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Islam, in Arabic, means "submission" - submission to the will of God.
Faithful Muslims, therefore, submit unreservedly to God's will and obey His
precepts as set forth in the Quran and transmitted to mankind by Muhammad, His
Messenger.
Muslims believe that theirs is the only true faith. Islam, they say, was
revealed through a long line of prophets inspired by God. Among them are Ibrahim
(Abraham), patriarch of the Arabs through his first son Isma'il (Ishmael); Musa
(Moses), who received the Torah (Tawrah); Dawud (David), who spoke through the
Psalms (Zabur); and 'Isa (Jesus), who brought the Gospels (Injil). But the full
and final revelation came through Muhammad, the last of all prophets, and was
embodied in the Quran, which completes and supersedes all previous revelations.
 Photo: A youth in the pilgrim's
simple robe reading the Quran.
As the chief source of Islamic doctrine and practice, the Quran is the main
foundation of the shari'ah, the sacred law of Islam, which covers all aspects of
the public and private, social and economic, religious and political lives of
all Muslims. In addition to the Quran the shari'ah has three sources: the
sunnah, the practice of the Prophet; ijma', the consensus of opinion; and qiyas,
reasoning by analogy. The sunnah - which supplements and complements the Quran,
the Word of God, and is next to it in importance - embodies the meticulously
documented acts and sayings of the Prophet recorded in a body of writings called
the hadith. Ijma' is the consensus of - qualified jurists on matters not
specifically referred to in the Quran or the sunnah. Qiyas is the application of
human reasoning to extend the principles found in the two primary sources - the
Quran and the sunnah - to cases involving matters unknown in the early years of
Islam.
Systematized in the second and third centuries of the Muslim era (the eighth
and ninth centuries A.D.), the shari'ah later developed into four major schools
of jurisprudence: the Hanafi School, founded by Abu Hanifah; the Maliki School,
founded by Malik ibn Anas; the Shafi'i School, founded by Muhammad al-Shafi'i;
and the Hanbali School founded by Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Each of these men, all
exceptional scholars, wrote or dictated long and learned commentaries upon which
their schools of law were founded. Based on one or the other of these schools,
learned officials called qadis administer the law in shari'ah courts. Despite
the great body of tradition and law, however the practice of Islam is
essentially personal - a direct relationship between individuals and God.
Although there are imams, who lead prayers and deliver sermons, there are no
priests or ministers.
To practice their faith, Muslims must accept five primary obligations which
Islam imposes. Called the Five Pillars of Islam, they are: the profession of
faith (shahadah), devotional worship or prayer (salah), the religious tax
(zakah), fasting (sawm), and the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj).
The first pillar, the profession of faith, is the repetition of the
statement, "There is no god but God; Muhammad is the Messenger of God" - in
Arabic the euphonious "La ilaha illa Allah; Muhammadun rasul Allah." It is a
simple statement, yet also profound, for in it a Muslim expresses his complete
acceptance of, and total commitment to, the message of Islam.
The second pillar, devotional worship or prayer, requires Muslims to pray
five times a day - the dawn prayer, the noon prayer, the afternoon prayer, the
sunset prayer, and the evening prayer - while facing toward the Ka'bah, the
House of God, in Mecca. Like all Islamic ceremonies, prayer is simple and
personal, yet also communal, and the wording of the prayers, the ablutions which
are required before prayers, the number of bows, and other parts of the ritual
are set out in detail.
The religious tax, the third pillar, is zakah in Arabic, a word that in the
Prophet's lifetime came to suggest an obligatory religious tax. Like prayer,
zakah is considered a form of worship. It enshrines the duty of social
responsibility by which well-to-do Muslims must concern themselves about those
less fortunate. The zakah prescribes payments of fixed proportions of a Muslim's
possession for the welfare of the community in general and for its needy members
in particular, whether Muslims or non-Muslims. This tax is often levied and
disbursed by the state, but in the absence of a government collecting system it
must be disbursed by the taxable Muslims themselves. In addition, all Muslims
are encouraged to make voluntary contributions to the needy called sadaqah.
