WHAT IS ISLAM

WHAT IS ISLAM?

EIGHTY-THREE per cent of Britons know "little or nothing" about Islam

By Maximillien de Lafayette,* T. Winters, David Waines, A. Jones, Malist Rhatveen

It is primordial to address the issue of the dangers of ignorance and misunderstanding between the Islamic world and the West, and to elucidate the need for these two worlds to understand better the beliefs and values which can bind us together more powerfully than they need divide us. " Islam and Christianity evolved around similar and convergent social, philosophical and ethical values from the dawn of Islamic conquests by Mou'Awiya, Tarek Bin Ziyad, Khalifah Haroun Al Rashid to the most recent speeches given by the Pope in his worldwide tours. Both religions are similar in so many ways at so many levels."

A message from HRH The Prince of Wales

"We share as Muslims and Christians a powerful core of spiritual belief - in one divine God, in the transience of our earthly life, in our accountability for our actions, and in the assurance of life to come. We also share many key social values in common; including a respect for knowledge and justice, compassion towards the poor and the underprivileged, and a respect for the importance of family life. The West and Islam have a history which has often been closely bound up together. The tragedy - and the reality - is that both sides have so often seen that history as one of conflict and cruelty. Both sides have suffered in their understanding because ignorance and prejudice, the extreme and the superficial, have hijacked our view of each other - and often for good reasons. The point is not that either side has a monopoly of the truth, or can lay claim more exclusively to a picture which is more true.

But the dangerous result of each side failing to understand the other is that misunderstandings are perpetuated, and can so easily degenerate into suspicion and hatred. We need, above all, therefore, to appreciate how others look at the world, its history and our respective roles in it. Just as we in the West need to understand the Islamic world better, so we must also understand - as part of that knowledge - the extent to which many Muslims genuinely fear our own Western materialism and mass culture as a deadly challenge to their own Islamic culture and way of life. I spoke eight years ago of the urgent need for understanding and tolerance between Islam and the West, which seemed even at that time to be at something of a crossroads in their relations. That need is even greater now, not only because of the threatening international circumstances in which we find ourselves, but also because of the worries and concerns which exist within Britain between different communities. We need, therefore, to work ever harder on all sides to understand each other, and to lay this ghost of suspicion and fear if we are to create a better and safer world for future generations. I very much hope that this supplement will help that process."

The religion is based on simple foundations
ISLAM, the Prophet said, is built on five pillars. They do not define the religion, because its essence is traditionally taken to be its spiritual life, rather than its formal practices. They are, however, regarded as its foundations and, more than anything else in Islam, they give Muslim societies their unmistakeable rhythm and texture. The FIRST PILLAR, and the most fundamental, is called the "Two Testimonies" (shahadatayn). These function as a sort of miniature creed. Every Muslim is required to affirm that "there is no god but God", and that "Mohammed is the messenger of God". The first assertion, announcing that Islam is strictly monotheistic, might be compared to the Old Testament's: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is One." The second of the Two Testimonies tells the believer that this One God wishes to make his preferences known to his erring creatures, and has chosen a prophet - like Moses in the Bible - to do this. Muslim theology claims that God has sent prophets to every people, and that Mohammed was the last of them. After him, according to orthodox Muslim doctrine, the believers are to expect not another prophet, but the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The SECOND PILLAR of Islam is the duty to pray five times daily. It is seen as more meritorious for a Muslim to pray in a mosque and with a congregation, but quite acceptable to pray alone. All men and women are required to participate in the rite, which happens at dawn, midday, midafternoon, sunset, and at nightfall. The prayer is virtually identical everywhere, and has not altered in its form since the earliest days of Islam. Muslims often proudly claim that they are the only people who pray exactly as the founder of the religion prayed. The Muslim form of prayer involves a series of solemn bowings and prostrations, evoking the Islamic notion of the close bonding of body and spirit. There is no priest to conduct the ceremony, because there is no concept of a sacrament, in the sense of a visible sign of God's saving intervention that needs to be administered by a hierarchy. Every believer is alone before God, even when worshipping shoulder to shoulder with others.

Hardly less important is the THIRD PILLAR - the practice of regular almsgiving, known in Arabic as zakat. The Prophet was concerned that believers should show solidarity with the poor, and since his time, every Muslim has been expected to donate a minimum of one-fortieth of his wealth in charity every year. Traditionally an informal practice involving discreet handouts to indigent neighbours, the zakat is often administered through charities nowadays. The largest Muslim charities, such as Islamic Relief, have become important international aid agencies. The fast of Ramadan is Islam's FOURTH PILLAR. Between first light and sundown, adult Muslims in good health abstain from food, drink, cigarettes, and sex. Vices, such as lying and backbiting, are regarded as particularly abhorrent during Ramadan, which is also a traditional time for charity and visiting the sick and the poor. The fast lasts for an entire lunar month of between 28 and 30 days, and ends with one of the religion's major festivals, Eid al-Fitr. The FINAL PILLAR is the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. Every believer who is physically and financially able is required to make it at least once. The rites begin and end at the Ka'aba, the square shrine built, as Muslims believe, by Abraham and his elder son Ishmael. However, the culminating moment unfolds eight miles away, where Muslims stand and pray near the Mount of Mercy, a desert place where the Prophet is believed to have preached. A spectacular annual assembly of several million people, the hajj is seen as a symbolic journey to God. But it is also thought to represent the equality of believers, and their sense of distinctive identity as a community. The hajj ends with the second of the great festivals, the Eid al-Adha, which last three days. These religious duties are fairly simple, but also fairly demanding, and it is far from clear how many Muslims observe them. In many villages, observance - at least in public - can appear to be total. In Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, the duties are enforced by law. In the cities of very secularised countries, such as Turkey, the percentage of who pray at the approved times is probably as low as 10 per cent. The Ramadan fast is more commonly observed than prayer, and although the hajj is undertaken only by the minority who can afford it, it is not unusual for quite secular individuals to make the journey to Mecca towards the end of their lives, in the hope that the pilgrimage will atone for past misdeeds. The meaning of the Five Pillars varies in the souls of different believers. For the mystically inclined, they are all methods of spiritual transformation. As the Koran says, "Remembering God is what makes hearts find peace". Recently, however, some Muslim thinkers have focused on the rites as symbols and guarantors of Muslim identity and unity. While the spiritual life is not denied, religion is used by the minority of believers who favour the radical agenda as a badge of Muslim difference against the West's global culture. Most believers regard that transformation with suspicion. For them, the Five Pillars have only one purpose, which is to help the notoriously absent-minded human race to remember its Maker - and they remind us that the word "Islam" means "surrender to God". -T. Winters

WHAT IS ISLAM? Cont'd.

The Life of the Prophet Mohammad

How an honest merchant was transformed into The Prophet at a time of political and religious upheaval

A WELL known Muslim scholar, Sayyid Hussain Nasr, has observed that Islam is not based upon the personality of the Prophet Mohammed, but on God alone. He is, of course, right in the sense that the Koran, as the word of God, is the very foundation upon which Islam rests. This is expressed in the first part of the shahada, or witness to the faith: "There is no god but God and Mohammed is His Messenger." So, the Prophet is seen as the human vessel into which the divine revelation is poured. He is loved and venerated by Muslims, although in no manner to suggest that he is worshipped, for worship is to God alone. But the message and the messenger are, none the less, inseparable. Mohammed was born in Mecca, in present-day Saudi Arabia, in about the year 570. Orphaned while still a child, he was brought up first, for a brief period, in his grandfather's household and then in his uncle's. His early experience in the chief Meccan activity, merchant trade, earned him a reputation for trustworthiness and honesty. These qualities attracted the attention of a wealthy widow, Khadija, who employed the young man in her trading enterprise.

So dedicated and successful was he that the couple decided they should marry. For some time, Mohammed had been accustomed to withdraw to the nearby mountain of Hira and engage in a spiritual retreat. During one such retreat, he experienced a disturbing visitation from the angel Gabriel, who commanded him to recite. Reassured by his wife that he was not the victim of some malign spirit, Mohammed acknowledged a call to prophethood - the first major transformation in his life. The command to "Recite in the name of your Lord who created ... who, by the pen, taught man what he did not know..." (sura 96) was the first of a long series of revelations to be delivered over the next 22 years. The initial pagan reaction of amused tolerance turned to anger and rejection once the Prophet's message seemed to attack their pantheon of deities and their idols in the Meccan sanctuary of the Kabah. The Prophet's small band of loyal believers had "submitted" to the worship of the One God of mercy and compassion, and the call to protect those "deemed weak" or disadvantaged in society. Life was neither a matter of frivolity and self-aggrandisement, nor an end in itself - but rather a preparatory stage for the hereafter. Meccan opposition mounted against the Muslims, who faced boycott and ostracism in their own city; some were sent for safe refuge in Ethiopia. Then, personal tragedy struck Mohammed when both his wife Khadija and his uncle died within weeks of each other. Finally, when the Muslims began to sense their safety was seriously at risk, the Prophet took a decision which brought about the second major transformation in his prophetic career.

