The Hajj (Arabic: حج Ḥaǧǧ "pilgrimage", also spelled haj) is one of the largest annually occurring pilgrimages in the world, and one of the five pillars of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so at least once in his or her lifetime.The Hajj is a demonstration of the solidarity of the Muslim people, and their submission to God (Allah in the Arabic language).
The pilgrimage occurs from the 8th to 12th Dhu al-Hijjah, the 12th and last month of the Islamic calendar. Because the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, eleven days shorter than the Gregorian calendar used in the Western world, the Gregorian date of the Hajj changes from year to year. Ihram is the name given to the special spiritual state in which Muslims live while on the pilgrimage.
The Hajj is associated with the life of Islamic prophet Muhammad
from the 7th century, but the ritual of pilgrimage to Mecca is
considered by Muslims to stretch back thousands of years to the time of Abraham (Ibrahim).
Pilgrims join processions of hundreds of thousands of people, who
simultaneously converge on Mecca for the week of the Hajj, and perform a
series of rituals: Each person walks counter-clockwise seven times
around the Kaaba, the cube-shaped building which acts as the Muslim direction of prayer, runs back and forth between the hills of Al-Safa and Al-Marwah, drinks from the Zamzam Well, goes to the plains of Mount Arafat
to stand in vigil, and throws stones in a ritual. The pilgrims then
shave their heads, perform a ritual of animal sacrifice, and celebrate
the four day global festival of Eid al-Adha
Sunday, February 17, 2013
fasting or Ramadan
Ramadan (Arabic: رمضان Ramaḍān, IPA: [rɑmɑˈdˤɑːn];Persian: Ramazān; Urdu: Ramzān; Turkish: Ramazan) is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar; Muslims worldwide observe this as a month of fasting.This annual observance is regarded as one of the Five Pillars of Islam. The month lasts 29–30 days based on the visual sightings of the
crescent moon, according to numerous biographical accounts compiled in hadiths. The word Ramadan comes from the Arabic root ramida or ar-ramad, which means scorching heat or dryness. Fasting is wajib (obligatory) for adult Muslims, except those who are ill, travelling, pregnant, diabetic or going through menstrual bleeding.
While fasting from dawn until sunset Muslims refrain from consuming food, drinking liquids, smoking and sexual relations; and in some interpretations from swearing. According to Islam, the sawab (rewards) of fasting are many, but in this month they are believed to be multiplied. Fasting for Muslims during Ramadan typically includes the increased offering of salat (prayers) and recitation of the Quran.
While fasting from dawn until sunset Muslims refrain from consuming food, drinking liquids, smoking and sexual relations; and in some interpretations from swearing. According to Islam, the sawab (rewards) of fasting are many, but in this month they are believed to be multiplied. Fasting for Muslims during Ramadan typically includes the increased offering of salat (prayers) and recitation of the Quran.
Zakah
Zakāt (Arabic: زكاة [zæˈkæː], "that which purifies"), is the giving of a fixed portion of one's wealth as a tax, generally to the administration or government and is one of the Five Pillars of Islam.
Salah
Under the Hanbali School of thought, a person who doesn't pray 5 times a day is a disbeliever. The other 3 schools of thought say that the person who doesn't pray 5 times a day is just a sinner. Prayer is regarded as a dividing line between a believer and a non-believer (according to Sahih Muslim).
Salah consists of the repetition of a unit called a rakʿah (pl. rakaʿāt) consisting of prescribed actions and words. The number of obligatory (fard) rakaʿāt varies from two to four according to the time of day or other circumstances (such as Friday congregational worship, which has two rakaʿāt). The minimal,obligatory rakaʿāt may be supplemented with acts that are optional but are considered meritorious. Prayer is wajib (obligatory) for all Muslims except those who are retarded, pre-pubescent, sick, lactating, pregnant, menstruating, frail and elderly or travelling on a long journey.
