words, sayings, expressions,…)

Issues in the world of Islam

A description of the Five Pillars

The first pillar is the profession of faith or, in Arabic, the shahadah. The Council on Islamic Education, an American organization comprising historians and academicians, calls this the central theme of Islam because many Muslims repeat it, in Arabic, several times a day to remind themselves of God's central position in their lives.

The second pillar is ritual worship, or salah. Muslims are required to pray formally five times a day -- at dawn, midday, afternoon, evening and night. At each time, a man summons believers to prayer by calling from atop the mosque's tower, or minaret, or by using loudspeakers. Those out of earshot simply rely on a watch.

Muslims may pray alone or in a group as long as they face the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca, Muhammad's birthplace and the holiest city of Islam. It is common in many predominantly Islamic countries to see Muslims performing the salah wherever they happen to be at the appropriate time. After repeating the prescribed prayer, Muslims may add a personal prayer.

Unlike most Christian or Jewish prayers, the salah requires more than words. The whole body performs the ritual. It begins as worshipers raise their hands and say "Allahu Akbar," which translates as "God is the greatest." Worshippers then bend with hands on knees, kneel with hands on thighs and finally bow their heads to touch the floor. Each motion is accompanied by verses from the Koran. A person, sometimes called an imam, may lead the service.

The third pillar is fasting, or sawm, during the month of Ramadan. Because Islam uses a lunar calendar, its year is 11 days shorter than that of the solar calendar governing most worldly affairs. As a result, Ramadan comes 11 days earlier each year. The month is sacred because, as Muslims believe, God first revealed verses of the Koran to Muhammad during Ramadan.

During Ramadan, Muslims are to refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex from dawn to sunset. Typically during Ramadan, Muslims have breakfast before dawn and do not eat again until after sunset.

The fourth pillar is almsgiving, called zakah in Arabic. Muslims pay a specified amount of money, typically 2.5 percent of one's accumulated wealth each year, to assist the poor and sick. The money is not to support the mosque or Islamic leaders. The Koran does not say how much should be given. In some Muslim countries, according to Lippman, it is voluntary, while in others, the government enforces it.

The fifth pillar is the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, the most recent of which occurred last month. Islam requires that every believer make at least one visit to Mecca in a lifetime if physically and financially able to do so.

The spectacular hajj now brings together more than two million Muslims in a religious gathering that has continued without interruption for about 1,400 years. Where once pilgrims came on foot or camel, sometimes after more than a year of travel, most now arrive by air.

The hajj commemorates the sacrifices, faith and obedience of Abraham; his second wife, Hagar; and their son, Ishmael, at Mecca. According to the Council on Islamic Education, it is the largest, regularly scheduled international gathering on Earth.

When the pilgrims arrive, they don special clothing. Men wear two seamless white sheets, and women usually wear a modest white dress and are prohibited from wearing veils or gloves. In this uniform attire, the pilgrims feel that they are equal before the eyes of God and that only virtue and devotion will set one apart from others.

The demanding rites and prayers last for days. At various points, worshipers must make a ritual trek, pray from noon through the following morning and stand in prayer for hours at a time. According to Islamic scholars, the pilgrims hope that God will accept their effort, after which they can commence life afresh with a slate wiped clean of sins.

This year's pilgrimage was marred by sweltering temperatures and a stampede in which more than 150 people were killed when they rushed to perform one of the last rituals known as "stoning the devil." In this, the pilgrims throw pebbles at three pillars symbolizing the temptations of Satan.

The focus of worship in Mecca is the Ka'aba, an empty, cubical stone structure covered by an embroidered black cloth in the courtyard of the Great Mosque.

Ka'aba is the source of the word "cube." The Ka'aba is believed to have been built on the site of an original made by Abraham more than 4,000 years ago, and Muslims consider it the original house of God on Earth.

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