To the north of Mecca lay the agricultural oasis of Yathrib. The inhabitants had experienced recurrent civil strife among various tribes and, after lengthy negotiation with their representatives, the Prophet decided to send his small band of believers there. He himself followed shortly afterwards. This occurred in 622 and was known as the hegira or "emigration". Mohammed's followers from Mecca were known as "emigrants", and his local supporters in Yathrib were called his "helpers". The event marked both the beginning of the Islamic calendar and of the nascent Islamic community under the Prophet's leadership. Yathrib was renamed Medina, the City of the Prophet. Mohammed's immediate task was to create a secure political order and thus end the conflict in Medina. An agreement declared the existence of a community (umma), comprising both Muslims and the several Jewish tribes long resident in the city. Each would adhere to its own religion while serious disputes would be referred to "God and his Prophet, Mohammed". Arrangements were made for all to take part in the defence of Medina, as it was evident that Meccans still posed a serious challenge to the Muslims. Internal tensions, however, were high. Both Jewish and sceptical Arab elements in Medina threatened a united front against the Meccans, and each had to be dealt with in order to avoid civil war. While a few Jewish converts remained in Medina, the vast majority were expelled and played no further part in developments. Campaigns against the Meccans brought mixed fortunes. An attempt by Mohammed to negotiate a peaceful pilgrimage of Muslims to Mecca was rejected but, in the eighth year following the emigration, he accepted the surrender of the city of his birth. The Prophet's triumphal entry into Mecca was symbolised by his order to purge the Kabah sanctuary of all its pagan idols. God alone would henceforth be worshipped, to the exclusion of all other deities.In the year 632, the Prophet prepared for the pilgrimage to Mecca. Just as he had previously instructed his community on the rites of prayer and fasting, he now instructed them on the customs of the pilgrimage.In a speech that proved to be his final address in public, he said: "I have left you something with which, if you hold fast to it, you will never fall into error, namely, the Book of God and the practices of His Prophet, so give heed to what I say." He died in spring of the same year.The Prophet's memory is honoured among Muslims by their adherence in principle to his sunnah and hadith (practice and teaching). In the judgment of an eminent Muslim scholar, the late Fazlur Rahman, the Prophet's monotheism was intensely linked with humanism and a sense of social justice.He was caught between the frustration caused by the Meccans' hostility and the endeavour to succeed, "for it is part of the Koranic doctrine that simply to deliver the message, to suffer frustration and not to succeed, is immature spirituality".And every act, the Prophet once said, is judged by God for its intention.

Hadith: a tradition stretching back to Mohammed

HADITH is an Arabic word that refers to the things that Mohammed said or did or tacitly approved. Over about two and a half centuries, hadith came to occupy a place in Islam that was second only to that of the Koran. Their development was complex, and often linked to the solution of problems that arose only after the death of Mohammed or to the clarification of vague phraseology in Koranic verse.The process was also fraught with disputes, often coloured by the political or sectarian views of the authorities who transmitted the material. Eventually, the leading scholars of the third century after the hegira sifted through the extant material and made their own collections of what they thought to be authentic. Two of these collections, both entitled al-Sahih "The Genuine", made by al-Bukhari (died 870CE) and Muslim (died 875), came to be regarded as particularly authoritative by the Sunni community, and are frequently quoted today in broadcasts in the Arab world. Other Islamic groups, the Shi'a and the Ibadis in particular, made their own collections. The authenticity of the material in the hadith collections is a subject of much controversy amongst Western scholars. Some reject everything; others feel that there is a "residual kernel" in many of the surviving traditions. These views are of little or no interest to the Muslim world. This indifference has a point: if Muslims act, as they have for centuries, on the basis that the material is genuine, then the tradition has a validity that overrides for them any problem of authenticity. For example, they neither know nor care that most Western scholars reject the tradition that "everything that intoxicates is forbidden" as a clarifying gloss on a rhetorical Koranic verse: they believe that they must act on the tradition. Each tradition has a chain (isnad) to other authorities, linking it back to Mohammed. The subject matter covers the whole range of human experience in the early Islamic community. Of most importance were the traditions that covered history - our knowledge of Mohammed's life is dependent largely on hadith - law, and religion. It is, for example, the hadith, not the Koran, that contain the texts that support the practice of stoning adulterers. But the range of topics outside these areas is vast, and the texts are usually influential - for example: "No angel will visit a house that contains dogs or pictures." Occasionally, one finds a text that fails totally to influence. Arabic poetry has always flourished, despite the stern saying of the Prophet: "It is better for a man's insides to be filled with pus than with poetry."

The Koran - a revelation: Muslims believe that their holy book is the very word of God, explains Alan Jones

THE Koran is the sacred book of Islam. For Muslims, it is the word of God as revealed by the archangel Gabriel to the prophet Mohammed and thence to mankind. This dogma is rejected by non-Muslims, who normally hold that the Koran was composed by Mohammed, with the most sympathetic view being that meditation induced involuntary recitations, of the kind that can be heard when a charismatic preacher speaks from the heart. The text was originally revealed in pieces of varying length, most of them apparently relatively short. These basic units then took their places in the suras (loosely "chapters") of the Koran, which, in the standard edition, number 114. Revelations are believed to have occurred from 610 to Muhammad's death in June 632. The central theme of the Koran is the belief in one God, the merciful God who is the Creator of Heaven and Earth and all things and beings therein and whose omnipotence is to be seen everywhere in His signs. Disobedience will lead to an apocalypse, which will be the prelude to the Day of Judgment. At the Judgment, each individual will be judged and the righteous conveyed to Heaven and its bliss, and the unrighteous to Hell and its miseries. Righteousness requires both belief and general rectitude. Along with the passages that tell of God and His signs, there are also stories of peoples and prophets. Some of the earliest of these refer to Arabian legends. Other disaster/punishment stories recall Old Testament material: Noah and the flood, Lot and his people, and Moses and the Egyptians. In fact, Old Testament stories, often in a guise somewhat different from that in the Bible, dominate much of the narrative that occurs in the Koran. Among the best known are: Adam and Eve; the Fall; the disobedience of Satan; Cain and Abel; Abraham; Isaac and Ishmael; Jacob, Joseph and his brothers; Moses, Aaron and the Israelites; Solomon and David; Jonah and Job. By far the most important of these prophetic figures are Moses, the leader who freed the Israelites from the yoke of the Egyptians and led them to the promised land, and Abraham, who, having turned his back on idolatry, built the Ka'aba with his son Ishmael as a shrine to the one God. There is much less material that recalls the New Testament and Christian apocryphal sources. Apart from the story of Zachariah and the birth of John the Baptist and some references to the disciples (who are treated as a group), the references are to Mary and, above all, to Jesus. The miraculous birth of Jesus is one of the signs of God, and mention is made of his ability to perform miracles - such as raising the dead and healing the leper. A.Jones

However, Jesus is basically treated as one in the series of God's prophets. The Koran specifically rejects the doctrine of the Trinity. It also denies the crucifixion. The narratives are crucial in underpinning two doctrines that became more prominent as the revelation went on: the first, that God had sent a series of believing Prophets to their peoples over the ages, all conveying the same message; and the second, that Mohammed was the last in this series of prophets. Linked to this is the doctrine that Mohammed is the Prophet sent to the Arabs in particular, and that his message is in Arabic. Polemic against the unbelievers is another important strand that runs through the work. In the later passages, there is also polemic against the Jews and, to a lesser extent, the Christians, though both are recognised as "People of the Book" for having received the Revelation and then having lost most of it. After Mohammed moved from Mecca to Medina in the hejira in 622, the revelations began to contain guidance on more specific religious and legal matters. Here, one sometimes finds parallels to Talmudic material. Three of the five Pillars of Islamic faith - witness to the one God, prayer and almsgiving - had been mentioned in a fairly general way in Meccan material. Medinan material adds some detail about prayer: that it should be towards Mecca, that there should be ritual purification before prayer, and so on. The specific requirement to pray five times a day is nowhere mentioned. There is more detail on fasting and the pilgrimage, the two Pillars added in Medina. Disturbances within the community are dealt with in passages on retaliation, theft and fornication. The practice of usury is dealt with severely. There are regulations on bequests and inheritance and the assignment of debts. Fifteen or so passages are about marriage, and others about the position of women in society - three of which (4:3, 19 and 34) are now thought by many to be problematical (See Stoning to death). There is regulation of the calendar, and 10 passages on food and drink. As we have all become aware, numerous passages are about fighting the unbelievers (and the sharing of booty). Though the Koran was originally revealed orally, in quite early passages, it refers to itself as The Scripture, and there is arguably some evidence of pieces being written down whilst Mohammed was still at Mecca. In the later years at Medina, he appears to have had a group of "Scribes of the Revelation", each with responsibility for a part of the text. It is not clear what happened to their material after Mohammed's death, but in comparison with other religions, the sacred text moved very quickly towards the form in which we have it today. A single version that rendered void a mass of variants that had arisen through widespread oral transmission was declared to be authoritative by the caliph Uthman some 20 years after Mohammed's death; and, to a very large extent, the only changes that have taken place since that time are connected with the improvements in Arabic script that took place in the eighth century CE. This version is essentially Sunni, and Shi'is argue that some verses are missing. The main difference between the two, however, lies in exegesis (tafsir), which is crucial: for although the Koran declares itself to be "clear", its rhetorical nature often calls out for explanation, and through the centuries pious and learned scholars have written a whole series of commentaries that show scholarship of the highest quality.

