ABSTRACT

Islam is part of the triumvirate of Abrahamic religions and the youngest of this group, which includes Judaism and Christianity. Accordingly there are many points of comparison across the three faiths, whose communities of believers are known as ‘the people of the Book’: those guided by the sacred texts of these religions; although with highly distinctive elements to each of the Abrahamic religions. The Holy Qur’an is the textual foundation of Islam, being the sacralised writings venerated by Muslims who believe that it holds the sacred word of Allah as revealed to the Prophet Mohammed (570–632 BCE), peace be upon him. 1 Death overtaking all mortal beings, upon his demise his followers sought to capture Mohammed’s teachings in form of the sunna (the prophetic tradition), in which can be found the hadiths – the sayings of the Prophet guide followers in terms of religious belief, practice and conduct. A feature of Islam, which means ‘to submit’, is its holism in combining these three elements and encompassing the five fundamental duties for Muslims:

Shahadah – bearing witness that there is only one God and Mohammed is his Prophet

Salat – prayer, practised five times a day and fixed according to the movement of the sun

Zakat – an alms tax to support the needy in society as distributive wealth

Saum – fasting from sunrise to sunset during the holy month of Ramadan

Hajj – the pilgrimage that should be undertaken at least once in the life of the believer to the Ka’aba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

(Ashencaen Crabtree et al. 2008)