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22chapter one1. The shah§da: the creedal statement that ‘there is no god butGod’ and that ‘MuÈammad is the Messenger of God’;2. ßal§h: the ritual to pray five times a day;3. zak§h: the duty to donate money as a ‘poor due’ or #alms tax’;4. ßaum: the fast during the month of Ramadan;5. Èajj: the pilgrimage to Mecca ‘for those who have the means todo so’ (3:97).The common description of al-Êm§n is that it is based on the followingfive tenets of belief in:1. Allah;2. His angels;3. His books and messengers;4. The Hereafter;5. Allah’s divine predestination and His power over good andevil.It is immediately clear from these (quite dubious) lists, the pillars ofal-isl§m and the tenets of al-Êm§n, that they are either based purelyon ritual practice ( al-isl§m) or on theological doctrines ( al-Êm§n).Ethical and moral rules have been entirely excluded from eithercategory. As a consequence, secularists, nationalists, and Marxistshave (wrongly) perceived the religion of Islam as fundamentallyflawed and incapable of providing moral guidance for people inmodern societies—a perception that has relegated Islam to the scrapheap of history. What has been ignored in such often anti-religiouspropaganda is the fact that moral teachings were always an inseparablepart of al-isl§m and that it was only because of our honourablescholars’ ignorance that ethics was excluded from religion. It is theaim of this chapter (and indeed the entire book) to reconnect ethicsto religion and to present an interpretation of al-isl§m in which themoral teachings of the Qur"an are rediscovered for the benefit of anArab civil society, which gets its priorities right and places enlightenedcivility before stupefying ritualism and mindless doctrinism.