Sunnis and Shi'ites: Islamic divisions date from 632, says Malise Ruthven, and there is even debate about what constitutes a true Muslim

MOHAMMED'S death in 632 created a crisis of authority that has never been resolved. Abu Bakr, his close companion and father of his favourite wife, Aisha, was elected leader or caliph in Medina, following Arab tribal custom. The claims of Ali, Mohammed's cousin and son-in-law, his closest male relative, were bypassed on this and two subsequent occasions. Only after the death of the third caliph, Uthman in 656, did Ali come into what was regard as his lawful inheritance by his Partisans (in Arabic, Shi'a). But, by then, it was too late. Ali's leadership was contested. The garrisons based in Iraq supported him; the troops based in Syria resisted, and an attempted compromise, promoted by Ali in the interests of unity, collapsed in acrimony. Some of Ali's supporters were so disillusioned that they left his camp. One, Ibn Muljam, assassinated Ali - and so the tragic history of Shi'ism began. Ali's eldest son Hasan lived quietly in Medina. In 680, his younger brother Hussein raised the standard of revolt, and died on the field of Karbala on the banks of the Euphrates. Hussein's martyrdom remains a central religious event in Shi'ism. These early disputes were largely, it not exclusively, concerned with power. Who had the right to leadership, by what authority? But they also acquired a distinctively religious colouring as leadership and authority bore upon the means of salvation.

WHAT IS ISLAM? Cont'd.

The Imams, or leaders in the line of Ali, revered by the Shi'ites demonstrate the disunity of Islam. Popular support for the Shi'i cause, among those who feel that the worldly rulers of the Islamic empire have betrayed its message of unity, peace, and social justice, is never lacking. In 749, a Shi'i-inspired movement led to the formation of a new dynasty that moved the capital from Damascus to Baghdad. To the disappointment of many supporters, the new ruler turned out to be a descendant not of Ali, but of Mohammed's uncle Abbas: closer to the holy family than the Umayyads who had ruled from Damascus, but not of the Prophet's progeny. To this further betrayal, the Shi'i leader of the day, the Imam Ja'far, reacted by adopting a more peaceful approach, in the manner of Hasan rather than Hussein. However, despite their acquiescence in the de facto power of those not descended from Ali, Shi'i Imams remained a thorn in the side of the new Abbasid caliphs. In the sacred history of Shi'ism, it is recorded that each Imam in turn was secretly murdered - usually poisoned. The Twelfth Imam, Mohammed "al Muntazar" - the Awaited One - is said to have disappeared. Twelve-Iman Shi'ites believe that he will return at the end of time as the Mahdi, to bring peace, and unity to a world torn by corruption, division and strife.Over the centuries, Shi'ism oscillated between periods of quiet and bursts of activism. Various factions of Shi'a created separate polities outside the metropolitan areas: in Yemen, North Africa and the Gulf. A doctrine known as taqiya - dissimulation - allowed believers to conceal their true allegiance to the Imams if they feared for their safety.But the expectations surrounding the Hidden Imam sometimes inspired and legitimised revolts, some of which led to permanent changes of government.

The Sunni majority

What came to be known as Sunni Islam continued to be the dominant tradition. For the Sunni ulama, or learned men, the doctrine of God's oneness has ramifications primarily in terms of law. It is not for humans to speculate on the nature of God. Rather, it is their duty to obey his commands. In Sunni Islam's most extreme formulation, human laws have no authority underpinning them. Only the laws of God, embodied in the sharia, demand obedience. Such insistence on the priority of God's commands - as distinct from his Nature or Being - was never enough, however, to satisfy speculative minds or mystics who sought to penetrate the inner experience of the divine. Early theological debates centred on such questions as the status of sinners, free will and predestination, God's justice, and the anthropomorphic attributions of God in the Koran. The issue of sinners involved the fundamental question "Who is a Muslim?" The first radical splinter group, the Khawarij or Seceders (also known as Kharijites), believed that serious sinners such as adulterers had ipso facto excluded themselves from the community and could no longer be considered Muslims. At the other end of the spectrum, a group within Sunni Islam known as the Murjia, whose best-known spokesman was Abu Hanifa, founder of the most liberal of the schools of law, argued that anyone making the profession of faith (the shahada, "There is no god but God, and Mohammed is his messenger") was a Muslim; his or her sins would be judged by God. This doctrine encouraged conversions but it made the need for legal enforcement less compelling: if everything is to be left to the judgment of God, what is the point of implementing the law? The learned men among the Sunni (the People of the Sunna or "traditionalists") had their answer. The sinner can still be a Muslim, but there are different degrees of faith, and a person's standing (and, by extension, the desirable aim of creating a virtuous society) is determined by good works. For Sunni Muslims, religious leadership remained for the most part in the hands of the ulama - a class of religious scholars whose authority was based on their knowledge of scripture. There is no clear "pecking order"; any qualified lawyer can declare whether something is against Islamic law. Thus, there can be as many versions of orthopraxy - right behaviour - as there are jurists. Decentralised religious authority (as in American Protestantism) generally tends towards conservatism. Without a cult of divinely inspired leadership, the text becomes paramount. And even if the text itself is deemed to be divine, interpretation is most likely to proceed in the safety of well-worn grooves.

The belief systems

Sunnis

ABOUT 90 per cent of Muslims are Sunnis. Their views and practices vary according to local cultures and to which school of law is followed.

Hard-line Wahhabists in Saudi Arabia disapprove of the cult of saints; Sufi saints attract a wide following in Egypt. Many Sunnis discourage theological speculation, concentrating on commands of law. Most expect Mahdi at the end of the world, though not the Hidden Iman.

Sunnis:
1 Regard the caliphs, successors of Mohammed, as authorities in the historical past
2 Recognise the first three caliphs
3 Follow ijma, consensus
4 Stress unmediated relations with God
5 Do not mention Ali in the call to prayer
6 Accept the value of public prayers, whatever the character of the prayer-leader
7 Accept prohibition by the second caliph, Umar, of temporary marriage (mut'ah)

Shi'ites

ABOUT eight per cent of Muslims are so-called Twelve-Imam Shi'ites. Another body of Shi'ites, the Zaydis or "Fivers", is strong in Yemen. Iran is a Shi'ite state, but elsewhere, Shi'ites have tended to become marginalised, avoiding persecution by living in mountainous or inaccessible regions.

Shi'ites:
1 Honour Imams descended from Ali, Mohammed's son-in-law
2 Reject the first three caliphs; annually mark as a religious event
the killing of Ali's son and Mohamed's grandson Husayn (Hussein) at Karbala in 680; blame caliphs for killing subsequent Imams
3 Follow authorities who speak in place of the Hidden Imam
4 Regard Imams as holy intercessors with God
5 Add to the call to prayer: "And Ali is the friend of God"
6 Reject the value of prayers led by an unworthy prayer-leader
7 Recognise temporary marriage

WHAT IS ISLAM? Cont'd.

Promise of Paradise

THE images of heaven in the Koran are vivid: "This is the description of the Paradise that has been promised to the pious: rivers whose water never becomes tainted; rivers of milk whose taste changes not; and rivers of wine the delight of those who drink of them; and rivers of honey, all kinds of fruit and pardon for sis." For the blessed, reclining on couches, "youths eternally young shall go round about them, to attend them with goblets, and beakers and cups of flowing wine, and with fruits that they shall choose to their taste, and the flesh of those birds they most desire". And "there are young virgins with modest looks who have never been deflowered by man or spirit". In some ways, the heaven described is like the Paradise of Adam and Eve, and the same word is sometimes used to refer to either. But sensory pleasures are not the whole story; there is, in some way, awareness of the presence of God. God is certainly the judge of each person. At the very beginning of the Koran, he is called "Master of Judgment Day". At the end of the world, a great trumpet will sound, the world will be rolled up like a scroll and men's bodies will be resurrected and reunited with their souls. Good and evil deeds will be weighed in the scales to the last atom, and each person will be handed the book of his life. Those who are given the book in their right hands are bound for heaven, those given it in their left for hell. Hell (al-nar) is fiery. Another name for hell, jahannam, is related to the Hebrew gehinnon - or gehenna as it is usually rendered in the Bible - meaning a smoking wasteland. The Koran gives a picture of black smoke, flames and boiling water that burn the skin of the damned. Those who store up treasure on earth and refuse to spend it according to God's commands will find their gold and silver heated in hell to brand them. According to sura 22 of the Koran, those in hell will remain there for ever; but, in sura 11, the Prophet says that "they shall dwell there so long as the heavens and the earth shall last, unless God wills otherwise". One hadith says that God "shall make men come out of hell after they have been burned and reduced to cinders".

