| In the majority of Islamic traditions, all Muslims adhere to certain fundamentals. The most important is the profession of faith, a creedal formula that states: “There is no God but God. Muhammad is the Messenger of God.” Stated before witnesses, this formula — called the Shahada — is the sufficient requirement for conversion to Islam and belonging to the Umma. |
| Muslims affirm tawhid (the Unity and Uniqueness of God). They believe that God has communicated to humanity throughout its history by way of Messengers, who include figures like Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, and that Muhammad was the final Messenger to whom was revealed the Koran. In personal and social life, Muslims are required to adhere to a moral and ethical mode of behavior for which they are accountable before God. |
| As well as tawhid, articles of faith adhered to by Muslims include the belief that angels and other supernatural beings act as divine emissaries; that Iblis or Satan, the fallen angel, was cast out of heaven for refusing God’s command to prostrate himself before Adam; and that Muhammad is the “seal” of the prophets, the last in a line of human
messengers sent by God to teach and warn humanity. The Koran affirms that the recipients of previous revelations — the Christians and Jews — have corrupted the scriptures sent down to them. It warns of the Day of Judgement when all individuals, living or dead, will be answerable to God for their conduct. The virtuous will be rewarded with eternal bliss in the gardens of heaven. Those who have failed in their duty will be sentenced to the fires of hell. |
| The Koran also articulates a framework of practices which have become normative for Muslims over time. |
| One of them is worship, which takes several forms, such as salat (ritual prayer), dhikr (contemplative prayer), or dua (prayers of exhortation and praise). Muslims performing salat prostrate themselves in the direction of the Ka'aba, the cubic temple covered in an embroidered cloth of black silk that stands at the center of the sacred shrine in Mecca. |
| Salat is performed daily: early morning, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset and evening, or combined according to circumstance. Prayer may be performed individually, at home, in a public place such as a park or street, or in the mosque (an English word derived from the Arabic masjid, “place of prostration”) or other congregational places. The call to prayer (adhan) is made from the minaret which stands above the mosque. It includes the takbir (allahu akbar “God is most great”), as well as shahada and the imperative: “Hurry to salat.” In the past, before electronic amplification, the beautifully modulated
sounds of the adhan were delivered in person by a muezzin from the minarets five times a day. The noon salat on Friday is the congregational service, and is accompanied by a khutba (sermon) spoken by the Imam, or prayer leader or other religious notable. In the early centuries of Islam, the name of the caliph or ruler was pronounced with the khutba. When territories changed hands between 14 different rulers (as frequently happened), the official indication of a change of government came in the form of the proclamation of the new ruler’s name in the country’s leading mosques. |
| Another foundational practice is zakat, sharing of wealth (not to be confused with voluntary charity or sadaqa). In the past, zakat was intended to foster a sense of community by stressing the obligation of the better-off to help the poor, and was paid to religious leaders or to the government. At present, different Muslim groups observe practices specific to their traditions. |
| Sawm is the fast in daylight hours during the holy month of Ramadan, when believers abstain from eating, drinking, smoking, and sexual activity. Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, the medieval mystic and theologian, listed numerous benefits from the discipline of fasting. These included purity of the heart and the sharpening of perceptions that comes with hunger, mortification and self-abasement, self-mastery by overcoming desire, and solidarity with the hungry: the person who is sated “is liable to forget those people who are hungry and to forget hunger itself.” Ramadan is traditionally an occasion both for family reunions and religious reflection. In many Muslim countries, the fast becomes a feast at sundown — an occasion for public conviviality that lasts well into the night. Ramadan is the ninth month in the hijri (lunar calendar) which falls short of the solar year by 11 days: thus Ramadan, like other Muslim festivals, occurs at different seasons over a 35-year cycle. |
| Another significant ritual practice is the Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca, which practicing Muslims are required to perform at least once in their lifetimes, if able to do so. Historically the Hajj has been one of the principal means by which different parts of the Muslim world remained in physical contact. In premodern times, before mass transportation by steamships and aircraft brought the Hajj within the reach of people of
modest or average means, returning pilgrims enjoyed the honored title of Hajji and a higher social status within their communities than non-Hajjis. As well as providing spiritual fulfilment, the Hajj sometimes created business opportunities by enabling pilgrims from different regions of the world to meet each other. It also facilitated movements of religious political reform. Many political movements were forged out of encounters that took place on the pilgrimage — from the Shiite rebellion that led to the foundation of the Fatimid caliphate in North Africa (909) to modern Islamist movements of revival and reform. The end of Ramadan is marked by the Id al-Fitr (the Feast of Fast Breaking), while the climax of the Hajj involves the Id al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) in which all Muslims participate by sacrificing animals. These two feasts are the major canonical festivals observed by Muslims everywhere. There are, in addition, many other devotional and spiritual practices among Muslims that have developed over the centuries, based on specific interpretations of the practice of faith and its interaction with local traditions. |
| Back to Table of Contents |
| |
|
