Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland
Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland
Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland
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THE WORSHIPFUL ACTS t 217<br />
structed the new converts, went back to Abraham’s day <strong>and</strong> was<br />
not only permitted in the new <strong>Islam</strong>ic dispensation but required.<br />
Finally, those newly submitted had the practical example of the<br />
Prophet himself to guide them.<br />
Later generations filled out the picture, based on the preserved<br />
recollections of the Prophet’s sunna, <strong>and</strong> from these ef<strong>for</strong>ts emerged<br />
the Pillars of <strong>Islam</strong>, a summary statement of what constituted, in<br />
very broad terms, the Muslim’s obligations. Interestingly, of the<br />
five only the first is about what a Christian might call orthodoxy. It<br />
is the profession of faith (shahada) or “bearing witness” <strong>and</strong> it is<br />
brief indeed: “There is no god but The God, <strong>and</strong> Muhammad is his<br />
envoy” (la ilaha ill’allah wa muhammad rasul allah). The first part<br />
is a straight<strong>for</strong>ward affirmation of monotheism; the second, of the<br />
validity of Muhammad’s mission <strong>and</strong> message. The other four Pillars<br />
have to do with acts incumbent on the Muslim: prayer (salat)<br />
five times daily; payment of an annual alms-tithe (zakat) calculated<br />
on income; fasting, that is, complete abstention from any <strong>for</strong>m of<br />
food or drink (or sexual activity) from dawn to dusk during the<br />
twenty-eight days of the lunar month of Ramadan; <strong>and</strong> realization<br />
at least once in a lifetime of the hajj. Only two of these are properly<br />
liturgical, prayer <strong>and</strong> pilgrimage, <strong>and</strong> will be examined further.<br />
Women in the Ritual Life of <strong>Islam</strong><br />
If all Muslims are bound to per<strong>for</strong>m these so-called Pillars, the<br />
obligation is limited by considerations normal to most moral systems:<br />
generally speaking, the subject has to be competent to discharge<br />
the obligation. Defects of age or condition exempt from the<br />
duty; various <strong>for</strong>ms of “commutation”—the per<strong>for</strong>mance of another<br />
virtuous act, like alms to the poor, in place of the prescribed<br />
one—are recognized; <strong>and</strong> finally, a greater good may override a<br />
religious obligation, even including the profession of faith. Religious<br />
dissemblance was permitted, <strong>for</strong> example, to Muslims living<br />
under Christian sovereignty in Spain when the shahada might<br />
mean their death, <strong>and</strong> Shiites exercised the same privilege vis-à-vis<br />
their Sunni persecutors.