Thank you for visiting. This article is the third installment in a series explaining the original texts of Islam.
Last time (Article 2), I explained the “Six Articles of Faith” that Muslims believe in their hearts. This time, I look in detail at the pillars of practice that put that faith into concrete action — the “Five Pillars” — and the religious life that shapes a Muslim’s everyday.
For an overview map of Islam’s original texts as a whole, please see this summary article.
What Are the Five Pillars — Islam’s Five Pillars
The “Five Pillars” are the five basic religious duties a Muslim should perform, also called the “Five Pillars of Islam.” If faith (the Six Articles) is the foundation in the heart, the Five Pillars practice that faith with the body and give it form.
Now let us look at the five pillars one by one in detail.
The Origins of Religion: Why We Needed a ‘God’View on Amazon →
A Complete History of Philosophy and ReligionView on Amazon →
1. The Confession of Faith (Shahada) — the Entrance to Islam
The first pillar, the “Shahada (confession of faith),” is the very entrance to Islam.
There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of God.
To believe and testify to these words from the heart — this is the Shahada. The first half states faith in the one God (tawhid), and the second half that Muhammad is the messenger of God.
To recite this single sentence, understanding its meaning and believing it from the heart, is the most basic condition of being a Muslim. Conversion to Islam, too, is established by reciting these words before witnesses. It is recited again and again in daily prayer, becoming the words that run through all of a Muslim’s religious life.
2. Prayer (Salat) — Facing God Five Times a Day
The second pillar, “Salat (prayer),” shapes the very rhythm of a Muslim’s life.
Muslims pray at fixed times five times a day — before dawn, after noon, in the afternoon, after sunset, and at night. Before prayer, they perform “wudu (the minor ablution),” washing the hands, face, arms, feet, and so on, putting body and mind into a pure state.
Prayer is always done facing the direction of the “Kaaba” in the holy city of Mecca. This direction is called the “qibla.” Muslims around the world, in time with the hour, pray toward the same single point — this scene symbolizes the unity of a community (umma) that crosses borders and peoples.
Prayer repeats a set of movements — standing, bowing, and prostrating with the forehead to the ground (sajda) — a fixed number of times. The act of placing the forehead before God carries the meaning of complete submission to the Creator. In particular, the Friday noon prayer, the “Friday prayer (Jumu’ah),” is an important communal prayer in which men, as a rule, gather at the mosque and pray together.
3. Almsgiving (Zakat) — the Alms That Purify Wealth
The third pillar, “Zakat (almsgiving),” is the duty of one who has wealth above a certain level to give a part of it for the poor and the community.
Its proportion is generally held to be about 2.5% of one’s accumulated wealth. What matters is that this is not merely voluntary charity, but a fixed religious “duty.”
The word zakat carries the meaning of “purification.” The idea is that, by giving away a part of one’s wealth, one purifies the wealth itself, and eases the gap between the rich and the poor, supporting society as a whole. The Qur’an sets out that the zakat collected is used for the poor, the needy, debtors, travelers, and the like. Note that, apart from the obligatory zakat, voluntary giving that seeks no return, “sadaqa,” is also widely encouraged as a good work.
4. Fasting (Sawm) — the Discipline of Ramadan
The fourth pillar, “Sawm (fasting),” is performed during “Ramadan,” the ninth month of the Islamic calendar.
During this month, Muslims abstain from all food and drink from before dawn until sunset. Even drinking water is not allowed. After sunset, they break the fast with a meal called “iftar,” together with family and companions, and eat again before dawn to prepare for the next day’s fast.
Why fast? Its purpose lies in, by experiencing hunger and thirst oneself, cultivating sympathy for the suffering of the poor, disciplining one’s own desires, and renewing one’s gratitude to God. Fasting is not mere endurance, but a discipline for purifying the heart and deepening faith.
Ramadan is held to be the most sacred month of the year for Muslims, and people read the Qur’an more than usual and strive at good works. And when the fasting month ends, a grand festival celebrating it, “Eid al-Fitr (the festival of breaking the fast),” is celebrated with family and community.
5. Pilgrimage (Hajj) — to the Holy City of Mecca
The fifth pillar, “Hajj (pilgrimage),” is the duty of one who is physically and financially able to make a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca once in a lifetime.
When the pilgrimage month comes, millions of Muslims gather in Mecca from all over the world. The pilgrims wear seamless white garments called “ihram.” This embodies that king and pauper, every people alike, are all equal before God.
In the pilgrimage, a set series of rituals is performed. The central one is the “tawaf,” circling the Kaaba seven times counterclockwise. Besides this, there are a ritual of going back and forth between two nearby hills, prayer at Mount Arafat, a ritual of throwing pebbles at pillars symbolizing the devil, and so on.
