Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland

9. The Worshipful Acts
THE QURAN is part preaching directed toward conversion
and part instruction, where the Book lays out,
sometimes generally, sometimes specifically, what it is
to be a muslim, one who has submitted to God. The
quranic picture of what makes up a Muslim life grew
far more detailed at Medina, where Muhammad was
the head and authoritative guide of a Muslim community
(umma), a community now free to practice its beliefs
in public. Part of that instruction is liturgical, that
is, it describes the rituals—in Arabic al-ibadat, “the
worshipful acts”—by which God wishes to be formally
and publicly acknowledged.
To Be a Muslim
The Torah is as highly detailed in its prescriptions on
how, when, and where God wishes to be worshiped as
the Gospels are spare in their instruction: the Lord’s
Prayer and the Eucharist stand out as almost unique
exceptions. Otherwise, we are left to suppose, Jesus’
followers were simply to carry on their Jewish liturgical
practices. The Quran stands somewhere between
the two. It provides some new specifics regarding
prayer, almsgiving, and fasting for the believers and, in
the case of the pilgrimage, a liturgical practice already
in use among the pagan Meccans and their neighbors,
it modifies and corrects this ritual that, the Quran in-