Medieval reactions prompt modern attitudes, says Carole Hillenbrand
Crusade v Jihad

WHEN Pope Urban II made his call to Crusade in 1095, the vast Muslim world that stretched from Spain to Central Asia was divided in both politics and religion. The two great empires of the time, the Fatimids of Egypt and the Seljuks of Persia, were in serious decline. Syria and Palestine, in particular, were in the hands of mutually hostile Turkish chieftains. The religious concept of jihad that had rallied the faithful in earlier centuries to defend and extend the frontiers of Islam lay buried and forgotten. It was a perfect moment for Western Europe to strike. The onslaught of the First Crusade came like a bolt from the blue. It was quite unprecedented. To medieval Muslims, Europe had been of no interest: an area shrouded in fog, lacking in culture and hygiene and far inferior to the Islamic world. The earliest surviving Islamic sources indicate that the Muslims of Syria and Palestine had little idea who their attackers were and why they had come. The fall of Jerusalem to the Crusaders in 1099, with its bloodshed and manifestations of Western Christian fanaticism, aroused widespread indignation. Contemporary Arab poets spoke in moving terms about this invasion of Muslim territory: "How many Muslim women have had their inviolability plundered? How many young girls have begun to beat their necks and throats out of fear of them [the Crusaders]?" Another Muslim voice, that of al-Sulami, a preacher in the Umayyad mosque in Damascus in about 1105, warned presciently of the dangers of neglecting the Crusader threat, and urged the faithful to unite under the banner of jihad. But his words went unheeded for half a century: against a fragmented, ill-prepared Muslim world, the Crusaders, although a minority, benefited from a dynamic ideology and a clear purpose. They established four states - colonies - on Middle Eastern soil. It was the hitherto dormant spirit of jihad that triggered the unification and encirclement of Crusader lands - the necessary basis for eventual Muslim reconquest. To Muslims, the loss of Jerusalem and the ritual pollution of its Muslim holy places by the mere fact that Christians occupied them, became more and more difficult to bear as the 12th century progressed. Powerful warlords - notably Zengi, Nur . Al-Din and above all Saladin - formed a close bond with the religious classes and, together, they made jihad the focus for their anti-Crusader initiatives. Their major target was Jerusalem, which fell to Saladin in 1187. But Saladin did not finish off the task of ousting of the Crusaders, who simply moved their capital to Acre. However, a new, redoubtable Muslim state, the Mamluks of Egypt - a vibrant, militarised Turkish polity- came to power in 1250 and, in the space of 40 years, wiped out the Crusader castles and strongholds along the coast. Presenting themselves as the upholders of jihad, Mamluk leaders such as Baybars swept all Crusader opposition aside. By 1291, the Franks (as the Crusaders were called) had been expelled from Islamic territory. Over the two centuries of Crusader presence, doctrinaire ideologies frequently gave way to co-existence and co-operation. Each side got to know the other better. Muslim writers singled out for special praise the military skills of Richard the Lionheart. Saladin's companion, Ibn Shaddad, describes Richard as "the man of his age", possessing "judgment, experience, audacity and astuteness". The Spanish Muslim traveller Ibn Jubayr, passing through Frankish territory in the 1180s, stresses Crusader benevolence towards their Muslim subjects: "The inhabitants are all Muslims, but they live in comfort with the Franks". Socially, the Crusaders soaked up Muslim ways of life. The current was almost entirely one-way. Muslims saw very little (apart from superb castle-building skills) to be gained from Frankish culture. The racy memoirs of the twelfth-century Arab patrician Usama bin Munqidh shed fascinating light on the Muslim perceptions of the Franks. Some Crusader knights were "his friends" but, generally, he is both intrigued and amused by their attempts to ape Muslim customs. Crusader leaders, now aware of the great medieval Arab medical tradition, used Muslim doctors - and Usama reserves his sharpest remarks for a Crusader doctor's bungling efforts to cure two patients, both of whom died at his hand. The Arab physician, witnessing this fiasco, shakes his head in disbelief and remarks in a deadpan way: "I returned home, having learned of their medicine what I did not know before." The morals of Crusader women were regarded as loose, and Usama also castigates their men for not being properly possessive towards their wives. In the Middle East, Crusader knights became acquainted with soap and the hammam (public bathhouse). Washing was not, however, practised amongst all classes of Crusader society. When visiting Crusader Acre, Ibn Jubayr comments on the dirt and foul smells, complaining that there were "pigs and crosses everywhere". Of course, the Crusades did not stop in 1291. Indeed, to some modern Muslim thinkers, such as the Egyptian Sayyid Qutb, the Crusades never ended, but continue as a religious struggle between Christendom and Islam. To others, the Crusades are the first acts of Western imperialism, and it is a sober fact that most Muslim countries, from West Africa to Indonesia, have been colonised by Europeans. Analogies are drawn by some between the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and the state of Israel. The fact that the former was Christian and the latter is Jewish does not undermine, in their view, the basic truth that Muslim space has been encroached upon and polluted by outside aggression. The vast majority of Muslims do not share these extreme views, but it is indisputable that, just as in the West, many stereotypes of the "other side" were formed in the wake of the Crusades. Political leaders still use Saladin and the recapture of Jerusalem as propaganda icons. Jihad remains a rallying cry that appeals directly to the emotions, and Jerusalem occupies centre stage as much today as it did in the twelfth century.

Jihad: war in the soul and war in an unjust world

FEW Islamic principles have been more misunderstood than that of jihad. In Arabic, jihad simply means "effort", and does not automatically connote violence. The Prophet, for instance, said that "the best jihad is a word of truth spoken before a tyrannous ruler". For Muslims, the resonances of the word can thus seem similar to the word "crusade" in the modern English language. This parallel, however, is not exact. In its original context of medieval war against Saracens, a Christian crusade was a bellum sanctum, literally a "holy war". Muslim scholars, by contrast, usually insist that war itself is not holy, although its purposes may be. It is never a good in itself, although a true jihad is hasan li-husn ghayrih (good insofar as it leads to something good). Despite this, the mujahid (the person engaged in a jihad) is honoured for the risks he is taking in the service of his community. Those who give their lives sincerely for God are regarded as shahid - literally "one who bears witness", that is to say, by offering his life to a just cause beloved of God, he bears witness to the sincerity of his faith and to the truth of religion. The Prophet was a saint, and also a warrior. Although only a few hundred people are thought to have died during his campaigns to unite the warring tribes of the Arabian Peninsula, he established an ideal of righteous militancy which is quite different from the pacifism usually associated with Jesus. The Koran does, however, recognise the virtue of turning the other cheek. It also makes space for the idea of just war, an idea which only emerged in Christianity several centuries after the death of Christ. In Islamic law, jihad is valid only if declared by the leading Muslim scholar in a recognised state, said Tim Winter

WHAT IS ISLAM? Cont'd.

In 1992, the chief mufti of Bosnia declared the country's struggle against Serbian ethnic cleansing to be a legitimate jihad. Armed force used by non-state fighters, such as many Middle Eastern factions, is not generally seen as a jihad. The mutual declarations of jihad by several Afghan groups in the early 1990s were viewed with scepticism by most traditional religious scholars. Muslim scholars have endlessly debated the question of when jihad becomes an obligation. A universal war against all comers is ruled out by Koranic verses such as: "God forbids you not, with regard to those who are not fighting against you for your faith, nor driving you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them; for God loves the just." Moreover, the Koran states that "reconciliation is good", and that "if they incline to peace, then incline thou towards it also, and trust in God". Law books have much to say on the conduct of war. The killing of noncombatants, women, children and Christian clergy was forbidden by the Prophet. The enemy's property and crops must not be destroyed. The Prophet also forbade the use of cruel weapons, including anything that "kills with fire"; and, on the basis of this, there are some modern Muslims who regard the use of nuclear weapons as incompatible with the spirit of Islam.

Wahhabism: a deliberate primitiveness

WAHHABISM dominates Saudi Arabia and supports its ruling dynasty. Beyond the borders, this religious movement has become increasingly influential, partly because of Saudi money and partly because of Saudi Arabia's central influence as protector of Mecca. Founded by Mohammed Ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-92), it stresses the absolute sovereignty of God. Ibn Abd al-Wahhab also rejected any reliance on the intercession of Mohammed and denounced pilgrimages to saints' tombs, declaring that their domes or shrines should be destroyed. As an opposer of innovation, he advocated a return to what he saw as the purity of the first generation of Islam, the salaf and the teaching of any school of law. His ideas were deeply influenced by the teachings of Ibn Taymiyah (1263-1328), who saw the state as an adjunct of religion and opposed discursive theology. Ibn Taymiyah also branded the Mongols of his day as kafirs (unbelievers), even though they professed the main tenets of Islam. In this, he has been imitated by modern Islamist movements which excommunicate those who profess Islam without following it rigorously. These ideas were further developed in the twentieth century by Sayyid Qutb (see Sayyid Qutb). Wahhabists enforce public attendance at prayers, forbid shaving and the smoking of tobacco. Their mosques are plain. By the middle of the 18th century, they dominated the Arabian peninsula with the political support of the Al Saud, the family that to this day rules through a monarchy. In 1925, the Wahhabists seized Mecca, but the state has continued to allow pilgrims of all Muslim traditions to observe their rites during the hajj. Even so, the Interior Ministry funds the religious police, who seek out illegal alcohol and ensure shops are shut during mosque time. During the past decade, unemployed young people have been attracted to neo-Wahhabist groups embracing salafiyah, the ideology of primitive Islam, who seek social justice as well as the imposition of Koranic punishments. Today, the exclusivism of Ibn Taymiyah combined with the use of violence advocated by modern ultra-Wahhabists have given rise to cells of activists outside Saudi Arabia, ready to commit terrorist outrages.