The fourth pillar is fasting during Ramadan, the ninth month of the Muslim
year. Ordained in the Quran, the fast is an exacting act of deeply personal
worship in which Muslims seek a richer perception of God and in which, as one
writer puts it, Muslims assert that "man has larger needs than bread."
Ramadan begins with the sighting of the new moon, after which abstention from
eating and drinking, as well as physical continence, is obligatory every day
between dawn and sunset. It is a rigorous fast, but its object is not mere
abstinence and deprivation; it is, rather, the subjection of the passions and
the purification of one's being so that the soul is brought nearer to God.
Fasting is also an exercise in self-control and self-denial whereby one learns
to appreciate the pangs of hunger that the poor often feel. The exercise of
self-control extends far beyond refraining from food and drink; to make one's
fast acceptable to God, one must also refrain from cursing, lying, cheating, and
abusing or harming others.
Although rigorous, however, the fast, by Quranic injunction, also admits of a
warm compassion. Those who are ill, or on an arduous journey, for example, may
fast the prescribed number of days at another time; those for whom fasting is
impossible may forego it if they give stipulated alms to the needy.
The month of fasting is also joyous. In Muslim regions, in modern times, the
faithful - at the sound of the sunset cannon or the call of the muezzin - break
their fast, perform voluntary nocturnal worship (tarawih), and throng the
streets in moods that are at once festive and, in the spirit of Ramadan,
communal. For those who retire and rest after the day's fast there are, in some
areas, men called musahhirs who, in the silent, predawn darkness beat muted
drums and call the faithful to awake and eat before the long day's fast begins
again.
The last ten days of Ramadan are particularly sacred because they include the
anniversary of the night on which Muhammad received his first revelation from
God - "the Night of Power" - and the appearance, on the final day, of the thin
edge of the new moon announcing the end of Ramadan. At that moment the favor of
God descends upon Muslims and, in a spirit of joyous achievement, they begin the
three days of celebration called 'Id al-Fitr, the Feast of the Breaking of the
Fast. To cement social bonds further, Islam has instituted zakat al-fitr, an
obligatory levy in the form of provisions or money for the poor, so that they
can share in the joy of 'Id al-Fitr.
The fifth pillar of Islam is the pilgrimage to Mecca - the hajj. One of the
most moving acts of faith in Islam, the hajj is, for those Muslims who can get
to Mecca, the peak of their religious life, a moment when they satisfy a deep
yearning to behold at least once the Ka'bah - the House of God and the physical
focus of a life time of prayer. The hajj is at once a worldwide migration of the
faithful and a remarkable spiritual happening that, according to Islamic
tradition, dates back to Abraham, was affirmed by Muhammad, and then, by
Muhammad's own pilgrimage, systematized into rites which are simple in execution
but rich it in meaning.
 Photo: Dressed in their simple
ihram garments, all pilgrims are equal in the eyes of God.
The hajj proper must be made between the eighth and thirteenth days of the
12th month - Dhu al-Hijjah - of the Muslim year, but in one sense it begins when
a Muslim approaches Mecca, bathes, trims his nails and hair, discards jewelry
and headgear, and puts on the ihram dress. This consists of two simple white
seamless garments symbolizing a state of purity; in donning it pilgrims make a
declaration of pilgrimage and pronounce a devotional utterance called the
talbiyah: "Here I am, O God, at Thy Service" - in Arabic the joyous cry
"Labbayk!" After donning the ihram dress, the pilgrims may enter the haram, the
sacred precinct surrounding Mecca, and then Mecca itself, where they perform the
tawaf - the circling of the Ka'bah - and the sa'y - the running between two
hills at al-Mas'a in Mecca. All this can be part of the 'umrah or "lesser
pilgrimage," often a prelude to the hajj but not an integral part of it. One of
the main distinctions between the hajj and the 'umrah is that the 'umrah can be
done at any time of the year, while the hajj must be performed on specified
dates.
