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Islam is strictly a monotheistic
faith. There is only one God (Allah), and at the core of Islam
stands the Five Pillars:
1. The Attestation of Faith; There is no God, but Allah, and
Muhammad is His messenger.
2. Pray five times a day, before sunrise, noon, mid-afternoon,
sunset and nightfall.
3. Fasting and abstinence from smoking and sex, from sunrise
to sunset during the Muslim month of Ramadan.
4. Giving of alms to the poor. (Zakat)
5.Pilgrimage (Haj) to Mecca at least once in a lifetime for
any Muslim who can afford it.
The religion of Islam was founded in 610 A.D. by the Prophet
Muhammad S.A.W. in what is now known as Saudi Arabia. At the
age of forty, he had visions of an angel who encouraged him
to begin speaking of the new religion. In the beginning, word
spread slowly and he was driven from Mecca as a "False
Prophet". However, Muhammad proved to be quite a persuasive
scholar and 8 years later he returned to Mecca with an army
of followers. Since this time, Mecca had been the centre of
Islam and the focal point of daily prayers for the Muslim
world.
Although Muslims accept the revelations of Christian prophets
such as Abraham and Jesus, Muhammad is considered to be "the
Prophet", the one to whom God delivered complete and
perfect revelations. These revelations are set forth in the
Quran, the primary scripture of Islam.
The focus of the Muslim prayers and the destination of the
pilgrimage (Haj), is a hollow, fifty foot high, stone and
mortar cube called the Kaaba("cube" in Arabic").
This was a sacred place even before the prophet's time and
is believed to be directly under Allah's throne and to be
the centre of all creation. When the millions of Muslims throughout
the world turn toward Mecca five times a day for prayer, they
are symbolically uniting at the Kaaba.
Within each mosque, there is an arched niche called the "mihrah"
in one wall, that indicates the direction to Mecca. During
prayer, Muslims use the mihrah to align themselves with the
Kaaba in Mecca. The imaginary line stretching from the worshiper,
through the mihrah, to the Kaaba in Mecca, is called the "kibla"
and is seen as a kind of umbilical cord linking the worshiper
with the source of creation (the Kaaba) and with Allah above.
The Kaaba, kibla, and worshiper form a spoked wheel with the
hub at Mecca.
Muslims from around the world travel each year to Mecca (non-Muslims
are not permitted in the city) to pay homage to Allah. They
do this by circling the Kaaba seven times in a counter-clockwise
rotation. With over 400 million Muslims in the world, each
country is allowed to send only a small percentage of its
Muslims to Mecca during the Haj. Sometimes people wait many
years to be able to complete their Haj.
Islam is a conservative religion and as such, Muslim followers
have a strict set of guidelines to follow. The sexes are separated
for most religious activities. Eating pork is taboo. All males
are circumcised. Muslims observe a twelve month lunar calendar,
which is ten days shorter than the Western Gregorian calendar.
Mosques do not contain human or animal images as it is considered
blasphemous to mimic the creations of Allah, nor will you
find any representation of Allah either, symbolic or realistic.
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