Rift with the Jews from the start

JEWS, since they have received God's revelation and recorded it in the Bible, are "People of the Book", like Christians, according to the Koran. "No fear shall be upon them," it says. The Prophet Mohammed allowed People of the Book freedom of worship in the territory under Islamic control, if they paid a poll tax. Generals setting out on conquest were instructed to let them worship peacefully. In practice, there was antagonism even during the lifetime of the Prophet. He had hoped that the Jews of Medina would embrace Islam. They did not. Two Jewish tribes, the Banu Qaynuqa and the Banu al-Nadir, were banished from Medina after clashes with Arab tribes. When the last remaining Jewish tribe in Medina, the Banu Qurayza, was put on trial, accused of supporting the Meccans during a battle in which the Muslims were fighting for survival, the sentence was harsh. All the men were killed and the women and children sold into slavery. Another battle in Arabia that saw banishment of a Jewish community was at Khaybar. After Mohammed's death, the whole of the Arabian peninusla came under Muslim rule. A deathbed saying attributed to Mohammed declared that, in Arabia, there should be only the religion of Islam. In the Middle Ages, Jewish communities were found in many Islamic territories. The Caliphate of Cordova in the 10th century was celebrated for the mingling of Islamic, Christian and Jewish cultures. The influential philosopher Moses Maimonides lived at Cordova. Sephardic Jewish comunities found refuge in the Ottoman Empire after the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. But in the 20th century, political nationalism and the establishment of Israel led to the abandonment of Jewish quarters in the towns of many Muslim countries. Animosity between Israel and much of the Islamic world continues to be dangerously critical.

WHAT IS ISLAM? Cont'd.

Women and Islam: The veiling of women

HOW can anyone justify Islam's treatment of women, when it imprisons Afghans under blue shuttlecock burqas and makes Pakistani girls marry strangers against their will? How can you respect a religion that forces women into polygamous marriages, mutilates their genitals, forbids them to drive cars and subjects them to the humiliation of "instant" divorce? In fact, none of these practices are Islamic at all. Anyone wishing to understand Islam must first separate the religion from the cultural norms and style of a society. Female genital mutilation is still practised in certain pockets of Africa and Egypt, but viewed as an inconceivable horror by the vast majority of Muslims. Forced marriages may still take place in certain Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities, but would be anathema to Muslim women from other backgrounds. Indeed, Islam insists on the free consent of both bride and groom, so such marriages could even be deemed illegal under religious law. A woman forbidden from driving a car in Riyadh will cheerfully take the wheel when abroad, confident that her country's bizarre law has nothing to do with Islam. Afghan women educated before the Taliban rule know that banning girls from school is forbidden in Islam, which encourages all Muslims to seek knowledge from cradle to grave, from every source possible. The Koran is addressed to all Muslims, and for the most part it does not differentiate between male and female. Man and woman, it says, "were created of a single soul," and are moral equals in the sight of God. Women have the right to divorce, to inherit property, to conduct business and to have access to knowledge. Since women are under all the same obligations and rules of conduct as the men, differences emerge most strongly when it comes to pregnancy, child-bearing and rearing, menstruation and, to a certain extent, clothing. Some of the commands are alien to Western tradition. Requirements of ritual purity may seem to restrict a woman's access to religious life, but are viewed as concessions. During menstruation or postpartum bleeding, she may not pray the ritual salah or touch the Koran and she does not have to fast; nor does she need to fast while pregnant or nursing. The veiling of Muslim women is a more complex issue. Certainly, the Koran requires them to behave and dress modestly - but these strictures apply equally to men. Only one verse refers to the veiling of women, stating that the Prophet's wives should be behind a hijab when his male guests converse with them. Some modernists, however, claim that this does not apply to women in general, and that the language used does not carry the textual stipulation that makes a verse obligatory. In practice, most modern Muslim women appreciate attractive and graceful clothes, but avoid dressing provocatively. What about polygamy, which the Koran endorses up to the limit of four wives per man? The Prophet, of course, lived at a time when continual warfare produced large numbers of widows, who were left with little or no provision for themselves and their children. In these circumstances, polygamy was encouraged as an act of charity. Needless to say, the widows were not necessarily sexy young women, but usually mothers of up to six children, who came as part of the deal. Polygamy is no longer common, for various good reasons. The Koran states that wives need to be treated fairly and equally - a difficult requirement even for a rich man. Moreover, if a husband wishes to take a second wife, he should not do so if the marriage will be to the detriment of the first. Sexual intimacy outside marriage is forbidden in Islam, including sex before marriage, adultery or homosexual relationships. However, within marriage, sexual intimacy should be raised from the animal level to sadaqah (a form of worship) so that each considers the happiness and satisfaction of the other, rather than mere self-gratification. Contrary to Christianity, Islam does not regard marriages as "made in heaven" or "till death do us part". They are contracts, with conditions. If either side breaks the conditions, divorce is not only allowed, but usually expected. Nevertheless, a hadith makes it clear that: "Of all the things God has allowed, divorce is the most disliked." A Muslim has a genuine reason for divorce only if a spouse's behaviour goes against the sunnah of Islam - in other words, if he or she has become cruel, vindictive, abusive, unfaithful, neglectful, selfish, sexually abusive, tyrannical, perverted - and so on. In good Islamic practice, before divorce can be contemplated, all possible efforts should be made to solve a couple's problems. After an intention to divorce is announced, there is a three-month period during which more attempts are made at reconciliation. If, by the end of each month, the couple have resumed sexual intimacy, the divorce should not proceed. The three-month rule ensures that a woman cannot remarry until three menstrual cycles have passed - so, if she happens to be pregnant, the child will be supported and paternity will not be in dispute, wrote Ruqaiyyah Wariss. When Muslims die, strict laws govern the shares of property and money they may leave to others; daughters usually inherit less than sons, but this is because the men in a family are supposed to provide for the entire household. Any money or property owned by women is theirs to keep, and they are not obliged to share it. Similarly, in marriage, a woman's salary is hers and cannot be appropriated by her husband unless she consents. A good Muslim woman, for her part, should always be trustworthy and kind. She should strive to be cheerful and encouraging towards her husband and family, and keep their home free from anything harmful (haram covers all aspects of harm, including bad behaviour, abuse and forbidden foods). Regardless of her skills or intelligence, she is expected to accept her man as the head of her household - she must, therefore, take care to marry a man she can respect, and whose wishes she can carry out with a clear conscience. However, when a man expects his wife to do anything contrary to the will of God - in other words, any nasty, selfish, dishonest or cruel action - she has the right to refuse him. Her husband is not her master; a Muslim woman has only one Master, and that is God. If her husband does not represent God's will in the home, the marriage contract is broken. What should one make of the verse in the Koran that allows a man to punish his wife physically? There are important provisos: he may do so only if her ill-will is wrecking the marriage - but then only after he has exhausted all attempts at verbal communication and tried sleeping in a separate bed. However, the Prophet never hit a woman, child or old person, and was emphatic that those who did could hardly regard themselves as the best of Muslims. Moreover, he also stated that a man should never hit "one of God's handmaidens". Nor, it must be said, should wives beat their husbands or become inveterate nags. Finally, there is the issue of giving witness. Although the Koran says nothing explicit, other Islamic sources suggest that a woman's testimony in court is worth only half of that of a man. This ruling, however, should be applied only in circumstances where a woman is uneducated and has led a very restricted life: a woman equally qualified to a man will carry the same weight as a witness. So, does Islam oppress women? While the spirit of Islam is clearly patriarchal, it regards men and women as moral equals. Moreover, although a man is technically the head of the household, Islam encourages matriarchy in the home. Women may not be equal in the manner defined by Western feminists, but their core differences from men are acknowledged, and they have rights of their own that do not apply to men.

Sharia: law, ritual, customs and manners

ISLAM holds that "God has not revealed himself and his nature, but rather his law". This law - in Arabic, sharia - applies to much more than law in the strictly legal sense. It includes details of ritual, and a whole range of customs and manners. The law is there to uphold the good of society and to help human beings attain salvation. Interpretations may vary in accordance with time and place, but the sharia is considered to be a timeless manifestation of the will of God, subject neither to history nor circumstance.

There are four roots of sharia:

1 THE KORAN
As the direct and unmediated Word of God, the Koran is the primary source of law. In the broadest sense, the whole of the Koran is law. However, only about 10 per cent of the Koran's 6,000 verses contain injunctions that can be converted into positive religious or legal requirements. There are prohibitions on pork, carrion, wine, rules concerning family law (marriage, divorce and inheritance), criminal law (including penalties for illicit sexual activity, slander and wine-drinking), rules about witnesses, and commercial regulations including the ban on usury, explained Malise Ruthven.

WHAT IS ISLAM? Cont'd.

These punishments are exemplary and often not enacted: unless the culprit confesses, illicit intercourse has to be proved by four competent male witnesses - an unlikely circumstance. Some schools of law insist that even in the case of confession, it must be made four times and can be withdrawn. The punishment for illicit intercourse (zina) is vexed by doubts about the validity of the "verse of stoning", said to have been acknowledged as an original part of the Koran by Umar, the second caliph. But most scholars think it improbable that the verse is genuine or that Mohammed authorised stoning. Some crimes concern the rights of God, some men's rights. Those which are against God may bring a fixed penalty of great severity, such as stoning - but God, it is presumed, is merciful and does not desire punishment. Therefore, with crimes that do not affect the rights of men, the transgressor should hide his crime and not confess. He should turn quietly to God, who will accept his repentance if his intention is pure.

