What Are The Pillars?
First Pillar: The Shahadah ( The Pillar Of Faith Testification)
The first portion of the Shahadah is testifying that there is none worthy of being worshipped except Allah, The most Glorious, the most High.
There are seven(7) conditions of the Shahadah:
1. Knowledge – to understand what it means and entails
Certainty – to have no doubt about anything confirmed in the Quran or Sunnah( saying and practices of the prophet Muhammad, may Allah’s peace and benedictions be upon him)
Acceptance -accepting by the tongue and the heart of whatever the Shahadah means
4. Submission/compliance – the actual physical enactment by deeds
Truthfulness – to say the Shahadah with sincerity, with honesty, to actually mean it
6. Sincerity – to do it mainly for the sake of Allah and not to show off
7. Love – to love the Shahadah and to love its implications and requirements and what it represents.
The Shahadah is not simply about saying it with our tongue. We need to adhere to these conditions. If we say the Shahadah sincerely and with honesty, we will not do anything which is contrary to or violates the Shahadah.
The second part of the Shahadah cinveys the following conditions:
To believe in the Prophet, sallallahu ‘alayhi wasallam, and in whatever he taught us and conveyed to us
To obey him in whatever he instructed us to do
To stay far away from or avoid whatever he instructed us not to do
To follow in his footsteps or emulate him in our ibadah (worship), akhlaq( manners) and way of life
To love him more than we love ourselves, our family and anything else in this mundane life
To comprehend, practice and promote his Sunnah in the best way possible, without
creating any chaos, confusion, enmity or harm
Second Pillar: Establishing the Prayers (Salah)
Some interpretations of the hadith translate “iqamatus salah” as ‘performing’ the salah. “Iqamatus salah” is a wider concept than what the term ‘performing’ means. The Scholars say “iqamatus salah” means:
Doing the wudu (ablution) in the proper way
To do the salah in its right time
To do it with the congregation (jama’ah) – where the reward is 27 times than observing it alone
To fulfill the six(6) requirements or conditions of salah
To observe the proper and right manners (adab) of doing it such as submission and humility
To follow preferable actions (sunnan) in our salah It is important that we go by these conditions and not violate them if we want to truly fulfill the second pillar of Islam i.e. “iqamatus salah”. We should recall that Allah initially commanded us to pray fifty times a day and it was eventually reduced to five times (with the reward of fifty). The prayer times are very reasonably spread out throughout the day – it can even help us to properly manage our time – it can help us to manage our affairs, allowing the Muslim community to meet during congregation and care for and assist each other which will lead in turn to solidarity. Thus,
the prayers should not be seen as a burden as some Muslims might percieve them today.
blogpay
