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Basic Beliefs of Islam

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“No part of the world…is more hopelessly and systematically and stubbornly misunderstood by us than that complex religion, culture and geography known as Islam”(Smith 221). Islam has been an established religion for over 1400 years, originating around the beginning of 600 AD (Robinson). Robinson also states that Islam’s religious definition means “voluntary submission to God” and is also commonly known to be defined as peace or submission. The Five Pillars of Islam, which are considered to be the foundations of Muslim life, are the confession of faith, prayer, alms, fasting, and pilgrimage (Robinson). By learning what the Five Pillars of Islam are one will be able to gain an understanding of the fundamental beliefs of Islam.
Shahada is the first of the Pillars of Islam and it is the Muslim profession of faith that is expressed by two beliefs (Bowker 531). Bowker also defines shahada as an oath that focuses on the two beliefs that Allah is the one and only God and that Muhammad is the messenger of God. Farah explains how shahada is “the basic creed of Islam that must be recited under oath” and is essential to have memorized as a Muslim (135). This means that non-Muslims who are wishing to convert to Islam must be able to properly recite it as one of their requirements for conversion (Farah 135). Farah eventually gets to the point that without knowing this profession of faith one can not be a Muslim and is not a part of the Islam faith (135).
The second of the Pillars of Islam is salat, which is the Islamic prayer that is normally performed fives times a day at set times (Ghamadi). These prayers consist of a repeated set of prescribed actions and words that according to the Pew Research Center are said by almost two-thirds of Muslims every day. The Pew Research Center continues on this topic and states that of these two-thirds, forty-eight percent of them pray all

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