The Five Pillars of Islam are the basic precepts of Shariah that form the foundation of Islam and are mandatory for all Muslim believers. The five pillars of Islam include: shahada, namaz, uraza, zakat, and hajj.
The Pillars
The pillars of Islam are not listed in the Qur’an, but were known from the hadith of the Prophet. Their elements are agreed upon by most Muslims. Each of the five actions requires an inner spiritual initiation and an outward sign of intention (niyat) as well as the proper completion of each action.
The Five Pillars of Islam include five actions obligatory for a faithful Muslim, among them:
- A declaration of faith containing a confession of monotheism and a recognition of Muhammad’s prophetic mission (shahada);
- The five daily prayers (namaz);
- fasting during the month of Ramadan (uraza);
- a religious tax in favor of the needy (zakat);
- pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj).
Over time, some religious groups added or modified other elements to the five pillars. The sixth pillar of Islam is most commonly referred to as jihad, which theologically means, first and foremost, “the struggle against one’s own passions.
Witness
The testimony, or shahada, is the utterance of a dogma that proclaims the principle of monotheism: “Ashhadu an-la ilaha lllah, wa ashhhadu anna Muhammadan rasulu-Llah.” A creed that testifies to the believer’s confession of monotheism and recognition of the prophetic mission of the Prophet Muhammad. The recitation of the shahada begins Muslim prayers and any religious or secular event held in Islamic countries. It contains two basic tenets of Islam:
- Confession of monotheism, monotheism;
- recognition of the prophetic mission of the Prophet Muhammad.
The shahada emerged as a prayer and discernment cry by which the first Muslims distinguished themselves from pagan polytheists and other non-believers. During battles, the shahada served as a battle cry, which gave its name to the concept of shahid – martyr. Initially, shahids were called warriors who fell in war against the enemies of Islam with the shahada on their lips.
The Shia shahada differs from the Sunni shahada by adding the words about Ali ibn Abu Talib: “wa `Aliyun Waliyu l-Lah”, which means “and Ali is a friend of Allah”. In general terms, the Shia shahada has the form: “I testify that there is no Deity but Allah, and I also testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah and Ali is a friend of Allah.”
The threefold recitation of the shahada before an official was the ritual of accepting Islam in the Middle Ages. From the point of view of Islam, from the moment of pronouncing the shahada in the Divine Presence (“with sincerity in the heart”) a person is considered a Muslim and must comply with the other decrees of Sharia and Sunnah.
Prayer
Every adult Muslim is obliged to pray five times a day. Namaz is performed at specific times, according to an established ritual. The Qur’an does not explicitly prescribe the performance of prayers, although there are many indications of such specifics as prayer times, prayer formulas, certain movements, etc. The entire order of prayer developed as an imitation of the prayer postures and movements of the Prophet Muhammad and is fixed by the memory of the first Muslims. The uniformity of the prayer has been practiced practically for more than a century and a half and was recorded in writing by the Hanafi theologian Muhammad ash-Shaybani (d. 805).
All prayer formulas and words must be said in Arabic. Depending on the legal school (madhhab), some prayer formulas may differ.
In some cases it is possible to combine the midday prayer with the evening prayer and the evening prayer with the night prayer. It is forbidden to pray exactly at noon and at the moments of sunrise and sunset. In addition to the ritual prayers, a Muslim has the ability to appeal directly to God with a prayer (dua), to be said at any time and in any language.
Namaz can be performed both individually and collectively in any suitable place. The Friday midday prayer (Juma Namaz) is performed in a mosque and has great social significance. It provides an opportunity for Muslims to hear the sermon of the Imam and to feel as one.
The place where the prayer is performed must be ritually clean (taharah), for which the prayers can be spread out on a prayer mat. Muslim ritual purity includes actions whose purpose is to achieve ritual purity and has an “inner” and an “outer” side. “Inner taharah” implies purification of the soul from disreputable thoughts, anger and sin, and “outer taharah” implies purification of the body, clothes, shoes, dwelling, etc.
