According to the teachings of Prophet Muhammad, Islam was established on five essential pillars. The pillars are the basic foundation constructs of Islam, and they touch on various aspects such as devotion worship and the structure of the Islamic faith. The Five Pillars are the Shahada, which is a testimony that no other individual has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is His Messenger; the obligatory charity that all Muslims must pay to the living poor (giving alms) (zakat) (Abdullah & Suhaib, 2011); the establishment of prayer (Salat); fasting in the holy month of Ramadan (Sawm), and paying pilgrimage (Hajj). Despite the declaration that Islam was founded on these five pillars, there is no ambiguity that the most significant of the five is the Shahada.
The Shahada pillar holds that every individual must bear witness or declare that there is no other god except Allah, and Muhammad is his Messenger (Kamal-ud-Din, 2010). The declaration that there is no other god besides Allah encapsulates the whole Islamic faith because there cannot be any tranquility, comfort, or happiness either in this life or in the afterlife if one does not acknowledge the giver and creator of everything in the world, Allah, the most beneficent, the most merciful. Therefore, the Shahada is a declaration in the belief of Islam as a true religion for any individual reluctant or unable to recite it cannot be considered to be a true Muslim. In addition, the significance of the Shahada is that it is impossible to practice or even declare the other four pillars if one has not declared the eminence or the superiority of Allah and His Messenger, Prophet Muhammad. It is also easily visible that besides the Shahada, the other four pillars can be categorized as “rites of worship,” and it is impossible to practice these rights without the principal declaration and profession of the Islamic faith through the Shahada.
References
Abdullah, M., & Suhaib, A. Q. (2011). The impact of zakat on social life of Muslim society. Pakistan Journal of Islamic Research, 8, 85-91.
Kamal-ud-Din, K. (2010). Five pillars of Islam. Nabu Press.