For Muslims of the Sunni and Ismaili Mustaʿlī persuasions, obligatory salah is prescribed at five periods of the day. These are measured according to the movement of the sun. These are: near dawn (fajr), after midday has passed and the sun starts to tilt downwards / Noon (dhuhr or ẓuhr), in the afternoon (asr), just after sunset (maghrib) and around nightfall ('isha'). Under some circumstances ritual worship can be shortened or combined (according to prescribed procedures). In case a ritual worship is not performed at the right time, it must be performed later. Muslim doctrine permits ẓuhr (ظهر, "noon") and ʿaṣr (عصر, "afternoon") prayers to be performed in succession.
Shahadah
- لَا إِلَّهَ إِلَّا الله مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ الله (lā ʾilāha ʾillā l-Lāh, Muḥammadun rasūlu l-Lāh) (in Arabic)
- There is no god but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God. (in English)
- وعليٌ وليُّ الله (wa ʿAliyyun waliyyu l-Lāh) ["and Ali is the wali (friend; viceregent) of God"].
The word shahādah (شِهادة) is a noun stemming from the verb shahada (شَهَدَ) , meaning "he observed, witnessed, or testified"; when used in legal terms, shahādah is a testimony to the occurrence of events, such as debt, adultery, or divorce. The shahādah can also be expressed in the dual form shahādatān (شِهادَتانْ, lit. "two testimonials"), which refers to the dual act of observing or seeing and then the declaration of the observation.The person giving the testimony is called a shāhid (شاهِد), with the stress on the first syllable. The two acts in Islam are observing or perceiving that there is no god but God and testifying or witnessing that Muhammad is the messenger of God. In a third meaning, shihādah or more commonly istishhād (إسْتِشْهادْ), means "martyrdom", the shahīd (شَهيد) pronounced with stress on the last syllable ("martyr") demonstrating the ultimate expression of faith. Shahīd can also be used in a non-Islamicreligious context. Long before the advent of Islam, Christian Arabs of the Middle East used the word shahīd referencing to someone that was wrongly killed or someone that died for his family, his Christian faith or his country. The two words shāhid (شاهِد, "witness") and shahīd (شَهيد, "martyr") are pre-Islamic. Both are paradigms of the root verb (شَهَدَ, shahada, "he observed").
A single honest recitation of the shahādah in Arabic is all that is required for a person to become a Muslim. This declaration, or statement of faith, is called the kalimah (كَلِمة, lit. "word"). Recitation of the shihādah, the "oath" or "testimony", is the most important article of faith for Muslims. Non-Muslims wishing to convert to Islam do so by a public recitation of this creed. Sunni Muslims count it as the first of the Five Pillars of Islam, while the Twelver and Ismaili Shi'a connect it to their respective lists of pillars of the faith. The complete shahādah cannot be found in the Quran, but comes from hadiths.
Quran
Muslims believe the Quran to be verbally revealed through angel Gabriel (Jibril) from God to Muhammad gradually over a period of approximately 23 years beginning on 22 December 609 CE, when Muhammad was 40, and concluding in 632 CE, the year of his death.
Muslims regard the Quran as the main miracle of Muhammad, the proof of his prophethood and the culmination of a series of divine messages that started with the messages revealed to Adam, regarded in Islam as the first prophet, and continued with the Scrolls of Abraham (Suhuf Ibrahim), the Tawrat (Torah or Pentateuch) of Moses, the Zabur (Tehillim or Book of Psalms) of David, and the Injil (Gospel) of Jesus.The Quran assumes familiarity with major narratives recounted in Jewish and Christian scriptures, summarizing some, dwelling at length on others and in some cases presenting alternative accounts and interpretations of events. The Quran describes itself as a book of guidance, sometimes offering detailed accounts of specific historical events, and often emphasizing the moral significance of an event over its narrative sequence.
Five pillars
The Pillars of Islam (arkan al-Islam; also arkan ad-din, "pillars of religion") are five basic acts in Islam, considered obligatory for all believers. The Quran presents them as a framework for worship and a sign of commitment to the faith. They are :
(1) the shahadah (creed)
(2) daily prayers (salat)
(3) almsgiving (zakah)
(4) fasting during Ramadan and
(5) the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj)
at least once in a lifetime. The Shia and Sunni sects both agree on the essential details for the performance of these acts.