During the collective prayers, the prayers are in rows behind the Imam who leads the prayers. Women should pray separately from men or stand behind them. During the prayer it is forbidden to talk, eat, drink, laugh, make extraneous movements, etc. No prayers may be offered while intoxicated, stupefied or delirious. The sick and handicapped have an indulgence in the ritual of namaz and can perform it either sitting or lying down, making movements mentally. The ritual of namaz is performed equally by followers of all Islamic streams, except for the most “extreme” ones, which deny any ritual.
The basis of prayer is rakaat, which is a cycle of prayer postures and movements accompanied by the recitation of prayer formulas. All postures, movements and prayer formulas follow each other in a strictly defined order, the violation of which is fraught with the invalidity of the prayer. The prayer is performed in a state of ritual purity (voodoo (ablution)). The praying person must stand facing Mecca (qibla). To determine the exact direction to Mecca in the mosques, niches for imams (mihrab) are built and carpets are laid out in a special way. If the time of prayer catches a Muslim on the way, he can determine the qibla by the sun or by orienting himself to the nearest mosque.
Standing in the direction of Mecca with his arms down along his body, the praying person recites the formula of intention (niyat) aloud or in his mind. Then he raises his hands to face level, palms facing the qibla and recites the formula of exalting Allah (takbir). Taking his left hand by the wrist with his right hand, he presses them to his chest (qiyas) and recites the first surah of the Quran (al-Fatihah), followed by some short surah of the Quran. After reciting the ayats from the Qur’an, a bow of the waist (hand) is made with the utterance of praise to Allah. The praying person straightens up and says: “May Allah hear him who praises him” (tasmi) and kneels down and makes an earthly bow (sujood). When he straightens up, he sits on his heels (jilsa) and says: “Oh Allah forgive me. He then repeats his earthly bow and sits back on his heels. In the second and last rakahat he recites the prayer formula “tashahhud”, and after its completion in the last rakahat he recites the greeting formula “Peace be with you and the mercy of God” to the right and to the left.
In addition to obligatory prayers, Muslims may also perform voluntary prayers, which are considered to be God-pleasing.
Almsgiving
Zakat is a tax in favor of needy Muslims. The faqih interpret the term as “cleansing [of sin]. European scholars see it as a borrowing from the Hebrew zakut (“virtue”) or a penetration from the Syriac language through the Christian Arabs. Genetically, zakat is related to the pre-Islamic custom of creating a kind of “fund” of mutual tribal assistance and sharing the captured loot.
In the Meccan suras, zakat means a good deed, almsgiving, and material aid. Zakat was evidently imposed immediately after the first Muslims moved to Medina. The reluctance to pay zakat after the death of the Prophet Muhammad was one of the causes of apostasy.
Zakat was paid by adult able-bodied Muslims. Women’s jewelry, gold and silver trimmings of weapons were not taxed. The sums collected had to be spent during the year and only in the district where they were collected.
The following were eligible for Zakat assistance: the indigent; the poor; Zakat collectors; “persons deserving encouragement”; muqatabs; insolvent debtors; and visitors who had no means to return home.
The post
Fasting was established by the Prophet Muhammad in 624 and dates back to the pre-Islamic practice of pious seclusion (itikaf). The Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad prescribe fasting. The duration of the fast is 29 or 30 days. The time is from dawn (suhur) to sunset (iftar).
The fast consists in total abstinence during daylight hours from eating, drinking, matrimonial duties, etc., that is, from everything that distracts from piety. After sunset, the prohibitions against eating, drinking and performing matrimonial duties are removed. At night it is recommended to spend time in meditation and the reading of the Qur’an. During the month of Ramadan it is recommended to do more godly deeds, to give alms, to settle quarrels, etc.
Fasting is obligatory for all adult Muslims. Those who cannot observe it due to any circumstances (long-distance travel, war, captivity, etc.), those who cannot take responsibility for their actions (mentally handicapped), as well as those to whom fasting may bring any harm (sick, elderly people, pregnant and lactating women) are exempt from fasting. In addition, menstruating women and criminals who have not served their sentences are not allowed to fast.
