Islam The Voice of Human Nature
3. ISLAM IS THE VOICE OF HUMAN NATURE
~ 51 ~
must be to set up these five sturdy pillars,
without which Islam cannot raise itself up either
at the individual or at the community level.
These five pillars – faith, prayers, fasting,
charity and pilgrimage – are meant to engender
in man a lifelong piety and devotion to God.
Faith
(iman)
means belief in divine truths.
Prayer, in essence, means bowing before the
glories of God, so that any sense of superiority a
man may have will be dispelled. Fasting
(sawm)
,
with its emphasis on abstinence, builds up
patience and fortitude. Charity
(zakat)
entails the
recognition of other’s needs, so that what has
been given to mankind by God may be
equitably shared. Pilgrimage
(hajj)
is a great
rallying of God’s servants around Him. These
are not mere empty rituals, but the exercise of
positive virtues, the quintessence, in fact, of
those qualities, which our Lord wishes to be
inculcated in us. If we can cultivate them, we
shall be deemed to possess the divine
characteristics so cherished by Islam. Thus it is
true to say that faith, humility, fortitude,