(1) the shahadah (creed)
(2) daily prayers (salat)
(3) almsgiving (zakah)
(4) fasting during Ramadan and
(5) the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj)
at least once in a lifetime. The Shia and Sunni sects both agree on the essential details for the performance of these acts.
Muhammad in Islam
Born in about 570 CE into a respected Quraysh family of Mecca, he became an orphan at an early age, and spent most of his youth under the care of his uncle Abu Talib, mostly as a merchant. His fair and upright character earned for him the nickname "al-Amin" (Arabic: الامين), meaning "the Faithful". At the age of 25, he was employed to manage the business of a rich widow of Mecca, named Khadijah, now 40, who, charmed by the honesty of Muhammad, advanced a marriage proposal to him, and was accepted by Muhammad.
Perplexed by the laxer morality of his society, Muhammad, in later years, engaged himself in contemplation in a cave named Mount Hira where, as Muhammad himself reported, the arch-angel Gabriel appeared with the first revelation. This was the beginning of the descent of the Quran that continued up to the end of his life; and Muhammad was asked by God, as the Muslims hold, to preach the "oneness of God" in order to stamp out idolatry, a practice overtly present in the then Arab society. This invited serious opposition from the Quraysh, who were idol-worshippers, that eventually led to the persecution on Muhammad and his new followers. The continuous persecution of the Quraysh necessitated a group of poor, newly-converted Muslims to migrate to and settle in the neighboring Abyssinia until the climate in Arabia went to some extent in favor of the Muslims.
In order to carry on with his mission of preaching Islam, and upon the invitation of a delegation from Medina (then known as Yathrib), Muhammad, with his closest companion Abu Bakr, migrated to Medina in 622 CE, an event known as Hijra (in Latin: Hegira). A turning point in Muhammad’s life, this Hijra also marks the beginning of Islamic calendar. In Medina, Muhammad sketched out the Constitution of Medina specifying the rights of and relations among the various existing communities there, and managed to established the first Islamic state. Despite the ongoing hostilities of the Meccans, Muhammad, along with his followers, took the control of Mecca in 630 CE., treated its citizens with generosity, and ordered to destroy all the pagan idols.Before he passed away in 632, his teachings won him the acceptance of Islam of almost all the tribes of Arabian Peninsula.
Muhammad 610–632
The Constitution established: the security of the community, religious freedoms, the role of Medina as a sacred place (barring all violence and weapons), the security of women, stable tribal relations within Medina, a tax system for supporting the community in time of conflict, parameters for exogenous political alliances, a system for granting protection of individuals, and a judicial system for resolving disputes where non-Muslims could also use their own laws. All the tribes signed the agreement to defend Madina from all external threats and to live in harmony amongst themselves. Within a few years, two battles were fought against the Meccan forces: first, the Battle of Badr in 624, which was a Muslim victory, and then a year later, when the Meccans returned to Medina, the Battle of Uhud, which ended inconclusively
The Arab tribes in the rest of Arabia then formed a confederation and during the Battle of the Trench, besieged Medina intent on finishing off Islam. During the siege, Banu Qurayza one of the Jewish tribes, inside Medina, broke the peace treaty with the Muslims. This later led to their exile, enslavement, or death, and the Jewish enclave of Khaybar was then subdued. In 628, the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah was signed between Mecca and the Muslims and was broken by Mecca two years later. After the signing of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah many more people converted to Islam. At the same time, Meccan trade routes were cut off as Muhammad brought surrounding desert tribes under his control. By 629 Muhammad was victorious in the nearly bloodless Conquest of Mecca, and by the time of his death in 632 (at the age of 62) he united the tribes of Arabia into a single religious polity.
Muhammad
Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim (Arabic: محمد بن عبد الله بن عبد المطلب ) (c. 570 – c. 8 June 632), also transliterated as Muhammad (Arabic: محمد), was a religious, political, and military leader from Mecca who unified Arabia into a single religious polity under Islam. He is believed by Muslims and Bahá'ís to be a messenger and prophet of God and, by most Muslims, the last prophet sent by God for mankind.Non-Muslims regard Muhammad as the founder of Islam. Muslims consider him to be the restorer of an unaltered original monotheistic faith of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets.
