More on the 5 pillars of Islam Islam has 5 pillars. 1) Bearing witness that there is none to be worshipped except Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. 2) The performance of the prayer – praying 5 times a day – based on the order of the almighty Allah. Somebody might say, why do we have to 5 times a day? Well, if I said to you, listen – I got a job for you and we pay 5 times a day. You wash yourself, line up and get paid. Would you have any problems with it? No you wouldn’t. When the bell rings, you will be the 1st one to wash yourself, line up and get paid. Because you know the benefits of it. The prophet Muhammad told us: if any of you had a house with a stream in front of you – if you went into that stream and washed 5 times a day, would there be any dirt on you? The purpose of the prayer is to keep you pure, clean and to remind you about Allah. And how long does a prayer take? It only takes less than 10 minutes. It takes you longer than that to smoke a cigarette, it takes you longer than that to call your wife, it takes you longer than that to drink some juice, it takes you longer than that to talk some foolishness on the street. You mean the one whom you worship, the one who created the heavens and earth, the one who gives you paradise, the one whom you believe in, you are not willing to stop what you are doing 5 times a day and just ask him? Praise him for forgiveness? Worship him? Be grateful towards him for 10 minutes? Of course you are. This is what the prayer for. So the idea is to keep you pure, clean, honest, keep you reminded, keep you knowing that you are a Muslim, keep you reminded all the time that Allah is your Allah. That’s why you tell your sons and daughters when they are young, be in this house at 8:00 o’clock. You don’t think at 8:15 they are going to become a pumpkin. But you want them to get accustomed to respect that house and coming at 8:00. So it is the same thing with the prayer. Allah wants you to get accustomed to remember him. Allah does not need your prayer. You need it. But he ordered for us prayer as a blessing. That’s why a Muslim have such a great blessing because these 5 prayers a day acts upon his minds, his psychology, his physiology and his social posture. Every thing in his life revolves around this prayer. 3) Zakat (charity) – the word “zakat” mean to grow, to prosper, to benefit. When you give something from your saved up wealth (i.e. money that you are not using, piling up in the bank) to the poor – Allah purifies your wealth. Don’t those people who are less fortunate – don’t they deserve a portion of your wealth? And if Allah did not order us to give it, would we give it? No we wouldn’t. So Zakat is for the poor and it purifies your wealth. 4) Fasting – Fasting in the month of Ramadan, is for discipline. It’s to learn self-control. If you can’t fast from sunrise to sunset – if you can’t control your tongue – if you can’t stay away from the desire of your wife – if you can’t stop thinking lustful thoughts – if you can’t control your anger – if you can’t keep away from food – if you can’t keep away from those for 12-14 hours, then what kind of a person are you? How powerful are you? And after that fasting period, you can eat, go unto your wife etc. And from that fasting hours, you kind of get an idea how those people are feeling in Somalia, Ethiopia, India – other parts of the world, who are fasting involuntarily – everyday! Through fasting, you get an idea how they feel. You become more humble, you do more righteous deeds, you become aware of your responsibility as a Muslim, you think more about the almighty God – and as a result of that, you elevate yourself spiritually. 5) Hajj- (The Pilgrimage) – It’s the journey to the Ka’aba (house located in Mecca and was built by Abraham and his son Ishmael to commemorate the worship of one God). As a Muslim, you can go to Mecca and visit Ka’aba and make the lesser pilgrimage called “Umrah”. And then when the Hajj times come, you make that pilgrimage and that is when you are going to see the power of this Islamic brotherhood. You will never see, never witness it, never sense it and never know it, unless you make this pilgrimage.
Posted on: Sun, 01 Sep 2013 17:35:23 +0000
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