Salat (Prayer) A Muslim must pray (
Fardh/obligatory) five times a day. It is a physical, mental, and spiritual act of worship that is observed five times every day at
prescribed times. When they do this, they must face
Kaaba in
Mecca. In this ritual, the worshiper starts standing, bows, prostrates themselves, and concludes while sitting on the ground. During each posture, the worshiper recites or reads certain verses, phrases and prayers. The word salah is commonly translated as "prayer" or "communication to Allah". The prophet
Muhammad described salat as the "centerpole" of the religion. The main meaning of salat in Arabic is to pray or bless. Salat has been classified into two basic kinds:
required and
recommended. The required salat is the second Pillar, while other salats are considered as recommended ones. The primary required salat is performed five times a day in the specified periods.
Sawm (Fast) Fasting in Islam refers to completely refrain from food, drink, smoking, and sexual activity during the day from dawn to dusk. It is
required to fast during the month of
Ramadan. All Muslims who are in the
coming of age have to fast, although there are a number of exceptions to not fasting, such as illness and travel, pregnancy and menstruating. Missed fasting needs to be practiced in another time.
Hajj (Pilgrimage) The Hajj is an annual Islamic
pilgrimage to
Mecca,
Saudi Arabia, the
holiest city for Muslims, and a
mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by all adult Muslims who are physically and financially capable of undertaking the journey and can support their family during their absence. In Islamic terminology, Hajj is a pilgrimage made to Kaaba, the ‘House of God’, in the sacred city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The rites of Hajj begin on the eighth and ending on the thirteenth day of Dhu al-Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic calendar.
Ihram is the name given to the special spiritual state in which pilgrims wear two white sheets of seamless cloth and abstain from certain actions. The Hajj is associated with the life of
Islamic prophet Muhammad from the 7th century, but the ritual of pilgrimage to Mecca is considered by Muslims to stretch back thousands of years to the time of
Abraham. During Hajj, pilgrims join processions of hundreds of thousands of people, who simultaneously converge on Mecca for the week of the Hajj, and perform a series of rituals: Each person walks counter-clockwise seven times around the
Kaaba (the cube-shaped building and the
direction of prayer for the Muslims), runs back and forth between the hills of
Safa and Marwah, drinks from the
Zamzam Well, goes to the plains of
Mount Arafat to stand in vigil, spends a night in the plain of
Muzdalifah, and performs symbolic
Stoning of the Devil by throwing stones at three pillars. After the sacrifice of their animal, the Pilgrims then are required to shave their head. Then they celebrate the three-day global festival of
Eid al-Adha.
Zakah (Charity) According to
Chittick, The root of Zakat is purity means that people purify their property by paying a share of it to Allah. To be more precise, Zakat is defined as a determined percentage of one's acquired property or profit for the year that is paid to the needy who is described by Quran the poor, those who collect the zakat, those whose hearts are to be reconciled to Islam, captives, those in debt, those who are fighting for Allah, and travelers. ==Ancillaries==