wer of Allah. It is He who has created and will one day judge mankind. The faithful are called upon to believe in Allah and to listen to His Prophet.Islam recognizes two forms of prayer. One is the personal, devotional, and spontaneous type, not bound by any rituals or formulas. The other is ritual, often congregational, prayer, with specific words and postures, to be offered five times a day: at sunrise, midday, midafternoon, sunset, and before going to bed. Similar to Christianity, which requires you to prayer individually, but also collectively. ("Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves.......) In Islam, before you prayer, ablutions are performed by washing the hands, feet, and face. A person called the muezzin calls for prayer and chants from a raised platform or minaret tower at the mosque (the house of communal worship). earlier Christianity, in order to prayer to God sacrifices had to be made i.e.: lamb, goat, etc. Congregational prayer is started with the imam, the prayer leader, standing at the front of the mosque facing Mecca, the holy city of Islam being the death place of Muhhamed). The congregation is lined up in rows behind him. (There are no seats in a mosque.) Each prayer consists of several units, during which the individual is either standing, kneeling, or prostrate. At every change in posture, "God is great" is recited. The chief day of communal worship is Friday. Believers gather at the mosque to pray, listen to portions of the Koran, and hear a sermon based on the text. The sermon may have moral, social, or political content. Islam has no ordained clergy such a Christian churches, but there are men specially trained in religion, tradition, and lawThe hajj, "pilgrimage," is an annual Muslim rite that every believer is expected to take part in at least once in his lifetime. From the seventh to the tenth day in Dhu al-Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic calendar, thousands of Muslims converge on the city of Mecca i...
