Analysis of the Five Pillars of Islam

Analysis of the Five Pillars of Islam
Student Full Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Full Name
Instructor Full Name
Due Date
Analysis of the Five Pillars of Islam

Islam is the second-largest religion globally, with over 1.907 billion adherents (Baumard & Chevallier, 2015). Along with Judaism and Christianity, Islam is among the largest of the Abrahamic religion. Core characteristics of Islam include the religious book Quran, the use of mosques as sacred places of worship, and belief in the Prophet Muhammad as Allah’s representative on the planet. Aside from these characteristics, Islam is underpinned by five key pillars that make it a unique religion from other Abrahamic and global religions. The current paper examines these key pillars and provides an overview of how one of the pillars can be used to promote harmony between Islam and a selected religious organization.

The Five Pillars

            The Five Pillars are core beliefs that underpin the Islam practice. Whether one is Sunni or Shiite (the two groups of Islam), these Five Pillars are consistent. They not only define the Islam identity but also provide directions for practice. The Five Pillars include Profession of Faith (Shahada), Prayer (salat), Alms (zakat), Fasting (sawn), and Pilgrimage (hajj) (DeLong-Bas, 2014). While these pillars originate from the Quran, they are not clearly defined. However, it is in the Hadith literature that these pillars are well detailed and defined.

Profession of Faith

            In the Hadith literature, there is a story in which Muhammad was approached by a group of people “for somethings good so that we may take it from you and also invite to it our people whom we left behind” (Khan, n.d.). In his response, the Prophet outlined four things the people could and could not do. The first thing was that the people were supposed to believe in Allah. This is what consists of the first pillar of the Islam faith. It involves acknowledging that Allah is the only true God and that no offspring or gods are associated with Allah. As such, only Allah can be worshipped. The second aspect of the pillar is that Muhammad is the only messenger Allah speaks to the Islam faith on earth. These two aspects of the pillar give it the name Witness of Faith.

Prayer

            A critical observable characteristic of Muslims is prayer. The adherences take in praying five times a day as part of their practice of the faith. These five prayers constitute the second pillar of Islam; prayer. In the Hadith, Muhammad’s companion, Abdullah, asked the prophet the deed dearest to Allah. Muhammad responded that “offering prayers at their early stated fixed time” was dearest to Allah (Khan, n.d.). ...