MUSLIMS IN BRITAIN

MUSLIMS have been living in Britain for generations.

Dr. Sophie Gilliat-Ray

The first purpose-built mosque, the Shah Jahan Mosque near Woking, Surrey, was completed in 1889, but ports such as Liverpool and Cardiff have a long history of settlement by Muslims from Somalia, Yemen and other parts of the Muslim world. Indeed, the presence of Muslims in Britain extends back to the 16th century, if not further. In 1991 there were said to be 990,000 Muslims in Britain; the estimate now is 1.5 million or more. The 2001 Census will provide more accurate information. Islam has become the second largest religion in the country. The Muslim community, who come from every corner of the globe, grew fastest after the Second World War, when thousands emigrated from the Indian sub-continent - especially Pakistan. They were encouraged to join the post-war economic boom. Many faced a poor future in their homeland, and there were large numbers of refugees after the creation of Pakistan in 1947. Later, many Asians from Uganda, which had strong colonial ties with Britain, settled here after being expelled by Idi Amin. The distribution of Muslims remains uneven, reflecting the destinations of these postwar migrants. Most went where employment was plentiful: to the large industrial centres in the Midlands, London, Glasgow, Manchester and the mill towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire. However, a sizeable minority ended up in smaller towns and villages. The majority of the first post-war Muslim migrants were uneducated men, who filled factory vacancies for unskilled labourers. Through a process of "chain migration", one man would sponsor the arrival of another into Britain. Many planned to work hard for a few years, saving sufficient capital to return to their families and secure a better future. By the early 1960s, many Britons were voicing concern at the scale of immigration. The 1962 Commonwealth Immigrants Act aimed to limit the influx - though it did not entirely have that effect. Fearful of separation, wives and children of men already in Britain came to join them. As a result, many men opted for permanent family settlement. Gradually, premises were converted or land purchased to build mosques. Shops began to sell halal (ritually acceptable) meat and other familiar and permissible foodstuffs. More and more investment was made in local communities, and fewer resources were sent "home". While ties with Pakistan, Bangladesh or other countries remain strong, the children and grandchildren of the post-war migrants now tend to regard Britain as home. About two thirds of the Muslim community come from the Indian sub-continent, but there is a sizeable Arab segment (mainly in London), who trace their origins back to Turkey, North Africa and Malaysia. The growing number of British converts to Islam - perhaps a couple of thousand a year - adds to the mix. Although they share a common religious identity, Muslims in Britain are a collection of different communities: they speak a variety of languages, observe numerous schools of religious thought and practise many different cultural customs. The 1991 Census showed that almost 60 per cent of Pakistanis and Bangladeshis were under 25, compared with 32 per cent of whites. The 2001 Census is likely to confirm that young people are still the dominant group. The priority of early settlers was to ensure that the basic practices of Islam were preserved. Later, they turned their attention to their children's education. Since the late 1980s, partly as a consequence of the Rushdie affair and the Gulf war, more energy has been invested in establishing Muslim community representation and public recognition. The creation of the Muslim Council of Britain in 1997 was an important landmark. Muslims have now reached the upper echelons of society, with representation in Parliament and senior posts in public organisations. They have established well-respected newspapers and magazines, businesses, publishing houses, schools and academic institutions. Yet challenges remain. Evidence of some discrimination and "Islamophobia" cannot be dismissed, and many Muslims are anxious about the small but vocal extremist organisations, such as al-Muhajiroun, that have taken root in the past few years. Senior Muslim leaders wrestle with the tensions between tradition and modernity, and, as ever, face the question of how to guide and inspire the next generation.

WHAT IS ISLAM? Cont'd.

Photo: Saleha Islam, 39, with her three-year-old daughter, Jannah

My day begins at about 7.30, when I get up for Fajr, my sunrise prayers. First, I do the ritual cleansing - so I wash my hands, then my face, my arms up to my elbows, head, neck and feet. Because the children are waking at different times and it's usually a bit chaotic, I pray alone, as does my husband, Nazrul. I kneel on my prayer mat, which faces qibla - the direction of Mecca - and recite passages from the Koran. We both pray five times a day, at set times. My eldest daughter, Nilufa, prays in her bedroom before she goes to college, where she's studying for AS levels, but my 12-year-old, Yasmin, is a bit more erratic and Hanifa, who is eight, is just beginning to pray. I don't force any of them because praying is about making a direct connection with your Creator. They have to do it for the right motives: it isn't about outward show and it shouldn't be something that children regard as a chore. But I do teach them what I can about Islam, and they also have a private tutor who comes round for two and a half hours on Saturday mornings to read from the Koran and explain aspects of the religion. After prayers, which last about five minutes, I feel relaxed and focused on the day. We have a breakfast of tea and toast or croissants, and then my husband does the school run, while I spend 15 minutes playing with my youngest, Jannah, before heading off to work. My mother lives with us and minds her during the day. At home, I don't cover my head, but I do wear a hijab scarf when I leave the house. Covering your head is about modesty - but it doesn't mean you can't be fashionable. I have more than 150 different scarves in various colours to match my outfits. I mostly wear Western clothes but I'll put on a sari or a shalwar kameez, depending on my mood: it's wonderful to have such a choice. Girls start covering their heads around puberty, when they are becoming socially responsible and accountable for themselves. Nilufa covered her head consistently for eight years, but stopped at 15. I take the view that she'll do it again when she's ready. Of course, we all want the best for our children, but Islam says you must not pressurise anyone into religion. At work, most of my day is taken up with meetings. If they coincide with prayer times, I usually suggest we take a break for five or 10 minutes, but if that's not practical, I can defer prayers until later because Islam is quite flexible like that. In my office, I keep a terracotta-coloured, woven prayer mat, decorated with a motif of the Kabah. Praying is such a part of my routine, of who I am, that I always feel a bit unsettled if I can't do it on time. It doesn't take any longer than making and drinking a cup of tea - and afterwards, I feel energised. My husband goes to the mosque on Fridays, but there's no obligation on women to attend - it's about choice. However, I do go sometimes. There's an area for women upstairs, behind an ornate wooden railing. After prayers, we sit and chat among ourselves - as do the men - and there's a good community feeling. I usually arrive home from work at about seven and spend an hour and a half connecting with the children. During the week, I'm very lucky, because my mother does the cooking. At weekends, I tend to take over: my father was a top chef at the Savoy, and I've inherited some of his skills. We eat halal food, which means no pork. Chicken, lamb and beef must be slaughtered in the halal way, so if we're eating out, we stick to vegetarian food, or maybe prawn dishes if it's a Chinese restaurant. I also make a lot of pasta, and lasagne is a particular family favourite. When Ramadan starts, we say extra prayers and don't eat or drink during daylight hours. For the first few days, you tend to get a headache because you're detoxing, but after that it feels great. The two older children fast, and the eight-year-old joins in because she wants to - we would never insist on it. Friends are often invited round for iftar, when the fast is broken, and we'll tune into satellite television to hear the call to prayer. We cook special meals, featuring 15 or 20 dishes - such as samosas, pulaos and sweetmeats made with dates. Our home is above the family restaurant, so my husband pops up throughout the evening to spend time with the children. We often watch television together. Our favourite programme is EastEnders and the children like The Weakest Link, Friends and Changing Rooms. Like any parent, I supervise what my children watch, but I believe in letting them see the reality of what's happening in society, and then talking about it. On a programme like The Bill, you see people taking drugs and having sex before marriage. As far as I'm concerned, the children are being informed, but they aren't learning how to behave from television. At 8pm, we all pray together. We have our own prayer mats, draped over a stool in the corner of the living room, and the furniture is arranged so there's space for us all to kneel. The littlest one wants to join in, but she doesn't know the movements so she tends to jump on our backs or wriggle across the floor. To the children, prayer is a normal part of everyday life. My husband did hajj in 1994, and took along my mother. When the baby is a bit older, and I don't have to worry about childcare, I'll go with him myself. I've been praying towards the Kabah all my life: being there, with millions of people, would be an incredible experience. There was one scene my husband described that I won't ever forget. It was very early morning. He was praying and watching the birds overhead, when they seemed to be circling the Kabah, just like the millions of people down below. It was as though the whole of creation was connecting to and praying towards the One Creator. When my husband came back, there was definitely an extra sense of calmness about him. But it's not enough just to do hajj - you have to continue to pray and reflect on life, and learn and grow: that's the purpose of being here. Once we've said our evening prayer together, I put the baby to bed and read to her. I must know the Spot books off by heart by now. The other children gradually head off to bed, too, and I turn in at about 12.30am. Then I lie in bed and say a few prayers: you're supposed to look back over the events of the day and think about resolving anything that hasn't been very positive. If I've been angered by someone, I'll analyse my feelings and ask Allah to grant me patience. You can't take for granted that you're going to wake up next morning, so it's important to find peace within yourself before you sleep. Saleeha Islam was talking to Judith Woods.

