The Second Pillar of Islam

The second pillar of Islam is Salah.

Salah is the arabic word which means "The programming towards righteousness". Salah is not just praying five times a day. Of course, praying five-times a day is the most important act of Salah. When a muslim goes for a Salah, and if a person asks where you are going, it will be very odd to say that I'm going "towards programming my righteousness". When we come across the word "Programming", the very first thing comes in our mind is the Computer. So, this is why, we muslims prefer to say Salah as Prayer. If we say the Human being as a computer, then it is the very difficult computer to program. That is why, we muslims go to Salah five-times-a-day. We program our selves towards righteousness five-times-a-day. Salah is performed as a duty towards Allah (swt). They strengthen and enliven the belief in Allah (swt) and inspire a man to a higher morality. They purify the heart and prevent us from temptation towards wrong doing and evil acts. We muslims face the Kaa'bah while offering our prayers. This is known as the Qiblah, which means Direction in Arabic.

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The Foundation of Islam

Islam is having five fundamental commandments (or) Faraiz. They are

1. Kalima (or) Shahadah
2. Namaaz (or) Salah
3. Rozah (or) Fast
4. Zakaat
5. Hajj

Hazrat Abdullah-bin-Omar (raz), repeats the words of our Prophet Mohammed (saw) and says that Islam has five fundamental commandments (or) faraiz, which are known as the five pillars.

The first of them is to witness the Kalima "La 'ilaa-ha 'il-lal-laa-hu mu-ham-ma-dur ra-soo-lul-laah", which means to accept that "There is none worthy of worship but Allah and Muhammad (saw) is Allah's Messenger"

The second commandment (or) pillar of Islam is to pray Namaaz for Five times a day, likewise to pay Zakaat, to perform Hajj and to Fast during the month of Ramazaan.

In this Hadith (or) "The Sayings of our Prophet Mohammed (saw)", he has said to our Ummah - what are all the basic commandments from Allah (swt). Whoever obeys these five commandments faithfully for his life-time, he/she will be known as and has the rights to say that he/she is a muslim.

KALIMA

La Ilaha Ill Allah Muhammadur Rasool Allah (There is no god only Allah, Muhammad is the Rasool (Messenger) of Allah) is also known as Kalima Tayyab. Kalima Tayyab is the testification of faith in Islam. A person cannot be considered to be a Muslim if he/she does not believe in the words of this Kalima. To become a Muslim, a person must say this Kalima with total belief. Another point about this Kalima is the name given to it, which is Tayyab. Tayyab means Purity. By uttering this Kalima a person is purified from disbelief. An impure person becomes pure. This purification is spiritual.

The Messenger of Allah added, "Thy will come out of Hell (Fire) everyone who says: 'La ilaha ill Allah,' and has in his heart good equal to the weight of a barley grain. Then thy will come out of Hell (Fire) everyone who says: ' La ilaha ill Allah,' and has in his heart good equal to the weight of a wheat grain. Then thy will come out of Hell (Fire) everyone who says: 'La ilaha ill Allah,' and has in his heart good equal to the weight of an atom (or a smallest ant)." When the death of Abu Talib approached, the Messenger of Allah came to him and said, "Say: La ilaha ill Allah, a word with which I will be able to defend you before Allah."
[Sahih Bukhari]

for more details, go to http://www.meem.freeuk.com/Kalima.html

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The Way To Success

In today's fast forward lifestyle, everybody is bound to think that what will be the way which will lead to the ultimate success??? The one and only straight-forward answer to this question is "ISLAM". It is only Islam, which leads each and every individual in their way to the ultimate success and heights. The one who wants to be successful in his/her life must know that - what is the meaning of Islam?

The meaning of Islam is:

1. To Have Faith in One God - Allah (swt) and not to include/partner anybody with him.
2. To Have Faith in Allah (swt)'s Book - The Holy Qur'an.
3. To Have Faith in the Messenger of Allah (swt) - Beloved Prophet Mohammed (saw).
4. To Believe in Aakhirat (or) The Day of Judgement.

Any person who has faith in these, he becomes a muslim. Any muslim who has come from a muslim family, but not having faith in these, is not known as a muslim. For name-sake, anyone can become a muslim, but a true muslim is the one who believes in these four points.

There is a saying in urdu -
zabaan ne keh bhi diya La-Ilaha to kya haasil
Dil-o-Nigaah mussalman nahin to kuch bhi nahin.

which means - you cannot gain/achieve anything by just saying La-Ilaha unless and until you have faith ih it from the bottom of your heart. He who simply says "La-Ilaha" for lip-sake, is not known as a muslim. To become a true muslim, whatever Allah (swt) has said in his holy Qur'an, we have to obey them and follow them and also follow the footprint/path of our beloved prophet Mohammed (saw).