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INTRODUCTION
Whilst every muslim child and every non-Muslim
student of Islam learns the basic tenets of Islam’s Five
Pillars, few, if any, non-Muslim scholars—and all too few
Muslims—understand that these tenets are not arbitrary religious
rites individually collected together by Islamic tradition. Rather,
they are a perfect and holistic ‘interlock’ of spiritual practices
Divinely-designed to engage human beings as such in all that they
are and all that they should—and can, once again—be. In what
follows, we will examine what Islam is as such; why it is what it
is, and how its different rites are held together—like the invisible
string of a perfect pearl necklace—by an underlying single common
spiritual idea.1
WHAT IS ISLAM?
What is Islam? The answer to this question is well-known, as the
Prophet Muhammad himself was asked this question by the
Archangel Gabriel, the Archangel of Revelation. The religion of
‘Islam’ (meaning literally: ‘surrender of one’s own will to God’s will’)
has five ‘pillars’: (1) the two testimonies of faith (that: ‘La ilaha illa
Allah, Muhammad Rasul Allah’; ‘There is no god but God, Muhammad
is God’s Messenger’); (2) the five-times daily canonical prayer; (3)
the tithe (zakat); (4) the fast of the holy month of Ramadan, and
(5) the Hajj. Beyond that, the religion consists of six articles of
faith or ‘Iman’ (meaning literally ‘faith in God’), and then ‘Ihsan’
(meaning ‘excellence’ but implying virtue through constant regard
1 This is of course not to deny the diversity or different Schools of Jurisprudence (Madhahib)
within Islam, but rather to say that all Muslims, in so far as they identify themselves as
Muslims—that is to say, in 2012 ce, perhaps 1.65 billion people, some 23% of the population
of the world of over 7 billion people—all agree on the Five Pillars of Islam, and the Six
Articles of Faith of Iman as the common essence of their religion. See: Appendix: ‘The
Diversity of Islam.’
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