Islamic Art and Architecture

SOME in the West are familiar with Islamic decorative arts: ceramics, glassware, calligraphy in which Koranic verses are worked into architecture and paintings, Persian and Indian miniatures that defy the religious prohibition of representing the human form. A very few will know something of the rich musical traditions of the Islamic world, especially that accompanying the dances of the mystical Sufis. As for poetry, the two most famous Muslim poets in the West are both Persians - Hafez and Omar Khayyam. Omar Khayyam is almost an English classic because of the great translation of the Rubaiyat by Edward Fitzgerald. Probably the only Islamic prose work widely read here is the Arabian Nights. Thousands, however, have visited mosques in Turkey and the Middle East - the best way of getting a sense of the spirit and aesthetics of Islam. My own interest sprang from just such a visit - to the first mosque I had ever entered. Luckily, it was the Friday (or Great) Mosque of Isfahan, one of the jewels of world architecture. I shall write only about those buildings I have seen. Most mosques (even the grandest) still carry a subliminal reference to the modest beginnings of the Faith. The first mosque was in Mohammed's own house in Medina. It seems to have been little more than a large courtyard of sun-dried bricks with a covered area for prayer at one end. This was the fundamental plan of many future buildings: a large open space for the congregation, together with a much smaller covered area. The Arabs, as they acquired their empire, began to build in more permanent fashion. Many famous mosques of the Middle East incorporate ancient columns from churches, classical temples and other public buildings. Some of the finest mosques are astonishingly early - the Ummayad mosque in Damascus was built in the 8th century on the site of a pagan temple and a Christian church. It has a huge central court, surrounded by an arcade and several aisles of massive, re-used Roman columns, and is adorned with mosaics depicting well-wooded landscapes, but no human or animal figures.

WHAT IS ISLAM? Cont'd.

Then, there is the mosque of Ibn Tulun in Cairo, built a century later, with a courtyard designed to quarter an army and its horses. With its colonnades of up to five aisles and pointed arches, it has the purity and serenity of form of the greatest Cistercian Gothic architecture, albeit 300 years earlier. The Friday Mosque of Isfahan is an irregular complex of buildings, dating from the eighth to the 17th century, with 476 cupolas and two large domes. The majestic portals of the central court are superbly decorated with tiles in the "cool" colours of blue, green and yellow. The bricks of the roof are covered in dried mud, and there are large apertures to let in light. Just before I was there, an Italian professor had stepped back to focus his camera and plummeted through one aperture on to the brick floor far below. The most wonderful feature of the Friday Mosque is the north dome, one of the masterpieces of Iranian Islamic architecture. This is superbly proportioned, with rich geometric patterns in brick. Its sombre grandeur is equal to the best Romanesque or Gothic architecture. Also in Isfahan, on the Maidan, a huge square that was once a polo ground, stand the Royal and Lutfullah mosques, dating from the 17th century. The Maidan is magnificent and gigantic, far larger than Red Square in Moscow, and, if the trees and large pond obtrusively installed by the late Shah were removed, it would rival St Mark's Square in Venice for beauty. The Lutfullah is to be enjoyed for its elegant interior, colour and light - it is almost a classical building. The Royal mosque is enormous with sumptuous, yet delicate mosaics, brilliant blue-tiled walls, and massive but beautifully proportioned portals. A couple of years ago, I met some leaders of the Taliban in the border area of Pakistan. We discussed many things, from their ban on kite-flying to the education of women. But one suprising subject came up - "the mosque we used to have in Cordova"- that is now a cathedral. You had the sense that the Cordova mosque was lost only yesterday, and that they still regretted it. Of all the great religious buildings of Islam, the mosque-cathedral of Cordova is best known to Europeans. It has some exceptional features (apart from the fact that a Gothic building lies in its midst). In its extension, hundreds of columns were required. These were removed from classical and Christian buildings in Spain and North Africa, but were of very unequal height, so had to be sunk in the floor at different levels. To obtain an effect of height and grandeur, the architects devised two tiers of arches: the lower supported by normal columns, the upper range resting on piers rising above the first tier. The arches seem to hang in space, and this effect, along with the alternation of white and red in the brickwork of the arches, gives the pleasing sense of light and spaciousness. Indeed, the forest of pillars gives a sense of infinity. It was many years before the Christians decided to change the building. When they were overcome by the temptation to intrude their huge Gothic structure, the Emperor Charles V rebuked them: "You have built what can be seen anywhere, and have destroyed something unique in the world." There are plenty of lesser gems, among which I would include the Mustansiriya in Baghdad, and the Qaytbay mosque, in a slum in the City of the Dead in Cairo. Some love the magnificent mosques of Istanbul, especially the Suleimaniye, but, for my taste, these fall short of the building that inspired them - Hagia Sophia.

A-Z of Islam

Abbasid Dynasty of caliphs (descended from Abbas, Mohammed's uncle); based in Baghdad, 750-1258; ended by the Mongol conquest.

Abd al-Rahman (891-961) Proclaimed himself Caliph of Cordova in 929. The tenth century saw a great flowering of culture in Muslim Spain (al-Andalus).

Abraham The father by Hagar of Ismail (Ishmael), the ancestor of the Arabs.

Allah Refer to the word God.

Aurangzeb (1618-1707) Mughal Emperor of India. Son of Mumtaz, for whom his father Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal. After a period of ruthless consolidation of power, he ruled as a militant Sunni Muslim. Imposed poll-tax on Hindus and alienated the Sikhs by executing their guru.

ayatollah In Iran, an eminent rank of learned cleric or mujtahid

al-Azhar The remarkable mosque-university in Cairo, founded in 978. Inside, professors would lecture at a chosen pillar in the mosque. Al-Azhar continued for hundreds of years to function independently from prevailing factions.

Between 1725 and 1870, the Shaykh al-Azhar, head of the university, always belonged to the Shafi'i school of law, even though the ruling Ottomans championed the rival Hanafi school. There was a strong Sufi influence, and al-Azhar was known for its conservatism. It continues to exert an influence in the whole Muslim world.

burqa Strictly speaking, a face-mask, as worn by women in the Gulf.

calendar The Islamic calendar dates years from the hejira (or hijra), when Mohammed left Mecca for Medina: AD622. But, because the Muslim year is lunar and the AD year solar, it is not enough merely to deduct 622 from the AD year. There are 12 months in the Muslim lunar year. One is Ramadan, marked by fasting; the end of Ramadan is the feast of Eid al-Fitr. Dhu al-Hijjah is the month of the hajj to Mecca and, in this month, comes the feast of of Eid al-Adha, when sheep are killed in memory of the sacrifice of a ram by Abraham.

The first month of the year is Muharram; on 10th Muharram, Shi'ites mark the martyrdom of Hussein, the prophet's grandson.

chador In Iran, a woman's outer covering that also hides the face.

Cordova When the Umayyad dynasty in Damascus ended in 750, Spain (al-Andalus) continued to be ruled independently by Umayyad princes. In 929, Abd al-Rahman proclaimed himself caliph, ruling al-Andalus from Cordova. The Umayyad Caliphate of Cordova collapsed in 1016.

dogs Although some hadith praise kindness to dogs, they render food they lick impure. But dogs may be kept for hunting, herding and keeping watch.

Fatima The Prophet's daughter, who married Ali.

fatwa A formal legal opinion given by an expert in Islamic law. Since the Sunni world has no centralised authority, any recognised lawyer can give a fatwa. Muftis - legal functionaries - have traditionally issued fatwas in response to formal queries on the law. In Shi'ite societies such as Iran, a leading mullah called a mujtahid can give a fatwa.

Friday The obligation on Muslims to attend communal prayers on Friday stems from a verse in the Koran (sura 62:9). The remainder of the day is not a day of rest, like the Jewish Sabbath or Christian Sunday.

God Allah is the Arabic name for God. He is absolutely one, eternal, the Creator, Sustainer, Ruler, Destroyer and Restorer. The first Pillar of Islam is the declaration: "I testify that there is no god but God and Mohammed is his messenger." God is Merciful and Compassionate. He is the same God who revealed himself to the Jews and the Christians. The Koran gives 99 names for God; Islamic rosaries (so-called "worry-beads") have beads in multiples of 11 to aid meditation on these names.

hadith An account of the and sayings of the Prophet Mohammed. Collections of hadith, especially six large collections compiled in the 9th century, trace the origin of each one to a reliable contemporary of Mohammed

hajj Pilgrimage to Mecca, and one of the Five Pillars of Islam.

halal "Permitted", a word used in the Koran. It applies to other things apart from food. Halal food includes meat of permitted animals that have been ritually slaughtered, game over which the praise of God has been uttered, and fish and marine life.

Hasan Elder son of Fatima, the Prophet's daughter, and Ali, whom he succeeded as fifth Caliph.

hejira (Arabic: hijra) The emigration of Mohammed from persecution in Mecca to Medina in 622, the first year of the Muslim calendar.

hijab In Mohammed's time, hijab referred to a tent-divider or curtain, behind which women might sit. In the 1970s, the term was popularly revived to refer to Islamic dress. For women, this generally means covering the body from neck to ankle, and arms to the wrists, in addition to wearing a head-covering. In the Middle East today, hijab often refers to the white headscarf increasingly popular with women in less traditional countries as a sign of Islamic commitment. See hejira.

Hussein The Prophet's grandson, younger brother of Hasan, whose death at Karbala in 680 is a central event in Shi'ite religion.

Ibn Rushd (Known in West as Averroes, 1126-98). Born in Cordova. Philosopher of great influence upon the West for his interpretation of Aristotle. Aquinas referred to him as "The Commentator"; Dante took up some of his ideas.