At the close of the pilgrimage, after the story of the prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) preparing to offer his son, “Eid al-Adha (the festival of sacrifice),” in which a sheep or the like is offered, is celebrated. This is one of the most important festivals in the Islamic world, and the meat offered is shared even with the poor.
Halal and Haram — the Permitted and the Forbidden
In addition to the Five Pillars, important concepts that govern a Muslim’s daily life are “halal” and “haram.”
| Category | Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Halal | Permitted things and acts | Meat processed by the prescribed method, vegetables, grains, and so on |
| Haram | Forbidden things and acts | Pork, alcohol, unjust gain, and the like |
Especially the rules concerning food are well known. Pork and alcohol (alcoholic drinks) are clearly forbidden, and other animals’ meat, too, cannot be eaten unless it is “halal,” processed by the prescribed method with the name of God spoken over it.
This is not a mere dietary habit, but the practice of faith — living according to God’s decree through the most familiar act, the daily meal. In recent years, halal-certified foods and restaurants have spread around the world.
The Prohibition of Interest — Islam’s Economic Ethics
The idea of halal/haram extends not only to food but to the way money and commerce are conducted. Among the most distinctive is the prohibition of “riba (interest).”
The Qur’an clearly forbids lending money and taking interest (unearned income). This is because money simply breeding money, without work, is thought to be an injustice that makes the rich ever richer and torments the weak. Just as almsgiving (zakat) makes it a duty to “circulate wealth to the poor,” here too Islam’s economic view appears — warning against the skewing of wealth, and valuing mutual aid within the community.
So what do modern banks do? What developed there is “Islamic finance.” Instead of interest, it uses arrangements in which the investor and the entrepreneur share both profit and loss (joint investment, or a method where the bank first buys a good and sells it with a markup added, and the like), making economic activity work while avoiding riba. That a religious rule lives on even in the mechanisms of modern finance is an expression of Islam’s character — trying to govern every corner of life by God’s teaching.
The Islamic Calendar — a Calendar That Moves by the Phases of the Moon
A Muslim’s religious life is conducted along the “Islamic calendar (the Hijri calendar).” This is a lunar calendar based on the phases of the moon, taking AD 622, the year the Prophet Muhammad migrated to Medina, as its first year.
Because a lunar year is about 354 days, roughly 11 days shorter than the solar year, the times of religious events like Ramadan and the pilgrimage month, seen by the solar calendar, come a little earlier each year. So there are years when the fasting month comes around in midsummer, and years when it comes around in winter.
Jihad — Its True Meaning
A word often misunderstood in relation to Islam is “jihad.”
Jihad is translated as “holy war” and tends to be spoken of with an image of war. But its true meaning is “effort, struggle (for the sake of God’s path).”
In Islamic tradition, jihad is often spoken of as divided into two. The inner effort to fight one’s own desires and weaknesses and become a better believer is called the “greater jihad,” and this is held to be more important. On the other hand, the outward fighting to defend the community is positioned as the “lesser jihad.”
That is, the heart of jihad lies not in force but in “the struggle with oneself.” The very effort to strive at daily prayer and fasting, to overcome temptation and live rightly, can be called jihad for a Muslim.
The Mosque and the Community (Umma)
Finally, let me touch on the “mosque (masjid),” the place of a Muslim’s religious life. The mosque is a place for prayer, and inside there is only a niche showing the direction of Mecca (the mihrab), with no statue or picture of God or the prophets at all. Instead, the beautiful Arabic calligraphy of the Qur’an and geometric patterns adorn the walls.
The mosque is not a mere place of prayer but also a center of learning and gathering, and has played the role of binding the Muslim community, the “umma,” together. From the fact that many of the Five Pillars — communal prayer, the celebration of breaking the fast, the pilgrimage — are performed communally, you can see that Islam is at once “a faith of the individual” and “a religion of the community.”
To Learn More
Here are some related books. Reading them alongside this series lets you savor this world even more deeply.
An Illustrated Introduction to the World’s 5 Great MythologiesView on Amazon →
World Mythology for Beginners (illustrated)View on Amazon →
Conclusion
In this article, I explained in detail the “Five Pillars” that Muslims should practice, and religious life such as halal and jihad. How was it?
The Five Pillars — the confession of faith, prayer, almsgiving, fasting, and pilgrimage — give faith form as daily action. Marking life with a rhythm through the five daily prayers, disciplining desire through fasting, purifying wealth through almsgiving, embodying equality through pilgrimage — I think you can see that Islam is a religion bound to faith in every corner of life.
In the next Article 4, I will explain in detail the stories the Qur’an tells — from the creation of heaven and earth to the stories of the prophets, such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus.
I hope you’ll read the next article too.
📚 Series: The Original Texts of Islam (4/7)
