The Five Pillars of Islam • 47Witness (Shahadah)
We have already mentioned the first duty: witness or testimony that there
is no god but God and that Muhammad is God's messenger. Anyone who
says these words—and really means them—is a Muslim. Any Muslim who
associates other beings with God, or denies believing in Muhammad or
any of the other prophets, is no longer a Muslim but an apostate. Apostasy
may be punished by death.
Worship (Salat)
The second pillar of Islam is worship, or ritual prayer—a set sequence of
motions and prostrations, performed facing in the direction of the Ka'ba
in Mecca and accompanied by brief Quranic recitations. Worship reminds
men and women of their relationship to God and takes their minds off
worldly matters. It occurs five times each day, at fixed hours announced by
the muezzin's call from the minaret (tower) of a mosque, a building con¬
structed for congregational worship. Muslims may worship anywhere, but
men are encouraged to do so publicly as a group; women usually worship
at home. All adult men should go to a mosque on Friday noon, as congre¬
gational worship at that time is followed by a sermon and sometimes by
major announcements. Before any act of worship, Muslims wash their
hands, arms, feet, and faces. Worship may include individual prayers (that
is, Muslims may call on God to bring good to or avert evil from them and
their loved ones); but such invocations, called du a in Arabic, are distinct
from salat.
Fasting (Sawm)
Muslims must fast during the month of Ramadan. From daybreak until
sunset they refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, and sexual intercourse.
Devout Muslims spend extra time during Ramadan praying, reciting from
the Quran, and thinking about religion; lax ones are apt to sleep in the day¬
time, for the nights are filled with festivities, bright lights, and merry¬
making. The discipline of abstinence teaches the rich what it is like to be
poor, trains all observant Muslims to master their appetites, and through
the shared experience of daytime fasting and nighttime feasting creates
common bonds among Muslims. The Muslim calendar has exactly twelve
lunar months in each year. With no month occasionally put in, as in the
Jewish calendar, the Muslim year consists of only 354 days. Thus Ramadan
advances eleven or twelve days each year in relation to the Western calendar