Ibn Sina (Known in the West as Avicenna, 980-1037). Born in Bukhara, now in Uzbekistan. A renowned physician, he also excelled in philosophy, attempting a synthesis of Aristotelian and Platonic ideas. He made a great impression on Western thought over the next three centuries.

Ibn Taymiyah Taqi al-Din Ahmad (1263-1328). An influential radical-conservative thinker who gave priority to the Koran and the custom of early Muslims (the Salaf). He condemned pilgrimages to saints' tombs. His thought deeply influenced Wahhabism

ijtihad "Effort": a word related to jihad. It applies to the effort made to judge matters not specified in the Koran. For Sunnis, the "gate" of ijtihad was closed at the beginning of the 10th century; for Shi'ites, a religious authority, or mujtahid, can still seek such conclusions by its aid.

imam In ordinary use, an imam is the leader in prayer: the most learned or revered person in a group praying, not necessarily a full-time cleric. In Shi'ism, the Imams were the spiritual leaders descended from Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed. The 12th Imam, born in 869, disappeared, but is expected to return before the end of the world.

jahiliyah The time of ignorance and idolatry, after the corruption of primordial monotheism and before the revelation to Mohammed. A concept of a new jahiliyah, in Western countries and even in countries with large Muslim populations, was developed by Sayyid Qutb (1906-66).

Jesus Isa in the Arabic of the Koran. Recognised as a prophet by Islam, born of the virgin Mary by the direct act of God. In the Koran (sura 3:45 and 4:171), he is called a word of God. It is made clear that this precludes any confusion with God: "God is but one. God forbid that he should have a son." Jesus's death on the cross is rejected. He is expected to return at the end of the world.

jihad "Struggle" in Arabic. Moral struggle by individuals to do what God commands. Jihad as a holy war, of the kind that accompanied the early spread of Islam, must follow a summoning of unbelievers to belief and it must have a prospect of success; it cannot be waged against Muslims.

Ka'aba The cubic building in Mecca reputedly rebuilt by Abraham where Adam had first built it. The walls are between 35 and 40 feet long and it is about 50 feet high. It was the destination of pilgrimages before Mohammed's time. Built into one corner is the Black Stone, which some think is meteoritic. In a fire in 684, the Black Stone broke in three: it is now held together with a silver band. During the hajj, pilgrims circumambulate the Ka'aba. Annually, at the end of the month of pilgrimage, a new black cloth covering (kiswah) is put on the Kabah; it features woven calligraphic patterns and gold-thread lettering around the top.

Koran For Muslims, the Koran is the uncreated words of God revealed to Mohammed.

madrassah An establishment of learning. In the 10th century, madrassahs taught law, with optional classes in Islamic sciences and literature. Teaching has continued in parallel with classes given at mosques. By the 19th century, madrassahs in Mecca were in decay. In India, madrassahs were revived on the model of the Deoband school, founded in 1867. A new revival has come in the past 30 years, with students volunteering for Koranic courses.

marriage The assent of the bride is needed for marriage. Divorce is possible through the husband's repudiation of the wife (or vice versa), by mutual consent or by the decision of a court. It was presumed in Islamic law from early on that the maximum number of wives permitted was four. There are stringent laws laid down in Sharia to govern how and when a man may acquire additional wives.

Mary, Mother of Jesus Maryam in Arabic. The Koran calls Mary's father Imran. In the Koran, she is called one of the four best women who have lived. She is represented as conceiving Jesus virginally, without a man having touched her (sura 19:20) and regarded as sinless, according to a well-known hadith, or authoritative account, which states: "Every child that is born is touched by Satan and this makes it cry, except Maryam and her son."

Mecca The city in which Mohammed was born, on the western side of the Arabian peninsula, near the Red Sea. It was a trading centre and place of ancient pilgrimage (Refer to the word Ka'aba) . At first, the Meccans were Mohammed's enemies, and he took refuge in Medina.

miswak A toothbrush - the end of a twig of arak wood or similar smooth wood. Mohammed was said to be careful in the use of a toothpick and miswak, and devout people often use it before prayer or the recitation of the Koran.

mosque The meeting place for public prayer, an enclosure not necessarily roofed. Ritual purity is necessary before entry. The direction of Mecca (qibla), towards which worshippers face, is indicated by a closed arch (mihrab) in the wall. A pulpit (minbar) may stand to the right of the mihrab for a Friday sermon.

mufti A religious lawyer or jurist of standing, able to issue a fatwa.

mujtahid In Shi'ite society, since the Imam is hidden, every believer follows a religious authority called a mujtahid.

mullah In Iran and Central Asia, the name for a religious scholar.

Night of Power and Excellence The night "better than 1,000 months" in 610 on which the Koran descended into the soul of Mohammed. The night fell during Ramadan, during the last 10 days, and is often taken to be the 27th.

Night Journey The Koran refers to this very briefly but hadith tell of how Mohammed, mounted on the winged creature Buraq, went to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and from there, taken by the Angel Gabriel, ascended to heaven where God told him to command on his return to Arabia worship five times daily.

Omar Khayyam (Umar al-Khayyam, 1048-1125). Poet, mathematician and astronomer who reformed the Persian calendar and distinguished 13 kinds of cubic equations. Renowed for his Rubaiyat ("quatrains"), largely through the very free 19th-century English translation by Edward Fitzgerald.

Ottoman Empire From Asia Minor, the Osmanli or Ottoman Turks took control of the Balkan region in the 14th century and captured Constantinople in 1453. Its peak came under Sultan Suleyman "The Magnificent", reigning 1520-66. In the 18th century, the sultans claimed the title of caliph in continuity from the Abbasid caliphs; the caliphate was abolished in 1924.

People of the Book The Koran gives Jews and Christians recognition as having received revelation from God, expressed in their holy books, although they are portrayed as having corrupted it. For long periods, Islam treated them as protected minorities - a convention that collapsed in the 20th century.

Pillars of Islam The Five Pillars are: 1. shahada, affirming "There is no god but God"; 2. salat, worship or prayer; 3. zakat, almsgiving; 4. sawm, fasting, in the month of Ramadan; 5. hajj, pilgrimage to Mecca.

qiyas The principle of analogy and logic that helps decide the law.

Sayyid Qutb (1906-66) Egyptian writer and thinker. Took up the idea of Abu al-Ala al-Maududi (1903-79) that much of the Muslim world had returned to ungodly ignorance (jahiliyah). Advocated a return to primitive Islam, and sought imposition of Islamic law. Joined Muslim Brotherhood 1953. Imprisoned 1954 and tortured. Executed 1966. See

Ramadan The month in which the revelation of the Koran began. The name is pre-Islamic and refers to the heat of the summer. It is for Muslims the holy month of fasting: abstaining from food, drink, smoking and sexual intercourse from dawn to dusk. Devout Muslims recite the whole Koran during this month. For Shi'ites, 21st of Ramadan marks the martyrdom of Ali, and they commemorate the Night of Power on 19, 21 and 23; Sunnis mark that on 27 Ramadan. At the end of Ramadan, comes Eid al-Fitr, a festive day of new clothes, sweetmeats and gifts for servants.

saints Within Islam, Sufis have recognised the saintly character of some friends of God, and they are seen as miracle workers or bringers of divine blessing or baraka. Some Sufi shrines, such as that of Sayyid al-Badawi (1199-1276) at Tanta in the Nile Delta, are the centre of annual festivals. Opinions of sainthood vary in Islam. Many Sunnis honour the tombs and shrines of saints, and they have often become popular places of pilgrimage, in which women play a notable part. But some authors, such as Ibn Taymiyah, condemned popular reverence for saints and visits to their tombs; this antipathy is felt among the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia and their followers. Among Shi'ites, the Imams fulfil some of the intercessory functions attributed to saints, bringing mankind closer to God.

Saladin (Salah ad-Din al-Ayyubi, 1137-93). Son of a Kurdish general who took over Egypt from the Fatimids, extending his empire through Syria to Anatolia. Defeated Christian Crusaders at Hattin in 1187 and conquered Jerusalem. Opposed by Richard the Lionheart, who took Acre in 1191. Saladin was known for his chivalry and justice to the defenceless.

Schools of law Among Sunnis, there are four schools of law or traditions: Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki and Shafi'i, named after their founders. Each applies a system of sacred law to the teaching of Islam, determining how people live their daily lives. Sunnis recognise the validity of each school, to one of which all worshippers adhere.

salat Worship, or prayer, five times daily; one of the Five Pillars of Islam.

shahada The affirmation: "There is no god but God, and Mohammed is the Messenger of God"; the first of the Five Pillars of Islam.

Sharia Islamic law, governing religious and non-religious life.

shaikh An Arabic word meaning "old man" or "elder", a term of respect given to heads of families, religious dignitaries, teachers or

scholars.

Shi'a The body of Muslims following the Imams in succession to Ali, Mohammed's son-in-law

Sufis Sufism cuts across the divide between Sunnis and Shi'ites. It is a spiritual way of seeking God in the world and through inner contemplation. Most Sufis learn from a spiritual master who teaches the way (tariqah). Tariqah also means the association of followers. From the 12th century on, some of these have become important international orders.

shahada The affirmation: "There is no god but God, and Mohammed is the Messenger of God"; the first of the Five Pillars of Islam.

Sharia Islamic law, gove