 Photo: Crowds at the small town of
Mina cast pebbles at pillars that symbolize evil.
The major rites of the hajj begin on the eighth day of Dhu al-Hijjah when,
with thunderous cries of "Labbayk!" the pilgrims pour out of Mecca to Mina,
where, as the Prophet did, they meditate overnight. On the next day they proceed
en masse to 'Arafat, even farther outside Mecca, and pray and meditate in what
is the central rite of the pilgrimage: "the standing" - a few precious hours of
profound self-examination, supplication, and penance in which, many say, a
Muslim comes as close to God as he can, on earth.
At 'Arafat many actually do stand - from just after noon to just before
sunset - but some also visit other pilgrims or the Mount of Mercy, where
Muhammad delivered his farewell sermon. The standing is not the end of the hajj,
but is the culmination of a Muslim's devotional life. As the Prophet said, "The
best of prayers is the prayer of the Day of 'Arafat."
After sunset the pilgrims move to a place called Muzdalifah, where they
gather stones for the "throwing of the pebbles" or "stoning of the pillars," and
then pray and sleep. The third day of the pilgrimage, back at Mina, they enact a
repudiation of evil by throwing the pebbles at a pillar held by many to
represent Satan. According to one tradition it was in this area that Satan urged
Abraham to disobey God's command to sacrifice his son Ishmael. At Mina too,
begins 'Id al-Adha, the great worldwide Feast of Sacrifice during which the
pilgrims sacrifice animals - partly to commemorate Abraham's willingness to
sacrifice his son and partly to symbolize a Muslim's willingness to sacrifice
what is dearest to him. As Muslims throughout the world perform identical
sacrifices on the same day, the Muslims at Mina in effect share their pilgrimage
with Muslims everywhere.
 Photo: A pillar marks the Mount of
Mercy the rocky hill rising from the plain of Arafat.
As the pilgrims have now completed much of the hajj, Muslim men now clip
their hair or shave their heads and women clip a symbolic lock to mark partial
deconsecration. The pilgrims may also, at this point, remove the ihram dress and
bathe.
In Mecca the rites are concluded by the tawaf of the return, the Circling of
the Ka'bah seven times on foot, an act implying that all human activity must
have God at the center. After the last circuit the pilgrims worship in the
courtyard of the Mosque at the Place of Abraham, where the Patriarch himself
offered prayer and, with Ishmael, stood while building the Ka'bah. The tawaf of
the return is the last essential devotion of the pilgrimage; now the pilgrims
have become hajjis - those who have completed the hajj. Most pilgrims also
attempt to kiss, touch, or salute the Hajar al-Aswad, the Black Stone of the
Ka'bah, a fragment of polished stone revered as a sign sent by God and a remnant
of the original structure built by Abraham and Ishmael. Many also make the sa'y
or running, a reenactment of a frantic search for water by Hagar when she and
Abraham's son Ishmael were stranded in the valley of Mecca until the Angel
Gabriel led them to water in the Well of Zamzam.
It is also customary for pilgrims to return to Mina between the eleventh and
thirteenth days and cast their remaining pebbles at the three pillars there and
then, in Mecca, make a farewell circling of the Ka'bah. Some may also visit the
Mosque of the Prophet in Medina before returning to their homes throughout the
world in the "sudden, glad stillness" of those who have stood at 'Arafat.
Photo: Symbol of the oneness and centrality of God,
the Ka'bah stands in the courtyard of Mecca's Sacred Mosque where at the season
of the hajj the faithful gather for rituals that precede and end their
pilgrimage.
Photo: Symbol of the oneness and centrality of God,
the Ka'bah stands in the courtyard of Mecca's Sacred Mosque where at the season
of the hajj the faithful gather for rituals that precede and end their
pilgrimage.
Photo: Pilgrims at the climax of their hajj,
"standing" before God at 'Arafat near the spot where Muhammad delivered his
farewell sermon.
Photo: Hajjis spend one night camped at Muzdalifah
between 'Arafat and Mina.
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