Islam As It Is
The Five Pillars of Islam
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PRAYER
Prayer, the second pillar of Islam, entails the
worship of God five times a day in the prescribed
manner. This mode of worship, laid down for
mankind by God through His Prophet, is so all-
embracing that one cannot imagine any superior
way of worshipping the Almighty.
When the time for prayer comes, the greatness of
God is proclaimed in the call to prayer, and the
faithful are instructed to assemble for prayer as a
matter of their own spiritual uplift. They then
perform their ablutions—in so doing reviving their
sense of cleanliness—and, fixing their minds on
God, they make their way to the mosque, where
they all offer prayers together. The prayers are led
by an Imam, under whose guidance Muslims are
shown how they should lead their lives. In the same
way as the congregation make the Imam their
leader in prayers, so should all Muslims unite
around the Prophet, making him the focal point of
their social existence.
The prayer has various stages: bowing low,
