How To Live According to the 5 Pillars of Islam

Pillars uphold the main body of any structure. If any pillar is weak, broken, or missing from its position, the stability of the entire structure is jeopardized. Moreover, whenever a building or object has to be erected, its pillars are prepared first; once the pillars are firmly placed in the foundation, the structure can be erected atop them. In a hadith, Prophet Muhammad [may peace be upon him] detailed the five essential pillars of Islam: testifying that there is no god except Allah and that Muhammad is His Messenger; establishment of regular daily prayers (salaah); establishment of the system of “Zakaah” or the obligatory charity that has to be given by every Muslim; performing the once-in-lifetime pilgrimage, or “Hajj”, to Makkah in Saudi Arabia; and last but not least, fasting during the month of Ramadan. Any Muslim, who desires that his ‘building’ of “Islam” be safe and sound, must follow these five directives throughout his lifetime, by the book. How?

1. Testimony that there is no god but Allah, and that Muhammad [may peace be upon him] is His Messenger. How to live your life with the belief that “there is no god except Allah”? It’s not just about reciting the Islamic shahadah. One has to live, think and act according to this knowledge.

   A “god” is a deity who is believed to provide:

   • Day-to-day food, water, shelter/home, security
   • Healthy human relationships/love of people, respect from colleagues, friends, social acceptance and honor
   • Knowledge, education and a societal role/community presence/reputation
   • Cure from illness, affliction and disease
   • Relief from worry, stress, and anxiety 

   Anything we want in our life, our aspirations, desires, whims and fancies – we ask our god to give them to us. A Muslim, when abiding by this rule that ‘there is no god except Allah’, turns only to Allah whenever he wants one of the above things. He trusts only in Allah for a way out of every problem. He expects only Allah to provide him “rizq” or provision.

   The test of whether you are living according to this pillar of Islam or not is how you act and what you think when a problem comes up (e.g if you are not succeeding at studies, not being able to find a job, not being able to advance in your career, not getting married, not producing children, not achieving a higher standard of living, not recovering from an illness). Do you continue to rely only on Allah and supplicate to Him, or do you stop praying to Him eventually, and turn to others sources for ‘help’? Note that a Muslim does follow the means to an end (i.e he does go to the doctor or take medicine, he does apply to a school or college to get education, he does look around for a job or spouse, but inwardly, he believes that ONLY when Allah wills, will his efforts result in success, otherwise not).

   If your faith is weak and you rely on yourself, your abilities or other people or methods to achieve what you want, then in order to live according to this first, most essential pillar of Islam, you need to increase and strengthen your faith/eeman. Do this by gaining knowledge of the Quran, Allah’s spoken word, through which you will get to know Him, His attributes, and the way to His Pleasure. Once you know Him, you will be able to take only HIM as your god, and say “no” to all others. And you will be able to love Him more than anything else too.

   As for believing Muhammad [peace be upon him] to be the Messenger of Allah, we can live our lives according to this belief by emulating him, his actions, and acting upon his sunnah or “way of doing things” in all activities. Believing in all sahih ahadeeth (authentic Prophetic narrations) is also part of acknowledging him as Allah’s Messenger.

2. Establishment of regular prayers. Live according to the second pillar of Islam – salaah, or the five obligatory daily prayers. Simply, you need to know how to offer them without error, and you need to offer these prayers on time, everyday. Ablution or “wudu” is a prerequisite for the acceptance of salaah, so you need to learn how to perform proper ablution. After that, you need to learn how to perform salaah. Islamic jurisprudence record differences in the method the Prophet [may peace be upon him] prayed his salaah. When Muslims find several narrations about the method of salaah, they get confused about which is right and which is wrong. Please do not get into disputed matters: just offer salaah everyday according to any one of the four methods outlined in the four schools of jurisprudence. Remember, useless arguing, debating and trying to prove yourself right, are fitnahs that waste deeds and cause Muslim disunity. You need to plan your day’s activities in such a manner that you never miss even one salaah, nor do you delay it. Whether you’re an executive working in an office, a student attending school, or a mom keeping house – you need to find those 15 minutes or so during your activities to perform salaah. Take a break from whatever you are doing, and look forward to this wonderful, soul-enriching communion with your Creator that will leave you refreshed and revitalized to return to your daily work.
3. Payment of Zakaah. Have you made investments? Are you an owner of a business? Do you own gold and/or silver? Have you got money saved? If you answered yes to any or all of the above questions, you need to give zakaah – the charity due on every Muslim once a year. For this, again, you first need to gain knowledge about when zakaah becomes due on each asset, and how much zakaah is to be given. After that, you need to learn which people or organizations can be given zakaah. Again, you will find differences of opinion among the scholars, but don’t get disheartened by that. Just do your best and try to give your yearly charity, first and foremost, to needy, poor, homeless and hungry Muslims. Basically, the only thing you really need to DO every year is save aside some money for paying zakaah. After the passage of one year, give your charity to needy Muslims.
4. Hajj. The annual pilgrimage, obligatory upon every Muslim once in a lifetime, is a journey that requires physical and monetary ability. Every Muslim must plan when he or she should perform Hajj, and undertake this spiritually refurbishing journey to respond to His Master’s call, as soon as possible. People usually delay Hajj for petty and irrelevant reasons, falling into the grave error of delaying an essential religious obligation. Some assume that Hajj should be performed in old age, to get sins wiped out before death; others believe that one should not spend on Hajj if one has unmarried daughters; others say “we have a lifelong mortgage (debt) on our house, so Hajj is not due on us” although they travel internationally every other year for family vacations. All these excuses are unacceptable. Going for Hajj should be on any Muslim parents’ “to-do” list for their children, after the latter enter teenage years. It’s as essential as acquiring a family home, getting an education or getting married.
5. Fasting in Ramadan. Once a year, Muslims have to fast for 29 or 30 days when the month of Ramadan arrives. This fasting is obligatory, and has to be done no matter what, except in extreme sickness or travel, old age or debilitation. This month is also a month dedicated to worship, in which the Quran was revealed to Muhammad [may peace be upon him] for the first time, and in which any good deed performed gets multiplied rewards. During Ramadan, Muslims eat before dawn and after sunset, abstaining from food, drink, marital relations, and sin in between.

If each Muslim, man or woman, observes these five pillars of Islam diligently as outlined above, he or she will be able to cement the foundation of faith, deftly enduring any storms of tests and tribulations that come in life.