146 No god but God
which salvation is achieved has become the standard (orthodox) doc-
trine of the vast majority of Muslims in the world who, without a cen-
tralized religious authority and with no Church or standardized
religious hierarchy, view the community as the nucleus of the Muslim
faith.
Put simply, the community is the Church in Islam: the “bearer of
values,” to use Montgomery Watt’s oft-quoted phrase. The Ummah
confers meaning and purpose on the believer, whose national, ethnic,
racial, and sexual identity are and always will be subordinate to his or
her membership in the worldwide community of Muslims: a commu-
nity not bound by any borders, geographic or temporal. Thus when
one fasts during the month of Ramadan or joins in the Friday prayers,
one does so with the knowledge that all Muslims—from the first days
of Muhammad’s preaching until today, and in every part of the
world—fast and pray in precisely the same way, at precisely the same
time.
The first Pillar, and the first distinctly Muslim practice enacted by
Muhammad in Mecca, is salat, or ritual prayer. There are two kinds of
prayer in Islam: du‘a, which refers to individual, informal communica-
tion between the believer and God; and salat, which is the ritualized,
obligatory prayer performed five times a day: sunrise, noon, after-
noon, sunset, and evening. Salat, which means “to bow, bend, or
stretch,” is composed of a series of yogic movements that include
standing, bowing, rising, sitting, turning east and west, and falling
prostrate, all repeated in cycles, and accompanied by specific verses
from the Quran.
As with all Muslim rituals, salat can begin only after the intention
to pray is voiced, and only while the Muslim faces toward Mecca, the
direction of prayer, or qiblah. Although salat can be performed indi-
vidually as a means to purify and cleanse the soul, it is meant to be a
communal act that binds the Ummah as a single body. For this reason,
it is always preferable to perform salat in a place of assembly. Indeed,
one particular salat—the noon prayer on Fridays (salat al-jum‘a)—
must be performed in the mosque, in the presence of the community.
And while five daily prayers may seem like a heavy burden, the obliga-
tion is suspended for the sick, those who are traveling, or anyone else