Born in about 570 CE in the Arabian city of Mecca, he was orphaned at an early age and brought up under the care of his uncle Abu Talib. He later worked mostly as a merchant, as well as a shepherd, and was first married by age 25. Being in the habit of periodically retreating to a cave in the surrounding mountains for several nights of seclusion and prayer, he later reported that it was there, at age 40, that he received his first revelation from God. Three years after this event Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that "God is One", that complete "surrender" to Him (lit. islām) is the only way (dīn)acceptable to God, and that he himself was a prophet and messenger of God, in the same vein as other Islamic prophets.
Muhammad gained few followers early on, and was met with hostility from some Meccan tribes; he and his followers were treated harshly. To escape persecution, Muhammad sent some of his followers to Abyssinia before he and his followers in Mecca migrated to Medina (then known as Yathrib) in the year 622. This event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar, which is also known as the Hijri Calendar. In Medina, Muhammad united the tribes under the Constitution of Medina. After eight years of fighting with the Meccan tribes, his followers, who by then had grown to 10,000, took control of Mecca in the largely peaceful Conquest of Mecca. He destroyed the pagan idols in the city and then sent his followers out to destroy all of the remaining pagan temples in Eastern Arabia. In 632, a few months after returning to Medina from The Farewell Pilgrimage, Muhammad fell ill and died. By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam, and he had united Arabia into a single Muslim religious polity.
The revelations (or Ayah, lit. "Signs [of God]") — which Muhammad reported receiving until his death — form the verses of the Quran, regarded by Muslims as the “Word of God” and around which the religion is based. Besides the Quran, Muhammad’s life (sira) and traditions (sunnah) are also upheld by Muslims as the sources of sharia law. They discuss Muhammad and other prophets of Islam with reverence, adding the phrase peace be upon him whenever their names are mentioned. While conceptions of Muhammad in medieval Christendom and premodern times were largely negative, appraisals in modern history have been far less so.
Born in about 570 CE in the Arabian city of Mecca, he was orphaned at an early age and brought up under the care of his uncle Abu Talib. He later worked mostly as a merchant, as well as a shepherd, and was first married by age 25. Being in the habit of periodically retreating to a cave in the surrounding mountains for several nights of seclusion and prayer, he later reported that it was there, at age 40, that he received his first revelation from God. Three years after this event Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that "God is One", that complete "surrender" to Him (lit. islām) is the only way (dīn)acceptable to God, and that he himself was a prophet and messenger of God, in the same vein as other Islamic prophets.
Muhammad gained few followers early on, and was met with hostility from some Meccan tribes; he and his followers were treated harshly. To escape persecution, Muhammad sent some of his followers to Abyssinia before he and his followers in Mecca migrated to Medina (then known as Yathrib) in the year 622. This event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar, which is also known as the Hijri Calendar. In Medina, Muhammad united the tribes under the Constitution of Medina. After eight years of fighting with the Meccan tribes, his followers, who by then had grown to 10,000, took control of Mecca in the largely peaceful Conquest of Mecca. He destroyed the pagan idols in the city and then sent his followers out to destroy all of the remaining pagan temples in Eastern Arabia. In 632, a few months after returning to Medina from The Farewell Pilgrimage, Muhammad fell ill and died. By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam, and he had united Arabia into a single Muslim religious polity.
The revelations (or Ayah, lit. "Signs [of God]") — which Muhammad reported receiving until his death — form the verses of the Quran, regarded by Muslims as the “Word of God” and around which the religion is based. Besides the Quran, Muhammad’s life (sira) and traditions (sunnah) are also upheld by Muslims as the sources of sharia law. They discuss Muhammad and other prophets of Islam with reverence, adding the phrase peace be upon him whenever their names are mentioned. While conceptions of Muhammad in medieval Christendom and premodern times were largely negative, appraisals in modern history have been far less so.
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