Finding Islam

8: Religion - The Pillars of Islam & Imaan

This chapter is going to be the guys teaching King about Islam. You can, if you want, skip this chapter and you will not miss out on any events that will happen.

Basically it's just going to be the introduction he gets to Islam and speaking about the fundamentals of belief in Allah and the Messenger ﷺ.

But it is always worth increasing your knowledge or revisiting things you already know 😊💕 so my advice is to still read it :)

--- K I N G ---

"Alright, so there's five pillars of Islam, meaning these five things are obligatory and must be done or performed by every single Muslim." Ahmad began, clearing his throat. "The first one is the shahada." He said, clearing his throat as we were sitting on a corner of the mosque, near the bookshelves. "Basically, its a declaration of Islam, stating that you believe in Allah is the only deity worthy of worship alone, and that Muhammad ﷺ was his servant and messenger. It's said; 'Ashadu ʾan lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāh, wa ashadu an na muḥammadun abduhu wa rasūlu' which means, I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad ﷺ is the slave and messenger of Allah."

I nodded in understanding. It was the same verse of a section in the adhaan.

"Second pillar; salah, meaning prayers." Ayman continued instead. "There are five obligatory prayers. Fajr; the dawn prayer, Dhuhr; the noon, ʿAsr; afternoon, Maghrib; evening, and ʿIshāʾ; night. Besides from them, you can pray more but that's the bare minimum. Praying five times a day doesn't make someone pious, or religious. It makes you a Muslim. The prophet ﷺ said; Between a person and Kufr (disbelief) is abandoning the prayer.'"

That seemed simple enough, I guess. Nothing hard to do.

"Third one is zakat, meaning charity. Every Muslim is required to give in charity, an amount depending on their total wealth and income. So if you earn money that's more than 'just getting by', you need to give in charity to the poor and needy." Ahmad said and I felt a little proud swell in my heart. I guess Islam really wasn't what the media portrayed it to be.

"Forth. Fasting. In Ramadan which is a month of the Islamic lunar calendar, we have to fast from sunrise to sunset. No drinking, no eating, no sexual intercourse. All these things that a person may feel inclined to doing during the day, they have to abstain, keep away from for the sake of Allah. Unless you have a medical condition, or a woman who's pregnant or breastfeeding, then every Muslim post-puberty has to fast during this month. It teaches us patience and to control our desires, helps us understand what people who aren't as lucky as us go through without food and water and most importantly it helps us attain taqwa, meaning fear of Allah. It brings us closer to God and we increase in our fear of Him." He explained briefly before looking at Ahmad. "Man, I can't wait for Ramadan, bro." He said with a smile and Ahmad nodded back, agreeing with him, stating that there was only four months left.

"Why are you excited over a month of no eating?" I asked with a soft chuckle. "Shouldn't you want to get it over and done with?"

"No way." Ahmad shook his head. "The whole atmosphere during Ramadan is amazing. People spend most of their time at the mosque, you see family, the feeling when you're finally allowed to open your fast, spend time with mates, go out during the day, stay up late during the night, worship for hours and read Qur'an, the holy book, which you do throughout the year too, but in Ramadan, there's just a whole different feel about it all, SubhanAllah (Glory be to Allah)."