Those exempted from fasting due to temporary circumstances must endure it during the following year at a convenient time. Those who break the fast accidentally – must make up for the lost days after the end of the month. Those who violated the fast deliberately must, in addition to reimbursing those days, do penance (tawbah) and make atonement (kaffara). Open disregard and demonstrative violation of the fast is considered an offense and is punished according to the laws of the country in which it occurred.
Pilgrimage
The dream of every Muslim is the pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca and Medina. Medina contains the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad, and Mecca is the main shrine of Islam, the Kaaba. Islamic sources claim that the Kaaba was first built by Adam, destroyed in the flood, but rebuilt by the prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) and his son Ismail. According to Islamic tradition, the beginning of the pilgrimage dates back to the time of Ibrahim. The ancient Arabs, until the conquest of Mecca by the Muslims, made the pilgrimage to the Kaaba, which housed their idols. In its present form, the Hajj has existed since the time of the Prophet Muhammad. The Prophet Muhammad himself made his only (“farewell”) pilgrimage in 632.
Hajj is the duty of every Muslim; those who are unable to perform the Hajj may send a “substitute” in their place. Women can perform the Hajj only when accompanied by men (mahram). The Hajj is performed annually in the month of Zul-Hijj in the Islamic calendar and consists of a series of rituals. The pilgrimage to Mecca takes place two months and ten days after the end of Ramadan and coincides with the Eid al-Adha, one of the two major holidays of Muslims. The Hajj is performed to commemorate the sacrifice that the Prophet Ibrahim intended to make. Each year, more than ten million pilgrims from all over the world gather in Mecca to strengthen Muslim unity and strengthen ties. All pilgrims, regardless of income level, wear the same white garment (ikhram). According to Islamic teachings, the hajj removes a person’s sins.
By 7 zul-hijj, pilgrims arrive in Mecca. After taking the ihram, the pilgrims perform the ritual of “small pilgrimage,” after which those who choose to perform umrah and hajj separately leave the ihram and cut off a strand of hair. Immediately before the hajj, they resume the ihram. Those who choose to combine umrah and hajj (qiran) remain in the ihram until the end of the hajj.
On 8 zul-hijjah (yawm at-tarwiya), the pilgrims stock up on water and travel through the Minah and Muzdalif valleys to the Arafat Valley. Some pilgrims stay directly in the Arafat Valley, while others spend the night of 8-9 zul-hijjah in the Meena Valley.
At noon on the 9th of Zul-Hijjah, the fasting at Mount Arafat begins and continues until sunset. During the fast on Mount Arafat the believers stand with their faces raised to God and offer prayers to Him. Then the pilgrims run to the valley of Muzdalif (ifada).
On 10 zul-hijjah (yawm an-nahr), after the morning prayer, the pilgrims head to the valley of Mina to throw seven pebbles into the last of the three pillars (jamrat al-akaba), symbolizing Iblis. This ritual is followed by an animal sacrifice. On this day the entire Islamic world celebrates Eid al-Adha. Having shaved their heads or cut off a strand of hair, pilgrims head to Mecca for a farewell tawaf. Those who have made Hajj without umrah perform sai after the tawaf. The sai is performed in memory of Hajar (Hagar) who sought water between the hills of Safa and Marwah.
From 11 to 13 zul-hijjah (ayyam at-tashriq) pilgrims continue to perform sacrifices, throwing pebbles at all three pillars in the Minah Valley.
The basic rituals of the Hajj were determined by the Prophet Muhammad himself. The ritual of the pilgrimage was developed in detail by representatives of the main religious schools (madhhabs). Hajj played an important historical, cultural and socio-political role in the medieval Muslim world. It retains its ideological and political significance at the present time.
In addition to the hajj, there is the “small pilgrimage” – umrah, which can be carried out at other times of the year. Umrah is considered a God-pleasing deed, but it is not equal to hajj. People who have made the pilgrimage are generally respected and given the title of hajji.