The five pillars

How do you describe a whole religion in one picture? The Prophet ﷺ chose a building. He described Islam as resting on five pillars.

The image is deliberate. Belief is the foundation. But these five practices are what hold the structure up, day to day.

Each pillar has detailed rules, and those differ slightly between the schools of law. Lantern follows the Hanafi school by default, and says so where it matters.

Belief is the foundation. Five practices hold it up, day to day.

The first pillar is a single sentence. It is called the shahadah, which means testimony: "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God."

Saying it sincerely, understanding what it means, is what makes a person a Muslim. No ceremony is required.

The sentence has two halves. The first rejects every false god. The second accepts Muhammad ﷺ as the one who brought God's final message.

One sentence, said sincerely, makes a Muslim.

Once someone has said the shahadah, the second pillar gives the day its shape. Salah is a set prayer performed five times a day. Before dawn (fajr). Just after midday (zuhr). In the afternoon ('asr). After sunset (maghrib). And at night ('isha').

First, Muslims wash (wudu'). Then they face the Ka'bah in Makkah.

Each prayer is a cycle of standing, bowing, prostrating and sitting, with recitation from the Qur'an. It takes only a few minutes. It can be prayed almost anywhere clean.

Fridays have something extra. On Fridays, men gather at the mosque for the midday congregational prayer, jumu'ah.

Five pauses a day to stand before God.

The third pillar moves from the body to the purse. Zakat is an obligatory annual payment. A Muslim whose savings and certain assets are above a minimum threshold (the nisab) over a lunar year gives 2.5% of them.

Who receives it? The Qur'an names them, starting with the poor and the needy.

The word itself tells you how it is meant. Zakat means purification and growth. It is understood as the poor's right in the wealth of the rich, not as charity the rich may choose to give.

Voluntary charity, called sadaqah, is encouraged on top of it.

In zakat, the poor have a right in the wealth of the rich.

The fourth pillar takes a whole month. During Ramadan, the ninth month of the lunar calendar, adult Muslims fast from dawn until sunset. No food, no drink, no marital intimacy during daylight.

At sunset the fast is broken, often with dates and water. The nights are often spent in extra prayer.

Not everyone fasts. Children, the sick, travellers, the elderly, and women who are pregnant, nursing or menstruating are excused. Some make up the days later.

Why go hungry at all? The Qur'an gives the purpose as taqwa: being constantly aware of God.

In Ramadan, hunger becomes a teacher of awareness of God.

The fifth pillar is a journey. The Hajj takes place each year in the month of Dhul-Hijjah. Every adult Muslim who is physically and financially able must make it once in their life.

Picture the pilgrims, dressed in simple matching white garments. They walk around the Ka'bah. They walk between the hills of Safa and Marwah, as Hagar did when she was searching for water. They stand in prayer on the plain of Arafat.

And rich and poor stand side by side.

Millions dressed the same, before the same God.