FIVE PILLARS OF ISLAM

(1) pronouncing the confession of faith (shahada or kalima);
(2) performing the five daily prayers (salat);
(3) fasting during the month of Ramadan (saum);
(4) paying the alms tax (zakat);
(5) and performing, at least once in life, the major pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj).

The shahada is the Arabic statement “La ilah illa Allah wa Muhammad rasul Allah,” meaning “There is no God but the one God and Muhammad is His prophet.”

The salat—the five obligatory daily prayers. These prayers are only performed after ritual bathing and take place before sunrise, at noon, in the mid-afternoon, immediately after sunset, and before midnight. Mainstream Shia Muslims combine the noon and afternoon prayers and also the sunset and midnight prayers so that they need only pray three times a day. Praying in Islam is also associated with a specified set of postures, such as standing, bowing, and prostrating.

The saum is a fast prescribed only for healthy, adult Muslims during the 30 days of Ramadan, the ninth month in the Islamic calendar. From dawn until dusk, no food, drink, or sexual relations are permitted. It also make individual fast for thinking bad, said bad thing which makes other people miserable. And the essence of fast is getting more emphatic with the other people suffer, specially those whom in hunger and pain. Ill individuals and nursing women are excused, but they are expected to make up for missing the fast at other times in the year when they are healthy again or no longer nursing.

The zakat or alms tax is levied annually on the crops, livestock, precious metals, and cash of all those living above subsistence and whose debts do not exceed their assets. In theory it is to be collected on behalf of, and then distributed to, the poor. The ammount is 2,5 % from total income or assets, or the eid fitr zakat is based on the rule from goverment, ussually take from daily price of the main food.

The hajj is the “greater” of the two pilgrimages to Mecca required of all Muslims. All healthy adult Muslim men and women should perform it at least once in their lifetime if they have sufficient means and safe transport. Unlike the lesser pilgrimage, called umra, Muslims must perform the hajj during the first half of the month of Dhu al-Hijja, the last month of the lunar year. Those who perform the hajj can use the honorific title Hajji if male and Hajja if female.